Futile Efforts

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 27 January 2020, part 1
Translated from Bengali

If you chant the Holy Name with a bargaining mentality, this is not the Holy Name. Bargaining mentality means treating chanting as a business transaction. "Become a devotee of Krishna! Chant japa!" Do as you like and chant the Holy Name. If you do like this, what will you get from that? You cultivate a land for the whole year but no crops will grow—only grass will grow.

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 and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

Wandering throughout this universe, some fortunate jiva souls receive the seed of devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru and Krishna. It is necessary to take the seed from a bona fide guru. There are many bogus gurus roaming around this world; on the other hand, all the relatives and family who look like your friends you have are all dacoits disguised as your well-wishers. They are called well-wishers, but they behave like dacoits with you.

The whole life long, we have been slaves of lust—we have been following the orders of various desires, but they have had no pity on us. Therefore, we have no other way except to take shelter in Sri Guru and Vaishnavs. If we can always worship the holy lotus feet of Sri Guru and Vaishnavs, if we can always remember Sri Guru and Vaishnavs, and if we can always, eternally know the teachings of Sri Guru and Vaishnavs, then we will get supreme benefit. Yet those who do not worship Gauranga without worshipping Sri Guru will fall into a terrible hell—such 'worship' is nothing but sin ("Guru bade Gauranga bhaje, sei papi raurave pade majhe"). Moreover, if you worship your Guru hoping to gain some money—if you live in Mathura or Vrindavan hoping to gain some material profit—this is pretence, it is not living in Mathura or Vrindavan, it is not service to your Guru. You must have service mood:

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

You must surrender fully, you must make honest enquiry. Who am I? It is necessary to know your own identity (the identity of your soul). We cannot even know our own selves—we always live and perceive everything with temporary, material intelligence: my house, my room, my son, my mother, my daughter—in this way we spend this whole life. If you chant the Holy Name but this material mentality does not go away, then it means you are not chanting the Holy Name. You are proud you have made a temple, you are proud you have done so much, but you cannot take anything with you—no money, no wealth, no property will go with you. You will have to leave everything and go away. Why can you not understand this? Why do sadhus come and explain this to you again and again, but you cannot understand it?

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