(3/10) Nurture Natural Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District, evening
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, part 3

Anyhow, when the time comes, we have to leave, but we have got this rare human birth now, so we must know what we must do with this rare human birth and what we need. We must not only know it out of duty.

People worship God for three reasons. Somebody worships the Lord out of fear; somebody worships Him because they think about their own happiness and want to get something (somebody wants money and wealth, somebody wants to have their children married or so that their children find a good job and so on). The third kind of people worship God out of duty. They think, 'There is God, the supreme controller – He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body; He is the origin of all; and He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes (Brahma-samhita, 5.1: Isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam; ঈশ্বরঃ পরমঃ কৃষ্ণঃ সচ্চিদানন্দবিগ্রহঃ অনাদিরাদির্গোবিন্দঃ সর্ব্বকারণকারণম্) – that is why I will worship Him.' Gaudiya Vaishnavs do not serve the Lord like that. They serve God out of love. Does a mother love her son only out of duty or does she love him and take care of him out of natural affection? Does a mother think, 'Oh, my son will grow up, he will study and then work, and he will look after me – he will give me food and clothes!'? A mother thinks, 'He is my son, that is why I am looking after him.'

You can see the difference between the aisvarya-marg and the madhurya-marga (the paths of opulent worship and the path of worship out of spontaneous loving devotion). When Krishna was born in Mathura, He showed His six-armed form of Narayan – He showed that the Supreme Lord had taken birth. Seeing this form, Devaki immediately offered her obeisance to the Lord and began to offer Him worship. She forgot that she had given birth to a son. This is the difference between Devaki and Mother Yasoda. On the other hand, you can see the pastime when Krishna ate soil. Balaram saw Him eating soil, so he went to complain to Mother Yasoda, 'Your son is eating soil! He does not listen to anyone!' Mother Yasoda rushed to Krishna to take soil out of His mouth. Krishna cried, 'I have not eaten any soil! I have not eaten any soil!' Mother Yasoda decided to check it, 'Come, open Your mouth and let me see!' When Krishna opened His mouth, she saw the entire universe within it! However, this sight did not change her mood – she started shaking Gopal, 'Gopal, are You all right? Is everything all right with You?' Even having seen the entire universe in Krishna's mouth, she did not forget that Krishna was her son, she did not become afraid. This is vatsalya-rasa (the mood of divine parental service), and this is the difference between Mother Yasoda and Devaki. Vasudev also could not make any festival to celebrate Krishna's birth – the birthday festival was made by Nanda Maharaj.

Always remember these things.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Detach Yourself from Illusion
2) Tenacious Tenants
3) Nurture Natural Devotion
4) Eternal Loving Worship
5) Essential Admonition
6) Where Is Substance?
7) How to Capture the Lord
8) Pillars of Spiritual Life
9) Undiluted Spiritual Life
10) Power of Sambandha-Jnana