Tie Your Mind

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, noon programme, 28 February 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

All of us have gone to primary school. When you study in primary school, there are one-two hundred students (now even more), but when you progress to high school, only half of the students stay there. When you go to college, then you may not find more than ten of the old students there. When you go to university, only one person is there from your old schoolmates. Many people come to dance and chant, but how many people are there who would come to hear Hari-katha, who are thirsty for Hari-katha? Yet until and unless you are thirsty for Hari-katha, you cannot get true benefit. Just as mental hunger causes mental stress, in the same way spiritual hunger causes stress for the soul. So, those who will listen to Hari-katha listen to it for the benefit of their souls. Srila Prabhupad also said: so many people come to the temple—when you chant kirtans, the hall is full, or when you make festivals, the place becomes filled with people (you will cook twenty quintal of rice [2 tones], and everything will be finished), but who of them are hungry for food (bhojan), and who of them are hungry for spiritual life (bhajan)?

[His Divine Grace gets distracted:] You must listen carefully, leave your phone. If you listen attentively, you can get benefit, what is the need to use your phone? You must leave all this in the drain! What is the use of your phone? I have written my Hari-katha in books—if you just read these books, you will get Hari-katha.

So, there is another questions here (Guidance 3, "108 Questions and Answers"): Is it devotion to imagine some idol of a God, offer Him flowers, Tulasi, ring the bell, recite verses in His praise and sit in front of Him and do japa, meditate? No, it is not. Have you heard it? All this is not devotion! You come to the Lord because you want something for your body, for your health or family. People come to the Lord, offer some flowers, and recite some prayers for the well-fare of their family, but the main thing should be devotion—you cannot get the Lord through fruitive actions (selfish work), knowledge, or any austerities or mystic practices. It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "How can you get the Lord? Through devotion." How does one get devotion? Through the pure association of pure devotees. If you associate with devotees, you will get devotion. If you keep listening to Hari-katha, you will gradually attain devotion. Ringing a bell, offering flowers, etc.—this is not devotion. Devotion comes from the heart. We sing in one of the kirtans when we wake up every morning:

suddha bhakta-palana suska-jnana-tadana,
chhala-bhakti-dusana-rama

He is the maintainer of the pure devotees and the dispeller of dry knowledge. He is the eradicator of pseudo-devotion and the reservoir of all pleasure.

What people do in this world is pseudo-devotion, it is a pretence. There are such people in our country also. There are such people in Mednipore, and there are such people here, in Basirhat, also. People will grab your feet and wash them with tons of water, with tears dropped from their eyes into the pots with water. Do they cry for the Lord or is it a show to impress others? All this is crocodile tears! When I went to Mednipore, people actually queued in a long line to wash my feet, and when I became thirsty and asked them for one glass of water, one hour had passed and no water came. Is that devotion? You can understand it yourself. Therefore, it is said: Is it devotion to imagine some idol of a God, offer Him flowers, Tulasi, ring the bell, recite verses in His praise and sit in front of Him and do japa, meditate? No, it is not. All this is not devotion.

Devotion means you must feed the Lord with much affection and care. You have nothing, you do not know any mantras (how many of us know anything about the right or wrong pronunciation?), but when you feed your husband, you feed him with much affection and much care—you do not ring a bell to feed your husband, you do not recite any mantras to feed him. It is the same with the Lord. The Lord is your own. This is what you must think, this is how you must love the Lord. The Lord is the master of your house—without offering first to Him, we cannot even drink a glass of water. You must do arati at 4 o'clock, so wake up at 3 o'clock every day, but people sleep till 8 or 6 o'clock—they do not have time to wake up the Lord. People wake up at 6, take bath, and leaving all work aside, they send their husbands to work and children to school, then they go to the prayer room at 10 to ring the bell. Is that what you call devotion? This is not devotion!

“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.

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

"If you behave bad stealthily, thinking nobody will know about it, Gora will catch up with you!"

We have unwanted, bad elements within us (anarthas). How will these elements go away? Why do we not feel any taste for chanting the Holy Name? Because we do not chant the pure Holy Name. When we chant the Holy Name on our beads, no matter how much we chant, other thoughts always come to our minds. "My son went out, is he all right or not?", "My husband went to work, is he all right or not?", "This person went to see a doctor, are they all right or not?", "Where will I get money to buy food tomorrow? I must think of something." Is it so or not? You can never chant the Holy Name like this. However, Srila Prabhupad said that if you chant the Holy Name loudly, forcefully, then your mind will not go in a bad direction. You can chant loudly on your beads or without. If you chant loudly, you will see that other thoughts will not be coming to your mind so much (this bad tendency will slowly go away). That is why, Srila Prabhupad advised to chant the Holy Name loudly. We get shy that others will hear us chanting, that we will disturb others. You must not get shy because of this—you must be firm, "No! I will chant loudly!" Then, your mind will not be scattered everywhere, your mind will not go in any other direction.

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