(6/6) Renounce Pride, Not Practice

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 14 February 2021, part 6

Question: When people read too many books, too many scriptures, they may become a little proud of all that knowledge. It makes me a little scared. Why then should we read books?

It happens, but it did not happen to Gurudev, neither did it happen in the case of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. You can see their examples. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami and so many others did not go crazy. Why are you scared of that? We must not be proud. That is why Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says that we must not go to read so many books, so many scriptures – it can sometimes make us crazy.

Devotee: Because of that I sometimes feel some rejection, I feel I do not want to know anything at all.

No, no, no. We can read. Reading is not bad. And if you do not read, it is also not bad because then it will be jnana-sunya bhakti, ‘I do not want to know anything, I only know service.’ I have told it many times that Srimati Radharani never went to Oxford University or Cambridge University.

At the same time, it is sometimes necessary to learn something for preaching. For example, some devotees preach to scientists, but if somebody asked me anything about biology, I would not be able to say a single word – I do not know anything about biology. I know something about mathematics, but not biology.

So, reading is not a problem, but we must remember that we should not become proud. Everybody has their own limitation, and if we cross our limit, we will be in a very dangerous position. I was explaining today,

‘আমি ত বৈষ্ণব’, এ বুদ্ধি হইলে,
অমানী না হ’ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি’, হৃদয় দূষিবে,
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami
pratisthasa asi’, hrdaya dusibe,
haiba nirayagami

‘If I think, “I am a Vaishnav”, I will never stop desiring honour – my heart will become polluted with the desire for prestige, and I will end up in hell.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Do you understand the meaning of these words? These are very strong words. If you want name and fame – if you think you know everything, if you think you are a great scholar, a very big pandit – this desire for pratistha will pollute your heart, and the road to hell will be open for you (you will clear your way to go straight to hell). This is the result of the desire for pratistha. This is what Vaishnav Thakur writes. Therefore, we must always give up false ego (guru-abhimana tyaji); we shall always remain disciples (sisya thakibo sarvada). Some crazy person may become crazy – somebody knows some slokas and they think, ‘I am a very great personality, I know everything!’ Somebody reads Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, learns to recite some slokas, and they think they have become great scholars, great pandits or Vaishnavs. If they like it, they can do that – we do not want to criticise anyone, but as for us, we are their humble servants. This is our position. We only want to be humble servants.

…There are not so many devotees in Memari (Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal). We used to go to some rich people for collections, but rich people’s behaviour is not good, so I stopped this several years ago (perhaps, three–four years ago). We have now a temple nearby, in Tarakeshwar, and many devotees go to the temple. Many have got initiation, and their behaviour is good. Our experience of going to their houses is very nice. At every house we go to, people give much respect to every one of us, and we are happy to visit them. I am also more interested in going to poor people’s houses and collected a little from each person. If we collect five hundred bags of potato from five hundred people, it is good, what is the problem? This is Mahaprabhu’s style. Mahaprabhu would not take so many things from rich people, but He would take bananas and banana flowers from Sri Sridhar Prabhu, who was a poor brahman.

ভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু লুটিপুটি খায় ।
অভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু উলটি নাহি চায় ॥

bhaktera jinisa prabhu lutiputi khaya
abhaktera jinisa prabhu ulti nahi chaya

‘The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it to Him, but He does not want to take anything from a non-devotee.’

(Based on Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.9.185)

Non-devotee rich people actually have much ego. They are puffed up, thinking, ‘Oh, we are giving top quality potato!’, ‘We are giving ten bags!’, ‘We are giving twenty bags!’ If a poor farmer gives us one bag, that is sufficient. Not only that – they will give you a bag of potato, and they will carry it to the car on their own heads also. It is good. Yesterday we went to the house of devotee, and they gave us two bags of potato. Kamalendu Prabhu carried one bag, and the man carried the other bag. On top of that, they gave us some nice sweets, samosas and other treats; they also gave us some money for the temple. They are all very nice people.

Question: How can I overcome depression?

Only by chanting the Holy Name. Take shelter of a bona fide guru and chant the Holy Name, then you can overcome depression. Whatever comes, good or bad, it is not a problem – depend on the Lord in everything. You must surrender to the Lord, surrender to your guru. It is necessary to have saranagati:

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

sad-anga saranagati haibe yanhara
tanhara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

‘Lord Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender to Him in these six ways.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If you have six types of surrender (if you surrender fully) to gurudev and the Lord, then Lord Krishna will hear you.

I am finishing for today. Please forgive my offences. Make a festival and remember the Vasanta Panchami day – the appearance day of Sri Vishnupriya Devi, Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami; remember Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur. You must always remember them. Also, Sriman Nityananda Prabhu’s appearance day is coming soon. We will meet again next Sunday before the festival. I do not know where we will be on that day, in Nrisingha Palli or Ekachakra, but we will be here next Sunday and we can make a programme from wherever we are. It is not a problem.

Everybody should try to serve Nityananda Prabhu. Please pray for me so that I can continue serving like this until my death. I am very happy to go house to house, door to door. Somebody said, ‘Oh, you are becoming old day by day, how will you go?’ Even when I cannot go, if I cannot walk, it is not a problem – I will make a wheelchair and go door to door in a wheelchair.

Jay Gurudev. Jay Nrisinghadev.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Holy Vasanta Panchami Day
2) Extraordinary Qualities of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami
3) Hanker and Aspire
4) Keep Your Head at Vaishnavs' Lotus Feet
5) "Please Forgive Me"
6) Renounce Pride, Not Practice