(6) Core of Spiritual Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Siliguri, 30 April 2019, evening, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Do you not see what is happening in this world? If you go to the Howrah station, you will see people running there from early morning until late night – if you offer them a book to read, they rush away, 'I have no time! No time!' They run so frantically that they do not even notice if there is a bus or a car coming. They are so anxious to get to their offices, and if they come even a little late, they get scolded. This whole world revolves only around money, food and clothes. This is all people enjoy. Sometimes it makes me laugh, but sometimes it gives me pain to see how jiva souls who have fallen into material bondage live serving Maya. You keep thinking about material things – you do not think about anything great. You only think about small things – about money, food and clothes. From the moment you wake up until late night, you only keep eating and eating. What are you going to get in the end? You came to this world naked, empty-handed, and you will have to leave this world in the same state. You will not be able to take anything with you. They why be so proud? Why waste so much time? Srila Prabhupad said, 'Do you think you have time for all this?'

You have already crossed millions of years and lives, and now by some fortune you have got a human birth. Even if you live for one hundred years, how much is that compared to the millions of years that have already passed in your lives? You have got only a meagre hundred years, but you waste this precious time on 'my', 'my', 'my'... None of your friends will be left – we all have to leave!

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

‘My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that death is there, waiting right next to me.’

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It never occurs to us that we have to leave one day.

So, our greatest benefit is to accept the guidance of our gurudev and live serving him. Take shelter of a bona fide guru, listen to what he says and follow it in your lives. Practise Krishna consciousness. You only take initiation, and after that you do not keep in touch – there is no news about you, there is no letter from you. You do not even think about doing any service. Do you think this is what initiation is about? Why does one take initiation? To serve their guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord. So, you must always think, 'How can I serve my guru? How can I serve the Lord? How can I make my guru happy? How can I make the Lord happy?' We must think about it and try to understand it every single day. If Vaishnavs and gurudev are not happy, we will never be able to make the Lord happy then.

The problem is that we have ego – we think that we have become big Vaishnavs, big maharajs, big prabhus, big householders. That is why this question often arises, 'Who is a sadhu?' If you see somebody with long hair and a beard, you think that it is a sadhu, but one does not become a sadhu by growing hair, by matting your hair into dreadlocks and growing a beard, in the same way as one does not become a sadhu by becoming a big grihastha. What does sadhu always do? They always live busily engaging themselves in the service to Lord Krishna. Even I sometimes think that if there were forty-eight hours in a day instead of twenty-four hours, then maybe I would have enough time. I wake up early in the morning and get free only at eleven or twelve at night, and when I get free, I must write books and do other things. I often come to my room at eleven o'clock and then start writing books. There are a few books coming out soon, so it is necessary to write them – books do not get written themselves. It is necessary to write them, then type them, then print, then make corrections three-four times. Even though we make much effort to prepare the books, they are still often published with mistakes. This is how holy books are made. You should read those books. You spend much money on many things every day, so come and spend forty–twenty rupees on a book. You can buy the kirtan books and chant kirtans at home. If you cannot come here, if you do not have a chance, you stay at home busy with your chores – you can practise at home then. Many people come and tell me, 'Maharaj, I do not have time! We do not get time to chant the Holy Name.' They are so busy with their work the whole day, so I tell them, 'Do you go to the toilet? How many times?' They say, 'Two times.' 'What do you do when you sit on the toilet pan? You sit quietly, do you not? Chant the Holy Name at this time then.' Then they are quiet. 'I have no time' – this is all excuses! If you have no time, then chant while passing stool. Remember this. You must chant even when you pass stool. Why cannot you chant?

You have seen at the time of Gaura Purnima that we start chanting kirtan at mangal-arati and we come out for the parikrama, walking and chanting sometimes for an hour. Those who sing in the microphone along with me change – one person chants for some time, then they give the microphone to another person, and so on; but I do not leave the microphone. Have you ever seen me sitting and chanting on my beads? I do not have time – I hardly have time to chant even four rounds. But when I give initiations, then I have time to chant on the beads. For example, if I give initiation to ten people, then I get to chant ten rounds. There is no time. Actually, if you do service, that is Harinam. Even if you listen about the Lord, chant kirtan, cook, go to the market, and so on, that is also Harinam. We cannot practise all sixty-four limbs of devotion, but at least read what we write in the books.

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