(3/8) Tie Your Mind

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, noon programme, 28 February 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

All of us have attended primary school. When you study in primary school, there are one or two hundred students (now even more), but when you progress to high school, only half of the students stay. After that, when you go to college, you may not find more than ten of the old students there. And when you go to university, only one of your old schoolmates may be there. So, many people come to dance and chant, but how many people come to hear Hari-katha, how many people are thirsty for Hari-katha? Until and unless you become hungry for Hari-katha, you cannot get real benefit. Just as mental hunger causes mental stress, in the same way spiritual hunger causes stress for the soul. So, those who listen to Hari-katha listen to it for the benefit of their souls. Srila Prabhupad also said that so many people come to the temple – when you chant kirtans, the hall is full, or when you make a festival, the place gets filled with people (you cook twenty quintals [2 tones] of rice, and everything is finished), but who of these people is hungry for food (bhojan) and who of them is hungry for spiritual life (bhajan)?

[His Divine Grace is distracted by clamour] You must listen carefully; leave your phones. If you listen attentively, you can get benefit. What is the need to use your phones? You must leave all this in the drain! What is the use of your phone? I have written my Hari-katha in books. If you only read these books, you will get Hari-katha.

So, there is another question here (in Guidance 3, Chapter ‘108 Questions and Answers’): Is it devotion to imagine some idol of God, offer it flowers, Tulasi, ring the bell, recite verses in its praise and sit in front of it and do japa, meditate? Answer: No, it is not.

Have you heard it? All this is not devotion! You come to the Lord because you want something for your bodies, health or families. People come to the Lord, offer Him some flowers and recite some prayers for the well-being of their families, but the main thing should be devotion – you cannot get the Lord through fruitive actions (selfish work), knowledge or any austerities (mystic practices). It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, ‘How can you get the Lord? Through devotion.’ How does one get devotion? Through pure devotees’ pure association. If you associate with devotees, you will get devotion. If you keep listening to Hari-katha, you will gradually attain devotion. Ringing a bell, offering flowers, etc. – all this is not devotion. Devotion comes from the heart.

Every morning, when we wake up, we sing in one of the kirtans:

শুদ্ধভক্ত-পালন, শুষ্কজ্ঞান-তাড়ন,
ছলভক্তি-দূষণ-রাম ॥

suddha-bhakta-palana, suska-jnana-tadana,
chhala-bhakti-dusana-rama

‘He takes care of His pure devotees and drives away dry knowledge. He delights in refuting bogus devotion.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

What people do in this world is pseudo-devotion. It is a pretence. There are such people in our country also. There are such people in Midnapore, and there are such people here, in Basirhat, also. People will grab your feet and wash them with tons of water, with tears flowing from their eyes and falling into the pots with water. Do they really cry for the Lord or is it a show to impress others? All this is crocodile tears! When I went to Midnapore, people actually queued in a long line to wash my feet, and when I became thirsty and asked them for a glass of water, one hour passed and no water came. Is that devotion? You can understand it yourselves. That is why it is said: Is it devotion to imagine some idol of a God, offer it flowers, Tulasi, ring the bell, recite verses in its praise and sit in front of it and do japa, meditate? No, it is not. All this is not devotion.

Devotion means you must feed the Lord with deep affection and care. You have nothing, you do not know any mantras – how many of us know anything about the right or wrong pronunciation? But when you feed your husbands, you feed them very affectionately and carefully – you do not ring a bell or recite any mantras to feed them. It is the same with the Lord. The Lord is your own. This is what you must think, and this is how you must love the Lord. The Lord is the master of your house – without offering it first to Him, we cannot even drink a glass of water. You must do arati at four o’clock, so you should wake up at three o’clock every day, but people sleep till six or eight o’clock. They have no time to wake up the Lord. Women usually wake up at six, take a shower and, leaving all work aside, first send their husbands to work and children to school. Then, they go to the prayer room at ten o’clock to ring the bell. Is that what you call devotion? This is not devotion!

“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.’

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।
গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari’
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

‘You put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you out, thief (hypocrite)!’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6–7, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

‘If you stealthily behave bad, thinking that nobody will know about it, you are wrong – Gora will catch you out!’

We have unwanted, bad elements within us (anarthas). How will these elements go away? Why do we feel no taste for chanting the Holy Name? Because we do not chant the pure Holy Name. When we chant the Holy Name on our beads, no matter how much we chant, other thoughts always come to our minds. ‘Oh, my son has gone out. Is he all right or not?’, ‘My husband has gone to work. Is he all right or not?’, ‘This person went to see a doctor. Are they all right or not?’, ‘Where will I find money to buy food tomorrow? I must think of something.’ Is it so or not? You can never chant the Holy Name like this. But Srila Prabhupad said that if you chant the Holy Name loudly, forcefully, then your mind will not go in a bad direction. You can chant loudly on your beads or without them. If you chant loudly, you will see that other thoughts will not be coming to your mind so much (this bad tendency will slowly go away). That is why Srila Prabhupad advised to chant the Holy Name loudly. We get shy that others will hear us chant, that we will disturb others, but you must not get shy – you must be firm, ‘No! I will chant loudly!’ If you do this, your minds will not be scattered everywhere – they will not go in any other direction.

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Length: 40 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Be Serious
2) Quality Is Not Cheap
3) Tie Your Mind
4) Ask Your Heart
5) Tired of Struggling?
6) Proper Worship
7) Watch the Road
8) Regulated Life