(5/6) Faith Must Come from Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 28 January 2020, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Just as there are people who follow their own ideas, there also such gurus in this world—they are always busy collecting pranams (obeisances) and pranami (donation). If they are asked to chant kirtan or come to read Bhagavatam, they will ask you how much you will give them for it. If they read Bhagavatam for seven days [a common tradition in India], you have to pay them for each day. What is seven-day Bhagavatam reading about? We must read Bhagavatam eternally, every day. We must not speak Hari-katha only during seven days—we must speak Hari-katha every single day.

For example, there are many Christians in South India. I go to South India once a year—we have many devotees there now—and when I went there, I saw that in most of the places, there have Christian churches. Both the previous chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and his father were also Christians. His plane crushed in Tirupati, where Christians took over a Hindu temple. Now, his son is the chief minister in the state. Everyone is Christian there now, and they grow only tea in every district of the state. Christians come to their church every Sunday and pray, "Please remove all my sins"—they ask God to remove whatever sins and mistakes they have committed during the week. They go to the church once a week, but we say that it is necessary to chant the Lord's Name all the time, it is necessary to speak about the Lord at every moment. Sadhus chant the Holy Name and glorify Lord Krishna at every single moment.

Do you see? When I speak, there is hardly anybody, and when it is time to take prasad, everyone will come and there will be no free place. Actually, if people came to take prasad, it would be good, but the problem is that they come to eat paneer. During prasad distribution, they look around and complain, "Oh, I have not got fried aubergine! Oh, he got paneer, but I have not got any!" This is not taking prasad—it is eating fried aubergine and paneer.

We have no faith in devotion. Devotion and faith must come from heart. We must chant kirtan with heart because kirtan comes from heart. You must call out to the Lord from within your heart. There are many things that people do to impress others—you come to offer flowers, give a garland, offer arati, worship. These are all external things. Even taking initiation is external. Yes, it is necessary to take initiation, but taking initiation is an external matter.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

Gora knows what you are doing. You wear a garland, wear Tulasi beads, put tilaks, but Gora knows what you are doing and hiding. You can cheat me or somebody else, but you can never cheat a genuine Guru. It impossible to cheat the Lord, to cheat Gora. You come to offer your obeisance to the Lord, but do you have the eyes to see the Lord? What do we see? Is the Lord's Deity made of wood, stone, clay? This is what we see. Is this 'seeing the Lord'? Do we have the eyes to see the Lord? If you come to Jagannath saying, "I am coming to see Jagannath," you can never see the Lord or Jagannath with this mood. "We come to the Lord to serve the Lord"—this is the mood you must have and come to the Lord with. What do you all come to the Lord for? You want health, you pray for your son to get a job, you pray for your daughter to be married well and so on. The Lord can understand very well what you come for, and the Lord does not stay with those who have this mood. Where does the Lord stay? The Lord Himself says to Narad Goswami, "I always stay where devotees are talking about Me." What makes the Lord happy? He becomes very pleased when He hears His kirtan and katha. The Lord says, "Where there is kirtan and Hari-katha going on, I come there and become very happy to hear it."

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Search for Reality
2) Greatest Conquest
3) Wasted Love
4) Go Beyond Your Mindset
5) Faith Must Come from Heart
6) Bizarre Life