(5/6) Be Conscious, Be Good

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Pancha Palli, preaching programme, noon
12 November 2019, part 5
Translated from Bengali

[After chanting 'Sri Krsna Chaitanya Prabhu daya kara more', 'Ohe Vaisnava Thakura', His Divine Grace resumes the class.]

We have just sung in the kirtan, 'Chhaya vega dami'. Please subjugate my six urges.' What are these six urges? (1) The urge of speech (vakya-vega), (2) the urge of the mind (mana-vega), (3) the urge of anger (krodha-vega), (4) the urge of the tongue (jihva-vega), (5) the urge of the belly (uddhara-vega), (6) the urge of the genitals (upastha-vega). The urge of the tongue means uncontrolled speech. We must not speak nonsense; we must speak only Krishna-katha. You must be always conscious of these urges. All these things are written at the end of our calendars. Take the calendars and read these things carefully.

You should know also what is favourable to devotion and what is unfavourable to devotion. In our lives, we must accept that which is favourable to devotion and reject that which is unfavourable to devotion. We must avoid and give up everything that opposes and obstructs devotion. Immerse yourselves in the nine stages of devotion:

আদৌশ্রদ্ধা ততঃ সাধুসঙ্গোঽথ ভজনক্রিয়া ।
ততোঽনর্থনিবৃত্তিঃ স্যাৎ ততো নিষ্ঠা রুচিস্ততঃ ॥
অথাসক্তিস্ততো ভাবস্ততঃ প্রেমাভ্যুদঞ্চতি ।
সাধকানাময়ং প্রেম্ণঃ প্রাদুর্ভাবে ভবেৎ ক্রমঃ ॥

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango ’tha bhajana-kriya
tato ’nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati
sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

‘First, there is faith; then, saintly association and practising life. After that, unwanted habits gradually go away, spiritual life becomes stable, and spiritual taste comes. Then comes attachment, feeling and, finally, transcendental love. This is how love for the Lord comes to those who practise Krishna consciousness.’

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.4.15–16)

Divine love (prema) comes gradually. Srila Prahlad Maharaj taught his father about these stages of devotion. We must practise nine kinds of devotion and follow these steps, then we will eventually develop devotion. At the same time, we must also always reject that which is unfavourable to devotion. If you do everything that is favourable to devotion but do not remove unfavourable habits and elements from your lives, you will not get any result like that. You cannot do something good and then do something bad. It does not work like this. Suppose you are doing a fire sacrifice: you put one spoon of ghee and then one spoon of water – you cannot do a fire sacrifice like this. We must always follow the proper line.

The problem is that we are not able to pray to Vaishnav Thakur because we think that we have become Vaishnavs ourselves, but '"Ami ta vaisnava" e buddhi haile amani na ha'ba ami ('আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে অমানী না হ'ব আমি). If I think, "I am a Vaishnav," then I will never stop expecting honour from others.' Never think that you have become a Vaishnav.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।
গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara laile phala phale

'Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

Externally, you say, 'I am a devotee of Gauranga Mahaprabhu! I am a devotee of Gauranga Mahaprabhu! I was born in the same area as Mahaprabhu! I was born in Nabadwip! I was born in Bengal!' But 'Only saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" will not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.'

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।
গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

Gora knows everything. He knows what you are doing. You cannot cheat Him.

[Clamour] Always speak less, then you will be able to hear. This is not some pala-kirtan, lila-kirtan or any other kind of common kirtan! If it was, you would not be able to understand anything. I have told you that if you carry on talking obstructing Hari-katha, you will be making offences. Those who talk during Hari-katha are offenders. I have told you:

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

'Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself and give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236-237)

No mantra is necessary to worship the Lord. It is said that worship is done through a mantra, but what mantra is it? It is not about mantras; devotion is the most important ingredient. If you have no devotion, what will mantras do? Do you think that if you just recite some mantra, this is worship? Worship is done through devotion. When people come to take initiation, they do many things – offer flowers, offer this, that, recite mantras to their gurudev – but that is all external. The main thing is that devotion must come to your hearts. But if devotion decides to come to your hearts, where will it stay? Suppose you invite me to your house, but when I come, I see that your house is full of sacks (sacks of rice, dal, potato, etc.) – where will I sit then? So, you want to give shelter to the Lord and to Bhakti Devi in your hearts, but your hearts are full of other things – kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (illusion), mada (madness), matsarya (envy); rupa (eye-enjoyment), rasa (tongue-enjoyemnt), gandha (nose-enjoyment), sabda (ear-enjoyment), sparsa (tactile enjoyment). Where will Bhakti Devi stay? That is why it is so important to keep good association. As you associate and associate with sadhus, your hearts will gradually become clean.

'সাধুসঙ্গ', 'সাধুসঙ্গ'—সর্ব্বশাস্ত্রে কয় ।
লবমাত্র সাধুসঙ্গে সর্ব্বসিদ্ধি হয় ॥

'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'—sarva sastre kaya
lava-matra sadhu sange sarva siddhi haya

'All scriptures keep saying, "Good association", "Good association". You can attain all perfection even just by a drop of good, saintly association.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.54)

Even if you get the association of saints just once, you can get everything. What does association mean? Does it mean sleeping with the sadhu on one bed or eating with the sadhu from one plate? Even mosquitoes and flies do that, but they only cause disturbance. This is not association. Association means you must hear what the sadhu says and follow it in your lives.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Rare and Rarest
2) Guru-Seva Is Main
3) Difficult Does Not Mean Impossible
4) Wasted Time – Wasted Life
5) Be Conscious, Be Good
6) Truth and Untruth