Remember Where You Belong

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, evening programme
18 January 2020, part 1
Translated from Bengali

You must remember this line: this is the line of Sri Rupanuga. Those who practise this line in strict adherence to their Guru cannot be obstructed by anything. We must follow the Rupanuga line of Gaudiya Vaishnavs—if we step outside this line, we will not be able to attain anything. If you are to hear about Sri Rupa-Sanatan, about Sri Rupa-Raghunath, if you are to worship the Lord in the line of Sri Rupa-Raghunath, if you are to preach the message of Mahaprabhu, and if you are to hear about Sri Guru Gauranga, then you must listen to the guru-varga who come down through the Rupanuga current.

[Clamour in the audience] Again speaking? What has happened? Why are you talking so much now? Please keep silence. When you take prasad, you will have plenty of time to talk. Mahaprabhu said:

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)

Do you not respect Mahaprabhu? Do you not want to remember Mahaprabhu?

দিনের মধ্যে আবল-তাবল
কত পচাল পাড়িতে পর
তার মধ্যে কি একবার
গোবিন্দ বলিতে নার ?!

dinera madhye abala-tabala
kata pachala padite para
tara madhye ki eka-bara
govinda balite nara ?!

"How much nonsense you can talk every day! How many idle talks you have! Can you not say the Name of Govinda even once?"

(Folklore)

How much we talk! We talk and talk the whole day! The Lord has given you this mouth to speak, but when He takes it away along with the power of speech one day, you will not speak anymore. People will take you on their shoulders to the cremation ghat on the bank of the Ganges, and everyone will cry, "Bolo Hari—say 'Hari'!" but he who they tell to say "Hari" can no longer speak (when it was time for him to speak, he did not say "Bolo Hari" or "Hari bol"—he only spoke about himself). Listen to what Sri Guru and Vaishnavs say. You hear this kirtan every day:

তব নিজ-জন কোন মহাজনে
পাঠাইয়া দিলে তুমি ।
দয়া করি' মোরে পতিত দেখিয়া
কহিল আমারে গিয়া ।

tava nija-jana kona mahajane
pathaiya dile tumi
daya kari more patita dekhiya
kahila amare giya

"You have sent a great soul, Your associate, for me, who, seeing me so fallen, mercifully came and told me the following."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

The senior devotees here in Uluberia have been trying very hard and for very long to bring you to this path. They have been going village to village, house to house, door to door before each Kartik Month. What did they say to you? "Chant the Holy Name of Krishna! Speak about Krishna! Accept the teachings of Lord Krishna!" They come to beg you for this, and those who had some good fortune (who had some sukriti from their previous lives) have come to this path as the result of that saintly association. After that, they continue their lives in saintly association, and their hearts become clean, their minds dissolve—all dust and dirt fall from their hearts.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

Although these devotees have gone so old now, but they clean your hearts and take you all from here to Howrah, and from Howrah to Nabadwip, Puri and Vrindavan and many other places. They do everything so that you can genuinely come to this path of Krishna consciousness, to this path of service to the Lord. They have been trying with all their might, and as the result of their tireless endeavours, a temple is now going to be established here. We have got an opportunity to speak Hari-katha today here, sitting in the very nat mandir of this new temple. This not a small matter—it is a matter of a great fortune. We have got this fortune after many, many births. We sing in one of the kirtans:

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥
সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥
কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি' বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

durlabha manava-janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu—duhkha kahiba kahare?
'samsara' 'samsara' ka're michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila kichhu ghatila janjala
kisera samsara ei, chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari' vrtha dina yaya

"I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom will I tell about my misery? Time has passed as I have been busy with my material life, and the result is nothing—only garbage. What sort of world is this? It is only a trick, a show. While I affectionately take it as my own, days pass by in vain. My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting and waiting right next to me."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Hearing this, we have finally taken birth here in the land of India having roamed through 8,400,000 species. We have been born as humans so many times. How many lives we have been doing all sorts of wrong things! How many lives we have been eating dirty, nonsense things! Yet our hunger has never been appeased. You can eat 200–250 grams of rice to satiate your hunger now, but in the past you ate goats and cows to satiate your hunger. When a cow dies, people sometimes throw her into the Ganges, and dogs take that dead cow out and start fighting, trying to snatch it from each other. When I go in the car, I see people queuing at the shops to buy fresh goat and cow meat. In other places, people also buy dead cows and chicken. They do not listen to anything.

Greedy for food, greedy for money, greedy for wealth, greedy for liberation, greedy for enjoyment, we cannot embrance the result of spiritual life—we cannot get great things because we cannot leave trifle matters.

জিহ্বার লালসে যেই ইতি-উতি ধায় ।
শিশ্নোদরপরায়ণ সে কৃষ্ণ নাহি পায় ॥

jihvara lalase yei iti-uti dhaya
sisnodara-parayana se krsna nahi paya

"Those who run here and there following the whims of their tongues are devoted to the satisfaction of their genitals and bellies and can never come to Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.227)

You will say, "Oh, one guru has come here, and he says that we can eat whatever you want." Yes, such gurus say, "Take initiation from me! I will come to you twice a month, and you can give me twenty-fifty rupees and feed me nicely, that is sufficient." You will find many such gurus in this world: karmi gurus (material gurus who teach how to prosper materially), jnani gurus (gurus who teach you all sorts of knowledge), yogi guru (gurus who will teach you mystic practices), but spiritual (paramarthik) gurus will not tell you such things. They do not want disciples because they do not want to carry this burden!

When you do something wrong, it is very bad. You cannot do two things at the same time. Therefore, do what is favourable to devotion and sacrifice, or reject, what is unfavourable to devotion. If you drink milk and at the same time smoke a cigarette, you will not get any benefit from drinking that milk. Suppose you have some stomach problem—if you take medicine and continue eating spicy food, your disease will never be cured. Spiritual life is also like that. If you, on the one hand, do wrong things and follow the desires of your tongue and, on the other hand, chant the Holy Name, you will not get any result—two opposite things cannot go together. You have got this human birth as the result of a great fortune, and you have got this highest opportunity to have some holy association. If you chant the Holy Name today and do not chant it tomorrow, it will not do. Just as you eat every day, sleep every day, you must, in the same way, serve the Lord eternally, every day—you must chant the Holy Name continuously, you must serve and worship the Lord continuously.

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

"Whether you are sleeping, eating or waking up, incessantly think about Krishna and chant the Name of Krishna with your mouth."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, 2.28.28)

You must think about Krishna day and night, incessantly (aharnisa).

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