(5/10) Danger of Deviation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, Nrisingha Palli
14 December 2019, evening, part 5
Translated from Bengali

[A child shrieks] What is going on? This is a temple here. Why are you making so much noise? This is not a marketplace.

Always preach about our Guru Maharaj. I have written many books about him and his teachings. There are so many facilities to learn. Just recently we have also printed diary books and calendars. The calendars will be distributed to everybody. I came here as soon as they came out of the press. The festival is on Saturday, and if I had not come on Wednesday, I would not have had time to arrange everything. We had to go to Mayapur to invite all the sannyasis, do the shopping, and so on. It has been quite hectic, so we did not even have time to unload the car properly. We have printed many calendars this year, so all of you will get them.

Try to serve Vaishnavs as much as you can. When they come here, we should try to make them happy – we have prepared some gifts for them (umbrellas, uttariyas, calendars, diary books). They take much trouble to come all the way from Mayapur. You can see that instead of going to the main temple, where Srila Sridhar Maharaj's and Srila Gurudev's places are, they come here. Why do they come here? They are not my disciples, but they come because they think and follow what our gurus and Vaishnavs say. They love me and they are all my best friends. In Gurudev's time, a hundred or a hundred and twenty devotees would come from Mayapur, and today also almost a hundred and twenty sannyasis and sadhus have come – some came on motorcycles, some on bicycles, and some on buses...

I want to tell something to all disciples of Gurudev. I also have some disciples, but actually I do not consider anybody my disciple – I consider everybody my guru. God is there within everybody. Krishna is the universal spiritual master, so you are all also my gurus. This is my vision towards everybody. Still, some of you have come to take initiation from me, and my duty is to show how you can become members of Krishna's family. Having a nice house, living in a nice room – all this is temporary. Living in a nice place, eating nice food, sleeping on a nice bed is not going to last forever. If you want to reach a permanent place, you must come back to the Lord where we all come from. Back to God, back to home.

Falling into the bondage of this material, illusory world we keep changing our bodies. Some people live in Midnapore, some in Uluberia, some in Bardhaman, some in Russia, some in London, some in America – we live in all these different families all over the world, but we used be members of one common family. As the result of our actions, we left that family and are living now in all these various places. But the Lord has come up with a trick how to help us – He sends His dear associate, His very own man, to this world in the form of a guru.

তব নিজ-জন কোন মহাজনে
পাঠাইয়া দিলে তুমি ॥
এক বর দয়া করি' মোরে পতিত দেখিয়া
কহিল আমারে গিয়া ।
ওহে দীনজন শুন ভাল কথা
উল্লসিত হবে হিয়া ॥
তোমারে তারিতে শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য
নবদ্বীপে অবতার

tava nija-jana kona mahajane
pathaiya dile tumi
(ek bar) daya kari' more patita dekhiya
kahila amare giya
ohe dina-jana suna bhala katha
ullasita ha'be hiya
tomare tarite sri krsna-chaitanya
navadvipe avatara

'You have sent a great soul, Your associate (to rescue me). Seeing me so fallen and being merciful, he came to me and said, "O humble soul, listen to this wonderful message and your heart will rejoice. Sri Krishna Chaitanya has appeared in Nabadwip to deliver you."'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Who comes to tell us about all this? Gurudev. Who else is there who will come to tell us this? Gurudev comes to us and tells us about Mahaprabhu who appeared in Nabadwip Dham and went door to door, calling everybody, 'O jiva soul! Wake up!' You heard us sing this morning,

জীব জাগ জীব জাগ গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jaga jiva jaga gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

‘“Wake up, soul! Wake up, soul!” says Gorachad (Golden Moon). “How long are you going to sleep in the lap of this witch Maya?”’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'O jiva soul! Wake up! You have lost your address! You yourself do not know where you stayed before and where you have come now. You do not even know who you are! You have forgotten everything.'

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

'The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

May we never forget that we are eternal servants of Lord Krishna. 'I am so-and-so Banerjee', 'I am so-and-so Chatterjee', 'I am this', 'I am that' – we must not live identifying ourselves with all that. Please do not forget who you are. ‘Krsna-bahirmukha jivera nahi Krsna-smrti-jnana (কৃষ্ণবহির্ম্মুখ জীবের নাহি কৃষ্ণস্মৃতি-জ্ঞান). The souls who are averse to Krishna have no knowledge or remembrance of Krishna’ (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.123). This is the reason why we are where we are.

Out of pride, we think, 'I take care of the family! They will not manage without me! Without me, my children will live as beggars!' This is all misconception. Everybody lives as they are destined to live. You can see yourselves that in this world some live as kings, and some live as fakirs [beggars]. Sometimes, the father leaves his son much wealth and property, thinking, 'I will leave all this wealth to him so that he can live happily,' but the son squanders everything on gambling – in the end, he sells all land and property and becomes a beggar on the street. The father can help his son get a good job, but the son turn out to be useless – he may not be able to do anything. So, if you think that you are the one who takes care of your children, that you can leave everything to them, you are a fool because you forget what the Lord has sent you to this world for. You forget the Lord, you never think about Him. Not giving Him the time of the day, you only think about your sons, daughters and wives. Do you think that they will take care of you? Do you think that they are the ones who will save you at a critical time? Will they help you at the time of death? It is those who think about the guru and Vaishnavs who can help you.

One does not become a disciple just by taking the mantra from a guru. That is why Gurudev said, 'Many have taken initiation from me, but how many have actually become disciples?'

That is why I keep telling you all the time that you can find many gurus in this world, but you will not find many disciples. It is very rare to see a disciple. But without becoming a disciple, you can never become a guru. If you do not listen to what your guru says, if you do not follow your guru, how can you be a disciple? What does being a disciple mean? You must understand this. If you do not follow what your guru says, if you ignore and diss your guru, then what kind of disciple are you?

I am praying to you all with folded palms: please never deviate from Gurudev's line. In this world, everybody is greedy for money, greedy for name and fame, greedy for respect, but please do not be like this. There are many such gurus roaming this world. If you fall into this trap, you will be removed from spiritual life. If you come to this line but cannot practise properly, then what is the meaning of even being in this line? Do you think that you can just put on some tilaks and wear neckbeads and you can say that you belong to this line? It does not work like this.

Always think about your guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord.

You know, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj considered only one person his disciple – our Srila Gurudev (Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj), but that one disciple rescued the whole world. Today is his holy appearance day. He travelled all over the world preaching, and many of his godbrothers helped him.

I am appealing to all those who have taken shelter in Gurudev: 'Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya ara na kariha mane asa (গুরুমুখ-পদ্মবাক্য চিত্তেতে করিয়া ঐক্য আর না করিহ মনে আশা). Make the teachings coming from Sri Guru's lotus mouth one with your heart and do not keep any desires.' This is not just some lip-deep statement.

Always remember these things.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Let us chant some kirtans now.

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Length: 86 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Preaching Life
2) One-Pointed Happy Life
3) Do Not Get Blown Away
4) Temples Are Not Temporal
5) Danger of Deviation
6) Love for Kirtan
7) Soul Consciousness
8) Gist of Religious Life
9) Burning Burden
10) Living the Dream