Live Sincere Devotional Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Betur area,
Evening, 25 January 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Only fortunate souls can chant the kirtan of the Lord.

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)

Roaming around the universe, we somehow, by some fortune, have come to the holy feet of our Gurudev. Devotees come here from so far, from thousands and thousands of miles. There are now 140 branches in Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math—the sun never sets (when the sun is setting here, it is rising in other branches). Srila Gurudev would often say, "The sun never sets on Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math." I have been to places where there is no night—they have daytime the whole day, and the sun sets only for ten minutes, and after ten minutes it rises again. When I went to that place in winter, they have only night the whole day—the sun does not rise in winter, so it is dark the whole day (the night lasts 23 hours 45 minutes). There is a temple even in that kind of place. There is 6-10 feet of snow on the street and it is cleared by machines so that cars can go, and the ocean gets frozen and people walk on it. The temperature is below zero and it is so cold that when you breathe, your breath comes out and turns into ice. We have a temple even in such a place. The whole world is flooded with Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu said:

পৃথিবীতে যত আছে নগরাদি গ্রাম ।
সর্ব্বত্র প্রচার হইবে মোর নাম ॥১২৬॥

prthivite yata achhe nagaradi grama
sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will be spread in every town and village of the world."

Mahaprabhu predicted this, and our guru-varga turned it into reality—going to every country, they gave the Holy Name to all those people who do not understand anything, and now even people from our country do not know as much as they do. You could see that during the arati, somebody was wearing shoes. People cannot understand anything... When they worship Saraswati or Kali, they made a disco party in front of the deities and dance to music. Is this how deities are worshipped? When you worship the Deity, you must do it selflessly, with your heart and soul—not to impress others.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

You have seen that we offered obeisances, offered arati, etc. We have been doing this for so many days.

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

You show off that you have put tilaks, put on mala, put on sadhu's clothes—it is very easy to dress as a sadhu, but it is very hard to become a sadhu. However, in this world, most people are only disguised as sadhus. That is why it is said that you cannot recognise a sadhu with your eyes—you must see the sadhu with your ears. It is necessary to listen with your ears what the sadhu or the Guru says. It will not do to just say, "I have become a devotee." Moreover, if somebody says they have become a Vaishnav, they are not a Vaishnav. Vaishnavs always say, "I am your servant." We call each other "Prabhu"—we address even an uninitiated child Prabhu. If I am eighty years old and some small boy took initiation yesterday, I must give him respect and address him "Prabhu" because the Lord resides within him, and the Lord is our Lord. What eyes should I see you with? I will not see you as humans—I must see you as souls, particles of the Lord. You are all only born in human bodies—you grow slowly, slowly, become old, and one day leave. We get one body after another. It is necessary to give honour to the soul. That is why we give honour to each other, we offer obeisance to each other.

কাম-ক্রোধ আদি ছয় বাটপাড়ে দেয় ভয়
অবসান হৈল আসি বেলা

kama-krodha-adi chaya batapare deya bhaya
avasana haila asi bela

I am attacked by the six highway robbers lead by kama and krodha, and my life is coming to its end...

("Anadi karama-phale" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

The six enemies are kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya: lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy. 'Mada' (madness) means ego, or pride: people are proud of their wealth, knowledge, family or friends, beauty, merits. Everybody has some ego. That is why it is said: "Ahankare matta haina, Nitai-pada pasariya, asatyere satya kori mani (অহঙ্কারে মত্ত হৈঞা নিতাই-পদ পাসরিয়া অসত্যেরে সত্য করি' মানি): Maddened with pride, forgetting Nitai's feet, I accept untruth as truth."

সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy in my material life, and I have got nothing—only became burdened."

কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি' বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

kisera samsara ei chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari vrtha dina yaya

"What sort of world is this? It is like a trick, a show. While I affectionately take it as my own, days pass by in vain."

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje, nisa nidra-vase
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe vase

"My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ-ভার ।
নামাশ্রয় করি' যতনে তুমি
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari' yatane tumi
thakaha apana kaje

"Understand the essence: life is temporary and filled with all sorts of adversity. Carefully taking shelter of the Name, engage in your work."

(Gitavali, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

I wish everyone lived without pain and sadness. I am thinking that farmers work so hard to grow potato, but they are not getting a good price to sell it now because people from other places sell it much cheaper (nobody wants to pay a higher price for the local produce). They work so hard to earn a living but all in vain:

হরি হরি ! বিফলে জনম গোঙাইনু ।
মনুষ্যজনম পাইয়া রাধাকৃষ্ণ না ভজিয়া
জানিয়া শুনিয়া বিষ খাইনু ॥

hari hari! viphale janama gonainu
manusya-janama paiya radha-krsna na bhajiya
janiya suniya visa khainu

O Lord! My life has passed uselessly. I attained a human birth, but I did not serve Radha and Krishna. Knowingly I drank poison.

('Hari Hari viphale' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

People consciously drink poison—they know it, they have heard about it, but they are taking poison... We must practise Krishna consciousness. There is a festival at our Betur temple tomorrow, please come. I will speak as today from 10 a.m. Please come, I am inviting everyone. There will be kirtan and Hari-katha from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; then there will be bhoga-arati and arati of the Deities; and after that everyone will be given prasad. Everyone will get prasad. The cook is coming from Nabadwip, so prasad will be cooked very nicely. There is a lot of cabbage in winter, so they will cook cabbage with potato, some cauliflower rasam also, sak, patol, chutney, sweet rice. Everyone will get this prasad tomorrow. "Prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়)—"by honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions" (Saranagati). Please come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama also, you will see that you will like it very much.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

[His Divine Grace chants 'Hari Haraye Nama Krsna,' recites Sri Jaya Dhvani, and concludes the evening class.]

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