Unload Yourself

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Translated into English from Bengali
15 February 2020, part 4

I have told you before that there is Nama-aparadh, seva-aparadh, dhama-aparadh, Vaishnav-aparadh, you must always be conscious of it.

Suppose you take a fifty-kilo sack of cauliflower on your head. You will feel pain on your head, you will struggle—if you come with this sack to an A/C room, will you be happy? No, you will not—because you have all this load on your head. What kind of load do we have on our heads? Not cauliflower—it is the load of ego. I have a house, I have a car, I have beauty, I have so many qualities, I have money. This is all ego.

Suppose somebody donates a lakh rupees (100,000) for the service of the Lord, and somebody thinks then, "If I give more, then my name will be on the top." Then, that other person donate two lakhs rupees. Now, the first man's name becomes second and he thinks, "Oh no! I have given one lakh, but still my name is not on the top!" He becomes disturbed. Where will he get peace? We sing in one of the kirtans, "Chhaudike ananda dekhi—I see joy in all four directions." Do we see joy everywhere around us? We see, "Oh, this man is old," "This man is good," "This man is bad," etc. Do we see joy and pleasure everywhere?

You can judge a tree by its fruit. If you have a mango tree, the tree will bear mango, it will not bear any other fruit. Therefore, if you see mangoes growing on a tree, it must be a mango tree; if some other fruit is growing on it, then it is another tree. So, if you want to see a Vaishnav, you should see how much humility the person has. The greater a Vaishnav is, the more humility he has. You know that in this world, a Vaishnav means something else. People think if you have big temples, big buildings, then you are a great Vaishnav. Is it not so? Those who make huge temples are the greatest Vaishnavs, and those who practise in their small cottage, chant the Holy Name, serve the Lord—they are not Vaishnavs.

This is all explained in the scriptures. How many temples did the six goswamis have? How many temples did Sanatan Goswami have? How many temples did Jiva Goswami have? How many temples did Raghunath Das Goswami have (who lived and serve the Lord on the bank of Radha Kunda)? Tell me, give me the answer. Yet we cannot understand this, we have all these misconceptions. You must think about it. Pure Vaishnavs are always humble; they never offend or criticise anyone, they do not gossip about others, they do not want to waste their time—they always keep themselves engaged in Hari-kirtan, they keep themselves engaged in the Lord's katha and kirtan and in the service of the devotees of the Lord.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen online (Bengali):

• Download (1.1 Mb)