(5/7) Rescue Programme

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar Temple, evening class,
11 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

You bring people to your houses and pay them to do kirtans. So many have come and left, taking your money, but how much benefit have you got through that? If you do not chant kirtan yourselves, what benefit is there for you in others’ chanting? If you eat, your stomaches will be full, but will your stomaches be full if only I eat? So, if I chant kirtan and go, what does it give to you, tell me? But if you chant yourselves, then you will get benefit. If I can chant, I will be happy, and if you chant, then you will be happy.

One time I went to Midnapore for preaching. I was a brahmachari, and my name was Vinod Ranjan Brahmachari at that time. When I came to one house, a man came out and said with folded palms, ‘Prabhu, we have had a flood, so I will not be able to help you.’ I replied to him, ‘I have not come to take help from you – I have come to help you.’ Repeating that he would not be able to give me anything, he gave me a mat to sit on and went to climb a palm tree to pick a dub (green coconut) for me. I told him, ‘What are you doing? Later, later! First sit and listen to some Hari-katha!’ I spoke Hari-katha, and as he listened to it, he started crying. After the class, he gave me a dub and some pranami. Then, he went to his house and brought whatever rice he had kept in a clay pot – he put all that rice into our bag. I told him, ‘Come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama.’ He said that he would not be able to come that year but promised to come the next year. I explained to him how he could get money to come to Nabadwip. I told him, ‘It is all right, you do not need to give us anything. Only give us one handful of rice every day: one handful in the morning and one in the evening. Your family cooks two kg rice every day, so take one handful of rice from there and keep it in a pot. I will come at the end of the year and collect it.’ By the end of the year, he had accumulated 36 kg rice. I still remember that rice was 57 or 54 rupees per kilo at that time. So, he could get 2,000 rupees for it. I told him to give 10 kg of that rice to the temple and sell the rest to get money to come to the temple. He came to the Math, did the parikrama, and both the man and his wife took initiation. They had two daughters, and one of them suffered from epilepsy (she often lost consciousness). Gurudev put his hand on her head, and she recovered. Both girls later got married; their husbands work in the police. Now they often tell me, ‘Gurudev, why do you not come to our house anymore?’ I told them, ‘I came to your house and hijacked you. What will I got there for now? You have come to serve the Lord now, so why should I come to your house? There is no need now.’ I still think like this – when somebody comes to serve the Lord (if they genuinely serve the Lord), there is no more need to go to their house to ask them for potato, rice, etc. All that family got initiated in the end – the husband, the wife, then their daughters, and even their daughters’ husbands.

This is our duty. We bring the jiva souls who are averse to Lord Krishna to this line. And it is necessary to bring such souls to this line.

Ultimately, it all depends on one’s fortune – some people can be very rich (can have millions of rupees), but they cannot give anything to the Lord, but a poor person, who has no money, can give five kg of rice or a sack of potato. Those who have nothing give potato – they actually go and pick it when we come! I went to one house the other day, and they eagerly told me, ‘I will give you two sacks of potato! Wait, I will go to pick it just now!’ There are four brothers in that household – two of them took initiation, their wives are also initiated. I had a programme at their house, and I see that they are doing well. They have given everything up. They gave up bidi, cigarettes, tea, etc. Everyone has taken initiation now. When we did a programme at their house in the evening, he had bought so many plates and pots – he refused to borrow anything from other houses or the temple; instead, he went to town and bought everything for the programme. Such are devotees.

It is necessary to practise Krishna consciousness…

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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