(13/14) Focus on Lord's Happiness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
26 February 2019, noon, part 13
Translated from Bengali

If we cannot understand these things, then we will not be able to understand anything in our lives. We are always thinking and worrying about enjoyment. We come to the temple and instead of thinking about it as a place for service, we thinking that a temple is a place for our enjoyment. Gurudev makes a temple, and we take it as an object of enjoyment. Hari-seva (service to the Lord) means Hari-bhoga (supplying enjoyment to the Lord), not Hari-bhogi (using the Lord for your own enjoyment). Sometimes, I tell this story to explain it. One time, a man invited a brahman to worship his sila Deity of Lord Narayan. The brahman took some cashew nuts and went to offer them to the sila, but, unable to tolerate his greed, he started shelling the nuts with the sila and eating them himself. The man was standing outside the altar and when he heard the banging sound, he wondered, 'What is this sound? What is that brahman doing?' When he saw the brahman shelling the nuts with the sila, he was horrified, 'I have bought these nuts to offer to the Lord, but this man is cracking the nuts with the Deity and eating them!' If brahmans hear this, they will be angry, but there is nothing we can do about it – we have to tell these things.

I wrote in Guidance 3 about the difference between brahmans and Vaishnavs. Read it carefully and explain it to people, especially when you meet such brahmans.

Listen to this. This here is something that many people do not understand.

Question: Guru is the Lord Himself, he is the visaya-vigraha (the object of worship). Does it mean that anyone can be passed as a guru imagining that he is a personification of God?

Answer: The guru is the Lord Himself, but he is not visaya vigraha. The guru is asraya-vigraha (his purpose is to give shelter, not to take worship). By taking shelter in him, one can get service to Lord Krishna. Krishna performs the rasa-lila – He enjoys with the gopis, but the asraya-vigraha gurudev does not show enjoying pastimes. Only gurudev knows how to do the highest service to Krishna. Tulasi is offered at the lotus feet of visaya-vigraha Krishna, but Tulasi is not offered at the lotus feet of asraya-vigraha Sri Guru. Nobody can turn a human into 'God'. Both God and the guru are not created by any human or disciple.

The guru is not created by some disciple or man – the guru is created by the Lord Himself.

Sometimes, different thoughts come to our minds and we cannot chant the Holy Name properly – in this case, you should chant loudly more and more.

Question: How can anarthas be removed?

Answer: If you loudly chant the prescribed number of rounds of the Holy Name of Krishna, unwanted habits and qualities will go away, and all materialism, etc. will run away—even those who are averse to the Lord, the outside people will not be able to avert it then.

People will say that you are going mad, so what? Good! Let them say it. If we can become crazy for Krishna, what is the problem? You know, one time Sachi Mata was very worried about Nimai, but Sri Advaita Acharya came and said to Nimai, 'I have not come to comfort You. You are talking all kinds of nonsense things and behaving erratically, I know why You are doing that. I have come to get Your mercy – I, too, want to become mad like You!' We want to become crazy like that. You can find this pastime described in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. Later also, after Mahaprabhu took sannyas, Sri Advaita Acharya sent Him a letter, saying,

বাইলকে কহিহ,—লোক হইল বাউল ।
বাইলকে কহিহ,—হাটে না বিকায় চাউল ॥
বাইলকে কহিহ,—কায়ে নাহিক আউল ।
বাইলকে কহিহ,—ইহা কহিয়াছে বাউল ॥

"baulake kahiha,—loka haila baula
baulake kahiha,—hate na vikaya chaula
baulake kahiha,—kaye nahika aula
baulake kahiha,—iha kahiyachhe baula"

'Tell the Madman that people have gone mad. Tell the Madman that rice is not selling at the market anymore. Tell the Madman that there is no work left for the Madman. Tell the Madman that this news is brought to Him by another madman.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.19.20-21)

He was saying in this letter, 'I can understand that Your pastimes are coming to an end – You have fulfilled Your duty in this world. I know You will leave soon now. I want to leave before You.' Srila Haridas Thakur also wanted this – he wanted to leave before Mahaprabhu. It is necessary to understand these things...

Do you have a question? Sure, ask.

Question: How can we recognise a genuine guru?

If a guru stands before his disciple and remembrance of Lord Krishna does not come to the disciple's mind, such a person can never be a guru. Also, a guru must be declared by other big gurus, there must be a guru-parampara. It is not that somebody can come and say, 'I will be the guru!' It is necessary to know first your own guru. For example, when you arrange your son's wedding, you check the future wife's background, family lineage. At least, this is what people did before, I do not know what people do now; perhaps, now people just check facebook and see if they like the person or not, but before people checked the backgrounds thoroughly... So, when it comes to a guru, you should see the guru-parampara – when gurudev gives his declaration and certificate to somebody, it is not necessary to give this certificate to anybody else. When gurudev gives his certificate to somebody, that is sufficient. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave his certificate to my Gurupadpadma, and we respect him as our guru. Whatever people say, whatever else people may have to say, I do not listen to all this – I do not need to hear or know this.

— : • : —

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Size: 37 Mb
Length: 76 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Bound and Benumbed
2) Within and Without
3) Think about Your Actual Self
4) Pivotal Difference
5) Forget Me Not
6) Antidote to Material Life
7) Mixing in Adulteration
8) Wholesome Life
9) Devoured by Darkness
10) Spiritual Power
11) Depths of Devotion
12) Guard Your Spiritual Purity
13) Focus on Lord's Happiness
14) Pure Devotees' Pure Hankering