(1/8) Keep Your Guard Up

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 21 March 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace recites Sri Jaya Dhvani and Sri Vandana.]

We are going to start Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama in two days, and tomorrow is the adhivas, the eve and inauguration of the festival. Many devotees have already come, and you all have got an opportunity to hear about the Lord, to chant kirtan. I will also say something today, too, for everyone’s benefit and, most of all, for my own benefit. Now we are going to chant some kirtans.

[His Divine Grace sings ‘Sri Guru-charana-padma’.]

‘Sri-guru-charana-padma, kevala-bhakati-sadma, vando muni savadhana mate (শ্রীগুরুচরণ-পদ্ম, কেবলভকতিসদ্ম, বন্দোঁ মুঞি সাবধান মতে). I carefully offer my obeisance at Sri Guru’s lotus feet, which are an abode of exclusive devotion.’ Why must we worship and pay obeisance to gurudev with great care?

[Noise in the audience.] Please keep quiet. Do not speak. You must not speak, especially any gramya-katha, sitting in front of the Deities. And keep your mobile phones switched off. Listen to the class; it will do you (as well as your family, children and others) good. It is necessary to worship the lotus feet of the guru with great care. You have taken so much trouble coming here amidst the lockdown by the mercy of Gaura Hari, by the mercy of gurudev. Do not waste your time.

Take prasad, take rest, do everything as you are habituated, and amidst that, every day when we return from the parikrama, come here and listen to Hari-katha. Even during the parikrama you will hear about Vaishnavs, about the Lord – you must take it in, you must take it into your hearts. You must keep and take all this katha with you. If you want to cross a river, you give some money to the boatman and you get transported to the other bank, but here you cannot make it with money – you can cross the ocean of material existence only with devotion. You must listen to Hari-katha with devotion. You must engage yourselves in sravan and kirtan. So, if you speak during the class, it is a sin against the Lord, and the Lord gets offended. You are sitting in the Lord’s house, so you must not chatter.

I began saying, ‘Sri-guru-charana-padma, kevala-bhakati-sadma, vando muni savadhana mate (শ্রীগুরুচরণ-পদ্ম, কেবলভকতিসদ্ম, বন্দোঁ মুঞি সাবধান মতে). I carefully offer my obeisance at Sri Guru’s lotus feet, which are an abode of exclusive devotion.’ We always make offences to the guru: we do not follow what he tells us. Gurudev tells us to do this or not to do that, but we always go against that.

গুরুমুখ-পদ্মবাক্য, চিত্তেতে করিয়া ঐক্য,
আর না করিহ মনে আশা ।

guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya,
ara na kariha mane asa

‘Make the teachings from Sri Guru’s lotus mouth one with your heart and do not desire anything else.’

(Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

We were singing this just now, and I heard you were singing earlier (after the arati):

করুণা না হৈলে, কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া,
প্রাণ না রাখিব আর ॥

karuna na haile, kandiya kandiya,
prana na rakhiba ara

‘If I do not get your mercy, I will simply weep to death.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We sing all this, but how many people actually cry because they cannot get service? We say, ‘I will cry and give up this life,’ but how many people actually cry when they do not get service? Even if gurudev gives them mercy, they cannot keep it! I always tell you: you want to keep some water or milk in a pot but if that pot has holes, all the water or milk will come out. There are holes in our service, so all our effort comes out through these holes. No matter how much we try to serve, we do not get any result because side by side we do wrong and do other things more (we speak gramya-katha and do what is unfavourable to devotion, bhakti-pratikul). We may do everything right, but sometimes we also make mistakes: you want to keep water in a pot, but your pot has holes, so all the water comes out through the holes (the pot remains empty). This is how we become deceived and deprived of gurudev’s mercy. This is how all kinds of dangers and bad things come to our lives. If you do service and at the same time do other, bad things more, then you are in for trouble. You must remember this. That is why we chant in the kirtan, ‘Vando muni savadhana mate (বন্দোঁ মুঞি সাবধান মতে). I carefully offer my obeisance at Sri Guru’s lotus feet.’ We pray, we worship and pay obeisance to the guru’s holy feet with great care. Once we let our guard down – if we do not watch out for holes – all water will fall through the holes. In the same way, we must watch out for any mistakes in our service. We must watch out and make sure that we do not cheat, do not try to deceive the Lord while doing service. We must be alert about whether we want something from the Lord or not. We must always be aware of this and watch out for this.

‘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.’ You must keep what gurudev says in your hearts, and it is not necessary to want, or expect, anything else. If you can just keep his words in your hearts, that is sufficient…

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Length: 81 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Keep Your Guard Up
2) Clear Vision
3) Cries of a Fallen Child
4) Exclusive Current
5) Mahaprabhu's Teachings
6) Practise What Is Preached
7) Know Best
8) Best News