Will You Forget It Too?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to the devotees in the USA
5 August 2013

Question: You mentioned Srila Saraswati Thakur saying, "Do not cheat me." Could you explain this a little more?

"Do not cheat me" means "You have promised me you would do Hari-bhajan, but you are leaving now and you are going to forget Krishna, you are not going to keep connection with me—you will go home and forget everything!" If however you depend upon Krishna, then Krishna will take care of everything.

Some people say, "I have no time to chant the Holy Name," "I have no time to do any service to the Lord," "We are very busy trying to make money, earn a living," etc., but even poor people who do not have sufficient money do not use all money they have on rice, dal, and subji—they keep some money for their treatment, medicine, or some other purpose; in the same way, you too must keep some time for chanting the Holy Name, for the service to the Lord. It is necessary to do this.

That is why Prabhupad said, "Do not forget me, do not cheat me. You have promised me you would do Hari-bhajan, and that is why I have entered into a relationship with you." Still, you forget it—you do your own job, you are busy with your own enjoyment just like cats and dogs. When you lived in a forest, when you were a tiger or an elephant you were very happy. Now you are taking paneer and subji, eating something, but when you were in a pig's body you used to take stool and you were happier than you are now. Now you sleep sometimes three, sometimes four-five or seven hours a day and you are not happy, you always say, "I need more sleep"; but when you were a snake you used to sleep twenty-one hours a day, and you were much happier then. Now you have your eyes, but when you were in a bird's body, your vision was much more than it is now...

...That is Param Guru Maharaj Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's style. As Jagadananda Pandit said,

“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.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

You must understand what real bhajan is. Prabhupad said that bhajan means anugatya, it means acting under the guidance of Gurudev. Have you read "Bhakti Siddhanta Vani"? It is written there very strongly: if you are doing tapasya (penance, austerity), if you are doing yoga, if you are doing sixty-four bhaktyanga (devotional practices), if you are doing tirtha-bhraman (visiting places of pilgrimage) but you are doing it not under the guidance of your Guru, then it is not Hari-bhajan—it is mayar-bhajan, worship of maya. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Sidddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words are very strong.

Our mind is always chanchal (চঞ্চল), always restless. Even Krishna said it to Arjun, "Mind is always restless, it always goes to so many places, never sits in one place." We cannot control our mind, but Srimad Bhagavatam says how it can be possible to control it: If you can practise properly and regularly (every day, making it your habit) under the guidance of a bona fide Guru, then your mind can be controlled.

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