Eternal Life Membership

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class
5 February 2020, part 10
Translated from Bengali

We will chant kirtans now, it is going to be the time to offer bhoga soon. I will speak again tomorrow. Tomorrow is Varaha Dvadasi. Break the ekadasi fast tomorrow in the morning. I have already told that it is necessary to do the archan of the Deities first, then offer special sweet rice in the morning. The paran time is given in the calendar.

Everybody who does not already have the book Nityananda-mahimamrita should buy it. It is a very beautiful book, and it is not expensive at all. You can read it at home. There is another recently published book, Sri Puri Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala. At Gaura Purnima time also another book will come out, Sri Nabadwip Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala. It is written in simple language, and I am doing correction and proofreading now--I will have it printed by Gaura Purnima. If you do not have these books, you can buy them at the book stall.

Some books cost fifteen rupees—you cannot buy anything with this money. If you eat one meal, one hundred rupees will be gone—and if you want to eat something nice, then it is necessary to spend two-three hundred rupees. We do not ask so much from any one. The only request to you all is that you come to this line, and if you buy holy books and study them at home, then Nityananda Prabhu will be pleased. What makes the Lord happy? Where does the Lord mostly stay? He is there where devotees speak about Him. When such discussions take place here in Sri Ekachakra Dham, Nityananda Prabhu becomes very happy, and Hadai Pandit, Padmavati Devi become even happier—devotees comes and talk about their son, glorify their son. If you listen to such talks with heart and soul, very attentively, Nityananda Prabhu truly becomes happy and pleased with you—if you can listen truly with your heart. It is necessary to have service mood and eagerness to listen. Whatever you try to do, it is necessary to have enthusiasm and work hard. If you want to become a doctor, you have to be very hard-working, otherwise you can never become a doctor. If I thought, "Oh, I have come to this line, and I will serve somehow, anyhow," it will not do. It is necessary to work and to make the effort...

We must use everything for the service of the Lord. The other day I laughed—(old) Ashok Prabhu told me about one rice mill. I had got a bill from them that they would give us fifty kg of rice, but when Ashok Prabhu went to the mill, the people tried to give him less. They think, "I have given them less, I have cheated Maharaj very nicely!" But I laughed when I heard this—they do not cheat me, they only cheat themselves. You think, "I have given Maharaj two or ten kg less," but do you think you will become very rich with those ten kg of rice and that I will become very poor? What profit is it to you if you give me less rice? This is how we do collection. We go mill to mill and collect from them. Gurudev told me, "If I have become the acharya, does it mean I will not go for collection? No, I will still go house to house..." When we went to one place recently, I was outside in the car, and somebody started shouting, "Go away! Go away!" And I told Ashok Prabhu, "I will go to this mill!" I told him to remember the place. When we went there, the owner met us with obeisances and folded palms. I told the mill owner to give a quintal (100 kg) of rice, and if not possible, then fifty kg. The man said, "Well, I did not give you anything last time, so take one hundred kg this time." I said, "OK," and he gave us one hundred kg rice! In this way, the Lord does not keep us lacking anything.

Before this Nityananda Trayodasi festival, I was thinking whether I will be able to finish the rooms in time. I hurried the workers so much, and they managed to finish everything—only the painting behind is still not complete. I did not get time to supervise the works here—I went to Ganga Sagar, then I went to Basirhat, Hooghly, South India, etc. for preaching. I have to go to so many places for preaching. Apart from that, I have gone twice for rice collection—still one-two more days are left. I have no time at all. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have forty-eight hours a day. Now I also stay up till 1-1:30 a.m., writing. After that, I wake up in the morning and have to go out to different places. The whole day passes in this way. I am trying, trying to please the Lord, to please Gurudev. My only desire is to make Gurudev happy. If devotees are happy and everything is good for devotees, I like it very much. When devotees do not get prasad, if devotees struggle and do not get a proper place to sleep, I feel much pain. If I do not get a proper place to stay, I struggle, and I know that devotees also struggle in the same way.

We cannot see everyone as equal, to feel for others like for ourselves. Not everybody has this kind of fortune. So many people wander around much but they have not been able to become members of this family. I went to one mill the other day, and the man told me, "I am a life member at ISKCON!" I told him, "And we are recruiting for future life's membership." It is the truth. You become a member in this life and serve the Lord, but what will become of you in your next birth? This is what you must think about. We do want any particular result, but we must be careful that we do not become insects, dogs, cats, etc. in our future births. So, we are recruiting you for your future life membership. This is die to live, as Srila Sridhar Maharaj told. The man said he was a life member, and he will be this member as long as he is alive in this world, but this is not the point—we want be members life after life. We want to be members after death also, eternally. We accept the eternal membership to stay within the service to the lotus feet of Krishna eternally, birth after birth. There is such a vast difference between our missions. It is necessary to understand what the difference is.

All right, it is late now. We must finish by 9 p.m.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

[His Divine Grace chants kirtans and completes the evening class.]

[Between kirtans, His Divine Grace says:]

When you chant kirtans, you must not only chant them—you must understand the meaning. The other day, I was in Uluberia, one devotee asked me about one word from the bhoga arati:

yasomati-ajnapeye dhanistha anita
sri-krsna-prasada radha bhunje haye prita

"Being requested by Yasoda, Dhanistha brings Sri Krishna's remnants to Radha, who eats them joyfully."

He asked me, "What is 'dhanistha'?" [He understood it as something called 'dhanistha' is brought to Krishna on the order of Mother Yasoda.] I told him, "You have been singing it for so many years and you do not know what it means? Dhanistha is the name of one gopi. On the order of Mother Yasoda, Dhanistha bring prasadam for Krishna."

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