(1/8) Life in Hari-Kirtan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, 18 April 2019, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Some of you came to Tarakeshwar and listened to some Hari-katha, you have also attended various programmes and heard many things. Such days should actually be there in our lives every day. It is said in the scriptures that a bad day is not a cloudy day. What day is a bad day? The day when we do not hear Hari-katha, the day when we cannot chant the Lord's Holy Names and glories. Therefore, we always want to hear about the Lord, to glorify the Lord, to chant the Lord's Names. Just as we eat every day, go to the bathroom every day, we pass stool every day, we take a shower every day – in the same way, we must chant the Lord's Names and glories every day. If you do it only for one day or for a week, it will not do.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

'Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

Having travelled throughout various universes, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the creeper of pure devotion.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥
মালী হঞা করে সেই বীজ আরোপণ ।
শ্রবণ-কীর্ত্তন-জলে করয়ে সেচন ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
mali hana kare sei bija aropana
sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

'Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna. Becoming gardeners, they plant that seed and nurture it with the water of hearing and chanting.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151–152)

What does a gardener do? After planting a seed, he starts taking care of it: he sees how to water it, what the seed requires to grow well, and so on. As the result, the seed sprouts and grows into a strong tree, and then it bears good fruit. So, in our lives, this water that we should pour onto our seeds is sravan (listening about the Lord) and kirtan (chanting the Lord's Names and glories, practising). There are sixty-four limbs of devotion, and five of them are the main practices:

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

'Associate with sadhus, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, listen to Srimad Bhagavatam, reside in Mathura and worship Deities with faith.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.124)

If you bath in the Ganges (or put some Ganges water on your heads), you can be cleansed of your sins, but you can become pure just by seeing a sadhu.

গঙ্গার পরশ হৈলে পশ্চাতে পাবন ।
দর্শনে পবিত্র কর এই তোমার গুণ ॥

gangara-parasa haile paschate pavana
darsane pavitra kara ei tomara guna

'After touching the Ganges, one can eventually attain salvation, but your quality is such that one can be purified just by seeing you.'

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

We can become pure just by seeing a saintly personality. But how can we recognise a Vaishnav, or a sadhu? Is anyone who wears tilaks and neckbeads a sadhu? Mahaprabhu 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 laile 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)

Only saying, 'Jay Nitai!' with your mouth does not make you a sadhu. You may have heard about a man from Barisala, Bangladesh. Somebody came to a devotee's house crying out, 'Jay Nitai! Jay Nitai!' and when the man came to open the door, they broke in and robbed him. The man had a big land, so he was rich, so some Muslim people came and robbed his house. When the man heard them cry, 'Jay Nitai!' he thought that some sadhu must have come, but when he opened the door, they robbed his house and ran away. So, not everybody who says 'Jay Nitai!' actually means it – some will come to rob you. There are such people in this world. When somebody genuinely chants, 'Jay Nitai! Jay Gaura!' that is another matter. When they take the Name of the Lord (Hari bol, Nitai-Gaura), others get benefit. If we can chant Nitai-Gaura's Names, we will get benefit.

When you chant the Holy Name loudly, the result is one; when you chant the Holy Name in your mind, the result is another; and if you dance and chant the Holy Name, the result is yet another (there is even more result). If you chant the Holy Name in your mind, you get the result, but if you chant loudly, there is more result. How so? When you chant loudly, then insects and all the other living entities that cannot speak can get the benefit from that. Srila Haridas Thakur always chanted the Holy Name very loudly. But if you start chanting like that, your neighbours will be annoyed, 'He does not let me sleep! This man must be so hungry that he cannot sleep, that is why he is bawling the whole night!'

When you chant the Holy Name, you must chant sincerely, without any hypocrisy – not to turn God into your servant. Asking God for this, this, that – do not do this. We will serve the Lord, and what result or reward the Lord gives for that, that is up to Him. We must not ask God for anything. 'O Lord, give me this!', 'O Lord, please make this happen' – not like that. We will chant the Lord's Name and glories, and let the Lord do whatever He thinks is better. If He puts me in some danger, let Him do so; if the Lord wants to keep me happy, let Him do so. Happiness and sadness are actually the same as cold and heat. Sometimes it gets cold in winter, but then the summer comes and it again becomes warm. Our material happiness and sadness are also like that; they come and go. Sometimes something good happens, sometimes something bad happens. It is no use wasting your time worrying about this.

Anyway, how long will you be in this world? Even if you live for one hundred years, how many millions of wombs have you gone through before? Amidst all this travelling from womb to womb, you have got this one-hundred-year-long human birth, but we waste it – we forget the Lord.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

'Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primaeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

Because we forget the Lord, we are now suffering from the agony of the threefold miseries. To get relief from this, we must always chant the Holy Name in good association.

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Length: 42 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Life in Hari-Kirtan
2) Busy Lives
3) Your Responsibility
4) No Shortcuts
5) Sacrifice to Thrive
6) No Double Standards
7) Selfless Devotion
8) Serve with Heart and Soul