(2/6) Strongest Conviction

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 15 December 2020, noon, part 2
Translated from Bengali

'আমি ত' বৈষ্ণব', এ বুদ্ধি হইলে
অমানী না হ'ব আমি ।

"ami ta' vaisnava," e buddhi haile,
amani na ha'ba ami

'If I think, "I am a Vaishnav," then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour).'

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I think that I have become a Vaishnav, I will not be able to give honour to others. We chant in a kirtan:

সকলে সম্মান করিতে শকতি
দেহ' নাথ ! যথাযথ ।

sakale sammana karite sakati,
deha natha! yatha yatha

'O Master! Please give me strength to give proper honour to everyone.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'O Gurudev! Please give me the strength so that I can give honour to everyone and so that I can tolerate everything (sakala sahane). Somebody can criticise me, somebody can say something bad about me – I will tolerate everything. Please give me the strength to tolerate everything.'

I started telling you earlier about why we go for collection. You should read about it in Guidance 3, 4, I wrote there Srila Prabhupad's explanation of why pure Vaishnavs go begging.

Conditioned souls live in illusory, material bondage, they have forgotten Lord Krishna, so they think that everything that exists in this world exists for enjoyment. For example, you can see flowers growing in many houses, but are all flowers used for the service to Govinda? Most flowers are wasted. You can see that people build nice three-storey houses, but their flowers dry up and fall on the ground there. But devotees use flowers in the service to Govinda, so those flowers are fortunate. We sing in one of the kirtans, 'Kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa, bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa (কীট জন্ম হউ যথা তুয়া দাস বহির্ম্মুখ ব্রহ্মজন্মে নাহি আশ): I do not want to be Brahma or Indra, I do not mind being born as an insect as long as I can be your servant, Prabhu' (Saranagati). Devotees do not care who they are born as, but they want to be born in the house of the Lord's devotees.

[To a devotee offering garlands to senior Vaishnavs] You must always give garlands from the front, never from behind. Learn this. If you give a garland to somebody from behind, it is disregardful and it will make your ego grow. Many do this, but it is not right.

'I do not want to become Brahma, I do not want to become Indra and live in heaven – I can become a dog, a worm or any insect, but I want to be a dog or an insect at a devotee's house.' When a dog lives at a devotee's house, it gets prasad...

[Somebody's phone rings.] Keep your phones switched off. You can see that I also put my phone on silent during the class. I tell everyone that if you want to speak to me, then call me at ten in the evening. Last night, I was reading but the light went out, so I went to sleep earlier. I am used to studying. When you are used to studying, you can study until late at night. In my childhood, I studied eighteen–nineteen hours a day. But these days, children are not used to studying – they all only look in their mobile phones. I do not have time for all that. I have five phone numbers and four phones, but I only look at them when a call comes.

So, why do we go begging? Suppose I come to your house and ask you for a flower. If you have some good fortune, you will give me a flower. One time, I went to a house to beg, but the owner of the house shooed me away, 'Get out! Get out!' I took some dry leaves and went away from there, carrying those dry leaves on my head. In Kolkata, every big house has a sign on its wall, 'Begging and hawking are prohibited.' One time, I went house to house distributing books. When I came to one house, they told me, 'Can you not see the sign? Begging and hawking are prohibited.' I replied to them, 'I am neither a beggar nor a hawker. I have come to give you something.' When they heard it, they let me in and gave me a seat. 'So, what have you come to give us? Give it.' I said, 'I have come to give you this book. If you cannot give ten–twenty rupees for it, it is not a problem. Take it and read it.' Sometimes, when you give a book to somebody, they are happy and they can give you a hundred or even five hundred rupees for it, so what loss is there if somebody takes a book without giving any money for it? Those who worry about money always name the price, but those who think about the Lord never tell the price. If you always worry about money, your pocket will be always empty, but if you always think about the Lord, your pocket will never be empty. Always remember this. You can remember Srivas Pandit; you must believe it.

'Avaisya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana': it is necessary to believe that Krishna will protect you. When you have this kind of faith, then your devotion will gradually increase. Nothing else is required. How does devotion grow or diminish? Faith is the main thing. The more faith you have, the more devotion you have; and the less faith you have, the less devotion you have.

How do husbands and wives quarrel? When the wife has some doubts about her husband or the husband has some doubts about his wife – for example, the husband goes to work, and the wife thinks, 'What if he is mixing with some other woman?' or the wife stays at home, and the husband thinks, 'What if she is mixing with some other man?' – this is how family life becomes disturbed. Does this happen or not? It does. So, it is necessary to have faith. In the same way, it is necessary to have faith in the Lord.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

'Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

It is necessary to have the strongest conviction (sudrdha nischaya). If gurudev has said something, it must be true. Gurudev said that I can reach my home if I practise Krishna consciousness, then there can be no doubt. If gurudev has said something, it is the end of question. If I live following this step by step, then I will have no problem. This is what is called faith. And if somebody has less faith or their faith slowly decreases, then their devotion will also slowly decrease. This is the rule.

— : • : —

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Trials and Aspirations
2) Strongest Conviction
3) Everything Is His Will
4) Eternal Path
5) Sadhus' Mercy
6) Jewels of Your Life