(11) Love, but Love Whom and How?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Singur,
7 May 2019, noon, part 11
Translated from Bengali

I pray to you all – please practise Krishna consciousness. Serve Lord Krishna, and service to Lord Krishna means serving Hari, gurus and Vaishnavs.

জীবে দয়া নামে রুচি বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

‘Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name happily and serve Vaishnavs. Sanatan, except for this, there is no other religion.’

You must show kindness to other souls – you must bring to this path the souls who turned away from Lord Krishna. This kindness is not the kindness in the way people understand it in this world. People speak about 'kindness to others' and 'loving others', but their love is no love at all! It is all lust!

অতএব কাম-প্রেমে বহুত অন্তর ।
কাম—অন্ধতমঃ, প্রেম—নির্ম্মল ভাস্কর ॥

ataeva kama-preme bahuta antara
kama—andhatamah, prema—nirmala bhaskara

'So, there a vast difference between lust (material love) and divine love. Lust is blinding darkness, and divine love is pure light.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.4.171)

Lust is the deepest darkness, and divine love is pure light. Where there is light, darkness has no right to be there. Wherever there is divine love, there is purity and effulgence; but material love, or lust, is darkness. The love you see in this world is all lust. You can understand this yourselves. Love means loving everybody. We must love everybody. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced even those who had leprosy! When He did that, all the leprosy of that devotee was gone and he became cured.

When a mother is eating, she keeps her baby on her lap and at that time the baby can pass stool – when this happens, does she throw the baby away? No, she finishes eating and then cleans the baby. In the same way, genuine Vaishnavs never despise anybody. They always take everybody in their lap. This is what is called 'love for other jiva souls'. This is the not the love that you see in this world. In this world, they think that only humans have souls (they are jivas) and all the goats, cows, sheep and other species do not have souls (they are ajivas), so they kill others and only 'love' humans.

Materially, we must be aloof. Do you understand what it means? Srila Prabhupad explains this. If a Vaishnav is sick or in trouble, we will try to worship and help them in every way, but if a non-Vaishnav is sick or in trouble, we will not go out of our way to help them – we should stay aloof. Helping a nondevotee is karma, but serving and taking care of a Vaishnav is service. So, if a Vaishnav falls ill, you must serve them. Always remember this.

This is how we must practise spiritual life.

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