(1/2) Extent of Sincerity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, translated from Bengali
21 January 2020, part 1

ভজ গৌরাঙ্গ, কহ গৌরাঙ্গ, লহ গৌরাঙ্গের নাম রে
যে জন গৌরাঙ্গ ভজে, সেই আমার প্রাণ রে

bhaja gauranga, kaha gauranga, laha gaurangera nama re
ye jana gauranga bhaje, sei amara prana re

"Worship Gauranga! Say Gauranga! Take Gauranga's Name! Those who worship Gauranga are My heart and soul!"

(Sriman Nityananda Prabhu)

We must always worship devotees. You will not get a letter from the Lord—if you send your letter directly to the Lord, you will not get a reply. But if you send your letter to a devotee, if you pray to them, you will get a reply and news about the Lord. Just as when you go to a doctor, if you open up and tell the doctor about your problem, the doctor can treat and help you. So, if we tell our Guru and Vaishnavs about our unhappiness (janaiba duhkha-grama; জানাইব দুঃখগ্রাম), they will tell Krishna about us, and hearing the prayer of Vaishnavs on our behalf, the Lord becomes very merciful.

বৈষ্ণবের আবেদনে কৃষ্ণ দয়াময় ।
এ হেন পামর প্রতি হবেন সদয় ॥

vaisnavera avedane krsna dayamaya
e hena pamara prati habena sadaya

"Satisfied by the Vaishnav's prayer, Krishna will be merciful to this sinner."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

So, if we hear about Vaishnavs, if we glorify Vaishnavs and can realise their glory within our hearts, we will get supreme benefit. Vaishnavs do no come to your houses for food.

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the innate nature of great souls to deliver vile fallen souls, but great souls never come to their homes for any personal purpose."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.8.39)

They come to you to rescue you from material illusory bondage and bring you to the Lord. Starting from Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, our guru-varga and present Gaudiya acharyas have been striving tirelessly to rescue such fallen and lowly souls as ourselves and help us come nearer to the Lord.

We must understand to what extent we are practising Krishna consciousness. We must think about the extent to which we have been able to become sincere and how much insincerity there is still left in us.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

"Just saying, 'I am Gora's! I am Gora's!' will not do. Only when you follow Gora's practice and Gora's conception will you get the proper result."

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

"You put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you, thief (hypocrite)!"

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

We are still so much attached to this material world. How many of us pray to Sri Nityananda Prabhu's lotus feet?

আর কবে নিতাইচাঁদ করুণা করিবে ।
সংসার-বাসনা মোর কবে তুচ্ছ হ'বে ॥

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe
samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give His mercy to me? When will my material desires become trifle?"

(Prarthana, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

কবে নিত্যানন্দ মোরে করি' দয়া ।
ছাড়াইবে মোর বিষয়ের মায়া ॥

kabe nityananda more kari' daya
chhadaibe mora visayera maya

"When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from mundane illusion?"

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

"When will Nityananda Prabhu be merciful to me and let me leave visaya (material world and everything related to it)." We must always, all the time pray to Nityananda Prabhu, Vaishnavs, our Gurudev for this with our heart and soul. Gurudev is always giving us so much mercy. When we chant kirtan glorifying Gurudev, we say:

শক্তিবুদ্ধিহীন আমি অতি দীন
কর মোরে আত্মসাথ ॥

sakti-buddhi-hina ami ati dina
kara more atma-satha

"I am devoid of ability and intelligence, and greatly distressed. Please accept me."

যোগ্যতা বিচারে কিছু নাহি পাই
তোমার করুণা সার ।
করুণা না হৈলে কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া
প্রাণ না রাখিব আর ॥

yogyata vichare kichu nahi pai
tomara karuna-sara
karuna na ha-ile kandiya kandiya
prana na rakhiba ara

"I find no quality or qualification within me — your mercy is everything. If I do not get your mercy, then I will weep and give up life."

One time, Gurudev heard devotees singing this, and he said, "They are lying." We sing these things, but do we say it with all our heart? We say, "Gurudev, please hijack me!" but when Gurudev tells us, "Do this service," we think, "Oh, I cannot do it", "It is impossible for me to do it." It means we cannot live following Gurudev's instruction. This is our disqualification. Always remember this. We are unqualified. We do not have humility to realise that we are unworthy children of our Gurudev.

তৃণাধিক হীন দীন অকিঞ্চন ছার ।
আপনে মানবি সদা ছাড়ি অহঙ্কার ॥

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara
apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"Give up ego and consider yourself lower than a blade of grass, poor, destitute and vile."

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We sing many kirtans, we sing the Siksastakam kirtans, we read Srimad Bhagavatam and say:

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want followers, I do not want beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

We say that we only want devotion to the Lord, but at the same time, when we come to the Lord, we always think, "Make me rich," "Make me wise," "Make me beautiful," "Give me a wife," "Make me an expert poet," etc. We always pray to the Lord, we always come to offer obeisances to the Lord, but do we have the eyes to see the Lord? We do not, but the Lord can see everything. He can see with what intention you come to Him—you cannot hide it from Him. The Lord can see and can know why you come to pay obeisance to Him. You cannot hide anything from Him. You cannot hide any internal duplicity and insincerity from the Lord and Vaishnavs—you will be eventually exposed by the Lord and great Vaishnavs. We cannot hide anything. Therefore, we must think how we can worship and serve the Lord, how we can come forward to the Lord. If we take shelter at the holy feet of a bona fide Guru and practise Krishna consciousness, if we can believe our Guru and Vaishnavs and pay obeisance to them, then we must be successful:

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

Your debt to your mother, father, sages, demigods and all other debts are automatically cleared if you worship Krishna. Many told me that I had done a great wrong by leaving my house and parents and coming to the temple. The thing is many of us come to the temple, but do we all really practise Krishna consciousness? Are we truly sincere or are we always busy with mundane talks and gossips and criticise and discuss others?...

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Length: 13 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Extent of Sincerity
2) "Please Wake Up"