(1/13) This Is Not a Playground

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

[Chanting ‘Krpa kara Vaisnava Thakura’, His Divine Grace pauses and remarks]

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

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura

‘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 ॥

‘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)

‘I am a Vaishnav’: if you think like this— [Noise in the audience] What are the children doing upstairs? Is this a playground? It is not a place for sitting and gossiping or getting up to mischief. This place here is bhakti-siddhanta sravan sadan (‘a solemn place where one comes to hear the teachings of devotion’). There can only be talks about Nitai, Vaishnav Thakur and the Lord here. You cannot talk about any outside (material) things here. Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami:

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la’be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

‘Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour from others, give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236–237)

Do not talk any gramya-katha here! Do not have any outside talks here! You must leave all this at home. Do not come here with all that. You must come here surrendering your everything – all your hearts, souls, minds, everything – at the lotus feet of the Lord.

We always blame the Lord, ‘Why is the Lord giving me so much unhappiness and suffering?’ but we do not blame ourselves for not being able to surrender to the Lord. You blame the Lord, but have you become surrendered to the Lord? You must ask yourselves this question. How much can you give to the Lord? We cannot give anything to the Lord. But we must place everything – our minds, hearts, souls, bodies, egos, and so on – at the holy lotus feet of the Lord…

We have brothers, sisters, wives, children and other relatives, but they are with us just for one or two days – they will all come and go from this world. But if you want to come to Nityananda, you must give everything – your hearts and minds – to His holy lotus feet, and you must not only say that. These are not just some words. How many times have I told you that?

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।
গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

‘gorara ami, gorara ami’ mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara laile phala phale

‘Just saying, “I am Gora’s! I am Gora’s!” will not do. Only when you follow Gora’s practice and Gora’s conception will you get the proper result.’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

Only saying, ‘Nitai, Nitai’ will not do – you must practise what Gora and Nitai preach. Trying to impress others is not worshipping Gora. You think, ‘I will eat well, I will dress well, I will live in a nice room,’ but this is not what Krishna consciousness is about.

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

krpa kara vaisnava thakura
sambandha janiya, bhajite bhajite,
abhimana hau dura

‘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)

Did you hear what we were singing? I told you about it yesterday also. It is necessary to first know the sambandha. We know our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, sons, daughters, friends, husbands and other relatives very well. Everybody knows this kind of relationship, but we do not know who are our guru and Vaishnavs. How many of us know and understand our guru, Vaishnavs, the Lord? We do not understand the meaning of the guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord; we only know our own interests. Everybody understands who their wives, sons, friends and relatives are, but we do not know our guru, Vaishnavs or the Lord. What does the Lord say in Srimad Bhagavad-gita? ‘I do not recognise, or know, anyone except My devotees, and My devotees also do not know anyone except Me.’ This is what chastity is. Women can understand what is called to be chaste. It is necessary to have chastity. You must surrender everything to your guru. You will not get anywhere without chastity to your guru. If you think, ‘I have got initiation, so I have already got everything,’ and go home at ease, then you are wrong. Taking initiation is a matter of fortune,

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)

In his last days, Gurudev called me and said, ‘You go to all those villages and remote areas, bringing everyone for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. You have helped so many people take initiation, but can you say how many of them have actually become disciples?’ This is what Gurudev told me. ‘How many of your people have become disciples?’ We say, ‘Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya ara na kariha mane asa (গুরুমুখ-পদ্মবাক্য, চিত্তেতে করিয়া ঐক্য, আর না করিহ মনে আশা). Make the teachings from Sri Guru’s lotus mouth one with your heart and do not desire anything else.’ We say that we keep the teachings of our guru in our hearts, but, tell me, how many people listen to what their guru says? People offer their full dandavat, but as soon as you tell them to do something, they say, ‘Oh, sorry, I do not have time.’ Such people are not fit to be called disciples. The duty of a disciple is to tolerate their gurudev’s chastisement and mould their lives according to the desire and vision of their gurudev.

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Length: 135 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) This Is Not a Playground
2) Wrong Worries
3) Pure Identity
4) Worshipful Devotion
5) Meaning of Discipleship
6) Free Mercy, Exclusive Rights
7) Path of Devotion
8) Krishna Conscious Life
9) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (1)
10) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (2)
11) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (3)
12) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (4)
13) Clean Mood