Accepting the Rules

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Four
Evening class, 27 March 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

It is said, "Avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana (অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ বিশ্বাস পালন): surrender means believing that Krishna will certainly protect me." Krishna is the protector, Krishna is the maintainer.

Have you ever seen in the news that when an earthquake or a whirlpool happens, sometimes big buildings can get broken—everybody may die but some two-year-old child survives. If the Lord keeps you alive, nobody can kill you, and if the Lord kills you, then nobody can save you. Therefore, it is necessary to keep faith in the Lord. It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, in Srimad Bhagavatam and other scriptures that it is necessary to have faith.

I heard yesterday that there are a hundred people who want to take initiation. If you only want to take initiation and then go back home and live as before, it will not do. You take initiation, then go back home and do not keep any connection with your Guru—there is no news about you for one-two years. I do not want your money, wealth, cars, houses, etc.—you must give your heart, your soul. So many people have come, but I have never told anyone, "You are coming for five days, you must give me money for that." If you give something, it is OK; if you do not give anything, it is OK too. You can see also that we have rented buses for three days, I never take any bus fare from anyone.

You are taking initiation. It is like you are getting enrolled into a school and then never come to study. You take initiation, give some pranami and take the beads, but after that you do not care whether you chant or not chant, you do not keep any connection, you do not build any relation with your Gurudev, you do not practise anything. If you enrol into a school and study like this, then you will never pass the exams. You are coming here to practise Krishna consciousness, to serve Guru; this is why people take initiation. You must always remember this. Also, I do not tell these things every day and I do not know if anybody has told you about it or not, but all those who are taking initiation must at least follow the four regulative principles, if you are not prepared to follow them, then you should not take initiation here. I do not need a large quantity of devotees. If I get only one good disciple, he can rescue the whole universe. I do not need a thousand people. My Gurudev has kept just me alone here and you all come running after me. If you needed a big building, then you would not come here—you would stay at the old temple in Nabadwip (jal-mandir). When I came here, to this jungle, you all came with me. Now there are many buildings here, and more people want to come. Do you think I do not understand this? Now that we have made the fourth floor and a new guesthouse, now people want to come, but before they used to worry if there is place to stay or not, if there are any arrangements or not, and they criticised and gossiped about us. I have told you before,

বৈষ্ণব-চরিত্র, সর্ব্বদা পবিত্র,
যেই নিন্দে হিংসা করি’ ।
ভকতিবিনোদ না সম্ভাষে তাঁ’রে,
থাকে সদা মৌন ধরি’ ॥

vaisnava-charitra sarvada pavitra
yei ninde himsa kari'
bhaktivinoda na sambhase tan're
thake sada mauna dhari'

"The character of Vaishnavs is always pure. Bhaktivinod keeps quiet and does not associate with those who are envious of Vaishnavs and who criticise Vaishnavs."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru)

I never chase anyone away. Others may do what they do, but I do not need to do what others do. Always remember this and try to be like that.

The four regulative principles means not engaging in gambling, taking intoxicants, illegal sex, and meat-eating. Gambling means playing dice, cards, buying lottery tickets. Intoxication means drinking alcohol, drugs, smoking, drinking tea. You must give all this up. Many have a habit to suck chocolate instead of drinking tea—this is how they give up their habit to drink tea. Illegal sex means you must not associate with any women except your own wife, and you must also not be too attached to your wife. You can only enter into a relationship with your wife to have children, you must not have too much attachment. Meat-eating means you must not kill any jiva souls—you must not eat any meat, fish, onion, garlic, masoori dal (lentil). Never eat this. Remember this. Never eat fish, meat, onion, garlic, masoori dal (lentil). Also, you must follow ekadasi. You can also try to keep a photograph of the Deities and offer bhog to the Deities—it is not necessary to cook anything extraordinary; you can cook some potato and offer potato; many people have wild spinach growing in their garden—this spinach is Mahaprabhu's favourite, you can cook it and offer it (Mahaprabhu will be even happier). You can place the offering in front of the photograph of the Deities with a Tulasi leaf, chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and say, "Prabhu, I do not know anything, please eat this. I do not understand anything, but I am giving this offering to You." After that, put the prasad on another plate and you can take it. Keep some plates separately for the Lord. If you eat muri, you can offer muri, if you eat rice or roti, you can offer it to the Lord. Offer whatever you can get. "Prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়)—by honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

The second thing is for those who are taking second initiation—wherever you may stay, you must remember that you are getting brahman initiation tomorrow. You must become a brahman. You will wear the brahman thread and you must shave your head tomorrow. [To one of the devotees] Why do you keep long hair? You do puja at different houses, why do you need to keep such long hair?...

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