Do Not Give Up

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance, evening class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 25 February 2021, part 13
Translated from Bengali

Param Guru Maharaj (Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj) always said, "Start the fire, and the wind will come on its own," "Even if your boat is sinking, keep rowing!" Srila Prabhupad also said, "When you go to preach, you must sweat and fight to preach about the Lord! And if you run out of money, then you will have to go to householder's homes and preach more!"

One time, Srila Bon Maharaj went out for collection. As he went begging and collecting, he accidentally came to a quarter where fallen women lived. Realising where he was, he lamented, "I am finished! I have been practising Krishna consciousness for so long, but today I have come to the quarter of these fallen people!" The women gave him some money, one-two or five-ten rupees, and Srila Bon Maharaj came back to the temple. He gave that money to Srila Prabhupad, saying with tears in his eyes, "Prabhupad, my spiritual life has been ruined today!" Srila Prabhupad asked him, "What has happened to you today?" Srila Bon Maharaj replied, "I have accidentally come to a place where fallen women live..." In reply, Srila Prabhupad said, "If you think you have done wrong, then I am also doing wrong! I bring all these brahmacharis from their homes so that they can practise Krishna consciousness, and after that I send them back to gross householders. What for? To bring them to this path. Am I doing wrong too?" Gross materialists are not better than prostitutes. "Those prostitutes gave you the money they got by selling their bodies, and you can use that money for the service of the Lord. So, what is the problem? I send brahmacharis to the householder's homes, and they do not lose their spiritual life, and householders are intoxicated with their material life—they do so many bad things!"

The other day, a devotee phoned me and said, "Gurudev, you have told me to go preaching house to house, and I went to fifty houses today—they opened the door to me only in one house!" I told him to go house to house and preach the Holy Name to everyone. It is not good for a brahmachari to sit at home—go out, go house to house! So, when he said that only one out of fifty houses opened the door, I told him, "So what? Tomorrow two houses will open the door. Even if they kick you out, even if they beat you, you must still go to them. Go to them, preach to them and bring them slowly to this path! Even if you bring a little rice from them, even if you bring one plate from them, even if you bring one flower from them, you can use it in service. Go again! Go again and again, and one day they will understand that no matter how much they chase you away, no matter how much they scold you, you do not go away, you are not listening. Srila Prabhupad said, 'To create one brahmachari, to create one sannyasi, to create one devotee, you must shed gallons of blood!'"

Our country is also like that. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "You are taking the Holy Name, but you can buy the beads in any shop. Is that one and the same? If you go to a homeopathic shop and say you have some disease, they will measure the potency and give you the medicine in globules; and if you buy some empty globules on the street, will such globules cure your disease? Gurudev must place his power within the Holy Name."

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)

You must receive Guru's prasad (mercy); otherwise, without the mercy of the Guru, without faith in your Guru, there is no use in chanting on beads. Even if you chant on the beads for a million of lifetimes, you will not get the Lord because there is too much offence in such chanting.

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)

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (1.6 Mb, 4 min)