This Is Not a Playground

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

[Chanting 'Krpa kara Vaisnava Thakura', His Divine Grace pauses and remarks:]

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."

'আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে
অমানী না হ'ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি' হৃদয় দূষিবে
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥

'ami ta vaisnava' e buddhi haile
amani na ha'ba ami
pratisthasa asi' hrdaya dusibe
haiba nirayagami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)—my heart will become polluted by the desire for fame and I will end up in hell."

"I am a Vaishnav"—if you think like this... [Noise in the audience.] What are the children doing upstairs? Is this a playground? It is not a place for sitting and gossiping or getting up to some mischief. This place here is Bhakti Siddhanta Sravan Sadan (ভক্তি সিদ্ধান্ত শ্রবণ সদন; "a formal place where one comes to hear the teaching of devotion"). There can only be talks about Nitai, Vaishnav Thakur, the Lord here. You cannot talk about material things here, you cannot talk about any outside (material) things here. Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami,

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Do not talk any gramya-katha here! Do not have any outside talks here! You must leave all this at home. Do not come here with all that. You must come here surrendering your all—all your heart, soul, mind, everything—at the lotus feet of the Lord.

We always blame the Lord, "Why is the Lord giving me so much sadness and suffering?" but we do not blame ourselves for not being able to surrender to the Lord. You blame the Lord, but have you become surrendered to the Lord? You must ask yourself this question. How much can you give to the Lord? We cannot give anything to the Lord. Yet we must place everything—our mind, heart, soul, body, ego, etc.—at the holy lotus feet of the Lord...

We have brothers, sisters, wives, children, relatives, but they are with us just for two days; they will all come and go from this world. Yet if you are to get Nityananda, you must give everything, your heart, your mind to the holy lotus feet of Nityananda, and you must not only say that. These are not just some words. How many times have I told you that?

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

If you just keep saying, "Nitai, Nitai," it will not do—you must practise what Gora and Nitai preach. Trying to impress others is not what worshipping Gora is. You think, "I will eat well, I will dress well, I will get a nice room," but this is not what Krishna consciousness is about.

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."

Have you heard what we were singing? I told you about it yesterday also. It is necessary to first know the sambandha. We know very well our father, mother, brother, sister, wife, son, daughter, friends, husband, etc. Everybody knows this relationship, but we do not know who Guru and Vaishnavs are. How many of us know and understand our Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord? We do not understand the meaning of Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord, we only know our own interest. Everybody understands who their wife, son, friends, relatives, etc. are, but we do not know our Guru, Vaishnavs, or the Lord. What does the Lord say in Srimad Bhagavad-gita? "I do not recognise or know anyone except for My devotees, and My devotees also do not know anyone except Me." This is what chastity is. Women can understand what is called to be chaste. It is necessary to have chastity. You must surrender everything to your Guru; you will not get anywhere if you do not keep chastity to your Guru. If you think, "I have got initiation, so I have already got everything," and go calmly home, then you are wrong. Taking initiation is a matter of fortune,

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

In his last days, Gurudev called me and said, "You go to all those villages and remote areas bringing everyone for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. You have got so many people to take initiation, but can you say how many of them have actually become disciples?" This is what Gurudev told me. "How many of your people have become disciples?" We say, "Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya ara na kariha mane asa (গুরুমুখ-পদ্মবাক্য চিত্তেতে করিয়া ঐক্য আর না করিহ মনে আশা)—make the teachings from Sri Guru's lotus mouth one with your heart, and do not desire anything else within your heart." We say we keep the teaching of our Guru in our heart, but tell me how many people listen to what their Guru says? They pay full dandavat, but as soon as you tell them to do anything, they say, "I do not have time." Such people are not fit to be called disciples. The duty of a disciple is to tolerate Gurudev's chastisement and mould their life in the way that their Gurudev wants them to.

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