(12/13) Analysis Is Paralysis

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
1 January 2021, part 12, translated from Bengali

I have heard that you are leaving tomorrow for Maya’s prison house. Raise your hands, let me see who is leaving. Is everyone leaving? Why are you raising your hands? But why? How many days have passed? Has it been two years or just two days since you came here? What are you leaving for? What will you do at home?

Devotee: The festival is over, what will we do here?

What will you do? Is there no service to the Lord here? There is so much service! You can make garlands, wash the dishes, listen to kirtans, listen to lectures.

An elderly, frail-sounding devotee: You said that it is an offence to touch your feet. I want to ask forgiveness, I have touched your feet…

No, no. There is no offence for you. It is an offence for me to allow others to touch my feet. That is why I said that we always think of ourselves as lowly. Vaishnavs never tell others to touch their feet – they are always very humble when it comes to them. Just as Vaishnavs must be humble, you must also be humble. You must think, ‘I am impure, how can I touch gurudev? I cannot touch him and contaminate him by my touch.’ It is the duty of disciples to think in this way. On the other hand, gurudev must think, ‘They are servants and maidservants of Krishna, why will they touch my feet? I am a lowly soul.’ Do you have any other questions?

Devotee: They say that if we observe ekadasi, we can get the result of practising yoga…

You must not think about it. You will not get any result like that.

Devotee: If we fast on ekadasi, do we still have to fast on purnima (full moon) days?

You must fast on ekadasi, you do not need to fast on purnima days. Also, fasting on ekadasi does not mean eating nothing the whole day. You can take the calendars; everything is written there. Only fast on ekadasi, not on purnima or amavasya. Gurudev never spoke about the result of fasting on ekadasis. You know, there is glorification of Srimad Bhagavad-gita, where it says what results you can get if you read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, but it is written just to make people read the book. So, because people do not want to fast on ekadasi, there is some glorification of each ekadasi written for those who need to be enticed. In our case, we think, ‘Gurudev has told me to observe ekadasi, so I must observe it.’ Mahaprabhu tells everyone to fast on ekadasi, so we fast on ekadasi. This is all we need to know – it is not necessary to know what result you will get by fasting on this or that ekadasi.

You can take fruit on ekadasi. You must fast until midday, but if somebody cannot fast in the morning, they can take some boiled potato with black pepper or plain potato. Why do we say potato with black pepper? Because if you cook plain potato without any spices, it can cause gas in your stomach. You can also use turmeric, but only if you make it yourself (if you grind the root yourself) – do not use the powder that is sold at the market, it may not be pure.

Devotee: What about sago (tapioca)?

Well, actually, the matter is like this. We cannot prepare it in a pure way (large sago often has some contaminants), but Gurudev told us to offer and take sago at the temple. Sometimes, you get peanut oil or sunflower oil – it says on the bottle that it is peanut oil or sunflower oil, but how do you know that they do not mix it with some rice oil? Everything is mixed, everything is contaminated. We remember the Lord and use some ingredients on ekadasi, this is all there is to it. This is what you must remember. Gurudev told us to follow ekadasi, and we follow it. We bring some sunflower oil from the market, but who knows if it is pure sunflower oil or mixed with some rice or mustard oil? Who can know it? You can see that sunflower oil price is higher now – that is because they are mixing some rice oil or palm oil into it. So, you must not think about sago and other things like that. Do not think about all these crooked things, do not look into whether there is duplicity somewhere or not. Fast until midday, it is good, and if you cannot, take some boiled vegetables and fruit. You can also take milk, curd. Do not buy sweets from the market – if you are habituated to taking sweets, then make them yourselves at home. For example, you can make some sweets with sugar and coconut.

If you start looking into everything, you will not eat anything. Have you ever been to a sugar mill? I have been to one in South India (in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh). You think that nice white sugar comes out of mills, but if you know how they make sugar, you will never want to eat it again! You know, when sugar comes out of the machine, they keep it in an open space, and crows pass stool on that sugar! Crows’ stool is white, and the sugar is white, so who will say anything? [His Divine Grace laughs.] So, what will you do then? There is no way out. It is not necessary to think about all this too much.

When you go to buy potato at the market, they keep potato and onions in the same place, so sometimes onion peel gets into potato. People start making excuses, ‘Oh, I cannot be a vegetarian, it is too hard to offer bhoga – you need this, you need that!’ What is required? If you want, you will offer bhoga to the Lord and take prasad, and if you do not want, then you will make excuses, ‘Oh, I have grandchildren at home’, ‘Oh, it is necessary to keep separate dishes for cooking and offering, but they will get mixed with the other dishes!’ People ask me, ‘What should I do if the offering plate touches other plates?’ If you think about everything so much, you will not eat anything and you will not be able to do anything. Do not overthink it. Only be a vegetarian, follow ekadasi and practise Krishna consciousness. Give up meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, masoor dal (lentils), tea, coffee, etc.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 39 Mb
Length: 80 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Know and Love the Lord
2) Develop Deepest Dedication
3) At Lord's Home
4) Pure Preacher's Position
5) Clear Vision
6) Clear Identity
7) Sustaining Yourself on Gurudev's Words
8) Internal Purity
9) Kirtan-Yajna
10) Give Up Illusory Luxuries
11) Who Will You Blame?
12) Analysis Is Paralysis
13) Western Idiosyncrasies