(4/6) Go Beyond Your Mindset

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 28 January 2020, part 4
Translated from Bengali

We will not become successful for as long as we cannot understand the real thing.

We are always interested and wondering, "This is gone", "That has got lost", "This has been stolen", "That has become spoilt", "This money has come", "That money has been spent" and so on. One time, somebody wanted to give Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj one rupee, but Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj gave that money back!

Many people invite us to their houses and forcefully feed us. Even when we have finished eating, they force us to eat more. Why? Because they think, "Gurudev will leave something on the plate, and we will get his prasad." You have heard that Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj has once eaten a banana leaf plate! Some old lady had invited him to her home, and he ate the banana leaf plate when she forced him to eat more. He told her not to give him more—he had already finished eating—but she again gave him more. Because she forcefully made him eat more, he again ate everything, together with the plate this time!

On the way to that place, some man saw Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj and thought, "This Babaji looks so poor, let me give him a coin." Babaji Maharaj took the coin and continued his way, but then, having walked for quite a while, he suddenly told his servant Bihari Das, "Come, let us go back!" Bahari Das was surprised, "But why? We have almost arrived..." Babaji Maharaj did not explain anything; he only said, "Come, come. Let us go back to the house of that man." When they came to the man's house, Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj asked Bihari Das to call the man to come downstairs, and when the man came, he gave him the coin back. The man was surprised, "I gave it to you, and you took it. Why are you giving it back to me now?" When the man saw that Babaji Maharaj had come again, he thought, "I gave him money once, and he must have come to ask for more!" In fact, Babaji Maharaj did the opposite—he gave that money back. When the man asked him why he was giving it back, Babaji Maharaj explained, "I cannot tolerate the burden of this money. I always thought about this money, thinking how to spend it, what to buy with it, and I could not chant the Holy Name! Please do me a favour, take it back." This is the nature of a Vaishnav.

One time, somebody came to Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj and gave him a pomelo, "Here, take it." That man thought that if he gave the Lord one pomelo, he would get more fruit on the tree. Babaji Maharaj told him, "Instead of giving me your fruit, it would be better if you watered my aubergine plant!" He would also say that instead of making offences to the Holy Name, it is better to water an aubergine plant, "Do not make so many offences. Better go and water this aubergine plant!" We must learn from the example of Vaishnavs.

What do people do? They come and say, "Give me some prasad!" Gurudev has not finished taking prasad, but they come and saying, stretching out their hands, "Give me some prasad!" There are many people like this in Mednipore. One time, I came there for a programme. When I came, I saw a huge line outside the house. The programme was to start at 8:30, and I arrived at 9 o'clock because the road was bad and we had to walk to the house quite far. I asked the host why the people were queuing, and he said that they were there to wash my feet! I asked them to give me a class of water because I was thirsty after travelling, but half an hour passed and no water came—they queued to wash my feet, but nobody cared to give me a glass of water. I told them, "Where have you learnt all this?" This is what they do in Mednipore... I have gone there many times and have corrected something, but as the saying goes, "Bend the bamboo while it is green—if you try to bend it when it matures, it will crack (কাঁচায় না নোয়ালে বাঁশ, পাকলে করে ঠাস ঠাস, equivalent to English 'strike the iron while it is hot"). If you understand something at the right time, then you will understand it, but if the bamboo has dried, you cannot bend it—it will break. People can understand and change when they are young, but once you have learned some rules or traditions, you already think that it is the best way and that there is nothing beyond what you know. People say that rui and katla (popular types of fish) are vegetarian(!), but all the small and tiny kinds of fish, such as koi and sila, are not vegetarian. I got to know that somebody was eating fish, and when I asked them, "What is this?!", they said, "Why? It is vegetarian! Rui and katla are vegetarian, but the small fish is not vegetarian!" These are the ideas that people have. They wear kanthi-malas on their necks and follow such ideas...

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Search for Reality
2) Greatest Conquest
3) Wasted Love
4) Go Beyond Your Mindset
5) Faith Must Come from Heart
6) Bizarre Life