Step Towards Lord, Not Maya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
2 January 2021, part 8, translated from Bengali

Srila Prabhupad taught the teachings of Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatan. In particular, he often quoted Mahaprabhu's instruction to Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu:

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

Apart from these three aspects (being kind to others, chanting the Holy Name, and serving Vaishnavs), there is no other religion. Being kind to others means it is necessary to bring to this line the jiva souls who are averse to Krishna. This is not my duty only. You take initiation from some guru, chant, sing, and have a good time, but this is not Krishna consciousness. You must think, "Gaura Purnima has finished, but I must preach now so that next time, in one year, I can bring ten more people."

One time, when I was sitting with Gurudev at his veranda in Nabadwip, one devotee came (he took sannyas on the same day as I). He offered his obeisance to Gurudev, and Gurudev told him, "Maharaj, after you took sannyas, you left my service—you have become a big Maharaj now. You left my service, it is all right, but you go to so many places, you never even stay at the temple—you go to different houses and eat all kinds of things. Why cannot you bring even one person to me?" Then, pointing at me, Gurudev said, "This boy is staying at the temple all the time, but every year two months before Gaura Purnima, he goes to preach in Bardhaman and Mednipore, and through that he has brought so many people to me!" At that time, none of you had come yet. When I came to Hooghly, I tried to preach very hard. When I went to Mednipore, I went to so many houses, tried so hard, and many people came in this way. That is why Gurudev said that time, "He preaches only for two months a year, but so many people have come to take initiation. Yet you have not brought even one person to me. Why? Are you keeping everything for yourself thinking you have become a great guru?" This is what Gurudev said.

Therefore, our duty is to brings others to this line.

When I came to Gurudev, there was one devotee who would wash Gurudev's dishes once a day and also looked after the cultivation at the Math's fields (he would actually always steal). So, when I just came to the temple, ** Prabhu told me to stay at the temple, but that devotee told me, "You are so educated and have been earning so much money—why did you leave your job and come here?! You could get married and come to the temple later." The first few times, I was scared to sleep alone in the room, so I slept in his room, but when he started telling me all this at night, I thought, "What is this? I have come to practise spiritual life, but he is telling me all this! This is bad association. ** Prabhu told me one thing at the evening class, but this devotee is telling me the opposite! I do not want to stay with him." After that, I steered clear of him and avoided ever speaking to him again. In the end, that devotee left the temple. This is how illusion attacked me when I just came.

If you make one step to the Lord—if you think, "I want to practise spiritual life, I want to serve the Lord"—the Lord will help you, He will come ten steps to you. You know, in other missions, people are made to wait for ten years before they can take initiation. There is a (Bengali) book written by Param Guru Maharaj called Amrita Vidya. When we reprinted it recently, and the book's name was changed to Bhakti Raksak Hari-kathamrita (Bengali). There are a very popular book Ramakrishna Kathamrita, so to attract more readers and challenge their popular (mis)conception, we changed the name to Bhakti Raksak Hari-kathamrita. It is a very beautiful book—all newcomers should read it. In this book, Param Guru Maharaj wrote: if you take initiation from Gurudev and if you just buy some beads at the market, is that the same thing?

Why have you come to your Guru? When you come to a doctor, you come so that he can cure diseases of your body; in the same way, you come to a Guru also to cure diseases, but not the diseases of your body—you come to your Guru to cure the material disease of your heart (to get rescued from maya, illusory environment). Both the guru and the doctor can cure, but the guru is a spiritual healer, and the doctor is a body-healer. When you come to this kind of spiritual guru, or healer, you do not come to talk to him about your material life—you come to talk with him about spiritual matters. Remember this. You must always talk to your Guru about spiritual matters—never talk about yourself with your Guru. Why do you think it is said in the scriptures: "Asat-sanga sada tyaga chhada anya gita-raga (অসৎ-সঙ্গ সদা ত্যাগ, ছাড় অন্য গীতরাগ)—give up bad association, do not listen to the material songs and music"? What is called bad association? Those who talk about anything else except Hari-katha are bad association. We do not want to associate with those who talk about other things and not about the Lord—who always talk about themselves and all the material things. We must keep far from such association. Keep yourself away from those who talk about material things (samsarik visaya). Associate with those who speak Hari-katha, who talk about the Lord and all that is related to the Lord. I too do not like to talk about material matters of the illusory world; I am a virakta-sannyasi—I am annoyed by anything related to the material world).

So, Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote: when you come to a doctor, the doctor gives you some medicine in globules (they look like balls of sago/tapioca). If you have a fever or a flu, the doctor will ask what your symptoms are, give you some globules with medicine, and you become cured. At the same time, there are also empty globules (without any medicine in them) that you can get at the market. Doctors buy them to mix in different types of medicine and then administer that to patients. Both look the same—the globules with medicine and without, but if the doctor gives you empty globules without any medicine, will that make you recover? It will not. So, when it comes to getting beads, you must receive beads from a Guru who first chants on those beads. Taking initiation from Gurudev and buying beads at the market may look the same, but it is not the same thing—just as taking empty globules is not the same as taking globules that have medicine in them.

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