Proper Recipient for Proper Taste

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 12 January 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

So, pranipat is surrender (six types), and pariprasna means honest enquiry. Honest enquiry is not asking "How are you?", "Where do you live?" Honest enquiry means five questions: "(1) Who am I (কে আমি, ke ami)? (2) Why am I suffering (কেনে আমায় জারে তাপত্রয়, kene amaya jare tapa-traya)? (3) How can I get benefit? (কিসে হিত হয়, kise hita haya)? (4) What is the ultimate goal in life (সাধ্য বস্তু কী, sadhya vastu ki)? (5) How can I attain this goal (সাধ্য বস্তু কী করলে পাওয়া য্য়, sadhya vastu ki korle paowa yaya)?" First, it is necessary to know who you are. Those who forget who they are—who do not know their real identity—think that they are this body. It means you have not got the knowledge of the self. If somebody identifies themselves with the body, it is ignorance. You say, "My name is so-and-so," but this is not who you are—this is only a name. Your real identity is that you are a soul and you are an eternal servant of Krishna (jiva nitya Krsna-das).

'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

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

Illusion attacks as soon as you forget that you are an eternal servant of Krishna. We are always servants of the Lord. We are not servants for one-two hours only—it is not like we will chant and give class for one or two hours, we will remember that we are the Lord's servants, menial workers, and the rest of the time we live with "I, I, I" (engrossed in our own selves).

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

You surrender yourself when you take initiation, but after that you forget everything. Taking initiation means being admitted to a school; your education does not end there. Do you think students get school certificates just by being admitted to a school? They do not. They must first study for ten years, then they take the exams, and then only they get a certificate. Exams show how much you have been studying or not studying for ten years—whether you studied 45%, 35%, 60%, 80% or 90%. Therefore, once admitted to a school, it is necessary to study. What does studying mean in spiritual life? It is explained by Srila Sanatan Goswami.

There is sambandha (relationship), abhidheya (the means to the end), and prayojan (the goal). The Deity of sambandha is Madan-Mohan; the Deity of abhidheya is Govinda, and the Deity of prayojan is Gopinath. "Ei tina thakura gaudiyake kariyachena atmasat—these three Deities have captured the hearts of Gaudiya Vaisnavs." (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.1.19) You can see that there are these three Deities (Madan-Mohan, Govinda, and Gopinath) installed in most places. Abhidheya, the means to the end, is sravan and kirtan. If you do not hear first (sravan), you will not be able to understand anything. It is necessary to listen well, with your heart and soul. I have told you that if you have holes in a glass, you cannot keep water in it—all water will fall through the holes. In the same way, if your heart is full of other things, full of dirty things, then where will you keep the Lord?

I began telling you the story about a sadhu who lived on his own and practised Krishna consciousness. Curious to know what kind of knowledge that sadhu had, some naughty man came to the sadhu to test him (he did not come to him with a surrendered mood). The main thing is that it is necessary to be surrendered. Surrender is the first rule in devotion—you must first of all surrender, submit yourself at the lotus feet of the Lord and Gurudev. If you think, "I know a lot," then it is the end of talk—you will not know anything, all attempts to learn anything or to teach you anything will be in vain.

So, when the man came to the sadhu, the sadhu gave him a chair to sit on and put some old table next to him (the sadhu was a poor man, so he had only simple things). On the table, the sadhu put a glass of sherbet (sweet or flavoured water)—he had a habit that when somebody came, he would give them some water or sherbet. The man, sitting on the chair and swinging his leg in the air, said, "Listen, sadhu, can you give me some knowledge? I have come to you for knowledge." The sadhu thought, "What knowledge does he want to get from me? He thinks he already knows everything more than me. Even if I try to teach him, will he even understand anything?" So, he decided to teach the man a lesson. He brought some water and poured it into the glass of sherbet on the table—the glass was already full, so when he poured water into it, that water mixed with sherbet spilled over. The man came wearing pants and a shirt, and as the water flowed down the table, he got all wet—he cried, "You are a fool! You have spoilt my new clothes!"

"Yes, I did it specially for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You are full of knowledge up to your head—where will I put knowledge into you? You have seen just now—I poured water, and everything got spilled. So, if I give you knowledge, everything will spill over, nothing will stay in your head."

If somebody thinks, "I know everything, I have understood everything," this is a dead end.

We chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra every day, and whenever we hear Hare Krishna chanted somewhere, we go there to listen to it. You think, "What is the problem? It is the same Holy Name, it is the same kirtan as we chant!" It is not quite so. The glory, the taste, the beauty of the Name is different. Somebody chants one lakh Holy Names, somebody chants two, three, four lakhs—they chant the same Holy Name, but is there taste? Where does that taste take them? First, taste must come. If you eat a piece of sugar and do not feel its sweetness, then you can understand that you are ill. You can often see that sometimes people do not feel like eating anything, they try to eat but they cannot—it means that the person has a disease. So, if you chant the Holy Name and do not feel its taste, then you can understand that there is a disease: kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy), rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (desire for enjoyment through eyes, tongue, nose, ears, and skin), kanak, kamini, pratistha (desire for money, women, and fame), avidya, asmita, raga, dvesa, abhinivesa (ignorance, false identification, misdirected love, aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment, being unable to give up unfavourable habits). Those who are full of these diseases will not feel taste for chanting the Holy Name—they will not like chanting the Holy Name. Always remember this.

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