(8/8) Live and Learn

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, Basirhat, evening,
14 December 2020, part 8

So, does anybody have any questions? If somebody asks you something, you should be able to answer questions. So, try to ask questions to learn more. Foreign devotees always ask hundreds of questions – when I answer their questions, I can sit and talk to them for three hours, and even then their questions do not finish. They always ask questions, even small boys and girls do.

Last time, an seven-year-old initiated girl asked me a question, 'Why do we not use our index finger to put tilaks?' Those seven-, eight-, ten-, twelve-year-old children have been hearing about Krishna consciousness from their mothers' wombs. When a mother chants the Holy Name, the child can hear it from her womb. Sometimes, some lady who is expecting a child can call me and ask, 'What name should I give to the child?' They must give a name at hospital, so they ask about it before they give birth. Sometimes, they call me at one o'clock at night, at two o'clock at night and ask me, 'I have had a child, what will be his/her name?' They do not know anything except their gurudev – they give their children whatever name their gurudev says. After that, five years pass, and the children take initiation.

Foreign devotees' children practise Krishna consciousness: they take initiation, put tilaks, chant the Holy Name. But in this country, people go abroad and walk around in shirts and pants (or jeans). You forget saris and wear jeans and pants, but they come from there and wear saris and dhotis here. It used to be Indian culture to wear dhotis. I have seen in Uluberia and Bangladesh that even Muslim people wear dhotis. They come to lectures wearing dhotis. They know that when a sadhu gives class, they cannot wear lungi – they come wearing dhotis. They can have beards and Muslim hats on their heads, but they will come wearing dhotis. But we forget all these things, we forget about wearing dhotis. Nowadays, wives do not like wearing saris. They have saris, but instead of wearing them, they wear short nighties. It is OK to wear a nightie to sleep, but if ladies walk around on the street in a nightie, do you like that? Many women do this in Kolkata. They walk around and go to the market in their nighties.

Indian culture is getting destroyed. Foreigners are attracted to Indian culture, but when they come here, what will they learn from us? You can see foreign devotees sitting here with us. They play the drums, the kartals, they chant kirtans; they stay with me all day long. They can cook very well also – even you cannot cook like that. When I have to go out early, they wake up at four o'clock in the morning just to cook – they offer it to Gurudev and give me prasad. And they do not cook only one–two items, they cook fourteen–fifteen items. They make nice boras (patties), fried in mustard oil; they cook banana stems and banana flowers, they make simer charchari (শিমের চচ্চড়ি; broad beans curry), sim ghanta (শিমের ঘণ্ট; thick broad beans curry). But Bengalis mostly just cook labra (লাবড়া vegetables mixed all together). You can imagine how many things Vishnupriya Devi cooked for Mahaprabhu and how nicely she would serve it to Him. Srimati Radhika also cooked so many things for Lord Krishna. Chhappanna bhoga, chhatrisa vyanjana: fifty-six grain offerings and thirty-six vegetable offerings. How many items devotees cook for Lord Jagannath! How many sweets and cakes they make for the Lord. We do not even know how to cook those things. But people only go to the market and buy shrimps (চিংড়ি মাছ), lobsters (গলদা-চিংড়ি) and other fish, I do not know the names. People eat these 'water insects'.

You cook eggplant deep-fried in gram flour, but if you go to China, do you know what they like eating? Cockroaches, earthworms, frogs. China has many great scientists, but those scientists eat cockroaches, frogs, snakes and earthworms. Their favourite food is fried cockroach, and it costs two thousand rupees! You are born here now and you eat fish, but next life you can be born in China, and you will be munching cockroaches. This is the truth. We have devotees in China, and they cook vegetables – they cannot even buy biscuits because they are afraid, they do not know what can be inside (maybe there are some cockroaches inside it, too). They have rice, and they cook cabbage, cauliflower, they boil potato, make some dal. That is sufficient. They do not need to make elaborate dishes – they can cook whatever they can get at the market.

I have been to Nagaland, and I know that people eat dogs' meat there! In Nabadwip also, there is a bridge near our temple. Some Kuriya people, engineers, came there to make the bridge, and at that time, there was not a single dog left in Nabadwip – they killed all dogs. These people eat cats' and dogs' meat... When I was passing the New Market area in Kolkata recently, I saw some man selling chicken to a hotel – he was giving them alive (fresh) chicken along with dead chickens. Dead chickens are worth five–ten rupees (very cheap), so the hotels mix that dear chicken meat with other meat and serve it to people. They also sometimes mix all kinds of meat of dead animals (cows, goat, sheep) together and cook it all together. People eat this at hotels.

I told the driver today, 'If you go outside, do not eat anything. If you are hungry and have to eat something, then you can have a few sweets and bananas. Do not eat any rotis or any other things.' It is the truth. It is actually illegal to cook such meat, but there are still such places, such businesses, and if you give money to them (if you buy something from them), their business will only grow. Therefore, do not eat all this. You must give up all such food. Live a good life, and the Lord will take care of you.

I will not take more of your time now. The bhoga has been offered, so I will chant Hari Haraye now and finish. [To a devotee] Are you asleep? You slept the whole day yesterday, and you are sleeping the whole day today also. That is why it is said:

নিদ্রালস্য-হত, সুকার্য্যে বিরত,
অকার্য্যে উদ্যোগী আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠা লাগিয়া, শাঠ্য আচরণ,
লোভহত সদা কামী ॥

nidralasya hata, sukarye virata,
akarye udyogi ami
pratistha lagiya, sathya-acharana,
lobha-hata sada kami

'Ruined by laziness and sleep, I am averse to doing anything good and eager to do nothing. I behave crooked desiring prestige. I am ruined by greed and always want something.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

[His Divine Grace chants 'Hari Haraye Nama Krsna' and concludes the class.]

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Subdue Your Tongue
2) Surrender or Suffer!
3) Eternal Benefit
4) Family Matters
5) Search Beyond Maya
6) Mining Innermost Humility
7) What Is Your Substance?
8) Live and Learn