Devotees' Core Principle

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 13 September 2020, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay
Vrinda Devi Tulasi Devi Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay
Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay
Sri Mayapur Dham, Sri Nabadwip Dham, Sri Vrindavan Mathura ki jay
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay
Baladev, Subhadra, Jagannathjiu ki jay
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Tadiya sakha Math samuha ki jay
Sri Mather sevak vrinda bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Ananta-koti Vaishnav vrinda ki jay
Sri Gaudiya Acharya vrinda ki jay
Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay
Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay
Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay
Suddha-bhakti-vighnar vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay
All the worldwide devotees ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay!
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

I am very happy to see you all, it is very nice to meet you all again after one week. I can see all the devotees are there—you are all here in front of me. Today is also an ekadasi day. "Madhava-tithi bhakti-janani yatane palana kari. I carefully observe the holy days related to Madhava—they are the mother of devotion." Ekadasi is Krishna's tithi (Madhava-tithi). Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says that this tithi is the mother of devotion (bhakti-janani). We observe it with much care (yatane palana kari). All Gaudiya Vaishnavs follow ekadasi tithi, and it is good for you also to follow it because even Sriman Mahaprabhu Himself told His mother to follow it. One day,

He came to His mother and begged her for one thing—He said, "Mother, I want one thing from you—I am begging one thing from you. Will you give it to me?"

His mother replied, "Yes, I will give, I will give, I will give."

Then, Mahaprabhu said, "From today, you must not take rice on ekadasi day."

His mother listened to His advice and also started to observe ekadasi. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu tells us to follow this day. If we want to follow Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we must follow His instruction, His siksastaka. We must see what Mahaprabhu says in His siksa-astak (eight-fold instruction, or teaching) and we must follow that teaching. Otherwise,

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

If you want the result, you have to follow Gora's instruction—you have to follow Gora's achar and vichar (what Mahaprabhu shows us in His own behaviour and what Mahaprabhu also teaches us; lit. His 'practice' and His 'judgement'). We must follow His instruction.

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

Sometimes we show false renunciation to impress people (loka dekhana), but Gora knows what you are doing—the Lord knows what you are doing. False renunciation is very bad. Mahaprabhu also told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami,

মর্কট-বৈরাগ্য না কর লোক দেখাঞা ।
যথাযোগ্য বিষয় ভুঞ্জ' অনাসক্ত হঞা ॥

markata-vairagya na kara loka dekhana
yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana

"Do not show your false renunciation to people. Serve accepting material things, but without attachment."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 16.238)

"Do not show your false renunciation, do not show monkey renunciation" (markat vairagya—'markat' means 'monkey'). Monkeys live naked eating only fruit, but monkeys have so many material desires—they always forcefully take your spectacles, take your food, etc. False renunciation is also like that.

মর্কট-বৈরাগ্য না কর লোক দেখাঞা ।
যথাযোগ্য বিষয় ভুঞ্জ' অনাসক্ত হঞা ॥

markata-vairagya na kara loka dekhana
yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana

"Do not show your false renunciation to people. Serve accepting material things, but without attachment."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 16.238)

When something is necessary for your spiritual life, it is not visaya. We sometimes need some money (artha), etc. Some things are necessary. I have also told it many times that if you want to show false renunciation thinking, "Oh, I do not want material things, I do not want any temple or anything else—I will stay one place, I will go to Rishikesh and sit in a cave, and I will do some yoga, I will do my bhajan there." You will do that, but when you leave everything, you will still have to take your belly, your stomach with you. You cannot leave your stomach. When you are hungry, you will need food and you will have to search for food. So, our vairagya is not phlagu-vairagya (false renunciation), our vairagya is yukta-vairagya—we have a car, we have a building, we have everything, and we use everything for service of the Lord, for the service of the devotees. It is necessary to have such consciousness—"We will use everything for the devotees and for the service of the Lord." When we make buildings, when we make temples, we do it for preaching. This example was shown to us by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and all our Guru-varga.

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