(5/11) Universal Religion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, Basirhat, noon programme,
14 December 2020, part 5

The religion of jiva souls consists of three aspects: jive daya (mercy to living entities), Name ruchi (taste for the Holy Name) and vaishnava-seva (service to devotees). It is necessary to show mercy to jiva souls. What does 'mercy to others' mean? Giving each other rice and wheat? No.

Do you know what they do in South India? Now Modi's government is becoming strong; you may not know about this, but I have recently got a letter. Before, when foreigners sent money, it would come directly to the account, but now it goes through the savings account of the central government's home ministry. They check now what the money comes for, what it is used for, and so on. And the government is turning all Hindus into Christians now. When you go somewhere by car, train or plane, they stop you and start pressing you, 'Do you chant Hare Krishna?' Some devotee got clever and said, 'No, we chant Hare Rama!' They know that ISKCON devotees are called Hare Krishna devotees, so not to get caught, that devotee said, 'No, we are not Hare Krishna, we are Hare Rama. And what do you do?' The government officer said, 'We are Christians.' They do not know anything actually – they open churches in every neighbourhood, people come to the priest once a week and ask him, 'Please remove my sins,' and the priest removes their sins. That is all. The devotee asked then, 'How do you become a Christian?' The officer said, 'They gave 7,000 rupees to my family (there are five of us: my parents, wife and our child), and all my family became Christians.' I was amazed. Whole cities are now getting converted to Christianity, even Muslims and Hindus! Money comes from abroad, and they use this money to covert people (Muslims and Hindus) into Christians. Now they probably pay them even more... You can understand now why there are so many churches in Andhra Pradesh. The father of the current minister, Reddy, ordered to give half of the Tirupati temple to Christians to make a church there, but even after that his son, Jaganmohan Reddy, did not learn any better. They have launched helicopter rides over Tirupati now even though the minister's father died in a helicopter crash. Now when you go to Tirupati, you have to tolerate that they have given half of it to Christians. The day when this started is the very day when Reddy's helicopter crashed.

You know, many people say that vaishnav-dharma is just a part of sanatana-dharma (eternal, universal religion). It is not so. Vaishnav-dharma is the main religion, and all religions came from it. I have written about it in the books, you can read it (Guidance 3 in particular) – if anybody challenges you, you must tell them that vaishnav-dharma is the main religion. We should not come anywhere close to Muslim, Christian or any other religions – we should show them respect from far away; and if they come close to us, we must explain to them why vaishnav-dharma is the highest and main religion.

What is so special about Vaishnavs' philosophy? Vaishnavs' philosophy is connection with reality. True knowledge is not a competitor or an aggressor like yoga knowledge that aims at changing empirical knowledge. This is the distinctive characteristic of Vaishnav philosophy. All main sruti scriptures, all main Vedanta scriptures, Bhagavatam tell about the truth. These scriptures elaborate on human culture, various rules and regulations of the past, as well as the transmigration of the soul. The gist of Vaishnavs' philosophy is that until we fully surrender to an acharya whose character embodies the character of a Vaishnav, no matter how learned or scholarly we may be, we will not be able to easily realise the philosophy of Vaishnavism in our hearts. There is a sloka in the Gita:

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

Unconditional surrender, honest inquiry and service mood—if one has these three qualities, they will easily understand the philosophy of Vaishnavs.

Surrender must be unconditional. 'Gurudev, I have come to you and I will get something in return' – there must no such condition. You must make honest enquiry. And there must be service mood. If you meet these three conditions, you will be able to understand what vaishnav-dharma is.

[A cow moos.] Give food to the cow! The calf must be hungry, it is time to feed it, so the mother must be crying for her calf.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Grave Warning
2) Pull of Material Life
3) Awakening Inner Longing
4) Private Service Stays Private
5) Universal Religion
6) On Others' Offences
7) Unburden Yourself
8) Benefactor's Gift
9) Exclusive Path
10) Behind Closed Doors
11) Unbending Stance