(8/9) Step Towards Lord, Not Maya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
2 January 2021, part 8, translated from Bengali

Srila Prabhupad taught the teachings of Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatan. In particular, he often quoted Mahaprabhu’s instruction to Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu:

জীবে দয়া নামে রুচি বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

‘Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name happily and serve Vaishnavs. Sanatan, except for this, there is no other religion.’

Apart from these three duties (being kind to others, chanting the Holy Name and serving Vaishnavs), there is no other religion. Being kind to others means it is necessary to bring the jiva souls who are averse to Krishna to this line. This is not only my duty. You take initiation from a guru, chant, sing and have a good time, but this is not Krishna consciousness. You must think, ‘Gaura Purnima has finished, but I must now preach so that next time, in one year, I can bring ten more people.’

One time, when I was sitting with Gurudev at his veranda in Nabadwip, one devotee came (he took sannyas on the same day as I). He offered his obeisance to Gurudev, and Gurudev told him, ‘Maharaj, after you took sannyas, you left my service – you have become a big maharaj now. You have left my service, it is all right, but you never even stay at the temple, you go to so many places, visit different houses and eat all kinds of things – why cannot you bring even one person to me?’ Then, pointing at me, Gurudev said, ‘This boy is staying at the temple all the time, but every year two months before Gaura Purnima, he goes to preach in Bardhaman and Midnapore, and through that preaching he has brought so many people to me!’ At that time, none of you had come yet. When I went to Hooghly, I tried very hard to preach there; when I went to Midnapore, I went to so many houses and tried so hard – this is how many people have come. That is why Gurudev said to that devotee at that time, ‘He preaches only for two months a year, but so many people have come to take initiation. But you have not brought even one person to me. Why? Are you keeping everything for yourself thinking you have become a great guru?’ This is what Gurudev said.

Therefore, our duty is to bring others to this line.

When I came to Gurudev, there was one devotee who would wash Gurudev’s dishes once a day and also look after the cultivation at the Math’s fields (he would actually always steal from the temple). When I just came to the temple, ** Prabhu told me to stay at the temple, but that devotee told me, ‘You are so educated, you have been earning so much money – why did you leave your job and come here?! You could get married and come to the temple later.’ The first few times, I was scared to sleep alone in the room, so I slept in his room, but when he started telling me all this at night, I thought, ‘What is this? I have come here to practise spiritual life, but he is telling me all this! This is bad association. ** Prabhu told me one thing at the evening class, but this devotee is telling me the opposite! I do not want to stay with him.’ After that, I steered clear of him and avoided ever speaking to him again. In the end, he left the temple. This is how illusion attacked me when I just came.

If you make one step to the Lord – if you think, ‘I want to practise spiritual life, I want to serve the Lord’ – the Lord will help you, He will come ten steps to you. You know, in other missions, people are made to wait for ten years before they can take initiation. There is a (Bengali) book written by Param Guru Maharaj called Amrita Vidya. When we reprinted it recently, the book’s name was changed to Bhakti Raksak Hari-kathamrita (Bengali). There is a very popular book called Rama-krishna Kathamrita, so to attract more readers and challenge their popular (mis)conception, we changed the name from Amrita Vidya to Bhakti Raksak Hari-kathamrita. It is a very beautiful book – all newcomers should read it. In this book, Param Guru Maharaj wrote: if you take initiation from gurudev and if you just buy some beads at the market, is that the same thing?

Why have you come to your guru? When you come to a doctor, you come so that he can cure the diseases of your bodies; in the same way, you come to a guru to cure diseases, too, but not the diseases of your bodies – you come to your guru to cure the material diseases of your hearts (to become rescued from maya, illusory environment). Both the guru and the doctor can cure you, but the guru is a spiritual healer and the doctor is a physical healer. When you come to a spiritual guru, or healer, you do not come to talk to him about your material lives – you come to talk to him about spiritual matters. Remember this. You must always talk to your guru about spiritual matters – never talk about yourselves with your guru.

Why do you think it is said in the scriptures, ‘Asat-sanga sada tyaga, chhada anya gita-raga (অসৎসঙ্গ সদা ত্যাগ, ছাড় অন্য গীতরাগ). Always give up bad association, do not listen to material songs and music’? What is called bad association? Those who talk about anything else except Hari-katha are bad association. We do not want to associate with those who talk about other things and never about the Lord – who always talk about themselves and all the material things. We must keep far away from such association. Keep yourselves away from those who talk about material things (samsarik visaya). Associate with those who speak Hari-katha, who talk about the Lord and all that is related to the Lord. I, too, do not like to talk about the material matters of the illusory world; I am a virakta-sannyasi – I am annoyed by anything related to the material world.

Coming back to what I began saying, Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote: when you come to a doctor, the doctor gives you some medicine in globules (they look like balls of sago/tapioca). If you have a fever or a flu, the doctor will ask what your symptoms are, give you some globules with medicine, and you become cured. At the same time, there are also empty globules (without any medicine in them) that you can buy at the market. Doctors buy them to mix in different types of medicine and then administer them to their patients. Both the globules with medicine and without look the same, but if the doctor gives you empty globules without any medicine, will that cure you? It will not. So, when it comes to getting beads, you must receive beads from a guru who first chants on those beads. Taking initiation from gurudev and buying beads at the market may look the same, but it is not the same, just as taking empty globules is not the same as taking globules that contain medicine.

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CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 27 Mb
Length: 55 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Advent of Srila Prabhupad
2) Rescuing Mahaprabhu's Line
3) Acharyas' Arrival in Nabadwip
4) Srila Prabhupad's Initiation
5) Illustrious and Loving Service
6) Srila Sridhar Maharaj's Kirtan
7) Advent of Gaura-Saraswati
8) Step Towards Lord, Not Maya
9) Be Kind to Yourself and Others