(2) Be Honest and Sincere

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, noon, part 2

Surrender is the root of devotion: humility (dainya), self-submission (atma-nivedana), accepting the Lord as your guardian (goptrtve palan). 'Goptrtve palan' means that Krishna is your maintainer, your guardian. Once you remember this, humility and self-submission will come to you, you will have faith that Krishna will protect you (avaisya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana). If Krishna maintains, or looks after, us, it means that He protects us. You must always remember this. Everything that happens happens by the will of the Lord; you must be impartial and see everything as equal. So, if you remember that the Lord is the maintainer, everything will come, but why does it not happen to us? Because we have fifty kg sacks of rice on our heads. We cry, 'I cannot take it anymore!' Somebody will take us into an A/C room to give us some relief, but will that make me happy? The load will still be there. This load is our pride: we are proud of our wealth, proud of our knowledge, proud of bodily beauty and some qualities. It is because of our ego and pride that we cannot understand anything. Somebody has money, and they are proud of it; somebody has knowledge, and they are proud of it. How can we get rid of this load on our heads? How can this ego go away from us? Once we bow down our head at the holy feet of sadhus, our Guru and Vaishnavs, this load will fall from our heads. Always remember this.

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

[Limbs of surrender] "Humility, self-submission, accepting the Lord as your maintainer, keeping faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me.'"

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must not be hypocritical about this – we must not pretend to be like that. It is necessary to open your heart and to be like that from within your heart.

I have told you before also: we are in our present situation only because of our ego. 'Ahankare matta haiya, Nitai-pada pasariya, asatyere satya kari mani (অহঙ্কারে মত্ত হৈঞা নিতাই-পদ পাসরিয়া অসত্যেরে সত্য করি' মানি): becoming mad with pride, I forgot Nitai's feet and accept untruth as truth!' (Srila Narottam Das Thakur). Because we are proud of our wealth, knowledge, beauty, family and friends, we forget everything. Because of our pride we cannot see or understand anything around us. As long as we have ego, we will not feel attracted and attached to the Lord's lotus feet. We will keep coming and keep going again and again. Whether it is tomorrow or in ten million years, but the time is running out, and one day we will have to leave this world, and not only this time: we will have to leave again and again, and then be born again and again. That is why we must always think about the Lord.

একলা ঈশ্বর কৃষ্ণ, আর সব ভৃত্য ।
যারে যৈছে নাচায়, সে তৈছে করে নৃত্য ॥

ekala isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya
yare yaiche nachaya, se taichhe kare nrtya

"Lord Krishna is the only supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.5.142)

Always remember this and always give up your ego. We are proud of our wealth, knowledge, beauty, family and friends, qualities, money, but pride destroys everything. We will never achieve anything through ego. Always remember this.

শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য প্রভু জীবে দয়া করি' ।
স্বপার্ষদ স্বীয় ধাম সহ অবতরি ॥

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari'
svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari

"Being merciful to the souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

To bestow mercy on all jivas, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna takes the heart and halo of Sri Radha and comes to this world as Chaitanya. After taking sannyas, He became known as Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Every person has some mood (bhava) and some bodily colour (kanti), but is there nothing else besides one's mood and colour? One time, somebody asked me, 'Maharaj, Mahaprabhu comes taking the mood and colour of Sri Radha, then how can Radharani become Gadadhar Pandit?' I told them, 'You do not understand it. Taking the mood and the colour of Radharani, Krishna becomes Gauranga, but Radharani's body is still there, and this body – what has remained of Her – becomes Gadadhar.' We always forget this, but we must always remember this.

We must always practice and behave as Vaishnavs. The more Vaishnav qualities you have, the more humility you have. So, it is always necessary to be humble. 'I do not know anything', 'I do not understand anything'. If hear about Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, you will be astonished. He came to Nabadwip from Radha Kunda, Vrindavan. In Vrindavan, everyone says, 'Radhe! Radhe!' but Mahaprabhu said, 'Mukhe bole ra-ra-ra, dui nayane bahe dhara (মুখে বলে রা-রা- দুই নয়নে বহে ধারা): those who behold Srimati Radharani with their two eyes cannot pronounce Her Name – they only keep saying "Ra-Ra."' Devotees cannot even take Her Name, but people in Vrindavan always say 'Radhe, Radhe'. They think they have become great devotees. So, when Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj (the guru of Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur) came to Nabadwip, he lived at a public toilet for four months. Now they make public toilets nicely, using tiles and other conveniences, but in the olden days, things were not so well-made. One day, somebody came to Srila Babaji Maharaj and asked him, 'Babaji Maharaj, you are lying here – do you not feel the stench?' Srila Babaji Maharaj replied, 'Yes, I do. This stench is actually bearable, but it is the stench that comes form the materialists of this world that I cannot bear.'

When we chant the Holy Name, we chant it on Tulasi beads, but Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj did not have beads. He went to the cremation ghat in Nabadwip and took some cloth from a dead body. Devotees see everything with an equal eye. Even when people pestered and threw stones at Babaji Maharaj, he would think, 'Gopal! Do not be naughty! I will tell Mother Yasoda!' People tortured him, troubled him, did so many things, but he saw the Lord in everything. So, when he chanted the Holy Name, he took some old cloth, tied knots on it and would use it to chant, 'Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.'

When Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj was staying at Nabadwip ghat, people would come to him and offer their obeisances – they knew that he was a great Vaishnav and that Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had taken initiation from him. Seeing Babaji Maharaj, some person started pretending to be like Babaji Maharaj, thinking, 'If I behave like Babaji Maharaj, people will come and pay obeisance to me too!' So, with this in mind, he came to the bank of the Ganges and started living in some cottage, imitating Srila Babaji Maharaj. Somebody came to Srila Babaji Maharaj and told him, 'We see this man over there, he is just like you – he wears the same kind of clothes, tilaks, he is chanting the Holy Name...' Srila Babaji Maharaj's reply was humorous. Suppose there is a pregnant lady. After ten months pass, the doctors see that the time has come, and when the lady gets labour pain, she is taken to hospital in an ambulance. Then, a child is born, a boy or a girl. But if some lady ties a pillow on her stomach to make it look big, like a pregnant lady's stomach, and cries, 'Oh, my stomach hurts! I will give birth just now! I am going to have a baby now!' If you take her to hospital, will a child come out? [Devotees laugh.] Srila Babaji Maharaj joked like that. He was very strict, but he also could joke. Do you understand the meaning of this example? Sadhu, gurus and Vaishnavs can be distinguished by what comes out of their mouths: if somebody only dresses as Vaishnavs, only sadhu-ninda and Vaishnav-ninda comes out of their mouth.

Anyhow, I have spoken much – we must chant the kirtan now. Time is going. There are so many stories that we can spend many days talking. [His Divine Grace chuckles and starts the next kirtan.]

— : • : —

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Length: 80 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Examine Yourself
2) Be Honest and Sincere
3) Assimilate the Substance
4) Getting Older but None Wiser
5) Senses vs. Soul
6) Desires and Forgetfulness
7) Irresistible Service Drive
8) Devotees Are Devoted
9) Lord Is Always Merciful