(6) Seek Good Association

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bokaro, 3 December 2019, evening, part 6
Translated from Bengali

ছয় বেগ দমি', ছয় দোষ শোধি',
ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে ।
ছয় সৎসঙ্গ, দেহ হে আমারে,
বসেছি সঙ্গের আশে ॥

chhaya vega dami', chhaya dosa sodhi,
chhaya guna deha dase
chhaya sat-sanga, deha he amare,
basechhi sangera ase

'Please subjugate my six urges [speech, mind, anger, tongue, stomach, genitals], rectify my six defects [greed, doing what is unfavourable to devotion, idle talks, attachment to inferior rules, material association, fickle-mindedness] and bestow the six good qualities [enthusiasm, faith, patience, doing what is favourable to devotion, avoiding bad association, following sadhus' practices] upon this servant. Please grant me six kinds of good association [giving devotees gifts, taking gifts from devotees, confiding in devotees, enquiring from devotees, taking prasad, feeding devotees prasad]. I am waiting, hoping to attain this association.'

We aspire after sadhu-sanga (the association of saints). What is the result of holy association? To get such association it is first necessary to have sukriti (spiritual merit). Not everybody has that kind of merit. Sukriti is not the same as punya (piety). Sukriti means giving God's things to God. For example, everybody plants trees at their houses – somebody plants a mango tree, somebody plants a coconut palm. People think, 'I have planted this coconut palm, so I will be able to get some green coconuts', 'I have planted this mango tree, so I will be able to eat mangoes.' You can plant a tree, you can water the tree, but you cannot give life to that tree. You have no power to save it or make it live. It is God who gives life to everything, so why do you not give God that which is His? Do you think that if you give something to God, He will take everything and not leave anything for you? Actually, if you give to God, God will give you even more. If you serve the Lord, the Lord will provide even more for you – you will not know any want.

Chant the Holy Name of the Lord timely. Serve the Lord timely. People sit and talk about politics in the evenings – who did what, who one should vote for, who built a road, who gave wheat, who gave rice. This is all village talks. People come to tea stalls and sit there telling each other stories. We waste so much time, and we say that we do not find time to chant the Holy Name of the Lord.

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)

We never understand that we can lose our lives this very moment. Even those who are lying on deathbed, about to die tomorrow, worry about their houses and many other things. They do not realise that they will go away and leave everything behind. 'Our days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to us that death is there, waiting right next to us.' Death is always near us; nobody can say when it will come for us.

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার
নামাশ্রয় করি’ যতনে তুমি,
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari’ yatane tumi,
thakaha apana kaje

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers. Carry on your life but try your best to take shelter in the Holy Name.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Nobody prohibits you to continue your lives, to continue your work, but when you do something, who should you do it for? For Krishna, for His household. You should turn your household into Krishna's household and do everything (running a business, doing farming, going to an office, and so on) for Krishna. Do not try to do anything bypassing the Lord. A thousand zeros have no value, but if you put 1 at the beginning, then all those zeros will have value. Once you take 1 out, all value will be lost. So, the Lord is like that 1. If you do so many things but do not serve the Lord, then the result will be all zeros. And if you do not do anything in particular but serve the Lord, then there is some value in such a life.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

‘sraddha’-sabde visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

‘Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

Your debt to your father, mother, rishis (sages), demigods – all debts are cleared if you serve the Lord. Many of you think, 'Oh, this boy has left, he does not care about his parents, about his house.' But why? The Lord will take care of his parents. We are not masters to look after anybody. We are fake masters – we only pretend to be masters.

It is very easy to dress up as a sadhu. I can put on a police uniform and say, 'Oh, I am a policeman!' But is that really so? I can put on sadhu's clothes and say, 'I have become a sadhu!' It is easy to wear sadhu's clothes, but it is very difficult to actually become a sadhu. Remember this. When you just dress as a sadhu and when you actually become a sadhu, both look the same, but it is very difficult to find a genuine sadhu in this world. You can find many obeisance-taking and donation-taking gurus in this world. What do genuine gurus do? They use whatever devotees give for the service of the Lord. They do not spend anything for themselves, they do not use anything for their own pleasure.

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