(10/12) Brahmans' Trade

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
23 February 2019, noon, part 10
Translated from Bengali

Many people say that you cannot give up a guru – once you accept somebody as your guru, how can you give them up?

গুরুর্ন স স্যাৎ স্বজনো ন স স্যাৎ,
পিতা ন স স্যাজ্জননী ন সা স্যাৎ ।
দৈবং ন তৎ স্যান্ন পতিশ্চ স স্যান্ন,
মোচয়েদ্ যঃ সমুপেতমৃত্যুম্ ॥

gurur na sa syat svajano na sa syat
pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat
daivam na tat syan na patis cha sa syan
na mochayed yah samupeta-mrtyam

'It is not your guru, it is not your family, it is not your father, it is not your mother, it is not your god, it is not your husband if that person cannot save you from the world of birth and death.'

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 5.5.18)

If a guru cannot rescue you from the jaws of births and deaths – cannot rescue you from this deathly material life and bring you to the real path – such a guru can be, and should be, given up according to the rules prescribed in the scriptures. The scriptures also give the mantra for doing that. I will give you one example that illustrates it nicely.

There was Bali Maharaj, the king of daityas. He had a guru by the name of Sukracharya. When Bali Maharaj wanted to give three steps of land to the Lord, Sukracharya obstructed him, saying, 'You will lose all your wealth!' He advised the king to lie and do bad things to avoid fulfilling his promise in front of the Lord. Bali Maharaj renounced his guru.

Let me tell it to you in simpler language. Suppose you are studying at primary school. When you later go to high school, does it mean that you will not show any respect or not greet your primary school teacher? Suppose I become a big barrister – if I meet my primary school teacher on the street, will I not stop and greet him? I am holding a big meeting here in Hooghly, but if my primary school teacher were to come here, I would give him a chair and show him respect. Even if he does not take a seat, at least I must show him respect. So, when you go to primary school, high school, when you then progress to college and university, you have different teachers. This Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math is a transcendental university.

Another thing I want to tell you is that you must realise what kind of guru you need. I told yesterday a very nice example from Isopanisad. If a guru has fallen into a hole himself, how will that guru take you out of the hole? I will tell you this example, and then we can finish.

The story is about one ancestral guru. What do such gurus do? They look after households in some particular areas, and their title is usually hereditary – it means that if some man is a guru now, his son becomes the guru after him. Suppose your husband is a MBBS doctor and you want your son to become a doctor, too – does it mean that your son does not need to study? He must enrol in a school, study at a medical college. If your husband is a lawyer, is there any guarantee that your son will be a lawyer, too? He must study law, then only can he become a lawyer. But people say that a brahman's son is also a brahman, so they hire him to do puja. Those brahmans drink alcohol, take drugs, do anything and everything – what benefit do you get if you do worship through such a 'brahman'? That is why we create genuine brahmans. You can see the boys sitting here – they are properly initiated, they wear brahman threads. They worship the Lord. They recite the gayatri mantras every day, they worship the Lord every day, sincerely, properly. They take baths at proper times and follow all the rules and regulations.

But what do nowadays common 'brahmans' do? One brahman worshipped Narayan-sila at some family's home. The son in the family has got a good job, so when he got his salary, he brought home some cashew nuts. The mother came to the brahman and told him, 'Offer these cashew nuts to the Lord today. My son has brought them.' Seeing those cashew nuts, the brahman become suddenly very greedy. He was old and did not have teeth, so he took the sila, who is Lord Narayan Himself, and started shelling the nuts with the sila and eating the nuts himself! Hearing some banging coming from the prayer room, the mother came to see what was going on, and she saw that the brahman was shelling nuts with Narayan-sila! What use is such brahmans' worship?

You have seen many of them also walking store to store. All shopkeepers have photos of some Deities or the Lord in their shops, so those brahmans come to the shop, throw some water and offer flowers with some 'Namo! Namo!' and they expect the shopkeeper to give them one–two hundred rupees. You do not worship the Lord in exchange for a few rupees. This is not worship. This is only a trade – people do this to earn money. If you are to worship the Lord, you must do it yourself. Just as you feed your children yourself, you must also feed the Lord yourself.

Remember this. We create proper brahmans – with proper mantras, etc. Do not deal with all those bogus brahmans. Do you know who Kali-yuga brahmans are? Those who hated and killed cows and brahmans in all the other ages (Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapar-yuga) are themselves born as brahmans in Kali-yuga. Their entire culture and character are ruined. They do not follow any rules. Just as you work every month to earn money; they also work every month to earn their money. You can see how brahmans are shown on TV also – some brahmans publicly refuse to eat cow's meat, but then you will see some big brahmans on TV showing off, 'Look! I am eating cow's meat!' If I tell you the names, they will say that I am criticising the party, so it is not necessary to tell their names. You can see it on TV yourself – they say proudly, 'Oh, look! I am eating cow's meat!' This is done to gain popularity and win votes...

Anyhow, there is something more important we must understand, and I was going to tell you a story...

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Eternal Servitude
2) Morning Tells the Day
3) Real Milk – Real Benefit
4) Sins and Animals
5) Remember Your Promises
6) Core of Krishna Consciousness
7) Relief from Miseries
8) Toxic Life
9) Keep Your Charge Up
10) Brahmans' Trade
11) Greed Is Sin, Sin Is Death
12) Seeking Happiness and Peace