Where is Hari?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Saint Petersburg, Russia
1 August 2002

We ask many questions, we want to know everything, but actually it is not necessary. You know that Radharani is the main servitor of Krishna, but how much knowledge does She have? Nothing, She has no relation with knowledge, but She always serves Krishna. So, knowledge is not necessary. We must serve our Gurudev, we must serve our Lord, then we will get benefit. Guru Maharaj says, what is the second initiation for? Through the second initiation you can go up to Vaikuntha, but through Harinam sankirtan, through service, you can go to Goloka. It says in one of our books that you may have everything, but if you have no faith in your Gurudev, then you have nothing.

There is one example from Search for Sri Krishna. Imagine there is a lotus blooming in a pond. The lotus tolerates the sun, the rain—everything; but once you take the lotus out of the pond, it will immediately dry without the shelter of the water. In the same way, without Gurudev's shelter you cannot get anything. Actually, if you have the shelter of Gurudev, you have everything. You may have everything—you can have money, you can have knowledge, etc.—but if you have no mercy of Gurudev, then you have nothing.

What more can I say? We must serve our Gurudev. I have seen your service mood, and we feel very fortunate to get your association.

Actually, where will we get Krishna? "Hari kothay? Hari-kathay. (হরি কোথায় ? হরি-কথায় ।)" It means, "Where is Hari? Hari is in Hari-katha (discussions about Hari)." You will get Hari in the lecture about Hari, this is how you can get benefit.

I heard a story that once Prabhupad went to some province of India where the language spoken was Hindu or Gujarati, but Prabhupad started his lecture in Bengali. One of the devotees said to him, "Prabhupad, this is Gujarat, here you can speak English, Gujarati, or Hindi, you cannot speak Bengali." Prabhupad replied, "We are not speaking English, we are not speaking Hindi or Gujarati. We are speaking Hari-katha. Hari-katha is not any language. If you simply hear it, you will get a super benefit: you will get Krishna."

So, where will you get Krishna? You will get Krishna, Hari, in the Hari-katha. How will you get Hari? Through the service to Hari. This is the truth, this is a fact.

It is necessary to have sadhu-sanga. First it is necessary to have sukriti, but we have already got some good sukriti, that is why we have come here. How can we association of a real, pure Vaishnavs? Where is sadhu-sanga? Sadhu-sanga is not eating together with the sadhu or sleeping together with the sadhu. We are now far from Nabadwip, but if we think about Nabadwip, if we think about Vrindavan or Govardhan, then we can be here in Saint Petersburg but actually we are not in Saint Petersburg—if we think about Govardhan, then we are actually in Govardhan. In the same way, we may be in Nabadwip, but if we think about some material things, material knowledge, then we are not in Nabadwip. We can be serving the Deities, we can be staying with the sadhu, but if we think about some material things, this is not sadhu-sanga. Sadhu-sanga means service to the sadhu. Eating from the same plate as the sadhu or Vaishnavs is not sadhu-sanga; serving the sadhu, serving the Vaishnavs, and listening to the sadhu is what is called sadhu-sanga.

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