(3/4) Qualification for Chanting Holy Name

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, evening class,
12 April 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

'Chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi' chhaya guna deha' dase (ছয় বেগ দমি' ছয় দোষ শোধি ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে). Please subjugate my six urges, rectify my six defects and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant.'

When you chant this, somebody can ask you, 'What are the six urges? What are the six defects? What are the six good qualities?' You must be able to answer.

ছয় বেগ দমি', ছয় দোষ শোধি',
ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে ।
ছয় সৎসঙ্গ, দেহ হে আমারে,
বসেছি সঙ্গের আশে ॥২॥

chhaya vega dami', chhaya dosa sodhi,
chhaya guna deha dase
chhaya sat-sanga, deha he amare,
basechhi sangera ase [2]

'Please subjugate my six urges [speech, mind, anger, tongue, stomach, genitals], rectify my six defects [greed, doing what is unfavourable to devotion, idle talks, attachment to inferior rules, material association, fickle-mindedness] and bestow the six good qualities [enthusiasm, faith, patience, doing what is favourable to devotion, avoiding bad association, following sadhus' practices] upon this servant. Please grant me six kinds of good association [giving devotees gifts, taking gifts from devotees, confiding in devotees, enquiring from devotees, taking prasad, feeding devotees prasad]. I am waiting, hoping to attain this association.'

We pray to have association to develop the six good qualities.

Do all of you who have taken initiation remember the ten offences of the Holy Name? When you take initiation, I do not have time to explain them all one by one, so I will explain it now.

1) Sadhu-ninda. Criticising saints. Never criticise sadhus. It is not necessary to do that, neither should you also listen to others criticise them.

বৈষ্ণব-চরিত্র, সর্ব্বদা পবিত্র,
যেই নিন্দে হিংসা করি’ ।
ভকতিবিনোদ না সম্ভাষে তাঁ’রে,
থাকে সদা মৌন ধরি’ ॥

vaisnava-charitra sarvada pavitra
yei ninde himsa kari'
bhaktivinoda na sambhase tan're
thake sada mauna dhari'

'The character of Vaishnavs is always pure. Bhaktivinod keeps quiet and does not associate with those who are envious of Vaishnavs and who criticise Vaishnavs.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru)

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says that when he hears somebody criticise another person or Mahaprabhu, he stops his mouth (he keeps quiet). He cannot tolerate criticism of others. Gurudev also said a very nice thing. He said that if somebody always complains, complains, complains, you must first check the person who is complaining – first check if the complainer is right or not. If somebody complains a lot, you should doubt this person more than the person who they complain about. Why is the person complaining so much?

2) To consider gods to be independent of or equal to Lord Krishna. If somebody says that Kali, Durga, Ganesh are the same as Krishna and if somebody says they are different from Him, both are offenders. Some say that Lord Siva and Lord Krishna are one and the same; some say that Lord Siva is separate from Lord Krishna – both conceptions are offensive. Lord Siva is part of Lord Krishna

একলা ঈশ্বর কৃষ্ণ, আর সব ভৃত্য ।
যারে যৈছে নাচায়, সে তৈছে করে নৃত্য ॥

ekala isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya
yare yaiche nachaya, se taichhe kare nrtya

'Lord Krishna is the only supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.5.142)

Lord Krishna is the only controller, and everybody else are His parts and parcels. For example, Lord Rama's appearance day is coming soon. Lord Rama is an incarnation of Lord Narayan, the same as Lord Nrisinghadev, Vamandev, Varahadev. First, there is Mul-Sankarsan, from Him come Sankarsan, Vasudev, Aniruddha and Pradyumna, and then all the incarnations.

3) To disrespect (disobey) the guru. It means not listening to what gurudev says. Disobeying, or disrespecting, the guru means considering him an ordinary mortal human being. You think, 'Oh, I am here in Tarakeshwar, and gurudev is in Kolkata, so he cannot see what I am doing.' This is what it means to think that your guru is an ordinary mortal man.

4) To criticise revealed scriptures. Those who criticise Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Srimad Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures are offenders.

5) To discuss the meaning of the Name. It means discussing or asking about the meaning of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, to ask about the meaning of Hare, of Rama, and so on.

6) To consider the Name to be imaginary. Some people think that somebody created, or invented, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. No! This Holy Name comes from Goloka Vrindavan! It is created by the Lord Himself – it is the very Name of the Lord Himself! Nobody invented or wrote it in some book.

7) To sin relying on the purifying strength of the Name. It means thinking, 'Oh, I can do wrong the whole day long, and in the evening I will chant on the beads and all my sins will be removed.' If you chant the Holy Name with this kind of idea, it is an offence. In the same way, some people think that they can do whatever they like 364 days a year, and one day a year they can have kirtans chanted at their house and all their sins will go away. It is an offence!

8) To equal chanting of the Holy Name to other pious activities. There are many kinds of pious activities people do at home – there are many kinds of worship prescribed in the Vedas and Vedanta, there are many kinds of god worship; you must compare such practices to chanting the Holy Name. You do some fire sacrifice and think it is the same kind of ritual as chanting the Holy Name – this is an offence.

9) To give the Name to the faithless or to those who have material attachments.

10) To be infatuated with the material life of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, to have no love and attachment for the Name. Gurudev said that this last offence is the hardest. You may hear about the glories of the Holy Name, but you still think that you belong to yourself, you are still attached to your family, wife, friends – you are still none wiser.

Always remember this. These are the ten offences, Learn them by heart. I have told so many times that if you know about these offences and chant the Holy Name without all these offences, then you will get the result quickly. I always tell you this when you take initiation.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 14 Mb
Length: 28 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Heal Yourself
2) Good Qualities
3) Qualification for Chanting Holy Name
4) Read and Learn