Dealing with Misconception

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 24 May 2020, part 4

Are there any other question?

Question: We have many people from Indian culture here who say, "I am a vegetarian, I worship Krishna, so I do not need a guru." How can we preach to such people? How can we make them understand the necessity of a guru?

Yes, they can say that, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself accepted a guru, Krishna Himself accepted a guru, so we should follow Them. It is true about everything—if you want to learn to cook, for example, you also need a guru; some siksa-guru will teach you to cook. A guru is always necessary, in everything. You cannot reach Krishna without a guru. You may worship Krishna, but Krishna Himself said (it is written in Srimad Bhagavad-gita also), "Those who say they are My devotees, are not My devotees, but those who are devotees of My devotee, they are My devotees." Krishna Himself says that, so if somebody says that a guru is not necessary, then they are not devotees.

Question: In this world, there are a lot of devotees who sincerely seek a guru, but what happens is that they end up with a wrong guru because there are a lot of bogus gurus now all over the world. Still, they sincerely worship Krishna, they offer flowers, they do some chanting, etc.

This is not devotion—to ring the bell, to give some flowers is not devotion. All Hindu people do this, but this is not devotion. I wrote about it in Upadesh 3, Guidance 3 [page 186]. You can read about it there. Those who just ring the bell, do some puja in the evening, etc. have material desires—they worship the Lord for their own interest. That is why this is not devotion. Some bogus gurus also give initiation for their own interest. That is not a proper guru. A guru will not give initiation for his own interest, a guru will give initiation for the benefit of his disciple—he will think about the disciple, "How will he reach his proper destination? I will guide him."

Does anyone have any other questions?

Question: You said earlier that if one has no money to give for service, they can give their heart to service. How can we give our heart for service?

How can we give heart? Can you not understand it? If somebody follows their guru properly, 100%, then they are giving their heart. It is necessary to give not only your heart, but your heart and soul, everything. You must do properly the service that Gurudev has given you. Do that service properly.

You think that if you do not do your service, then the service will stop—never! Gurudev allows others to do service. Gurudev is Baladev, and Baladev always serves the Lord with His ten hands, so if somebody stops some service, Gurudev arranges for someone else to do that service. One way or another, but he does the required service. Baladev is asraya-vigraha (embodiment of shelter), and it is His duty—He always does everything to make Krishna happy. So, if somebody does not do their service to Krishna, Baladev, or Gurudev, is always ready to do it properly Himself. So, if some service stops somewhere, Gurudev arranges for someone to do it. Krishna always arranges everything for Himself.

Question: How can we get the shade of your lotus feet when we are controlled by the force of fear?

Why do you fear? Always control your mind. You should think with your mind, with your heart that if you follow the guidance of your guru properly, if you can practise his teachings, then you can enter the shade of Gurudev's feet. Actually, you must always control your mind. Control your mind with your brain, then you will be free from fear. If you follow the guidance, the advice of your Guru properly, then you can enter the shade of Gurudev's lotus feet.

Are there any other questions?

Question: In the song 'Ei-bara karuna kara vaisnava gosai', it is said, 'Hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama / toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana. If one offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers him, but if one offends you, O Vaishnav, one has no salvation.' If someone commits a sin towards Gurudev, how can they overcome that offence?

They will go to Gurudev and surrender to him, ask him for forgiveness of their offence. Guru is always merciful, forgiving (ksamasil, ক্ষমাশীল), so if somebody makes an offence to Gurudev, they should go to Gurudev and say with full surrender, "Gurudev, I have made this offence, please forgive my offence."

Question: Sometimes we preach to people, but they say that for them, the Bible is the only true book, and other books are not real. I do not know how to explain to them that there is more than that.

To answer this question, you can read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, this is the first (primary) book in Krishna consciousness, then you can tell them everything. They should see—where does the Bible end? Where is its limit? You can tell them about that. Also, when you go to sell your things, you will always preach in favour of your things, so because they preach about the Bible, they will always preach in favour of the Bible. Every shopkeeper always praises his own shop—one shopkeeper says, "My shop's sweets are very nice," and other shopkeepers will also say, "My sweets are very nice," and you can decide which is better only if you taste the sweets. So, you can tell them, "Our scriptures say that if you join us, you can play football with Krishna. Does your Bible say that too? No, it does not. Yet if you join Krishna consciousness, you can easily feed Krishna, you can easily bathe the Lord, you can easily play football or cricket with Krishna."

Question: What should I do if I am invited to one of our members' home when they make a programme, but I find there some devotees from another mission?

If they are OK, if they follow Krishna consciousness and respect our Guru, then you can go to such programmes.

Devotee: What if they are offensive to our Guru?

Then you must leave that place.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen online:

• Download (3.3 Mb)