Honouring Hari-Prasad

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur (West Bengal), 5 February 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

We have got an opportunity to come here and make a programme in this district after a long time. A day without Hari-katha is a bad day. The day when we cannot speak Hari-katha, cannot practise sravan (cannot hear Hari-katha) is a bad day for us. We do not want to stay even one day without Hari-katha, and we must not also stay without hearing or speaking Hari-katha even one day.

কি শয়নে, কি ভোজনে, কিবা জাগরণে ।
অহর্নিশ চিন্ত কৃষ্ণ, বলহ বদনে ॥

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane
aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

"Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28)

When you are sleeping, when you are eating, when you are sitting, etc.—always chant the Holy Name. There are no rules and regulations about chanting the Holy Name. Wherever you are, in whatever state or situation you are—whether you are wearing good clothes, whether you are wearing dirty clothes, even if you are in a contaminated state—you can always chant the Holy Name.

Through the Holy Name such souls as ourselves who have forgotten Krishna (we have all forgotten Krishna, our Original Primeval Father) can awaken their consciousness. We can cure our disease through the Holy Name of the Lord. We suffer from five diseases—avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits). As long as we have these diseases within us, we will not be able to find any relief from this material world.

Avidya (ignorance) is our real disease. We are ignorant—we have no knowledge. The knowledge that you all find in this world, that people roam around the world with, is not real knowledge, it is actually all ignorance. We will not be able to free ourselves from this ignorance for as long as we have not awakened to the realisation that we are not this body. We think, "This is my body," "This is my son," "This is my wife," "This is my relative," "This is my friend," "I am my own master"—for as long as we think like this, the taste for the Holy Name will not come to us, we will not like to chant the Holy Name.

We have got this day in our lives by a great fortune. Today is the disappearance day of Srila Lochan Das Thakur. Vaishnavs' appearance and disappearance are the same, they are non-different from each other. It is only with material vision that we see that somebody has come and has left. Our respectable host has called me and you all today not only for taking prasad. We have come here to take Hari-prasad—to honour the prasad of Hari-katha. This is the only prasad that you all must take—always hear Hari-katha. We have come here today only for this reason—to say a few words and to hear something about the Lord, about Sri Krishna.

Where is Krishna? Krishna is present in Krishna-katha. In which forest (van) does Krishna stay? In sravan. If you listen about Krishna, you will get Krishna...

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