(3/5) Aural Darshan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Narottam Das Thakur's Disappearance
18 October 2019, Nrisingha Palli, part 3

A proper initiation means we must serve our gurudev. Srila Gurudev's property is not some buildings, bricks or any of such things. Those who think like that are foolish – they have no feelings for gurudev, they cannot understand gurudev; they only saw their gurudev with their eyes, but they did not see him through their ears. You must see your guru through your ears, not through your eyes.

[To a devotee] Why have your tied your hair like that? Are you trying to look like Narad Muni? One time, when Gurudev saw one lady devotee coming with a hairstyle like that [a bun tied high on her head], he said, 'Here, Narad Muni is coming.' She used to always tie her hair like that, and Gurudev said, 'Here, Narad Muni is coming.'

[To another devotee] What is the purpose of this body?

Devotee [in broken English]: So that we can have love and devotion...

What?! The body is for material love??

Another devotee clarifies: To keep the soul inside the body until have a clean body.

The body is meant only to be used for the service to the Lord. That is its purpose. This body must be used for the service of the Lord, for chanting the Lord's Name. This body is not for enjoyment. I asked a simple question...

We will not stay in this world millions of millions of years. Can we keep these bodies for millions of millions of years? We cannot! So, we will not stay in these bodies for a long time, but if we can use our bodies to chant the glories of the Lord, to chant the Holy Name of the Lord until their demise, then our bodies will have served their purpose. We do not say 'until our death' because actually death is always followed by birth – we have been born and died millions of times. The purpose of the body is to be used for chanting the Holy Name of the Lord until its demise.

Sometimes we say that we must reject bad association, do we not? What does it mean to reject, or avoid, bad association?

Devotee: To give it up.

No, but what is bad association? Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur said, 'If somebody is against Chaitanya, against my guru, against Lord Krishna, even if they are my blood relative (my daughter, my father or any other blood relative), they are actually not my relative, they are my enemy (they are against me).' This is what is called bad association. If somebody does not follow Krishna consciousness, even if they are your family, you must always avoid their association. It can be your son, daughter, father, mother, or anybody else – if they are Chaitanya-vimukha (if they do not follow Krishna consciousness, or Chaitanya consciousness), they are not your relatives. This is what Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says.

Why do we always see others' faults? We search for faults in others because we cannot purify our own minds, when we cannot purify ourselves. If you do not purify yourselves, you will always see others' faults.

Where is a holy place? Can you say where a holy place is?

Devotee: Wherever gurudev is. Vrindavan, Nabadwip.

[His Divine Grace chuckles] Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that a holy place is where there is Hari-katha, Krishna-katha. If there is Krishna-katha going on somewhere, that is a holy place. It is not about Vrindavan, Nabadwip, Govardhan, etc. For example, there are people in Nabadwip who eat meat, fish and do nonsense – is this is a holy place? No. Do you know what name Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave to his nat-mandir?

Devotee: 'Matala harijana'...?

No, that is another thing.

Devotee: Union in separation?

No! That is his samadhi's name.

Devotee: Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math?

No... He named it 'Bhakti-siddhanta-sravan-sadan'. This is the name of his temple's nat-mandir. It means that the nat-mandir is a place (sadan) meant only for discussing the conception of devotion (bhakti-siddhanta).

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Length: 35 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Remembering Srila Narottam Das Thakur
2) Intertwined Glory of Guru and Disciple
3) Aural Darshan
4) Helpless and Blind
5) Drops of Nectar