(12/12) All Walk, No Talk

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bhanjipur, 1 December 2019, evening, part 12
Translated from Bengali

I noticed yesterday that nowadays boys and girls like to use their smartphones very much. How harmful it is to them! They keep scrolling with their fingers – sometimes they are holding the phone in their hands and scrolling, sometimes they are holding their phones in one hand and scrolling with the other hand. Their fingers get used to this motion, so much so that when they do not have their phones in their hands, their fingers are restless or their fingers continue scrolling in the air. They always look at some photos, play some games or watch movies in their phones, and their eyes become bad at an early age. Once you become short-sighted, your eye-sight goes down fast. Then, they put their mobile phones close to their faces and scroll, scroll, scroll. [Devotees laugh softly] I have nothing to hide – I am telling it to you as it is. I know that I am telling these things in the middle of Hari-katha, but you should be aware of these things. The Americans who invited mobile phones did a research and showed that using mobile phones too much leads to brain cancer. You can see it yourselves, too – those who use phones a lot are restless, they cannot sleep at night (they sit in their phones until midnight, until one o'clock at night) and sleep till late in the afternoon.

Remember these things. You must go to bed early. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur went to bed at six or seven in the evening. We must go to bed after nine and before ten o'clock and wake up early in the morning. This is how devotees live. They wake up for mangala-arati, so they go to bed early.

I was reading in the Anandabazar Patrika newspaper about the harm of using mobile phones just yesterday. I read what scientists say in America, Brazil and other countries. I do not remember all the detail of that research now, but I am telling you the main idea...

Devotee: Can we go for the parikrama tomorrow?

Did you go today, too?

Devotee: Yes, we did.

Then, go. You have a lot of people here, so go. Where are you going to go? To the temple and back? All right. I will never prohibit anybody to do Hari-kirtan and parikrama. If you can go, it is not a problem – it is actually good. You can go chanting with a parikrama to the temple of Lord Siva, offer your obeisances there and come back. What is the problem? It is good. The only thing is that you must not cheat the Lord.

You think, 'I will serve God when I get old.' What is going to happen in your old age? You have been doing all kinds of things all your lives, and all that karma will come and opress you so much that you will not be able to do anything in your old age. That is why you must start practising spiritual life as early as possible. When you are old, you will be lying in bed and will not be able to wake up – another person will have to come and help you out of bed. Your body will give you much trouble: your legs will hurt, your knees will hurt, your brain will not think straight, your ears will not hear right, you will not be able to sit on the floor, you will have to have your spine cord operated on, and so on. So if you think that now you are young and want to enjoy, and that you will worship God when you are old, it is all only talks. 'Vrddha-kala aola, saba sukha bhagala, pida-vase ha-inu katara (বৃদ্ধকাল আওল, সব সুখ ভাগল, পীড়াবশে হইনু কাতর). Now old age has come and all happiness has fled – distressed by diseases, I have become miserable' (Saranagati).

Always remember these things. We are all like that. I can see also myself that before my memory was very sharp, but now I can forget things sometimes. Before, when I sat for exams, I could write by hand sixty pages for four hours straight and feel nothing, but now I write two pages for the books and my hand starts paining. So, I understand these things myself, too. Our youth will not come back. Everybody is the same. You know, when a girl is young, she is pretty, and everybody likes her, but when she gets old and has a sagging double chin, nobody likes her anymore. I am joking, of course, but this is how things are.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Come for the parikrama tomorrow. When you come back, you can take prasad here. It is good to walk. If you walk, it is good for health. For example, Srila Swami Maharaj always walked. We do not get this chance because we always travel everywhere by car, so we do not get time to walk. Whenever I get a chance to walk, I feel happy. When I do Vrindavan, Nabadwip or Puri Dham parikrama, I am also always happy to walk.

Every year we arrange three parikramas: Gaura Dham, Purusottam Ksetra and Vraja Dham. Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama is coming soon – everybody must come. Wherever I am at that time, we will do our parikrama from there. You must always come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Many new people come and think, 'Oh, I want to go to Vrindavan!' What will you understand if you go there? You have never done Gaura Mandal parikrama, but you want to do Vrindavan parikrama... First do Gaura Mandal parikrama, Ksetra Mandal parikrama, then you can go to Vrindavan. Gaura Mandal parikrama is especially for those who have just come to this line, for new devotees; Sri Ksetra Mandal parikrama (Sri Puri Dham parikrama) is for those who have advanced a little; and Sri Vraja Mandal parikrama (Vrindavan parikrama) is for those who have come to a high level. So, always come for Sri Gaura Mandal parikrama. We do Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama every year – I have brought invitations, you can take them tomorrow. I am inviting everybody to join us. When you go to Vrindavan, you need to spend at least five thousand rupees; when you go to Puri, you need to spend one or two thousand rupees, too; but if you want to go to Nabadwip, you need only fifty rupees to get there. Is that not so?

Devotees: Can also get a ticket for thirty rupees.

Even better. Just sixty rupees to go there and back. Less than a hundred rupees. Come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama every year. Some say, 'Oh, I have been to Nabadwip many times!' Really? Even if you go there a hundred times, you still do not get it.

কোটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandan

'If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not come to the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja.'

You must come and walk this parikrama. The parikrama is four days, so take four days off at work. If you want to get great things, you must sacrifice small things. Come and do this parikrama. Not only one time, two times, ten times or fifty times. Come and do this parikrama every single year. As long as you have legs, as long as you can walk, you must always come and do this parikrama. When you cannot walk anymore, then you can sit at the temple and remember parikrama and all the devotees who are doing it. Remember this.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.

Let us chant 'Hari Haraye' now. Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay. Hari bol. Hari bol.

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Size: 33 Mb
Length: 69 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) A Life of Imperfection
2) Open Your Door to Mercy
3) Eternal Focus
4) Harinam: Devotees' Heartbeat
5) Humans' Advantage
6) Call Out to Gaura-Nitai
7) Repent and Revolt
8) Gift of Sankirtan
9) Seat Sankirtan In Your Hearts
10) Survive and Thrive
11) Service Life—Joyful Life
12) All Walk, No Talk