Internal and Eternal

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 7 February 2021, part 2

First, it is necessary to have sraddha (faith). It is not necessary to show externally how much faith for the Lord you have—the question is how much faith do you have for your Guru, for your Master and for the worshippable Lord internally? How much faith do you have? "Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari (শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী): the quality of devotion depends upon faith." (Cc, 2.22.64)" The other day, I was explaining one of the songs from Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali,

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া ভজিতে ভজিতে
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya bhajite bhajite
abhimana hau dura

"O Vaishnav Thakur! Please be merciful! Knowing the true relationship I will worship You and my ego will go far away."

The problem is our ego (abhiman). Ego disturbs everything, and ego damages your devotion—it can take everything away from you. It is very important to understand this. You must know what is the relationship between you and your Master, your Guru, and Vaishnavs. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said to everyone, even to his disicples, "Everybody is my guru." Such was his vision. He would say, "I am giving initiation to you—it does not mean I am giving mercy to you—in fact, you have come to take initiation from me, so you are giving your mercy to me." So, the true relationship is that everybody is our master, even those who took initiation yesterday.

If you took initiation thirty years ago and somebody took initiation yesterday, you cannot discriminate against them—you cannot dishonour or disrespect to them. Somebody may have joined Krishna consciousness a very short time ago, and you may have joined Krishna consciousness thirty years ago—you must still give respect to all devotees; they are your masters, so you must always address them as "Prabhu" or "Didi." Give proper respect to everyone. Do not look at who is a disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, who is a disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, who is a disciple of Gurudev, who is a disciple of some other acharya. Do not discriminate against others or separate others into groups. They are all your friends, they are all your relatives. We all belong to the same family. Anyone who comes to Krishna consciousness is an 'amritasya putra', a son of nectar—they all come from the Lord. This is actually true for anyone, even those who are not initiated. Everybody in this world come from the same place—we all belong to the same place. The only difference is that somebody may not have come to Krishna consciousness yet because of the influence of maya.

Jiva souls forget the Lord and their own identity under the influence of maya. This is ajnanata or avidya (ignorance). We have no knowledge—whatever education we get in this world is mundane education, and you cannot understand the real things through that. Mundane education only tells you that your identification is that you are this body, but this is not our identification! Even Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that the true form, or identity, of the jiva souls is that they are eternal servants of the Lord (jivera svarupa haya krsnera nitya-dasa—জীবের 'স্বরূপ হয়'—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস', C.c., 2.20.108).

We are eternal servants of the Lord; this is our identity. Sometimes even those who have already come to Krishna consciousness may forget it because of the influence of maya. When we know or remember our identification, we come and surrender, but after some time we can again forget it by the influence of maya. That is why, it is said,

মায়ারে করিয়া জয় ছাড়ান না যায় ।
সাধু-গুরুর কৃপা বিনা না দেখি উপায় ॥

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya
sadhu-gurur krpa vina na dekhi upaya

"It is not possible to conquer maya by engaging in maya. I see no other way to get relief except for the mercy of sadhus."

There is no other way to conquer the illusory environment except for the mercy of the sadhus, Guru, and Vaishnavs. Without their mercy we cannot overcome the illusory environment. That is why, we must always remember sadhus, our Guru, and all Vaishnavs. This is the main thing for us in our life.

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