Path of Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 7
Translated from Bengali

জলজা নবলক্ষাণি স্থাবরা লক্ষবিংশতি
কৃময়োরুদ্রসঙ্খকাঃ পক্ষিণাং দশলক্ষনম্
ত্রিংশললক্ষাণি পশবঃ চতুরলক্ষাণি মানুষাঃ

jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati
krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah

"There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmoving living entities, such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and there are 1,000,000 species of birds. As far as quadrupeds are concerned, there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000 human species."

(Padma Purana)

Having travelled through these 8,400,000 species we have finally got this human birth, and we have gone through 400,000 human species—we took birth in many various places, yet this time,

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

"One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of his birth and bring benefit to all other people."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 9.41)

What does it mean to bring benefit to others? It means bringing the souls who are averse to Lord Sri Krishna to this path. You can see so many people here—I have been going house to house, roaming and preaching in various places. Many think I come for potato, dal, money. This is not so. There is no problem with getting rice, potato, or dal—I can buy everything, but if I had not come to your house, you would not have come here today, you would not have got a chance to hear these holy talks, you would not have been able to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. That is why I roam the land, going house to house. "Krsna bolo, sange chala, ei matra bhiksa chai. I am begging you only for one thing: come with us and chant 'Krishna'!" This is all that I tell everyone: practise Krishna consciousness. Nityananda Prabhu says, "Amara kiniya bhaja Gaura Hari! You can buy Me—worship Gauranga and I will be sold to you!" He says, "You cannot buy me with money; if you worship Gauranga, then you will be able to buy Me." How can we make Nityananda Prabhu happy? By worshipping Gaura Hari. "Gaura pahu na bhajiya mainu, prema-ratana-dhana helaya harainu. I never bothered to worship Lord Gauranga, and, due to my negligence, I lost a valuable jewel of transcendental love."

We will chant now the ekadasi kirtan written by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. [His Divine Grace chants 'Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu'.]

You have all come here today taking so much trouble. You have come from very far despite the problems with the trains, and today is also ekadasi tithi. "Madhava-tithi bhakti-janani yatane palana kari. I carefully observe the holy days related to Madhava—they are the mother of devotion." Mahaprabhu started the tradition of observing ekadasi from His mother. He begged this tithi from His mother. One day, He asked His mother,

"Mother, I want to beg something from you, will you give it to Me?"

"I will," said Sachi Devi.

"No, saying it once will not do. Say it three times."

"All right, I will give, I will give, I will give."

"You must not eat rice on ekadasi."

Mahaprabhu told this to His mother—you cannot teach others if you have not taught your own mother first (charity begins at home). This is how Mahaprabhu started preaching the necessity of observing ekadasi from His own mother.

Many fast without taking any food or water on this day (observe nirjala ekadasi), but Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur relaxed the rules. Our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, wrote Srila Prabhupad's pranam mantra saying,

নিখিল-ভুবন-মায়া-ছিন্নবিচ্ছিন্নকর্ত্রী
বিবুধবহুল-মৃগ্যা-মুক্তি-মোহান্ত-দাত্রী ।
শিথিলিত-বিধি-রাগারাধ্য-রাধেশ-ধানী
বিলসতু হৃদি নিত্যং ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত-বাণী ॥

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri
vibudhabahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri
sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

"With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of liberation. With his third step, he eased the hard rules and regulations by a touch of the Divine Love: he gave us the worship of Sri Sri Radha and Govinda. The real existence of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad is in his divine teachings. May those teachings dance eternally within the core of your heart."

Srila Prabhupad declared a totalitarian war against maya and relaxed the strict rules and regulations. Many fast on full moon (purnima), new moon (amavasya), etc., but Srila Prabhupad said that it was not necessary to do all that—we must only fast on the ekadasi days until twelve o'clock (midday). If you cannot fast till midday for some reason (for example, many go out to work in the morning), then you can take some potato, fruit, etc. in the morning.

You know the rules; you know there are five things that are prohibited—rice, wheat, barley, pulses, mustard/sesame oil. On ekadasi day, sin stays in these kinds of food; therefore, if you eat these things on ekadasi, you will be committing a sin. This is why these five groups of food are prohibited. On ekadasi, we use peanut oil or sunflower oil to make subji. We boil or fry nuts, take sago, potato, fruit, milk, curd. You cannot take sweets from a shop on this day (because you can never be sure what is added to them); if you make sweets yourself, you can take them. These are the rules of ekadasi. On the one hand, Mahaprabhu Himself told to follow ekadasi, and, on the other hand, He Himself also one day went to the house of Hiranya and Jagadish in Chakdah and ate a full offering, including grains, etc. [showing that there is no ekadasi for the Lord; therefore, the Lord, or the Deity, is offered full bhoga on this day, but devotees take only anukalpa.]

Today is Sri Bhaimi Ekadasi. You know that there are many different ekadasis and people like to explain what each ekadasi means and what benefit fasting on a particular ekadasi brings, but it is not necessary to follow ekadasi because you hope to get something. Mahaprabhu told to observe ekadasi, Gurudev told to observe it, all our guru-varga told to observe it, and they all observed ekadasi themselves—they taught others by their example—this is why we observe ekadasi. It is no use thinking what benefit you get by fasting on this ekadasi or that ekadasi. "I will only do service, and I will not think about the result or wish to have any share of the result." You have read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, it is said there that we must be active (perform actions, i.e., service), but we must not enjoy the result. The difference between karma and seva is this: if you do whatever pleases your mind (follow the whims of your mind), that is karma; and if you do what your Guru orders you to do, that is service. Other than this, karma and seva externally look the same.

Therefore, "Madhava-tithi bhakti-janani yatane palana kari. I carefully observe the holy days related to Madhava—they are the mother of devotion." Ekadasi is Madhava-tithi, the Lord's day, and we must try to observe this day. There are sixty-four types of devotional activities. These five are are the main:

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

And fasting on ekadasi is also one of those sixty-four practices. Fasting on ekadasi, doing arati, parikrama, chanting kirtans, etc. are all limbs of devotion.

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