(5/7) Science of Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, Nrisingha Palli
14 December 2019, morning, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Hanuman and Vibhisan love Lord Ramachandra, Bali Maharaj loves Vamanadev, Prahlad Maharaj loves Lord Nrisimhadev, but their feelings are inferior. The love that servants and maidservants of Krishna have for their Lord exceeds the wonderful nature of all those relationships. For example, Vasudev thought, 'Dasarath was able to exile his beloved son, but I cannot do it.' Then, you can judge yourselves how vast the difference between the parental love of Dasarath to Ramachandra and the parental love of Vasudev to Krishna is. Vasudev submitted himself to love, not to moral obligations. When Mahaprabhu was lying down in Gambhira and Govinda also crossed His body to serve Him, there was no consideration of moral duty. I have mentioned it earlier.

In Krishna-lila (when Krishna steals gopis' garments, etc.) everything is sweet – there, all the pastimes are full of love, not opulence. Vrindavan Krishna is not Devaki-nandan – He is Yasoda-nandan. Vasudev could not arrange Krishna's birthday celebration because he had brought his son to Nanda Maharaj's house, but this celebration was arranged by Nanda Maharaj, and he did not arrange it as for somebody else's child – he arranged it taking Krishna for his very own. Actually he did not know who had been born at his house that night, a boy or a girl, so he considered Krishna his own son and arranged Krishna's birth festival as for his own son. Nanda Maharaj's parental love for Krishna is much higher than that of Vasudev's parental love.

Do you know what are the obstacles in spiritual life? Everybody may know about it, but not everybody may understand it. I will explain it to you. When you start practising devotional life, your old parents will lament and weep. (It happened like that in my life, too. My parents used to say that I had become crazy and left home.) If you are married, your young wife will cry and be broken-hearted, your small children will have to wander on the streets, and you will have to tolerate seeing this. You think, 'I have to look after them. I am their breadwinner, master and guardian.' This is what you all think, do you not? You think, 'I am the protector, guardian and master of my children. They look up to me and rely on me.' Despite that, if your fortune awakens, you will be able to understand: how many days will you have this relationship with them? How much happiness are you able to give them? How much benefit can you give to them?

You must have heard in the news that if somebody's son dies in an accident, the government sometimes gives half a million rupees or a million rupees to the family as compensation for their loss. But can this million rupees comfort a mother who has lost her son? The highest happiness is in spiritual life. Practising Krishna consciousness is the only way we can attain that kind of happiness. But how do you practise it? Until and unless you take shelter of a bona fide guru and listen to his guidance, you will not be able to understand anything. Take shelter of a bona fide guru, then you can practise spiritual life.

There are many gurus in this world, but what kind of gurus are they? Almost all of them are obeisance-taking gurus and donation-taking gurus. A genuine guru never accepts obeisances or donations from anybody – a genuine guru offers everything to the holy feet of the Lord and always engages himself in the sevice of the Lord. He always uses everything to serve the Lord. Even when one rupee comes to them, they do not use it for themselves. We must always remember this.

Who is a sadhu? A sadhu is a person who identifies himself with the eternal (sad-vastu-sanga), who lives on the plane of soul (atma-sanga). Such sadhus, or gurus, do not live on the bodily plane, they do not identify themselves as their bodies. But in our country, when people take initiation, they sulk, 'Oh, my guru does not care about me! My guru does not do anything for me!' They always complain, and their egos are always hurt. But the concern of a genuine guru is how to bring benefit to the disciple's soul; he does not think about your body. Mayavadis do this – they think about the body and how to pamper it; so, they busy themselves with distributing medicine, treating patients, and so on. Genuine gurus are busy with the disciples' souls – they think about the benefit of the soul. Always remember this. Find a guru who is dear to the Lord, who is the Lord's own. Taking shelter in such a guru and practising Krishna consciousness under his guidance is the only purpose in our lives. We must not miss this purpose – we must always do everything to fulfil this purpose.

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Length: 50 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Take Advantage of This Day
2) Leave False Hopes
3) Seva-Vigraha
4) Rules of Love
5) Science of Devotion
6) Do Not Take This Birth for Granted
7) Sweetness in Bitterness