(8/13) Choose the Right Path

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bandipur, 15 November 2019, evening, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Garbing Himself into Srimati Radharani's heart and halo, Krishna comes in this Kali-yuga as Lord Gauranga, a combined form of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, and distributes His own Name. He gave the Hare Krishna maha-mantra to this world. If you can surrender and receive this Holy Name from a genuine guru and then sincerely chant this Holy Name following all rules and regulations, offering bhoga to the Lord and taking the Lord's prasad, then you can conquer this material world: 'Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়). By honouring the Lord's prasad I shall conquer all worldly illusions (prapancha).'

When we visited Kuruksetra, another place we visited was Bhisma-sarasajya (where Bhisma lay on a bed of arrows after being slain and before he passed away). Bhisma was the general in the army of Duryodhan and Duhsasan, and he was slain in the battle. When the battle was over and Yudhisthir got the kingdom, he came to Bhisma to hear his guidance on ruling the kingdom. Bhisma gave him much advice, but do you know what was his first advice? We recite this advice every single day when we take prasad:

মহাপ্রসাদে গোবিন্দে নাম-ব্রহ্মণি বৈষ্ণবে ।
স্বল্পপুণ্যবতাং রাজন্ বিশ্বাসো নৈব জায়তে ॥

mahaprasade govinde nama-brahmani vaisnave
svalpa-punya-vatam rajan visvaso naiva jayate

‘O King, one whose fortune is meagre never develops strong faith in mahaprasad, Govinda, the Holy Name or Vaishnavs.’

This is the advice Bhisma gave to Yudhisthir Maharaj. By taking the Lord's prasad, you can conquer the whole material world. That is why everybody must take prasad of the Lord. Offer everything to the Lord, for His pleasure (bhoga), and then take that as prasad. This is the main thing. It is not like you take initiation, get the mantra and that is it, you have got everything. No. I told about it yesterday – not everybody who takes initiation can automatically be considered a disciple. Disciples are those who follow their guru's instruction and practise properly.

Actually, there are many gurus in this world, but there are very few disciples in this world. It is very easy to become a guru and do guru-business in this world. Many people like that open temples and do their business. But a genuine guru is the one who will take you by the hand and guide you out of darkness. Otherwise, suppose two blind men come to an elephant. One blind man takes the elephant by the trunk and asks, 'What is this?' The second man replies, 'Oh, this is a tail.' Then, the first man takes the elephant by the tail and asks, 'And what is this?' The second man replies, 'Oh, this is a trunk!' How can two blind men tell anything to each other?

We pray,

ওঁ অজ্ঞানতিমিরান্ধস্য জ্ঞানাঞ্জনশলাকয়া ।
চক্ষুরুন্মিলিতং যেন তস্মৈ শ্রীগুরবে নমঃ ॥

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

‘I offer my obeisance to Sri Guru, who has opened my eyes, rescuing me from the illusory darkness of ignorance, by applying the salve of knowledge upon my eyes.’

'I have no knowledge, I do not know anything. O gurudev, please grant me divine vision (jnana-chaksu) – make me see (chaksu) by giving me knowledge (jnana).' We also sing in one of the kirtans:

ঐছন আমার মন ফিরে যেন অন্ধজন
সুপথ বিপথ নাহি জানে ॥

aichana amara mana phire yena andha jana
supatha vipatha nahi jane

'My mind wanders like a blind man who cannot tell the right way from the wrong way.'

How can a blind man know which is the right way and which is the wrong way? A blind man must take a sighted man's hand and get guided, then he will take the right path. It is the same with a genuine guru. A blind man cannot help us. We must come and surrender to a genuine guru who has divine vision and can open our eyes. Otherwise, we will not be able to get anywhere.

Another thing is this. We sing in the saranagati kirtan:

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
‘অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ’—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভাব-বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
‘avasya raksibe krsna’—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

‘(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must accept that which is favourable to devotion and reject that which is unfavourable to devotion. If you do what is favourable, you do something good, but if you do something unfavourable at the same time, then you will not get any result like that. Suppose I am doing a fire sacrifice. If I put a spoon of water in the fire and then a spoon of ghee, then again a spoon of water and again a spoon of ghee, is it possible to make a fire sacrifice like that? Will fire burn like that? It will not. So, if you do something good and at the same time also do something bad, you cannot achieve anything like this.

ঐছন আমার মন ফিরে যেন অন্ধজন
সুপথ বিপথ নাহি জানে ॥

aichana amara mana phire yena andha jana
supatha vipatha nahi jane

'My mind wanders like a blind man who cannot tell the right way from the wrong way.'

Always remember this. We still have time, so let us chant some kirtan now. After that, I will speak again.

Everybody must keep Tulasi at home and do Tulasi parikrama. Every house should have Tulasi. If you do Tulasi parikrama, you get the same result as doing Vrindavan parikrama. Circumambulate Tulasi four times every morning and four times every evening. Morning and evening. Is it that difficult? Do Tulasi parikrama every morning and every evening. If you do not like to do it alone, then take others with you. Some people go around fast-fast and think, 'Oh, why must I do this parikrama again every day?'

Do Tulasi parikrama and serve Tulasi. Serving Tulasi means offering her incense, watering her. Do not overwater, though – she will die then. Water her as much as necessary, make sure she does not die from overwatering or underwatering. When Laksman came to Ravan's house in Lanka, he saw a Tulasi garden and understood, 'There is a Vaishnav here.' Who was it? Vibhisan. What was so special about that garden? Have you read Ramayan? He could understand that there was a Vaishnav in the house because all the Tulasis there were without manjaris (the flower parts). Did you know about this? You think that you plant Tulasi and that is it, but you must also cut manjaris. In this regard, Param Guru Maharaj wrote that it is prohibited to cut manjaris on dvadasi, Janmastami and some other days. Other than that, you must always cut manjaris. The other day, I went to some place where there were many Tulasis. I asked them, 'Why do you not cut manjaris? I can see that there is no Vaishnav here because nobody cuts manajaris...' Do not think that if you plant many Tulasis and let them grow wild and huge, then you have a nice Tulasi temple. You must serve Tulasi.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Appreciate Your Fortune
2) Fossil Hearts
3) God Is Great
4) Getting in Touch With God
5) God's Message
6) Higher Purpose in Life
7) Service Is Not Abstract
8) Choose the Right Path
9) Purity Comes From Practice
10) Embrace Eternal Life
11) Search for the Eternal
12) Service Comes from Heart
13) Educate Yourself