GUIDANCE

Issue# 9

Lectures of His Divine Grace

Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj

published at SCSMathInternational.com during October-December 2016

CONTENT

Admiring the Fortune

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

I saw yesterday's programme, and we cannot realise something. You can see that you are in Venezuela, far from India, but how much inspiration you have got! You have got some sukriti, you have got some inspiration from Guru Maharaj, from Gurudev, from Lord Nityananda Prabhu. We can realise that Gaura Nitai is here, spreading Their mercy all over the country.

Mahaprabhu went to Puri, and He sent Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami to Vrindavan to search and find the places of Krishna's pastimes that had been lost, or hidden (gupta). Mahaprabhu also sent Nityananda Prabhu to West Bengal to preach Krishna consciousness. But you can see in West Bengal, even near Nityananda Prabhu's birth place, there are now some places there where people have never heard about Nitai and Gour—because Nityananda Prabhu could not go there. In Bengali, they call them panda-patita desh (wasted and desolated land)—it means they have no mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. But how fortunate you are!

You can see Nitai and Gour are here, They are spreading so much mercy through Gurudev, through A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Param Guru Maharaj—they came here and spread Krishna consciousness.

Also, I was surprised this morning. A ten-twelve-year-old girl asked me a question about Bhakti Vinod Thakur. She asked if Bhakti Vinod Thakur was the saptam goswami (seventh goswami) and how it was possible. I became surprised, "How does she know this kind of conception?" Even ten-fifteen-year-old brahmachari who stays in the temple, in Nabadwip or any other of our centres, does not know that Bhakti Vinod Thakur is the seventh goswami! How did she get this? Through practising life. It comes through practising Krishna consciousness life.

Practise makes perfect. You cannot run devotional life without sravanam and kirtanam. The scriptures (Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.5.23) also say, "Sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam (hearing, chanting, remembering, offering obeisance, engaging in service as a servitor, as a friend, and self-submission)"—through this we can realise Krishna consciousness.

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Kaliya-Daman Lila

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

I saw devotees' drama about Kaliya-daman lila yesterday. It was very nice. Kaliya-daman lila is actually the only lila that all Vraja basis could see. There is no other lila like this because only all cowherd boys saw the other lilas. You watched it yesterday and you can understand it. When Kaliya-nag caught Krishna and tied Him with his body, Krishna did not come out at once, He was waiting. Why was He taking time? Because He was waiting for all the Vraja basis to come and see it. This is how all Vraja basis got an opportunity to see that lila.

All cowherd boys would tell their mother about Krishna. Even when He was just three days, Krishna killed Putana. Another time, a big bird, Bakasur, came and ate all boys, and when the boys came home they told their mothers, "Today we almost died! Nanda Maharaj's son Kanu (Krishna) protected us otherwise we would die!" The boys' mothers became surprised and said to their sons, "Tell your friend Krishna that we want to see such lila too." And Krishna gave them this opportunity—they could see that Kaliya-daman lila.

Where is Kaliya-nag now? Gurudev said that it is written in the scripture that he left for an island that is now known as Fiji island. He is staying there now. Krishna said to him, "There is too much disturbance because of you! There is so much bad smell, the Vraja basis cannot tolerate it, and all birds and beasts also die, they cannot tolerate it. You must go from here." Kaliya-nag said he was afraid of Garuda, but Krishna assured him, "Do not worry, when Garuda comes, show him the marks of My feet on your head, then Garuda will not touch you."

You can see also the vatsalya-rasa here. Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaj were so much afraid when Krishna was in the water, they began to cry. When Krishna finally came out of the water, He was cold and shaking so much. Mother took him to a hill, and the sun gave twelve times the heat of one sun. Vrindavan is generally very hot, but when the sun gave twelve times more heat, it became too hot, and there started wild fires. The Vraja basis became afraid, and seeing that, Krishna thought, "Oh, all My Vraja basis are afraid, I must do something." And Krishna ate all fire! Then, His mother took Him home and gave Him some hot milk. When Krishna drank it, He cried, "Oof! It is too hot! I cannot drink it!" His mother said, "A few hours ago I saw You eating fire, and now You say that the milk is hot?!" Krishna said, "Have you seen Me eating fire? Do not tell anybody!"

It happened at Dvadas-tila, we go there during the Kartik parikrama. "Dvadas" means twelve (twelve suns gave the heat at that time), and "tila" means a hill. That is how that hill became known as Dvadas-tila.

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Service Subordination

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

We start service by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, by the mercy of Radharani. Without Their mercy we cannot do anything.

When we do parikrama during the Kartik, we first go to Ucchagaon, Lalita Devi's birthplace. Without mercy of Lalita Devi we will not get mercy of Radharani, and without mercy of Radharani we cannot get Krishna. We follow this line when we do the parikrama also. We follow a line of subordination: first you must be a servant of a Vaishnav, then a servant of the Guru, then you will be a servant of the Lord. We must serve in this way, following this this channel, otherwise it does not work.

Our Gurudev also said, "If you serve devotees, then you can think that one day Krishna will come to serve you." Gurudev told it to me also. He said that if you serve the devotees, one day you will see that Krishna Himself will come to serve you...

There is one solitary place, quite far from Vrindavan, called Kadam Khandi. (When we do Vrindavan parikrama, we go there every year.) Our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj stayed at that place before he started Chaitanya Saraswat Math. When Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur expired and there was some problem at Chaitanya Math, Srila Sridhar Maharaj came to Vrindavan and stayed in this place, Kadam Khandi. It is a very nice place. Param Guru Maharaj wrote some sloka there and you can still see it there. Rupa Goswami Prabhu also lived in that place.

One day, Sanatan Goswami came to Rupa Goswami. He asked him, "It has been so long since I left Bengal... For so many days I have not taken sweet rice. Can you please arrange some sweet rice here?" Rupa Goswami thought, "Yes, I will see..." and answered, "OK, wait and see."

Then, Sanatan Goswami went begging, to do some collection, and suddenly a small ten-twelve-year-old girl came to Rupa Goswami—and She brought some sugar, rice and milk! Rupa Goswami asked the girl,

"Where did you come from?" Rupa Goswami asked the girl.

"Oh, there is a village nearby called Javat, I came from there. My mother sent Me with these ingredients for sweet rice..."

"But I do not know how to cook sweet rice..."

"My mother sometimes cooks it, and I saw how she does it. Do you have a pot?"

Rupa Goswami brought a broken pot. Then, She looked around and thought, "Where do I find some wood for cooking?" So, She went to the garden and saw some dry branches fallen from the trees. She collected some wood and said to Rupa Goswami, "Please, sit down here, you can see how I cook. I am starting now."

Then, She quickly finished cooking the sweet rice and saying, "Oh, I have to go now, My mother will be angry!" She ran away.

Soon after that, Sanatan Goswami came back from collection, and Rupa Goswami said to him, "Oh, the sweet rice is ready!" Sanatan Goswami was surprised, "How did you manage to make it so quickly?! Where did you get the ingredients? How is it possible to make it in such a short time?!" Rupa Goswami explained, "After you left, a girl came from a nearby village. She brought the ingredients and also cooked herself." Sanatan Goswami then tasted the sweet rice and said, "This sweet rice has a very different taste! When I was in Bengal, I took sweet rice, but this sweet rice tastes different! Let us go and find out who the fortunate girl is, who Her parents are! We must go and see them."

They both went to the Javat village and started asking house to house, "Did you sent your daughter?" Somebody said, "I do not have a daughter!" At another house they were told, "My daughter has not left the house." So, they did not find that girl.

Sanatan Goswami started crying. He said to Rupa Goswami, "Rupa, do you know who came to you? We are waiting to serve Her, but She came Herself to serve us! You have given so much austerity, so much hard labour to Her! She Herself cooked for you!"

Do you see? Srimati Radharani Herself came to serve them...

Krishna is always ready to serve the devotees, always ready to serve Radharani, and you can see also that Krishna Himself serves Radharani in the Seva Kunja... but that is another, very high conception…

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Discriminate and Tolerate

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

Question: How can we remove arrogance and intolerance from our heart?

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

(Saranagati, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"You must do what is in favour of devotion, and you must reject what is not in favour of devotion." If you sometimes do what is unfavourable to devotion, ego and many nonsense things will come at that time. We must follow the instruction. Sometimes we do what is not necessary, and we get the same result. For example, we gossip—some girl is talking about another girl or boy, and so on. Do not listen to these kinds of things—it is gramya-katha, gramya-varta, it is nonsense. When these things come to us and we do something that is not in favour of devotion, many obstacles then come to our hearts.

Mahaprabhu told Das Goswami Prabhu, "Gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe: When there is no Krishna-katha, do not say anything; and when there is no Krishna-katha, do not listen to anything. Bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe: do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes." (Cc, 3.6.236) Always control your tongue. Remember this. If you do not control your tongue, then mind will not be controlled—everything will be destroyed...

Sometimes you go to the market and think, "Oh, this is very nice food. I want to eat it." If you see something you want, then buy it, bring it home, give it to the Deity, and take prasad.

I can give you one direct example. I do not want to tell the name, but there was one devotee who used to smoke five packs of cigarettes every day. He came back to India one year later and said, "Maharaj, Krishna is merciful, now I cannot tolerate any smoking." I asked him, "How is it possible?" and he said, "Srimad Bhagavad-gita says that you must give whatever what you want to eat to the Deity or Gurudev." He had a photo of Gurudev in his house and it turned out that when he was going to smoke a cigarette, he would first offer it to the photo. This is how his smoking finished. Do you see?

So, please always avoid what is not offered (or what cannot be offered) to the Lord—such food produces anger. For example, in Uttar Pradesh and South India, people eat onion and garlic in some place and they say it is all right because onion and garlic are vegetables. But we do not take onion and garlic because they give so much anger and energy—Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur always avoided it for this reason.

Sometimes, however, it is also "Sri Hari sevaya yaha anukula / visaya baliya tahara tyage haya bhula: if something is favourable to the service of the Lord, do not reject it saying that it is a material thing; it is wrong." There are times when for the service to the Lord you may not be able to avoid something.

For example, once, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj went to Kashmir for preaching. In that area, there were no devotees, all people were Muslim, so they did not get any proper food. They ate fruit only, and three days later they went to a hotel to have a meal. They were given some rice and dal. Srila Sridhar Maharaj's godbrother Bon Maharaj and another sannyasi were also there. When they were served the meal, they got the smell of onion and garlic. They said to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "Maharaj, what is this? What smell is coming?" Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied, "Maha-prasad! Maha-prasad!"

Sometimes we have to digest things—"Hari sevaya yaha anukula"—for the service to the Lord. It is the same with the aeroplane food. For example, to come here to Venezuela from India, you have to take a twenty-two-hour flight. How can you travel without food? Some say that they do not know what they are given—they say it is vegetarian but sometimes when cooking or dishing they may use the same spoon as they use for the non-vegetarian food. What can you do? Sometimes you may have to tolerate for the service to the Lord.

Do you have any other questions?

Question: Is it an offence to Krishna to cook something in the same place where people cook meat?

You must think what devotional activities means. In India also you can see in some families the husband eats meat, fish, and even on the Ekadasi day he brings home meat—what will an Indian wife do? She has to cook for him. There are many Gurudev's disciples like this—the wife is an initiated devotee, and the husband is not a devotee. When the husband bring all the fish and meat, the wife has to cook it otherwise they have to divorce. What can she do? Krishna can see everything…

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Transgressing and Trespassing

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

Question: Is there Gaura Nitai or Lord Nityananda only in Ekachakra?

No, Gaura-Nitai. If it is only Nitai, He cannot be happy. Nitai will not be happy without Gaura and Gaura will not be happy without Nitai. It is called ardha-kukkuti-nyaya (half-hen logic).

In Bengal and all over India there is a tradition to make what is called asta-prahara kirtan—a hired party comes to a house and does a twenty-four-hour non-stop kirtan, chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra. It happened in Shyamananda Prabhu's times, and now too.

One day, the brother of Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami (the author of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita) brought a hired kirtan party to their house in Jhamatapur, there was also a pujari who did puja. The pujari worshipped Lord Nitai very much (not Gaura), and Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother chastised the pujari very much for this. Then, he called another pujari who did not have affection for Nitai, and Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami chastised his brother, "Why do you love Gaura but have no affection for Nitai? It is not good! Why are you not worshipping Nitai? Why are you worshipping only Gaura?" That night Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami dreamed that Nitai was calling him, "Please come! Come to Vrindavan!" The next day he left...

It is an offence if you worship only Gaura without Nitai. Just as it is an offence also if somebody worships Krishna without Radharani.

Question: Why do we worship first Mahaprabhu, then Krishna and Radharani?

That is a high conception. Gaura-Nitai, Krishna-Balaram is sakhya-rasa; and Radha-Krishna and Mahaprabhu is madhura-rasa. Our Deities' name is Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda-sundar. Gandharva, or Gandharvika, means the mood of Radharani that associates with a peacock moving its leg to the side in a particular way—Krishna is always attracted by this mood of Radharani, always likes it. As I said, this is a high conception.

There is santa-, dasya-, sakhya-, vatsalya-, and madhura-rasa. Nitai-Gaura is sakhya-rasa, vatsalya-rasa is Ma Yasoda, Nanda Maharaj, and madhura-rasa is Radha-Krishna's pastimes, and it a very high conception. Always be careful with madhura-rasa.

One foreign devotee once asked Gurudev, "Gurudev can you tell something about Radha-Krishna's pastimes?" Do you know what answer Gurudev gave? Everybody was surprised to hear it. Gurudev said, "If you hear Radha-Krishna's pastimes, you will be pregnant."

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King Prataparudra's Fortune

Caracas, Venezuela

24 September 2009

One day, a Western devotee asked Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Param Guru Maharaj, "When Krishna Himself came, He rescued everybody, so if everybody is already rescued what did Mahaprabhu come to this world for?" Srila Sridhar Maharaj, Param Guru Maharaj, answered, "He came only for two men—one is Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, and the other one is Keshav Kashmiri." For example, Raja Prataparudra had already been rescued because he always served the devotee.

At first, to teach us all, Mahaprabhu did not want to meet with King Prataparudra because He showed He was a devotee of the Lord and if He met with the king, then everybody would think He always mixed with the kings and rich people. Later, however, He gave him so much mercy—when Mahaprabhu embraced him, He embraced him so tight (you know that Mahaprabhu is very strong) that the king could not get out.

It was the Ratha-yatra festival. When the chariot of Lord Jagannath stopped on the way, Mahaprabhu went to Ramananda Ray's garden and, tired, fell down there. Nityananda Prabhu had taught King Prataparudra what to do and told him to come to Mahaprabhu at that time. So, by both mercy of Nityananda Prabhu and the will of the Lord, the king came to Mahaprabhu and recited this sloka,

tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam

kavibhir iditam kalmasapaham

sravana-mangalam srimad-atatam

bhuvi grnanti te bhurida janah

"My Dear, bestowing the greatest fortune that is attained after so many births, exalted souls come to this world and live here by singing and spreading Your nectarean glories that are life and soul for those suffering in this material world being devoid of Your divine love; that are the gist of all poets' songs; that are the destroyer of all sins; that benefit anyone who hears them; and that possess universal attraction."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 14.13)

This is a sloka from Srimad Bhagavatam and it has a very nice meaning. It is said in this sloka: Who is the greatest distributor? Who is the biggest donor in this world? Those who always distribute Krishna-katha in this world are the biggest donors.

When Mahaprabhu heard this sloka, He hugged King Prataparudra and only kept saying, "Bhurida janah! Bhurida janah!" It means, "You are a great donor! A great donor!"

This is how Mahaprabhu gave His mercy to King Prataparudra…

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Service: Now or Never

Caracas, Venezuela

24 September 2009

This morning I told you about three kinds of aparadhs. I told you about the different kinds and examples of Vaishnav aparadh, and there are also many kinds of seva aparadh.

One day, I was reading Bhagavatam, and I saw there one sloka. I could not understand its meaning, so I asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, what is the meaning of this sloka?" Gurudev banged his fist on the table and said, "I am hungry! I WANT ONE CHAPATI—NOW! That is the meaning of the sloka." I thought to myself, "What?!" I was surprised, but eventually Gurudev gave an explanation.

For example, the time of the Deities' bhog is fixed, it is eight o'clock, but you are cooking so many things, so many preparations, and you give the bhog late, at nine o'clock. This is an offence, seva aparadh.

Gurudev gave one more example. Suppose there is a family, a husband and a wife, living together in a house. The wife does not work, she stays as a housewife and does all the cooking. The husband goes to work, and he does not take anything outside, he only takes prasadam. One day, he comes back from the work, and his wife says to him, "Please wait. I am cooking so many things for you!" The husband is hungry, what will he do? He asks again, but the wife says, "Wait, I have so many things cooking for you, wait for two hours!" This is not the way to do it—to wait for two hours; you must give him what you have immediately, that is the service, otherwise it will be karma.

That is the meaning of that sloka. It is a very high conception. You must first give what you have, immediately. That is service mood. At that time I could not understand the meaning, and I asked Gurudev. The meaning is very high…

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Addressing Others

Caracas, Venezuela

24 September 2009

Question: What should be the relation, or behaviour, of a woman with a devotee who is married?

All ladies are godsisters, all are Didi. Even in the example of Gurudev's mother, somebody called her Thakur Ma, somebody called her grandmother, somebody called her mother, but Gurudev did not like it. Everybody is Didi, all are godsisters. Sometimes we saw also that when Gurudev was going out, his mother would pay dandavat to him, and Gurudev would say, "Didi, how are you?" I saw and heard it myself. Gurudev never said, "Mother."

Question: How should a lady behave towards a sannyasi?

Whether it is a sannyasi or a brahmachari, the behaviour towards them is the same: always see them as a devotee, always pay dandavat. You can see what everybody does and do the same. Also, it depends upon the lady...

Question: Sometimes devotees address others as Mother (Mataji) and not Didi. Why is it so?

Actually, all this "Father, mother, mummy, pappy," creates too much attachment. Why will a brahmachari call somebody, "O mummy! (Mataji)"? Brahmacharis and sannyasis have no relation with this mundane world. All are godsisters, all are godbrothers. This is where we are coming from.

Even when a six-seven-year-old boy came to Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and paid dandavat to him, Prabhupad would say, "Daso' smi. I am your servant." He would always say it. But he is Nayana Manjari, a special associate of Lord Jagannath and an intimate friend of Radharani—he has so much power. To teach us he can say this, and only Prabhupad can behave like this, we cannot (we are trying but cannot)...

Sometimes, on the Ratha-yatra day, all chariots move down the road, but Lord Jagannath stops and stands for some time at Prabhupad's birthplace. Everybody thinks, "Oh, something has happened," but nothing actually happens—it is just that Jagannath wants to meet with His friend.

When Prabhupad was six months old, the chariot of Lord Jagannath stood in front of his birthplace for three days. When his father, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, brought him out and put the dust of the chariot on Prabhupad's head, Jagannath's garland fell down for him. Then, the chariot started to move again.

Prabhupad is not an ordinary person…

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Come and Try

Public programme in Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

We are very happy to see all the devotees, as well as all gentlemen, ladies, and beloved children. We are here today, and today is a very good and very fortunate day in our life because we can sing some spiritual songs, as well as hear some spiritual lecture.

Only a fortunate soul can hear this kind of conference—only those who have some sukriti (fortunate men and women) can come and join this holy association. Without good fortune no one can join this kind of association. That is why I am first paying my obeisance to my Divine Master, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, to all godbrothers, godsisters, and I am also thanking all the good gentlemen, ladies, and children...

Why is it said that that only a fortunate soul can come and join such conference? It is necessary to know it.

We live in the age of Kali at present. The scriptures say that the age of Kali means the age of 'kalah', fighting. In this age, everybody always fights with each other: somebody takes somebody else's things, somebody steals something, and so one. This Kali-yuga is the age of fighting. We are, however, greatly fortune because we have got a human body in this Kali-yuga and because in this age Krishna Himself came in this world in the form of the Name.

This Kali-yuga's people's lifespan is very short, that is why Krishna Himself gave His Name to the people—He came in form of His Name and distributed it door to door, house to house. In Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapar-yuga, the lifespan was very long: 100,000 years, 10,000 years, and 1,000 years respectively, but now our life is short (we can die at any time).

Before this human body, we had had so many bodies, like a cow's body, a dog's body, a cat's body, and so on. We are greatly fortunate that in this life we have got a human body. We think we are Muslim, we are Hindu, we are Christian, we are Buddhist, we are Venezuelan, we are Indian, we are Russian, and so on, but we are not like this. We come from the same place, we have our common father—He is Lord Krishna, or God. We came from the same place and we must also go to the same place, otherwise we are always going in a cyclic order, wandering all over the world. As you sow so you reap: according to what you want, according to your action, you get the corresponding result. However, we are greatly fortunate to have got a human body. We must use this body to find out which way we must go to get to our real home.

The scriptures say that only through the chanting of the Holy Name and service can we come to our own home. The scriptures also tell us about the loving search for the lost servant: Krishna himself, God, is also searching for us. Since so many days, so many years, so many yugas (ages) we have lost our father—we must go back, He is also searching for us. How can we come there?

When we were in our mother's womb, we made a promise to Lord Krishna, God. When we were in so much difficulty in our mother's womb, we were crying and suffering there so much, we wanted to come out and be free, and Krishna showed Himself to us at that time. He said, "When you come out of your mother's womb, when you are born, you will be attacked by illusion and forget everything. Promise Me that if I give you hands, you will serve Me, if I give you eyes, you will see Me," and so on. We promised this to Him.

Now Krishna Himself sent His associate as a Guru to preach Krishna consciousness, and if we surrender to that Guru, he will show which way we must go to come to our real home. In Venezuela, here in Caracas, also, our Gurupadpadma opened a temple—Parama Karuna temple. You can come and join the programmes there and you can see what is going on there. You will get so much happiness. You think, "Oh, we have a family, we have a job, etc. How will I come?" but it is not necessary to leave anything, just find some little time for this.

Actually, you think that you are working, you are doing everything, but you ask yourself in your heart and soul, "Who is doing it?" Krishna Himself does everything.

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

He is the cause of all causes. Everything happens for Him, and He does everything. Because of our ego we cannot see anything, we are like blind men, but through good association we can wash our eyes, we can wash our hearts, then we will be able to understand everything. We do not do anything.

Our followers also have a family, job, etc. It is not necessary to leave your family, job, house, etc. You can continue as you are now, but only worship Krishna, only chant the Holy Name, at any time. The Holy Name is a sound vibration through which your mind and your everything will become clean. Try it. Come and join this association, and you will see what it is about.

We are trying to do good to everybody. For example, a flower has also life, it also has a jiva soul in it. How many days is a flower's life? Just a few days, but you can pick it and offer it to Lord Krishna, then the flower will be benefitted through you.

You think, "This is my house, my children, etc." but how many days will you live here? This is like a rented house—when the house proprietor comes and tells you to get out, you will have to go out. We can leave our body at any time, and it is not certain that you will get this kind of human body next life. This body is rare to get, but fortunately we have got a human body now. Only in this life it is possible to get Krishna consciousness, only in this life you can practise spiritual life. Cats and dogs do not know what this is. Even Lord Himself also likes human body.

The Lord is one of our family members. Just as you have children, parents, a husband, and so on, the Lord is also your family member, and you can worship Him in this way.

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Questions and Answers

Public programme in Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Question: Why are we afraid of death?

We are not, actually. Those who are devotees of Krishna are not afraid of death.

Question: I mean people in general, who are not devotees. Why are they afraid of death?

They are afraid of death because they have so much attachment. They are afraid, "I am so much enjoying here and I am going to die!" Even cats, dogs, insects, etc. are also afraid to die, even they do not want to leave their body. However we say: Why are you being foolish? Why wait for another body? We will always come and go, come and go, always die and are born, die and are born, and so on. If we however get a human body and can in this life follow Krishna consciousness, practise Krishna consciousness, then we can go to our real home, and it will not be necessary then to come and go again.

Question: I am here for the first time, could you please tell me who is Krishna?

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the one for whom you have come in this world, He is the one for whom you talk, for whom you do everything, for whom you work, etc.

One day your body will be dead, but you will not die actually because there is a jiva soul inside you. Everybody, every living entity has a jiva soul—an ant, a dog, everybody. You have a small part Krishna inside of you (anu-chaitanya, atomic consciousness). If you take a hair and divide it a hundred times, and then divide it again a hundred times, this will be the size of the soul (a 10,000th of a hair). For example, one big power house gives electricity to all small bulbs and therefore gives light to every place, all over Caracas, but taken separately, a small bulb can give light only to one room.

Question: We know that we have a spirit soul and that other people also have a spirit soul, but we are not able to see it. How can we see a jiva soul in others?

It is possible to see it. When you come and join us, you can also play football with Lord Krishna, you can sail the same boat together. You should come, otherwise how will you know it? For example, if you want to get a policeman's job, you must wear the police uniform. In the same way, if you come and join our association, you can slowly, slowly understand everything and enjoy with Krishna. First, it is necessary to have faith. When you are born your mother says, "This is your father," and you believe your mother, you do not go to check if it is true or not.

Question: People who have no Krishna consciousness have some particular habits. We know that they are in fact a spirit soul, so do we consider them bad association for us? Or are we, perhaps, bad association for them?

Our conception is not to discriminate who is not Krishna conscious, who is a good man and who has some bad conception. We preach for every jiva soul. We do not preach a Hindu religion, a Christian religion, a Buddhism religion, and so on. All jiva souls must know what their own religion in this Kali-yuga is. All scriptures say that chanting the Holy Name is our religion in this Kali-yuga.

If somebody drinks whiskey and does nonsense things, we call it bad association and we must tell others not to mix with them.

There are four things, four directives that you must know. It is dyuta, pana, striya, suna. Dyuta is gambling—if somebody gambles, we tell others not to mix with such people. Pana means drinking whiskey, smoking, we also tell others not to mix with them. Striya is illegal sex, it is not good. If you have a wife or a husband, then it is not a problem, but illegal sex—living like dogs and cats—is not good. And suna means killing others. Do not kill anybody. Everybody has a jiva soul, do not disturb anybody—do not kill cows, do not kill dogs, chickens, etc.

Question: What is the attitude of devotees to Christian or Jehovah followers?

Your question is good. There is something in what the Christian, the Muslim, and others say, but it is brahma-jnana. All religions say that the Lord has no form. But we have a form—we have legs, hands, everything—so how can we say that the Lord has no form? Scriptures also say that the Lord Himself comes in a human body. The Lord came before in Dvapar-yuga, Satya-yuga, and even in this Kali-yuga, some 500 years ago the Lord also came in a human body.

Question: What attitude should a devotee have when he or she is very much disturbed by some family member or some other people?

Be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others.

Question: You said that only the fortunate ones get the association of the devotees. I feel fortunate and I feel you are giving so much mercy to us, but why is it that somebody can take just a little of this mercy and make so much advancement, but another person does not make any advancement at all? How is it possible?

Actually it is depends upon sukriti.

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

Somebody cannot take it. You must be a good receiver. If the telephone line works, but the receiver is bad, we will be able to hear anything.

Question: Why is music, like music in kirtan, important for spiritual life?

Actually, music is not necessary, you can chant at any time without any music. What is necessary is the sound vibration. Through the sound you can get connection and become clean. The sound vibration is necessary.

Why do we chant the Holy Name loudly? Because some kinds of jiva souls cannot chant (like cats, dogs, etc.), so if we chant loudly, then we can give some benefit to them. Why are some music instruments necessary? If I chant in the street, nobody will come, but when they hear some music coming, then all attention comes there. Basically, it is necessary for preaching. Also, if I am chanting alone, I am being selfish, but if somebody hears the Holy Name and comes through this, joins Krishna consciousness—if somebody starts chanting through me—then I can get some commission from God.

* * *

Raghunath Das Goswami's Path

8 October 2011

Today is a very good day, a day of Vaishnav seva—today is Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's, Srila Raghunath Bhatta Goswami's and Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's disappearance day.

We have no qualification to serve the Vaishnavs, we have no quality to serve the Vaishnavs. If we do not got mercy from Vaishnavs, we cannot acquire, or get, service from the Vaishnavs. That is why we always make Vaishnavs' tirobhav (disappearance) festivals and remember such days.

As you know, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami wrote Chaitanya-charitamrita, and Raghunath Das Goswami also got mercy from Nityananda Prabhu—after getting Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, he got service from Mahaprabhu.

When he was a young boy, Raghunath Das Goswami had tried to go to Mahaprabhu many times. He had always been visaya-udasa (had no attachment to any mundane things) since his childhood. His father and uncle were very big landlords and Raghunath Das Goswami was the only son in the family, so his parents and his uncle always thought how to protect their family and property and always worried that their son could become a sannyasi. Because of that, Raghunath Das Goswami's father was always angry and anxious, and he and his uncle kept so many security guards with him.

Every time Raghunath Das Goswami came to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu would tell him, "Go back to your home! Do not become crazy, go back to your home! Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana: you can fulfil your father's desire but without any asakti, without any desire or attachment."

'asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'

visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

"When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Madhav Himself."

('Vaishnav ke?' verse 12)

Asakti-rahita: we always do some material work, we have a relationship with material things, but we do everything without attachment, understanding that everything is the Lord's property—we do everything for the Lord, for our Guru, for Nityananda. There is a relation (sambandha-sahita), but without attachment (asakti-rahita)."

We must serve with a relation,

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara

sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You have some love and affection for your wife, for you children, for your parents, etc. but if you get that kind of love and affection to your Guru, to the Lord, then it is called devotion.

So, Mahaprabhu said to Das Goswami Prabhu, "Go back to your home! It is not necessary to show Me your false renunciation (markata-vairagya)! Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana: you can do your job, do what your parents want you to do. Antare nistha kara, bahye loka-vyavahara: you can worship Me in your heart without showing anything to Me. You must do it internally, inside, secretly, not for a show or showing it externally. Nistha: you must be sincere in your heart. You can show you have some family life, do everything like others, and then achirat Krsna tomaya karibe uddhara: Krishna will rescue you from this kind of material environment very soon. It is not necessary to show Me false renunciation—you can serve Me with your heart and soul, from your house, that is not a problem."

Das Goswami Prabhu asked, "Prabhu, how will I then come out from there? There are too many security guards, too many mundane things!" Mahaprabhu replied, "You do not need to think about it. Follow what I am telling you to do." Then, Mahaprabhu assured him, "Krsna-krpa yanre, tare ke rakhite pare (Cc, 2.16.241): if somebody has got mercy from the Lord, mercy from their Guru, then no one can tie them, no one can stop them. One day you must come, I am telling you it is sure."

Das Goswami Prabhu followed what Mahaprabhu had told him. He went back to his house, got married, but he had no attachment to his family.

Later, one day, Sriman Nityananda Prabhu came to Panihati, a place near Kolkata. When Das Goswami Prabhu heard that Nityananda Prabhu had come there, he got his father's permission and went there. He made a big feast, Vaishnav seva, there, and Nityananda Prabhu put His leg on his head and said, "Now you can go! Now you can go to Puri and to Mahaprabhu!"

When Raghunath Das Goswami came to Puri, Mahaprabhu accepted him and said, "I can give you to Svarup Damodar, you can serve him. And from today, your name will be Svaruper Raghu (Svarup's Raghu)." (There are many other Raghunaths, that is why Mahaprabhu gave that boy this name.)

Today is a very good day. There is a song "Ki rupe paiba seva muni durachara"—it is a nice Vaishnav song, and it is good to sing it today…

* * *

Understanding Mercy

Caracas, Venezuela

23 September 2009

As I have already told, without Nityananda Prabhu's mercy even Raghunath Das Goswami could not reach Mahaprabhu—he could not get service without the mercy from Nityananda Prabhu.

Nityananda Prabhu gave mercy with His legs—He kicked Sivananda Sen, and Sivananda Sen began to dance, but his nephew Srikanta became angry, "Why did this kind of sadhu beat my uncle??" Angry, he went to Mahaprabhu to complain, but Mahaprabhu had already understood what had happened and knew that a crazy boy was coming to Him. When Srikanta came to Mahaprabhu, he suddenly could not complain—he became afraid.

Do you see? Ordinary people cannot understand the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu.

A few days ago I was in Singapore and I said only one thing to a devotee (I do not want to tell his name), "Prabhu, I am here, why are you always behind? Why do you not come to the kirtan? Why do you not talk to me? What has happened?" This is all I said to him, but he stopped coming altogether—he did not come to the kirtan again, he did not come at another time too. He has some ego because there are two parties in Singapore and both parties make programmes together, chant together, and everything is fine, but that devotee cannot tolerate this. So, the day after I spoke to him, he totally stopped coming.

Somebody cannot tolerate such things... That is why Gurudev said, "If I chastise anybody, they will leave my mission. I have only one man whom I can chastise—I know he will always come in front of me." Also, when Gurudev was young, Srila Sridhar Maharaj sometimes beat him, but every time he was beating him Gurudev would come closer to him. Srila Sridhar Maharaj was surprised, "I am beating you, why are you not running away?" but Gurudev answered, "Because you do not know how to beat!" [His Divine Grace laughs]

* * *

Highest Designation

8 October 2011

Both Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu and Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami were born in Bengal. A few days ago I sent our preaching party led by Sripad Tyagi Maharaj to the birthplace of Raghunath Das Goswami, near Katwa (the place where Mahaprabhu took sannyas) and to Jhamatapur, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's birthplace. They both left their body in Vrindavan, they did their bhajan there... (You know also that by Gurudev's mercy we got the house where Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's stayed in Vrindavan. We have got that place that bears his memory.

Disappearance day is about viraha (separation). "Vaishnav-viraha vina duhkha nahi dekhi para: I cannot see any other sorrow except that of separation from a Vaishnav." Mahaprabhu asked Ray Ramananda in their discussion called "Ramananda sambad", "What is a bad, a sad day for us? What is our greatest sorrow?" Ramananda Ray answered, "Vaishnav-viraha, the disappearance of a Vaishnav."

What do we make a festival on this day for? To make the Vaishnav happy. We want to serve Vaishnavs (do Vaishnav seva), but "Ki-rupe paiba seva muni durachara: I am so wicked, how will I ever get service?" We have no qualification, we always do bad things, ours is bad qualification (durachar); we do not follow the rules systematically. How can we get Vaishnav seva? How will we do Vaishnav seva? We have no qualification to do it. (This is what Narottam Das Thakur says.) That is why we pray to the Vaishnavs, "Please give us some mercy so that we can serve your associate, a servant of your servant—so that we can become their footdust."

We do not want to be a master, we do not want to be a Guru—we want to be a servant of the servant. This is the most important thing in our spiritual life. If we can become a servant, that has more taste—if we want to be a master, that is a big problem. Our qualification, our main goal is that we want to become a servant. If we can become a servant of a Vaishnav, that is the highest, that is the best qualification, the best designation...

* * *

Raghunath Das Goswami's Pastimes: Nectar of Devotion

8 October 2011

In Mahaprabhu's time, and even after that, everybody wanted to be a servant. Das Goswami Prabhu, Jiva Goswami Prabhu, and others, were all servants.

Das Goswami Prabhu became a servant of Svarup Damodar (Mahaprabhu's parsad). He was a big landlord's son, a very rich man, and his father sent him 400 rupees every month. Raghunath Das Goswami gave festivals, Vaishnav seva, two-three times every month with that money. He would invite all Vaishnavs of Sri Dham Puri, Sri Ksetra Puri. A little after that, Raghunath understood that Mahaprabhu did not like it so much, and he rejected that money. He told his father not to send money again—he did not take any money from his father and stopped the festivals. Mahaprabhu asked Svarup Damodar, "Why did Raghunath stop the festivals? Why is he not inviting anyone?" Then He heard that Raghunath had rejected that money because the money was coming from his father and through his Vaishnav seva some pratistha, name and fame, was coming. Mahaprabhu said, "Oh, very nice! I like that."

Then, when sometimes devotees gave Vaishnav seva, Raghunath would go there to take prasadam, but one day he thought, "I will go to the Jagannath temple and stand outside: when people come out with some prasadam, they will give some to me." But after a while he thought again, "Simha-dvare bhiksa-vrtti—vesyara achara: if I expect something from others, it is the behaviour of a prostitute. I am waiting for prasadam—waiting when somebody passes with prasadam and gives something to me. It is not good. Why should I expect anything from others? Vaishnavs never expect anything from anybody." Then, he rejected that too. He stopped begging.

Sometimes he would go to the places where there was some Vaishnav seva. On other days, he went to the place where shopkeepers kept rotten Jagannath prasadam that they did not sell for one-two days and that even the cows did not eat because of the bad smell. He would pick that prasadam rice, wash, and take it with some salt.

One time, Svarup Damodar took that prasadam from him forcefully saying, "What are you taking there and not giving me?" Mahaprabhu also wanted to taste it. Svarup Damodar tried to stop Him, "Prabhu, You cannot take it! No, no, it is very—" but Mahaprabhu forcefully took it from Raghunath Das Goswami's hand and said, "You are taking very good things yourself and not offering it to Me!"

This is a very good pastime. There are many stories, pastimes about Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, so many pastimes happened. You can read Chaitanya-charitamrita and get it there. If you hear about Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's pastimes through Chaitanya-charitamrita you will get a more than good taste—you will get nectar. There you will find his talks with Mahaprabhu, what Mahaprabhu taught him. "Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana: stay in your house, but without attachment." Mahaprabhu also taught him about giving up false renunciation. Mahaprabhu told all this to us, through Raghunath Das Goswami. It is necessary to understand this.

* * *

Humble and Chaste Service

8 October 2011

Today is a very good and a very big day for us. Today is the disappearance festival of three goswamis. Wherever they are living now, we only want them to allow us to serve their associates, associates of our Gurudev, and our Guru. We do not want to enter their party, but we only want their service as a dog—as a dog! "Tomara kukura, baliya janaha more: if only you can keep me as your dog!" We can only ask something following this line.

Asking is actually not good—we want to fulfil their desire, we think, "How can I serve you?" We pray: "Ki rupe paiba seva muni durachar. I have no qualification, I have no quality, but you are tolerating me, and that is sufficient (I am always barking, but you are tolerating me)." In this way you can get humility.

If we can serve the Vaishnavs in this way, if we can follow these rules, then we can continue our spiritual life. Some do service and much ego comes—that is a big problem. You can see Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's, Srila Raghunath Bhatta Goswami's lifestyle, how they lived in Vrindavan, how they fulfilled Mahaprabhu's desire. Really, you can see their life history and easily understand what is the Vaishnav's quality.

Today I am praying to them, I am praying to all the devotees—it is not necessary to make a big problem out of a temple, it not necessary to become a big guru, a big master, it is not necessary to become a big manager—if you only want to be Vaishnavs' foot dust, Vaishnavs' dog, that is sufficient.

We do not want Brahma. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said that even if Brahma comes, we have no time to go with him because we have Gurudev's job (we must for instance cook for him, give him medicine, give him water, etc.). We have no time. If your Guru calls you, "Oh, give me a glass of water," and at the same time Brahma comes to you, will you go with Brahma? No, you will say, "I have no time to go to Brahma because I need to give a glass of water to my Guru." It is necessary to have such mood in our spiritual life, you must understand it.

Do you see? Srila Raghunath Das Goswami rejected everything—he rejected his position as a landlord, his big family, he left all this. He had eleven security guards, but he came out because Mahaprabhu had given him mercy. First, Nityananda Prabhu had given him mercy and he immediately could get mercy and service from Mahaprabhu, but before that he had tried so many times to go Mahaprabhu, but Mahaprabhu could not accept him.

That is why it is Guru-Vaishnav-Bhagavan. "Guru bade gauranga bhaje sei papi raurave madi maje": if you worship Gauranga your whole life but you do this worship without worshipping the Guru, you will still take birth and death, birth and death, you will keep on coming and going.

ka ebar eli ka ebar geli

tabu tattva na sikhili

nijer matha nije khaili

e-dosa dite kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, you forget the truth eating your own brain. Who will you blame now, brother?"

Coming and going, coming and going, eating and sleeping—but no result will come.

So, it is necessary for us to serve the Vaishnavs, to follow Gurudev's desire. Even if we stay far, it is not a problem: we can serve from far away. What is necessary is that we follow Gurudev's instruction, Gurudev's desire—we cannot follow our mind. We must be careful. Our mind is naughty, but we have some good intelligence (sumedha), good buddhi, and we should apply that good buddhi. How does buddhi come? Through good association. Buddhi, or intelligence, will come and brain will be good through good association. If you stay with a thief, you will be a thief; if you stay with a drunkard, you will be a drunkard; if you stay with a bad person, you will be a bad person; and if you stay with a good person, you will be a good person. So, if you read Gurudev's scripture, read Gurudev's lectures, if you hear Gurudev's songs and lectures, your mind will be clear, your mind will be clean and fresh. If you can follow this line, it will be very good for you.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Clear Vision

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

“You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.”

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

This is seva-vrtti, seva-pravrtti, service temper. Tad viddhi pranipatena, full surrender; pariprasna, honest enquiry (sad jijnasa).

When Sanatan Goswami asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, what is our duty?" and Sivananda also asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, we are householder people, what is our duty?" Mahaprabhu answered, "Jiva daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava sevan." He said there were three duties. The grihastha (householder) people must serve the devotee, chant the Holy Name and give some mercy to those who do not know about Krishna Nam (give some jive daya, some mercy, to them). You chant the Holy Name yourself and make others devotees, tell everybody, "Please chant Hare Krishna." You will get mercy of the Lord through that. This is Mahaprabhu's conception.

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"Krishna consciousness will spread everywhere, all over the world."

Almost all devotees have gone to Mayapur, but before there was only Chaitanya Math there, and up to the bank of the Ganges there were no other temple. One day, Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was with two devotees on both his sides. Suddenly he noticed that the devotees were holding their noses, so he asked them, "What has happened? Why are you closing your nose?" (It was raining very much at that time.) The devotees said, "Prabhupad, the smell is too bad. All local people pass stool here and the smell is very bad..." Prabhupad was surprised, "Why are you getting bad smell? Are you not getting the incense smell? I see temples on both sides..." Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur had this kind of vision.

These are always very good stories.

* * *

Srila Narottam Das Thakur: Bona Fide Benefactor

4 November 2012

In Kartik month, when we go to Vrindavan, we always visit Narottam Das Thakur's samadhi, but we do not have the fortune, we have not got a chance to go to the birth place of Narottam Das Thakur. If I get time, if I get a chance, we can visit it some day. His appearance place is in East Bengal, Bangladesh, now.

When Narottam Das Thakur joined, he came to Vrindavan, and Gurudev said that he had told his mother, "Mother, if you do not allow me to go to Vrindavan, I will die!" His mother gave him thirty rupees to go to Vrindavan from Bangladesh. Gurudev said also that sometimes the father gets angry and says, "Get out from my house!" but the mother will secretly give food to her son, but this time, the mother helped her son to go to Vrindavan—she gave thirty rupees to Narottam Das Thakur and said, "Baba, go," and he left the house with his mother's help.

It is written in the scriptures,

gurur na sa syat svajano na sa syat

pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat

daivam na tat syan na patis cha sa syan

na mochayed yah samupeta-mrtyam

"It is not your guru, it is not your family, it is not your father, it is not your mother, it is not your gods, it is not your husband if that person cannot save you from the world of birth and death."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 5.5.18)

Who is your Guru? Who will you call a Guru? A Guru is not someone whose profession is to make disciples, who only takes your money. The Guru gives a conception, gives some wealth, property, with which you can go to your real home. This is what the Guru gives. If the Guru cannot rescue you from death (mrtyu-rupa-samara), from going to hell, from coming and going all the time—cannot rescue you from this kind of world—such person will not be your Guru. Similarly, who is a father? A man who just gives you birth? No, if a person cannot help you, cannot help you practise Krishna consciousness, he will not be a father, she will not be your mother, he will not be your husband. Srimad Bhagavatam writes this very nicely.

I told an example the other day also. Suppose you come to a doctor and say,

"Doctor, I have blood sugar." The doctor immediately says,

"Do not eat potato, do not eat sweet, and I am writing you a prescription, you must follow it and take the medicine."

"You can give much medicine, no problem, I have money and can buy it, but I cannot avoid potato and sweets, I must have it."

If the doctor is good, he will say, "I do not want that kind of patient. You can go!" The doctor knows, "If you follow me, if you want to be cured, then I can give you the medicine, but you must follow my advice." If the doctor is bad, he will think, "Oh, if I reject this patient, I may not get him to visit me again and will not get my fee." Such doctor does not think about the disease of the patient, he thinks about the patient's money, "He will come again and again. Today I will give him this medicine, and in seven days I will give him another prescription, and in seven days another one. What is the problem?"

Sometimes a disciple says, "Gurudev, I must do this," and the Guru says, "OK, you can do it." Such Guru thinks, "If I tell him not to do it, he will reject me and go to do other things." But if it is a spiritual Guru, a perfect, or proper, Guru, he will not think like this—he will think, "I do not want many disciples. I must think about the disciple's benefit. If the disciple does not follow me, does not follow my advice (if the disciple does not follow the proper rules and regulations), then I cannot cure him." There are such gurus, or "doctors," available in this world who do not want to cure their disciples.

This is not a guru who can remove santap (tri-tap-jvala, three kinds of miseries —adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik: miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls). There are such gurus available in this world who can give you a house, who can give you money, and so on, who can say, "You will be benefitted," but actually this is not the real benefit. Only a real Guru can give a real benefit.

This is what is written here in Srimad Bhagavatam, "Na mochayed yah samupeta-mrtyam..."

We do Durga puja, we do Kali puja, we worship many demigods, but can they rescue you from this situation? No, they cannot. It is written here in Bhagavatam. That is why they should not take puja from others. Krishna Himself told that. Why should the demigods take puja from you? They can give you some material benefit, but what is it for?

sei se parama bandhu, sei pita-mata

sri-krsna-charane yei prema-bhakti-data

sakala janme pita-mata seva paya

krsna guru nahi mile, bhajaha hiyaya

(Sri Chaitanya-mangala, Madhya-khanda)

"Your real father is the one who can give you a proper conception in this world."

Narottam Das Thakur was that kind of Guru—he practised. We were singing this morning, "My mind is very disturbed, my mind is very naughty and blind." Who sings this? Who wrote this song? Narottam Das Thakur…

* * *

"Whom Shall I Rescue?"

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Mahaprabhu is giving order to Nityananda and Haridas, saying like this way,

suna suna nityananda, suna haridasa

sarvatra amara ajna karaha prakasa

prati ghare ghare giya kara ei bhiksa

bala 'ksa,' bhaja ksa, kara krsna-siksa

"Listen, listen, Nityananda! Listen, Haridas! Make My command known everywhere! Go from house to house and beg from all the residents, 'Please chant Krishna's name, worship Krishna, and teach others to follow Krishna's instructions.'"

(Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 13:8-10)

Mahaprabhu ordered Nitai and Haridas, "Nitai! Haridas! Please listen to me! I am giving you an order—go house to house, tell them about Krishna, tell them to chant, "Krishna!", to follow Krishna's teachings!"

Nityananda then told Haridas, "Haridas, you know, in that area there are two drunkards, Jagai and Madhai. We must go there first and tell them to chant Hare Krishna, then everybody will think, 'Oh, Jagai and Madhai are chanting!" and they will get some encouragement." Haridas Thakur agreed, "OK, You go first, I am coming behind You." When they came to that area, the people called out, "Hey, where are you going? There are very dangerous people there! Do not go there, they will kill you!" Haridas Thakur said, "Nitai, have You heard what they are saying?" but Nityananda Prabhu answered, "Do not be afraid, come with Me!"

When they first came there, they saw Jagai and Madhai, both drunk, and said, "Say, 'Hare Krishna!'" Both got so angry and threatened to Nityananda and Haridas. Haridas Thakur was behind and he ran away. Later, Nityananda Prabhu said to him, "Why did you run away? We must go there tomorrow then." The next day, they again went there and said to Jagai and Madhai, "Please chant 'Hare Krishna'!" Jagai and Madhai began to swear and were going to beat Nityananda Prabhu, but Nityananda Prabhu was not afraid. In the end, Madhai hit Nityananda Prabhu—he threw some clay pot at Him. When Haridas Thakur saw blood, he ran away, but Nityananda kept saying, "You are beating Me, it is not a problem, but please chant, 'Hare Krishna!'"

(That is why I sing, "Mar kheyeo nam prema yache": they beat Nityananda Prabhu so much, blood is coming, but Nityananda Prabhu does not say anything, He only keeps asking, "Please chant! Please say, 'Hare Krishna!'." He keeps offering the Holy Name, "Please take! Please take it!")

When Haridas Thakur saw Madhai beating Nityananda Prabhu, he came to Mahaprabhu to complain. He said, "Prabhu, You have ordered Nityananda Prabhu to go everywhere and distribute the Holy Name. Do You know what has happened? Madhai has beaten Nityananda Prabhu! I saw so much blood coming, and I ran away from there." Hearing this, Mahaprabhu became angry. He called Sudarsan, and Sudarsan came immediately, saying, "Prabhu, You promised that in this Kali-yuga You will not call me—You will give love and affection..." Mahaprabhu did not listen, He quickly went to Nityananda Prabhu. When Madhai saw Sudarsan, he became afraid, but Nityananda Prabhu said, "What has happened, Prabhu? If I do not rescue Madhai—if You kill him—then whom shall I rescue? This is not what You have promised!"

Then Mahaprabhu got shy and understood it.

* * *

Preaching and Practising Foundation

Caracas, Venezuela

23 September 2009

Do you have any questions? Please tell me.

[A devotee asks a question in Spanish.]

I understood what he is asking. He is asking if in Kali-yuga there is no sannyas, why do people take sannyas? Like this? [Devotees cheer and laugh.]

Yes, in Kali-yuga there is no sannyas, but Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur accepted Vaishnav sannyas in Kali-yuga for preaching. Mahaprabhu also took sannyas from Keshav Bharati—He showed that even Krishna Himself, Bhagavan Himself, took sannyas from Keshav Bharati.

Question: When a jiva soul comes out of the tatastha sakti, what part of the universe does it arrive at at the beginning?

It depends. He is asking where the soul starts from, and the scriptures say that we have changed so many bodies—a tree's body, a bird's body, and so on; but at last we have got a human body. From the human body, by some good karma we can get the position of, for example, Kali, Durga, Laksmi, Ganesh, Siva, and so on, but it is not a very long life, but anyhow, some people can get some power and go there.

Question: What is the difference between a preaching centre and an actual temple? For instance, in Colombia, we are trying to do something, at least just a preaching centre, but as far as I can understand, this is not so easy...

A preaching centre is not a problem—a small centre is good. The main thing necessary in Kali-yuga is preaching, Nama-sankirtan. As for maintenance, if you make many temples, it will be necessary to have many pujaris and arrange for so many things, but if you have just a preaching centre, it is not a problem (it is good for everybody also).

Gurudev also always said about India that you can make as many preaching centres as you like, but if you make many temples, the vigraha will end up being a nigraha. It means that the vigraha (the Deity) is there, but after some time there will be nobody who can worship it, so where will that vigraha end up? What will be the position of the vigraha? If you have a preaching centre, that is not so many problems. Even in Param Guru Maharaj, Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaj's times, he did not want to make many temples—he said it is ok to make a temple in Puri, in Kolkata (it is a transit centre) and one in Vrindavan, Govardhan, not more than that.

The main thing is jive daya—it means preaching, transferring people. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "You can make many hospitals and treat thousands and thousands of patients, but if in lieu of that you can change just one person into a devotee, that is more beneficial."

Before preaching, however, you must have a good and solid foundation. You must learn first from a high, bona fide Guru, from a bona fide devotee. Somebody asked a question in the morning, "Why is my mind not good? Why are we weak and not getting strength?" Because of the lack of practising. Do sravanam, kirtanam every day and you will get strength; come to the temple every day and will get strength. If you stay in a house and come to the temple only once a week, how will you get strength? Practise makes perfect. Practice is our strength.

* * *

Son of Lord Siva

Russia, 11 August 2002

Question: May you kindly tell us about the building of the temples in Nabadwip?

Oh, Govinda Kunda, the new building? Actually, you know and I have told everybody how Govinda Kunda manifested, and Srila Guru Maharaj chose this sloka from Garga Samhita for it:

samudra-sambhava gabhi surabhi apana

dugdhe abhiseka kaila vrajendra-nandana

sei dugdhe purna kunda 'sri govinda' nama

ramya giri govardhane sobhe abhirama

kundabari mahapapahari se chinmaya

snane pane bhavabhaya tritapa nasaya

bahu-bhagye keha sei dugdhasvada paya

chidananda-deha labhi krsna-loke yaya

sri krsna-manase yeba kare hetha snana

gupta-govardhane radha-krsna-seva pana

“Surabhi, the divine cow who appeared from churning the milk ocean, lovingly bathed Vrajendra Nandan Krishna with her own milk. The pond filled with that milk, "Sri Govinda Kunda," graces beautiful Govardhan with exquisite beauty. The transcendental water of this Kunda can banish even the greatest sins. The threefold miseries and all fear of this material world are destroyed by bathing in or drinking this water. Sometimes, by great fortune, someone will get to taste the water of Govinda Kunda as that milk, attain a transcendental form, and go to Krishna-loka. Anyone who bathes in Sri Govinda Kunda, desiring to serve Krishna, attains divine service of Sri Sri Radha Krishna in Gupta Govardhan (hidden Govardhan).”

Govinda Kunda manifested from Surabhi cow—Krishna bathed in the milk of Surabhi cow. We also made a Giriraj temple inside Govinda Kunda. The banks of Govinda Kunda are 300 feet long and 200 feet wide...

Also, you know (I have told everybody before) that when Srila Param Guru Maharaj was a young boy, he worshipped Siva, and our Guru Maharaj, Om Vishnupad Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, was a son of Siva. That is why we are making a Siva temple on the bank of Govinda Kunda—for their happiness.

Guru Maharaj's mother and father lived in Bardwan, it is near Nabadwip, 40 km from there. There, in his birthplace, we also made a temple. His mother gave birth to several sons, but all her children died. Then, one day his father went to a Siva temple near that village. (Siva's name in that temple is Baba Buroraj, and the temple is located in Jamalpur, halfway between Hapaniya, the birthplace of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and Bamunpara, the birthplace of Srila Guru Maharaj. That temple is still there.) His father came to Siva and asked, "Please give me one son! If you give me a son, it will be your son, I will bring him to you after his birth." Then, when our Guru Maharaj was born, when he was just three-four days, his father brought him to that Siva temple. Before that, Guru Maharaj's grandmother put a dot of cow dung on his forehead (it is a custom in India). At the temple, his father heard some sound, "Why did you put cow dung on him? He is my son! I will protect him, put some chandan (sandalwood) on him. And take some prasadam from here, give it to him." When his father, came back home from the temple, he told his mother to remove the cow dung and put chandan on him.

From that day everybody knew he was a son of Siva…

* * *

Cutting No Return Ticket

Caracas, Venezuela

23 September 2009

When Gurudev, our Guru Maharaj (Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj), came and joined the Mission, all of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's godbrothers went preaching; at that time Gurudev used to play football in the day time and play mridanga in the evening. Devotees asked him, "Do you want to join our Mission? Can you come with us today?" Gurudev answered, "Yes. If you take me today, I can go." And he came here.

A few days after that, Gurudev's mother with his two brothers (one was four years old, and the other one was seven years old) came to the Math to take him back. Gurudev's mother pulled him in one direction, and Gurudev, holding onto a window grill, was pulling in the other direction. Hearing the noise, Srila Sridhar Maharaj came and said to her,

"Your son does not want to go. Leave him." Crying, she explained that she did not have a husband (he had passed away by that time) and her income was only twenty rupees per month.

"Then what are you taking your son for?" answered Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

"He is the only working member of my family!"

"OK, I will send you the money he earns per month."

Then, a few days later, a car with many gundas came from Gurudev's village, Bamunpara—they came to take him away. Gurudev was riding a bicycle, and all the gundas caught him and wanted to forcefully put him into the car. Gurudev began to shout and some local Nabadwip man came there. Gurudev said, "These people want to take me away forcefully!" They all came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's temple and Srila Sridhar Maharaj asked the village men,

"Why are you taking this boy?"

"He is our village boy! We want to take him back."

"But he does not want to go."

"It is better if he serves his parents than serving a Guru or God!"

"All right, stay here for three days. If you can defeat me during these three days, you can take your boy."

Three days later, they all ran away...

It is necessary to have such strong faith and chastity: no matter what problem can come in our life but we will not leave Krishna consciousness.

There is also a story from Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's times.

At the time when Chaitanya Math had not been made yet, Prabhupad would stay in a small house in Kolkata and give lectures there. At that time, Srila Sridhar Maharaj was a law student. He heard once that some sadhu, saint, was giving very good lectures and he started going there every day. He would just sit and listen without asking any questions. When he heard Prabhupad's lecture, he thought, "I have heard so many lectures, I have read so many scriptures, but I have never heard such lecture in my life."

At that time, India was under the British government, and the temple manager thought, "This boy comes and sits quietly without asking any questions—he only hears the class and goes away. Maybe he is a British spy!" The manager told Srila Sridhar Maharaj not to come again.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj left. He went to Kali-ghat, the bank of the Ganges and was sitting there sadly, thinking, "What do I go there for? I have no want of money, I have no want of anything. I only come to hear the lecture for my own spiritual benefit. But why did that man tell me not to come?" Then he suddenly thought, "Even if the temple manager beats me with a broom and tells me not to come, I must still come."

Srila Prabhupad noticed that Srila Sridhar Maharaj (his previous name was Ramendra) did not come again and asked the devotees, "Why did that boy Ramendra not come today?" The devotees were afraid of the manager (he was very strict), so they did not tell that the manager had told him not to come. They tried to make some excuse, but Prabhupad had understood it. He told everybody, "That boy will come every day. Do not tell anybody not to come. He must always be allowed to come."

Next day, Ramendra (Srila Sridhar Maharaj) came again, and Prabhupad asked him why he had not come the day before. Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not tell anybody's name, he only said that something had happened and he could not come.

This kind of chastity is necessary for Krishna consciousness.

* * *

Gupta Govardhan

Caracas, Venezuela

23 September 2009

Question: We know that Goloka is above Vaikuntha—what is the position of Nabadwip in relation to Vaikuntha?

Nabadwip is Goloka Vrindavan. Nabadwip is not Vaikuntha. Narayan and Laksmi Devi live in Vaikuntha, and above Vaikuntha there is Vrindavan. Vaikuntha is aisvarya marga (a place of grandeur), and our own house, a place of eternal service mood, is Goloka Vrindavan.

One time, Krishna wanted to test gopis' love and affection and He became Narayan. All gopis began searching, "Where has Krishna gone? Where has Krishna gone?" but they could not find Him. But when Radharani came to Him, He was defeated—He immediately lost His two arms and said, "I cannot hide anything from Her." Seeing this, Radharani asked the gopis,

"Have you found Krishna?"

"No..." said the gopis.

"But I have found Him! He is over there!"

"That is not Krishna, it is Narayan!"

They saw Narayan, with four hands, looking beautiful, but they only paid dandavat to Him, they did not talk to Him—the gopis' love and affection is only for Krishna (who has two hands). But when Srimati Radharani came to that "Narayan," Krishna said, "I have to hide My two hands..."

Question: We know that Goloka Vrindavan is the highest plane, what is the position of Nabadwip then?

Nabadwip is hidden Vrindavan, and you know our temple in Nabadwip is gupta Govardhan. "Gupta Govardhan" means hidden Govardhan.

Nabadwip is nondifferent from Vrindavan, it is the same. Radha-Krishna lila took place in Vrindavan in Dvapar-yuga, and in Kali-yuga it is Nabadwip lila (Nabadwip means nine islands—Rudradwip, Antardwip, Madhyadwip, Simantadwip, Godrumdwip, Ritudwip, Jahnadwip, Modadrumdwip, Koladwip). Krishna Himself performed His lila here in Nabadwip Dham.

Vrindavan lila is madhurya-lila (paramour pastimes), but Nabadwip lila is not like that. In Nabadwip, there are pastimes of union in separation (as Mahaprabhu showed when He was in Puri). In Vrindavan too, there is viraha, gopis' separation from Krishna, but in Nabadwip there is also audarya-lila—extensive preaching of Krishna consciousness.

At our hidden Govardhan temple there is also Govinda Kunda. Many years ago, when Srila Guru Maharaj came there, there was just a pond, but he said it was Govinda Kunda, and now you can see that it is has manifested as Govinda Kunda. There is Govinda Kunda in Vrindavan, Govardhan—when Madhavendra Puri was sitting at Govinda Kunda, Krishna Himself came to feed Him milk. That same Govinda Kunda is also manifested in Nabadwip, gupta Govardhan…

* * *

Pious Practice

Caracas, Venezuela
25 September 2009

"Pasu pakhi jhure pasana vidare" means that even birds and beasts cry when they hear the Holy Name, when they hear the glorification of Nityananda Prabhu, but our hearts are as hard as stones—such feeling does not come to us, we cannot feel anything. That is why we must always keep good association. We have many material desires in our hearts and we must remove them otherwise suddha-bhakti bij (the seed of pure devotion) will not sprout. It is necessary to clean our hearts—Bhakti Devi will not come to a dirty place.

Who will give you devotion? Every day we do Tulasi parikrama and we ask Tulasi in the pranam mantra, "Please give me some devotion!" Tulasi Devi has so much devotion and every day we pray to her—to Bhakti Devi, Tulasi Devi—only for devotion.

In every house, we must keep Tulasi. She is the proprietor of your house. When you go to work, first ask her for some mercy, ask her for the permission to go, "Please, allow me to go to work"; when you come back, again pay dandavat to her, give some bhog, and take rest.

Tulasi Devi is the proprietor of Vrindavan. In Vrindavan, it is not necessary to work—if you simply ask anyone, at any time, "Jaya Radhe!" food will come. It is like this even now too. Also, Tulasi is always installed—it is not necessary to install Tulasi. When you buy a Deity, you must install the Deity, but it is not necessary to make the installation of Tulasi—if you see a Tulasi tree in the street even, you can pay dandavat to her.

"Tulasi dekhi' judaya prana madhava-tosani jani': seeing Tulasi Devi soothes my soul, for I know she pleases Madhava." In which song is it written? "Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu bhajana-anukula." ("The dust of pure devotees' feet is favourable to devotion.") "Tulasi dekhi' judaya prana madhava-tosani jani'": Tulasi always makes Lord Krishna happy, so if we can make her happy, Krishna will be happy. We also sing every day, "Chhappanna bhoga, chhatrisa vyanjana...": even if we cook fifty-six kinds of preparations but do not keep a Tulasi leaf there, Krishna will not eat it. "Yako darase parase agha-nasa hoi": seeing her always removes all sins.

You may not be able to go for the Vrindavan parikrama, but if you do Tulasi parikrama in your own house four times in the morning and four times in the evening, you will get the same result as when doing the Vrindavan parikrama, Nabadwip Dham parikrama.

* * *

When Will That Day Come?

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

kabe ha'be bala se dina amara

(amara) aparadha ghuchi', suddha name ruchi,

krpa-bale ha'be hrdaye sanchara [1]

"Please tell me, when will that day be mine when my offences will be dispelled and taste for the pure Name will be infused within my heart by the power of mercy?"

Bhakti Vinod Thakur is asking, "When will that day come in my life when aparadha ghuchi', my offences are removed and I get the taste for the Holy Name?" He is waiting for that day.

You know, sometimes we have a fever and if at that time some good food comes to us, we feel no taste. If somebody has the disease of jaundice, the medicine that is prescribed to them is the sugar cane juice, but when they drink it they do not get any taste. Similarly, we also do not get any taste to chant the Holy Name. Sometimes when somebody is singing, chanting, some people sit silently, arms folded. Have you seen it? They do not get the taste because there are too many offences in them.

Once, a sanodiya brahman asked Mahaprabhu about this. Mahaprabhu went to Kasi, Benares, to rescue all mayavadi sannyasis, and that brahman asked Him, "Prabhu, these sannyasis are experts in all Vedas and Vedanta, but why does the Holy Name not come to their mouths? Why do they not chant?" Mahaprabhu replied, "Because they are Krishna Nama aparadhi—they are offensive to the Holy Name."

So, Bhakti Vinod Thakur is asking, "When will my offences be removed?! When will I get the taste for the pure Holy Name?"

trnadhika hina, kabe nije mani,

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

sakale manada, apani amani,

ha'ye asvadiba nama-rasa-sara [2]

"When will I feel myself to be lower than a blade of grass, bring the quality of tolerance within my heart, become eager to honour everyone and devoid of desire for honour from anyone, and relish the essence of the Name's rasa?"

"When?" Bhakti Vinod Thakur sings, "When will I feel that I am less, I am more disqualified than a blade of grass? When will it come to my mind that I am much worse than a blade of grass?" All gopis were asking Lord Krishna, "Please, make it so that next life we are born as a blade of grass in Vrindavan Dham—then we will get the footdust of all the devotees!"

trnadhika hina, kabe nije mani,

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I get that kind of tolerance? I cannot tolerate so much, but when will I become tolerant?" Bhakti Vinod Thakur is asking the Lord. He is asking the Lord for that kind of tolerance: "be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others." He is asking, "When! When will I get so much tolerance? When will I get the power of tolerance?"

"Sakale manada, apani amani": "When will I be able to give honour to everybody, all jiva souls? When will I be able to pay dandavat even to the dogs?" "Apani amani" means if somebody is not giving honour to me, I will think, "No problem, I do not care."

dhana jana ara, kavita-sundari,

baliba na chahi deha-sukha-kari

janme janme dao, ohe gaurahari!

ahaituki bhakti charane tomara [3]

"When will I declare that I do not desire wealth, followers, erudition, beautiful women, or any other bodily pleasure? O Gaurahari! Birth after birth, please give me unconditional devotion to Your feet."

(kabe) karite sri-krsna- nama uchcharana,

pulakita deha gadgada vachana

vaivarnya-vepathu, ha'be samghatana,

nirantara netre va'be asru-dhara [4]

"When will my hair stand on end, my voice falter, my complexion turn pale, my body tremble, and tears pour incessantly from my eyes while I call aloud Sri Krishna's Name?"

In Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam, there is a sloka "Na dhanam, na janam, na sundarim..." Bhakti Vinod Thakur says, "Please remove my asking mood so that I can never ask for this (wealth, followers, beautiful companions, etc.)." Just like Prahlad Maharaj.

When Nrisinghadev asked Prahlad Maharaj, "Prahlad Maharaj, what do you want?" he said, "Prabhu, what do I want? You have already given so much mercy to me. You have appeared for me! I have seen You, and that is sufficient for me. But if You want to give me something... My father has hit Your body, and I am asking You to please rescue him." Nrisighnadev replied, "It is not a boon, it has already happened. When somebody sees Me, somebody chants My Name, somebody hears My Name, they are automatically rescued, but your father has touched My body. Do you think he is still here? He has already been rescued. Ask for another boon." Then Prahlad Maharaj asked for a boon like this, "Prabhu, if You want to give me a boon, then please remove the asking mood, the desire mood from me—make so that for life after life, this asking mood, this desire mood shall be removed from my heart..."

Bhakti Vinod Thakur says, "Ahaituki bhakti janme janme dao: birth after birth, in any birth I want to serve You, I want that kind of causeless devotion to You. Give me that kind of thing, Prabhu!"

Then he says, "When will I, my tongue, always say, 'Sri Krishna!' and tears come? When will that peculiar kind of ecstatic mood come to my mind when I hear, 'Sri Krishna,' when I say, 'Sri Krishna'?"

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,

'gaura-nityananda' bali' niskapate

nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,

vatulera praya chhadiya vichara [5]

"When will I wander along the banks of the Ganges in Nabadwip, sincerely calling out, 'Gaura-Nityananda!', while dancing, singing, and running about, without any thinking as though mad?"

When?! When will such day come to my life when Nabadwipe suradhuni-tate, in Nabadwip, on the bank of the Ganges, I will run and dance and chant like a crazy person, not thinking about anything, not even thinking that I have no clothes on? When will that kind of mood come? When will it come in my life? When will I chant, 'Gaura Nityananda! Gaura Nityananda!' and dance on the bank of the Ganges in Nabadwip like a crazy person?"

kabe nityananda, more kari' daya,

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

diya more nija- charanera chhaya,

namera hatete dibe adhikara [6]

"When will Nityananda be merciful to me and cause me to abandon my attachment to mundanity? When will He give me the shade of His feet and grant me a place in the marketplace of the Name?"

"Kabe Nityananda? When will the day come when Nityananda gives so much mercy to me? When is the day when I will be able to leave my material attachment? When will He give me shelter under His lotus feet? When will He give me shelter to see the market of Holy Name?"

kiniba lutiba, hari-nama-rasa,

nama-rase mati' ha-iba vivasa

rasera rasika- charana-parasa,

kariya majiba rase anibara [7]

"When will I buy and festively scatter the rasa of the Lord's Name? When will I become intoxicated and overwhelmed with that rasa? When will I touch the feet of a relisher of that rasa and become immersed in that rasa perpetually?"

Kiniba lutiba means, "I am taking a Guru and I am taking the Holy Name—where do I get the Holy Name? From my Guru. I take that Holy Name from my Guru and distribute it all over the world! When will that day come?" Bhakti Vinod Thakur is asking Mahaprabhu, "Please give me some mercy so that such day comes in my life!" How nice it is written...

kabe jive daya, ha-ibe udaya,

nija sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdaya

bhakati-vinoda, kariya vinaya,

sri-ajna-tahala karibe prachara [8]

"When will compassion for all souls arise within me? When will Bhakti Vinod forget his own happiness and travel about respectfully preaching the divine order with a most humble heart?"

"When will this day come when I forget my own happiness? When will the day come when I can distribute the Holy Name and give some benefit to others?" Bhakti Vinod Thakur is asking Mahaprabhu humbly, "When will I be able to fulfil Your order (ajna)?" "Order" means Mahaprabhu told, "Prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama... Preach Krishna consciousness all over the world, in every village!"

This is a very nice song. Always pray to Lord like this, always pray to Lord…

* * *

Mercy vs Sukriti

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Question: Is mercy higher, above sukriti?

I have told many times how it is possible to get sukriti. Without sukriti, we cannot come here. But mercy means kripa—if you do some service, through that service mercy will come.

Sukriti comes in another way. For example, there is one flower. It does not know anything, somebody picks it, offers to the Lord and the flower gets some sukriti. To get mercy, you must do something, then you will get mercy. What must you do? Service for the Lord.

Mercy and sukriti are almost equal, but these are two different ways.

In Bengali, mercy means "kripa"—"kri-yog-pa." "Kri" means "do", "pa" means "you will get"—you must do something, then you will get something. What should you do? Service to the Lord.

And sukriti? Sukriti can be ajnata (unconscious) and jnata (conscious). Maybe, before, in our previous birth, you were in a cow's body and your milk was used for some sweet rice for the Lord, and as a result you have got the human body.

In another way, sukriti also means "Tad vastu tadiya sevaya." "Tad" means his. "His things for His service." That is called sukriti. Everything in this world is His things, everything in this world is for Him, it is not my things. Everything is His property, not mine. So, using His property for His service is called sukriti. If you do not use His property for His service, that will be either good karma (punya) or bad karma. For example, if a flower is used at a birthday ceremony, it is not used for the Lord's service, it is used for your own service. It is then called good karma, punya. You get some good result, and the flower gets some good result—but not sukriti. Good karma is punya, and through punya you can go to heaven.

* * *

Go-Astami

Sri Nabadwip Dham

14 November 2010

Gopastami. Today is a good day to feed the cows.

Feed the cows, give some garland to the cows, give some sweets to the cows. When Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj got some pranami, he would buy sweets and give them to the cows.

It is Indian, Bengali, culture that if the fruit comes, the owner of the tree gives the first fruit to the Deity because they think, "Then more fruit will come to my tree!" Once, a lady brought the fruit of batabi-lebu (pamelo) to Babaji Maharaj. Babaji Maharaj became very angry, "What are you doing?! Why have you brought it here?! You want to have more fruit for yourself?! You will give only one fruit to the Deity and not come again! In lieu of that you better go water your eggplant tree!" He said like that.

Babaji Maharaj would also tell his servitor named Bihari Das, "Buy some sweets for the cows." He did not have a cow, but other people had cows, so he ordered his servitor, "Buy some sweets and go there, feed the sweets to the cows."

So, today is a good day—gopastami, go-astami—to feed the cows, to serve the cows. But be careful with the bulls! [His Divine Grace laughs.]

* * *

Tackling the Mind

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Any questions?

Question: Could you explain the difference between mind, memory, and thought?

[His Divine Grace chuckles] It is a scientist question...

Mind is very naughty, you must control it with your intelligence. Mind controls everything. For example, if I see a beautiful girl in the street, I can still remember her now. Once, when I was giving class in Nabadwip, there was a devotee who would always sit with his eyes closed, and I asked him, "Why do you close your eyes?" He went to Gurudev and complain, "Acharya Maharaj was giving class and he asked why I closed my eyes!" Gurudev replied, "Yes. You go to the market and see a good girl, and if you close eyes even now, you can still see that girl. If you remember that girl, you can see that girl even now when you close your eyes." So, mind must always be controlled with intelligence.

You think you are here, but it can be so that only your body is here because if your mind is somewhere else, you cannot hear anything.

Gurudev always said that it is necessary to use good intelligence—mind always makes some disturbance, mind always doing something wrong. Srila Sridhar Maharaj also told Gurudev, "Do not listen to your mind, always listen to me."

In Srila Sridhar Maharaj's times, when there was some prasadam left from the day before, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told not to waste it (not to throw into the drain), all brahmacharis had to take it the next day. One time, the dal was kept overnight uncovered and when a brahmachari served that dal to Gurudev the next day, Gurudev saw there was an insect in the dal on his plate. He wanted to refuse, "Oh!" but then he took the insect out and ate it. Srila Sridhar Maharaj observed this and asked him later, "Why did you eat the dal?" Gurudev answered, "Because you have told me not to follow my mind!”

* * *

Exploring Possibilities

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Question: When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was travelling to Vrindavan, Sanatan Goswami suggested to Him, "Please do not go with too many people to Vrindavan." Is this recommendation for Mahaprabhu only or it can apply to other people as well?

No, it is not correct to say that many people must not go to Vrindavan. When we go to Vrindavan, we go for preaching—if you go there to do some bhajan, to stay there alone, quietly, then so many people is not good. In another instance, Mahaprabhu sent Sanatan Goswami to Vrindavan to find and excavate so many places (like Radha Kunda and others). When Sanatan Goswami told Mahaprabhu not to come with many people, he thought, "If He goes with so many people, then everybody will see Him and some pratistha can come..." When Jagadananda Pandit wanted to go to Vrindavan, Mahaprabhu told him, "You can go, but do not go there alone—always follow Sanatan Goswami."

Once, a sannyasi from a Gaudiya Math said to me, "Maharaj, I went to Vrindavan, but I did not see anything there. Actually, I do not like Vrindavan—I only saw the stools of monkeys there."

If you go to Vrindavan with devotees, then you can see everything, and if you go alone, you can fall down into a false position. Vrindavan is a very exceptional place—unless you go there with pure devotees, you cannot recognise there so many things...

Question: What is the meaning of audarya?

It means always distributing, udar—with open mind and open arms the Lord is distributing, He is not keeping anything. Krishna Himself comes as Mahaprabhu and wants to distribute the madhurya lila of Vrindavan (the pastimes of the gopis and Krishna).

Question: What is the difference between affection and a sentiment?

Sentiment is emotion. Sentiment and affection is not same, it is like devotion and emotion.

In Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time, one old lady once came with her grandson to pay dandavat to him. Srila Sridhar Maharaj was giving a lecture at that time, and when the boy heard him speaking, he began to cry. After the lecture, the lady said to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "Oh, Guru Maharaj, do you see? My grandson is crying when he hears your lecture!" but Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied, "It is not devotion. It is emotion..." Such tears, such crying does not last long.

Gurudev said that if somebody could shed one drop of water from their eyes for the Lord, they are already a liberated soul...

Question: It is said in the Bible that when the angels and demons rebelled against God, they fell into the material world. Is there some comparison to this, perhaps in Srimad Bhagavatam, where it says that the spirit souls come to the material world because they become envious of God? Also, if we return to the spiritual world, is it possible that we can come back here in the same way, by becoming envious of God?

In Vaikuntha, there are two gatekeepers, their names are Jay and Vijay. I am going to tell it in short because it is a very long story. Once, Jay and Vijay had to come down from Vaikuntha. Narayan told them, "If you choose to behave as My enemy, you will come back in three births. If you decide to worship Me, then you will come back in seven births." Jaya and Vijay told, "Prahu, we want to come back to our own home, to You, as soon as possible. We do not want the human body... We choose to be Your enemy and come back to You sooner." So, Jay and Vijay became demons, Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa. Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa knew who the Lord was, Ravan and Kumbhakarma also knew who the Lord was, Dantavakra and Sisupal also knew who Krishna was, even Kamsa knew who Krishna was. Jay and Vijay knew that they would be rescued from that human body and would go back to their home.

It is the will of the Lord—everything happens by the will of the Lord. The Lord is very merciful—even if you are a demon, whatever kind of bad work you do, if at any time you surrender to Him just once, He will take you into His heart...

Question: What can we do to make the preaching strong and efficient even if we do not have enough sukriti to preach?

Without sukriti you cannot be sitting here. There is enough sukriti—it is practice that is necessary. If you are humble, tolerant and give honour to others, if you follow the instruction of a great bona fide Guru and Vaishnavs, then you can preach easily. If you think, "I do not have any quality," it is good—you must think like this.

Did you see what I say when some devotee gives me a garland? "Jay Guru Maharaj." It means that I always give the garland to his lotus feet. If you think, "I am doing everything, I am preaching, I am doing this, I am doing that," then there will be no preaching. But your idea is very nice—you think, "I cannot preach, I am unqualified," and this is a very nice mood.

Once in Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time, his disciple asked him,

"Prabhupad, I cannot do bhajan (I cannot practise)..."

"Are you telling the truth?" Prabhupad asked him.

"Yes."

"Then something is happening."

If somebody says, "I cannot do anything, I cannot practise," this kind of mood is very nice. Prabhupad said also, "If somebody thinks, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then this is not a Vaishnav.”

* * *

Clear Conception, Clear Practice

Caracas, Venezuela

25 September 2009

Question: In this world, there are so many religions, how to explain to others that this is the best and the only religion that we should follow?

This is a "bible" question. I can give the answer, and it is a very strong answer. Srimad Bhagavatam (1.1.2) said,

prthivite yaha kichu dharma name chale

bhagavata kahe taha paripurna chhale

"All religions, all kinds of preaching that are going on in this world are cheating." If you read Srimad Bhagavatam, you will get everything from it. Also, if you read our Guru Maharaj's books, Prapanna-jivanamritam, etc., you can tell many things about this. If you want to preach, you will find many examples there, this is a small matter. Actually, our Krishna consciousness starts from the place where others' conception finishes.

All misconceptions come from India... Sometimes I go to a big meeting where all these misconception sannyasis are there and I hear them say, "Oh, baba! These Gaudiya Math sannyasis are all too talkative!" So, when they know that Gaudiya Math sannyasis are going to give a lecture, they do not want to be present there. This kind of thing is happening...

People are always spreading some wrong conceptions, and you can defeat them in many ways, it is not a problem. You can read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, it is a small book, and you can say everything clearly. You know, Gurudev gave me only one book. I do not read other books—he gave me that one book and I only read that book. That book's name is Gaudiya-kantha-hara. Gurudev said, "If you read this book, you will be a 75% world preacher."

—Jay! [Devotees cheer]

Question: We are in illusion and Krishna consciousness is the only medicine... How much medicine do we need to take and for how long to drive away the illusion?

That depends upon the devotee's practice. Some can be cured immediately, and some not... For example, you can see in India somebody is only twenty-five years old, but they are already a police officer; at the same time you can also see a traffic warden—he is old, his beard is all white, but he is only a traffic warden. It depends upon practice.

Chaitanya-charitamrita (2.22.64) said, "Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari." How much you will get depends on how much faith you have—if you have 10% faith, you will get 10%; if you have 50% faith, you get 50%; and if you have 100% faith, you will get 100%. What kind of devotion you get depends upon your faith.

Suppose there is an old man who has five children. One of his sons always chants, "My father is good! My father is good!" but he does not look after his father—he only says that his father is good but does not give him any nourishment. Another son, however, looks after his father. So, the father will give all his property to that second son. Some devotee only chants, saying, "Oh, Gurudev gave me the chanting beads, so I will only chant!" and when many devotees came and somebody asks him, "Please give some prasadam to them!" he says, "Oh, no, I have no time. I am chanting!" Will Krishna be happy with him? You must serve the Lord, the Lord's devotees. Why do I chant? To get service to the Lord. The first step in chanting is that through the chanting you must get service.

Question: I was thinking that to offer a better service to the Lord, perhaps the bhakti-yoga is not enough and we should practise other types of yoga?

No. Karma and jnana cannot give you bhakti. Only devotion can give devotion. Without devotion you cannot get Krishna.

People read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, but their reading is a misconception—people read only first eleven chapters because the twelfth chapter is bhakti-yoga, but in the end Krishna says, "Forget everything! Forget karma, jnana, only 'sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja'—leave everything, it is not necessary to do anything else, only surrender to Me, only serve Me. Forget everything else." You think that if you do it, you will not love your son, you will not be affectionate to your mother, you will neglect old people, etc. and you think some sin will come, but no, Krishna says, "It is not necessary to do anything else! Whatever kind of sin there is, I will free you from it. Moksayisyami ma suchah: do not be anxious, do not worry about anything, I will take care of everything." This is the last sloka in Srimad Bhagavad-gita—not any yoga, not any other conception, only devotion. Without devotion you cannot get anything.

Question: What should be the attitude of a devotee towards a person who is making a business of the Holy Name?

You can tell them humbly, "Prabhu, it is not good, do not do it... You are doing business with the Holy Name, and it is very bad..." Sometimes when I go for preaching in Bengal, I see people hire some party who come and also sell the Holy Name. They say, "We have a party and we can come and do kirtan at your house, you can give us 500 rupees." This is called Nam-aparadha, an offence of the Name. You should tell them that it is not good, but if they do not listen, then what can you do? You must not beat them, it is not good—this is not a devotee's behaviour. If they do like this, they will to hell...

I have told also many times that when the Gaudiya Maths ask for money, it is not good. Our Gurupadpadma does not ask for any money—he distributes the Holy name all over the world freely. You can tell them not to do it, but if they do not listen, what will you do? If they maintain their family in this way, what will be the result of such work? Also, such people cannot chant the Holy Name—Nama aksara bahiraya bate tabu Name kabhu naya (নামাক্ষর বাহিরায় বটে তবু নাম কভু নয়—Pv, 7.1). They only say the alphabet, the Holy Name does not come from their mouths.

There are many of such kind of distributors of the Holy Name, such kind of gurus available all over the world. It looks the same, but it is not. When two cars crash in an accident, there is some broken glass in the street. When some light falls on it, the pieces of glass look like diamonds, but if you take some in your hand, you will cut your fingers. So, if you take shelter of such a guru, you will go to hell—the Guru will go to hell and take you there…

* * *

Bond of Hearts

Caracas, Venezuela

26 September 2009

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

As I have told before, it is only by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Vaishnav that we can chant, we can give some lecture about Krishna-katha, about Krishna consciousness. Otherwise, without the mercy of Gurudev, we cannot do anything, nothing is possible.

For the past few days we have been doing some sankirtan with Lord Nityananda, Gaurachandra and all Their associates, all the devotees; twelve days are already gone, but we cannot understand how quickly these days have passed...

Every morning I call Gurudev and tell him about the glories of all the devotees of Venezuela, and Gurudev is very happy to hear it. Yesterday, when I told him that about four hundred people had come to the programme, he told me, "Do you see now Guru Maharaj's mercy? Can you understand now how his mercy is spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world?" Gurudev spoke about his Guru Maharaj's glories in this way. Gurudev's health is not good, but I talk with him every day, and he is very happy to see all the photo, he is very glad and very happy to hear with how much enthusiasm the devotees are practising Krishna consciousness.

Devotees: JAY!

And also actually when I am thinking I have to go on 29th, I become sad, but what can I do? Gurudev is always calling me, and you know that there is so much service in Nabadwip and in other places in Bengal, India, and I have to go. I maybe be leaving, going back to India, but my mind, my heart and my everything is here.

Devotees: JAY!

Your love and affection, and the enthusiasm with which so many children are chanting the Harinam maha-mantra, is inconceivable, it is our life. I cannot forget it. Who can understand it? Before, I could not understand how much love and affection you have in your heart. But now everywhere I go I will tell about the glories of all the devotees of Venezuela and I will also remember you all wherever I am.

At the same time, I have a request to all the devotees.

We can die anywhere, at any time, I do not know whether I can see you again next time or not, but I am telling to everybody: please try to serve Guru Maharaj's mission through this mission. I am also telling to everybody: sometimes many disturbances can come in your life, but you must think that when some disturbance comes it is Krishna Himself testing you.

Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami told,

jagai madhai haite muni se papistha

purisera kita haite muni se laghistha

"I am more sinful than Jagai and Madhai and lower than the worms in the stool."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.205)

We are much worse than insects in the stool. We heard how many sins Jagai and Madhai had done, but we are much greater sinners than they are, we have done much more sins in our life. So, you must see that Krishna Himself comes to test us. He wants to take us to His and our own home, but He wants us to come in a clean position—Krishna wants to clean us to take us to our own home.

Sometimes many problems can come, but you must think that you are being attacked by illusion—it is the work of Maya, illusion, and we must be careful about that:

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya

sadhu-guru krpa vina na dekhi upaya

"It is not possible to conquer maya by engaging in maya. I see no other way to get relief except for the mercy of sadhus."

('Ki rupe paibe seva', Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

"You cannot conquer illusion—only by the mercy of Guru and Vaishnavs it is possible to conquer illusion."

Nobody knows how much time, how many years, how many days we will live in this world, but fortunately we have got this human body—we must use this body for the service of the Lord. If this body is not used for His service, then this body is useless and it is not necessary to stay here then. Also, I have told it many times, it is written in the scriptures and we sing it every morning: we have made a promise to Krishna and we must keep our promise. We are fortunate souls, we got good seeds, and we must now protect our seeds—we must maintain our Krishna consciousness life. Gurudev said that in this world nobody is your enemy—you yourself are your enemy, I myself am my own enemy. So, take care of your Krishna consciousness life—we can stay anywhere, we can live anywhere, in a jungle, in a small house, in a big house, it does not matter, but wherever we are we must serve our Gurudev. And it is my only hope that we can serve Gurudev in this life.

I am also inviting all devotees to come to Nabadwip—if you have not been there before, if you want to go there, Nabadwip is your house, so come some time, stay there with the devotees. There is some austerity there, some problems, but it is actually not a problem. Gurudev said, "Krsna pete hole, kosta korte haya. If you want to get Krishna, you have to get some austerity." I am telling to you all: please try to come to see Gurudev. Gurudev's health condition is not good, you know that; he cannot travel any more, and we are always praying for his good health... Please try to come, there are many festivals in India—in Nabadwip, in Jagannath Puri, in Vrindavan, Ekachakra, etc. If you get an opportunity to come for any of the festivals, please come.

I also told the other day what Gurudev had said, "If you can be a particle of dust (dhuli-kana) of Chaitanya Saraswat Math, I will keep a room for you in your own house, in your own land." So, I am telling to the devotees: this Parama Karuna Temple is Gurudev's heart, always try to come here as often as possible, serve this mission with as much capacity as you have—that will be service to Gurudev. For example, here is Purujit Prabhu, he always helps Gurudev, he listens to Gurudev and follows him, so if you follow his instruction, it will be spiritually more beneficial for you.

Sometimes the Math management, the temple management can chastise also, but you know that if you want mercy, if you want to serve, then sometimes chastisement and problems can come. You can remember that when Nityananda Prabhu hit Sivananda Sen with His legs, Sivananda Sen (who was doing so much service) began to dance! He danced and said, "This is my asirvad! This is mercy to me!" Do you see? Nityananda Prabhu put His leg on him, but he was dancing! You may have heard what happened earlier this year. Some devotees' children went to the temple and they broke a Tulasi pot. The local Math temple manager chastised the children, and from that day their parents stopped coming to the temple. This is not a strong faith. Yes, children did some wrong, the temple manager give some chastisement, so what is the problem? Some small matter happens, but we think it is so big.

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara

sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You have attachment to your children, to your parents, etc. but you should have that kind of attachment to Lord Nityananda, Mahaprabhu, to Their wealth, Their property ("property" means the temple and everything else here)—if that kind of attachment comes, then you can think that some devotion is coming to you.

OK, are there any questions?

Question: You say you will go everywhere and glorify the devotees from Venezuela, but it will be better if instead of this you come back here as soon as possible...

[His Divine Grace laughs.] It depends upon the will of the Lord, upon the will of Gurudev—without their will, nothing can be possible. If I am alive in my body in this world, if I stay in my body, then I promise I will come.

Actually, I do not have any quality or qualification. This preaching is not possible for me—actually it is Gurudev who is doing this preaching and everything else.

Devotees: JAY!

Gurudev said to me on the phone, "Oh, I heard you are doing so much preaching, so much sankirtan—you are doing even more than in your capacity!" but I replied to Gurudev, "I do not do anything, I think that you are doing everything... A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Srila Prabhupad cultivated the land, and you threw some seeds into that land. Now the trees have grown very big and I have come to Venezuela to taste the fruit!" Gurudev's reply was, "Oh, now you want to joke with me!”

* * *

Good Association: the Pivot of Life

Caracas, Venezuela

26 September 2009

I always tell you and every morning we sing in the kirtan,

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

(Saranagati, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"We will accept what is in favour of devotion, and we will reject what is not in favour of devotion." This is main thing. And always do sravanam and kirtanam.

Even if you live in a house, anywhere, sravan and kirtan must be the main thing in your life. I have told many times that if somebody does not have service and they work, work, work the whole day, they must do only sravanam and kirtanam—if you only work, work, work and do not do sravanam, kirtanam, then your life will be full of rust. So, you must try to come here as often as you can, try to join some sankirtan.

Question: Srila Guru Maharaj says that we should see everything that happens to us, whether good or bad, as the mercy of the Lord. We are not great devotees, we do not have that vision, but should we still see things in this way?

Yes, actually everything comes by the will of the Lord, but Krishna puts everything in front of us—He gives stool and He also gives some food—we must understand what we should take. To understand this, good association is totally necessary. Without good association you cannot understand this.

Question: What should be our attitude towards other lines or movements of Krishna consciousness? What should we do not to be offensive against them?

It is not necessary to do anything. Our temple is here, you come here, you follow Gurudev's instruction, and it is not necessary to think anything about others. They can do whatever they are doing, if they want to go to hell, they can go. You can first try to help them, advise them something but if they do not want to hear, then leave them, let them go there. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Even if Brahma comes to me, I will tell I have no time, I have some service to Gurudev." We have no time to think what others are doing. Do not waste your time, we only have a short time…

* * *

Ekadasi and Tulasi: Be Mindful

Caracas, Venezuela

26 September 2009

Question: How important is it to fast on Ekadasi?

Some vrata is necessary. If your health is good you should fast. In our temple, Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Guru Maharaj made fasting from morning until noon. If your health is not good, if you cannot fast in the morning, you have some health problem, then you can take some Ekadasi food—but do not take the dvadasi food (non-Ekadasi food).

One time, a devotee from Soquel, California, wrote to Gurudev asking, "Gurudev, early in the morning I have to go to work, and my work is very heavy (I work for a ship company and have to work with a very big heavy hammer). How should I do Ekadasi?" Gurudev replied, "All right, then early in the morning, before you go to work, you can take five kg of potato."

Question: Can we do the offering Gurudev without Tulasi leaves or we must always put Tulasi?

If you do not have Tulasi, then what can you do? Then, you can offer remembering Tulasi... If you go to India, you can bring Tulasi leaves and offer with dry leaves.

Also, remember that we do not put Tulasi on Gurudev's feet—always on his chest. You can put Tulasi on Krishna's lotus feet, but not on Gurudev's lotus feet.

Tulasi is very sensitive, you know...

Once, I went preaching in Bengal to one house. There was a lady who came to me and cried so much. She said, "Maharaj, I have planted Tulasi so many times, but every time I put the Tulasi plant into the soil, she immediately dries... I have been trying to plant Tulasi for seven-eight years, but still there is no Tulasi..." I asked her, "Tell me what offence did you make?" and she told me that when she was cleaning her front yard, she cut a Tulasi plant once. Anyhow, I told to bring a pot, I put a Tulasi plant there, and from that pot there is now a big Tulasi garden at her house.

Tulasi is very sensitive...

Question: Is there any reaction if we do not break the fasting the day after Ekadasi (for example, we do not eat anything the next day)?

Sometimes people do double Ekadasi, it is not a problem; you can even do a three-day fast too, no problem.

There some Indian custom that women who have husbands do not do Ekadasi. They do not know the conception... They say, "Oh, my husband is alive, how can I do Ekadasi?" They think if they do Ekadasi their husband will die. Before, and even now also, when the husband dies, the wife has to do Ekadasi, and they do a very hard Ekadasi—they fast on the day before Ekadasi, they fast on the Ekadasi day, and they also fast on the next day after Ekadasi. I tell them, "If the husband dies, the wife does Ekadasi, but why does husband not do Ekadasi when the wife dies?" It is all misconception, they do not know anything about the sastra and do their own thing…

* * *

Keep Proper Hours

Caracas, Venezuela

26 September 2009

Practice makes perfect. Always do sravan, kirtan, and do not sleep in the daytime. Some devotees stay up until 12 o'clock, until 2-3 o'clock at night, gossiping, working, and after that they sleep until 9 o'clock. This is not good for the devotional life. You must wake up from the bed before sunrise. All our Guru-varga—Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad, our Gurudev, Param Gurudev—everybody goes to sleep early in the evening and wake up at 3-4 o'clock, at 2:30 a.m. You must follow their example.

One time, in Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's time, Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj came from Champahatti... Do you remember this name "Champahatti"? When we do the Nabadwip Dham parikrama, on the last day we first go to Champahatti, Gaura Gadadhar Ashram. This Gaura Gadadhar are very ancient Deities, they have been worshipped there from Mahaprabhu's time. So, one day, Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj went from that Gaura Gadadhar temple to Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. Babaji Maharaj was blind, and it was a dark moon moon. It is inconceivable how he came there—alone, he walked to the Ganges, crossed the river and came to Godrumdwip, Bhakti Vinod Thakur's bhajan kutir in Svananda Sukhada Kunja.

At that time, there was not wall around the house, but there was a bamboo gate. It was evening, and the gate was closed. Babaji Maharaj started shouting, calling Bhakti Vinod Thakur, who at that time had already gone to take rest and was sleeping. When Bhakti Vinod Thakur heard Babaji Maharaj's voice, he came out. Babaji Maharaj was surprised,

"It is evening and you are sleeping?!" but then he said, "I like it, I am very happy—you sleep at this time and at midnight you chant."

"How did you come here, Babaji Maharaj? You cannot see..." asking Bhakti Vinod Thakur.

"Somebody took my hand and brought me here..."

"Who? Who is it?"

"I do not know, I thought some little girl came, she held my hand and took me here."

Bhakti Vinod Thakur was surprised because nobody was there... How can a blind man walk so far, about ten kilometres?

This is our Guru-varga, and this is what happened…

* * *

Adjusting Mind, Ego, and Heart

Caracas, Venezuela

26 September 2009

Question: Why does Mahaprabhu not come in every Kali-yuga? Why does He take so long?

You have to call Him.

yada yada hi dharmasya, glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya, tadatmanam srjamy aham

"O Bharata, whenever there is a decline of religion and an uprising of irreligion, I personally make My advent."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.7)

The Lord comes when the devotional activities become bad. Kali-yuga's duration is 432,000 years, and only about 5500 years have passed so far, so much is still due...

Question: Sometimes you explained that we may imagine that we can even play football with Krishna in the spiritual world, but I am thinking it is a very high conception—is it not better to imagine that we are playing football with Gurudev?

That's a good question. It is Kali-yuga, and there are some rules and regulations. Here, we cannot use a very high conception—we cannot do what the gopis did. That will be ego. Sometimes somebody thinks, "I am Rupa Manjari," "I am Lavanga Manjari," and they think they must play in the same way; some sannyasis also think, "I am an associate of Srimati Radharani," and they play accordingly, but that is called sahajiya style. We cannot do that. We must follow rules and regulations, we follow viddhi-marga, not raga-marga. Raga-marga is a high conception. You must first follow the viddhi-marga, then you can get entrance into the raga-marga. Do you understand what I am saying? Does everybody realise this? It is a very simple matter...

Question: Many philosophers say that we must give up our ego, but A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj used to say that actually what we should give up is our identification with this body because we cannot give up our ego by ourselves.

I explained it the other day. Rupa Goswami said,

anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karmady anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama

"The highest devotion is that which satisfies Lord Krsna, free from the coverings of any pursuits such as action, knowledge."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.1.11)

This sloka can be explained in many ways.

krsna-seva kamarpane, krodha bhakta-dvesi-jane,

lobha sadhu-sange hari-katha

moha ista-labha bine, mada krsna guna-gane,

niyukta kariba yatha tatha

"I will engage lust by offering it in Krishna's service. Anger I will direct towards those who are envious of the devotees. I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of devotees. I will feel illusioned without achieving my worshipable Lord. I will be maddened while singing the glories of Krishna. In this way I will engage these enemies in their proper places."

(Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, 22)

What does it say about the ego? It says you do not need to remove your ego, you should have an ego, but what kind of ego? The ego that I am a servant of the Lord, I am a servant of my Gurudev—that will be my ego, and that kind of ego should be there.

Krsna-seva kamarpane: you may some material desire, but your desire should be used for the service to the Lord. You have some anger, and you can also use your anger—your anger should be towards those who criticise your Guru, criticise the Vaishnavs, criticise your temple. In this way, everything is written in this sloka. But Krishna says that there is one thing He cannot give place to. There are chaya-ripu, six enemies—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (desire, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy)—and Krishna says, "One of them is very bad, I cannot give any place to it. What is it? Matsaryata, jealousy. I give some place to everything else, but I cannot give any place for the jealous mood."

OK?

Question (a little girls is asking): When are you coming back?

When you call me. [His Divine Grace laughs.]

—Gracias. [Thank you.]

OK, it is very nice to meet you all. If I have made any offence, please forgive my offence. I do not want anything from you, I only want you to please forgive my offence, please remove my offence. You know, and I told before, I have no quality, I am a fallen soul, I have no qualification, I only pray you can give some mercy to me so that life after life I can serve my Guru and all the great Vaishnavs...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

I am very happy to see you all, and I also hope, I pray to the Lord, pray to Gurudev that I can meet with you all again.

I heard that some devotees are coming for the Kartik parikrama, I am very happy. Gurudev's Vyasa Puja is coming, also our preaching programme and Gaura Purnima are soon. If somebody wants to join me in the preaching programme in Bengal, you can come, I will be happy.

* * *

Srila Gurudev's mood

Caracas, Venezuela

27 September 2009

[Preface: In his earlier days at the Math, His Divine Grace did the service of a night guard, and one time he heard somebody talking near the temple. When he went to the temple, His Divine Grace saw Srila Govinda Maharaj talking to somebody at the samadhi mandir of Srila Sridhar Maharaj.]

I asked Gurudev, "What are you doing here?" and Gurudev explained, "Whenever some problem or something happens, I always come here at a quiet time when everybody is sleeping and nobody is around, to consult with my Guru." At that time I was only a new brahmachari and I could not understand it, I thought, "Srila Sridhar Maharaj is in the samadhi, who is he talking to?"

You see the sloka "Gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam..." "Gurvvabhista" means that he always successfully fulfils all desires of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. One time, when I was in Russia with Gurudev (it was 2000), Gurudev went to the bank of the Baltic Sea (our Saint Petersburg temple stands near a sea called Baltic Sea), and there were many steps leading from the bank to the sea. Gurudev said at that time,

"I want to make the steps around Govinda Kunda like this, but who will do? I have no manpower..."

"If you order to me, I can do it," I said to Gurudev.

"You can?"

After that, when I came back to Nabadwip, I started making the steps. When the construction had already started, Gurudev said, "If you can make a temple inside Govinda Kunda, it will be even better." And I started making the temple, but when I was making the foundation, the foundation did not come—all sand, all bricks, all stones, everything went down, I do not know who was eating it. I had tried to make that foundation for fifteen-twenty days—after 10-15 trucks of sand, 10-15 trucks of stone chips all went down, I began to feel helpless and think that maybe I could not do it...

Then, one night, it was about 3 a.m., I was in the bathroom when my phone rang. I came out of the bathroom and answered the call. It was Gurudev. He was calling me, "Come immediately!" I went as I was—without clothes, only in one napkin. When Gurudev saw me, he asked,

"What is this?"

"Gurudev, you said to come immediately and I came."

"Today is your last day!"

"What last day?"

"If today early in the morning you first offer some good sweet rice bhog to the Deity of Kurmadev and start your works today, then it will happen, otherwise you will never be able to do it in your life."

I did that. Then, I hired about 300-400 workers and started the construction works from the morning, and the next morning the foundation was started.

Devotees: JAY!

Gurudev's mood is like this…

* * *

Vaishnav Aparadh: Seek Shelter

Caracas, Venezuela

27 September 2009

Question: How can we avoid Vaishnav aparadh?

It is easy; it depends upon the person. You can see how the Vaishnav aparadh comes.

Vaishnav aparadh can come in many ways. For example, Mahaprabhu's mother did some Vaishnav aparadh to Advaita Acharya; sometimes you are walking and touch somebody with your feet, it is also an aparadh—you can give dandavat and apologise; sometimes you are talking to a Vaishnav and use bad language, it is also an aparadh; sometimes mentally you think bad about somebody (for example you do not know something, but you think bad against some sannyasi or some brahmachari, you talk against them, that is also an aparadh). There are many ways.

There are many example also in Chaitanya-charitamrita. There was one Buddhist sannyasi who mixed some amedhya (untouchable) food with Mahaprabhu's food—amedhya means maybe some onion or garlic, something like that. Then, a big bird came there, picked that plate and took it away, and as it was flying with the plate, the plate fell on the head of that Buddhist sannyasi!

Another time, Srivas Pandit was doing kirtan. He was always disturbed very much by some naughty boys, so he would close the doors of his house. One time, somebody kept some empty wine bottle and other nonsense things outside his door—they wanted people to see it, then they would say, "Look! Srivas Pandit is doing kirtan and also drinking wine! I am also drinking wine and doing kirtan!" The next morning, all gentlemen became surprised, "Who has done this? Who has done this?" and all body of the man who did it became rotten, he got kusthavyadhi (leprosy). That man's name is Chapal Gopal. He was sitting on the street, suffering so much. When he saw Mahaprabhu walking down that street, he began to call Him, "Please! Please rescue me! Please help me!" but Mahaprabhu said, "You are a very big offender, you made an offence to Srivas Pandit, I cannot rescue you. Your whole life, and life and life you will be in hell! If, however, you go to Srivas Pandit and ask him for mercy, ask him to rescue you, apologise to him, the Krishna will help you..."

hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama

toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana

"If one offends the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers him, but if one offends you, O Vaishnav, one has no salvation."

If you make some offence to the Lord, Vaishnav can rescue you, but if you make some offence to a Vaishnav, even Krishna, Lord Himself, cannot remove that. "Krsna rusta hale Guru rakhibare pare, Guru ruste hale Krsna rakhibare nare"—if Krishna, the Lord, becomes angry, Gurudev can protect; if Gurudev becomes angry, Krishna cannot protect you.

You can also read the book Sri Guru and His Grace—one very nice example is there, Gurudev made our Math's logo based on it. Suppose there is a lotus blooming in a kunda, pond. As long as the lotus is in the shelter of water and soil, the sun's heat cannot do anything, the lotus remains as it is, but if you take that lotus out of water and soil, it will dry in two-three minutes. Here, the lotus is like you, like me, like a jiva soul; water and soil are like Gurudev, and the sun is like the Lord. So, as long as the lotus is under the guidance of water and soil, the sun cannot spoil it means that when we are under the shelter of Gurudev, Krishna can protect us, but if we are removed from the shelter of our Guru, then Krishna cannot protect us. You can read this analogy in Sri Guru and His Grace.

asraya laiya bhaje tare krsna nahi tyaje

ara saba mare akarane

"Krishna never leaves those who have taken shelter in Him. All others simply die in vain."

(By Srila Narottam Das Thakur, Prarthana, 17)

If you worship Lord Krishna without a shelter, it will bring no result. Gurupadasraya—you must take shelter of a bona fide Guru. One time, in a temple somebody asked me, "Oh, Maharaj, I have been waiting for initiation for ten years, but they are not giving me initiation..." I replied, "You have cultivated the land but you have not put the seed there, then how will the tree come? How will you get the fruit?" Ten years are gone like this. Day by day, time is going fast…

* * *

Truthful Village

Caracas, Venezuela

27 September 2009

One time, Narad Goswami came in this world to visit the villages. He came to a village and asked a man, "What is the name of this village?" The man said, "This village's name is Truthful, nobody here tells a lie."

Then, he came to a house and asked a man who was nearby, "Who is the house proprietor?"

"I am the proprietor," said the man.

"Oh, you are the proprietor? How much money do you have in your bank account?"

The man was surprised. He thought, "What kind of man is this, he comes and asks how much money I have in the bank?..."

"How much money do you have in the bank?" asked Narad Muni again

"I have only ten thousand dollars in the bank," answered the man.

"You have a big house, three-four cars, and you say you have only ten thousand dollars? Even some daily worker, even a servant has more than ten thousand dollars!"

"This village's name is Truthful, nobody here tells a lie! Go away!"

Narad Goswami went to another house. He asked again, "Who is the house proprietor?"

"I am the house proprietor," answered a man.

"How many children do you have?"

"I have only one son."

"Only one son? But I see there are three-four boys, two girls taking food—who are they?!"

"Do not ask too many questions! This village's name is Truthful, nobody here tells a lie. I have only son."

"But I can see you have many sons—"

"No. I have only one son."

Then, Narad Muni went to another house. On the way, he saw an old man, maybe eighty years old, sitting and chanting on his beads, he was shaved and had a tilak on.

"Where is your house?" asked Narad Muni.

"This house is not mine, it is Krishna's house. I am only staying here temporarily," answered the old man.

"How old are you?"

One, two, three, four, ...—the man began to count. "Oh, I am twenty years old!"

"You are twenty?! You like you are eighty and you say you are twenty?!"

The man became angry, "Hey! This village's name is Truthful, nobody here tells a lie!"

In the end, Narad Muni went to Yudhisthir Maharaj.

"Yudhisthir Maharaj," said Narad, "I came to visit this world and I came to one village called Truthful. I went to three men there, but all three of them told me the opposite of the truth... The first man I came to has a big house, many cars, but he said he had only ten thousand dollars in his bank!"

"Yes, he told the truth."

"How do you know it?" Narad Goswami was surprised.

"I know it because that man made a big festival at the temple yesterday and he expended ten thousand dollars there—that is his original bank deposit, it is deposited for the service to the Lord. The rest of his money is not deposited."

"OK... Another man I saw has many children, maybe five-six sons and daughters, but he told me he had only one son! Why?"

"He has five-six children, but from these five-six children only one son took initiation from a bona fide guru and serves the Lord—he is his son. The other sons only drink wine, play and enjoy, they are not his sons."

"All right. And then there was another man. He looks like he is eighty years old, but why did he say that he was only twenty years old?"

"Because he took initiation twenty years ago and he has practised Krishna consciousness for twenty years, and he wasted the other sixty years of his time; that is why his age is twenty.”

* * *

Power to Recognise Holy Places and Vaishnavs

Caracas, Venezuela

27 September 2009

Question: How can we recognise that a place is a pilgrimage place, a sacred holy place, or at what point can somebody say, "This is a holy place"?

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

Our eyes are blind—without the mercy of the Guru, without the mercy of the great Vaishnava we cannot see anything. People say, "This is a holy place," but they can all cheat, if you go to some place in good association then you can understand what an original place is. In Nabadwip, also there are some sahajiyas, some aul, baul and other misconception people who say that Mayapur is not the birthplace of Mahaprabhu, that Mahaprabhu's birthplace is in Nabadwip—what they say is wrong, it is a misconception. Also, Gokul, the place where Krishna plays, where Vasudev brought Lord Krishna after His birth—they now made a place called New Gokul, it is a nice big place and they take those who do not know anything there instead. Keep good association, then if you visit any place in that good association, you will be able to recognise it.

Sometimes people ask, "How can I recognise a pure Vaishnav?" It is also a question. Prabhupad himself said that if you get real sandalwood and you rub it, some good smell will come, but if you get some fake sandalwood and rub it, no smell will come. Every shopkeeper will tell you, "My shop's sweets are very nice," but you must go there and taste it yourself, then you will understand it.

In your heart, you have what is called a chaitya guru, internal guru, and our Gurudev is a mahanta guru. Before initiation, if you always pray to that chaitanya guru (internal guru) that is here, in your heart, then he will take to the real bona fide Guru. The quality of that prayer to the chaitya guru can be very different, that is why some people end up going to a wrong guru. Why? Because their prayer mood is not right.

Gurudev said there are three kinds of Guru in this world—kaulik guru, laukik guru, paramarthik guru. 'Kaulik' means Kali-yuga. For example, here is Purujit Prabhu, and somebody can think, "If he becomes my disciple, I will get some money!" This is called a kaulik guru. A laukik guru is for example your parents. Your father and mother are also your gurus—they always ask, "Oh, my son will be a big doctor," "My son will be a big engineer," "He will feed me," and so on—they always ask something. A paramartik guru, a spiritual guru, is rare.

I will give you an example of one guru and you can understand what kind of sahajiya gurus are available in India.

One time, there was one sahajiya guru in India. He would go to each disciple's house one a year (one day to this disciple, another day to another disciple, and so on) and collect some tax from the disciple.

He told his disciples that they could do anything they wanted—they could eat fish, meat, cows, everything. He said that if they wanted something, it was a desire of their jivatma (jiva soul), so they could do whatever they wanted and there would be no punishment for that ("Oh, you want to eat meat? Yes, your soul wants it, so you can do it."). What he said to them was a misconception. Our tongue is always asking for some kind of nonsense food, our mind, eyes, etc. are always asking for some nonsense things—the jivatma does not want these kinds of things! Jivatma always wants to serve the paramatma.

That guru also had a wife and children and one day his wife told him, "You are very old now, but you are going house to house... There is a king in this area, why do you not make him your disciple instead? Then you will not have to go to anyone else—he is a big wealthy man, he will give you everything." So, that guru happily initiated the king of that area and the family lived very well after that.

Five years later, the king said to his guru, "O Gurudev, I have been your disciple for many years now... I have a good wife, a good house, I have so much wealth, but why am I not getting happiness? You are my guru, I took initiation from you, but why cannot you give me happiness?" The king's Gurudev said, "It is necessary to make a big fire sacrifice," and wrote a list of ingredients necessary for the sacrifice. The king saw the list and said, "I have no time to buy everything, I better give you the money, you can buy it." Gurudev was even happier. He had given a long list to the king, but after he got the money he did only some little fire sacrifice. Six months later, the king again said to his guru, "O Gurudev, I am still not happy! Maybe you are cheating me? If you cannot make me happy within seven days, I will kill you!"

Gurudev began to cry, "What kind of a disciple have I made?!" He came home and said to his wife, "It your fault! You told me to make that king my disciple, now because of you I am going to die in seven days!" He kept thinking, "What will become of me? If I do not make the king happy in seven days, he will kill me... What will become of me?" That guru had one good son. So, soon that son came home.

"Mummy, please give me some food!" he said. "I am hungry!"

"I have not cooked today," answered his mother.

"Why? What has happened? Why did you not cook?"

"Do you know that the king is going to kill your father? The king told him to make him happy in seven days otherwise he will kill him."

That son did not work anywhere, but sometimes he went to a temple and spent time in devotees' good association. So, he said,

"Do not worry, I will make the king happy!"

"You are a crazy boy!" cried his father and mother. "How will you make the king happy?!"

"Do not worry, I will do it!" and he ran to the king's house. His mother tried to stop him, "No! Do not go, do not go!" but it was too late, he was already gone.

When the guru's son reached the king's house, the king's security guard asked him, "Who are you?" The boy replied, "I am your king's Gurudev's son." Then the king came and the boy introduced himself,

"Your Majesty, I am a son of your guru."

"What do you want?"

"I have came for you—I can you give happiness."

"Oh, yes, come, come. Your father could not do it, five-six years have gone... Please tell me what do I need? Give me your list."

"I do not have any list. I only want two pieces of rope, 7-8 feet each."

"It is easy to do!" said the king. The rope was brought in, and the guru's son said,

"Now please call my father."

The king sent one of his security guards to bring his guru. When the security guard came to the guru, he said, "But the seven days have not finished yet!" He was afraid. The security said, "I do not know anything about the seven days. Your son came there and the king is calling you." The husband and the wife began to cry, they thought, "Our son went there, he must have told something to the king... What if the king has changed his mind and wants to kill me now!" Then, the security guard caught the guru and brought him to the king. The guru said to the king, "But the seven days have not finished yet..." and the king answered, "I have not called you—your son has called you."

Then, three of them—the guru, the king and the son—started walking and they came to a cremation ghat. Both the king and the guru thought, "What is going on? Why are we at the cremation ghat? When they cremate they say, 'Rest in peace,' is this the happiness he wants to give us? What if he ties us and cremates?!" The guru said to the king, "Your Majesty, you are a very gentle, a very expert man, and my son is crazy... Why are you following his instruction? We are old men, and he is a young boy—what if he ties us with the rope and sends to the cremation?" The king said, "Do not worry, we are walking on, no problem."

Near the cremation ghat, there were two big trees. First, the boy tied his father to one of the trees, and then he tied the king to the other tree. Now both were tied to a tree. Then he said to his father,

"Father, please unbind the king, untie him," said the boy to his father.

"How? I am also tied!"

Then the boy turned to the king, "Do you see, Your Majesty? My father is always bound in the illusory environment—how can you be cured, how can you be released from the illusory environment when he himself is always tied and attacked by the illusory environment? How will he release you if he is tied himself?" Then, he explained, "Does my father think about you? He always thinks about his family, how will he then make you happy? My father is a guru, but he himself has fallen down and is inside a hole, how will he get you out of the hole, out of the illusory position?"

If a guru is under the influence of the illusory environment, in the hole, how can he pick another man out of that hole?

Do you understand?

Devotees: Yes.

* * *

Keep the Fire On

Speaking online with devotees in Hungary

23 December 2012

I heard that you are preaching very nicely. Also, Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, appearance day, is coming soon... You are trying so hard there and I am also praying to Gurudev that you can preach there. It is jive daya—if you can engage people in service, if you can engage and bring new people from there in connection with our temple, it will be good for us.

You are preaching properly and trying, but it is good if you sometimes do some kirtan, go outside on a parikrama, make some flyers, leaflets, some brochures and tell people about Hari-katha. In this way, you all can go door to door, house to house. I heard you may open a centre there, that is good, but actually opening centre means sometimes people must go door to door, must do street sankirtan, then people will be so much attracted—more people will come through the street sankirtan, through parikramas. I do not know what the rules in your country are, but you can go to some park, for example.

I heard you are trying so much, and I am very happy with that. Try to come to India also from time to time, send some devotees here—they will get energy from here. That will be good. Vaishnav seva and Nama sankirtan are the main things. Vaishnav seva means you must follow the instruction of the Vaishnav and Gurudev, do what they tell you to do. I am very happy with ***, she is engaging others in service, inviting people to come to the temple and preaching Krishna consciousness, that is good for our mission.

You know that and you must remember it also—you think there are only a few people, but one day people will come. When Srila Sridhar Maharaj opened the temple he was alone, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also started alone, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj went to America alone and then a big mission, ISKCON, came out. So, as Srila Sridhar Maharaj used to say, "Start the fire, the wind will come (agun jvala vatasa asbe)." Start the fire and keep the fire on, the wind will come. Do you understand? Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said, "Even if your boat is going to sink, you must still continue rowing." So, do not stop, you must continue going forward. Suppose you are swimming; you think, "We cannot do it, we will sink!" but no! Until you get to the bank you must continue swimming!

You are preaching, going to open a centre, I am very happy to hear that. I can also sometimes send a preacher to you, and you can come here from time to time, you can send some devotees here to Nabadwip—they can stay with me for a few months, a few days and they will get energy through that. It will be good.

"Out of ten million karmis there is only one wise person..." If somebody (be it a man or a lady) is a good practitioner, then such a great devotee, great personality, great Vaishnav can rescue all planet. Do you understand it? It is possible.

* * *

Service Enthusiasm

Speaking online with devotees in Hungary

23 December 2012

We should remember what Mahaprabhu said. Mahaprabhu did not tell to sit in one place. You can see my day today. I started from the mangal-arati and I am still going on until night time (it is 8:30-9 now) non-stop. Our boys started the mangal arati, then they chanted kirtans, after kirtans they went for a parikrama, then they took breakfast at 9:30, and after that they came here at 10-10:30 and I started the class; I finished the class at two o'clock, then I spent three hours travelling by car, then started the evening class, after that I have already given one class online, and now I am doing another one. I started in the morning and I have not finished yet. I keep myself busy—I do not want to be a sick person or lazy. That is why I want to go for the parikrama, I want to do the singing, I want to chant, to do kirtan, etc. It is good for health and the practising devotional life will be good too, spiritual life will be good too. If you sing with love, your heart will be good. Do you understand? Then there will be no heart disease. Sing with love, continue in this way, then disease will never come to your heart, your heart will be OK. Why did Haridas Thakur chant loudly? For everybody, for the benefit of others.

I am very happy with what you are doing. Before, when *** started learning dancing I thought, "Why is she learning to dance?" but now I am thinking that she has learnt to dance, she can teach others and people will come through that dancing, they can join Krishna consciousness. I am very happy. Like in Turkey, devotees practise and teach yoga, and through yoga so many people are coming to Krishna consciousness. They also do yoga in Brazil—they run the temple in this way and they are also engaging people to serve Krishna consciousness. It is good like this, it is a good way. Anyhow, by hook or by crook, you must engage people. It is Kali-yuga, people will not come to Krishna consciousness, only very few people will come, that is why you must anyhow give it to them in another way. If you can engage others in the service to Krishna consciousness, in the service to the Lord, to the Guru, then through that, you will get some commission and you too will be benefitted.

Also, it will be good if you do not mix with sahajiyas or mayavadis. We must follow Srila Sridhar Maharaj's conception. We do not want to become Krishna like sahajiyas. Do not mix with the mayavadi conception also—there are so many mayavadis in the foreign countries, there are so many sahajiya people preaching from another Math—they visit many places and people become sahajiyas. Like, we sing in the kirtan, "Yasomati-nandana Vraja-bara-nagara" that Krishna is "navina-nagara-bara." Navina-nagar means, He who always takes a new (navin) girl (nagar). Krishna can do it, but we do not want to be Krishna, we do not want to be sahajiya. Do you understand? It is bad for everybody, it is a great disease.

Srila Gurudev's appearance day is on 30 December (2012), if you celebrate this day very happily, I will be even happier. You can send me the photo, email me, tell me what kind of festival you have made. OK? Make a festival, do Guru-puja, and give some lecture. You must glorify Gurudev on this day, that is called a festival—make Vaishnav-seva and glorify Gurudev, speak about what Gurudev told us, about his pastimes. You can also invite some outside guests, even if they are not devotees or not devotees proper, you can invite them. Give some prasad, give a lecture, and they will be benefitted through that. It will be a Sunday, a holiday. You can make some dance programme, invite guests, give them prasadam, that will be good and Gurudev will be very happy.

* * *

Be Careful and Conscious

Caracas, Venezuela

28 September 2009

"Sabadhana vando re bhai, aparadha haya na yena" means you must be careful when you worship your Guru, be careful so that an offence does not come. Guru means Radharani, so when you worship Radharani be careful. Do you understand? It is a very high conception.

In another song, we sing, "Kevali ananda-kanda Nitai ar Gaurachandra." Why do we feel so much ananda, so much happiness today? Nityananda and Gaurachanda have come, that is why we are very, very happy, we feel so much ananda, joy.

visaya chhadiya se rase majiya

mukhe bala hari hari

Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami,

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

And we sing too, "Visaya-katha parihari." Visaya-katha means nonsense talks. We must not talk nonsense, we should avoid many talks, and only say, "Krishna", "Nitai and Gour!" Do not talk about other things, about material things, only think about Nitai and Gour. This is the meaning of these words, "Visaya-katha parihari mukhe bala Hari Hari." Then we sang,

dekha ore bhai tribhuvane nai

emana dayala data

You can see many kind people in the world but you cannot find anyone as kind as Nityananda Prabhu anywhere. Who is as kind as He is? Nitai and Gour go house to house distributing His Name.

Moreover, "Mar kheyeo nam prema yache!" I have told it before, "mar kheyeo" means Madhai was beating Nityananda, but Nityananda said, "It is OK, you can beat Me, no problem, but say, 'Hare Krishna!'" Even thought they are beating Him, still He says, "OK, you can beat Me again, no problem, but say, 'Hare Krishna!'" When somebody beats you, you get angry against them, but Nityananda is not angry—He says, "Beat Me again, but say, 'Hare Krishna!'"

pasu pakhi jhure pasana vidare

suniya ra guna-gatha

Pasu means beasts, like deer, cows, dogs, etc., and pakhi are birds. So, even birds, even beasts chant and cry, but we are so cruel, our heart is harder than a stone (pasana) because we hear about Krishna, about Lord Nitai, Lord Gauranga, but we are not crying...

There are fifteen days when Jagannath temple is closed. The Jagannath people say that Jagannath has a fever during this time, but we think that during these days they are making the temple of Jagannath and all the preparations. So, they close the temple the day after snan-yatra and open it only one day before Ratha-yatra. Mahaprabhu cried so much—He goes to the Jagannath temple every day, but at that time the temple is closed and He cannot go to see Jagannath, He was very upset. One day, Jagannath Himself told to Mahaprabhu, "Come to Alarnath, You can see Me there!" So, Mahaprabhu went to Alarnath. When He came there, He was crying for Jagannath so much that when He paid dandavat at the Alarnath temple, so much ecstasy came to Him that even the whole stone melted under His body. You can see that stone there even now also…

* * *

Power of Devotees' Hearts

Caracas, Venezuela

28 September 2009

Mahaprabhu went to take sannyas in Katwa, and at that time all the Nabadwip basis (all the citizens, devotees of Nabadwip) became very sad. Even those who hated Mahaprabhu, who did not like Mahaprabhu, even they also cried for Mahaprabhu.

Then, after Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He wanted to go to Vrindavan, but because of all the Nabadwip-basis' affection, even Krishna Himself could not go to Vrindavan—all people of Nabadwip were crying so much that Mahaprabhu could not go there. After first three days, He came to the bank of the Ganges and saw Advaita Prabhu there. He became angry, "I am going to Vrindavan, how did you come here?!" Advaita Prabhu answered, "Prabhu, wherever You are, there is Vrindavan. You are here, so that is also Vrindavan. Even when you worship Ganga, there is Yamuna..." Then, many people came there, Mahaprabhu took some rest, and in the evening, after some kirtan, Mahaprabhu said to everybody, "I wanted to go to Vrindavan, but because of your affection I could not go there."

I am thinking now, when the Lord Himself could not go to Vrindavan, how could I go to Nabadwip yesterday? All devotees from Parama Karuna have so much affection for me that I could not go yesterday...

Devotees: JAY!

I was feeling sad yesterday, but today when I see so many devotee here all my sadness is gone. And that is true—without devotees' mercy it is not possible. Mahaprabhu also said, "I wanted to go to Vrindavan, but you are tying Me with so much bhakti-rupa dori (rope of devotion), then how will I go to Vrindavan?! I could not go because you do not allow Me to go there." I am also thinking the same thing today.

This is the main thing—devotees' affection to Mahaprabhu... Mahaprabhu always said, "Bhakta More bandhiya rakhiyache hrdaya kamale: devotees are binding Me with their hearts. Without their permission I cannot go anywhere..."

[Note: This is spoken at the last evening programme before leaving Caracas the next day…]

* * *

Pratistha: Self-Destruction

Sri Nabadwip Dham

29 May 2013

Question: Why is pratistha the most difficult and how can we become free from it?

You can compare pratistha to ego. Actually, when we are doing something we think that we are doing so many things but we do not think that we are very little. Guru, Krishna are very, very big, even Brahma says, "I am also nothing in front of Krishna! Even I suffer so much from the tri-tap-jala (adhibhautik, adhyatmik, adhidaivik: miseries caused by one's body, by other souls and the nature); even in my place, here in Brahma-loka, there is some inauspiciousness, and I too want some permanent solution, I want to stay there..." What to speak of a human body then—a human body is nothing, it is very small and simple. You know that jivatma is very small, and Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead—He is very big, He controls the work of the whole universe, in front of Him, we are tiny. So, if we do something, some ego comes to us, we think we are doing so much, we are doing so much, but actually we are not doing anything because in front of Him these are all small things.

Pratistha comes slowly, slowly through position. For example, we are doing some service and we want something (it is a human body, everybody has some material desire—we want respect, we want honour, we want this thing, we want that thing, everybody has some kind of material desire); because of these desires the service we are doing gives us pressure and does not let us go up; and when the service is gone, then all kinds of bad elements, bad material things (kanak, kamini, pratistha) start coming to us. Pratistha is very bad, it can attack even a sannyasi, a brahmachari or anyone else. People may not have so much intention for kamini (ladies) or intention for kanak (money), but mostly people want to have a big position, "Oh, everybody will give me respect, everybody will give me honour!" So people do not actually run so much after kanak or kamini—they mostly run behind pratistha.

I have told it before and I want to say it now also. Pratistha is very dangerous. When we work as a leader, as a manager, as a temple secretary, it is very difficult. For example, Gurudev tells somebody, "You will be a ritvik," and they give initiation, give ritvik, give ritvik, and when one day they cannot give initiation they think, "Oh, now nobody will give me obeisance, nobody will give me honour!" and they feel frustrated. They may think that they are losing something, but actually they do not lose anything. I have told it many times that if you want to get mercy from Gauranga, if you want mercy from Gurudev, if you want mercy from Krishna, it is not necessary to want to be a guru, it is not necessary to want to have any big position—through just some little service you can be a great devotee or can go to your real destination.

So, when this kind of desire for pratistha comes to somebody, they end up losing their line—they do not follow Gurudev's conception and start working for their own interest. They want pratistha, and more pratistha comes to them—they start to make disciples; after that, so many disciples' bad karma attacks them, that bad karma gives reaction to them, and finally they lose their way, lose their Gurudev's line. That is why pratistha is very dangerous for the devotional line…

* * *

Reforming Lifestyle

1 July 2013

When the brain is cool, it is all right, but when the brain is hot it is a problem. If your brain is cool, problems do not come, but people are doing the opposite—too much stress, they do not sleep properly...

Why do I read the newspaper? Every day I watch what the science is saying—I am watching how people are becoming crazy... At night time they do not sleep properly—they watch video, use mobiles, etc. somebody has so many girlfriends, and this girlfriend chastises him, that girlfriend wants this, this girlfriend want that, and so on. It is a big problem. Every day scientists have some conference... Why do I look through what they say, one by one, why do I read the newspaper? I watch people going down...

Proper sleep is necessary.

"Asat-sanga sada tyaga chhada anya gita-raga" (Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, 15; "give up bad association, do not listen to the material songs and music"). Avoid bad association. I always tell it to you, how many times can I tell it? My mouth has already become sore...

There was a boy here, he started doing kirtan from five-six years old, but after that he got under the influence of asat-sanga (bad association), did not control his association, did not control his eating habits, did not take prasad always, ate sometimes outside... Where there is a will, there is a way. If you do not follow the rules and regulations, then there will be neither health nor anything else.

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

If we know what is favourable to devotion and what is not favourable to devotion, then we will be careful—we must accept or reject.

We sing this kirtan every day early in the morning, and we do not only sing it—when we sing it we actually make a promise.

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari'

svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari

“Being merciful to the souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode.”

atyanta durlabha prema karibare dana

sikhaya saranagati bhakatera prana

“To distribute the most rare form of divine love, He teaches surrender, which is the life of the devotees.”

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

“Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord’s guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me’..."

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

“Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion …"

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yanhara

tanhara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"These are the six types of saranagati, and if you can surrender in all the six ways, Krishna will hear you."

We sing it every day, and every day we promise this. Singing means practising Krishna consciousness.

When we sing, "Thakura Vaishnava-gana, kari ei nivedana mo bada adhama durachara (O worshippable Vaisnavas, I offer you this prayer. I am very fallen and wicked!)" we actually do not think that we are durachar (dishonest, misbehaved, wicked). But we should pray, "Prabhu, I do not think that I am misbehaving, but please give me the quality, the ability to think that I am misbehaving, that I am durachar!" This is what we sing for. If you sing in this way, then humility will come.

It is necessary to listen and learn, if you do not hear the teachings, you will not get the Lord... Pariksit Maharaj listened to the teachings and in the end said, "I have all these senses—eyes, nose, ears, tongue, skin—and I can use them only for seven days now, but I will use them only for the Lord's purpose!"

If, however, you have some material desire inside, it can be dormant, but in a few days, a few years it can come out. For example, you may not see fire in some ash, but the fire is there, inside. Material desires are also like that. You have material desires inside, and if you do not practise properly, these desires can come out.

asa-pasa sata sata klesa deya avirata

pravrtti-urmira tahe khela

kama-krodha-adi chhaya batapade deya bhaya

avasana haila asi' bela

“The shackles of hundreds and hundreds of desires constantly trouble me, and the waves of the tendency to enjoy play all round me. The six bandits of lust, anger, greed, pride, illusion, and envy torment me, and now the time of my death has come.”

This is a song from Siksastaka. Asa-pasa—only hope, only hope, hope, hope and in the end you get so much suffering. There are six enemies, or faults—kama, krodha, lobha, etc.; they are all batpad, highway robbers, dacoits who torture you; and in the end, avasana haila asi' bela, the time ends.

There was one Lala Babu who loved fish and ate it every day. One time, he was talking to the fish seller. He had taken the fish from him but had not paid yet. The seller was waiting to get his money, but Lala Babu carried on and on. Then, the seller said, "Babu! It is getting late, the sun is setting..." Suddenly, Lala Babu got startled, "What? The sun is setting?! Oh no! I have wanted to go to Vrindavan for so long, but now my time is coming to an end... I must go there!" He left as he was and went to Vrindavan!

So, time is passing—avasana haila asi' bela, sun rises, sun sets and one day is gone from your life... In the meantime, kama, krodha, lobha, moha, etc. all these dacoits take away everything. What is the way out? You can end up in the same position as Indra—only when everything is taken away from you do you take up Hari-bhajan. At first, Indra did not listen to what Brahma was trying to tell him, Indra said, "I am too busy with my work here!" Only when his wife, children, and all relatives had died, did he listen. When everything is gone, when we have no one left, then we listen and come here...

It is necessary to teach small boys, teach new devotees, they can read one sloka from Bhagavad-gita each day, they should read—otherwise they stay here for some time and go back to their countries. I want good "cows," not naughty "cows"—it is necessary to have good cows in the goshala, not naughty cows.

It is necessary to be strict because he does not know what will be good for him, you do not know what will be good for you, even I also do not know what will be good for me—my Gurudev knows it, and my Gurudev gives me inspiration, instruction every day, day by day. But if he does not follow his Gurudev's instruction, what will he stay here for? He only goes outside, plays with the soil, etc...

It is necessary to study, to read, to have classes. There should be many classes arranged, and he must have the classes one by one during the day. You can give him some basic knowledge, somebody can teach other things to him, and so on. It is necessary. I have told many times to give a class to him, but you did not listen to me. What is now? Now it is necessary to use a stick.

It is necessary to rest also. I do not tell him to go to the goshala, I tell him to take rest. I do not tell anyone not to sleep, I do not not tell anyone not to take prasad, I do not tell anyone not to walk around the temple and not chant mala... He took gayatri initiation, but can you tell me if he does his gayatri at least once? He never does it. When I asked him, he cannot even remember the gayatri mantras... Does he chant four rounds? Sixteen rounds is a must, but does he chant at least four rounds on his mala? Ask him to tell me, he cannot tell a lie in front of me.

Be a good boy. I told him it is not necessary to go to school—if you can study properly in this school only, you will be more brilliant than any ordinary schoolboy. I came from university, I am a post-graduate, everybody knows that, but sometimes I would proofread something twenty times, and Gurudev, who did not go to any university, would look at it and tell me there is a mistake. How is it possible? Because he studied properly—he listened to his Guru! He studied Sanskrit, went to the classes, did his reading...

He too should study—he can have Bengali lessons, Bhagavad-gita lessons, some lesson on basic, fundamental knowledge. It is necessary. And he should also take some rest every day. It is necessary to change the lifestyle…

* * *

Service Anxiety

Sri Nabadwip Dham

29 May 2013

Sometimes we are afraid of Krishna, we are afraid of the Lord, but you should not be afraid of Him. You should join your lifestyle with Krishna, with the Lord, because Krishna, the Lord Himself, is your family member. This is the main thing. We should know it—we have come from the Lord, we are all sons of the Lord. If we get good association, then we will understand we are members of His family.

Sometimes we do puja [worship the Lord with reverence], but it is not necessary—when we have a family, a husband, children, etc. we take care of them as our own family, so a devotee also takes care of Krishna as a member of his family. That is the main thing.

We are afraid to serve Him thinking, "Oh, what if I do something sinful, what if some offence comes, what if something bad happens if I serve Him wrong?..." but our Guru Maharaj, and Prabhupad also, said that there is no offence for a surrendered soul. For example, once Krishna wanted to test His devotees. He pretended that He was sick and asked for some feet dust of His devotees. There are many devotees—Narad, Brahma, Siva; Krishna has Satyabhama, Rukmini, and the rest of 16,108 wives in Dvaraka, but none of them wanted to give their feet dust. They thought about themselves, about their own happiness, "Oh, if I give it, I will be committing a sin!" They did not think about Krishna, about their husband, "He is very sick, He is suffering so much, but if I can give some of my feet dust he will be cured!" They did not think about that. On the other hand, Vraja gopis did not think about themselves—they thought about Krishna, that is why they did not hesitate, they gave the dust from their lotus feet.

Mahaprabhu had a servitor called Govinda. Govinda would massage Mahaprabhu's feet because sometimes Mahaprabhu would get very tired after dancing and feel some pain. He did it every day. (That is what is called sincerity—when you do something, you should do it every day.) One time, Mahaprabhu danced the whole day, and He fell asleep inside His room in front of the door. He lived in Gambhira at that time, in the house of Kashi Mishra in Puri, and that room had only one door. Because He was lying in front of the door, Govinda could not go inside. He was thinking what he could do, to jump over or what else. He asked Mahaprabhu,

"Prabhu, please move a little so that I can come inside..."

"I cannot do that, I am very tired."

"I am doing this service every day, I always massage Your feet..."

"What you will do is your business, I cannot tell you what you will do or not do."

Then Govinda thought, "I do it every day, so what can I do?" He took his uttariya, cloth, put it on top of Mahaprabhu's body, and jumped over it into the room. Then, he collected whatever dust fell on his cloth, put it on his head and sat down to massage Mahaprabhu. He massaged Mahaprabhu's body for half an hour or an hour, and Mahaprabhu got a good rest.

At midnight, Mahaprabhu suddenly woke up and saw Govinda in the room. Govinda always slept outside Mahaprabhu's room, so He asked him,

"Govinda, why are you still inside? Why did you not go to rest? Why did you not go to take prasadam?"

"Prabhu, how shall I go crossing You??"

"How did you come? You crossed Me..."

"I came inside to serve You, to massage Your feet. It is my duty, my service. I may be hungry, I may be sleepy, but I cannot cross You for my own self. There is no place to pass the door, You are blocking it; if You do not move, I cannot go outside."

We must understand the siddhanta (conclusion) of Chaitanya-charitamrita—for our own self, for our own enjoyment and happiness we cannot commit any offence, but for the service to our Guru, for the service to Krishna, we can accept any kinds of offences. This is the lesson taught by Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya-charitamrita.

* * *

Surrender: "You Are Not Independent"

Sri Nabadwip Dham

29 May 2013

What does surrender mean? When you want to take initiation, you must first surrender (saranagati)—you must give everything to your Guru, or the Lord, Bhagavan. This is the main thing.

We always say, "Surrender", "Surrender", "Surrender"... Sometimes, we say we have surrendered, or we are surrendering, we say we have renounced everything, but it may be false renunciation, false surrender.

When we lie down and pay a full obeisance (sastanga dandavat), we fully surrender—we give our mind, body, everything to our Guru—"Prabhu, I am giving you a sword, and you can cut me if you want. I am not looking—my eyes, my head, my ears, everything is down, I cannot see what you are doing." This is called surrender.

We can understand what surrender is from Mahaprabhu's teaching also. Sanatan Goswami is a bona fide Vaishnav, a bona fide associate of the Lord—even in the Dvapar-lila, he was Lavanga Manjari. His Vaishnavism, his teachings are very nice, and Mahaprabhu taught him so much. One time, Sanatan Goswami was suffering very much with his body, he had a skin disease, and he thought, "This body is useless, I cannot serve with this body any more. I better commit suicide..."

Our mind is naughty, it always changes, but following your mind is not surrender—you must follow your Guru's instruction, not your mind's. However, sometimes we follow our mind, and it happened so that Sanatan Goswami wanted to commit suicide.

He came to Puri and said to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, "When the Ratha-yatra time comes, I will come in front of the chariot and give up my body there, under the chariot. I will commit suicide..." At that time, Mahaprabhu taught him what is called surrender:

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders to the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

Mahaprabhu explained: "When you surrender, when you take initiation, Krishna thinks, 'Your everything is now My property—your body is not your body any more, it is My body!' So, how can you now destroy My property? You are going to destroy My things! You are shameless! You have no idea. You are going to destroy others' property—your body is not your body, it is My property, and I will use your body for the service to the Lord."

So, you cannot do what you want, you cannot do what your mind tells you to do... Mind is always blind, it takes you to many bad places, many good places, but you do not know what is the best place, what is a good place, what is a bad place, you do not know what is good for you—only the Guru, Bhagavan know it. When they give some instruction, you must follow it, but you are always giving food to your mind, you are following your mind, and the mind becomes strong, it takes you to many bad places, takes you in the wrong way—that is why we fall down, we feel our mind disturbs us, etc. The main thing about surrender is not to follow your mind, but to follow your Gurudev's instruction.

Also, dainyata, atmanivedana (humility, surrendering yourself), goptritve varan, you are not independent; you must think that Krishna will protect you; you must accept what is favourable to devotion; you must reject what is unfavourable to devotion—these are the six types of saranagati. If you follow that, Krishna will listen to you:

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara

tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in this six-fold way."

Then, whatever you pray to Krishna for, Krishna will fulfil your desire.

Actually it is not necessary to pray for anything. What will you pray to Krishna for? "Krishna, I want only You"—then you will get everything. Do not ask Krishna for anything. "Krishna, I want only You"—this is our prayer. It is necessary to have faith, a strongest faith. Faith depends upon a devotee, and what you get depends on the kind of faith you have. If you have 20% faith, you will get 20%; if you have more than that, you will get more than that.

* * *

Beyond Material Environment

Sri Nabadwip Dham

29 May 2013

Question: If somebody says that rather than preaching about Krishna consciousness you should invest your time and energy into a social campaign, to save the world from pollution, contamination and all these things, how will you change their minds?

What they are saying is some karma-marga or jnana-marga, they are thinking about this life... They study jnana sastra, they talk about jnana sastra, and their intelligence, their brain is limited up to that jnana-marga (path of knowledge). They talk about pollution, about environment, saving the nature, saving health, this is not high thinking. If we preach to them, if we tell them something about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Mahaprabhu's conception, they will easily understand that they are actually wasting their time...

They are thinking about pollution and saving environment because they are thinking about their own health and interest, but they do not know how many days they have left. They want to cure others' bodies, they think, "I will make a building and use good cement so that it lasts two-three hundred years," but they do not know how many days they will last in this world.

Their brain is like that... We must give them a clear conception about atma, about the jiva soul, about Krishna consciousness, and if somebody has some good sukriti and good intelligence, then they will come, but it is actually rare.

If you tell somebody there is a country called America, they cannot see America from here and they will say, "No, there is no such country as America!" but if you go there, you will see there is America. So, now you are far away, you cannot see anything, that is why you say that Krishna does not exist because you cannot see Krishna. Your eyes are covered now with a layer of Maya, illusory environment, that is why you cannot see anything, but if your eyes are operated on and that spot of Maya is removed, then you can see something. It is necessary to have an operation.

You have eyes inside you, and by the mercy of Guru and sadhu, if you want to see something, if you actually have desire to search for Sri Krishna, if you want it, then you can easily understand what is what, what is our real way, and what is the real solution. It is possible.

Something is happening now and the scientists are saying many bad things, but whatever they are saying, Krishna (the Lord Himself) and the scriptures (sastra) had already told about it many thousands of years ago. So, for a sadhu this is not new, it is not a surprise. Sometimes, somebody discovers or invents something, but these things are not new for a sadhu because a sadhu has known about it from many thousands of years ago.

* * *

Clear Your Mind

Sri Nabadwip Dham

29 May 2013

Devotees should understand this.

A few days ago we were celebrating the festival of Sri Nrisingha Chaturdasi. We always chant, "Jay Nrisinghadev! Jay Prahlad Maharaj!" but I am surprised that they are asking Lord Nrisinghadev for something. Lord Nrisinghadev wants to give a boon to His devotees, it is not necessary to ask Him for anything. He wants to give you what you want, and we are foolish, but Prahlad Maharaj is not foolish: Prahlad Maharaj did not ask for anything.

Prahlad Maharaj said, "Prabhu, You want to give something, then please give some liberation to my father." "Pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana" (not ill-treating others, nurturing them)— he did not hate his father, he tried to give him some advice. Even though Prahlad Maharaj had got so much torturing from his father and his father's men, he was not tired. His father tortured him and tortured, he was tired, he threw from a mountain, he threw him into water, but he could not do anything. In the end he told a schoolmaster to keep him carefully at a demon's school and teach him. But instead of studying there, Prahlad Maharaj would tell all students, all boys what had learned in the womb of his mother Kayadu (it is all there in Srimad Bhagavatam). He explained what is our duty, what for we have got a human body.

If you have some particular interest or taste, you will get the facility for it in your next life. If you want to hear so many things, you will get another body, a body of a beast—their hearing power is much higher. If you want to see so many things, but how many kilometres can we see with our eyes' power? We cannot see so far, but if you get a bird's body and bird's eyes, then the power of your eyes will be ten times more. You like eating, but how much can you eat? A pig eats stool and it is so happy, so if you get a pig's body, you will be much happier in that body. What kind of happiness do you want?

Prahlad Maharaj did not hesitate. He was tortured so much, but our devotees cannot tolerate even a very small thing. After Gurudev left they think, "Oh, there is so much suffering, so much disturbance, why will I live in the temple? Better I do bhajan in my room or maybe go to a forest." If you go to a forest, your belly, your stomach will go with you and you will suffer so much! If you go to a forest, you have to climb trees, collect fruits, collect some dry tree leaves and boil them for your stomach because your stomach is with you, you cannot leave it in your house or temple. You come to a forest, but you take your stomach with you. Then what are you trying to get rid of your body for? Even if you die, how you will conquer Maya? Do you think that after death your suffering will finish? Do you think that Maya will go away from you after death? No. If you die, you will get another body and Maya will attack you again. Why do you want to lose your body quickly by going through such austerities?

Prahlad Maharaj suffered so much, but he could not forget Krishna, he never forgot Krishna, that is why he never worried. But devotees cannot suffer, devotees cannot tolerate. In Kali-yuga, there is very little patience in a human body...

So, despite all torturing, Prahlad Maharaj said to Lord Nrisinghadev, "Please, give some liberation to my father, please give him shelter." He forgave his father and asked the Lord to forgive his father's offence. That is one lesson.

Another lesson is this.

Nrisinghadev replied, "It is not a boon. I have already done this. Ask for something that I have not given, then it will be a boon." Then, Prahlad Maharaj said, "All right, You want to give me something, then please give that kind of boon so that this desire to ask for anything is removed from my heart and mind." This is the main lesson. It is necessary to understand it.

Gurudev also taught this. One time, a devotee came to Gurudev and asked him, "Please put your hand on my head." Gurudev said it was jnana-misra bhakti—you are asking for something for your own benefit. You should not ask Gurudev for anything—your duty is to serve your Guru, the Guru does not have to serve you, it is not his duty.

Although he does not have to serve you, Gurudev always serves—always gives lecture, gives shelter, and so on—because he does not think he is a Guru, he thinks he is a servitor. He may be a divine servitor, a guardian of devotion, but he feels he is a servitor and always serves the devotees. He gives us shelter and uses us in the service of the Lord—he picks us up from stool and keeps us at the lotus feet of his Guru, Krishna, the Lord. That is his duty, and he is doing that; and our duty is to serve him, but we forget that, we always think about our own interest...

So, my message is that we must learn from Prahlad Maharaj—learn from what wanted, what he said about the 'asking' desire. Bhakti Vinod Thakur told, "Nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari: we are not afraid to commit any sin for our own happiness."

I am telling this to all devotees. Gurudev said that if you have service, you have mercy—you must always engage yourself in service. If your service is gone, then the mercy is gone too. Your Gurudev's hand is already on your head—you have got his mercy, you always have his shelter; but now you are drying up. You are already in the shelter of soil and water, but once Gurudev's mercy is gone (once you have no service), your plant dries up. What does 'drying' mean? You still have some internal material desires, that seed, bacteria, or virus is still inside you, and when you have no service, when the mercy is gone, all those bad elements start growing, the mind starts disturbing, and you fall down from your service, you leave your service. Be careful!

Do not only chant—when you always chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, you always make ten kinds of offences of the Holy Name. If you chant properly, you do not forget your service, do not forget your real path, but if you always chant and there is only Nama aparadh in your chanting (as it always is in this age of Kali), then better you chant the Name of Gaura Nitai, Doyal Nitai, Nitai Gauranga. There is no offence in chanting Their Names, so it will be good for you to also chant Their Names. And another thing is that you must always engage yourself in service, then all kinds of bad elements will be down—they will not be able to grow further.

Jay Gurudev.

* * *

Monkey's Life

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

Gurudev said that when we had got a pig body before we were very happy eating stool, when we were elephants we were also very happy eating so many plants—we think we are happy now in the body that we have, but beasts and birds are also happy and you can understand also that they are happier than you are. If I make some good food, like briyani or pulao, some opulent food and give it to a pig, the pig will not take it, but if I give some stool to the pig, the pig will be very happy. We always struggle to sleep properly, we wake up every one-two hours, every half an hour, we are always anxious, so many thoughts in our head, we worry about work, about family, etc. On the other hand, you can see a street dog sleeps outside peacefully, it is also very happy with its body. So, what is our real, permanent happiness? We must understand it.

Brahmacharis live in a temple, but sometimes because of the illusory environment, because of their bad karma or because they do not practise properly, they leave the temple and go to family life, and I can tell you what kind of 'happiness' they get in family life. How much they are suffering!

Once, a brahmachari got married and started his family life (became a grihastha, householder). He worked the whole day, and after work he came home and went to bed, and he also soon had a baby. One afternoon, when the child was playing outside he saw a man with a trained monkey (the man was earning money by displaying antics of the monkey). The boy liked the money so much that later that day, in the middle of the night, when everybody was already sleeping, he suddenly began to cry and shout, "A-a-a-aw!" The wife asked him, "What has happened?!" The boy cried, "I want that monkey! Bring it here! I want to see the monkey! Show me the monkey!" Of course, it was not possible—they did not even know who the owner of the monkey was, where he had gone. But the boy kept crying and shouting. What to do? Then, the wife scolded the husband, "Hey! What are you doing? Your son is crying so much, disturbing so much and you only know to sleep! Get up, make your son stop crying!" How is he to do it? The child kept crying and demanding, "I want a monkey! I want to see the monkey's play!" He is a child, he does not understand.

"I have an idea!" the wife said then.

"What idea?"

"You can become a monkey! I will make a rope with my sari and you can play like a monkey!"

So, she tied the husband up like a monkey and he began to jump. He jumped up, she pulled down, he came down; he jumped, she pulled, he came down, and so on. The boy was very happy. Soon the father became very tired, but the child kept asking, "More! More! Show me more!" So, the wife pulled the husband, and he had to jump again... This is how they made their son happy...

Do you understand how much austerity a family life is? Our only controller is the Lord, but you can see how much austerity a family life is—the wife controls the husband, "Go there! Bring money! Earn money! Make me happy!" and so on. It is a good example for brahmacharis.

We have got these kinds of enjoyment before, in other bodies, and in this life we are again doing the same thing, but we must understand that our life is very short—we must understand what is our duty in this human body... We must understand this clearly.

Jay Gurudev.

* * *

Our Plight and Path

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

We suffer so much to get some happiness—materialistic people get so much austerity just to get a little food. Krishna sent us here and He also kept some food for us, but only for a little enjoyment, for some food we are getting so much austerity...

I can tell you one story. There was an old lady who lived in a broken thatched house. One day she cooked some little rice in her clay and mud pot (she was poor and did not have a good expensive stainless steel pot—her pot, like in old days, was made of clay and mud) and went to bring some water from a pond. In the meantime, a dog came inside her house. When it saw the rice, it became very happy (it was very hungry) and put its mouth into the pot to take the rice. The dog pushed its mouth and pushed, tried and tried, but could not reach the rice with its tongue because the pot was too narrow on the top. Finally, the dog put its entire head into the pot—it still could not reach the rice but now it could not also take its head out of the pot...

In the meantime, the old lady came back, "What has happened?! I collected some rice by begging, cooked it and now a dog has put its mouth inside?!" She became very angry and started beating the dog. She beat the dog so much, but the dog could not move because it could not see which way to go—its eyes and whole head was covered by the pot. (We are also like this—we become blind by getting some material things and cannot see which way is good, which way is bad.) At that time, a sadhu, or a brahmachari, was passing by and saw the old lady beating the dog. He immediately took a stone and threw it at the pot—the pot broke and the dog ran away...

You should understand that we are covered by the illusory environment—we are suffering so much, but if by some sukriti we can find a sadhu, the sadhu can open, can break that bondage of the illusory environment. Once we get out of that bondage of the illusory environment, we can see the real way, the real things. That dog could not see which way it should go, but as soon as the pot was broken, it got relief and ran the right way. We are also like this. We are suffering so much now, but if we get some sukriti and get out of the illusory environment, then we will get the nirmal dham—we will be able to see the real things.

To attain that, it is necessary for us to come to a sadhu who can show us our real way. When we are walking to some destination, we can see milestones on the street that show how many kilometres it is to our destination. For example, if we go to Kolkata from here, we will see a milestone that says it is 100 km to Kolkata; five kilometres later, we will see a 95 km milestone, and so on. So, when we go down the real way, we will see these milestone and see how far it is to our destination, then we can understand that we are going down the real way. It is necessary to watch the milestones.

* * *

Ignorance Is Bliss?

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

We must try—if we try, we will get it, but if our mind tells us, "I will not do it... I cannot chant the Holy Name, so I will not chant," that is another thing. Somebody thinks, "I cannot do service, I do not believe it, so I will not do service." This is not so. If we try, we must be successful. It is necessary to try, then we will get the result, we will get mercy. If we have desire, we will get mercy; if we have no desire, mercy will not come. Try. If there is both our effort and Krishna's mercy together, then we will get result.

There is one story in this regard that was told by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

There were two very naughty brothers, Lalu and Kalu. The brothers did not go to school, did not study—they always mixed with some bad boys, bad association, and even took up a bad habit of smoking, taking tobacco. This is how they passed their time. Their father had a grocery shop, and he had brought so many teachers to teach his sons, but all teachers failed. They all left thinking, "I am taking money from their father, but the students, his sons, are very naughty, they do not want to learn anything! They are not even trying to learn anything."

So, the father was very anxious. He thought, "It is necessary to keep some accounts in my grocery shop... I am becoming old, who will take care of this family? Who will run my shop? I need to find some good teacher..." Then, he made an advertisement where he said he was looking for a teacher, he wrote the salary, promised to provide fooding, lodging, etc. A poor brahmin saw the advertisement and thought, "I can do it." He came to the father of the boys and said, "I am a perfect teacher for your sons." The father replied, "Very nice, I am very happy you have come." Then he called his sons, Lalu and Kalu and said to them, "This is your teacher. You are to always stay with him—sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, etc. you must always be with him." And then he said to the teacher, "My sons are very naughty. As soon as you give some slack, they will go to bad association and smoke. They are very bad boys." The teacher had already understood it, but he agreed and stayed with them.

One evening, the teacher told the boys, "Now it is bed time. Take your food and go to sleep! Tomorrow, in the afternoon I will teach you something, you will have some lessons." The younger brother was more naughty, and he said to his brother when the teacher could not hear them, "Hey, brother! We must make the teacher sleep. If we do not sleep, the teacher will not sleep too and we will not be able to go out. Pretend you are sleeping!" So, they immediately went to bed and pretended to be asleep and snoring. The teacher thought, "Oh, very good boys! They are sleeping! Now I can take some rest too..." The teacher went to take some rest and was soon asleep.

In the meantime, the younger brother said to his brother, "Hey, the teacher is sleeping! We can go out now!" And they both left to take tobacco, smoking, with their friends. When they returned, the teacher was still sleeping and they came quietly into the room and went to bed. In the morning, the teacher woke up and was surprised, "What is this tobacco? How is it possible?" He came to the boys and pushed them,

"Hey! Are you still sleeping?! Why is there so much smell of tobacco in the house?! Did you go out and take tobacco?!"

"How? No, we did not! We went to sleep before you. When you left we were in the room, sleeping. We did not go anywhere!"

"Then how is possible that the tobacco smell is coming from you?!"

"I do not know, I can show you my hand, I did not smoke," said the younger brother.

"Oof! The smell is coming from your hand! You are telling a lie! You again took tobacco!"

"No, maybe when we were sleeping somebody came into our room and they put tobacco in our hands!"

"You are lying!" the teacher was very angry and disturbed.

He thought what to do with these very naughty boys, and then said, "OK, come with me for a walk."

The boys did not want to learn anything, the teacher tried to teach them, but they just would not learn. As they were walking, the teacher was thinking, "How will I teach them mathematics? They need to learn something..." Then, he saw a cow passing by and he asked Lalu, "Lalu, can you count how many legs this cow has?" Lalu began to count with his finger, "One, two, three..." and he was about to say it, but then the younger brother said to him, "Brother, do not say anything! He is trying to teach you! Do not be a fool, he wants to teach us mathematics! Do not say anything!" He knows that the teacher wants to teach him something, but his desire is not to learn anything...

So, if somebody wants to learn something, they can learn it easily, but if somebody does not want to learn, does not want to follow their Guru's instruction, that is another thing. Our life is like that too—we do not want to learn, we do not want to follow our Guru. If we actually wanted to follow Gurudev's instruction, Mahaprabhu's instruction, we could easily get the result. But because we do not want to learn anything, we cannot get it... The main problem is that we do not want to learn anything.

* * *

Possessiveness or Chastity?

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

Brahmachari life is actually austere. Sometimes also when brahmacharis serve Gurudev they fight with each other. I saw it too.

There were two brahmacharis who served their Gurudev, but they would always fight with each other.

"Oh, I am doing so much service! I am cooking!" said one of them.

"OK, and I am giving the medicine!" answered the other one.

"And I am doing the puja!"

They fought like this every day. One time, their Gurudev called them and said,

"Hey, what are you always fighting for?"

One of the brahmacharis said, "We are not fighting, it is just that he is not doing anything, and I am doing this, I am doing that."

The other one objected, "No, no, no! It is he who is not doing anything! I am doing more—I am doing this, I am doing that, I am cooking, I am giving you prasadam!"

The first brahmachari said, "No! He is not doing anything! I am massaging your feet after prasadam, I am giving you water, I am making your bed every day!"

And so on. Then, Gurudev said, "All right, I am going to divide your service. You do this, and you do that. As for massaging my feet, I have two legs, so you will massage one leg, and you will massage the other leg."

Then, one day one brahmachari came and started massaging his Gurudev's left leg. The other brahmachari was little sick that day and could not come. Soon, Gurudev asked, "Hey, why are you only massaging and massaging one leg? What about the other leg?" The brahmachari said, "Gurudev, you divided our service and said my leg was the left leg, and that right leg is not mine, it is his leg!" Gurudev told, "Oh, so the right leg is his leg? Then, since it is not my leg, I will break it! I do not want it then..."

This is how we do service. We think, "It is my service," "It is his service," "It is that man's service," "It is my things," "It is your things." When such mentality comes to us, it is foolishness, it is ignorance. We must understand clearly that it is not like this. We must understand that when Gurudev tells a brahmachari, "Do this service," it is mercy. Gurudev always says that service is mercy—if you have service, that is mercy. You must understand it.

* * *

No Pain, No Gain

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

There was once a brahmachari who felt very disturbed and wanted to leave the temple. He thought, "I do not want to live in the temple. Gurudev is always giving me this service, that service, this work, that work... I am very tired!" So, he decided to leave the temple and go back to his home and family, "I will go back to my parents, I will not stay here!"

The Guru of this brahmachari used to keep his drinking water in a clay jar, or pitcher so that it stays fresh during the hot season. So, one day Gurudev asked this brahmachari, his servitor, "Please go to the tubewell (water pump) and bring some water for me." The tubewell was a little far from the temple, and he thought, "Oh, it is a very nice opportunity! I will go outside to bring the water and leave!"

He went to the tubewell thinking, "This is my chance! I will keep the jar at the well and run away." So, he kept the jar beside the water pump and started walking away. Suddenly, the jar began to speak, "Hey! Come, come, come! Where are you going? I know you are getting some austerity, you are very disturbed because your Guru is giving you so much service, but you listen to my story first. I have some pastime to tell you. Do you know what happened to me?" And the jar told the brahmachari its story.

"I used to be a piece of mud in the field, everybody ignored me—everybody passed stool and urine on me, I was so dirty. But one time a man picked me up. He collected me and turned me into dust with his hammer. You know, I got so much austerity at that time! I felt so much pain! Then, he poured water on me, but even then he was still not happy—he wanted to give me more austerity. He took me to his potter's wheel where he made me go round and round and turned me into some clay. Then, with his hands he made a jar out of me. He had given me so much austerity, but still he was not satisfied. Next, he put me in the sun to dry—oh, it was so hot! I had lain in the sun for two-three days! You know, even then he thought it was not sufficient. He decided to give me more punishment. What punishment did he give? He started burning me! He baked me and I became a jar. After that, he took me to the market, and people were asking him how much money he wanted for me, some people even offered him as much as thirty rupees... Now I had some price, I had some value! I used to be abused before, people used to pass stool on me, but do you see what I am now? Now I look good, I have price, I have value. Your Guru bought me for fifty rupees and kept me in his house. He kept me in a very nice place and kept his drinking water(!) inside me! You too carried me carefully. Now nobody disturbs me, nobody punishes me—I have become a good thing, I have become a valuable thing!

"I had got so much austerity, I had to tolerate so much, I had to be very patient, but now you see that I have become a jar, a valuable thing. You too can get this result if you can tolerate all austerities and have patience. Go back to your Gurudev's house, take service from him, serve him, and you too can become a valuable thing.”

* * *

Guru-World: Apply Judgement

Sri Nabadwip Dham

31 May 2013

You can see that in this world, there are many kinds of guru. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and even many scriptures, sastra, also say: Who is a Guru? A Guru is the one who can rescue others from death. In this world, you will get many gurus—jnani-guru, karmi-guru, yogi-guru, and so on. One time, somebody asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, please put your hand on my head," and Gurudev said, "It is jnana-misra bhakti [knowledge mixed with knowledge-seeking]. He is supposed to serve his Guru, but instead he is using me to serve him." Another thing is that I must listen to my Guru, it is not that the Guru must listen to me.

If the Guru loves you, and not your money, he will give you some advice. Like, if you have blood sugar, a real doctor will prescribe you not to eat potato, not to eat rice, and not to eat sweets. You can say, "Doctor, I have money. You can prescribe much medicine, that is not a problem, I can take medicine, but I cannot give up rice, sweets, or potato..." If the doctor loves you, he will reply, "I cannot do that. You must give these things up otherwise do not come to me because if I only take your money, the treatment will not work." A real Guru is also like that. The Guru will not give bad advice. If you have some bad habit, or you have some bad idea and you cannot leave it, the Guru will not say, "OK, you can remove it slowly, gradually." If the Guru loves your money, he will say, "All right, chant the Holy Name, and you can follow your bad habit little by little, it is not a problem." A real Guru will not say it. A real, perfect Guru will say, "You must leave your bad habit. You must not go that way, you must go this way otherwise you will not prosper in your spiritual life." A real Guru will not flatter his disciple.

A bad doctor thinks, "If I tell the patient not to take all this food, then he will not come to me and I will not get money." A bogus, pretending Guru will think, "If I tell them not to do that, not to do this, this, and that, they will leave me—they will take other Guru, and there will be fewer disciples..." But Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "I do not want quantity, I want quality." There can be many disciples, but it is necessary to have some quality, not quantity—for our spiritual life it is necessary to have those who will take real Harinam.

So, in this world there are many things said. They say that everything is equal, everything is the same—if you worship Kali, if you worship Brahma, if you worship Lord Siva, if you worship Krishna, if you worship this, if you worship that, everything is the same. But it is not! Those who are thieves are in jail, and the good men are out—if you apply some judgement you can understand what is real. It is necessary to understand this clearly to make the right choice.

There are sastras (scriptures) that say that jnana-marga is the best and that jnanis (wise people) are the best; there are sastras that say that karmis (workers motivated by the results and gain) are the best—there are different sastras dealing with different levels. But Srimad Bhagavatam (1.1.2) says,

prthivite yaha kichu dharma name chale

bhagavata kahe taha paripurna chhale

"Bhagavatam says that what is happening in this world in the name of religion, is full of cheating."

"There are so many religions in this world, but it is all cheating." It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (18.66),

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

The Lord Himself says, "Surrender everything to Me. You think that some offence will come if you do that, but it is not so—I will take all offence."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Power of Sankirtan

Sri Nabadwip Dham

21 November 2010

They are celebrating rasa-purnima in Nabadwip, it is apa-sampradaya and it is against Vaishnavs. Mahaprabhu's conception is becoming covered... First, they started doing Siva puja here, then gradually Kali puja, then other pujas, and you can see that every year they are spreading more. When I first joined the temple in 1992, it was not so wide-spread at that time. They are all atheists, and they are increasing their territory—now they do their pujas in the area of our crops field, Nadanghat, and even further. Sometimes, some five-six people meet together and decide, "Let's do puja too!"

It is Kalir prabhav (influence of Kali). There is so much influence of Kali here. Kali is always waiting for dyuta, pana, striya, suna—wherever there is gambling going on, wherever there is illegal sex going on, wherever there is whiskey, drinking alcohol going on, wherever there is animal slaughter, Kali stays there. People do all this, and Kali is so strong now.

To create a revolution, the Lord Himself should come again otherwise it will not be finished, it will only increase more and more.

Devotee: Which year did this festival start?

1756-1760. It started from one murti, and now there are more than three hundred...

To fight this kind of misconception it is necessary to have a strong preaching movement, sankirtan movement. We must engage in preaching movement, Mahaprabhu's sankirtan movement, and it is necessary to do it properly and strongly, otherwise these things will not be stopped. Sankirtan movement is necessary, strong preaching is necessary. In Mahaprabhu's time they always did sankirtan, non-stop—there were so many misconceptions, so many things were going on, but Mahaprabhu did not stop the sankirtan movement. Sankirtan movement—much preaching, much sankirtan—is necessary, otherwise this kind of misconception will not be stopped.

Krishna sent us here to preach about Him. What did Gurudev send us here for? What did Gurudev keep us here for? Only to enjoy? To take prasadam, do some little service and chant? No. We must distribute some things—we must give something to others, otherwise these people who are polluted by the bad environment cannot be rescued. When people come from their mother's womb, they are innocent, they are all clean, but when they get bad association they come under the influence of the illusory environment and that association. We must do something for these poor people.

At least two parties are necessary here—one party must always go village to village, and the other party will always preach in Kolkata. We have everything, we have all facilities, what is necessary is manpower and energy. If you can use your energy for preaching purpose, it will be beneficial for us and beneficial for everybody also. I myself do not like sitting in one place, it is not my job, but sometimes the situation is such that I have to stay longer in one place...

sri-krsna-chaitanya-daya karaha vichara

vichara karile chitte pabe chamatkara

"If you consider the mercy of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, you will be wonder-struck to realise it."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.15)

It is necessary to realise this, to preach this.

Nityananda Prabhu sings,

bhaja gauranga, kaha gauranga, laha gaurangera nama re

ye jana gauranga bhaje, sei amara prana re

"Worship Gauranga! Say Gauranga! Take Gauranga's Name! Those who worship Gauranga are My heart and soul!"

We must to preach about Nityananda Prabhu, preach about our Guru. Param Guru Maharaj said that by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, doing kirtan—through this sound vibration of Hare Krishna maha-mantra—all kinds of misconceptions, all kinds of bad things go away. Just by the sound vibration. Sangopangastra parsadam: Mahaprabhu comes with His weapon. What is that weapon? Sango-pango: association. Through association people can be converted.

gaura amara ye-saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se-saba sthana heriba ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

You should do parikrama in the association of devotees…

* * *

Real Service Mood

Sri Nabadwip Dham

21 November 2010

Today is the installation day of the Vrindavan Deities, Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Rasa-bihari, on this day the Deity was installed there. When the old house there was bought, that Deity was found there. The Deity is very nice—small but very nice...

Whether the Deity is small or big, it does not matter. As Gurudev said, Madan Mohan is a very small Deity, but how much He did! Also, Mahaprabhu gave a Govardhan sila to Das Goswami Prabhu—it is a very small sila, but when he served it, he could see the pastimes of Radha-Krishna. It depends on the service mood. If the seva-vrtti is good, then everything is possible; and if the seva-vrtti is not good, then there will be nothing. It is necessary to have seva-vrtti (service mood).

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara

sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"We should have the same kind of love for the lotus feet of the Lord that we now have for the material world." Do you like hearing Hari-katha or do you want to hear other things? You can understand then whether devotion is coming or not. You can tell the difference yourself. Ask yourself, "Do I like Krishna-katha, Hari-katha, like reading spiritual books or scriptures, or do I like some other kinds of books?" Then you can understand if your devotion is increasing or decreasing.

We must use ourselves for the service to the Guru, for the service to the Lord.

* * *

Shameless Life—Shameful Future

Sri Nabadwip Dham

21 November 2010

We have got this body for the service of the Lord. We had been eating for so many births—when we were elephants, we ate so many plants, we finished so many banana trees; when we were pigs, we could finish mountains of stool—we never ate little, every day we ate so much; when we were cows, we ate all day and night. What did we get a mouth for now? Just to eat? No.

Sometimes I see some loaded bullock carts in this area. It is very hot here during March-May, but the bulls carry bricks and so much other heavy load in the heat, and when the bull cannot carry it, the driver starts to beat it. One time, the man who was driving a bullock cart went to a tea shop—he was very tired and was sitting at the tea stall, drinking tea, sweating and wiping his sweat. But his bull was standing in the heat, and I saw that bull was crying. The bull is crying, but the man is having tea and biscuits. Then, he started driving the bull again, but the bull was crying... What kind of life this bull got!

We also had such life. Fortunately, now we have got this human body, but if we do not use this body properly—if we do not use it for the service of our Guru, for the service of the Lord—then we will have to go there again. There is no doubt. When will we go? We do not have so much time left—maybe twenty-thirty-forty years more, is it not? Who knows when it will be time to leave.

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base

nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is an ocean of mercy. Nityananda Prabhu is an ocean of mercy—people would beat Him, but He wanted to rescue the world and He asked them, "Beat Me if you want, but chant the Holy Name!" When a sadhu is attacked, he still says, "I want to distribute the real benefit everywhere, it is my duty. I must rescue everybody and use them for the service of the Lord!" People cannot understand this. How many days do we have left? Maybe thirty, forty, or fifty years only...

amara jivana sada pape rata

nahika punyera lesa

parere udvega diyachhi ye kata

diyachhi jivere klesa

“My life is always engrossed in sin. There is not a trace of piety in it. I have caused others so much anxiety and trouble.”

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari

daya-hina svartha-para

para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi

para-duhkha sukha-kara

“I am never afraid to engage in sinful activities for the sake of my own happiness. I am unkind and selfish. I always tell lies. I am unhappy when others are happy, and happy when others are unhappy.”

We are not afraid to commit sin for our own pleasure. Seeing others' misery we become happy (we are so happy when others suffer), and seeing others' happiness we become upset. We always tell lies...

We have five karmendriya, instruments: feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth (pada, pani, payu, upastha, vak); five jnanendriya, senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin (chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak); and mind, intelligence, and ego (man, buddhi, ahankar). The ears hear so many nonsense talks, and they become tired. The ear says, "I cannot do it anymore!" Is it not so? The eyes see so many things, and one day the eye says, "I cannot do it anymore, I am tired!" and we cannot see anything anymore. The mouth also says, "You have been putting all kinds of food into me (chewed, sucked, licked and drunk), I am tired!"—in the end all teeth are gone. Is it not so? The senses become tired and one day they cannot function anymore. Intelligence too—when we get old, we lose intelligence... Our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, mind, intelligence, ego, they all become tired and finally say, "I cannot do it anymore."

When we are young, we have energy, but we do not use that energy in the proper way. If you do not use your energy in the proper way, then one day you will find you have no energy left.

pratistha lagiya sathya-acharana

lobha-hata sada kami

“For the sake of my own prestige I pretend to behave well. I am ruined by greed and always want something.”

For our own name and fame, we adopt intolerable behaviour.

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari

daya-hina svartha-para

“I am never afraid to engage in sinful activities for the sake of my own happiness.”

* * *

Entering Service Life

Sri Nabadwip Dham

11 December 2010

Krishna's Name, Beauty, Pastimes, associates are non-different from Krishna, non-different from the Lord, and only the Lord Himself or the Lord's associate can distribute this Holy Name.

There are four ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. In the age of Satya-yuga, people's lifetime is 100,000 years, and at that time the process prescribed by the scriptures for them is meditation, dhyan—they would sit in one place meditating for 60-70,000 years. It is unbelievable, but it is the truth. Then came Treta-yuga. People's lifetime reduced to 10,000 years, and people did yajna—asvamedha yajna, rajasuya yajna, etc. Sometimes they would do a very big fire sacrifice and offered a horse (asvamedha yajna). Then came Dvapar-yuga. In Dvapar-yuga, people's lifetime is 1,000 years, and at that time they did puja, archan (Deity worship).

The scriptures, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Srimad Bhagavatam also say that even if you do ten million yajnas you will not get the same result as when you chant the Holy Name once. If somebody says that chanting Harinam once is equal to millions of fire sacrifices, it is not correct—the Holy Name is much higher. The person who says this is an offender, a seva-aparadhi.

kiba mantra dila, gosani, kiba tara bala

japite japite mantra karila pagala

"My lord, what kind of mantra have you given Me? What kind of power does it posses? Chanting this maha-mantra made me mad!"

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.81)

This is Mahaprabhu's words.

So, finally there is Kali-yuga. In Kali-yuga, Krishna Himself appears in the form of His Name.

kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara

nama haite haya sarva-jagat-nistara

"In the Kali-yuga, Krishna appears in the form of the Name. The entire world is delivered through that Name."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 17.22)

So, the Name, the form, the beauty of the Lord are non-different from the Lord, there is no difference between the Lord, His form, His Name, and so on.

This Name comes from Goloka Vrindavan, through Guru-parampara. Guru-parampara starts from Krishna, from Krishna it comes to Narada,

krsna haite chatur-mukha, hana krsna-sevonmukha,

brahma haite naradera mati

narada haite vyasa, madhva kahe vyasa-dasa,

purnaprajna padmanabha gati

"By Krishna's association, Brahma became devoted to Krishna's service. By Brahma's association, Narad Muni became devoted. After Narad came Krishna Dvaipayan Vedavyas. Purnaprajna Madhva Acharya declared he was Vyasa's servant. He was Padmanabha Tirtha's Guru."

In this way, the Guru-parampara goes from Krishna to Brahma, from Brahma to Narad, from Narad to Vyasa, from Vyasa to Madhvacharya, and so on. In this way the Name came to Madhavendra Puri (the name of our sampradaya is Brahma Madhava Sampradaya). Who got it from Madhavendra Puri? Ishwar Puri. Who did the Name come to from Ishwar Puri? To Mahaprabhu. When Mahaprabhu went to Gaya, He took initiation. Who did He take initiation from? From Ishwar Puri. Mahaprabhu is the Lord Himself, but He shows that it is necessary to take initiation, it is necessary to accept a Guru.

asraya laiya bhaje tare krsna nahi tyaje

ara saba mare akarane

"Krishna never leaves those who have taken shelter in Him. All others simply die in vain."

(By Srila Narottam Das Thakur, Prarthana, 17)

You must take shelter of a Guru. Even Mahaprabhu, the Lord Himself showed that He took shelter of His Guru. We must understand this.

Krishna Himself comes in the form of the Name and as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Radha-Krishna.

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam

sangopangastra-parsadam

yajnaih sankirtana-prayair

yajanti hi su-medhasah

"Those of sharp intellect will worship Krishna who appears with a non-black bodily hue, who is armed and surrounded by His associates and servants, and who always chants the Holy Names."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

On the one hand, Krishna Himself comes in the Form of the Name, and on the other hand, wondering, "Why is Radharani crying for Me? Why is Radharani chanting My Name? I want to taste and enjoy that too! I must experience that!" Bhagavan comes in Kali-yuga in a combined form of Radha-Krishna as Gauranga Mahaprabhu to relish the mood of Srimati Radharani and to establish the yuga-dharma (prescribed religion of the age).

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

"Only chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name—there is no other way, no other way, no other way."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.76)

"There is no other way except the chanting of the Holy Name."

So, the Name comes from Ishwar Puri to Mahaprabhu, and in this way, it eventually comes to Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, then Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and then our Param Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj who is Gurudev of our Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had got this Name from his Guru, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and our Gurudev got it from his Guru, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. When Gurudev was here, he ordered me, "If somebody is a sincere seeker, if somebody wants to chant the Holy Name and follows the rules and regulations, you can give this Name to them."

Do you know about the four kinds of obstacles? They are dyuta, pana, striya, suna. There are four things prohibited, these four things are four places where Kali stays. Kali means kalaha (quarrel, fighting).

(1) Dyuta means gambling—dice, cards, etc. Do not do this.

(2) Pan means wine, smoking, taking drugs, pan, tea, etc.

(3) Striya means illegal sex. You have your wife, you can associate with her. Do not mix with other ladies. The ladies too must not mix with other men.

(4) And suna means killing jiva-souls (jiva-himsa). Do not kill any jiva-souls—fish, meat, lamb, goats, cats, etc. they all souls, do not kill them.

You may ask me, "Do sadhus not kill? They also cut spinach, cut some vegetables—do they not kill?" No, they do not. When they cut vegetables, who do they cut them for? Not for themselves, they cut them for the Lord—for the Lord's pleasure, not for their own enjoyment.

Some people cook for themselves, and some people cook for Govinda. You must remember it—one is karma, and on is seva. If you cook for Govinda, you have to cut some vegetables, but is it a sin? No, it is not. You are not doing it for yourself, you are doing it for the Lord, so it is seva and you will not get any bondage by doing it. If you cook some nice things for your own enjoyment, it is karma and you will be bound by it. You must cook only for Radharani, for Govinda. That is why what sadhus do is not a sin. Sadhus kill souls, but for whom? For the Lord. The Lord says, "I have created everything for My pleasure, for My service, not for your pleasure!" Everything here is created for the Lord. So, cooking for the Lord is not a sin, it becomes nirguna. When you cook, so many insects also die—is it a sin? No it is not, because you are cooking for Govinda. If you do something for yourself, then it will be a sin. Remember this.

So, Gurudev told me, "You can give this Name to sincere seekers, to those who sincerely want to chant the Name." You must want it sincerely—you must put tilaks on, you must chant your rounds, etc. You take initiation from Gurudev and you must practice. If you plant a tree and do not water it, what will happen? Will anything grow?

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

mali hana kare sei bija aropana

sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

"As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practising: hearing and chanting."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151-152)

How beautifully it is written. If you take the bhakti-lata-bij, the seeds of devotional creeper, but do not take care of that seed, then what will happen? If you not wear tilaks, do not chant, etc. the plant will die, the seed will be dead...

There is sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. First is sambandha, establish the relation, then abhidheya, practice; and prayojana, the goal. You can read the 20th chapter of Chaitanya-charitamrita (Madhya-lila), where Mahaprabhu teaches this abhidheya-tattva to Sanatan Goswami. Abhidheya means sravanam and kirtanam, practising. If you do not practise in the proper way—if you are always talking, talking, talking, talking about some nonsense, you will get tired and you will not be able to chant the Holy Name—your tongue will be sick, tired. Do you understand it? The tongue will say, "You have been using me for so much talking, I am tired, I cannot chant." Do not talk much without Krishna-katha. I cannot tolerate this—before I tolerated much, but now I cannot tolerate nonsense, I cannot tolerate so much talking, talking...

So, I think that you are a sincere seeker, Gurudev and Krishna sent you here through a good great devotee, and I am here to serve you. That is my duty. Gurudev gave me this duty to serve you.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

First chant the Pancha-tattva's name,

sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta-vrinda

First chant their name and ask them for mercy, "I am a very fallen soul, I do not have any quality or qualification to chant Your Name, Prabhu! Please give me some mercy." They have brought the Holy Name in this abode, so without their mercy you cannot chant the Holy Name. So, first chant their name and ask them for mercy.

sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta-vrinda

Then start chanting. This big bead on top is sumeru, and on both sides there are big beads and small beads. Start chanting from the big beads, and always keep the index outside, do not touch the beads with it. Chant bead by bead,

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Next bead,

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

In this way, chant bead by bead from the big beads to the small beads, then from the small beads to the big beads, do not cross the sumeru bead.

Chant in this way sixteen rounds or more, it is good for you, but if any day you are busy with service, then chant not less than four rounds—four rounds must be chanted otherwise the chanting beads will be fasting. Do not make the beads fast, minimum four rounds must be chanted. This is also service—an every day service. Sixteen rounds or more is good. But if any day you are busy with some service, then you can do four rounds and the next day you can chant more. Chant in this way, and Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart, you will be successful in your spiritual life.

In this book here, there are ten offences in a poem written by Gurudev. You must avoid these offences.

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana

tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

You can chant for millions of of lives but you will not be able to get any result because there is some offence. You must chant without offence. Remember the offences by heart and always avoid them. Chant without offences and Krishna will reveal in your heart, you will be successful in your spiritual life.

[Puspanjali.]

From today, your name will be Atulananda Das.

Atulananda-das Prabhu ki jay!

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay!

Chant at least four rounds now, then take breakfast. OK?

* * *

Sri Guru: Merciful Shelter

Bengali class on the eve of Srila Gurudev's

Appearance Day, 11 December 2011

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

"With Gurudev's mercy, a dumb person can speak, a lame person can climb a mountain." First, I am offering my full obeisance onto the lotus feet of my Gurupadpadma Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj begging him for his causeless mercy, then I am offering obeisance to all Guru-varga, to all godbrothers and sisters and the devotees and all those present here asking you all for your mercy.

Today is a very fortunate day for us because today is the eve (adhivas) of Gurudev's holy appearance day and you have all assembled here on this day on this occasion.

As I said before, "Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe, dhara nitaiyer charan du'khani—When Nitai bestows His mercy you will reach Radha-Krsna in Vraja. Grasp Nitai's feet!" Nityananda Prabhu is Guru-tattva, that is Nityananda Prabhu is non-different from the Guru. He is also known as asraya vigraha (embodiment of shelter). There is asraya vigraha (shelter) and visaya vigraha (the subject of worship)—Gurudev is called asraya vigraha, and the Lord is visaya vigraha. Mahaprabhu is visaya vigraha and Nityananda Prabhu, as well as Gurudev, is asraya vigraha.

The scriptures say that the Guru is sent to this world. What is he sent for? From the time immemorial we have turned against Krishna forgetting the Lord,

bhajibo boliya ese samsara-bhitare

bhuliya rohile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

('Jiva Jago Jiva Jago' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Immersed in ignorance (in material knowledge) we forgot the Lord and as a result we have fallen into the net of trifold miseries.

I will tell you something, you will be happy to hear it.

One time, when asked by some man about dogs, Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Usually, if you serve a dog, it does not change anything—a dog remains a dog. But here, in our Gaudiya Math, there are some dogs and we transform these dogs into humans."

ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha

samanyam etat pasubhir naranam

dharmo hi tesam adhiko viseso

dharmena hinah pasubhih samanah

"Eating, sleeping, sex, and defence—these four principles are common to both human beings and animals. The distinction between human life and animal life is that a man can search after God but an animal cannot. Therefore a man without that urge for searching after God is no better than an animal."

The scriptures say that without dharma, religion, a man is but an animal. So, Srila Sridhar Maharaj said to that man, "When you serve a dog, the dog remain a dog, but here in the Math there are so many dogs in the bodies of men, and what we do is we make them human."

When you get a human birth, you get it for the service of the Lord—when one gets good association and takes shelter of the lotus feet of Gurudev, then they start doing service of the Lord. How is it possible? It is possible through the Guru. We were dogs before, but when we came here from the street, we were transformed into humans. What is the duty of a human? What did we get this human birth for? Not only for eating! We did this before—Guru Maharaj said when we were elephants we finished so many banana trees. But now, by the mercy of Gurudev, from dogs we have been transformed into humans, and now we can serve, we can worship the Lord. We got this human body, but we did not do what a human should be doing. We were spending our life busy with eating, sleeping, mating, defending (dogs, goats, cats, sheep, etc. do all this and we did the same), but our Gurudev has brought us to this path.

We had spent nine-ten months in womb of our mother, and finally we prayed to the Lord,

"Prabhu, please! I cannot stay here any longer! Let me out!"

The Lord said, "But if I let you out, you will forget Me..."

"No, Prabhu, I will not forget You!"

"OK. Then I am giving you eyes so that you can see My vigraha. I am giving you hands so that you can do My service with these hands. I am giving you legs so you can do parikrama of the holy places..."

("Tulasi dekhi' judaya prana madhava-tosani jani': seeing Tulasi Devi soothes my soul, for I know she pleases Madhava." Those who cannot do parikrama of Vrindavan Dham, Nabadwip Dham, can plant Tulasi in their house and always do parikrama around Tulasi four times a day. How much time does it take?)

So, having wandered throughout 8,400,000 lifetimes you have finally got his human body. Who knows when you will get it next time? In his last days, Guru Maharaj said sadly, "Whom will I tell it and who will listen to it?" This is jiva daya, mercy to the jiva-souls. Jiva daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava seva. Remember it. You must be merciful to the jiva-souls who have turned away from Krishna, you must bring them to this path. For example, you can plant some flowers at your house and offer the flowers to the lotus feet of Govinda—in this way you will give some benefit to the plant.

* * *

Practise Carefully

Bengali class on the eve of Srila Gurudev's

Appearance Day, 11 December 2011

You are all very fortunate to have come to the Math.

ka ebar eli ka ebar geli

tabu tattva na sikhili

nijer matha nije khaili

e-dosa dite kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?”

How many times have we come, how many times have we gone? But now we have got this human birth:

bhajibo boliya ese samsara-bhitare

bhuliya rohile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

('Jiva Jago Jiva Jago' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

You have got this bhakti-lata-bij (the seed of the devotional creeper), but you do not take care of it properly, you do not take medicine... That is why we have fallen into the illusory environment—we forget the Lord, we forget the real thing and run here and there... Remember this. It is my prayer to you all—you have all had darshan of Gurudev, but now it is necessary to practise. This is my desire, and this is Gurudev's desire as well.

We want to stay wherever Gurudev is. This is called "loving search for the lost servant"—we are searching for the Lord, we are the Lord's lost children who have lost their father, and our father is also searching for us ("Kabe Ama' Madhava asibe, kabe Ama' karibe sevan? When will Madhava come to Me, when will he come to serve Me?). We want to return back to our father, but we have fallen into the clutches of Maya, we are drowning, stuck in the Maya's net. We are waiting for Maya Devi's mercy because when Maya Devi is merciful that net will be cut and we will come out of it, and once we come out of it we can serve the Lord.

I am telling you: always engage yourself in the service of the Lord (Hari-bhajan). Hari-bhajan means bhaj-datu seva, it means seva of the Lord, seva of the Guru and Vaishnavs. Karma and seva look the same; to do seva, you do not have to stay in the temple—you can maintain your family, but maintain it as a family of Krishna ("Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi' anachar"). Anachar means bad habits, unwanted habits—you must give them up. Always remember it: engage yourself in sravan and kirtan, if you practise in this way, you will see one day you will go back to the abode of the Lord. Otherwise, as Guru Maharaj said, you may have one leg already in Vaikuntha, and one leg still outside, but even that leg inside Vaikuntha can come outside—you can climb a mountain, you can be almost there on top but you can slide back at any time. Seva-aparadh, Nama-aparadh, Vaishnav-aparadh, you must always remember it and think about it.

Do not only come to the Math, stay here for a few days and then go back and forget everything. When you go back to your house, you must practise. Practise at your house properly, bring your children up well. You do not have to give up your job or give up anything else, you can stay at your house and worship the Lord on your own. If you do not do it, then what is the use of this human life?…

* * *

Practise. Serve. Believe.

Bengali class on the eve of Srila Gurudev's

Appearance Day, 11 December 2011

You are very fortunate. Always think about it, always remember it. You must think that this Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math is a ship, and the captain of this ship is Gurudev. If we can stay on this ship, we can reach the place that this ship is taking us to. You may say, "Oh, this ship looks good," or, "This motor boat looks good," but if you get on another ship, it will take you to Kashi, Gaya, etc.—in those ships, you will not get to Vrindavan.

When you come to the railway station, you must get on the train that goes to Vrindavan. How will you know which train it is? You need to ask somebody—if you want to get to the Lord you need to ask a person who really knows the address of the Lord. For example, if you come to Kolkata and ask some local man, "Baba, which way is Park Street?" he will show you some other place, and you will roam the street the whole day and will not get there. If, however, you ask somebody from the Hooghly district, they will tell you, "Go this way." If you want to find the house of the Lord, you must ask those who know the address of the Lord—such person is called a real, bona fide Guru.

In this world there are so many gurus available. There is guru-business also—they lie that they are a guru, make disciples and get so much money. As our Guru Maharaj says, if somebody is in a hole, how can they ever pull anyone else out of that hole? You must understand this.

You have taken shelter of a real, bona fide Guru, and it is necessary to bring others who have gone astray, "back into the mainstream" so to say. What is our duty? Our duty is not to attack others, our duty is to be tolerant—to tell them, explain to them, "Please, you are going in the wrong way, come to the real path. Do not go the wrong way." We must know our line, and understand which line is which. "Come to the shelter of a bona fide Guru, come to the lotus feet of Gurudev"—this is our prayer to everyone. Sometimes, one has to give up their guru also, and the scriptures tell when one can do it. For example, somebody says to you, "Your Guru has died, come to me, I can give you initiation now!" This is bogus. Does the Guru ever die? No, he does not. He is eternal, he always exists. Anyhow, actually first you must be a gentleman, then you can be a Vaishnav ("Dusta man, tumi kisera Vaishnav?").

You have come here to serve the Lord and you have come to a real, bona fide Guru. This is your Math, you have received so much blessing from Gurudev. He kept you here, and you must practise properly. As I have told you before, Gurudev said once, "If you can become a particle of dust of Chaitanya Saraswat Math, then I can take you to the place where I am, I can take you to the abode of the Lord." We must become such dust.

Come. Come for Gaura Purnima, come for the parikrama of Virachandrapur in February. Ekachakra Dham is a holy Dham, non-different from the abode of the Lord. Mahaprabhu went there, Nityananda Prabhu came there to take the darshan of Mahaprabhu, and His mercy is unlimited. When you do parikrama of the Holy Dham, your parikrama of the material world comes to an end, you will not have to come back.

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

You have received this seed, and now you must protect it. It is my prayer to you all: stay on this real path and bring those who have gone astray to this path so that they can serve the Lord. This is always my and Gurudev's prayer. I always want good for everybody. I wish good even for those who think bad about me. This is my mood, and this is what I learned from Srila Gurudev.

One time, Gurudev tested me. When I first came to the Math, I used to distribute prasadam. One time I put a little more on somebody's plate and a devotee hit me for this. I did not reply anything to him. Later, Gurudev heard about this, he called me and asked, "Why did you not say anything to him?" He was testing me. At that time I was new and did not know the Vaishnavs' ways so much, so I replied, "If a dog bites a man, why should the man bite the dog?" Gurudev said, "What is this? Is this Vaishnavism? Have you learnt this from me?! It is wrong to think like this. You think he is a dog, but it is an offence."

So, tomorrow let us make a good festival. Come to the mangal arati, after that I will give class, then there will be a festival programme. You should all come. Also, the day after tomorrow we are going to Bamunpara, Nadan Ghat, the places of Gurudev's childhood pastimes. Gurudev went there last time two years ago, in December.

When Mahaprabhu came to the birthplace of Ishwar Puri, his Guru, He took some dust from that place, the devotees did the same too, and there appeared Chaitanya-doba (a pond) at that place. When Mahaprabhu went to the birthplace of His Gurudev, there became a pond. Remember this when you go to Bamunpara...

"Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari" (Cc, 2.22.64). It is necessary to have a strongest faith. To 'buy' devotion you must pay with faith—the more faith you have, the more devotion you have. There is kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, drdha-sraddha, and sudrdha-sraddha. First become a proper receiver. Even if you do service, you can fall down at any time if you do not make yourself a proper receiver. It is necessary to practise properly following Vaishnav rules and regulations. We have three "enemies"—eyes, ears, and mouth. Do not see bad things with your eyes, do not speak bad things with your mouth, and do not hear bad things with your ears. Always do kirtan.

sri-krsna-kirtane yadi manasa tohara

parama yatane tanhi labha adhikara

"If you aspire to chant the Name of Krishna, then, with great care, become qualified to do so."

krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-krsna-nama-kirtanam

rama-rama-gana-ramya-divya chhanda-nartanam

yatra-tatra-krsna-nama-dana-loka-nistaram

prema-dhama-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram

“Later, the Supreme Lord travelled to the holy places of pilgrimage in South India with the clever intention of delivering the fallen souls. Appearing as a beautiful young renunciate, He distributed the sweet Names of the Lord, singing: ‘Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna he,’ as He strolled down the different pathways, entered temples, and visited homesteads during the sacred pilgrimage. Infused with an inconceivable type of divine inspiration, the Lord freely chanted ‘Rama Rama’ and joyfully danced with the most charming gestures. Irrespective of time or personal qualification, the assembled bystanders were delivered by the Lord, who inspired them to chant Krishna's Holy Names. I offer my obeisances to that beautiful Golden Lord, Gauranga Sundar, the divine form of Krishna prema.”

(Prema-dhama-deva Stotram, 22)

Continue in this way and do your service. With this prayer, I would like to finish here.

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha

patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

"Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees.”

* * *

Srila Prabhupad's Glory (1)

Disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta

Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad

25 December 2010

"Akalanka purna indu. Sri-Gauranga-parisada Thakura Bhakti-vinoda..." If you can realise the meaning this song (Acharya-vandana: "Jayare jayare jaya paramahamsa mahasaya..."), you can get all glorification of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur from this song.

I heard that when he disappeared, everything became very dark—the sky was clouded, etc...

He was alive for sixty-four years, and during this time he made sixty-four temples all over the world, in India and also outside. He brought so many scholars (digpals) like Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj, and so many others.

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur always keeping his son Bimala Prasad with him. I also heard from Gurudev that when he was staying in Svarupganj, Godrumdwip, he used to keep one hundred feet away from any mayavadi or sahajiya, he could not tolerate them. One time, some sahajiya came to Bhakti Vinod Thakur, and Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur paid obeisance to Bhakti Vinod Thakur from one hundred feet away. The sahajiya asked Bhakti Vinod Thakur, "Why is this boy paying dandavat from so far? Why is he not coming near?" Bhakti Vinod Thakur replied, "Because he wants to always keep far from sahajiyas and mayavadis."

Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave all charge, all responsibility to Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur (Bimala Prasad). He gave him everything. Also, Bhakti Vinod Thakur sent Bimala Prasad to take initiation from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj. You know this story and I have told it many times—he waited and waited for many days, coming and going, because Gaura Kishor Das Babaji at first did not give him initiation.

Also, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur did not call Bhakti Vinod Thakur father, he respectfully called him Prabhu. "Baba badha radha." Sundarananda Vidya Vinod Prabhu published this in the Gaudiya. "Badha" means bondage. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's brother treated Bhakti Vinod Thakur as his father, but Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur never thought of Bhakti Vinod Thakur as his father. He always thought he was His Divine Master. That brother eventually left... He actually wanted some share of Chaitanya Math, but Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave all power to Bimala Prasad, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur left so many teachings...

At one time, he took a vow to chant one billion Holy Names, and when he finished this vow, Guru Gauranga Gandharva Giridhari came in front of him and said to him, "Start preaching!" And he came out of his bhajan and started preaching...

'gaudiya' pathao ghare ghare

uthare uthare bhai ara ta samaya nai

'krsna bhaja' bale uchchaihsvare

We have no time. Chant the Holy Name loudly!

sripat khetari-dham thakura sri-narottama

tomare tanhara guna dekhi

Narottam Das Thakur was born in Khetari Dham, Bangladesh, and Mahaprabhu knew that Narottam would come. The Ganges that flows in Bangladesh is the same river as here but its name is different, it is called Padma River there. So, when Mahaprabhu came to Bangladesh, to this Padma River, He took a drop of water and threw it into the river shouting, "Narottam! Narottam! Narottam!" Everybody was surprised, "Where is Narottam? Who is Narottam?" Nobody knew, but Narottam Das Thakur was born after Mahaprabhu and he kept His line...

sripat khetari-dham thakura sri-narottama

tomare tanhara guna dekhi

"We can see the same qualities in your as we find in Srila Narottam Das Thakur who was born in Sri Khetari Dham."

sastrera siddhanta-sara suni lage chamatkara

kutarkika dite nare phanki

In those days, there was so much misconception. Aul, baul, kartabhaja, neda, darvesh, sani, sahajiya, sakhibekhi, smarta, jata gosai, ativadi, churadhari, gauranga-nagari—there were thirteen apa-sampradayas at that time, now there are thirteen thousand! There is an apa-sampradaya in every corner now—whoever wants to be a Guru start their own sampradaya...

smarta-mata jaladhara suddha-bhakti ravi-kara

achchhadila bhaviya antare

sastra-sindhu manthanete susiddhanta jhanjnavate

udaila dig-digantare

He established Mahaprabhu's siddhanta, perfect conclusions, perfect practice for our spiritual life. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur established here what Mahaprabhu wanted.

This is how Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur is glorified in this song...

Our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also wrote,

sujanarvuda-radhita-pada-yugam

yuga-dharma-dhurandhara-patra-varam

varadabhaya-dayaka-pujya-padam

pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

"My master, Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, established the religion of the age, Krishna-sankirtan, and is the chief minister of the universal assembly of leading Vaisnavas. His lotus feet are worshipped by millions of virtuous souls and fulfil the desires of those who dispel souls' fears. Eternally I offer my obeisance to my master's worshippable feet."

We sing it but we do not realise its meaning because if we realised its meaning, we would get taste singing it. We must sing it every day and be conscious of it.

janakadhika-vatsala-snigdha-padam

pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

"He is more kind and affectionate than a father. Eternally I offer my obeisance to my master's feet."

Janak means father. What is a father like? Father gives so much affection, but here Srila Sridhar Maharaj writes that he got more affection from Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur than a father can give. And we can say also that we have got even more than that from our Gurudev—we have got even more from our Gurudev than Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had got from Prabhupad. Janakadhika—you can write a much more superlative adjective about Gurudev.

janakadhika-vatsala-snigdha-padam

pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

"He is more kind and affectionate than a father. Eternally I offer my obeisance to my master's feet."

This is what Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj writes this about Prabhupad, these are his words. We are not able to write like this, but we can see how he writes about him.

purve yatha gaura-hari, mayavada chheda kari

vaisnava karila kasi-basi

When Mahaprabhu went to Kasi, He converted all mayavadis, all group of Prakasananda Saraswati into Vaishnavs. In this same way, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also changed everything.

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinna-vichchhinna-kartri

vibudha-bahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri

sithilita-vidhi-raga-aradhya-radhesa-dhani

vilasati hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

Nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinna-vichchhinna-kartri: he declared a war against maya. Sithilita-vidhi-raga-aradhya-radhesa-dhani: he also relaxed the rules. Before, you had to fast for three days on Ekadasi and do a complete fast, without eating anything, but Prabhupad said no, you can fast from the morning until the noon. Also, on Nityananda trayodasi, you had to fast the whole day, but Prabhupad said no, Nityananda Prabhu was born at noon, Radharani was born at noon, so you can fast until noon. He loosened some rules and regulations. Vilasati hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani.

Very nicely written.

* * *

Irreparable Loss

Disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta

Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad

25 December 2010

gaurangaika-gatir-vraja-asrita-matih sri-gaura-dhama-sthitih

sachchhastraika-vrtih kusanga-viratir-duhstha-vyatha-niskrtih

sri-rupaika-ratih sanatana-natih sri-jiva-tejas-tatih

sri-siddhanta-sarasvati vijayate gaudiya-gosthi-patih

"You reside at Sri Gaura Dham, the abode of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu, who is the only path for those who want to take shelter in Sri Vraja Dham. By the exclusive conclusions of the pure devotional scriptures you put an end to all bad association, removing all misery and pain. You are attached to Srila Rupa Goswami, subservient to Srila Sanatana Goswami, and emanate the lustre of Srila Jiva Goswami. All glory to you, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, the master and protector of all Gaudiya Vaishnavs."

gaude ganga-tate nava-vraja-navadvipe tu mayapure

sri-chaitanya-math-prakasaka-varo jivaika-kalyanadhih

sri-siddhanta-sarasvatiti-vidito gaudiya-gurvanvaye

bhato bhanuriva prabhato-gagane rupanugaih pujitah

"You have manifested Sri Chaitanya Math in the land of Gauda, on the bank of the Ganges, in Mayapur that stands in Nabadwip, non-different from Sri Vraja. Renowned among great Gaudiya Vaisnava teachers as Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, you have appeared like a radiant sun rising in the morning sky and you are worshippable to all followers of Sri Rupa Goswami."

Param Guru Maharaj wrote so many things about Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

Today is a very worshippable day. We always celebrate appearance, disappearance days of Vaishnavs, and today we can worship Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, we can offer obeisance, some flowers at his lotus feet, and we can pray, "Wherever you are staying now, please shower your mercy upon us from there so we can be servants of the servants of your lotus feet, so that we can serve the disciple of your disciple's disciple, and so that we may not leave this line of devotion. Please, do not reject me. Na theliha ranga paya: do not reject me! You can make me your foot dust..." We can pray to Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's lotus feet in this way.

If you consider what he gave to the world, you will realise that no one can compete with him.

When Haridas Thakur disappeared, Mahaprabhu said about him, "Medini sunya haila. There is a gap now in this world..." Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also said that when Prabhupad was gone, on that day there appeared a gap and that gap would never be filled again...

* * *

Srila Prabhupad's Glory (2)

Disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta

Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad

25 December 2010

"Hana 'kirtaniyah sada harih'": Prabhupad told everyone must always chant kirtan.

sthane sthane kata matha sthapiyachha niskapata

prema-seva sikhaite jive

mathera vaisnava-gana kare sada vitarana

hari-guna-kathamrta bhave

"Sincerely, you established so many temples to teach the souls loving service to the Lord. The Vaishnava residents of these temples incessantly spread the nectar of the glories of the Lord."

We have a duty—our duty is to spread. What do Vaishnavs go house to house for?

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara

nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya, 8.39)

Vaishnavs go house to house, Prabhupad sends them house to house (Gaudiya pathao) so that they preach Bhagavat-katha. This is their only duty, nothing else.

smarta-mata jaladhara suddha-bhakti ravi-kara

achchhadila bhaviya antare

sastra-sindhu manthanete susiddhanta jhanjnavate

udaila dig-digantare

"The rain clouds of smarta-brahmans (skilled in law and logic) cover the sunshine of pure devotion, although it still remains there at the core. Churning the ocean of the scriptures and creating a storm of the highest teachings, you cleared and delivered all directions."

dese dese niskinchan prerila vaishnava-gana

vistarite hariguna-gana

"You sent devotees, free from material desires, from place to place to spread the glories of the Lord."

Srila Prabhupad sent A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj to the foreign countries. Swami Maharaj was writing and translating Srimad Bhagavatam in the Radha-Damodar temple, but all of a sudden, in his old age he took a ship and left. It took him two-three months to cross the ocean, and during that time he had a stroke three times. I saw his diary from the ship, he wrote that the sea was not calm, there were waves but then suddenly the sea became peaceful. He went abroad, and you can see now what a big mission (ISKCON) it is now, spread all over the world due to Swami Maharaj. Who sent him there? Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Our Guru Maharaj used the title "Bhagavan"—Bhagavan Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

jayare jayare jaya gaura-sarasvati

bhakativinodanvaya karunamurati

"All glory to the voice of Sri Gauranga, the embodiment of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's mercy, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur!"

prakasile gaura-sevabhuvana mangala

bhakati-siddhanta suddha prajnana ujjvala

"He manifested Sri Gauranga's service for the upliftment of the world. His teaching of devotion is pure, brilliant, and enlightening."

Guru Maharaj also wrote about Bhakti Vinod Thakur,

guru-dam grantha-dam gaura-dhama-dam nama-dam muda

bhakti-dam bhuri-dam vande bhakti-vinodakam sada

"I perpetually offer my obeisance unto Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. Guru-dam: he is the bestower of Sri Guru (Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur). Grantha-dam: he is the author of numerous commentaries, treatises, articles, novels and songbooks. Gaura-dhama-dam: he is the revealer of the abode of Sriman Mahaprabhu. Nama-dam: he is the giver of the Name. Bhakti-dam: he is the granter of pure devotion. Bhuri-dam: he is the bestower of an abundance of divine fortune."

Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave us Guru—if Bhakti Vinod Thakur had not come, we would not have got Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. In the same way, if Prabhupad had not come, we would not have got Guru Maharaj, and if Guru Maharaj had not come, we would not have got our Gurudev. They have come to the parampara for preaching, to give us an opportunity to glorify them.

tomara mahima gai hena sadhya mora nai

tabe pari yadi deha sakti

"I have no capacity to sing your glories, but I can sing them if you give me the power."

adosa-darasi tumi adhama patita ami

nija-gune ksamiva amare

"You never see anyone's faults, and I am extremely fallen. Please forgive me for being what I am."

"Prabhu, I do not have any qualification to glorify you, it is impossible to glorify you, but if you give me some mercy, I can do something a little bit." This is written there.

Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur left on this day, but we must remember his words.

Before, when Chaitanya Math opened in Mayapur, the area was all jungle, forest, but Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "From here (Chaitanya Math) to the ghat, four kilometres, there will be temples both sides of the road."

One time, he was walking with devotees from Chaitanya Math to Nabadwip Dham station, crossing the river. At that time the road was a mud road, there was no proper road and people would pass stool in the street, both sides of the road. That day it had been raining very much, and one of the brahmacharis accompanying Prabhupad walked holding his nose with his hand.

"Why are you closing your nose?" Prabhupad asked him.

"Prabhu, the smell is too bad..."

"But I am not getting any bad smell! I am getting only the smell of incense!" answered Prabhupad.

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will spread to every village and town on this earth."

Mahaprabhu predicted this, and Prabhupad fulfilled it through A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Gurudev. Now, in every village, all day, all night there is Hari-katha and kirtan going on. Gurudev said also, "Sun never sets in Chaitanya Saraswat Math." We did yesterday the festival in Bamunpara, and I got a phone called from America, they were doing the Vyasa Puja festival, one day later in our time. Every day there is a programme running, and Gurudev's katha is preached all the time all over the world—there is always preaching, always some class going on, all day and night—in some place it is night, but in another place it is day. In this way, our preaching movement, as well as glorification of Gurudev, glorification of Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur are continuing all over the world.

sri-gauranga-parisada thakura bhakti-vinoda

dina-hina patitera bandhu

kali-tamah vinasite anilena avanite

toma' akalanka purna indu

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is an associate of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu and a friend of all low and fallen souls—to dispel all darkness of this dark age, he brought to this earth you, a spotless full moon.

To finish the influence, the darkness of Kali (Kali-tamah), Bhakti Vinod Thakur brought Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur just as Advaita Acharya and Haridas Thakur brought Mahaprabhu. What is necessary for that? Nothing, Advaita Acharya did not pay any money—what did he use? Do you know? Only a Tulasi leaf and a drop of Ganges water. The Lord comes to those who have devotion. "Bhakta More bandhiya rakhiya hrdaya kamale: devotees have tied Me to the lotus of their hearts." You must keep the Lord in your heart with the help of devotion, you must keep Gurudev in your heart with the help of devotion, you do not need any money, wealth or anything else for this. If you serve Gurudev and want something from him in return, it is not service—it is like a grocery shop (you are paying some money and in lieu of that you are getting some mustard oil). If you serve your Guru and in lieu of that you are asking for something, you have a desire mood, it is karma. What is the result of karma? When you do karma, you get bondage of the karma. What is the result of that bondage? You go to hell. Always remember this—the result of karma is bondage, and the result of bondage of karma is suffering in hell.

yei bhaje sei bada, abhakta—hina, chhara

krsna-bhajane nahi jati-kuladi-vichara

"Only a nondevotee can be considered as worthless and abominable: anyone who takes to devotional service is great—there is no consideration of class, caste or any other status for those who have taken up service to Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4:67)

Mahaprabhu said that even a sudra can be more qualified than a brahman, and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, our Gurudev proved this, and you can see now that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words are preached now all over the world…

* * *

Srila Prabhupad's Glory (3): Current of Pure Devotion

Disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta

Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad

25 December 2010

What did Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur give to the world? Nobody can give what he gave to the world. He is the holder of suddha-bhakti-mandakini, holy Mandakini River of pure devotion (the very source current of pure devotion) and he brings its flow into the world. He carried on what Bhakti Vinod Thakur had begun.

What is pure devotion? What is devotional behaviour and practice? Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur explained it, and Gurudev also explained everything—what is called devotion, what is called bhakti, what is bhajan, and so on.

One time, somebody asked Gurudev about the meaning of one sloka. Suddenly Gurudev said, "I AM VERY HUNGRY! I WANT A CHAPATI! This is the meaning of this sloka." What is this? It means this. Gurudev says, "Give something to me, I am hungry," but you say, "Gurudev, I am cooking so many things for you. I will give it to you later, please wait." You think, "If I cook and offer these things, I will make Gurudev even happier!" So, you are cooking so many things, but Gurudev is hungry now and you are not giving him anything. This is not service, it is karma—following the whims of your mind. This is what Gurudev meant.

Gurudev also said: suppose you see a snake, but Gurudev says, "No, it is not a snake, it is a rope!" and you must think it is a rope. Gurudev told me an even stronger thing. You know that the sun rises in the east, but if your Gurudev says that the sun will rise from the west, you must believe it. These are very strong words. It is very difficult, but we must believe it.

We must follow Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. When he completed his vow of chanting one billion Holy Names, Gandharva Giridhari appeared before him and ordered him,

"Preach!"

"I am alone, how will I preach?" Prabhupad thought.

"Do not worry! I am sending so many scholars to you."

And then, so many scholars came at a time—not after six or five years, not like somebody came in five years, somebody came in ten years, no, they all joined at a time, within only a few months or years—A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Keshav Maharaj, Jajavar Maharaj, Madhusundan Maharaj, Goswami Maharaj, Vaikhanash Maharaj, and many others. They all joined at the same time, there was very little time distance. Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Giridhari said, "Do not worry, I am sending so many scholars for you to run the preaching movement!" And it happened.

Now you cannot find a village where people do not know about Hare Krishna—somebody may not be initiated, but they know about Hare Krishna.

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will spread to every village and town on this earth."

This is how he started preaching.

* * *

Guru Consciousness, Service Consciousness

Disappearance day of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta

Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad

25 December 2010

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur is aprakrita (supra-mundane, transcendental). "Aprakrta vastu nahe prakrta-gochara (Cc, 2.9.195)"—you cannot see transcendental things with your mundane eyes.

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se paibe para-tattva dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

Our eyes have become blind with the illusory dust, but if Maya Devi gives us her mercy and removes this illusory net, then we will be able to see the transcendental dham, chinmoy dham. We must first clean our eyes. To remove the cover from our eyes, you must go to a good doctor, otherwise you need an operation on your left leg and if you go to a wrong doctor, he will operate your right leg.

The scriptures say that there are three types of gurus (spiritual masters)—kaulik guru, laukik guru, paramarthik guru. Now, in this age of Kali, there are so many karmi-gurus, jnani-gurus, yogi-gurus. If you weigh them on the scales, kaulik (Kali-yuga gurus) and laukik gurus (commonplace gurus) will be of the same weight. Some guru thinks, "Oh, that man (girl) is very nice and very rich! If I initiate him or her, I will get so much money! I must make them my disciple!" That kind of guru is available in this world, but my Gurudev has never asked anyone for even one coin, and I can challenge anyone about this. The difference is that all these gurus now go all over the world, but they go there for their own enjoyment and their own benefit, but my Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj never did that.

There are so many pastimes of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur...

I heard from Gurudev, one time it was Janmastami, and Madhav Maharaj (his brahmachari name was Hayagriva Prabhu) had some service in Delhi, so he had to travel by train on the Janmastami day. Prabhupad called the cook and ordered him, "Tomorrow, he is going to Delhi, arrange for some food for him to take on the train—some rice, dal, subji." The brahmachari who was in charge of the kitchen at that time was surprised. He thought, "Maybe Prabhupad has forgotten that it is Janmastami tomorrow... Maybe I should remind him..." So, he said, "Prabhupad, tomorrow is Janmastami—" Prabhupad immediately answered, "I KNOW THAT!!" Hearing Prabhupad shout, the brahmachari nearly passed urine and quickly ran away.

sri-hari sevaya yaha anukula

visaya baliya tyage haya bhula

"It is wrong to renounce material, mundane things if accepting them is favourable to the service of the Lord."

(Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's translation of a Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu verse, 1.2.256)

"You should not renounce what is in favour of devotion and what is necessary for service."

I heard from Gurudev that once Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj went to Kashmir for preaching. Kashmir is mostly a Muslim area, perhaps before there used to be some brahmans there. So, Guru Maharaj went there with a group of devotees, brahmahcaris, and for two-three days they did not have anything to eat—they could not find any Hindu hotel, and whatever fruit or dry prasad they took had all finished. How will they preach now? Finally, they found a Hindu hotel and went there. Everybody was excited—they took some rice, dal, and alu-bhaja (fried potato). When they were served the meal, it turned out that they made the dal with onion. One of the brahmacharis could get the smell of onions and said, "Oh, it has onions!" But Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Hey! Maha-prasad! Maha-prasad! Chant, 'Maha-prasade Govinde...' and all smell will be gone. It is maha-prasad!"

They preached so much...

sri-hari sevaya yaha anukula

visaya baliya tyage haya bhula

"It is wrong to renounce material, mundane things if accepting them is favourable to the service of the Lord."

For the service to the devotees, for the service to the Lord if any obstacle comes, you must accept and harmonise with it. For example, when you go preaching, you do not have time to cook, so you can buy some vegetarian food and accept it remembering your Guru: "Jay Maha-prasad!" Gurudev will accept it...

Jay Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur ki jay!

Tirobhav tithi maha-mahotsav ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gour premanande Hari bol!

* * *

Engage in Service, Not Maya

Sri Nabadwip Dham

21 November 2010

jivana anitya janaha sara

tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara

namasraya kari' yatane tumi

thakaha apana kaje

"Understand the essence: life is temporary and filled with all sorts of adversity. Carefully taking shelter of the Name, engage in your work."

One day my time will finish, but I have not been able to do anything for the Lord! I am sent here for His service, but I could not do anything for Him... People do not understand it—they get a human body, but where is their benefit? They do not understand it. Guru Maharaj tried so hard to anyhow engage everybody in service. He is so merciful, he gave us so much service.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj came here and started this Math in 1941—it was just a small thatched house at that time, but a great Vaishnav was staying there. Pujyapad Srila Sridhar Maharaj started his bhajan here, and all godbrothers, all Vaishnavs came here to see him...

Anyhow, by hook or by crook, we must engage ourselves in service of the Lord. Do what you can according to your individual qualification—somebody likes sankirtan, somebody loves making or writing books, somebody loves preaching, somebody likes some other service. Whatever service you are good at or whatever service you like, do it.

We must accept the teachings of Mahaprabhu. How beautiful it is written,

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

If you want to do Hari sankirtan (chant the Holy Names of the Lord), you must become humble like a blade of grass, tolerate everything like a tree, and give honour to others. This is our duty. Vaishnavs are adosa-darasi, they never see other's faults, that is why we can pray to them, "Prabhu, I have so many faults, but you are adosa-darasi—do not look at my faults..." In this mood we must always engage ourselves in the service of the Lord.

If you practise properly, the result must increase, there will be no problems. Accept what is favourable to devotion, properly. Wake up in the morning, do mangal arati, come to the class, do kirtan, do service in the morning, then at noon come to the arati, in the afternoon have a class, do evening arati, hear Hari-katha, and go to rest. If you use yourself in this way, there will be no problem.

nidralasya hata sukarya

virata akarya udyogi ami

pratistha lagiya sathya-acharana

lobha-hata sada kami

"I am subdued by laziness and sleep, averse to performing good deeds, and eager to perform sinful deeds. I always do bad things for my own name and fame. I am ruined by greed and constantly covetous."

We are lazy; we talk so much nonsense; we gossip and listen to all sorts of village news and talks, and the time is wasted... Wake up early in the morning, go to the mangal arati, then go to work. If you waste time on gramya-katha, gramya-varta, all the nonsense talks, you will end up in so much danger.

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

('Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

When will Nitaichand give me His mercy? When will my material desires be finished? If you want mercy of Nitaichand, then all your desires for this material world will be gone…

* * *

Raghunath Das Goswami's Miracle

Caracas, Venezuela

21 September 2009

Sometimes I think about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's, Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, I think how merciful They are, They are spreading Krishna consciousness...

You can see Raghunath Das Goswami. Das Goswami tried so many times to come to Mahaprabhu, but he could not join, could not get service without mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. He tried again and again, but could not.

He got Mahaprabhu's mercy when he was five years old, but his father (Govardhan) and uncle (Hiranya) were very rich landlords, they lived together and only one of them, Govardhan, had a son (Hiranya did not have a son), so they thought, "If this boy becomes a sadhu (saint), or a sannyasi, who will then protect this property?" So, the father arranged eleven security guards for his son.

Despite that, Raghunath Das Goswami again and again tried to go to Mahaprabhu, but Mahaprabhu told him, "Go back to your home. Call Me with your heart and soul, but do not show it externally. It is not necessary to show your father you are a sadhu, otherwise your father will become crazy; but heart and soul, internally, you will chant My Name, you will remember Me, and one day you will be able to come." So, Das Goswami Prabhu came back to his house and did not show his devotion externally—he did not wear a dhoti, kanthi-mala, etc. He chanted secretly without showing it to his parents. His parents thought, "Our son has become very good now!"

It is a very big miracle how he came to Mahaprabhu's lotus feet. It is very miraculous and amazing. On that day, with Durga Devi's help everybody was asleep when suddenly the security guard who was watching Raghunath Das Goswami at night heard one of his own men calling him, "Please come over here!" And Raghunath Das Goswami left his house at that time. But something had happened before that—before that, he had got Nityananda Prabhu's mercy.

One day, Nityananda Prabhu came with His party, His associates to Panihati, a town near Kolkata (we also started going there last year). Nityananda Prabhu sat there under a tree, and all the devotees sat around Him. In the meantime, Raghunath heard Nityananda Prabhu had come there, and he asked his father for the permission to go there, "Father, Nityananda Prabhu has come to a place nearby, can I go to see Him?" His father thought his son was a good boy now and it was not necessary to protect him so much, so the security was a little loose at that time (there were not so many security guards), and he said, "OK, you can go, but take your security guards with you." He gave him horses, elephants, and a large sum of money.

When some devotee saw Raghunath coming there, he said to Nityananda Prabhu, "Prabhu, look! Raghunath is coming!" When Raghunath came there, Nityananda Prabhu called him, "Please come, come here!" and when he paid dandavat to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu said, "I will give you some punishment today." Raghunath asked, "Prabhu, what is the punishment?" "You must feed chira-dahi (flat rice and yoghurt mixed with some gur, molasses) all the devotees here today. This is the punishment I want for you." Raghunath was very happy, he said, "It is my fortune that today I have got some chance to serve the Vaishnavs!" Then, when the festival finished, Nityananda Prabhu called him again, "Come, come here," Raghunath came, paid dandavat, and Nityananda Prabhu put His leg on his head. This is how he got His mercy, and the next day he went to Mahaprabhu. happened there. Now also every year we are going from last year we start to go there and then festival finished and that time Nityananda Prabhu told, Please come come, Nityananda called Raghunath, put His legs to Raghunath's head and he got mercy—next day he went to Mahaprabhu.

Without mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, he could not come to Mahaprabhu. He always waited, waited, waited, but he could not go. But after he had got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, he could get service to Svarup Damodar and he also got service from Mahaprabhu—Mahaprabhu gave him gunja-mala and a Govardhan sila. Raghunath served Govardhan sila as Krishna, and gunja-mala as Radharani, and when he served that Govardhan sila and gunja-mala, he could see Radha-Krishna's pastimes…

* * *

Nityananda Prabhu's Land and Mercy

Sri Nabadwip Dham

30 December 2010

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

('Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Do you understand it? Kabe Nitaichand karuna karibe? When will Nityananda Prabhu give His mercy to me? Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj always chanted it,

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

When will Nityananda Prabhu give some mercy to me? When will my material desires (samsara-vasana) be removed from my heart? When will Nitaichand give His mercy?...

Nityananda Prabhu's place is a very nice place, I like it very much and do not want to go from there... All devotees could go with me and stay there, but Gurudev's samadhi and our main temple, everything is here in Nabadwip. Ekachakra is a quiet place for bhajan, for chanting, everything is perfect there. There is a big nat-mandir also, you can dance and chant...

Go corner to corner, invite everybody. That will be good.

By Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, I fulfilled Gurudev's desire. I do not want to delay and wait longer, that is why I must inaugurate the temple this year. That is why I stayed there overnight to give instructions to the workers to finish quickly and arrange everything.

Every day I sing so that you practise. When I sing, everybody must follow. The tune is always the same, so you can understand it easily. Before, when I was in the office, I could not go to the arati every time, but when they were singing in the nat-mandir I would be sitting in the office, writing something, and singing.

Kabe Nitaichand karuna karibe? When will Nitaichand give His mercy? Actually, it is necessary to practise, I have told it many times. Follow the kirtan aloud when I sing—we sing five songs in the morning, five songs in the evening, ten songs only. It is necessary not only to sing, but also to chant [on mala], both. Chanting is necessary.

Mahaprabhu kept mercy of Nityananda Prabhu in the area from Rada-desh to Gaura-desh. Mahaprabhu told everybody, "Pratyabda asibe Gundicha dekhite." He could not say, "Come to see Me," so He said, "Come every year to see Gundicha." But only to Nityananda Prabhu He said, "It is not necessary for You to come here every year, stay there. I left Gaura mandal and Rada-desh, and if You come here to Puri, who will take care of the devotees there? You must stay there and serve the devotee." Mahaprabhu gave this order to Nityananda Prabhu, and Nityananda Prabhu followed it. He preached about Mahaprabhu so much, and He preached about Mahaprabhu only.

I always invite everyone to come at Gaura Purnima time. Make some leaflets and at the end of the class, when we are singing "Hari Haraya Nama..." you can must distribute Gaura Purnima leaflets. You must always people to all programme, "Please come to Gaura Purnima, please come to the festival at Nityananda Prabhu's birthplace." You must invite devotees to both festivals.

At Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day festival, devotees can go to Ekachakra directly, and at Gaura Purnima they can come here. I go house to house, I tell them to come, but some devotees have never been to Nabadwip. They hear that it is very far away, and they think, "How will I go to Nabadwip? I have to pay the train fare, I have no money..." I give them the process also. I tell them:

"Do you know how many kilograms rice you and your family eat every day? You eat two kilograms at noon, and two kilograms at night time. Four kilograms a day. Take an empty pot, and every time before you cook, at noon and in the evening, put a handful (musti) of rice into that pot. Keep two handfuls a day in that pot, and one year later you will see how much rice will be there. You can get up to thirty-six kilograms rice. What will you do with so much rice? You can give half to your Guru's temple here in Nabadwip, and you can see the rest and come to Nabadwip with that money.”

* * *

"I am touching your feet—please come!"

Sri Nabadwip Dham

28 February 2012

(His Divine Grace reads 'Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikramay Ahvan' ('An Appeal on Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama') composed by Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, translated into English by Sripad B.K. Tyagi Maharaj.)

bhramite habe na ara—e-chhara bhuvana

“You do not have to wander any longer in this vile world.”

anitya e deha-rathe chadiya mrtyura pathe

himsra-sarddula-purna samsara-kanana

bhramite habe na ara e-chhara bhuvana [1]

“You do not have to wander any longer in this vile world, riding along the path of death in the chariot of this temporary body within the forest of material existence, which is filled with ferocious tigers.”

Those who do this Nabadwip Dham parikrama do no have to wander any longer around these three worlds, they do not have to come again and again in this world—if you do this Nabadwip Dham parikrama every year, it is not necessary for you to come back again in this material world.

anchale anchala bandhi' yauvanera sadha sadhi'

'grha-vrata' name sudhu ha'le parichita

janma-janmantara dhari' grha parikrama kari'

bujhile ki maya-bhumi—kantaka-avrta? [2]

“Pursuing the desires of youth and getting married [lit. 'tying the borders of your cloth together'], you have known the 'vow of household life' in name only. Continuing in this way birth after birth, circling about in household life, have you realised the land of Maya is covered with thorns?”

ara-o karitechha mana bhramanera ayojana—

desa hate videsete grama-gramantare,

ekhano meteni asa ara-o bandhitechhe vasa—

du'dinera pantha-sala—prthivira pare? [3]

“Not only that, your mind has made arrangements to continue your wandering from country to country, from village to village, yet your desires have never been fulfilled. And still you have built a residence—a mere temporary inn which lasts but a few days—upon this earth?”

It is written very nicely. Who much more are you going to roam this world? How many more times will you come back to this world? When you were a cow, you lived in a cowshed; when you were a frog, you lived in water; when you were an elephant, you lived in an elephant's house. Is it not so? You were a plant, you were a tree before... How many more days will you roam around?

mahamaya-moha-ghore ara kata-kala ore!

anitya o grhatire—karabi bhramana,

dara-putra-paribara asara-anitya chhara

bile—khale—anstakude mile ki ratan? [4]

“Hey! How much longer will you wander in the darkness of Mahamaya's illusion, in that temporary home? Your wife, sons, and family are worthless, temporary, and vile. Will you find a jewel within a swamp, trench, or rubbish heap?”

Gurudev is saying, "I am folding my hands, I am touching your feet—please come at Gaura Purnima!"

paye dhari kahi sara bhramite habe na ara

nahi hetha bharasara—eka-bindu jala,

nahi asa santvanara, achhe sudhu hahakara

samasta samsara bhara—jalanta-anala [5]

“Clasping your feet, I tell you this essential truth: you do not have to wander here any longer. There is not one drop of the water of hope here. There is no hope of any solace and only cries of distress. The burdens of material existence are like a blazing fire.”

bhramite habe na ara samsara-kanane

ai sona gaura-jana dake sarva-jane [6]

“You do not have to wander any longer in the forest of material existence. Sri Gauranga's devotees call everyone: ‘Hey listen!’”

aya aya tvara kari bala-vrddha nara-nari

divya-chintamani-dhama—gaura-janma-bhumi

pranayi-bhakta sane jivanera subha-ksane

gauranga janma-dine aya parikrami [7]

“'Men and women, young and old, come immediately! Come to the divine abode made of wish-fulfilling jewels, the land of Sri Gauranga's advent! Come circumambulate it in the company of loving devotees during the most auspicious time of your life: the day of Sri Gauranga's advent.’”

dhama-parikrama ka're sanga habe chira-tare

ananta janama dha're brahmanda-bhramana,

dure yabe bhava-roga khandibe sakala bhoga

bhuloke-goloka-labha—dake gaura-jana [8]

“'Circumambulate the divine abode and your wandering throughout this universe for innumerable births will end, the disease of material existence will go away, all of your suffering will be dispelled, and you will experience Goloka on this earth.’"

bhramite habe na ara e-chhara bhuvana [9]

“You do not have to wander any longer in this vile world.”

You do not have to wander in these three worlds if you do Nabadwip Dham parikrama with devotees.

gaura amara ye-saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se-saba sthana heriba ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

Do parikrama in devotees' association, with love and affection—put on tilaks, wear Tulasi-mala, and go.

* * *

Commit Yourself to Practice

Sri Nabadwip Dham

28 February 2012

Come for the Nabadwip Dham parikrama, but must remember that when the Holy Name reveals Himself, He starts dancing on your tongue. You take Harinam from the Guru, and this Holy Name will reveal Himself in the heart and then start dancing on your tongue. But if I tell you to dance and the place is unlevelled, will you be able to dance there? No. For the Holy Name to dance on your tongue you must make your tongue level. How will you make it level? By chanting the Holy Name and by giving up eating unclean things. We do not eat outside food,

jihvara lalase yei iti-uti dhaya

sisnodara-parayana se krsna nahi paya

"One who is subservient to the tongue and who thus goes here and there, devoted to the genitals and the belly, cannot attain Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.227)

This is written in the scriptures. If you do not take the medicine, will the disease be cured? It never will. Remember it. If you just dance and dance and do not chant the Holy Name (do not take the medicine), the result will not come. You think, "Gurudev has been to my house," and you are satisfied with that, but will the disease be cured just by coming to the doctor's house (or by the doctor coming to your house)? You must take the medicine—you must chant, always chant the Holy Name; wherever you are, chant the Holy Name of Krishna.

yadi ama'-prati sneha thake sabakara

tabe krsna-vyatirikta na gaibe ara

"If you have any love and affection for Me, then only say 'Krishna'—do not say anything except 'Krishna.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 28.27)

We use our mouth for so much talking and eating—

dinera madhye abala-tabala

kata pachala parite para

tara madhye kintu tumi ekbara

govinda bale, ara katha baliba na

"All day you talk all kinds of nonsense, how much idle talk you engage in! But find time amidst all that to chant the Name of Govinda, do not talk about other things!"

Always chant the Name of Krishna.

When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip He gave this order to everyone, and our Guru-varga, our Param Guru Maharaj Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, my Gurupadpadma Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj preached this all over the world. What Mahaprabhu said,

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will spread to every village and town on this earth."

Who are our Guru-varga?

saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair

uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih

kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya

vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

Mahaprabhu went house to house calling out, "Jiva jago! Jiva jago! Wake up!" We sing about this every day, every morning and evening, it is necessary to understand the meaning of these songs. Do you become a good doctor just by passing exams? To be a good doctor it is necessary to practise. For example, you cook nicely at your home every day, but if you do not cook for one year, you will forget how to cook, is it not so? Unless you practise you will not be able to cook so well. In the same way, we must practise chanting the Holy Name, then at the time of death Krishna Nam will come to your mouth, but if you do not practise every day, will the Holy Name come? No, He will not. It is necessary to practise. Keep practising, and everything will come.

* * *

Poison and Medicine

Sri Nabadwip Dham

28 February 2012

There are four places where Kali stays: gambling, intoxication, free mixing, and killing animals. These four things are prohibited.

How long do you think you will stay in this world? Do you think you will not survive if you do not eat meat, fish, etc.? Here, you get prasad, vegetables, etc.—does anyone die? So, gambling, intoxication, mixing with women, and killing others are prohibited, you must avoid these four things.

Is it good to play cards, play dice? No, this is where Kali stays. The same is with wine, drugs, paan (betel), etc. Do you know what drunkards do? They drink till they get drunk and then, lying somewhere in the drain, they think, "I am so great! I am lying on my luxury bed!" Just like that, becoming drunk with the wine of material world, we think, "I live in my five-storey house! My wife is a queen and I am the king! This is my house, all is mine!" Drunk with the wine of material life, we jump into this material world... If you tell about this to somebody, they say, "I cannot chant the Holy Name, I will not chant. I cannot eat be a vegetarian, and I will not be a vegetarian. I cannot live without meat and fish. I will not chant—I rather eat meat and fish." They have sak, they have all kinds of vegetables—cauliflower, cabbage, potato, marrow, etc.—everything is there, but they want to eat fish, to eat meat, to drink wine... They do not understand it...

"Aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana: my mind is naughty and blind." You know what happens if you are led by a blind man. Who can clear our mind? A bona fide Guru, a sadhu—they can set the naughty mind right. Mind always disturbs—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (desire, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy). If you cannot control your tongue, you will not be able to control anything else. Remember it. Take sattvik food, not tamasik or rajasik, and always chant the Holy Name with your tongue, always take prasad—make your tongue levelled, then the Holy Name will come to this tongue. Gurudev placed the Holy Name into your heart, and the Holy Name will come to your tongue—for that, your tongue should be plain (levelled), otherwise how will the Holy Name dance there? The Holy Name is conscious (chetan vastu).

So, think how much longer you will live. Why do the sadhus come and tell you all this? They tell it to you for your own benefit,

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara

nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

If you take medicine, your disease will be cured—if I chant the Holy Name, my disease will be cured, and if you chant, your disease will be cured. If I chant the Holy Name, what is it to you? You will not get any benefit from it. It is not enough to hear about Krishna consciousness, it is necessary to practise it. That is called Vaishnav seva.

Gurudev comes to your house and you show everybody you drink the water that washed his feet, but the next day you eat impure food. One day you take good medicine and the next day you take poison. What will happen to you then?

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Goloka Is Service Land

Sri Nabadwip Dham

28 February 2012

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi

grhete goloka bhaya

“On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there.”

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Bhakti Vinod Thakur wrote this. Where is Goloka Vrindavan? In your house. How is it possible to be in your house? It is possible if you worship the Lord every day, if you serve the Lord every day and take prasadam of the Lord at home. You must offer what you eat to your Guru, that is service. Cook something and give it to your Guru. Do you not cook anything at home? Of course you do.

Srimad Bhagavad-gita is our first, primary book. There, Sri Krishna explained everything to Arjuna. He told him, "Do this, do this, do that," and finally He said,

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

"Durga puja, Kali puja, Laksmi puja, Ganesh puja, Siva puja, this puja, that puja—whatever I have told you before, give it all up and take refuge in Me; whatever sin you may have, I will take all that." Did Krishna not say it? He said, "You have a debt to your forefathers, your mother, demigods, saints and sages, and I am taking responsibility for all your debts!" You must believe it. Krishna says, "I will take all your burden," and when Krishna takes all my burden, then I can think only of Krishna, what is the problem?

Your family is Krishna's family, so why will you worry about your family? When you cook, you cook for Govinda, for Krishna, so Krishna will manage your family—whatever you need for your family (money, food, potato, spices, water, oil, salt, etc.), Govinda will arrange everything. If, on the other hand, you cook for yourself, why will Krishna manage your family? You are not cooking for Him. If your wife cooks for you, then why will Krishna provide anything for you? If you go to work and think, "I work for my own food and clothes," then why will Govinda arrange money for you? This is actually false ego. "Asatyere satya kari mani. I take untruth as truth." When the Lord provides, there is not any need, everything is there. Always remember this, OK?

When you stay at home, chant the Holy Name; when come here, you must also chant otherwise when this life is gone, the Lord will take your mouth away—you can be sent to a cow's body, a dog's body, cat's body, then you will not be able to chant the Holy Name.

bhajibo boliya ese samsara-bhitare

bhuliya rohile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

('Jiva Jago Jiva Jago' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You made a promise to the Lord! We sing this kirtan every day. When we were in the mother's womb for nine-ten months (you, I—we all were there, were we not?), we promised to the Lord, "I will serve You," but we forget it. Why? Because we fall into the bondage of the illusory environment, fall into the net of illusory world and we forgot everything. How can you get out of a net while being in the net? You cannot, but if somebody comes and cuts the net, then you can get out. If Maya Devi gives her mercy and opens her net, we will at once be able to see chinmoy dham, transcendental abode.

In the meantime, what is your duty? It is said in the scriptures,

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya

tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati

sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

"In the beginning there is faith, then good association, then practising life. After that, the offences gradually go away, faith becomes stronger, taste comes, then attachment, then there arises affection and love. This is how love to God comes to those who practise Krishna consciousness."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.4.15-16)

How does devotion come? First is sraddha, faith. We invite thousands and thousands of people to come for Gaura Purnima, and you can see that only those who are fortunate, who have sukriti, come here. Do you know what sukriti means? Sukriti means the fortune that comes from the service to the Lord. You have some flowers growing in your garden, and somebody else also has some flowers growing in their garden, but are all flowers used for the service of the Lord? (Devotees: No.) Do all people use milk for Govinda? (Devotees: No.) You can take some milk and make sweet rice for Govinda; you can give a handful of rice for the service of Govinda, then the cow or the rice plant does some service to Govinda. Is it not so? Even the soil wants to serve the Lord.

ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya

yare yaiche nachaya, se taichhe kare nrtya

"Lord Krishna alone is the supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.142)

Everybody wants to serve the Lord, including all demigods (Kali, Laksmi, Durga, Ganesh, and others). Not everybody can, but a devotee can use everybody in service of the Lord, even the soil. Is the soil not a demigod? The soil is Kurmadev, and even the soil wants to serve Govinda. Sun God, Moon God, Water God—there are so many demigods, can you serve them all? You cannot, but if you give a handful of rice for Govinda's service, then it becomes possible. Can you not use everything for Govinda's service? You can use soil, water, flowers, trees, etc.

In this way, a soul can get sukriti, and on the strength of this sukriti the soul gets sraddha, faith. "Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari." (Cc, 2.22.64): the kind of devotion you get depends on the kind of faith you have: the more faith you have, the more devotion you get. Suppose you got to the market. There is potato for 7 Rs a kilo, and there is potato for 20 Rs a kilo—if you get the 7 Rs potato, when you peel it, you will see you get more peel than potato...

To get devotion you do not have to pay any money. Money cannot buy devotion—you must pay for devotion with faith, this is the price. If it is emotion it means you do something when there is emotion, and when there is no emotion you do not do anything. This is not devotion. Somebody can cry out of emotion, but then their emotion finishes and the tears finish, but when somebody cries out of devotion, they do not want to cry but they cry...

This is your medicine, if you do not listen to this medicine, then,

ka ebar eli ka ebar geli

tabu tattva na sikhili

nijer matha nije khaili

e-dosa dite kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?"

Who will you blame, tell me? You yourself are your friend, and you yourself are your enemy.

We have got his human body by a great fortune—what have we got it for? To chant the Name of Govinda, to do service of Govinda. I never told you that you must leave your family—I am telling you that you can turn your family life into Vrindavan. How? Wake up early in the morning, do the arati, practise and do service. Have you seen how we do the arati here? You can take a photo of the Deities with you and do arati at your house. You may not have all paraphernalia—you may not have the chamar, the peacock fan, etc. but do you not have flowers? You can give some flowers to the lotus feet of Govinda, you can give some Ganges water to the lotus feet of Govinda, can you not? Then?

You can plant Tulasi. Do you need money to plant Tulasi and give some Tulasi leaves to the lotus feet of Govinda? (Devotees: No.) Do you need money to do Tulasi parikrama? (Devotees: No.) You think that to do parikrama you must have a fancy beautiful temple, and if you have just a plant in the soil you cannot do parikrama, but it is not so. Whether you do parikrama around a temple or just a Tulasi in soil, the result is the same! Remember it. The result is the same! "Bhaktera hrdaye sada govinda-visrama" The Lord stays where there is service to the Lord. The Lord does not need a four-five storey house, does He? (Devotees: No.)

Do you understand what I am saying? When you return home, follow this, this is your medicine. If you do not take the medicine, the disease will not be cured. If you only say, "Gurudev, Gurudev, mercy, mercy," and only sit and chant, it will not do. You must always do service, you must engage in bhajan, and bhajan means seva (service). This is what you must do all the time.

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New Year Message (1): Preaching News

29 December 2016

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

All the worldwide assembled devotees ki jay!

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math devotees ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gour premanande Hari Hari bol.

Actually, this year we are doing very well, preaching. Devotees are also preaching all over the world, and I am very happy with their activities. Here in India we have made many festivals in all temples, and this year we have actually almost finished two temples, in Takareshwar and Nrisingha Palli.

In January-February we want to inaugurate the temple in Tarakeshwar, and in Nrisingha Palli there are still some works that are not finished. We are trying to finish quickly before Gaura Purnima, and it is my wish that I must inaugurate the Nrisingha Palli temple soon. Next to our new temple there is only Nrisinghadev's temple, there are not any other temples in the area, so all Gaudiya Maths are very happy to see it.

Tarakeshwar is the place where Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur got a message from Lord Siva. He wanted to go to Vrindavan, but Lord Siva gave him a message, "Why are you going to Vrindavan? What for? What is your duty, what is your service there? Do not go there. You must discover the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that is your duty, that is your service." Gurudev is also a son of Lord Siva, he always prays to Lord Siva. He told me, "If you want to make something in Govinda Kunda, you must make a Sada Siva Gangadhar temple there," and I made it. For these reasons I think Tarakeshwar is a good place. Tarakeshwar is the name of Sivji Maharaj's temple there, the land that we got is near it. Our temple is almost finished, and soon, in January or maybe first week in February I must inaugurate it.

I am always running, I cannot and I do not want to stop. I do not want to stop my service until my death, this is my service. Now that the two temples are finished, I will get some relief and can go preaching. This year, I am starting preaching from 4 January. I have been recently preaching in the North Bengal and near Ekachakra. In one place, in an open field, in the shade under a tree, I gave initiation to thirty people. It was a very nice place. So, I am starting preaching from 4 January and next I am thinking to go to Ganga Sagar and make the inauguration anniversary festival there on 12 January…

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New Year Message (2): Inner Quality

29 December 2016

I am telling this to all devotees. We sing in the kirtan, “Chhaya vega dami', chhaya dosa sodhi', chhaya guna deha' dase" ("Subjugate the six urges, rectify the six defects, and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant."). We must read and know what the chhaya vega is, what the chhaya dosa is, what the chhaya guna is. We must read it and avoid the chhaya veg' and chhaya dos', we must accept the chhaya gun'. This is necessary for our spiritual life.

The main and most important thing is the association. Association can damage your spiritual life. Do you understand it? Avoid bad association, it can damage your faith, it can damage your spiritual life. Even if you think that some association is not good and you stay alone, that is good, no problem. But if you spend your time in bad association, that is damaging your spiritual life. This is the main message for our spiritual life.

I see there are so many very good devotees who served Gurudev in Gurudev's time, but now they are becoming crazy—they are leaving their service, they are getting ousted from their service. Why? Because of bad association. That is happening now. They leave their service, they forget their service, and they are attracted by the illusory environment, and the only cause for this is bad association. Through bad association you can lose your faith. We must avoid it. So, the next year is coming and we will be aware of this, we will not do bad association and we will not criticise others.

Krishna gives us a tongue. What is it for? We have nine doors (nava-dvara)—we have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one door for urine, one door for stool, and another door is the mouth. If you talk para-ninda, para-charcha, if you criticise others, what is then the difference between your stool or urine door and your mouth? Krishna is very merciful, we have got a tongue and we must use it to glorify devotees, we must glorify and spread the Lord's message, we must speak Hari-katha. Do not criticise others, do not be envious. There are people in this world who say, "I am his disciple," "My Guru is very big, and he is a very small Guru," "I am a very big Guru"—do not do this.

What have we come to this world for? For good association. The association we got from Gurudev, his message—be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others—this is what is necessary for the devotees. Gurudev did not tell us to criticise others. You are doing a bad propaganda among others, and that is very bad for your spiritual life—if you show anger (krodha), if you use bad language towards others, you are killing yourself. You are doing bad for yourself. We must tolerate. Even Mahaprabhu chastised Jagadananda Prabhu for this—when Mahaprabhu was glorifying Sanatan Goswami, Jagadananda could not tolerate it, and Mahaprabhu chastised Jagadananda for this, you know that. We must tolerate so many things. We must practise and preach, but practising is actually more necessary. We say we are disciples of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, or Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, we say that we follow the line of Srila Prabhupad, we follow the line of Srila Rupa Goswami, but how much are we following that line? How much are we following that line? We should understand it.

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

We say we are devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, but we are not following what Gauranga Mahaprabhu is teachings. We are not following

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, who gives honour to others without desiring it for himself, has the right to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean."

We must leave our ego.

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

"Practise tolerance, forgiveness like that of a tree. Stop ill-treating others, nurture others."

Vriksa means a tree. "Vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana"—practise this! When you cut branches of a tree, that same tree gives you shadow—when there is so much sun and you cannot tolerate it, you come under the tree. You must practise this kind of tolerance of a tree. No pratihimsa (envy). Somebody gives some bad message to you and you do the same in return; somebody uses bad language towards you and in return you do the same thing towards that person. It is not good. Do not do this. You must tolerate it, you must not ill-treat others or be envious of others—pratihimsa tyaji, you must avoid pratihimsa. Do you understand?

Practise in this way next year, next life, etc. and it will be good. You are devotees of Gurudev and you must follow Gurudev's instruction, do not forget it. Do not think you are a great devotee, you are a very great personality, do not think like this about yourself. You should think you are a servant of the servant of the servant of the Gurudev's servant—his devotee. You think you have become a big preacher, but how did you become a big preacher? You must understand that without Gurudev, without Gurudev's mercy, we cannot do anything, we have nothing. Even if you get one coin, you get it for Gurudev and you must use that one coin for the service of the Lord, for the service of Gurudev, do not use even one coin for yourself. This is how you should maintain your spiritual life—be it a family life, a brahmachari life, or a sannyas life. You must use everything in this way. My message is like this.

Everybody says "Gurudev's love and affection," but you must learn what is called love and affection. "If Gurudev chastises me, I think it is his love and affection for me," this is how you must think. Srila Sridhar Maharaj beat Gurudev (Gurudev told it to me himself), but when Srila Sridhar Maharaj beat Gurudev, it was Srila Sridhar Maharaj's love and affection for Gurudev. Gurudev also beat me, Gurudev also kicked me, and I think it is his love and affection for me. When Mahaprabhu chastised Jagadananda Pandit, Sanatan Goswami started crying(!), "This is Mahaprabhu's love and affection. I am not as fortunate as Jagadananda! Mahaprabhu is giving me bitter, but He is giving sweet to Jagadananda Pandit! Jagadananda is getting love and affection from Mahaprabhu, but I am not getting that!" So, if Gurudev chastises you, if Guru Maharaj chastises you, that is Gurudev's love and affection coming to you, that is mercy coming to you. You must understand that.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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