(4/6) Do Not Deflect

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

And in the book that I have mentioned earlier, In Search of the Original Source, Gurudev writes in simple language.

How do you call your children at home? When you are supposed to be chanting the Holy Name, you do uladhvani. If you do uladhavani, will your child come to your call? I say, 'Hari bol', but why is it a problem for you to say, 'Hari bol', too? What is the problem to say 'Jay Gurudev', 'Jay Nitai' or 'Gaura Nitai' instead? In his last days, Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not chant on his beads for two years – he only chanted, 'Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol', 'Doyal Nitai, Doyal Nitai'.

বিষয় ছাড়িয়া কবে শুদ্ধ হ'বে মন ।
কবে হাম হেরব শ্রীবৃন্দাবন ॥

visaya chhadiya kabe suddha habe mana
kabe hama heraba sri-vrndavan

'When will my mind, leaving the material world, become clean? When will I see Sri Vrindavan?'

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

When will I leave material world and everything in it and my mind become pure? Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol, Nitai Gaura Hari bol... I also understood that you cannot get Radharani's mercy without the mercy of Nityananda and Gauranga. When Srila Sridhar Maharaj's servant came to him and asked him, 'Maharaj, shall I give you your beads?' Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied, 'Give the beads to Govinda Maharaj.' He always chanted, 'Nitai Gaura Hari bol'. At that time, he spoke Hari-katha being in a different state. Guru Maharaj (Srila Govinda Maharaj) always told about it.

Guru Maharaj always sold books, always blessed everybody towards the Lord, he always preached about Him. We must also preach about our guru and about his teachings in this world. Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj also preached about Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur in this world. But the current IKSCON devotees do not understand devotion, do not know or do not understand Prabhupad. Why do I say so? What happens if one worships Gauranga bypassing the guru? 'Guru bade Gauranga bhaje, sei papi raurave pade majhe: the sinner who worships Gauranga without the Guru will fall into a terrible hell. You cut the bark off a tree and then pour water on it. What is the point? We must speak about Prabhupad and our guru-varga. If I praise somebody, is there any loss for me? Getting mercy is actually nothing – we want them to be pleased.

When you have a child, you call the child some name, such as Yadav or Madhav. Why do we give the Lord's Names to devotees? Now so many devotees have come that there are countless names. For ladies, we give such names as Suchitra, Lalita, Visakha, Sudevi, Sudevika, Kundalata, Shyamali, Madhavi, Madhavipriya, Gaurapriya, Vishnupriya. Why do you think we give all these gopis' names to them? There are all the Lord's or the Lord's devotees' names...

Devotee: I told one ISKCON disciple, 'We are Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Krishna-anusilana Sangha under Srila B.N. Acharya Maharaj.' He said, 'Oh, you are Gaudiya Math!' I told him, 'Is ISKCON not Gaudiya Math?' He said, 'No, we are no Gaudiya! We are based in Mayapur, and we preach all over the world.' But then I told him, 'How can that be? Gaudiya Math also preaches all over the world'...

They can say whatever they want. You should just reply that we have not been able to become Gaudiya yet. They say that they are in charge of the source, but where is that source? The source of all missions is Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and Srila Swami Maharaj is his disciple. Who did he take sannyas from? Ask them this.

Devotee: Then they are offenders to the Gaudiya Math!

Yes.

Devotee: Those who criticise Gaudiya Math are—

Offenders to the holy feet of Sri Guru. We are not criticisers. If I praise somebody, I gain by that, and if they criticise somebody, they are making an offence. It is not necessary to tell what they do or say.

Devotee: When we go to the samadhi mandir in ISKCON, some devotees there said such things...

But is there anything praiseworthy in it? Unless you praise somebody, it is not necessary to say anything about anybody. We must not say anything except for praise about them. If you say anything, you must speak about the siddhanta. Actually, both Bagh Bazar Gaudiya Math and ISKCON committed a sin. What sin was that? They do not give respect to the current of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. We belong to the current of Bhaktisiddhanta, or the current of Rupa-Sanatana. We sing in one of the kirtans also:

জয়রে জয়রে জয় গৌর-সরস্বতী ।
ভকতিবিনোদান্বয় করুণা মুরতি ॥

jayare jayare jaya gaura-saraswati
bhakativinodanvaya karuna murati

'All glory, all glory to Sri Gaura–Saraswati, the holy embodiment of mercy in the line of Sri Bhaktivinod Thakur'.

প্রকাশিলে গৌর-সেবা ভুবন মঙ্গল ।
ভকতিসিদ্ধান্ত শুদ্ধ প্রজ্ঞান উজ্জ্বল ॥

prakasile gaura-seva bhuvana mangala
bhakatisiddhanta suddha prajnana ujjvala

'Revealing service to Sri Gaura, which spreads auspiciousness in this world, you presented devotional teachings (bhakti-siddhanta) that radiate self-effulgent pure transcendental knowledge'.

(Sri Saraswati Arati, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj)

Because Gaudiya Math thought that only they can preach Bhakti-Siddhanta Dhara (the current of Srila Prabhupad), that was their sin. They say that a sannyasi cannot be given any name that is not included in the canonic 108 names of sannyasis. So, if somebody has any other name, they do not want to associate with them. For example, Srila Swami Maharaj's name is like that, too. He took sannyas from Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshav Maharaj, but his name was given to him by Srila Sridhar Maharaj! Somebody says that among the canonic names of sannyasis, there is no such name as 'Swami'. There are also dvadasa-mahajan's names, such as Govinda, Sridhar, Tirtha, Giri, Puri, Aranya and Bharati. There are also ten common names (dasa-nami-sannyasi) mentioned in Gaudiya-kantha-hara. When we place the twelve tilaks, we say, 'Om Vamanaya namaha', 'Om Narayanaya namah', 'Om Govindaya namah', and so on. These names are also sannyasi names.

Anyhow, I have told you many things. Always remember these things. What others are doing or not doing. They only know what they know. We hear that they actually burnt Jaiva Dharma! I know this. There was a western sannyasi who later fell down (Bhavananda Swami) – he actually burnt Jaiva Dharma, Srila Sridhar Maharaj's books and Gaudiya Math's books! Gurudev always said that everybody says that they are so-and-so swami, so-and-so swami, but do you know the meaning of the word 'swami'? A 'swami' means 'goswami', one who has conquered his ten senses (go), and another meaning is Shyama, the Lord (swami) of cows (go). So, it is one thing to be a swami, and it is another thing to be a snake (sap).

Devotee: Why did that sannyasi burn those books?

Why? Because of jealousy! Why else? Because if others read those books, ISKCON people would have left ISKCON. Srila Swami Maharaj told that if anybody wants to know something (who wants to hear some good Hari-katha), they should go to Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj, Bhakti Prajnan Keshav Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Maharaj and many others also said that. (You must remember all the names of Srila Prabhupad's sannyasis by heart! Read Sri Nabadwip-dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala every day and remember these things by heart. We go to Srila Madhav Maharaj's temple first in Mayapur.) Our Pujyapad Tirtha Maharaj wrote a very nice book about biography of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Have you read it? If you read it, you can see what all those great souls said about Srila Sridhar Maharaj. There, it is written that Srila Swami Maharaj said, 'If you want to hear some Hari-katha, you can come to my siksa-guru, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.' Many other sannyasis said, 'Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur is no longer here, but if you want to hear his Hari-katha, there is one person who can give it you – his name is Srila Sridhar Maharaj. He is the example for everybody's life, go to him.' When all this emerged, many devotees from IKSCON came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, so they burnt Srila Sridhar Maharaj's books! There was also a devotee who was selling Gaudiya Math's Jaiva Dharma, and they took all those books and burnt them! This is a sin.

Anyway, what they did is what they did – they will have to suffer for their sins. We must not think about this. Jay Srila Guru Maharaj. You must understand these things and preach in this way. Preach only about the Lord, nothing else.

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Do Not Overstep Your Limit
2) Do You Ever Think of It?
3) Glories of Great Souls
4) Do Not Deflect
5) Preserving Purity
6) Appreciate Prasad-Seva