Come to Give, Come to Take

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Two days before Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's Vyasa Puja
Nrisingha Palli, 30 December 2020, evening, part 1

[His Divine Grace recites 'Jaya Dhvani' and then chants 'Sri Guru Parampara' kirtan, stopping to make a brief speech before starting the next kirtan.]

We are present here, at Sri Godrumdwip, and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote a very beautiful kirtan in glorification of Sri Guru. Every temple chants Sri Guru-charana-padma, but Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur composed another song. It is not included in our Gaudiya Gitanjali, but this song can be found in Saranagati.

Everybody knows also 'Gurudev, kripa bindu diya', 'Sri Guru-charana-padma', but Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote a kirtan sitting here in Godrumdwip, at his bhajan kutir in Sri Svananda Sukhada Kunja. Nabadwip means nine (nava) islands (dwip), and there are nine kinds of devotion that are practised on these nine islands. What are the nine kinds of devotion? Sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, pada-sevanam, archanam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam: hearing, chanting, remembering the Lord, serving the Lord's lotus feet, worshipping the Deity of the Lord, offering obeisance, rendering service as a servitor, as a friend, and self-submission. The island where our first main temple was, is pada-sevanam. Mayapur is atma-nivedanam. Godrumdwip is kirtanam. This is a holy dham (abode) where kirtan is practised. 330 million demigods reside in this Devapalli, where the Nrisingha Palli temple is—that is why this place's name is Deva (demigod) palli (village, place).

Champahati, which is now in Bardhaman district, is Ritudwip; Vidyanagar is Janhudwip; and Mamgachhi, where we always go last during the parikrama, is Modadrumdwip. The first island where we go is Antardwip, Mayapur. From there, we go to Simantadwip (Jagannath Mandir), after that Rudradwip (the abode of Lord Siva). Here nearby is Kadigachha, it is Madhyadwip; and here, where we are at present, is Godrumdwip. These are the nine islands. Always remember this; try to remember these islands by heart. You come to Nabadwip, but you must not only come, take prasad, and go. Learn something. Take something with you from here. When you come here, you must take something—what should you take? The dust from the devotees' feet and devotees' Hari-katha. You must remember devotees' words in your heart. Listen to what I will tell you with your heart. Listening with your ears is another matter. You listen to gramya-katha, gramya-varta, all kinds of nonsense, idle talks, gossiping, criticising, etc. If you always talk and hear such things, you will have a problem. There are no other talks. Except the talks about the Lord, everything else is gramya-katha! You must keep quiet and not engage in such talks. You must not speak about anything else except about the Lord. Never speak gramya-katha.

If you spend all your life involved with all your aunties and uncles, friends, relatives, brothers and sisters, then next life you will be like that—like what? You will not get a human birth. You will be born as a dog, cat, goat, sheep, pig, and then you can live in that body and enjoy your family life. This is what awaits those who have too much attachment to their family. You worry about your food, clothes, house, sleep, etc. (How will I eat? How will I sleep? How will I dress? How will I live?), but the Lord has sent us to this body, and He arranges our food, etc. The Lord has created so many things on this planet—there is no scarcity of anything. Everything belongs to the Lord, and the Lord has arranged and kept everything here. It is only a matter of faith.

No matter what your religion is (Christianity, Hinduism, etc.), faith is always the main thing. In Vaishnavsim, our religion is jaiva-dharma, the primeval religion. We do not follow Hinduism, we follow Vaishnav dharma. Jaiva-dharma means the religion of the soul (jiva). The problem is that we have forgotten the religion of our soul. The religion of every single soul is service to the Lord. Many jiva souls cannot understand this—can dogs, goats, sheep, cats, etc. understand this? Can you think of a dog that will decide, "I will serve the Lord"? Their mind is extremely fickle, but humans have will power.

There are different degrees of consciousness, or chetan sakti: achchhadita-chetan (fully covered consciousness), sankuchita-chetan (closed, subdued consciousness), mukulita-chetan (budding consciousness), vikachita-chetan (blooming consciousness), and purna-vikachita-chetan (fully blossomed consciousness). Everybody's consciousness is not the same. For example, you wear clothes and arrange for a place to sleep, for food to eat, but trees, dogs, etc. live naked and never think of these things. At the places where people cut goats one by one, the goats are eating grass and do not know anything. Yet if it was you, you would not be able to take anything in your mouth seeing how other people are being killed one after another and understanding that you are going to be next. The consciousness of the trees, grass, etc. is fully covered, but our consciousness is fully blown, but we always live worrying about money—can material life, money, buildings, cars, etc. give you happiness? Then why do foreign devotees leave all their money and come here? In India, people try to go abroad so hard, but foreigners come here leaving behind all their wealth and comfort. What do they come for? All the material values and so-called happiness are temporary—when you die, you will have to leave everything here. They have understood it, and they are now serving heart and soul; they make a sacrifice in their life...

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