Be Kind to Yourself and Others

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
2 January 2021, part 9, translated from Bengali

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

Many people grow potato here in West Bengali (in Hooghly, Mednipore, etc.). I know everyone likes to buy seed potatoes from Punjab. A sack of potato is now sold for 4-5,000 rupees, but when you plant those seed potatoes, you get much more crops than when you plant your own seed potatoes. In the same way, you can buy beads at the market, you can chant on such beads, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said that it is just finger-exercise. People try so hard—panting, they chant and chant, but this is only finger-exercise. I have seen many times how people chant their mala—they fervently count beads and at the same time they are talking to others! Is this chanting the Holy Name, tell me? How is it possible to be saying the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and talking about something at the same time? It is not!

That is why I always tell you that only taking initiation is not enough. It is necessary to practise sravan and kirtan. There is one more important part of Krishna consciousness that will cure your disease. We sing every ekadasi:

প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয়
সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়

prasada-seva karite haya,
sakala prapancha-jaya

"All worldly illusions are conquered by honouring the Lord's prasad."

(Saranagati, 31.5, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

I know how many people live, I have been to many houses. They take initiation and show some incense to the Deities every day, but they do not offer bhog to the Deities. If your wife or daughter-in-law cooks, you must offer that first to the Deities and then take prasad; if you are not married and there is no one to cook, then you can cook yourself and offer the bhog. "All worldly illusions are conquered by honouring the Lord's prasad." You must honour prasad. What happens in you do not?

বিষয়ীর অন্ন খাইলে মলিন হয় মন ।
মলিন মন হৈলে, নহে কৃষ্ণ-নাম গ্রহণ ॥

visayira anna khaile malina haya mana
malina mana haile, nahe krsna-nama grahana

"If you take food that comes from materialistic people, your mind becomes contaminated. When your mind is contaminated, you cannot chant the Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.278)

This is said in the scriptures. What is materialistic food? It is food that has not been offered to the Lord. If you take this food, your mind will become dirty, and you will never be able to chant the Holy Name. It happens slowly. Your mind exists in darkness, and when maya grasps it, it can do many things. You will never be able to chant the Holy Name:

অসাধুসঙ্গে ভাই কৃষ্ণনাম নাহি হয় ।

নামাক্ষর বাহিরায় বটে তবু নাম কভু নয় ॥

asadhu-sange bhai krsna-nama nahi haya
namaksara bahiraya bate tabu nama kabhu naya

"Brother, the Name of Krishna never appears in bad association: the letters of the Name may appear, but the Name never does."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.1)

You will be saying Hare Krishna, it will be coming out of your mouth, but it can never be the Holy Name. You must remember this. What you chant can be the letters of the maha-mantra, but it can never be the Name if you take outside food and keep bad association. Remember this. You must always keep sadhu-sanga (association of saintly devotees), and you must be kind to others and try to bring people to this line. When somebody comes to you and you push them away, this is an offence to the lotus feet of the Lord because the Lord can see, "You have pushed My child away from Me!!"

There is no difference between the Lord and the Lord's Name. What is the Lord's Name? The Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the Name (Nama), and the bearer of the Name (Nami) is Krishna. There is no difference between Nama and Nami. When you chant the Holy Name, you take shelter of the Holy Name, which means you take shelter of Krishna. There is no difference between Krishna and His Name. So, when somebody takes the Holy Name, it means they have come to the Lord and taken shelter in Him, and you if you scold and abuse this person, if you create troubles for them and try to keep them away, this is the greatest offence—this is an offence at the holy lotus feet of the Lord. Always remember this.

This is what being kind to others means. It is not about giving somebody money or giving somebody a house. You know, when I was buying the land for the new four-storey guesthouse here in Nrisingha Palli, I had to quickly pay a lot of money. It is not a problem to manage the construction because money for construction comes gradually, but I could not pay a very large amount of money at a time. I called one devotee, and he arranged for it. But for him, we would not have had that land, but even that is not such a big work—the biggest work is that this devotee preaches and brings people from this material world to the Lord. When I woke up today in the morning, he called me, saying, "Gurudev, dandavat. Today is Guru Maharaj's appearance day. For me, you are my Gurudev now." He was originally a disciple in Iskcon. He was a sannyasi but later became a grihastha, and he is still preaching as a grihastha. A grihastha can preach even more than a sannyasi—his attraction and attachment to preaching is more than even that of a sannyasi. He is preaching and speaking Hari-katha to this day. He knows everything, but he lives as a householder, and I do not see any problem in this. We do not prohibit anyone to get married. I told you what Gurudev said: if you are to pass stool, pass it behind closed doors, not in front of everyone.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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