(10/14) Faith Is Not Idle

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 11 January 2021, part 10
Translated from Bengali

After spiritual merit (sukriti) comes faith (sraddha). There are four types of faith: kamala-sraddha (soft, fragile faith), taranga-sraddha (flickering faith), dridha-sraddha (strong faith), sudridha-sraddha (the strongest faith). The quality of one’s devotion depends on the quality of their faith (sraddha-anusari haya bhakti-adhikari, শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী; Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.64).

You can see many people who took initiation a long time ago, but their behaviour and practice are not right; at the same time, somebody may have taken initiation two–four days ago, but they can already speak Hari-katha – they can preach and speak about Krishna. You may have taken initiation six–ten years ago, but if you cannot do anything, that is because you have not been studying. Just as you will not learn anything if you bunk off lessons at school in spiritual life also, you will not learn anything if you ‘bunk off’ your spiritual life (if you do not chant the Holy Name or chant the Holy Name too little, if you do not chant kirtans, and so on). I tell everyone: you must chant the Holy Name on your beads, and you must also remember kirtans by heart. Chant five kirtans in the morning and five kirtans in the evening. I tell this to every single person. Chant the same kirtans every day. Each kirtan has a little different tune, but pick two kirtans in glorification of gurudev, Pancha-tattva, Vaishnav Thakur, Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu and chant them every morning and every evening.

Take the kirtan books with you and chant reading those books. We have printed pocket-size kirtan books – you can keep them in your pockets and always read them. You can even read them when you are on the train or bus. Sometimes, you go to some place on business and have to wait and sit somewhere – you can read books at this time. You must set aside more time for the Lord.

You must ask yourselves, ‘How much time do I spend on the Lord and how much time do I spend on eating, dressing, sleeping, earning money and thinking about enjoyment? How much time do I think about the Lord?’ You must answer to yourselves. There is a saying in Bengali: ‘There are two clerks who are writing your diary (dui kande dui muhuri likhte achhe dairi, দুই কান্দে দুই মুহুরী লিখতে আছেন ডাইরী).’ You do not have to write your own diary (keep account of your actions)! There is already Chitragupta who is writing accounts of all your days. He notes everything down: whether you chant the Holy Name, how much namabhasa you chant and how much nama-aparadha you make.

It is said in the scriptures that the mouth that chants the Holy Name cannot make vaishnav-aparadha. So, if somebody makes vaishnav-aparadha, their mouth can never chant the Holy Name. Moreover, it is also said that if your gurudev criticises Vaishnavs, you must reject this guru as bogus. This is written in the scriptures. If you read Sri Gaudiya Kantha-hara, you will find it there, in the part that describes the glory and nature of the guru. Therefore, you must never criticise others or discuss others. For example, you see somebody steal prasadam – the person who steals is doing wrong, but if you tell others about it, you are doing wrong, too, and your fault is even greater. These are Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s words. I wrote about it in Guidance 4; you can get the book and read it. I have written there how we make offences and how we may not be able to progress even if we chant the Holy Name.

Actually, you chant the Holy Name so much, but why cannot you progress in your spiritual lives? You must not find faults with others – you must see your own faults. Why cannot you practise? What hinders you? There must be some shortcoming. Where is that shortcoming? You must search and find it yourselves. You must find it within yourselves: why cannot you progress in your spiritual lives?

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 49 Mb
Length: 101 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) What Is Surrender?
2) Proper Recipient for Proper Taste
3) Highest Stance
4) Cry and Pray
5) Seeking Respite
6) Greatest Choice
7) Nityananda Prabhu's Mercy
8) Mahaprabhu's Mercy
9) His Things, For His Service
10) Faith Is Not Idle
11) Devotion or Display?
12) Example to Follow
13) Shelter of Sri Guru's Mercy
14) Service or Offence?