(8) Beg, Collect and Practise

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Singur,
7 May 2019, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

There is a necessity for Vaishnavs to go begging – they must go begging for the sake of the whole world, but the main purpose in such begging must not be collecting money, rice, potato or dal. The real purpose must be to bring people to Krishna consciousness. So, it is not like you go begging, get some rice and potato and that is it, you can go back. No. You must go to those people again and again, again and again, you must try to bring them to Krishna consciousness. You must try and try, again and again. Try many times.

Why do I come here all the time? To tell you all about this. I come so that you can hear these things.

You know, one time a devotee told me that he wanted to make a temple. I asked him, 'Why do you want to make a temple? Why do you want to spend so much money on it? What is your purpose?' He gave a good answer. He said, 'People in this world do not chant the Holy Name, they are not coming to this path. If somebody sees my temple and comes there to pay their obeisances, then I could tell them a few words. If they can come to pay obeisances to the Lord and pray to the Lord, they will get some benefit. At least once a day they can remember the Lord – they can come and offer obeisances to the Lord.' Yes, people are so busy serving Maya the whole day that they do not have any time for the Lord, so if they can find one moment to come to Lord Govinda's holy feet and pray to Him, it would be nice...'

If you come to Lord Govinda and pray for something for yourself, He will not give it to you. There are two things written in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita.

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—“আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥
আমি—বিজ্ঞ, এই মূর্খে ‘বিষয়’ কেনে দিব ?
স্বচরণামৃত দিয়া ‘বিষয়’ ভুলাইব” ॥

krsna kahe,—“ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi’ visa mage,—ei bada murkha
ami—vijna, ei murkhe ‘visaya’ kene diba?
sva-charanamrta diya ‘visaya’ bhulaiba”

‘Krishna says, “They worship Me desiring material happiness – leaving aside nectar, they ask Me for poison. They are big fools, but I am intelligent: Why will I give these fools material things? Instead, I will give them the nectar of My lotus feet and make them forget the material world.”’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.38–39)

People come and pray, 'O Lord, please help me pass the exam well', 'O Lord, please help me find a job', 'O Lord, please let my mother be healthy.' What will the Lord do hearing such prayers? The Lord says, 'I know better, I am not a fool. Why must I give them material things? Rather, I will give them My holy feet and make them forget all about material things so that they never think again about themselves – they can come to Me and serve Me instead. Then, they will never ask Me for anything again.'

At the same time, Krishna also says,

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

‘If a devotee aspires for enjoyment or liberation, Krishna hides the knowledge about pure devotion and dismisses them, giving them enjoyment or liberation.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.18)

If somebody always wants too much and keeps asking the Lord for something, the Lord becomes annoyed and says, 'Here, take it and go!' If you need money, cars, houses and other things, the Lord will give you everything and keep quiet – He will make you forget everything and take away whatever devotion you may have, 'You do not have to come to Me again! You keep asking Me for one thing, another thing – take what you want and stop annoying Me.' The Lord hides Himself from such people and does not give them devotion to Himself.

We are also like that. We always waste time thinking about our material lives. Instead of that, we must practise Krishna consciousness! In this Age of Kali, practising Krishna consciousness means engaging in Nama-sankirtan. This is not the same as hiring a band and get them to chant kirtan at your home. I have told you many times that you cannot worship a Deity by getting somebody to do it for ten rupees. In the same way, you cannot get somebody to chant kirtans for fifty or five hundred rupees – this is not kirtan.

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