(4/6) Eternal Path

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 15 December 2020, noon, part 4
Translated from Bengali

Please listen carefully to what Srila Prabhupad said about pure devotees.

Conditioned souls who have forgotten the Lord and live in illusory bondage consider themselves enjoyers: 'I am the master! Everything exists for my enjoyment.' They do not believe in God and use their bodies to enjoy. 'I will eat it!' I have seen people die while eating – one man was actually about to put some muri in his mouth when he suddenly fell down and died. Those who think that everything exists for their own enjoyment incur sins – they eat stealing it from the Lord.

If you come to people and tell them, 'Bala krsna, bhaja krsna, kara krsna-siksa: Please chant Krishna's name, worship Krishna, and practise what Krishna teaches,' do you think everyone chants the Holy Name? Somebody can chant Hare Krishna, but if you hit them in their stomach, they will not cry, 'Hare Krishna!' – instead, they will cry, 'Father! Mother!' Guru Maharaj said that too. You can chant Hare Krishna the whole day, chanting thousands of Holy Names each day, but if somebody punches you in the stomach, you will cry, 'Father! Mother!' You can teach a parrot to say, 'Hare Krishna', but if a cat steps on its throat, it will only make bird noise ('Tya! Tya!'). Therefore, when you call out to the Lord, you must do it with love.

So, why do sadhus go house to house? To let people hear some Hari-katha, to bring people to this path and to show them the path of eternal benefit. I always tell you that I have not come to take anything from you; rather, I come to give something to you. Give what? Give these three things. I come to show you all the path to eternal benefit. This is not some benefit that will last only one–two days.

There is one devotee (he is still there in Vrindavan) who threw his beads away out of anger. Gurudev, Srila Prabhupad and Mahaprabhu said that we are gurudev's eternal servants, we are eternal servants of the Lord (nitya-dasa). So, I told that devotee, 'You have stayed at the temple for some time, and as long as you have been there, you have been an eternal servant, taking shelter of the Holy Name, but when you left the temple because of some problem, did you forget that you are an eternal servant of the Lord?' I told this to him on the phone when he called me and said he was looking for his beads. He had been staying in Vrindavan for a long time (perhaps, ten–twelve years!). The soul (jiva) is an eternal servant of Krishna – 'eternal' means the whole life, birth after birth. I asked that devotee, 'We are eternal servants of the Lord, but were you a servant for ten years only? You take shelter of the Holy Name, and the Name (Nama) is non-different from the bearer of the Name (Nami), so when you take shelter of the Name, it means that you take shelter of the Lord, of gurudev. But you give your beads back...' You can understand what kind of action this is... After I spoke to him, he came back to the temple and found his beads.

This is what happens when you do not listen to Hari-katha. You stay at the temple, you become a manager, and you do not understand anything else. But if you do not listen to the main conception, if love for the Lord does not come to your heart, then you can never come to this line. I told you:

“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.'

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 put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you, thief (hypocrite)!'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6–7)

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

'The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

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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