(2) Eternal Engagement

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Kinkarbati
Translated into English from Bengali
26 February 2020, part 2

Whether you are staying at a temple, house or anywhere else, you must practise properly. Not all places have spiritual environment, but sannyasis and brahmacharis must create temple environment wherever they go. When you go for preaching, you may not get all facilities for practising that you have at the temple, but when sannyasis and brahmacharis go somewhere, they will create temple environment there – they will do mangal-arati, worship Deities, offer bhog and everything else. They will not sit and talk idly (no gramya-katha) or gossip (no prajalpa).

You can see in many houses that people start worshipping Deities, but in the end those Deities fall on their necks because neither their children nor their grandchildren come to this line. What happens next? The worship of the Deity stops and they will have to suffer for their sin, life after life. I went to one house recently. They keep Deities in the house, but they give bhog to the Deities only once a year. When I came there, they look at me and ask, 'How was the puja? Did I do everything right?' If you become old, you must prepare somebody so that they can take over the worship; otherwise, if you keep Deities and the Deities are left without worship, it will be an offence.

You must listen to these things. Only reading books will not do. You must listen to genuine sadhus. There is a Bhagavata book (grantha-bhagavat) and there are Bhagavata devotees (bhakta-bhagavat). Sri Guru and Vaishnavs are living Bhagavata. If you listen and listen to what they say, all dirt will go away from your heart and your earnestness for devotion will increase each day. This is a straightforward matter.

If you cook, offer bhog and feed people one day and then do not do anything the whole year, you will get rusty. If you do not serve all the time – if you do not offer worship and bhog all the time, if you do not chant kirtans all the time – you will get rusty. And one year later, Yama will come pulling you and your life will come out. Do you understand what I am saying? You must always, eternally engage yourself in sravan and kirtan; you must practise spiritual life always, eternally; you must worship Deities always, eternally. Everything must be done every single day without fail (nitya). If you dance and chant today and do nothing tomorrow, there is no value, even if you are a sannyasi or a brahmachari.

চারি বর্ণাশ্রমী যদি কৃষ্ণ নাহি ভজে ।
স্বকর্ম্ম করিলেও সে রৌরবে পড়ি মজে ॥

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje
svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or ashram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krishna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.26)

Whether you are living in a house, a forest, a jungle or anywhere else, wherever you are, you must practise Krishna consciousness no matter what your situation is. Even if you are in a jungle, you must serve Hari, the Supreme Lord. We do not believe in doing things in your mind. You cannot offer archan or bhog to the Deities in your mind. It is necessary to offer archan and bhog genuinely, physically. You must do everything practically (physically), then you will get some result. If you are in some danger, then you can do it in your mind, but other than that, you must do everything practically. This is what Krishna consciousness is.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Become Good Listener
2) Eternal Engagement
3) Serve Intently
4) Worse Than Death
5) Increase Your Devotion
6) Real Substance of Devotion
7) Shameful
8) Exclusive Self-Realisation
9) Keep Your Focus Straight