Chastity—Core of Devotee's Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to the devotees in Orizaba, Mexico
8 December 2019, part 2

Our main practice is sadhu-sanga and Nama-sankirtan. Good association or real association of sadhus is the main thing for us. Always chant the Holy Name, always glorify the Holy Name, always think about service. Hear Bhagavat-katha, and always stay in a holy place. A holy place is not only Vrindavan, Govardhan, Puri, Nabadwip—no, a holy place is where Vaishnavs are, where practising is going on, where service is going on. A holy place is there where there is a Vaishnav. You can go to so many holy places, but if there is no good association there, if there is no Vaishnav there, then it is not a tirtha, not a holy place. Where there is service going on, where there is practising going on, where there are rules and regulations followed, that is a holy place. Yatha Hari-katha, tatha Vrindavan: Goloka Vrindavan is where there are talks of Krishna-katha, where devotees speak about the Lord.

Come sometimes for the parikramas. All devotees must come at least once a year for Gaura Purnima (Nabadwip Dham parikrama) or Puri Dham parikrama or Vrindavan parikrama. You should all come at least once a year to one of the places to make the parikrama with us. This is our Gurudev's conception and Mahaprabhu's conception also. We must be humble, tolerant and give honour to others; we must not see others' faults, we must not see who is doing what—they can do anything they want, but we will practise properly. We must follow Gurudev's instruction, follow what Gurudev told—that is our vision, that is our chastity.

I remember Gurudev gave me one example of what is called chastity. He said: suppose you see a snake and you tell your Gurudev, "Oh Gurudev, there is a snake there! There is a snake!"—but Gurudev says, "No, it is a rope," and you must believe that. Gurudev also told me one time about the example of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami.

You know that when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Svarup Damodar left, Raghunath Das Goswami was very sad. He came to live in Govardhan. There, he left all food—he did not take anything. At first he left rice and roti (chapati), he took only some fruit, but after that he left even fruit and did not take anything feeling so much separation and sadness. Then, one Vraja basi requested him, "Prabhu, you will die soon without eating anything—please at least accept some buttermilk." Raghunath Das Goswami agreed, and the Vraja basi started bringing him some buttermilk every day. He would always take some lotus leaves at Radha Kunda, make a bowl with them, and bring the buttermilk in that bowl. One day, however, he could not go to Radha Kunda, so he brought some buttermilk in the lotus leaves from Chandaravali's place. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami immediately recognised that the lotus leaves were not coming from Radha Kunda. You know that Chandravali is a competitor of Srimati Radharani, and Srila Raghunath Das Goswami follows the line of Radharani (we are also followers of Radharani and Raghunath Das Goswami). So, when Srila Raghunath Das Goswami saw that the leaves were coming not from Radha Kunda but from Chandavali's place, he immediately throw that pot with buttermilk. He did not take it. Gurudev told that from his example we can understand how much chastity Raghunath Das Goswami has for Radharani's line. We too must follow our instruction line in this way.

I remember also one time some contradiction came, I was talking with Gurudev, and Gurudev asked me, "Where do you want to stay, in Chandravali's kunja or Radharani's kunja?" I said, "Gurudev, I want to stay in Radha-kunja." That is chastity. Actually, you cannot neglect this conception, you must follow it. Some devotees like to do something and think, "Oh, I have made this person happy!", "I have made that person happy." But you cannot make everybody happy. Suppose you are doing a fire sacrifice—a fire sacrifice means it is necessary to put ghee into fire, but you put one spoon of ghee and then you also put one spoon of water into the fire, then you again put one spoon of ghee and again one spoon of water. A fire sacrifice cannot be successful in this way.

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