(5/5) Pure Name Comes From Pure Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, second afternoon programme
12 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

There is one very nice story, I will tell it and then we will chant kirtan and finish. Listen carefully, I will ask you later what it was about, and if you cannot say it, it means that your brain is not working.

In many places, there are many kinds of gurus – ancestral gurus, family gurus, and so on. So, there was once a caste guru who would go place to place and make disciples. Eventually, everyone had become his disciples, but by that time the guru had become old. He had a son (he was about twenty-two or twenty-four years old), but he did not listen to his father. The old guru said, ‘Now you must become a guru and take over this responsibility to maintain the family! Even your mother says that you have not matured yet. Who will take charge of all the disciples after me? What will happen to our family?’ The boy did not care. He would go out every morning, come for lunch and then go out again and come back for supper. Where did he go? He never told anyone about it.

One day, the boy’s mother spoke to the old guru (her husband), ‘What will happen now? Listen, I have an idea. There is one rich man, a king, in this village. Make him your disciple, then you will not have to go house to house everywhere to collect 50–100 rupees and only a little bit of rice from everyone at a time. If you get five–ten quintal (500–1000 kg) of rice at one place, it will last us the whole year, and you will not have to go begging anymore.’

Following his wife’s idea, the guru went to the local king. He came and said to the king, ‘I want to make you my disciple!’

‘And what will happen if I become your disciple?’ the king asked.

‘Your family will live peacefully.’

‘Is that so? Actually I do want peace and happiness! I have my wife (the queen), I have servants and subjects. I am very rich, but I do not feel happy. Can you give me happiness?’

‘Yes, yes! Take initiation, and your life will be full of happiness.’

So, the king took initiation. After that, the guru started coming to the king’s house every year for rice, collecting 5–10 quintal at a time. He did not have to roam around, walking house to house, anymore. Five years passed in this way.

Five years later, the king still felt no happiness. One day he told his guru, ‘Gurudev, I do not feel happy! I took initiation from you, but why do I not feel happy? Five years have passed already! You told me that I would be happy, but you come every year, and I still feel no happiness. What must I do to feel happy?’

‘All right’, answered the guru, ‘here is what you must do. You must arrange a fire sacrifice.’

‘What do you need for the fire sacrifice?’

The guru gave the king a long list of required items (a tin of ghee, much firewood, etc.). Looking through the list, the king said, ‘I do not know where to get all these things.’

‘You do not need to know it,’ the guru said. ‘You can give me money, and I will arrange everything.’

As the list was quite long and a large amount of each ingredient was required, the king gave him ten thousand rupees. What did the guru do then? He bought a little ghee and other ingredients and made a fire sacrifice, keeping the rest of the money for himself. Then, six months passed. The king said again, ‘Gurudev, I still do not feel happy!’

‘I saw that your wife had given that money for the fire sacrifice. Did she give it with a clean mind?’ the guru asked.

The wife did not remember how she gave the money, so the guru said that they had to make another fire sacrifice, and he made another fire sacrifice. Two months later, he made one more fire sacrifice. Then, another two months passed, and the king still felt no peace. Finally, he called his guru and said to him, ‘Gurudev, I think you are cheating me! It seems that you cannot give me peace. I am giving you seven days – if I do not feel peace during these seven days, I will have you beheaded.’ What kind of guru is that, and what kind of disciple is that? The king had some material desires, and because his desires were not fulfilled, he said, ‘I will cut your head off!’

The guru went back to his house, and both he and his wife were very disturbed. The guru understood, ‘I have been cheating the king for money and rice and have been using him for my own enjoyment, so how will he feel peace?’ Then, the guru’s son came home, and seeing that nothing had been cooked (the parents were sitting quietly, worried), he asked his mother, ‘Mother, where is my food?’

‘What food?!’ cried the mother. ‘You are never seen at home, you never do anything for the house! Look at your father!’

‘What has happened to Father?’

‘The king gave him seven days. He will cut your father’s head off in seven days if he does not get peace.’

‘Oh, do not worry! I will go and give peace to the king! Do you have some muri? Give me some.’

The boy ate some muri and ran to the king to give him peace. His parents tried to stop him, ‘Where are you going? Are you mad?!’ He did not listen to anyone and ran to the king’s house. When he arrived, the gatekeeper asked him, ‘Hey, where are you going?’

‘Open the gate,’ the boy said.

‘Open the gate? And who are you?’

‘You do not know me. I am the son of your king’s guru.’

Then, the king came out and recognised his face – he had seen him many years ago when the boy was small and was walking down the street with his father. Now the boy had grown up, but he could recognise him. The king told his guard to open the door and asked the boy, ‘Why have you come?’

‘I have come to see you. I will give you peace.’

‘Peace? Your father has not been able to give me any peace. So many years have passed, and there is no peace. Will you give it to me?’

‘Yes, sure!’

‘All right, what do I need to do? Make a list of what you need and give it to me.’

‘No list is required. I only need two pieces of rope, and I need my father.’

‘All right,’ the king agreed and sent his men to fetch the boy’s father (the guru).

The men came to the guru’s house and called him, ‘Come with us, the King is calling you!’ The guru was terrified, ‘What?! But the seven days have not passed yet!’ He thought that he was going to be beheaded. The messengers said, ‘We do not know anything about that. Your son came there, spoke to the King, and now the King is calling you.’ The guru had no choice, ‘What did that crazy boy say to the king?! What am I to do now? I have to go, I have no choice.’ So, the guru came to the king’s house.

‘All right’, the king said to the boy, ‘your father is here. Now tell me what you need.’

‘Come with me,’ the boy said.

The three of them began to walk towards the cremation ground. At the entrance, there was a sign board saying, ‘Rest in Peace’ (smasane-i santi: lit., ‘peace is in the grave’). The king said slowly to his guru, ‘Where is he taking us? Why are we going to the cremation ground? We are alive, we have not died yet! Is he going to burn us alive?!’ The guru said, ‘Must be. He is crazy! I wonder myself what he is doing, taking us there with two pieces of rope!’ Anyhow, although apprehensive, they decided to see what the boy would do. Finally, the boy saw two palm trees standing a little apart from each other near the crematorium. Coming to the trees, he first tied his father to one tree and then tied the king to the other tree. Then, he said to his father (the guru), ‘Father, can you untie the king please?’

‘Are you mad?’ the guru replied. ‘I am tied up myself!’

‘Do you understand now, dear King?’ said the boy, turning to the king. ‘My father is himself in a pit – how will he get you out of it? He is tied up himself, so how will he free you from your bondage? How can he release you from the illusory environment?’

Therefore, chanting bogus kirtan will never give you any result:

কটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ-কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজের নন্দের-নন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana-kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandana

‘Even if you practise listening and chanting for millions of lives, you will not get Krishna, the Son of King of Vraja.’

হেন কৃষ্ণনাম যদি লয় বহুবার ।
তবু যদি প্রেম নহে, নহে অশ্রুধার ॥
তবে জানি, অপরাধ তাহাতে প্রচুর ।
কৃষ্ণনাম-বীজ তাহে না করে অঙ্কুর ॥

hena krsna-nama yadi laya bahu-bara
tabu yadi prema nahe, nahe asrudhara
tabe jani, aparadha tahate prachura
krsna-nama-bija tahe na kare ankura

‘If you chant this Name of Krishna many times but there is still no love stirring within you, there are no tears streaming from your eyes, then you should know that you are making too many offences and the seed of Krishna’s Name does not sprout in you.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.29–30)

It is necessary to chant the Holy Name without offences! You must give up all offences. Chanting all the ‘party’ kirtans is of no use. I have told you before: I have not come here to chant kirtans, I have come to make you chant kirtans. You can see this boy here – he used to work for the police, but now he chants kirtans at home. I go to people’s houses to make them chant kirtan. Otherwise, even if you listen to hired kirtan singers for a thousand years, there is no use. Radharani (a famous professional sahajiya kirtan singer) sings for thousands of rupees per performance. One time, she came to offer obeisances to Gurudev, but Gurudev was away, so she offered her obeisances outside Gurudev’s house. Then, she came to me and said,

‘Brother, I have come to see your gurudev.’

‘Didi, can I ask you something?’ I asked her.

‘What is it?’

‘You were chanting kirtan today at Haritala [a small temple next to our temple in Nabadwip]. You earned so much today – so many people came to listen to you, but when I went there to give class on Bhagavatam, there were not more than two hundred people only. You have been singing kirtans for so long, how many people have you brought to this line?’

‘Brother, shall I tell you the truth? We sing kirtan for money, but when you chant kirtan, you do it to bring people to this line so that they can worship the Lord, to give them spiritual benefit.’

Radharani, the famous singer, told me that. There are so many hired singers and musicians. If you listen to the Holy Name from their mouths, it is nothing but mere alphabet. If you want to chant the pure Holy Name, you must hear it from a pure Vaishnav.

[His Divine Grace then chants ‘Gaya Gaura madhur svare’, recites Jaya Dhvani and concludes the class, proceeding to another preaching programme before returning to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Tarakeswar.]

gaya gora madhura svare
hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare [1]

‘Gora sings sweetly: “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.”’

grhe thaka, vane thaka, sada ‘hari’ bale’ daka
sukhe duhkhe bhulo naka, vadane harinama kara re [2]

‘Whether you live at home or in a forest, always call out to the Supreme Lord. In happiness and in sadness, do not forget it: loudly chant the Lord’s Names.’

maya-jale baddha ha’ye, achha michhe kaja la’ye
ekhana-o chetana peye, radha-madhava-nama bala re [3]

‘Bound in Maya’s net, you waste your time on useless work. While you are still conscious, chant Radha-Madhav’s Names!’

jivana haila sesa, na bhajile hrsikesa
bhaktivinod-upadesa, eka-bara nama-rase mata re [4]

‘Your life has come to an end, but you have not served Lord Hrisikesh. Here is Bhaktivinod’s advice: let the nectar of the Holy Name take over you just once.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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Length: 30 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Vaishnavs' Nature
2) Heartfelt Prayers
3) Devotional Ingenuity
4) Devotional Substance
5) Pure Name Comes From Pure Heart