(10) "I Have Come to Help You"

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 29 January 2020, part 10
Translated from Bengali

We have been nourished and brought up with much care and love in a particular society since our childhood, and we have got entangled in this life so much that we do not have even a moment to spare for the discussions of our eternal life. We are busy with so many things. We work day and night, we give twenty-four hours a day to our material lives, and we do not even try to realise who we are and what our real position is. You have been working like this since time immemorial. You get one hundred years of life now, but how much is this lifetime compared to eternity? You have been busy with your material life for the whole eternity. Be it a pig's family, a goat's family, a cat's family, a dog's family, you always live amidst worries about your material life. You will live in this human body maximum one hundred years; those who have some intelligence will not spend their life in constant worries about sense gratification—they will practise spiritual life for their own spiritual benefit. Search for Sri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful. Those who are intelligent will search for the Lord; they will strive to know and come to the Lord. This is what you should be thinking or concentrating your life on. Instead, we live like madmen, like little children who are always busy thinking about what they will eat, where they will stay, where they will sleep, what they will wear and so on. This is very sad and very unfortunate. Do you understand it?

A symptom of a genuine guru is that he is, first of all, devoid of any cheating, gives genuine advice on religion of the soul, or bhagavat-dharma (religion based on the precepts of Srimad Bhagavatam). A genuine guru is a person who does not have material defects (selfishness, etc.) because only bhagavat-dharma accepts the eternal and transcendental nature of the guru. There are many vitta-harankari gurus in this world (those who steal your wealth, money, etc.), but there are very few santap-harankari gurus (spiritual teachers who will rob you of your material agony). A person who cannot save a conditioned soul from the cycle of birth and death and cannot sincerely engage them in the service of the Lord can never be called a guru. You can find these things described in Gaudiya Kanthahara.

What does it mean to give up bad association? Bad association is not just leaving the association of women. 'Association with women' means the association of those who live in this world with a view to enjoy, or who have 'enjoyment' vision. Giving up such material vision is called giving up bad association. People who want to enjoy, thinking they are the masters, owners and enjoyers of 'their' things (who think, "This is my house", "This is my car" and so on) are also bad association. Giving up such low habits and trying exclusively, with one's mind, body and speech, to serve Krishna is called sannyas. Simply being a Vaishnav is the topmost sannyas. Another name of a Vaishnav is paramahamsa. Our only duty is engage ourselves in the service of the Lord accepting whichever appropriate clothes within the varnasrama-dharma to show the dignity of the paramahamsa vesa of our guru-varga.

Why is there famine of pure kirtan in this world? Because of the insult and dishonour people show to the guru-varga, there has appeared a famine of kirtan in the world today. The kirtan of today is kirtan (glorification) of material world, kirtan for the sake of business, kirtan for the sake of amassing money, women and prestige, kirtan for the sake of mundane sense-gratification. Such kirtan is done not out of love for Krishna or for satisfying the Lord. However, when pure devotees do kirtan out of love for the Lord and for the spiritual benefit of the jiva souls, such kirtan is pure.

One time—it was many years, maybe twenty years, ago—a famous singer, Radharani, came to our Nabadwip temple to take the darshan of Gurudev. I asked her at that time, "Didi, when you do a programme at Haritala, I have heard that a thousand people come to hear it. When I give class, then only two-four people come, but so many people come to hear you. But how many people have brought to this path? How many of them are practising Krishna consciousness?" She said, "Brother, shall I tell you the truth? Your guru-varga preach Krishna-kirtan abroad and in India to bring people to this path and let them practise spiritual life, but we sing kirtan only for money. If they give me much money at some place, I will sing there for three hours; if they pay less, I will sing for two hours or half an hour only. But you chant to bring people to this path."

I told you also that I have not come here to take your help—I have not come here to give a lecture. I have come here only to let you practise Krishna consciousness. I come to give you some consciousness so that you can practise Krishna consciousness in your own life. This is what I come to beg for—I do not come for any money or wealth. One time, I went for preaching to some area, and a man told, "We had a flood this year, I will not be able to help you." I told him, "I have not come to take anything from you, I have not come to take your help—I have come to help you." The man tried to argue, but I told him to just sit for the programme for at least fifteen minutes and listen. Hearing the class, he gave us whatever money he had and next Gaura Purnima came to our temple in Nabadwip. He listened to the classes and kirtans and eventually took initiation from Gurudev. Now, he tells me, "Oh, you do not come anymore to us." I told him, "I went there to hijack you. My hijacking is done, so what will I go there for now? There is no need for me there anymore." I always think about how people can come to this path, how people can practise Krishna consciousness, how they can serve the Lord, how they can find a way to attain the highest spiritual benefit, and how they can come to the eternal abode of the Lord. This is what we all want.

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Length: 57 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Serve with Love
2) Deep Renunciation
3) Perverted Taste
4) Life of Awakened Consciousness
5) Genuine Spiritual Life
6) Service Through Self-Abnegation?
7) Service Is Not a Play
8) Brahmans' Position
9) Hari-Katha or Self-Deception?
10) "I Have Come to Help You"
11) Do Not Be Duped
12) Penniless Life
Pure