Spend Your Time Wisely

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class
Sri Varaha Dvadasi, 6 February 2020, part 9
Translated from Bengali

When your eyes close (when you die), you will have to leave everything behind. There are three holy abodes—Gauda Mandal, Ksetra Mandal, and Vraja Mandal. Gauda Mandal parikrama is cherished by those who want to make primary progress in this line; it is necessary to do this parikrama. The parikrama of Sri Ksetra Mandal, or Purusottam Ksetra (Puri), is for those who have made some progress. The annual parikrama of Sri Vraja Mandal is for those who are eager to progress even more. We do these three parikramas every year—Gauda Mandal, Ksetra Mandal, and Vraja Mandal. It does not take much time. Nabadwip Dham parikrama is four-five days; Ksetra Mandal takes one week; and Vraja Mandal parikrama is eleven days. This year, I am arranging one more parikrama. I have already told it that after the aksaya-tritiya, I will take you to the parikrama of four holy places—Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri. We have been to Dvaraka recently, and you go to Puri every year, so this time I will take you to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri.

It will not cost much, I will arrange it so that it does not cost much—you know that I do not do business, I do not get any profit. Yesterday, somebody told me that when we were in Jaipur somebody had given me money, but I do not even remember it. I never keep such things in my mind—I have no attraction to or interest in material things, but if something is necessary for devotees, I do that. You can understand yourself also—it was cold yesterday, but everyone had to sit outside and take prasadam on the cold ground—this is hard. So, please give me your blessing that I may be able to arrange a place for taking prasadam somewhere where the kitchen is.

So, please take care of yourself, do not go here and there so much. Tomorrow is Nityananda Trayodasi. I will give a class in the morning and after that we will go out for a parikrama. Do not forget that it is fast tomorrow morning. It is Nityananda Trayodasi—if you can fast until twelve o'clock (noon), it will be very good. Many fast the whole day, but I am not telling you to do that. Fast till twelve in the afternoon, then take prasad. We will chant kirtans, have a class, and then go out for a parikrama. After the parikrama, we will come back here, speak a little more, and then we will take prasad. Try to chant the Holy Name in your room today, and those of you who have service—many cut vegetables, some sweep—should do their service. You must all try to do some service. Even if you just sweep the dust of this holy abode, it is good. Nobody knows what kind of sukriti you get when you clean the temple of the Lord.

I have seen Param Gurudev's (Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's) article (in Sri Gaudiya Darsan magazine). You have all heard the name of Prahlad Maharaj. He is the one for whom Lord Nrisinghadev appeared in this world—Lord Nrisinghadev killed Hiranyakasipu, that is bestowed His mercy on him in this way (Hiranyakasipu was Prahlad Maharaj's father). Who was Prahlad Maharaj in his previous birth? You will be surprised to hear it. In his previous birth, Prahlad Maharaj's name was Vasudev. He was born in some village in South India. I do not remember the name of that village—it is not easy to remember the names of places in South India. Anyhow, Vasudev was born there and grew up. You can see how surprising the pastimes of the Lord are.

You know, Valmiki wrote about the pastimes of Lord Rama—composed Ramayana—six thousand years before the pastimes of Lord Rama took place! So, even before Lord Nrisinghadev's appearance, there was a temple of Lord Nrisinghadev in South India.

Nobody was worshipping the Deity in that temple—the domes were broken and the temple was neglected, although the Deity was still there. Nobody cleaned the temple, and it eventually turned into a jungle. Some old lady went there a few times a week and would offer some fruit to the Deity. This is what the Deity ate, living in this way. Once, that man Vasudev fell in love with a girl. One day, as he was talking with the girl, he felt lusty towards her and wanted to take her to some secluded place. They remembered about the abandoned temple where nobody went and nobody would see them. (This happens today too—boys and girls talk, talk, talk, get lusty and then go to the forest.) So, Vasudev went with that girl to that temple in the jungle. When they came in, they saw that the temple was very dirty and was full of trees, etc. The girl did not want to do anything there, but Vasudev said, "Do not worry, I will clean it!" He went there with bad thoughts, but because he cleaned the temple after so many days, Lord Nrisinghadev became very pleased. As a result of pleasing Lord Nrisinghadev, Vasudev became Prahlad Maharaj in his next birth. This is the history. Also, that day when they went there was Nrisingha Chaturdasi (the appearance day of Lord Nrisinghadev).

So, you can see that if you do any service to the Lord, in whichever way—with good intention or bad intention or any intention—you must still get sukriti. Even if you say Hare Krishna by mistake—even if somebody teases you and says Hare Krishna when they see beads on your neck and tilaks. Because Hare Krishna comes to their mouth, they get some sukriti through you. So, if somebody teases you and you think you will erase your tilak, this is not right. There was one person at the temple—he would always wipe off his tilak when he went outside. I told him, "Why are you slighting tilak? Because you worry that people will tease you? Do these people feed you? You stay at the temple, you take prasad at the temple, but you feel ashamed of wearing tilaks? That means that your ego has not gone away yet. Do you give importance to what this person says or that person says, or do you give importance to the Lord?"

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

[His Divine Grace chants Hari Haraye Nama Krsna and recited Jaya Dhvani, concluding thus the morning class.]

Come here at four o'clock in the afternoon, there will be kirtan here. Do not go to listen to any lila-kirtan, pala-kirtan or kirtans of any big poets—if you hear it, you will be making an offence. Sit here, and the rest of the time do service, chant the Holy Name, or take rest, it will be good too. So, come here at four o'clock, do not go anywhere outside. Go and take prasad now.

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