(7) Common (Lack of) Sense

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Siliguri, 30 April 2019, evening, part 7
Translated from Bengali

In Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali, I wrote Srila Prabhupad's words. I do not know if you have read it or not. It talks about the distinction of our Sri Brahma-Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya. If anybody asks you in which sampradaya (school) you took initiation, you must know that it is Sri Brahma-Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya. It comes from Lord Brahma and Madhvacharya. And which current of this sampradaya do we belong to? To Sri Rupa-Saraswati current (dhara). This line stems from Srila Rupa Goswami. Mahaprabhu went to Malda specially to get Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami. The Lord Himself searched for His devotees, 'Where are they?' He came to Ramkeli (Malda) from Nabadwip and called them, 'Come!' When He came there, Dabir Khas and Sakar Mallik fell in a prostrate obeisance before Him, holding straw in His teeth, showing in this way, 'We are lower than cows'...

So, Srila Prabhupad says, ‘Devotees dedicated to the Lord’s service are eternal servants of Sri Guru and eternal servants of Sri Krishna. Devotees eternally serve Sri Krishna following their guru with faith and in strict adherence. If someone tries to practise Krishna consciousness without faithfully following their guru and Vaishnavs, this is not service to the Lord – it is service to maya.’

This (Bengali) Gaudiya Gitanjali does not cost that much – only eighty rupees. This is the price of printing. It is a thick book, that is why it is more expensive, but if you go to other missions and see their books, you can see that books are very expensive although they use cheap paper. We cannot be like that. I saw also at one of the missions that they sell chanting beads. At the market, you can get 108-bead malas for twenty to twenty-three rupees, and they sell them for forty rupees. They sell them and say, 'Chant the Holy Name.' Tulasi beads must be taken only from a guru! And good beads cost 160–200 rupees. The problem is that many people come to take initiation for their own material reasons (to be happy, healthy, etc.). For example, when I went to Midnapore recently, twelve people took initiation, and each of them gave ten rupees as pranami. Think about it. How much does it cost to buy just one bead bag? How much do the neckbeads cost? We give booklets at the time of initiation – how much does it cost to print them? One comes to take initiation and gives ten rupees. Do you know what Guru Maharaj told me once? He said, 'Vinod, you brought all those people from Midnapore – they come to me for initiation, give me ten rupees and expect me to clean their hearts. What is ten rupees? You cannot even buy a piece of soap to clean your body on ten rupees!' He said it jokingly. Anyway, Guru Maharaj gave initiation like that, and we do the same. If they give ten rupees, we do not care – we give them good beads and the rest is up to their own fate and conscience. People do not understand this – they readily spend money on all kinds of other things, but not on the service to their guru and Vaishnavs.

So, next Srila Prabhupad says, 'If someone does not faithfully follow their guru but, following their own ideas, behaves virtuously, visits holy places, performs the sixty-four practices of devotion to the Lord, practises renunciation, austerities, Nama-sankirtan, japa, meditation or engages in any other devotional(?) practices, they do not do even a little service to the Lord thereby; rather, they are simply fulfilling their desire to gratify their own senses.’

যথা সাধু, তথা তীর্থ, থির করি' নিজ-চিত্ত,
সাধুসঙ্গ কর নিরন্তর ॥
যে তী থে বৈষ্ণব নাই, সে তীর্থেতে নাহি যাই
কি লাভ হাঁটিয়া দূরদেশ ।

yatha sadhu, tatha tirtha, sthira kari' nija-chitta,
sadhu-sanga kara nirantara
ye tirthe vaisnava nai, se tirthete nahi yai
ki labha hantiya dura-desa

'A place of pilgrimage is where a pure devotee is. Always keep pure devotees’ association and firmly fix your mind. I never go to a place of pilgrimage if there is no Vaishnav in that place – what is the use walking so far?'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpatari, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Where is a holy place of pilgrimage? Wherever there are Vaishnavs. For example, there are devotees present here, so this here is a holy place of pilgrimage. The Lord and Gurudev are present here. Wherever Vaishnavs speak Hari-katha, it is a holy place of pilgrimage. You will find these words in the poem 'Mana, tumi tirthe sada rata'. It is printed on the cover of the second volume of Upadesh.

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