(3/7) Listen and Learn

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar Temple, evening class,
11 February 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

There is one thing you must always remember.

Jagai and Madhai committed many sins, but they never abused Vaishnavs (never committed vaishnav-ninda). They sinned, they killed, they raped, they stole, they beat people, they drank alcohol, but they never committed vaishnav-ninda (never abused Vaishnavs). That is why Mahaprabhu rescued them. Do you know what service Mahaprabhu gave Madhai?

[Loud clamour in the audience.]

Do not speak! Listen to what is being said. Listen and learn. If you listen to it, you will get benefit. If you talk during the class, it is an offence. Nobody must obstruct Hari-katha, it is an offence. It is necessary to listen to Hari-katha. You talk so much the whole day, but I will be here for only one hour. Can you not keep your mouths closed for one hour? You can see I have four mobile phones, but I have turned them off – I am not talking to anyone. Even if somebody dies, I do not answer the phone…

One time, when I was preaching in a village in the Hooghly district and giving a class in the afternoon, I got a phone call. Gurudev’s servitor had climbed on top of the temple to change the flag – the temple is ninety feet (27.5 meters) high, and he fell down from the dome! When my phone rang, I did not answer it because I was giving class. After the class finished, they called again. I took the call and they asked me, ‘Why were you not answering??’ I said, ‘Why? I was busy with the service of the Lord.’ Then, I was told what had happened. The devotee was taken to Nabadwip hospital and from there transferred to Apollo Hospital in Kolkata, but in the end he was unharmed! I went to see him in Apollo later, and he was all right – there was only some small injury to his foot. You have seen how tall the building of the temple in Nabadwip is, but he was unharmed.

Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, ‘Is there a fire at your house? Let it burn!’ Even if your house is burning, you must not run there. Always only rely on the Lord. The Lord will arrange everything. Whatever His desire is, everything will happen as He likes. If He protects, He protects – if you go there, do you think you will be able to stop the fire? Do you have the capacity to do anything? Therefore, if He kills, He kills, and if He protects, He protects. We must surrender to the Lord. Always remember this.

The problem is that we cannot surrender. Everybody keeps Gita in their homes, but we do not understand the meaning and the main idea of Gita. Gita says:

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

‘Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.’

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

One day, Mahaprabhu told Srivas Pandit, ‘You must hold kirtan at your house every day. Devotees will come every evening, and you must chant kirtan together.’ When devotees come, how can they leave with an empty stomach? Fifty, a hundred or even two hundred people would come, and Srivas Pandit had to feed everyone, but he is a poor man, he does not have a job, so what was he to do? He went out to beg and collect alms. But when he did it, people criticised him, ‘He is begging for himself to hoard money!’ When this reached Mahaprabhu’s ears, Mahaprabhu knew that if people continued speaking like this, they would be making offences – it is no harm for Srivas, but those who said such things would be committing offences. That is why one day, Mahaprabhu told Srivas,

‘Srivas, listen to what I will say. Can you promise Me something?’

‘Yes, tell me,’ Srivas Pandit said.

‘From tomorrow you will not go out to beg again.’

‘What are You saying, Prabhu? I host class and kirtan at home every day, people come, and I must give them prasad. If I do not go out for collection, they will have to leave without taking anything.’

‘I have already told you everything. You must do as I tell you. You must not go begging again.’

‘All right. One clap, two claps, three claps.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I will fast for one day, I will fast for two days, and after the third day I will jump into the Ganges and commit suicide.’

‘Srivas, is this how much faith you have? You do not have to go begging ever again. Even if Laksmi Devi comes to beg from Vaikuntha, you do not have to go begging ever again.’

After that, all the devotees started bringing so many things (rice, dal, oil, etc.) to Srivas Pandit that his house became filled with bhoga. Nobody could understand where the things were coming from. This is how he never had to go begging again. Such is the nature of faith.

We have no faith. When we are born, we learn from our mothers that somebody is our father and we must call that man ‘father’. Do we just learn it from her or do we try to check if it is true? Only your mother knows who your father is. So, when our mothers say it, we believe them. In the same way, we must believe what is written in scriptures and holy books. We must believe what is written in Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and other books composed by Vaishnavs and sages.

— : • : —

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CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 39 Mb
Length: 81 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Mahaprabhu's Order
2) Chad Kazi: Defeated Again
3) Listen and Learn
4) In Search of Real Benefit
5) Rescue Programme
6) Eating Up Old Rice
7) No Other Shelter