(3/9) Six Pillars of Devotional Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
1 March 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

ছয় বেগ দমি’, ছয় দোষ শোধি’,
ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে ।

chhaya vega dami’, chhaya dosa sodhi’,
chhaya guna deha dase

'Please subjugate my six urges, rectify my six defects and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant.'

You must also remember what the six good qualities are. The first good quality is utsaha, or enthusiasm. For example, you know that gurudev is coming to your house, or Vaishnavs are coming to your house – you should feel very happy about it. It is necessary to feel such excitement: 'Oh, Gurudev is coming tomorrow!', 'Oh, tomorrow is my Param Gurudev's disappearance festival!', 'Oh, today is my Param Gurudev's appearance!' There was Srila Prabhupad's appearance day recently, and I told the devotees that they had to make a festival, chant Srila Prabhupad's glories. They were going to arrange vaishnav-seva anyway, so I told them to focus on Srila Prabhupad instead. So, on this day, we spoke about Srila Prabhupad's glories, we offered him puspanjali. It is necessary to have such devotional enthusiasm. Mayapur Vaishnavs had a gathering on this day, but I thought, 'Why must I go there? I am getting devotees' association here, and I can observe this day together with them in an even better way.'

The second good quality is firm faith. We must have faith that the Lord will protect us, that He is our protector; otherwise, nobody – not even a doctor, not even our fathers, our mothers, our friends or anybody else – can save or protect us.

The third good quality is patience. People often think, 'Oh, I have been going to the temple for quite a while, but I have not got anything there', or, 'I have chanted the Holy Name today, but I do not feel any result.' It is necessary to be patient. Gurudev always said, 'Wait and see.' We must pray to gurudev also, 'Please give me the power to tolerate and to be patient. Even if they beat me, even if they hurt me, even if they say anything to me or do anything to me, let me not lose it.' Sometimes people get disturbed thinking, 'I chant the Holy Name, and people abuse me for this...' When I visited one devotee recently, he told me, 'How will we chant kirtan? People are going to say all kinds of bad things.' I told him, 'Who cares? They will say things for one day, two days, after that they will stop.' Sometimes you will put on tilaks, and people will say, 'Oh, look at him! He has found a guru, and now he has become a great Vaishnav!' Let them say whatever they want. Valmiki also had to tolerate this because he used to be a great dacoit before. Jagai and Madhai also did many bad things before, but they changed – they wore tilaks and chanted the Holy Name on beads. People abused them, too. People also said such things about me, 'This kind of boy has become a Vaishnav?!' Let them say whatever they want. Are we going to give up chanting the Holy Name because of them? Never. We must tolerate everything and be patient.

The fourth good quality is engaging in the activities that nurture devotion. These are not ordinary activities (karma); such activities are service (seva). Mainly, we must practise sravan and kirtan: we must listen to the glories of the Lord and chant the Lord's Name and glories ourselves.

The fifth good quality is to reject any and all enjoyment or happiness that is not related to Lord Krishna. It means that if something is related to Lord Krishna, you must accept it; and if something is not related to Lord Krishna, you must reject it in your lives. We must learn to give up bad association. It means that you must give up the association of irreligious people, women and all those who mix with women. We must not associate with materialists, with those who are not religious and with those who mix with women. Materialists have no devotion, they are attracted and attached to material things, they worry about their money and property, forgetting that the Lord is the proprietor. We must not get close to such people. There are also mayavadis (Rama Krishna Mission, Bharat Seva Ashram, and so on) – we must not associate with them, even when we see them anywhere, we must keep a hundred feet away. Then, there are also sahajiyas and religious pretenders who show off and cheat people on false pretext of religion. That is also why sadhus never join any political parties.

Lastly, the sixth good quality is to follow in sadhus' footsteps. It means we must follow those who live following all the rules and regulations. You must see how sadhus live in their lives and follow their example. One time, somebody asked Gurudev, 'Should I leave my job?' Gurudev said, 'Don't. Continue working, then you will get a pension – once you get your pension, you can use it to support your wife and children, and you yourself can dedicate your life to the Lord's service.'

These are the six qualities. We pray to Vaishnav Thakur that he may bestow such qualities upon us.

ছয় বেগ দমি’, ছয় দোষ শোধি’,
ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে ।

chhaya vega dami’, chhaya dosa sodhi’,
chhaya guna deha dase

'Please subjugate my six urges, rectify my six defects and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant.'

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Length: 64 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Self-Rectification
2) Resist Defective Lifestyle
3) Six Pillars of Devotional Life
4) Leave This World
5) Do Not Poison Your Mind
6) Once Upon a Guru
7) 'My Happiness or Your Head'
8) Price of Peace
9) Pave Your Road to Holy Dham