Land of Religions?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata (Jatragachhi), 8 February 2021, part 2

One can ask, "Why is there so much devotion to God in your country? In our country, there is only christianity, but when I was in West Bengal, I saw that some people worship Kali, some people worship Durga, some people worship Ganesh, some people worship Loknath, some people worship Harichand Thakur. Why is it so?" Why are there so many religions? The reason is this. Everybody hears things in their own way. All disciples are not the same. Brahma took initiation from Krishna, and he did not listen to the guidance Lord Krishna spoke—Brahma heard it in his own way and created this whole world based on what he heard and how he heard it. This is how somebody ends up worshipping Kali, somebody ends up worshipping Durga, Ganesh, etc. People worship in many ways. If you go to Bombay, you will see that people worship Ganesh there; if you go to Bihar, you will see that people worship Suryadev (Sun God) there; if you go to Tamil Nadu, they worship somebody else there. There are so many kinds of worship here in Bengal itself. Somebody worships Kali, somebody Durga, Ganesh, Laksmi, Saraswati, Jagannath, Nitai-Gaura, and so on. However, the scriptures do not tell to do this. What does Bhagavatam say?

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."

Bhagavatam says that all these 'religions' are cheating, illusion. All this is created by Maya.

Brahma creates the world—you know that Vishnu is the maintainer, Brahma is the creator, and Siva is the destroyer. So, when Brahma received the order from Lord Krishna, he created this universe—he did it according to how he heard. Guru gives the same guidance to everyone, "Do this," but does everyone do it? Guru tells you, "Live in this way," but somebody will think, "Oh, I know much, I have become a Vaishnav." You think you put a tilak, wear kanthi-mala, and this is it—you have become a sadhu: you go to Vrindavan, wear an uttaria, and start saying, "Radhe Radhe" and if you go to Ekachakra Dham, you start saying, "Jay Nitai, Jay Nitai." Have you not heard what happened the other year? Some man felt very happy when he heard "Jay Nitai, Jay Nitai," and one day some Muslim dacoits came to his door and knocked at his door, saying, "Jay Nitai! Jay Nitai!" Hearing "Jay Nitai" the man thought, "Oh, devotees have come!" He opened the door, and the dacoits got into his house and robbed him. So, saying, "Jay Nitai" and coming to steal is bad. In Vrindavan, they always say, "Radhe Radhe," but they say it to get food for themselves.

There are many kinds of devotion: karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material desires), jnana-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with desire to know something), jnana-sunya suddha-bhakti (pure devotion devoid of any pursuit of knowledge). Somebody worships the Lord and turns the Lord into a bribe-taker. They come to the Lord and say, "O God [O Kali / O Durga / etc.], I have given you this rice, bananas—please give me a son [or: give my son work, give my daughter a good husband]." They want all these things from the Lord. You must have heard that in some places you can get a job if you give money to some official. In this way, you become a bribers and the person who takes the money is a bribe-taker. Both are criminals. Those who do wrong and those who overlook it are both offenders. We turn the Lord into our menial servant. "Lord, give me this"—the Lord is my servant. Our devotion is not like that. This is not what the devotion of the residents of Vraja is. The highest worship is present in the devotion of Vraja gopis. They never think about their own happiness. They gave the dust from their feet just to serve Krishna when Krishna showed He was ill. Will you not think, "Oh, if I do this, it will be a sin." Laskmi thought so. Siva thought so. Narad thought so. Brahma thought so. Everybody thought it was a sin, but Vraja gopis did not think about it. "Will we commit a sin? Will we go to hell because of it? Whatever! Even if our legs burn or become afflicted with leprosy, whatever! As long as our Krishna is happy, we do not care about anything." This is what devotion must be like. "What can I do for the Lord to make Him happy? How can I serve the devotees of the Lord?" We must always be alert and take care so that no difficulty, no austerity comes to the devotees of the Lord.

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