(12) Penniless Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 29 January 2020, part 12
Translated from Bengali

I remember my previous family had a kirtan party who would come to sing. One time, I went to the place where they were dressing to bring them to our house, and I saw them putting onion juice and mustard oil into their eyes to induce tears. One time, a big story happened also. One party called Matua, who would mostly come from Barispur, showed up in our area. They have a tradition to hug everyone, and as they did it, they showed so much intoxication with prema. My uncle, who was rather old at that time, could play the kartals very well, and when a Matua man came to him to hug him, it happened so that as my uncle accidentally pulled that man's beard. Suddenly, the man became furious and, gathering all his party people, said he would go to the village judge. I told him, "You were just now intoxicated with Krishna-prema, all covered with tears, hugging him, then how did you even understand that your beard had been pulled?" The man was annoyed to hear it, "Hey! Where did you come from?! Go, from here, go home!" [His Divine Grace laughs] I did not like such things even in my childhood. I had to struggle and tolerate all the things that took place at that family home...

If people consider the Supreme Controller Bhagavan Vishnu and His expansions to be one or equal, it means they are atheists. So, those who say that Krishna, Kali and Ganesh are one are atheists; they are residents of hell. Padma Purana says, "If somebody considers worshippable Deity to be stone, Guru and Vaishnavs mortal humans, Vaishnavs a social class, the water that washed the feet of Vishnu and Vaishnavs ordinary water; all-powerful mantra of Lord Vishnu's Name words; and Supreme Lord Vishnu to be on equal footing with demigods—such a person is a resident of hell." There is an expression in Vaishnava Tantra that says, "One who think that Brahma, Rudra and demigods are the same as Vishnu are atheists." Many refer to mortal conditioned souls obsessed with money, women and fame as Krishna, Narayan, Hari, Vishnu, Lord, God, Guru, etc.—such people are all atheists. They dress themselves as God or as gurus and consider themselves God.

We are very poor, but we are not "poor Narayanas". We must try to decrease our poverty. Acquiring wealth is necessary—but that great wealth is Krishna-prema.

prema-dhana bina vyartha daridra jivana
dasa kari vetana more deha prema-dhana

"Without love for God, this peniless life is nothing. Make me Your servant and give me the wealth of divine love as my salary!"

"Please make me Your slave and pay me the salary of divine love! O Lord! Please engage me in Your service. This will be my salary, this will be my reward." This is our only prayer. If we want to have love for Krishna, we will automatically feel no love for the things that oppose Krishna. Mahaprabhu ordered: Mundane name is now all over the world, but it is necessary to preach Vaikuntha-Nama—this is the innermost desire of Mahaprabhu. The method of our preaching should be like this: we must make many pamphlets—if there is no temple, let it be, but they will at least hear what philosophy or scriptures there are in their country, and how many great things we tell.

পৃথিবীতে যত আছে নগরাদি গ্রাম ।
সর্ব্বত্র প্রচার হইবে মোর নাম ॥

prthivite yata achhe nagaradi grama
sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will be spread in every town and village of the world."

This is what we must think about.

It is necessary to have as little connection with outside people who are averse to Lord Krishna as possible. It is necessary to eventually give up their association completely. Do not speak to them much. Enemies of Chaitanya's devotees belong to the species of intestinal worms. Instead of nourishing your soul's body, whatever nourishing food you take to nurture your soul will instead nurture the worms in your body. What do intestinal worms do? They eat everything. So, those who offend or criticise devotees of Chaitanya are worms! Instead of letting your soul be nurtured, they will eat everything.

Do you know why we see faults in others? Because we cannot control our own mind. You must always remember this. Common people like to say, "Taka mati, mati taka (টাকা মাটি মাটি টাকা). Money has no value (lit. 'Money is mud, mud is money')." If one sees stool and sandalwood as the same, earth and money as the same, a meat-eater and a brahman as the same, a prostitute and a chaste wife as the same, a jiva and Brahman as the same, the conscious and the unconscious as the same—does it mean they are paramahamsa? Never. This expression comes from Bhagavatam.

Many more things are written here (in Guidance, Volume 3), but we do not have time to read everything now...

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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
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