(2/4) Love and Preaching for the Lord

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Ganga Sagar, morning class
12 January 2020, part 2

Gurudev tells you to preach, but you think, "No, I do not want to go to people's houses." What did Prabhupad say? You can take a loan—print books and go preaching with those books. Preach the temple's scriptures, books! This is brihad-mridanga (great mridanga)! Tell people about the Lord! Print books and preach the teachings of this mission. And when you take a loan, people will keep coming to you and ask you to return their money, then you will go house to house to collect. You will have no choice. People will not give you money, people will chase you away, but your power of humility and tolerance will increase. Remember these words! People will criticise you, people will chastise and abuse you, but your strength will grow—you will become humbler than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree. You should say, "It is all right. I have come to your house to invite you for Gaura Purnima and other festivals. If you cannot give any money, it is OK, but come to our temple." If you are to become a Vaishnav, you have to be prepared to hear many things in your address.

On the other hand, Mahaprabhu told Srivas Pandit one time, "Srivas, you must not go begging from tomorrow." Why? Because he was a householder and people criticised him, saying, "He goes begging to support his wife and son!" Srivas Pandit asked Mahaprabhu, "Then how will I manage? Devotees come in the evening, I must give them some prasad. They come to chant kirtan, how can I let them go without having anything?" Mahaprabhu replied, "I do not know how you will manage, but My word is that you must not go begging again." Then, Srivas Pandit said, "First clap. Second clap. Third clap. I will wait and see one day, two days, and on the third day, I will jump into the Ganges and commit suicide." Hearing this, Mahaprabhu said, "You must have faith. Even if you will not go begging, everything will be provided." Then, so many devotees would come and bring bhoga to him—he was never short of anything.

That is why I am telling you: pretending that you practise Krishna consciousness and following the whims of your mind is not Krishna consciousness.

তীর্থযাত্রা পরিশ্রম কেবল মনের ভ্রম,
সর্ব্বসিদ্ধি গোবিন্দচরণ

tirtha-yatra parisrama kevala manera bhrama
sarva-siddhi govinda-charana

"The trouble of visiting holy places is simply a mental delusion—all possible perfection is the feet of Govinda."

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

You take so much trouble to walk to a place of pilgrimage, but what is the use? If you do not hear Hari-katha, if you do not hear what the Lord and His devotees say, you will not get anything. You take much trouble to come to Ganga Sagar, and when you come, you dunk yourself into the water here and go back home (or you give some flowers and go away). You think that if you dunk yourself into the Ganges, it will remove all the sins you have committed. Thousands and thousands of people come here with this hope. They wash their sins in the Ganges and go away. That is why Ganga Devi did not want to come to this world. She did not want all the materialists (who desire enjoyment, liberation and material perfections and who hanker to gain piety) to come, dunk themselves into her water and go away, contaminating her. But Bhagirath Maharaj convinced her, saying, "Please come—Vaishnavs will bathe in your water and purify you."

গঙ্গার পরশ হৈলে পশ্চাতে পাবন ।
দর্শনে পবিত্র কর এই তোমার গুণ ॥

gangara-parasa ha-ile paschate pavana
darsane pavitra kara—ei tomara guna

"If one touches the Ganges, they are later purified; but one can become pure just by seeing you. Such is your quality."

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

One becomes pure by the touch of the Ganges, but one can become pure just by seeing a Vaishnav. A holy place is a where there is a Vaishnav (yatha Vaishnav, tatha tirtha), and if there is no Vaishnav present, you must not go to such places.

When you come to Ganga Sagar, you will see many naga-sannyasis sitting naked, with ash smeared on their bodies. They live the whole year wearing clothes, and when they come here, they take off their clothes, smear ash and sit silently to earn a few rupees. They say that they do not have any desires (kama-sakti), but is this power of desire only about the relationship between men and women? I saw it myself—when I went to do kirtan there, and one such 'sadhu' lured and caught a small boy from our group. I gave that man ten rupees so that he would let the boy go, but he said, "No, ten rupees will not do! Give me fifty!" I gave him fifty rupees, and he let the boy go. This is kama. Desire for money, desire for women, desire for cars. "Give me wealth", "Give me knowledge", "Give me beauty", "Give me a wife"—all this is desire, kama. This desire must be directed in another way. Desire is there, it is all right, but it should be directed in the opposite direction. Love should be for the Lord.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 14.2 Mb
Length: 30 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Sincerity in Service
2) Love and Preaching for the Lord
3) Wrong Vision
4) Root of Unhappiness