(11/18) Kirtan Is Not a Show

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa-Puja Adhivas, Tarakeswar,
Evening, 28 September 2019, part 11
Translated from Bengali

How can you approach Nitaichand? How can you make Him happy? Through kirtan. If you can make Him happy with your kirtan, then you can get service to the Lord. I always tell everybody to chant kirtan, I keep telling everybody this all the time. This is the reason why I do it.

Kirtan does not mean a big music party or any boisterous display. Srila Prabhupad unmasked all such fake display. Many people sing kirtan and roll on the ground, but such ostentatious frenzy is not kirtan! Kirtan is not about singing songs or producing some nice tunes. Those who sing pleasant tunes and roll on the ground do not do kirtan – what they do is just some physical exercise.

When you chant kirtan, there must be service to Sri Sri Radha-Govinda inside it. You can see many temples where people worship Deities but they do not chant during the arati and do not chant any kirtans. Even if you do an arati like that, you cannot attract the Lord through that. You can only attract the Lord by serving Him through kirtan. Always remember this. Read these things. I will soon make another book (Guidance 4), you will find all this there.

When you do service, what reward do you get? The reward for service is more service. When you get this reward, you will not have any free time, you will not have time to do anything else. For example, Sripad Niriha Maharaj stays now in Nrisingha Palli and does much service there. Somebody gave him a smartphone, but he gave it to Sripad Vishnu Maharaj, saying, 'It is wasting too much of my time. I have no time to use it. I can use it, but I do not have time for it. I do not like these things.'

When you get service to the Lord, you develop divine love for the Lord. Those who have nice houses and a lot of money do not live happy lives; rather, those who stay under trees live much happier lives. Servants of the Lord are enriched with the service of the Lord – that is their gain. The reward for service is more service. Always remember this.

Sri Nityananda Prabhu is the father of sankirtan, He is the original Supreme Lord of sankirtan (sankirtana adi-devata). If you can attain this Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, you can come to the Lord. Kirtan is not about satisfying your own senses. When Nityananda Prabhu hears kirtan, He feels happy – this is the kind of kirtan we must chant.

Service to the Lord cannot but bring supreme benefit. At Buddist temples, they say, 'Oh, if I come here and pay my obeisance here, all my sins will be removed.' So, they can sin the whole week and then come to their temple once a week, and they expect all their sins to be removed. Christians do the same thing. Such people come to their temple or church once a week, but devotees of the Lord serve the Lord all the time. In their lives, taking the Lord's prasad is service, resting at night is serving, sleeping is service, taking rest when required is service, going to the bathroom is service, even cleaning the body in the bathroom is also service. Karma and service look the same, but there is a difference. Service is done with devotion. Enjoyers who live in this world also sleep, eat and dress, but all their activities are within this material world – they live on the level of material sense-gratification. That is why materialists and knowledge-seekers do not know any peace.

কৃষ্ণভক্ত—নিষ্কাম, অতএব 'শান্ত' ।
ভুক্তি-মুক্তি-সিদ্ধি-কামী—সকলি 'অশান্ত' ॥

krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva 'santa'
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami—sakali 'asanta'

'A devotee of Krishna has no desires and is always peaceful, but those who have material desires, who desire liberation or some perfection, are always full of desires and never know peace.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.149)

Devotees do not have any material desires, that is why they are always happy.

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Size: 40 Mb
Length: 83 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Disciple's Dependence
2) How Does Devotion Come?
3) Indispensability of Guru's Mercy
4) Stop Threshing the Husk
5) Disciples' Hypocrisy
6) Strong Desires, Wrong Desires
7) Identifying Yourself with Kirtan
8) Patience Is a Virtue
9) Internal Hypocrisy
10) Unhappy Mind
11) Kirtan Is Not a Show
12) Cook to Perfection
13) Install Gurudev in Your Heart
14) Submission without Resistance
15) Service Is Not a Rite
16) Vaishnavs' Ornaments vs Demons' Ornaments
17) Vaikuntha Vani
18) Absolute Self-Submission