(1/4) Be Serious

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, evening
Translated into English from Bengali
18 February 2020, part 1

I have told you before that a bad day is a day without Hari-katha. The day when we cannot hear or speak Hari-katha is a bad day for us. We must always pray to the Lord that we may be able to hear and chant the Holy Name of the Lord every day. The Lord becomes very pleased to hear His glorification. So, we can chant the kirtan of the Lord to please Him. It is not necessary to practise any meditation, mystic practices or sacrifices. There are so many practices, yoga asans, meditations, etc. in this world, but all these things do not give anything – there is no use famishing your body. You speak much, you use your mouth to eat food, but you must first think how many times a day you pronounce the Name of the Lord. Gurudev told that we must chant sixteen rounds of the Holy Name. If you chant sixteen rounds, it means you chant twenty-five thousand Holy Names – it means you call the Lord twenty-five thousand times. It takes an hour and a half to chant sixteen rounds, but how many people do this?...

We keep a relationship with whose who we have no relation to this world. We do not know the real sambadha-jnana (knowledge of the relationship). We always keep in touch with those who are related to our bodies – our fathers, mothers, friends, relatives. We speak to them, we always ask about how they are, but we never ask about the news related to the Lord, we never ask how the Lord is.

[Clamour.] They are talking. This is wrong. Do you know why this is wrong? If you want, we can bring cellular tape and close their mouths. Has the Lord given you a mouth to speak, but if you speak during Hari-katha, it is an offence. If somebody disturbs Hari-katha, they make a conscious offence. If you make an offence consciously and unconsciously, these are different things. Even in court, there are different laws for such cases – intentional murder and unintentional. For example, if there is suddenly a car accident and before you know it somebody fell under the car and died, the punishment is one; and if somebody intentionally runs over a man or intentionally kills somebody, the punishment will be different. So, if we knowingly make an offence (we know it is wrong to do it, we have been told that it is bad to do it), if we discuss and criticise others and ascribe faults to others, then the punishment will be bad. Ascribing faults to others means somebody may not have any fault, but we still discuss some fault in relation to the person. And if you go and tell others about somebody's fault (dosh, দোষ), that is dosh-kirtan (দোষ-কীর্ত্তন; chanting the glories of somebody's faults). It is an even worse offence. Somebody does not have any fault, but you not only think about it in your mind but also go and tell others about it, it is an offence (Nama-aparadha). Talking about others' faults to other people is an offence. There is a good word in Islam: gheebat (গীবত), backbiting. To discuss others' faults and to discuss somebody's faults when they have no fault are both called dosh-kirtan (chanting the glories of somebody's faults). So, doing something bad both consciously and unconsciously is bad, so it is not necessary to speak during Hari-katha. Speak little, only as required. There is no use speaking without any necessity. Our time is very short.

We have been sucked into a whirlpool of births and deaths since time immemorial, but we have now got a human birth. What is the purpose of this birth? Why have we got it? We must know it very well. The first step to understand it is sambandha-jnana.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Be Serious
2) Result of Proper Practice
3) Keep Your Vision Clean
4) Awake, Arise