(2/6) Deserve, Then Desire

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur, noon programme
14 February 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

There is also another kirtan… If you chant kirtans and practise properly, and if you try to understand the meaning of kirtans, you will see how beautiful they are.

[His Divine Grace chants ‘Krpa kara Vaisnava Thakura.’]

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া, ভজিতে ভজিতে,
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥১॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura [1]

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur! May my ego go away by always worshipping you in full knowledge of the relationship.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Many think that they have taken initiation, so they have become Vaishnavs. It is not like that. When you know the relationship and keep practising, your ego must go away. That is why Gurudev and Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur say that there is no use living for one hundred years. Many are proud, ‘Oh, my father has lived to one hundred years!’ But what is the use? If somebody lives for only ten years but chants the Holy Name during this time, they will get some benefit; but if somebody lives for one hundred years and does not chant the Holy Name, what benefit will they get? What is the point living for one hundred years if you cannot practise Krishna consciousness, if you cannot worship and serve the Lord? There is no use. That is why it is necessary to know the relationship (sambandha). Even if somebody took initiation only yesterday, you must address them as Prabhu. If you pay obeisance to everyone, then your ego will go away. When you see each other, you must tell each other, ‘Prabhu, dandavat’, ‘Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Dandavat.’ We must be like this. It is necessary to know the relationship. What is this relationship? The relationship is that ‘You are my Prabhu [master], and I am your das [servant].’ It is necessary to understand this relationship. The Lord lives within everyone. Even common people say that God lives within each and every human being, but why only human beings? The Lord is there in every single living entity, be it a tree or any other entity. The Lord is there within every living entity in His subtle form as Paramatma. So, if I learn and understand this relationship, my ego will go away and I will never think that I have become a Vaishnav. What am I? I am a servant of Vaishnavs (vaisnav das): I am a servant of the servants of Vaishnavs. I am a Vaishnav’s menial worker. This is my identity. Mahaprabhu says that jiva is an eternal servant of Krishna – a servant not just for one day, one hour or two hours!

When you forget it, Maya grasps you:

‘কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস’—জীব তাহা ভুলি’ গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

‘krsna-nitya-dasa’—jiva taha bhuli’ gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

‘Jiva souls forgot that they are eternal servants of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around their necks.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

That is why we sing here [His Divine Grace resumes chanting the kirtan],

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।
সম্বন্ধ জানিয়া, ভজিতে ভজিতে,
অভিমান হউ দূর ॥১॥

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura [1]

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur! May my ego go away by always worshipping you in full knowledge of the relationship.’

‘আমি ত বৈষ্ণব’, এ বুদ্ধি হইলে,
অমানী না হ’ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি’, হৃদয় দূষিবে,
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥২॥

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami
pratisthasa asi’, hrdaya dusibe,
haiba nirayagami [2]

‘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.’

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।

krpa kara vaisnava thakura

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur!’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

What does this mean? You think that you have become a Vaishnav, but:

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

‘Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

What must you do when you get the seed of devotion? Do you think that you have got the seed and this is it? When you plant a potato, you must water it after that. It is the same here. Our ‘water’ is sravan (listening, keeping good association) and kirtan (chanting, practising).

Last Sunday, a foreign devotee asked me, ‘What is bad association?’ What do the scriptures and Srila Prabhupad say? There are nine kinds of devotion: sravanam (listening about the Lord), kirtanam (chanting the Lord’s Name and glories), smaranam (remembering the Lord), archanam (worshipping the Lord’s Deity), vandanam (offering obeisances and prayers to the Lord), dasyam (serving the Lord as a servant), sakhyam (serving the Lord as a friend), atma-nivedanam (submitting yourself to the Lord), pada-sevanam (serving the Lord’s lotus feet). If somebody does not practise at least one of these nine types of devotional practices, their association is bad. You must practise at least one of these practices – you must practise sravan (listen to sadhus, listen about the Lord), you must practise kirtan (chant the Holy Name and practise properly), you must practise smaran (remember the Lord), you must practise vandan (offer obeisances and prayers to the Lord), you must practise archan (worship the Deity of the Lord), and so on. If somebody does not practise even one of these practises, you must never associate with them.

I went to a house last night. For many years, they have been distributing prasad to thousands and thousands of people, arranging nama-yajnas, chanting kirtans, giving classes on Bhagavatam and many other things, but what is the result now? I see that now they do not serve the Deities anymore, they do not serve the Lord, do not practise Krishna consciousness anymore! They have been doing nama-aparadha, nama-aparadha, nama-aparadha, and the result now is that the Lord is not staying there anymore – there is nothing there now. They have become full of offences.

What do sadhus come to do? Some come to take money, but some come thinking how they can bring people to this line. This is what ‘jive daya’ (being kind to the souls) means. You can see now also – it is not like only initiated people have come here; there are many uninitiated people among you, and if they listen about the Lord, they will get some benefit. He who is recording all their deeds will write in the dairy that one day this person has listened to Bhagavad-katha. It will give them benefit.

অসাধুসঙ্গে ভাই কৃষ্ণনাম নাহি হয় ।
নামাক্ষর বাহিরায় বটে তবু নাম কভু নয় ॥

asadhu-sange bhai krsna-nama nahi haya
namaksara bahiraya bate tabu nama kabhu naya

‘Brother, the Name of Krishna cannot be chanted in bad association: it may certainly sound like the letters of the Name, but it can never be the Name proper.’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, Srila Jagadananda Pandit)

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.’

Even if you chant and give classes for millions of lives, you will never come to the Lord like that because you are doing it with offences. Moreover, as the result, you will only go to hell. We were singing just now, ‘My heart will become polluted with pratistha and I will end up in hell (pratisthasa asi’ hrdaya dusibe haiba nirayagami).’ You are so proud, ‘Oh, I am feeding people!’, ‘I am arranging great festivals!’ This desire for prestige will come to your hearts and pollute them, and you will clear your own road to hell. You will be feeding so many people, but through that you will be clearing the road to hell for yourselves! I told them yesterday that they fed thousands of people, but they were only getting pratistha through that.

[His Divine Grace resumes chanting the kirtan.]

তোমার কিঙ্কর, আপনে জানিব,
‘গুরু’-অভিমান ত্যজি’ ॥৩॥

tomara kinkara, apane janiba,
‘guru’-abhimana tyaji’ [3]

‘May I consider myself your servant and give up the ego of a guru.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to give up the ego that you are a guru, or an acharya. That is why we do not allow anyone to touch our feet. Yesterday, too, I was given prasad and the person was standing and waiting when I finish to take my remnants – he did not care whether I needed anything. What have they learnt? What did Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj do one time? He ate everything, along with the banana leaf plate! They had given him prasad two times, and Babaji Maharaj understood what was going on, so the second time he ate everything along with the plate!

তোমার কিঙ্কর, আপনে জানিব,
‘গুরু’-অভিমান ত্যজি’ ।
তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট, পদজলরেণু,
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥৩॥

tomara kinkara, apane janiba,
‘guru’-abhimana tyaji’
tomara uchchhista, pada-jala-renu,
sada niskapate bhaji [3]

‘May I consider myself your servant and give up the ego of a guru. May I always earnestly worship the remnants of your food, your foot dust and the water that has washed your feet.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

কৃপা কর বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর ।

krpa kara vaisnava thakura

‘Please be merciful, Vaishnav Thakur!’

নিজে শ্রষ্ঠ জানি’, উচ্ছিষ্টাদি দানে,
হবে অভিমান-ভার ।
তাই শিষ্য তব, থাকিয়া সর্ব্বদা,
না লইব পূজা কা’র ॥৪॥

nije srestha jani’, uchchhistadi dane,
habe abhimana-bhara
tai sisya tava, thakiya sarvada,
na laiba puja ka’ra [4]

‘If I believe, “I am the greatest”, I will start giving others my food remnants and other things, getting weighed down by ego. So, I pray to always remain your disciple and not accept worship from anyone.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

What does ‘nije srestha jani’ mean? You tell others, ‘Here, take this prasad,’ but it is not good because this will make you proud. Sometimes, there is no way out, so you have to tolerate so much danger. You can imagine how much danger a guru has to face. For example, people give me sweets, but I am diabetic, I do not eat sweets, but they still push, ‘Oh, take a little.’ I pinch a bit and take, and they get happy because they say that now they have my remnants. It is a big problem for me, and I always feel that I am an offender. They give me a whole plate full of sweets, but I do not even touch it, and if I take a pinch from there, they get happy and distribute my remnants to everyone. I can become proud because of this. That is why it is said in the scriptures that we must always remain disciples. I want to always be a disciple. How do the scriptures say we must serve Vaishnavs? You cannot serve Vaishnavs without first become a Vaishnav yourself. So, first become a Vaishnav, then you can serve Vaishnavs. And if somebody thinks, ‘I have become a Vaishnav!’ they must not do vaishnav-seva – their service will be faulty, it will be a mistake. ‘I am a fallen soul, do I have any right to serve gurudev? Does a fallen soul like me have any right to serve gurudev?! I do not have any right! I am a lowly person, how can I serve the Lord? I do not have any right to do any service!’ It is necessary to have such humility. How can you get the right to do service? The answer is here, too. [His Divine Grace resumes chanting the kirtan.]

অমানী মানদ, হইলে কীর্ত্তনে,
অধিকার দিবে তুমি ।
তোমার চরণে, নিষ্কপটে আমি,
কাঁদিয়া লুটিব ভূমি ॥৫॥

amani manada, haile kirtane,
adhikara dibe tumi
tomara charane, niskapate ami,
kandiya lutiba bhumi [5]

‘If I become free from the desire for honour and learn to give honour to others, you will give me the right to chant your kirtan. Rolling on the ground, I shall earnestly cry at your holy feet.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When will I get the right to chant kirtan? When I become free from any desire for respect, and when I learn to give honour to others. ‘When I become lowly myself and when I can respect others, then, O Vaishnav Thakur, you will give me the right to chant the glories and the Holy Name of Lord Krishna – then I will earnestly and eternally serve your holy feet.’

জয় বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর, জয় বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর
বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর, জয় বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর
দয়াল বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর, দয়াল বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর
বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর, দয়াল বৈষ্ণব ঠাকুর

jaya vaisnava thakur, jaya vaisnava thakur
vaisnava thakur, jaya vaisnava thakur
doyal vaisnava thakur, doyal vaisnava thakur
vaisnava thakur, doyal vaisnava thakur

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