Follow the Footsteps of Great Souls

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata, preaching programme,
16 January 2021, part 8
Translated from Bengali

It is said in the scriptures:

পৃথিবীতে যত কথা ধর্ম্মনামে-চলে ।
ভাগবত কহে সব পরিপূর্ণ ছলে ॥

prthivite yaha kichu dharma name chale
bhagavata kahe taha paripurna chhale

"Bhagavatam says that what is happening in this world in the name of religion, is complete cheating."

Srimad Bhagavatam is a very exclusive scripture. For example, if you read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, you will get bhakti-yoga, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, sankhya-yoga, and many more, but Srimad Bhagavatam is not like that.

One day, Narad came to Vyasadev.

কৃষ্ণ হৈতে চতুর্ম্মুখ, হন কৃষ্ণসেবোন্মুখ,
ব্রহ্মা হৈতে নারদের মতি ।

krsna haite chatur-mukha, hana krsna-sevonmukha,
brahma haite naradera mati

"Through Krishna, Brahma became devoted to Krishna's service. Brahma inspired Narad. Narad inspired Vyasadev."

Brahma took initiation from Krishna and then created this world and all that is within it, including various religions, concepts, ideas, etc., on the order of Krishna. Brahma created this world based on what he had heard from Krishna, but somehow he did not hear well, so some discrepancies came. In this way, we see now that some people worship Kali, some worship Ganesh, some worship Laksmi, some worship Surya, some worship Parvati. There are 330,000,000 demigods in this world, and people worship all kinds of demigods. However, this is not what is prescribed by the scriptures, in particular Srimad Bhagavatam, which is the main scripture. Many ask, "Who wrote Bhagavatam?" Nobody wrote it. Bhagavatam is printed now as a book, but it was not written by anyone.

Originally, Srimad Bhagavatam was received by Sri Sukadev Goswami from Srila Vyasadev, and Sri Sukadev Goswami then preached Bhagavatam in this world.

One day, Srila Vyasadev met with Sri Narad Goswami, his Gurudev, and told him, "Prabhu, I do not feel any peace at heart." By that time, Vyasadev had written so many scriptures—Agni Purana, Garuda Purana, the four Vedas, Vedanta, Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavat-gita—but he felt no peace at heart. When Narad Goswami heard this, he said, "How will you feel happy? When you cook, you cook various preparations (rice, dal, vegetables, chutney, sweet rice), but when you come to distribute what you cooked, you mix everything together, can one understand the taste of each preparation? So, you have created all this labra (hotchpotch) and distributed it like kichuri. How will you get the taste then? You made so many scriptures mixing together bhakti-yoga, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, sankya-yoga, etc. Write a scripture where there will be only bhakti-yoga and through which one can get the Lord."

One can get the Lord only through devotion—not through karma, jnana or any yoga. It is possible to get the Lord only through devotion. You can ask, "Where can one get devotion?" You cannot get it at any market—you can buy many things (rice, dal, vegetables), but you cannot buy devotion there. You can only get devotion from the association of devotees: bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhakta-sangena parijayate (ভক্তিস্তু ভগবদ্ভক্তসঙ্গেন পরিজায়তে, Brhan-naradiya Purana). If you associate with devotees and surrender to devotees, then you will get devotion. What does it mean to associate with devotees? It does not mean sleeping with them on one bed, eating with them from the same plate; otherwise, mosquitos also sleep together with a sadhu, but do they associate with the sadhu? They do not. They bite and disturb. Nobody can stand them—you immediately plug in 'good night' or 'all out' (mosquito repellent). The same with bedbugs (chharpoka, ছারপোকা)—they sleep with you in the same bed, but they do not associate with you. Association (sanga) with the Guru or a devotee means listening to what is right (sat-patha) and following it. Association with the Guru means listening to what Gurudev says and following it in your life. Sadhu-sanga means listening to the sadhu and following what he says. "Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah (মহাজন যেন গত স পন্থা): follow the footsteps of great personalities." We must live in the same way that great personalities lived. This is how you take sadhu-sanga, holy association.

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