Pure Name Comes from Pure Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, second afternoon programme
12 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

There are many gurus in this world. There is one very nice story, I will tell it and then we will chant kirtan and finish. Listen carefully, I will ask you later what it was about, and if you cannot say, then it means your brain is not working.

In many places, there are many kinds of gurus—ancestral gurus, family gurus, etc. So, once, there was one caste guru who would go place to place and make disciples. By the time everyone had become his disciples, that guru became old. His son was 22-24 years old, but he did not listen to his father, did not obey him. The old guru said, "You must take over the responsibility of guruship to maintain the family now! Even your mother says that you have not grown up yet. Who will then take charge after your father? What will happen then?" The boy would go out every morning, come for lunch, and then again go out and come back for supper. Where does he go? He never tells anything. One day, his mother spoke to the old guru (her husband and the boy's father), "What will be now? Listen, do one thing. There is one rich man, a king, in this village. Make him your disciple. If you do so, you will not have to go house to house everywhere for some 50-100 rupees and some rice. If you get 5-10 quintal (500-1000 kg) rice at one place, it will last the whole year, and you will not have to go begging anymore."

Following his wife's idea, the guru went to that local king. He came and said, "I want to make you my disciple."

"What will happen if I become your disciple?" asked the king.

"Your family will run peacefully."

"Oh, I want peace! I want happiness! I have my wife, the queen, I have servants and subjects. I have a lot of wealth, but I do not feel happy. Can you give me happiness?"

"Yes, yes! Take initiation, everything will be happy."

So, the king took initiation. After that, the guru would come there every year to take rice (5-10 quintal at a time), and he did not have to roam around, walking house to house. Five years passed in this way.

Five years later, the king still felt no happiness, and one day he told his Guru, "Gurudev, I do not feel happy! I took initiation from you, but why do I not feel happy? Five years have passed already! You told me I would feel happy, but you keep coming every year, and I feel no happiness. What must I do to feel happiness?"

"All right," answered the guru, "here is what you must do. You must make one fire sacrifice."

"What do you need for the fire sacrifice?"

The guru gave the king a huge list of items, and the king said, "I do not know where to get all these things."

"You do not need to know it," said the guru. "Give me money, and I will get everything."

In the list, he wrote one tin of ghee, logs, etc. The king gave him 10,000 rupees. He got a little ghee and other ingredients and did the fire sacrifice. Then, six months passed. Then, the king said again, "Gurudev, but I still do not feel happiness!"

"Your wife gave that money for the fire sacrifice, did she give it with a clean mind?"

The wife did not remember how she gave the money, so the guru said that they had to make another fire sacrifice. He did another fire sacrifice. Two months later, there was another fire sacrifice, but another two months passed, and the king still felt no peace. Finally, he called his guru and said to him, "Gurudev, you are cheating me! You cannot give me peace. I am giving you seven days—if I do not feel peace during these seven days, I will have you beheaded." What kind of guru is that, and what kind of disciple is this? The king has material desires and because his desire is not fulfilled, he says, "I will cut your head off!"

The guru went back to his house, and both he and his wife became very worried. The guru understood, "I have been cheating the king for money and rice and have been using it for my own enjoyment, so how will the king feel peace?" Then, one day, the guru's son came home, and seeing that no cooking had been done (the parents were sitting and worrying), he asked his, "Mother, where is my food!"

"What food?" cried the mother. "You never stay in the house, you never do anything for the house! Look at your father!"

"What is wrong with father?"

"The king gave him seven days—he will cut your father's head off in seven days if he does not get peace."

"Oh, do not worry! I will go and give peace to the king! Do you have muri? Give me some."

So, he ate some muri and ran to the king to give him peace. His parents tried to stop him, "Where are you going? Are you mad?!" He did not listen to anyone and ran to the house of the king. When he arrived, the gatekeeper asked him, "Hey, where are you going?"

"Open the gate," said the boy.

"Open the gate? And who are you?"

"You do not know me. I am the son of your king's guru."

Then, the king came there and recognised his face—he had seen him many years ago, when the boy was small and was walking down the street with his father. Now the boy had grown up, but he could recognise him. So, the king told his guard to open the door and asked the boy, "Why have you come?"

"I have come to you. I will give you peace."

"Peace? Your father has never been able to give me peace. So many years have passed, and there is no peace. Will you give me peace now?"

"Yes, I will, for sure!"

"What do I need to do? Make a list of what you need."

"I do not need any lists. I only need two pieces of rope, and I need my father."

"All right," said the king and sent his men to fetch the father of the boy (his guru). The man came to the house of the king's Gurudev, and called him, "The King is calling you!" The guru was terrified of death, "What? But the seven days have not passed yet!" The messenger said, "I do not know anything about that. Your son came there, he spoke to the king, and the king called you." The guru had no choice, "What did that crazy boy say to the king?! I have to go, I have no choice." Then, the guru came to the house of the king, and the king asked the boy,

"All right, your father is here. Now tell me what you need."

"Come with me," said the boy.

The three of them began to walk towards the cremation place. At the entrance of the place, there was a sign board, saying, "Rest in Peace" (শ্মশানেই শান্তি). The king said to his Guru, "Where is he taking us? Why are we going towards the cremation place? We are alive, we have not died yet! Is he going to burn us alive?!" The guru said, "Of course, he is crazy! What is he doing, taking us there with two pieces of rope?!" Anyhow, they decided to see what the boy would do. When they came there, the boy saw two palm trees standing a little apart from each other, and he tied his father to one tree, and the king to the other tree.

Then, he said to his father (the guru), "Father, release the king from the bondage!"

"Are you mad? I am bound myself!"

"Do you understand now, dear King?" said the boy, turning to the king. "My father is himself in a hole, he is bound himself, so how will he release you from your bondage? How can he release you from the illusory environment?"

Therefore, chanting kirtans like this will never bring you any result:

কোটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

হেন কৃষ্ণনাম যদি লয় বহুবার ।
তবু যদি প্রেম নহে, নহে অশ্রুধার ॥
তবে জানি, অপরাধ তাহাতে প্রচুর ।
কৃষ্ণনাম-বীজ তাহে না করে অঙ্কুর ॥

hena krnsa-nama yadi laya bahu-bara
tabu yadi prema nahe, nahe asrudhara
tabe jani, aparadha tahate prachura
krsna-nama-bija tahe na kare ankura

"If you chant this Name of Krishna so many times but still there is no love, there are no tears streaming from your eyes, then as I understand there are too many offences and the seed of Krishna's Name does not sprout."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.29-30)

It is necessary to chant the Holy Name giving up offences! Chanting all the 'social' kirtans is no use. I have told you before: I have not come here to chant kirtans, I have come to make you chant kirtans. You can see this boy here—he used to work for the police, but now he chants kirtans at home. I go to people's houses to make them chant kirtan. Otherwise, if you hear hired kirtan singers even for a thousand years, there is no use. Radharani (a famous professional sahajiya kirtan singer) sings for thousands of rupees. One time, she came to offer obeisances to Gurudev, but Gurudev was away, so she offered her obeisances outside Gurudev's house. Then, she came to me and said,

"Brother, I came to see your Gurudev."

"Didi, can I ask you something?" I asked her.

"What is it? Tell me."

"You were chanting kirtan today at Haritala [in Nabadwip, a small temple next to our temple]. You earned so much today there, and so many people came to listen to you, but when I went there to give class on Bhagavatam, there were not more than two hundred people only. You have been singing kirtans for so long, how many people have you brought to this line?"

"Brother, can I tell you the truth? We sing kirtans for money, but when you chant kirtans, you do it to bring people to this line to worship the Lord, to give them spiritual benefit."

Radharani, the famous singer, told me that. Now, there are so many hired singers and musicians. If you listen to the Holy Name from their mouths, it is nothing but mere alphabet. If you want to chant pure Holy Name, you must hear it from a pure Vaishnav.

[His Divine Grace then chants 'Gaya Gaura madhur svare,' recites Jaya Dhvani and concludes the class, proceeding to another preaching place before returning to the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math temple in Tarakeshwar.]

gaya gora madhur svare

Gaurasundar sings in a sweet voice:

“hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare” [1]

grhe thaka, vane thaka
sada 'hari' bale' daka
sukhe duhkhe bhulo naka
vadane hari-nam kara re [2]

Stay at home, or stay in a forest, regardless, always call out 'Hari!' In happiness and in sadness, don't forget: chant the Lord's Name aloud.

maya-jale baddha ha'ye
achha michhe kaja la'ye
ekhan-o chetana peye
radha-madhav-nam balare [3]

Bound in Maya's net, you work in vain. Now, while you are still conscious, chant 'Radha-Madhava'.

jivana ha-ila sesa
na bhajile hrsikesa
bhaktivinod-upadesa
ek-bar nam-rase mata re [4]

Your life is ending, but you have not served Hrsikes. Bhakti Vinod advises: once relish His Name's nectar.

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