(6/10) Fundamental Questions

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Siliguri, evening, 7 September 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

14) Question: How can one become a devotee?

Answer: Many people want to become devotees without becoming servants of devotees, without serving devotees. However, it is impossible to become a devotee without becoming a servant of devotees. Many of us are non-devotees, but we think we are devotees. What is my position? I am not a devotee – I cannot constantly serve the Lord. Sometimes we have the ego of a man and we are drawn to the beauty of women, sometimes we have the ego of a woman and we are drawn to men. Can such an atheist, sinner and the lowliest of men as myself ever become a devotee?

This is the answer that Srila Prabhupad gave. He also said, 'I had some desire and hope to become a Vaishnav, but then I stumbled onto a big difficulty: there is this sloka "Trnad api sunichena"... I wanted to become a devotee, but then I heard that Mahaprabhu said, "You must be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and you must give honour to others without desiring any honour for yourself," and I thought, "I cannot do all this so easily, then how can I become a devotee?"'

We say that karmis (seekers of material benefit), jnanis (seekers of knowledge), yogis (seekers of mystic powers) steer people down a wrong path. Why? We also sing in one of the kirtans:

জ্ঞান কাণ্ড কর্ম্ম কাণ্ড, কেবল বিষের ভাণ্ড,
অমৃত বলিয়া যেবা খায় ।
নানা যোনি সদা ফিরে, কদর্য্য ভক্ষণ করে,
তার জন্ম অধঃপাতে যায় ॥

karma-kanda, jnana-knada, kevala visera bhanda,
amrta baliya yeba khaya
nana yoni sada phire, kadarya bhaksana kare,
tara janma adhah-pate yaya

'Selfish life and knowledge-seeking are simply two cups of poison. Those who drink this poison considering it nectar always keep returning to various species and eating abominable things. Their births taken them to a downfall.'

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Materialists and seekers of knowledge and mystic powers only cause unrest.

কৃষ্ণভক্ত—নিষ্কাম, অতএব 'শান্ত' ।
ভুক্তি-মুক্তি-সিদ্ধি-কামী—সকলি 'অশান্ত' ॥

krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva 'santa'
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami—sakali 'asanta'

'A devotee of Krishna has no desires and is always peaceful. Those who have material desires, who desire liberation or some perfection, are always lusty and never know peace.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.149)

So,

15) Question: Why is it said that the paths of karmis, jnanis, yogis, etc. are wrong?

Answer: Bhagavatam says that those who have accepted the path of karma, jnana or yoga have taken to a wrong path. If there is devotion, one can get the Lord. You may get something you like (preya), but it does not mean you get what is good for you (sreya), but it is necessary to turn sreya into preya. Devotees say, 'I must serve my Lord, and He may or may not accept it' – that is devotion.

Devotees' mood is 'I will serve the Lord, and whether He accepts my service or not, it is His matter.'

16) Question: What is the difference between karmis and devotees?

Answer: Karmis (materialists) want to enjoy in this life and in next life. Devotion is the propensity of a pure soul. If we can re-establish ourselves in our real healthy state, we will be able to easily separate ourselves from the material world.

You have heard these lines in Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur's kirtan:

কবে হবে বল, সে দিন আমার ।
নামের হাটেতে দিবে অধিকার ॥

kabe habe bala, se dina amara
namera hatete dibe adhikara

'Tell me, when will that day be mine? When will Nityananda Prabhu grant me a place at the marketplace of the Name?'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

How can we get this right to enter the marketplace of the Holy Name?

17) Question: How can one become eligible for chanting the Holy Name?

Answer: Devotees engaged in Sri Krishna-sankirtan attain the qualification to chant the Holy Name through service to devotees. Devotees keep in the temple, or pure sincere householder devotees keep at their homes, whatever can be used in service of the Lord – pure devotees serve the Lord always, in every way, through all their senses. Even householder devotees can dwell in Goloka if they become free from attachment to their house by engaging themselves in the service to the Supreme Lord – they see other residents of their house not as objects for their own enjoyment but as objects for the service of Krishna. In this way they can get spiritual benefit. If we indulge our senses in the external world, we will never be able to become servants of the Holy Name.

18) Question: Is Krishna-sankirtan the only possible practice?

Answer: People who practise Krishna consciousness have no other duty. Be it a child, an old man, a young man, a woman, a man, a scholar, a fool, a rich man, a poor man, a handsome man, a pious man, a sinner – whatever position one may be in, they have no other method of spiritual practice: the only spiritual practice is 'Sri Krishna-sankirtan'.

20) Question: What happens if one commits an offence to a Vaishnav or the Holy Name?

Answer: Nama-aparadh and Vaishnav-aparadh are two sides of the same coin. As a result of an offence to the Holy Name, one will try to enjoy or feel enthusiastic to follow selfish pursuits and accumulate knowledge. Sriman Mahaprabhu said that the Holy Name never comes to the mouths of offenders to the Holy Name – the letters of the Name may come, but not the pure Holy Name. When one makes an offence to the Lord, Vaishnavs can remove that offence, but if one makes an offence to the feet of these Vaishnavs, then who is there in this world to remove their offence? So, both offences to the Holy Name and to Vaishnavs must be given up.

21) Question: Into whose ears does Hari-katha enter?

Answer: Hari-katha does not enter everyone's ears. If, by our great fortune, we are anxious to serve the Lord, then it will enter our ears. (If we only think, 'How can I serve the Lord? When will I get a chance to serve the Lord?' then no other things will enter our ears except Hari-katha). We will be able to hear and keep it within our hearts. Those who are unfortunate may think they heard Hari-katha, but actually they did not – they were cheated. Such people are unfortunate. The moment we lose our guardian, the enemies surrounding us will attack us. The moment we stop listening about Krishna consciousness from a bona fide sadhu, stop serving the sadhu sincerely, Maya will immediately take advantage and seize us.

Maya Devi is always looking for a hole to enter and attack us. As soon as we stay away from Hari-katha and service to the Lord, so many bad and nonsense thoughts immediately start entering our minds – we begin to think about all kinds of other things. This is how Maya Devi comes and seizes our hearts. Do you understand what I am saying? You must always think about the Lord.

22) Question: How should we spend this human life?

Answer: We have been nourished and brought up with much care and love in a particular society since our childhood, and we have got entangled in this life so much that we do not have even a moment to spare for the discussions of our eternal life. We spend twenty-four hours a day busy with our work, so much so that we do not even try to know what our real position is. If we think in terms of eternity, one hundred years of a lifetime is very little. Therefore, the duty of intelligent people is not to spend the hundred years of their lifespan on sense-gratification, but to seek their own spiritual benefit.

Search for Sri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful.

23) Question: How must we see 'disappearance' days?

Answer: Common people call it 'akapater din' ('deceitless day') instead of 'aprakater din' (disappearance day), but we know that sometimes they call the disappearance day an appearance day. On the disappearance day, we get an opportunity to serve our guru, but we are not told by our Sri Gurupadpadma to see the Deity as being separate from Krishna and the devotee of Krishna, so the Deity is always worshippable.

24) Question: What is the reason of our suffering?

Answer: If we do not discuss the answer to the question 'Who am I?' then we experience difficulties in life. Various temptations of material life try to drown us. The moment we drop our guard, Witch Maya grabs us by the throat. Unless we do perpetually listen to discussions about Krishna consciousness, there is no way for us to escape the bondage of Maya.

25) Question: What is devotion?

Answer: When will industrious materialists get their promised reward? Who will get it? Where will they get it? We debate about this among ourselves, but almost everyone is going down the wrong path without realising this. Those who have even a little realisation of the spiritual world exclusively worship Chaitanya's feet dust – Brahma, Brihaspati, Indra and other demigod in charge of various duties – reject such trifle knowledge like stool and urine. Devotion is objection against enjoyment and liberation.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Guru: Repository of Divine Love
2) Genuine Practising Life
3) Unconditional Service of Conditioned Souls
4) Be Kind
5) Fundamental Questions
6) Becoming a Devotee
7) Meaning of Spirituality
8) Solution to Internal Debates
9) Soul's Needs
10) Non-Sectarian Conception