(5) Increase Your Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Kinkarbati
Translated into English from Bengali
26 February 2020, part 5

We must accept the path following which we can increase our devotion. That is why I am telling you: you have taken initiation, you have taken shelter at the holy feet of Sri Guru, but this is similar to only getting admitted to the school. One does not pass the final exams just by getting admission. It is necessary to study for ten years. First, you go to primary school, then secondary and high school – after ten years, you take exams, which will show what you have been doing for ten years (if you have been doing something good or bad). In the same way, you must take exams in devotion as well. Is your devotion increasing day by day? Are you losing your service? Do you know what the result of service is? Getting more service. They will not be able to maintain their sleep and eating times ten, eleven, twelve, two o'clock - they are not aware of anything, they just carry on working. Their service will increase so much that they will have no time for any idle talks or gossips. They will always think, 'Which service shall I do now? What will I do next? Which service will I do after that?' They will not get time to do anything wrong – they will not even have time to go to the bathroom! This is what such devotees' situation is.

But not everybody is like that. That is why it is always necessary to practise. The practise of devotion to the Lord is this:

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামসঙ্কীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-sankirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"Taking sadhus' association, chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, listening to Srimad Bhagavatam, residing in Mathura and worshipping Deities with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.124)

It is necessary to practise these things. It is necessary to associate with sadhus and devotees, even if it is through scriptures, through Gurudev's lectures; you must practise Nama-sankirtan, even if you do it by yourself; you must listen to Srimad Bhagavatam, even if you do it on your own; you must always reside in a holy place – even if you cannot always come, you must always think about the holy places. I take everyone for parikramas three times a year: Vrindavan, Purushottam and Nabadwip Mandal. Even if you cannot come three times, when you cannot come, you can feel sad and think about the holy abode, remember where we go or where you have been.

We do not have a book about Vrindavan parikrama yet (I will write it this year or next year), but we have a book about Puri Dham parikrama, and a book about Nabadwip Dham (Sri Nabadwip Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala) is coming out this year. You can see in these books where we go and what we speak about when we come to each place. There is also Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur's Nabadwip Dham Mahatmya book, it is written in poetry form, but it is hard to understand everything, but the book that I have made is written in simple language. I wrote everything in it – where we go and what all the sannyasis speak about in those places. They have recorded everything nicely, and it is now all written down. You can find there what we speak about when we go to Chaitanya Math and Yogapith. For example, when we go to Gadadhar Angan or Advaita Angan, we do not get time to speak there, but I have written about those places in the book. I have also written about Sridhar Angan, we will go there.

Devotee: Will we go there this year?

Yes, we will! I like this place. Also, we will go to Jagai-Madhai Ghat, Madhyadwip, Hamsavahan and so on – I have written about all these places in the book. I wrote about everything to the point. It is a very big book, more than four hundred pages. It is being printed now. Read this book. It is written in a very beautiful language. Have you read Puri Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala? It is written in simple language, and this book will come out like that too. You will not have any difficult understanding it. The forth volume of Upadesh is also coming out soon, it is very good. I have told everything in it. These are very nice books. Read them.

Actually, when I come to different places, I also sometimes forget. I had a very strong memory before – I could remember what I said, read or even ate seven days ago (I could remember at whose house I ate seven days ago). Now I cannot even remember what was three days ago. I can feel that my memory is slowly going away...

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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