GUIDANCE

Issue# 15

Lectures of His Divine Grace

Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj

published at SCSMathInternational.com during April-June 2018

CONTENT

Jump!

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 7

Do you go to the temple every day?

Devotee: I am staying at the temple.

Good, very nice. Do you read some books, etc.?

Devotee: Yes.

Are you still doing some job?

Devotee: Yes, I am working now.

What for is it necessary for you to work?

Devotee: I have some liability...

Oh, you have a loan?

Devotee: Yes, a loan and I also have my mother... But I try to serve the temple as much as possible.

If you finish that job, it is good because if you have attachment to material work, then material disease will always attack you. That is what is told. Today you have one problem, tomorrow another problem, the day after tomorrow another problem, and so on.

Devotee: If you order, Gurudev, I will take sannyas. I will request my mother...

Mother will never give permission to take sannyas [His Divine Grace chuckles]. You must be strong. Mother will never give permission. Sachi Mata never gave permission to Sri Gaura Hari—she knew that her Son was the Lord, but even then it was impossible. When Krishna left Nandagram, Yasoda Ma and Nanda Maharaj cried so much, but He did not care—He went to Dvaraka, Mathura. My mother cried so much that she became blind, but I never went to see her... So, this depends on you.

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya

krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

"Sarva-karma krta haya" means debts to your forefathers, debts to your motherland, to the demigods, to the rishis—all debts will be removed. If you have some debt at the market, who will come to you to ask for money if you take sannyas? Nobody will come because they will know you have become a sannyasi, how will you give them money? Nobody will come to you and say, "Oh, I have lent you ten rupees, return it!" Even if somebody asks, you can always say, "I have become a sannyasi."

That is the main thing. It is necessary to be strong. Sarva-dharman parityajya—what is the meaning of it? If you understand the meaning of these words, you will understand everything. You think you have to serve your mother, but that is religion (dharma)—leave it. Even if Krishna tells you to kill your mother, it is not a problem. Krishna told Arjuna, "Kill everybody, I will be very happy." Later, Arjuna said, "No, no, I do not want the kingdom, I cannot do that!" Krishna said, "This is maya! I have already killed them!" You can see how much Krishna chastised Arjuna, what I said to you is just a little bit of chastisement, but Krishna chastised much more than that—it is 720 slokas! He chastised Arjuna so much—not for Arjuna, it is only for us...

Gurudev wrote a poem when he was seventeen years old. He said:

If Brahma comes to you to give you something (so much jyoti comes), if Indra comes to you to give you his heaven, what you will do if at the same time your Guru calls you? Where will you go? When your Guru calls you, you say, "I have no time. Please forgive my offence, Brahma, please forgive my offence, Indra, but please go away—my Gurudev is calling me!"

My words are very heavy... I say forget it—forget everything. You know that when Indra became a pig, he could not leave his children, and Brahma killed them all one by one and finally he killed his wife too—like in your case too, your wife died, but you still hesitate! What is the problem? Do service, and whatever food, prasadam, comes, take that. Even if you have nobody, you have Krishna.

* * *

Another Plane of Existence

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 8

...What is the problem? Do service, and whatever food, prasadam, comes, take that. Those who have nobody, have Krishna (yara keu nei, tara Krsna achhe).

Look at Nitai Charan—he has become crazy, he has nothing, but he has got a one-year visa. Do you see?

Sometimes he goes from Kolkata station on foot. Another time I was going to Ganga Sagar by car and I saw him walking from the ghat to the Ganga Sagar temple. It is a thirty-kilometres' distance! Another time, I was going by car and I saw him walking again—he was very tired and could not walk so much, with his luggage behind his back. I stopped the car and asked him, "Prabhu, where are you going?!" He said, "Oh, I am going to our temple pandal." (It is also about a thirty-kilometres' distance.) I told him, "Come, get into the car!" The day before yesterday the same thing happened again—I am in the car and I see Nitai Charan walking. I told him to get into the car. I am surprised how he even knows which way the temple is! He knows everything.

Why do you think he got a one-year visa? Because Nityananda wants his service. He may be crazy, but Nityananda Prabhu wants his service, and Nityananda Prabhu is crazy Himself. He is avadhut, it means He can do anything. He can take whisky, He can take vodka, He can take a widow lady, a drunkard lady or a Muslim lady, it is not a problem for Him. He can do anything. Sometimes He wears yellow clothes, sometimes He wears blue clothes, and sometimes He changes and wears white clothes. Nityananda Prabhu changes every day. Sometimes He puts a ring into His ear, sometimes He wears some bangles, ornaments...

Bhaktivinod Thakur says, "When will I become crazy? I want that!"

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,

'gaura-nityananda' bali' niskapate

nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,

vatulera praya chhadiya vichara

"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?"

What is this? Do you see? Bhaktivinod Thakur himself says this, and he is a magistrate, a head master of a school—he is a very educated man, and what does he say?

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,

'gaura-nityananda' bali' niskapate

nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,

vatulera praya chhadiya vichara

kabe ha'be bala se dina amara

"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? Please tell me, when will that day be mine?"

"When will that day come when I will become crazy?" Why crazy? Crazy with chanting the Name of Nitai Gaura! "When I will become crazy chanting 'Nitai! Gaura!’?"

* * *

Foul Pill to Swallow

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 9

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje

svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or asram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krsna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26)

If you give 25%, you will get 25%. If you give 75%, you will get 75%. If you give 100%, you will get 100%. That is the main things, Prabhu...

If you are attached with material things and have material desires, it is called anyabhilasita. It must be given up (anybhilasita-sunyam). Srila 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)

That is bhaktir uttama, highest devotion.

anya abhilasa chhadi, jnana karma parihari

kaya-mane kariba bhajana

sadhu-sange krsna-seva, na pujiba devi-deva

ei bhakti parama karana

"The topmost process of devotional service is to worship the Lord with body and mind, giving up desires for fruitive activities and mental speculation. One should serve Lord Krsna in the association of devotees without worshipping any demigods."

(Sri Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, 13, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

You must leave other material desires. That is the main thing.

You must remember also what Chaitanya-charitamrita says:

sannyasira dharma nahe—sannyasa karina

nija janma-sthane rahe kutumba lana

"After accepting sannyas, it is not the duty of a sannyasi to remain at his birthplace, encircled by relatives."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 3.177)

A sannyasi will not stay with his relatives. Otherwise it is called not a sannyasi, but a vantasi. Vantasi means you vomit something and then again take that vomit. Can you do that? These are not my words—this is what Srimad Bhagavatam says(*).

If I say something like this, then everybody will be unhappy or angry, "Oh, do you mean me?" "Maybe he means me?" People say like this. I cannot speak the truth, what can I do?...

*Note: The verse from Srimad Bhagavatam (7.15.36) that His Divine Grace is referring to:

yah pravrajya grhat purvam tri-vargavapanat punah

yadi seveta tan bhiksuh sa vai vantasy apatrapah

"One who accepts the sannyas order gives up the three principles of materialistic activities in which one indulges in the field of household life (religion, economic development and sense gratification). One who first accepts sannyas but then returns to such materialistic activities is to be called a vantasi, or one who eats his own vomit. He is indeed a shameless person."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.15.36)

* * *

Dangerous Deviation

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 10

Somebody said in a class that I was doing the Nrisinghadev Temple there and that it was not Gurudev's order; but Gurudev's signature is there—when that Nrisinghadev Temple came to us, the king had already given me the temple, and Gurudev was very happy, he told me to write it in the resolution book [register], and I did it. It happened in Gurudev's time many years ago—maybe 2004-2005 or 2005-2006. Back then Gurudev asked me to make a resolution stating that the king had given us that land, that Lord Nrisinghadev had come to us for service.

Then, the pujari, the local brahmans (who are notorious, as you know), made a wall in front of our temple and some non-brahman put a court case against us. We won the court case, but after that they came to fight, and Gurudev said to me, "If the temple comes to you easily, then it is OK, but if there are so many court cases—what if they kill you and we lose you—then it is not necessary to fight and go there." After that I left it. Some years later, again, by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Lord Nrisinghadev, by the mercy of Prahlad Maharaj, that land came to us—I bought it and finally made the temple there.

When we wanted to make the Ekachakra Temple in 2004, Gurudev first said, "You can go there, but why is it necessary to make a temple there? If Nityananda Prabhu's mercy comes, then you can see, but they are all sahajiya there, it is not necessary to make a temple." Later, in 2007, when Gurudev was in America, he called me and said, " Now Nityananda Prabhu's mercy has come, you can buy some land and make a temple in Ekachakra."

On the other hand, one time ** Maharaj wanted to take some devotees to Panihati. When he told Gurudev about it, Gurudev said it was not necessary to go to Panihati, but after that somebody made a video and showed it to Gurudev, "Oh, ** Maharaj went to Panihati." He went against Gurudev... What is this?

We do not go to Panihati for enjoyment. When we go to Panihati, we distribute books there—every year we sell many thousands rupees' worth of books because people there do not know the conception. If Raghunath Das Goswami had not gone to Panihati, had not got the lotus feet of Nityananda Prabhu, had not served the Vaishnavs, how would he have come to this line? This is the place where he got the mercy from Nityananda Prabhu, that is why we go there—we do not go there to mix with the sahajiyas. We distribute our books, we give some lecture, read from Chaitanya-charitamrita, and distribute some prasadam there—that is good.

So, what that person who is criticising is saying is very bad. Do you know what kind of criticism this is? Like Ramachandra Puri. One time, Ramachandra Puri went to see Mahaprabhu in gambhira, and there was nothing in His room—Mahaprabhu did not take sweets—but there were many ants in the room. Seeing the ants, Ramachandra Puri said to Mahaprabhu, "O new sannyasi (navina-sannyasi)! You are eating too many sweets, aren't You? I see You have so many ants in Your room." Mahaprabhu thought, "I heard this man spoke bad against Me behind My back, but now he is criticising Me in front of Me. I never take misti (sweets), I never even keep misti in My room, and ants can come anyhow, whether there is misti or other things, but he is criticising Me in front of Me, so this is what his character is like..." and replied to Ramachandra Puri, "Yes, Prabhu, what can I do? I cannot control My tongue, that is why I take sweets." What will Mahaprabhu say?

That is the conception. We must understand it and we must know it clearly within ourselves.

* * *

Lift the Anchor

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 11

Does anybody have any question? I have told so many things...

Question: Can we use our bad qualities to serve Gurudev?

Everybody does not have equal capacity, all my fingers are not the same size, then you have some capacity for service and you also have some bad quality. You know you have some bad quality, then try to remove it.

I tell this example in every class. Suppose you have a bad habit, like you smoke or take tobacco. If you drink milk and take tobacco, then you will not get benefit from drinking milk. So, bad qualities have to be removed otherwise it will not work. You must follow the main conception. We must reject whatever bad things in we have inside otherwise if you are weak (if you have some bad qualities), disease will always attack you. Just as when a person is not healthy, when a person is weak, disease will always attack them.

Maya always surrounds you and she is always searching for a hole—just like when an ant is going, it is always searching for a hole, or when a rat is running, it is always searching for a hole how to enter. So, maya is also always searching for a hole and if you have some weakness, she will enter. You must try to do good things, try to use your good qualities. Bad qualities must always be rejected.

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

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

(Saranagati, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You must accept what is favourable to devotion and you must reject what is unfavourable to devotion. I always say this in my classes. As Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, it is not possible to take milk and take tobacco, the two do not go together.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also told another story.

This year you went to Ganga Sagar with me and you saw that there was a tide and a boat got stuck in the soil in the middle of the Ganges. You saw also that the boatman had put there some anchor with five claws (bhukti, mukti, siddhi, kami, etc.—enjoyment, liberation, extraordinary skills, lust, etc.) so that the boat does not go away. Previously, there used to be not so many roads and streets, and people always travelled by boats; and the boats were rowed manually, without a motor. So, one day, there was a couple going for their marriage ceremony—they had taken food and all the necessary things with them and took a boat to the place of the wedding. They started off and were supposed to reach the place at night (in Hindu religion, weddings are always at night). The four men, two on each side, kept rowing and everybody felt asleep in the evening. They kept rowing the whole night and when the sun rose in the morning, they were surprised, "What has happened? We should have already reached the place!" The boatmen were all tired, and one of them noticed, "Oh, we are in the same place! We have not moved anywhere during the night!" That is because they had forgotten to pull the anchor.

So, you do service the whole day and night, you chant, chant, chant, chant, chant the whole day and night, but if you have some material desires inside (bhukti, mukti, siddhi, kami, etc.), then you will not be able to reach your destination. That is the meaning of that story.

Devotee: How does this desire come?

It comes automatically—if you want it, it will come. As I have said, desires attack those who are weak, also desires always attack those who are lazy (an idle mind is devil's workshop).

Devotee: So, you must remove the anchor first?...

Yes, first you must remove the anchor, then the boat can go. When you have so many material desires inside you—when you want enjoyment (bhukti), liberation (mukti), perfections (siddhi), etc.—then how will you go? You will chant and work the whole day, but there will be no result. That is the reason why you cannot reach the proper place. You must remove your material desires—Gurudev always said, "Do not do what your mind is telling you to do."

Mind is very naughty, and you can fall down at any time. Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "You say you are a Vaishnav, but “Dusta mana kisera vaishnav—if your mind is naughty, what kind of Vaishnav are you then?" That is the first line of his poem. It is very nice, I always like to tell about Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, his words are very strong.

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

These are the main things...

This is my conception. You can understand it easily. If you do not understand these things, then you can ask questions. Sometimes some contradiction comes, but I tell it clearly.

* * *

Poorer Than the Poor, yet Richer Than the Rich

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 12

I am remembering a boy who was my servitor a few years ago. He used to be very fat—when he was ten-eleven years old, his weight was something like 90 kg. I told him it was not good, that he had to run, walk. He did that and when he came here to serve me the other year, I could not recognise him. He had stayed here with me for six months. I chastised him a lot and he learnt many things during that time. Not so long ago, his parents died, both his mother and father left within one month. He is now around twenty or twenty-one years old. His parents have died and he and his sister are left with nothing—no parents, no house, nothing. You would think, "How will they live?" but Krishna arranges everything.

There is another devotee in that country, and she gave them so much love and affection. She is a god mother. She has herself her seven children (six boys and one girl). She also has a school for forty-fifty small children of 2-1.5 years old. She has not husband, but she runs the temple there, she runs the school and she runs her own house—all three places are rented and she pays all bills. And now she has two more children to take care of. She said to me, "Maharaj, do not worry about them, I am always with them." When the boy's and girl's parents died, she did all arrangements, she paid all expenses and took the children to her house. I am very happy with her. Even their uncle, their own family, do not do anything for them. Their uncle is a business person—he has a temple where he pays salary to the pujari, he maintains that place, but when his own brother and sister-in-law died he did not even go there...

Then you can see—those who have nothing have Krishna. That is saranagata (a surrendered soul). There are six types of saranagati:

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Humility, self-submission, taking the Lord as your guardian, keeping the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me', engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion."

You can see Sripad Tyagi Maharaj also—he travels all over the world the whole year, but he does not have even one coin. When he left India, he had only his flight ticket and he took twenty-five rupees for the train fare from Nabadwip to Kolkata. After that he went to the airport and went to America, Russia, London, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico, everywhere. How is it possible? There are so many expenses for one man—the airplane fare, food, etc...

This is just like Sanatan Goswami. Sanatan Goswami did not think about himself, but his servitor did. His servitor thought, "Oh, my master is walking in front of me, but he has not taken anything with him... He is going to Vrindavan, but what will he eat on the way? He does not know the area, he does not know where he can get food, he only has one set of clothes and did not take even one coin with him. What will he eat?"

As I have just said, if you have some attachment, if some desire comes to your mind, then more and more attachment will come from that, more problem will come—on the way some dacoits attacked Sanatan Goswami. Sanatan Goswami realised what had happened and asked his servitor, "How many coins do you have?" The servitor told a lie, he said he had seven coins because he understood if he told the truth then Sanatan Goswami would have taken all coins from him. He said he had seven coins and Sanatan Goswami took all those coins and gave it to the dacoits. At first, the dacoits got very happy, but then their mind changed and they wanted to give them back to Sanatan Goswami, but he did not take it—he said, "I do not want this money. It is a big problem for me. I am going to meet with Mahaprabhu and I am thinking about spiritual things. If I take this money, then maybe some other dacoits like you will come to me and will kill me. Just as you said you were going to kill us this night for these coins, but by the Lord's mercy—by the mercy of Krishna, Mahaprabhu—we are still alive. I do not want this money, you keep it. This is a very bad area, then if you can, please help us." The dacoits agreed.

Some time later, Sanatan Goswami again asked his servitor, "Do you have any more coins with you?" The servitor confessed, "Yes, Prabhu, I have one more coin." Then Sanatan Goswami said, "Go back with your coin. Go back to your home, I am going alone."

The servitor's fortune was like that—he could go only up until some point but he could not reach Mahaprabhu properly, only Sanatan Goswami could reach Him.

Then, it is correct…

* * *

Wise Up

22 February 2018, Kolkata, part 12

Gurudev said to me, "When I became the Acharya of this Mission, there were only three temples at that time (in Nabadwip, Hapaniya, and the temple in Dum Dum Park, which was not completed then), but you are making so many buildings and so many things now—will you be able to protect these things? Be very careful." And now you can see that what Gurudev said was true.

Before, they did not disturb Gurudev because it was a small temple, there were not so many guest houses, not so much property, nothing, but now they see that Chaitanya Saraswat Math is so big, like a city—there are big-big buildings, so much opulence. Becoming envious and not being able to control their material desires, they come now to grab these things, and we are disturbed by that. Gurudev had warned about the same thing.

They fight for houses, they fight for rooms, but they have come to Krishna consciousness, what do they need the rooms for? What do they need all this for? All the goswamis—Lokanath Goswami, Bugarbha Goswami, Narottam Das Thakur, Acharya Srinivas, Gopal Bhatta Goswami, Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami—had no room, they had nothing. They lived in Vrindavan, Govardhan and got so much austerity. They did not have any toilet, bathroom, not even water—they would go to the Yamuna, bathe there and come back. You must understand this.

In Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time, all the godbrothers of Srila Sridhar Maharaj wanted to stay with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, but they could not because they were not able to use a toilet. Srila Sridhar Maharaj had a toilet, but there was no shed—it was just a tree and he would sit under it and pass stool. There was no cover. It cost one rupee to get some plastic, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj had only fifty paise (half a rupee)—he did not even get the other fifty paise to buy some plastic cover.

It is easy to understand what I am saying, and it is necessary to understand it. Will you ride one boat or two boats? If you have one leg in one boat, and the other leg in another boat, what will be your position? You will fall down into the Ganges. Gurudev said, "What will you do—will you kiss a mongoose and kiss a snake at the same time?" Gurudev's words are very heavy. Can you kiss both a mongoose and a snake at the same time? It is not possible—you must choose one.*

Devotee: Does mongoose mean maya?

Everything is not maya. Of course, there is always maya, but this is called "pratistha lagiya sathya-acharana" (taking up deceitful, wicked behaviour for the sake of your own name and fame), as Bhaktivinod Thakur says in his kirtan.

Note:

A mongoose and a snake are famous for being each other's deadliest enemies. The fights between mongooses and snakes are quick and ferocious, with the mongoose emerging victorious, as a rule.

* * *

Be Strong and Steady

Speaking to the devotees in Colombia

16 July 2017, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

I am very happy to see you all and to see that everybody is laughing and are in a happy mood. It means you are practising Krishna consciousness properly and you are enjoying with Krishna consciousness.

By the mercy of the Lord you have got this human body—you have got it for the service to Gurudev. If you cannot use this life properly for practising Krishna consciousness, then this life has no meaning. By hook or by crook, anyhow, we must use our life for service to the Guru and Krishna. Chant the Holy Name with humility, tolerance and giving honour to others. You live very far away, but through Krishna consciousness I think you all live with me, you are all near me.

Does anybody have any questions?

Question: Although we always read and study the scriptures, we still have many anarthas. How can we harmonise these anarthas with the practice?

Actually, we want material things, material attachment, but material attachment does not want to leave us. That is why it is necessary to harmonise with it. If we use material things for the service to Krishna consciousness, then it will be good. That is called karma-misra bhakti—you can transform material things into Krishna consciousness.

Question: What service can I do for you?

Read my lectures, serve to the temple (there are so many services there), and if it is possible for you to come to India, that is very good for you.

Question: How to continue service when you feel you are not doing it well and you feel guilty?

Krishna overlooks the faults of those who are fully surrendered to Him. He always removes their offences. When you do something bad or something bad happens to you, if you surrender fully to the Guru, Krishna will always remove these bad things from your heart.

Question: I live at the Paipa ashram. How can I make you happy with my service here?

Do your service there properly, maintain the ashram properly, take care of the Deities' puja, maintain regular sravan and kirtan—in this way you can make me happy.

* * *

Do Not Despair

Speaking to the devotees in Colombia

16 July 2017, part 2

Question: Normally, we all want to live in harmony, but sometimes it happens that everything is not harmonised. What should we do then and why does it happen?

Actually, we all come from different families, different background, that is why some disagreement is inevitable. For example, when you keep some utensils together, they are bound to make some sound. We all live together, but what is the problem? Fighting can happen sometimes because everybody thinks about their own ego; but everybody must think, "We must be humble, we must tolerate, and give honour to others." This is how we can harmonise everything.

Question: Sometimes people leave their service, and they do not practise these things—humility, tolerance, etc.

If somebody leaves their service, that is their fault, it is their offence. There must be some offence, gradually it increases, there is some Vaishnav aparadha, and then service leaves them.

Devotee: Gurudev, I would like to apologise and offer my dandavat pranam to you. I left the temple one month ago, and I feel very bad now when I heard what you have just said. I understand that it is all my fault. I just wanted to say that, although I am not staying at the temple now, I am still your servant. I am a fallen soul, but I feel you are my spiritual master, you are the Lord for me... I always try to do some service, to keep some connection with the devotees...

No problem. Do not discourage yourself. Sometimes Krishna tests us to see how much we can tolerate. This is another reason why sometimes people leave the temple. Somebody may live outside, but their heart is always in connection with their Guru, with Krishna, and the temple. So, do not worry about it, practise properly, chant the Holy Name properly without offences, and one day you will conquer everything, do not worry. Suppose, a dog falls into a hole—if it starts barking and thinking about its Guru, its Guru will rescue it from that hole.

Question: How can we not lose the essence of service mood?

Practise properly. Continue practising with sincerity, be simple-hearted, and you will never lose your service. Also, you must have proper chastity to your Guru.

* * *

If You Want to Go Home

Speaking to the devotees in Colombia

16 July 2017, part 3

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

In this age of Kali, to get your real home, to reach the place we all come from, the only religion is chanting the Holy Name. Krishna's Name, beauty, pastimes are non-different from Krishna, that is why Krishna Himself appears as the Holy Name—in this age of Kali, He comes as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and as the Holy Name.

If you want to chant this Name, this Name must come from a Guru-parampara. This Holy Name came from Krishna to Brahma, from Brahma to Narad, from Narad to Vyasadev, from Vyasadev to Madhvacharya, and so on—in this way, the Name comes to Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, Bhaktivinod Thakur, Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, our Param Gurudev Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, and then our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. During Gurudev's manifest pastimes in this world, when he was present in this world, he told me, "If somebody is a sincere seeker, you can initiate them and they can chant the Holy Name."

By the mercy of the Lord, we have got this human body. This body is compared to a boat and the Guru is the captain of this boat. If you get a human body and not take shelter of a bona fide Guru, then you are like a member of a suicide squad. We sing in the song 'Nitai-pada-kamala': "Se sambandha nahi yara vrtha janma gela tara sei pasu bada durachara—those who have no connection with the Guru, are comparable to a beast."

First take the beads and say,

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrinda

This is the name of Pancha Tattva. First chant Their Names and ask Them for mercy, "I am a fallen soul. I have no quality or qualification, please give me Your mercy so that I can chant this Holy Name." Because They have brought this Holy Name to this abode, we cannot chant this Name without their mercy. After that, start chanting from the big beads (you can see there are small beads on one side and big beads on the other side—start chanting from the big beads). Listen to me,

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

In this way, chant from the big beads to the small beads, then take turn and chant from the small beads to the big beads. Chant in this way sixteen rounds or more, but if you are busy with service any day, then not less than four rounds must be chanted. Also, you have the ten offences book, you must read it all and avoid these ten offences. Chant avoiding these offences and Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart—you will be successful in your spiritual life and you will get the result quickly.

Dandavat.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

All the Colombian devotees ki jay!

Harinam sankritan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

* * *

Great Fortune

Jagannath Misra's anandotsav, evening class

(addressing devotees from Russia)

3 March 2018, Sri Nrisingha Palli, part 1

I am very happy that you have come here from so far, from Russia and that you have done the parikrama with Srila Avadhut Maharaj, Sripad Bhakti Sevan Hrisikesh Maharaj, Prithu Prabhu. It must make Gurudev happy.

You stayed in Nabadwip Chaitanya Saraswat Math, I do not have any problem with that. I was actually happy to get news from you and to know what is going on inside there because otherwise I do not get much news about it. So, it is good for me all sides. Also, you have cleaned the temple, the Sevak Bhavan, there today and I am very happy with that, and Gurudev and Guru Maharaj are also very happy with that. You have done a big service because they had not cleaned the temple for many months. I am very happy with you.

Srila Avadhut Maharaj and other sannyasis always come to preach in your country and from time to time they come to India, and actually they come to you as spiritual doctors to rescue you from the illusory environment, from a very low position. They all want your good, that is why they go door to door telling everybody, "Come to Nabadwip! Come to the temple!" They take you here, show many places, and you visit all these places chanting the Holy Name. This is not a simple matter.

Before we were all in the illusory environment—we are conditioned and very fallen soul, we are covered by the illusory environment, but the sadhus, sannyasis come to us and take us from the lowest position to the highest position in Sri Vaikuntha. You may think that you are coming from a very low position, that you are coming from Russia, it is another caste, another family, culture, background, etc. but I think you are actually coming from a very high position and you are not ordinary souls because you have got a good connection with a bona fide Guru, with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and you are chanting the Holy Name. The scriptures say that if you worship Deities birth and birth, for many births, then in next life you can chant the Holy Name. In this world there are millions of millions of people, there are so many big wealthy people, so many people who have a very big position in the country, but none of them are as fortunate as you are because they cannot chant the Holy Name, they cannot do the parikrama of the holy dham in sadhu-sanga, good association, but you have done it by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

* * *

Modern Milieu

Jagannath Misra's anandotsav, evening class

(addressing devotees from Russia)

3 March 2018, Sri Nrisingha Palli, part 2

You see that all over the world almost everybody runs behind money, runs behind property, gold, wealth. This is happening all over the world, even here in India—it is a religious place because every time Krishna came to this world, He appeared in this country, but how many fortunate people are there who come to pure Krishna consciousness? The whole world is covered by the illusory environment, Kali Maharaj.

We live in this world—we eat, sleep, enjoy every day—but how many jiva souls do we kill, we destroy through that? Even when we breathe we kill jiva souls; when we drink water we also kill so many souls—so many bacteria die because of us. What is the way out of this situation? How can we get relief from this kinds of sinful life? Our Gurudev, Guru Maharaj, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told the solution. The Lord says, "You must surrender your to Me." If you change your consciousness to Krishna consciousness, then you will be relieved of all sins, you will have no problem. Take prasadam. Whatever you do, it must go to Lord Krishna, Gurudev, then you will get relief from all sinful activities.

Suppose you go to a doctor and the doctor tells you that you have diabetes and you cannot eat any sweets, potato, etc. You will say, "I cannot give up sweets! Give me some medication instead." If the doctor is good, he will tell you, "Go away. I do not want a patient like you." If the doctor is not good, he will say, "OK, you can eat anything you like, take this medicine, and come to me again next month," because he is thinking, "If he comes again, I will get some money." You must go to a good doctor—to the doctor who loves you.

If I tell here in India to people that they can eat meat, fish, etc. they can do whatever they want, I will have millions of millions of disciples, but they will get no result. A pure Guru or a pure devotee will not give that kind of advice. There are so many gurus in this world—karmi-gurus (guru who teach how to prosper materially), jnani-gurus (gurus who give you knowledge), laukik-gurus (ancestral guru), kaulik-gurus (pseudo-gurus), etc.—they give such advice to people, but if somebody is an original guru, they will tell you to follow rules and regulations. Just as a good doctor will tell you what is necessary to do and what is not necessary to do, a real Guru will tell you what is favourable to devotion and what is not favourable to devotion.

You must follow Krishna consciousness properly, then you will be able to reach your real goal, reach your destination.

* * *

"I Pray You Can Come"

Jagannath Misra's anandotsav, evening class

(addressing devotees from Russia)

3 March 2018, Sri Nrisingha Palli, part 3

I am very glad that you come every year, and that every year you make the effort thinking, "How can I come for the parikrama every year?" Perhaps, you put aside one-two or ten rubles every day to save for your plane fare to come for the parikrama. I am very happy that you come. May Krishna bless you.

You are all in my heart, there is no doubt about it because we all come from the same family. We are not a separate family—we are all from the same family. You may be living in Russia, I may be living in India, that is not a question, but thinking, "You are Russian, I am Indian," or "He is Indian, we are Russian" is not Krishna consciousness. We all come from the same place and we all must go to the same place—that is Krishna consciousness.

I pray to everybody, and I pray to the Lord, I pray to Gurudev, that you can come for this Nabadwip Dham parikrama, for the Vrindavan, Govardhan parikramas every year.

Tomorrow you are going to do the parikrama in Ekachakra, after that you are going to Puri. I am very happy about that. Everything is good, but only I pray to Lord Jagannath, "When will the revolution come and Western devotee will be able to enter the temple of Jagannath?" They can only see Jagannath during the Ratha-yatra time, it is very rare and also fortunate—on this day Jagannath distributes His mercy all over the world. If you can, try to come at the Ratha-yatra time. I want your association at that time also. Come to India at that time.

* * *

Nimai and Brahman's Offering

Russia, 11 August 2003

Mahaprabhu did so many Pastimes, you would not believe how many—if I was to tell His whole Pastimes, all time would be finished. His life is described in the scriptures, in Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata and others.

For example, when Mahaprabhu was just four years, an old sannyasi came to His house. Jagannath Misra said to him, "Please, cook and take prasadam here today." The sannyasi agreed and cooked an offering. After he finished cooking, he went to the Deities to offer the bhog. Suddenly, Nimai, a four-year-old boy at that time, came and started eating the bhog. The sannyasi chastised the boy, "Why are You doing this?!" and Nimai ran away.

Jagannath Misra and Sachi Mata were very surprised to hear the sannyasi shout. They asked him, "What has happened?" The sannyasi explained, "I was offering the bhog, but this boy, Nimai, has taken it!" Nimai's parents apologised, "What can we do now? We are great sinners... A sannyasi comes, but we cannot give anything to him..." then they asked him again, "Please do not mind Him. Please cook again..."

The sannyasi agreed and cooked again. After he finished cooking, he again went to offer the bhog to the Deities, but Nimai came again. The sannyasi chastised Nimai, and again He ran away. Nimai's father, Jagannath Misra, followed Him to punish Him, but although Nimai was such a small boy, His father could not catch Him. What to do?

Nimai ran to a neighbour's house, and in the meantime Sachi Mata and Jagannath Misra began to cry, thinking that the sannyasi would not take anything without offer the bhog and that he could not take prasadam at their house. Then, Vishvarup, Nimai's elder brother, came home. He asked, "What has happened in this house? Why is everybody crying?" The sannyasi explained to him, "I have tried to offer the bhog two times already, but each time your brother came and ate it!" Vishvarup understood what had happened and asked the sannyasi, "Please, I am requesting you—cook and offer the bhog one more time. I will guard Nimai and make sure He does not come." The sannyasi agreed.

So, he finished cooking and again went to the Deities to offer the bhog. Just before offering it, he went to see what Nimai was doing. Seeing that Nimai was sleeping with His mother, he thought, "OK, now He will not come. He is asleep." He went to offer the bhog to the Deities. Closing his eyes, he began reciting the mantram and apologise, "I have done much wrong today—I have not been able to make an offering to the Deities..." As the sannyasi was praying in this way, he suddenly opened his eyes and saw Nimai had come there again!

He chastised the boy so much, "You have come again!? Get out of here!" Nimai said, "No. Why do you call Me then? You offer the bhog and call Me, and when I come you tell Me to go! What kind of a sannyasi are you? What kind of a pious man, are you? What kind of a Vaishnav are you? First you call Me and then you tell Me to get out! What is this?!" Then Nimai told him, "Nobody is here now, listen to Me. You do not know who I am." Having said this, Nimai showed the sannyasi His forms, "I have shown you the form I have in Satya-yuga, in Dvapar-yuga, in Treta-yuga. It is Kali-yuga now, and I am showing you who I am. Never tell anybody about it." The sannyasi understood who the boy was and prayed, "Please forgive me. I did not know who You were."

* * *

Inner Feelings

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 1

"Bhakta-sangete mana anandita anuksana": when we gather with devotees, we get some pleasure, we get some happiness.

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 Nityananda Prabhu give some mercy to me? When will my material desires be removed from my heart?

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

"When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?"

("Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

When will family attachment, material attachment be removed from me? When will family attachment, material attachment go?

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)

"The kind of love you have for your wife, children, brothers, sisters must come to the lotus feet of the Lord."

How can you feel that your devotion is increasing? If you are getting more and more service attachment, service mood, if you are getting happiness through your service and you do not feel so much interest for your outside material job, material activities (you do not feel good doing that), then you will understand that your devotional activities are increasing and your practice is going on in the proper way; then you can understand easily that your spiritual achievement is going in the proper way.

Without a pure devotee you cannot acquire pure devotion. Everybody comes here, but everybody's desire is not the same—somebody comes for enjoyment, somebody comes for service, and somebody wants to take something from here...

When devotees come, we get so much enthusiasm, but when devotees are leaving, so much sadness is coming. "Bhakta-viraha vina duhkha nahi dekhi para (there is no other sadness except separation from a devotee)". Bhakta-viraha: when devotees are leaving, it is very sad for us—that is our unhappiness...

* * *

Pure and Profound

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 2

We must preach about the Lord, glorify His Name, form and qualities for as long as we are alive in this world. Until our death—until we leave this body—we will try to serve our Guru, try to serve great Vaishnavs.

We must be always careful with seva-aparadh (offences during service and to service), Nama-aparadh (offences to the Name), Vaishnav-aparadh (offence to the devotees of the Lord), Dham-aparadh (offences to the holy places). We must always remember and think about these offences.

There is no place that can be compared to this Nabadwip Dham. If somebody thinks, "Oh, I have been to Darjeeling, I have been to this place, to that place, and I have also been to Nabadwip"—if somebody thinks it is all the same, they are making a Dham-aparadh. This is Nabadwip Dham. The Lord Himself wandered throughout this land, the Lord Himself appeared in this place. This is not just some temporary land, some soil, not just some houses. This place has some weight, some significance. People from all over the world come to this place to fall here on the ground, to touch, to "kiss" this land. "Nabadvipa hena grama tribhuvane nei": there is no place in this visva-bhramanda (entire material creation) that can compare with Nabadwip.

If you live in America, or if you live in Russia, it is not a problem—if you always give respect to Nabadwip Dham, if you always give respect to your Guru from there, always think about your Guru from a far away place, then you can get his association.

The abode, the pastimes, the beauty of Lord Krishna are non-different from Krishna, and this mercy can only be bestowed to you through the Guru-parampara. Only Krishna Himself or His associate can distribute this Holy Name—except Krishna and His associates there is no one else who can do it. That is why you should respect such devotees, they are the greatest donors for us. Who is the greatest donor in this world? Those who give you some clothes, some money, some food? Are they great donors? No. Great donors are those who give you Krishna consciousness. They are the Lord's very own, and they come here on the order of the Lord.

If you get this human life and only spend it on eating, sleeping, fearing, enjoying, if you only worry about money and food, then think what will become of you later. You will get next birth and will not even be able to speak—you will have to be born as some dog, sheep, cat, goat, etc. If you get this human birth and do not serve the Lord, then you will reap the result accordingly (as you sow so you reap)…

* * *

Utility of Life

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 3

Sadhus, Guru, Vaishnavs go house to house, come to your house and call you to come with them for the parikrama of the Dham, they call you to come to the Dham, to take sadhu-sanga, but you come and go so many times and do not learn anything... You are born in India, but you do not understand the proper practice and behaviour. But look at them—they come from abroad, they do not know Mahaprabhu's conception, do not know Krishna consciousness, do not know the language (Mahaprabhu spoke Bengali and Sanskrit, they do not understand these languages), but they come, chant kirtans, listen to Hari-katha, they speak about the Lord. You should look at them and think about it. What will become of you? Next life, you will have to take birth in the land of mlechhas, and they will get the Lord.

You can see how many people come from Muslim countries—they used to be Muslims, but now they chant the Holy Name. They forget Allah and now call out, "Krishna! Krishna!" They forget Allah and chant the Name of Krishna. They wear tilaks, they wear Tulasi mala on their necks, they become vegetarian, they follow Ekadasi; and you have taken birth in this Bharata-bhumi (India), but you kill jiva souls and enjoy meat so much. One day, you will get reaction for this.

samsara bhajili sri-gauranga bhulili

na sunili sadhura katha

iha-parakala dukala khoyali (mana)

khaili apana matha

“You worshipped your family (material life), forgot Sri Gauranga, and never listened to sadhus' words. O mind, you wasted both this life and your next life—you are eating your own brain (you are your own enemy).”

('Avatara sara Gora avatara' by Srila Lochan Das Thakur)

"Samsara bhajili": you are worshipping your family life, your material life, but life is very short, life is so transient—we can leave at any moment!

When the demigods and the demons were fighting and the demigods won the battle, they came to Khatvanga Maharaj, paid their obeisance to him and said, "We have won the battle, and we want to give you something. We will give you whatever you say. If you say, we can give you heaven, it is not a problem." Khatvanga Maharaj replied, "Can you tell me how many days my lifetime is? How many more days will I be alive?" When the demigods said, "Your lifetime is only one moment (only forty-eight minutes)," Khatvanga Maharaj told straight, "I will leave my body in forty-eight minutes? Then I do not want anything!" He rejected everything and surrendered his whole mind, body, life, everything to the lotus feet of the Lord. During that last moment of his life, he got the Lord.

* * *

Non-Jealous and Caring Mood

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 4

Prahlad Maharaj left his father for Krishna. Bharath Maharaj left his mother for Lord Ramachandra. All Vraja gopis gave up their shame, gave up everything for Lord Krishna. Bali Maharaj left his Guru.

Sei Guru Guru non: if your Guru cannot help you in Krishna consciousness, if he cannot give you perfect Krishna consciousness, if he is an obstacle for your spiritual life or makes problems in your spiritual life, you can reject that kind of Guru. Sukracharya is the Guru of asuras (demons), and when Bali Maharaj wanted to give what he had promised to Vamandev, Sukracharya wanted to stop him from doing it. Bali Maharaj wanted to give everything to Vamanadev, but his Guru tried to create some obstacle, some problem for his disciple—because his Guru was doing wrong, Bali Maharaj did not listen to him. Actually, you can see that those who make problems in Krishna consciousness always end up with some problem, they always get some unhappiness.

A sadhu's character will be non-jealous mood. "Pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana": somebody can make some offence to you, but you will not do that to them, you must give them chance, you must give them some nourishment. If somebody swears you, you will give some nourishment to them.

I heard from one Vaishnav about Hayagriva Prabhu, a disciple of Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur (later his name was Srila Bhakti Daita Madhav Goswami Maharaj). Once, one of his disciples grabbed a man by his neck and brought him to Srila Madhav Maharaj saying, "Gurudev, do you see? This man is distributing leaflets against you!" Srila Madhav Maharaj said, "OK, OK, leave him. Can I see the paper? Give it to me." Then, Srila Madhav Maharaj read the paper and said, "Oh, what he is writing is nothing. I am worse than that! Please, go and bring a packet of gulab jamuns, rasagullas. Bring some sweetballs"—Srila Madhav Maharaj gave some sweets to that man. Do you understand? "Pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana: giving up envy, nurture others." Our Guru-varga teaches this to us.

Sometimes I also tell this story. There was once a sadhu who would every day go to bathe in the Ganges. One day, there was a naughty boy at the Ganges. When the sadhu finished bathing, he started going back to the temple, but the boy threw mud at him and laughed. The sadhu went back to the Ganges and bathed again. When he was walk from the Ganges, the boy threw cow dung at him and laughed again. The sadhu bathed again. Then, the boy again threw some stool at him. This repeated ten times. The sadhu did not say anything, he did not become angry, did not show any anger, and in the end the boy got tired and began to cry, "Sir, I have made an offence to you! How is this possible? What is your body made of? You do not become angry, you do not show any anger." The sadhu replied, "What are you talking about? You have not made any offence. What have you done? You have done nothing. Actually, you did me good. Every day, I bathe one time, but today, thanks to you, I have bathed ten times. You have done good! What is the problem?”

* * *

Service Life, Service Consciousness

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 5

If somebody is going to hell, it is your duty to remove them from there. Somebody may think, "Let them go!" No. Your duty is to remove them from there. It is your duty. Try, and try, and try. Try! Always try for them, give your blood for them! After that, if it does not work, then what can you do? You will be hopeless. First you must try and try. Always think, "Why are they not coming to this path? These people have fallen into the bondage of illusion, they covered by the darkness of illusion... They have fallen into the ocean of material life—once they leave their body, they will again struggle in this ocean..."

There is no prohibition to live a family life, neither is there a prohibition to raise children, but you must make your family Krishna's Family and you must give up bad habits. You must cook for Govinda, you must work also for Govinda, whenever you plant anything in your garden, you plant it also for Govinda. It is not like if you offer everything to Govinda, you will have nothing to eat. This is not true. When you offer something to Govinda, Govinda keeps His prasad for His devotees. Here at the temple too—we cook every day for Govinda, it is not like any of us lives here without taking food every day. Every day we cook for the Lord and every day everybody takes prasadam up until their neck. Is there any problem? That is called Krishna's Family—cooking is done for Govinda, everything is for Govinda, and we live happily and joyfully with that, we take prasad. You can have a car, a house, everything.

The Lord says, "If you think about Me, I will think about you," but if you think about yourself, Krishna will run away from you thinking, "They always keep on asking Me ("I want this," "I want that," "I want a car," "I want money," etc.) and disturbing Me." Just as the outside people say when they do puja of demigods (they do not worship the Lord, they worship demigods), "Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi," etc. is it not so? "I want money," "I want to be beautiful," "I want knowledge," and so on. They use the Lord.

Gurudev says there are three types of devotees—guru bhogi, guru tyagi, guru sevi (somebody uses their Guru, somebody rejects their Guru and somebody serves their Guru). Somebody comes to Gurudev, pays obeisance and brings their granddaughter saying, "Gurudev, please give some mercy to her. Please put your hand on her head." Once, when this happened, Gurudev said, "You see? He is using me..."

* * *

Strongest Faith (1)

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 6

One time, Gurudev was going outside Nabadwip. He came out of his room and got into his car. When I saw the car, I was in the office downstairs. I came out and paid obeisance to him. As I was paying obeisance, Gurudev asked me, "Will you go with me?" and I asked, "Where?" I only asked him where, but he said, "You are foolish. You do not have 100% surrender. Your Guru asks you if you will go with him, but you are asking where. Even if I go to hell, you must go to hell with me!"

Gurudev taught so many things...

"Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari (Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.64)—devotion comes through sraddha, faith. This is the main thing. What devotion you will have depends on what faith you have—the more faith in the Lord you have, the more devotion you will get.

The price for devotion is faith—you must buy devotion with faith. You cannot buy devotion with money, wealth, etc., you must pay with faith—the strongest faith. We can see examples of it in Mukunda's son Raghunandan, Gopal Bhatta Goswami's dvadas silas (twelve sila Deities)....

* * *

Strongest Faith (2): Gopal Bhatta Goswami

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 7

Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami had twelve silas. A sila is a form of a Deity, like Govardhan sila, or Giriraj sila. One time, a rich man came from Delhi and asked Gopal Bhatta Goswami, "Please keep these ornaments for your Deities." Gopal Bhatta Goswami took it, but later he realised, "That man gave me these ornaments, but my Deities have no Deity form—my Deities have no hands, no legs... How will I put these things (ornaments, clothes, etc.) on Them?" Thinking and thinking about it, he put the Deities to sleep that night, and very sad, he went to rest too. In the morning, when he went for the mangal-arati, he opened the temple door and saw that one Deity was not there! He counted, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven— Where has one more gone? There were twelve silas!" Then, he noticed that there was something like a magnet on the back of the Deity and he understood that the twelfth sila had transformed Himself into Radha Raman.

That Deity is still there and every year when we do Vrindavan parikrama, we go there. They maintain the worship very strictly and perfectly in that temple—it is very cold in winter season, but even then you cannot even go inside wearing socks. They do puja in a very clean way there. You cannot take camera inside also... They follow so many rules and regulations when they do puja in Vrindavan.

Many Deities left Vrindavan because of the problems caused by mlechhas, Muslim people, but Radha Raman did not go. Radha Raman is a small Deity, so the pujari hid Him—all the large Deities were taken to Jaipur, Karauli, etc., but Radha Raman is still in Vrindavan.

If you serve the Deities properly, this is the result. It is called "sraddhaya sri-murtir sevan."

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"Associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

There are five main practices, "Sadhu-sanga: good association. Nama sankirtan: chanting the Holy Name, bhajanam, sravanam, kirtanam. Bhagavat-sravan: hearing Krishna-katha, hearing Bhagavat-katha. Mathura-vasa: thinking about Mathura, thinking about Vrindavan, thinking about the holy dham. And sri-murtir sraddhaya sevan: you must serve the Deities with full faith.

Deity is not some idol, it is not made of wood, stone, or some other material. It is not a Deity—it is Lord Krishna Himself! "Vigraha Tumi nao, saksad Vrejendra-nandan: You are not simply a Deity, You are the Lord Himself, You are Vrajendra-nandan Himself!" You have eyes in your heart, and if you have such feeling towards the Deity in your heart and do your service with such deep faith, then you can easily see, can easily observe Krishna everywhere; you will hear Krishna-nama everywhere and nothing else besides Krishna-nama will enter your ears; you will see Krishna-nama, Krishna-prana, Krishna-guna everywhere. That is the main thing…

* * *

Strongest Faith (3): Raghunandan Thakur

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 8

Mukunda's son Raghunandan also has full faith. One day, when he was ten years old, his mother said to him, "Raghunandan, I am very busy today. I have cooked the offering, but I have no time to offer it to the Deities. You can offer today." Coming to the temple to offer the bhog, Raghunandan spoke to the Deity, "Hey Krishna! Eat! Eat now, I say!" Nothing happened. Then, he said, "Oh, so my mother gives You food every day and You eat it, and because I am a little boy You are not eating? You are ignoring me!" Again nothing happened. Then, he took a stick and threatened the Deity, "If You do not take it now, I will beat You with this stick here!" Then, the Deity began to eat. "You must eat everything!" said Raghunandan. "Take everything!" The Deity ate everything.

Then, Raghunandan's mother came back and said,

"Raghu, where is our prasad?"

"Prasad? You cooked little today—Krishna has taken everything," replied Raghunandan.

"I do not believe it! I give offering to the Deity every day and He does not anything. I do not believe you. You must have eaten it yourself or have given it to your friend!"

No matter what Raghunandan said, his mother could not believe him. In the end, she said, "I will give you some fruit and sweets in the afternoon time. Go and do the offering again. I want to see how your Deity is eating!"

In the afternoon, Raghunandan went to the Deity's room again and spoke to the Deity,

"Take now!"

"I eat too much at the noon time, how will I eat now again?" answered the Deity.

"No, You must eat. My mother does not believe me—if You do not eat, she will think that I ate everything at noon. Please eat! Please eat!"

"Oh, I cannot eat, My stomach is very full..."

Raghunandan kept insisting, and in the end the Deity said, "OK, I will eat only one sweet."

In the meantime, Raghunandan's mother hear some noise in the temple room and went to see who her son was talking to. When she peeped through a hole in the door she saw the Deity had eaten half of a sweet and the other half was in His hand.

On the way to Ekachakra, it is a little far from here, there is a place called Srikhanda, Narahari Thakur's sripat (house). There, they still cut a sweet into two halves and offer the Deity a half of a sweet in memory of this pastime...

There are so many pastimes of Vaishnavs, so many pastimes of the Lord, so many pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu....

* * *

Devotional Heart

10 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 9

There are so many pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu that happened, but, although we live in this country, we do not understand anything, but people come from abroad and crave for it so much. We do not know the Lord—the Lord appears in this very country, Krishna came to Bharata-bhumi (India), Mahaprabhu also came, but we cannot understand anything... If we do not practise it ourselves, there is no other way and there will be no other way to know Him.

Think about it. How much devotees at Srivas Pandit's house gave to Mahaprabhu...

One time, Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit's house, and after some kirtan He said, "We are doing kirtan today, but we are not getting happiness, we are not feeling any joy or pleasure... Why, Srivas? Has something happened in your house?" Srivas Pandit replied, "Prabhu, my only son has died today. I did not tell You because then You would stop the kirtan, Your kirtan would be disturbed."

Internally, at heart, Mahaprabhu was very pleased to hear it, but outside He was a little bit angry. Mahaprabhu scolded Srivas Pandit, "Your son has died? Why did you not tell Me?!" Then, He went to the son of Srivas Pandit and said, "My son! Why have you left us? Where you are going?" and the dead boy spoke, "For a few days I have had some connection with You, I stayed here with Srivas Pandit, but now You are calling me, and I am going there." In other words, you have connection with the Lord here and you will stay here for as long as that connection lasts, and when the Lord calls you, you will go to Him. But, "Kothay chhilam, hetay elam, kothay yabo bhavi nai: where I was, where I came, where I will go—I do not know." We can never say or think where we will have to go...

Jay Srila Gurudev!

* * *

Entrance to Service Planet

Sri Nrisingha-chaturdasi day,

24 May 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

People think, "If I do not eat in this life, if I do not enjoy, maybe next life I will not get the chance..." But do you see how much monkeys enjoy? You can keep some fruit, some mango, for Krishna, but monkeys get curious and enjoy it. So, people think, "If I do not enjoy in this life, maybe I will not be able to do it in my next life, so I must enjoy in this life!" But in their next life, they can enjoy more! If they get a monkey's body, they will get more enjoyment.

Question: Will monkeys eat it even if you keep some green bananas?

I am not talking about it in this sense. I am talking about a higher sense, I am talking about spiritual things.

It is necessary to offer a daab (a coconut with coconut water) with the bhog in the evening because Nrisinghadev is sweating very much and very angry because He had just killed an asura...

ito nrsimha parato nrsimho

yato yato yami tato nrsimhah

bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimho

nrsimham adim saranam prapadye

"Lord Nrisingha is here and also there. Wherever I go Lord Nrisingha is there. He is in the heart and is outside as well. I surrender to Lord Nrisingha, the origin of all things and the supreme refuge."

jaya nrsimha, sri nrsimha, jaya jaya nrsimha

prahladesa jaya padma-mukha-padma-bhrnga

"All glories to Nrisinghadev! All glories to Nrisinghadev, who is the Lord of Prahlad Maharaj and, like a honeybee, is always engaged in beholding the lotus face of the goddess of fortune."

The main lesson today is to pray to the Lord and ask Him to remove material desires from our hearts. That is the glory of Nrisinghadev's appearance at Nrisingha Palli. Nrisinghadev told Prahlad Maharaj to ask for a boon, and Prahlad Maharaj said in the end, "I will take this boon: please remove all asking desire from my heart so that I may never ask You for anything in any life." So, today, we must pray to Nrisinghadev, "Prabhu, please take away this asking desire from me."

How beautiful this is. When Nrisinghadev appeared, He asked Prahlad Maharaj many times, "What do you want?..." I remember one time Gurudev asked devotees, "What do you want?" One could say, "Gurudev, your mercy is sufficient for me. If you engage me in service, that is sufficient," but some devotee replied, "I would not mind a Tata Sumo." Gurudev laughed. Just think about it. What a fool he is!... That time, Gurudev asked everybody this question, and I did not say anything. I thought, "Gurudev, I do not want anything from you. You are engaging me in service, that is sufficient for me. There is nothing greater than this."

Sometimes we sing, "Seva-adhikara diya ei bar amay doya koro: please give me the right for service." "Please give me entrance into the service wave, service planet; give me permission to enter the service planet; give me the service visa..." If you want to do service, you must have a visa. You can get mercy if you engage yourself in service. That is the meaning of mercy. Mercy means you get that right for service.

Did I not tell you just yesterday? What is the real gift? Rice? Things? Medicine? No, this is not a gift. This can give you some temporary happiness, but everybody, including Lord Brahma, burn with the three-fold miseries. Even Brahma suffers from inauspiciousness, and you are just a tiny soul. You think you have got this human birth and if you do not eat and enjoy now, later you will not be able to do it, but later you will get even more opportunities. When you get born as an elephant, you can eat and digest so much more—you can eat an entire jungle. Now you can talk, but later you can talk even more—when you are born as a bird, you can talk much more. Also, birds' eyesight is much stronger, they can see much further than humans. You want to go to so many places—birds can go to so many places much quicker than you. Human beings do not understand this... It is necessary to go to these ignorant, foolish, stubborn people and tell them about it: you have got this body, this rare human body, but you do not worship the Lord... People must think about this.

vibhavari sesa aloka pravesa

nidra chhadi' utha jiva

"O souls! The night has ended and the light has come. Awake and arise!"

It is morning now, but how many people are still sleeping in bed... Many sleep till ten o'clock, and I know some big doctors sleep till two in the afternoon and then work till ten o'clock at night... This is what is happening…

* * *

Awake, Aware and Avid

Sri Nrisingha-chaturdasi day,

24 May 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Do you wake up for mangal arati? If you can wake up for mangal arati, then you will not fall into danger any day. "Danger" means being removed from the service of the Lord.

Everybody thinks danger means a woman, but many things will come—opulence, etc. Maya has many forms. Do you remember what happened to Haridas Thakur? He chanted so many Holy Names, and one afternoon, a girl, all dressed up, came to him and said, "O sadhu, I will stay with you." This is a test. Through the chanting of the Holy Name, Haridasi Thakur subdued her.

You can get the Lord through service to the Lord, through very strong desire (arthi). In Kalna, there was Gauridas Pandit who had a disciple who served his Deities. One day, he kicked out that disciple, and Gaura Nitai left the temple and went with him—Gauridas Pandit opened the temple room and saw that Gaura Nitai were not there…

* * *

Of Plants and Play

Sri Nrisingha-chaturdasi day,

24 May 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

[At the beginning, addressing one of the devotees present at the veranda:]

Your service is to take care of Govinda Kunda—to guard against those who take flowers, who steal plants, and so on. You like staying at Govinda Kunda, then always give some security there. OK? You will do this service.

You can see such a beautiful bay tree in Bamunpara, there is also a big kul (jujube) tree, but here I planted so many plants yesterday and today some naughty boys take the plants and throw them out... It is necessary to guard.

If you always want to play, you can play but with service—that place should be with service connection, then it will be sadhana-bhakti (devotional practice), otherwise it will karma.

I could plant so many nice trees here, but it takes time and I do not get time. Yesterday, I saw a tree that gives mango all the time, it gives mango even in winter season also, but where will I put it? This area gets flooded almost every day, it is very difficult.

* * *

Selfless and Proper Renunciation

Sri Nrisingha-chaturdasi day,

24 May 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Did you go for the chira-dahi mahotsav in Panihati last year? This year it is on 21 June (2013). I am thinking about people...

People come to Nrisinghadev, pray to Him for something ("O Nrisinghadev, please do this for me") and in return promise to give some offering or sacrifice, but when Nrisinghadev asked Prahlad Maharaj, "What do you want?" he said, "Please remove this asking desire from me." We are just the opposite.

We must think like Prahlad Maharaj, "Please, remove this asking desire from me. You have appeared for my sake, that is sufficient for me." That is the difference. There is sakam bhakta (a devotee motivated by some gain) and there is niskam bhakta (a selfless devotee); there is karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with pursuits of material gain) and there is jnana-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with pursuits of knowledge). Prahlad Maharaj prayed, "Please, forgive my offence. You have come taking so much trouble to protect me—You had to struggle so much to rescue him [Hiranyakasipu]. You actually had to fight for me... What can be a greater debt for me than this? What can I want from You?"

ito nrsimha parato nrsimho

yato yato yami tato nrsimhah

bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimho

nrsimham adim saranam prapadye

"Nrsimha is here, Nrsimha is there—Nrsimha is wherever I go. Nrsimha is outside, Nrsimha is within my heart. I am surrendered unto that primeval Lord Nrsimha."

I always remember Prahlad Maharaj more than Nrisinghadev. Nrisinghadev came for Prahlad Maharaj...

Material desires are not good—you will not get the Lord unless you live in proper renunciation (yukta-vairagya). We want and we need yukta-vairagya. Yukta-vairagya means service to the Lord. People say, "I am fasting today," and they sit all day in their room (or chant some maha-mantra at the temple and then sleep there with a pillow). Yukta-vairagya means you must go to the market, buy something for the Deity, start cooking in the afternoon, offer opulent bhog to Nrisinghadev, etc. That is the symptom of a yukta-vairagi (proper renunciate), not of a tyagi (renunciate). Last night, I told Santosh Prabhu that I had bought very good quality rice for Nrisinghadev and that he had to cook sweet rice with it…

* * *

Imaginary Things

Sri Nrisingha-chaturdasi day,

24 May 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Guru Maharaj says that once you see people from Odisha you will not be able to forget them. Recently some people came here, they stay near Gundicha Bari. I do not know why people call it "masir bari"—is this name written anywhere in the scriptures?

Devotee: Odiya people call it like this.

Nabadwip people also call it that way. When Nabadwip people call it "masir bari," you can understand it, but why do the Oriya people call it like this? It is Gundicha Devi's mandir. Jagannathdev stayed there for seven days—He did not go to a "masir bari", He went to Gundicha Devi's house. And it is not a question of only Oriya people calling it "masir bari," everybody calls it like this, but we say "Sundarachal." Jagannath goes from Nilachal to Sundarachal. That place is called Sundarachal, it is non-different from Vrindavan—gopis pull Krishna from Mathura to Vrindavan. This is the conception of Gaudiya Vaishnavs.

...You should feel pity for the souls seeing how much they suffer. Because of their suffering they come with all their material desires to Nrisinghadev. When they get a child they also come there, they make some offering. Nobody thinks about serving Nrisinghadev—everybody thinks about their material desires. They want to get something.

krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva 'santa'

bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami—sakali 'asanta'

"A devotee of Krishna has no desires and is always peaceful. Those who have material desires, desire for liberation or desire for some perfection are always lusty and never know any peace."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.149)

Nobody understands this...

Jaya Srila Gurudev, jaya Srila Prahlad Maharaj ki jay, Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay. Suddha-bhaktir vighna vinas kari Nrisninghadev ki jay!

Oh, a new guest has come! Amavasyar chand. Do you understand the meaning of "amavasyar chand"? Do you understand the meaning of "dumurer phul"? They say, "My friend, you have become amavasyar chand—I am surprised to see you!" Amavasya means dark moon night. Can you see the moon (chand) on a dark moon night (amavasya)? You cannot. Dumur is a fig tree, a favourite fruit of Param Guru Maharaj. Every tree first has a flower, then fruit (like a mango tree, for example, it first has flowers, then fruit), but the fig tree never has flowers—only fruit. So, just as there is no moon on a dark moon day, there is no flowers on a fig tree. Can the moon appear on a dark moon night? These are imaginary things. So, "O my friend, you have become amavasyar chand" means, "I never see you these days."

"Amar rati-mati hala na re..." ["I have got no love and attachment," from the song "Hari hari! viphale janama gonainu"]

Hiranyakasipu sent Prahlad Maharaj to two teachers. What are these two teachers' names? [Silence.]

If you do not wake up for mangal arati, I will send somebody to teach you—they will tie you by your sikha with a rope! My father did that to me. It would be already midnight, 12 o'clock at night, and I felt very sleepy, but he would take my hair and tie it with a rope to something. My grandmother told her son (my father), "He is just a small boy, let him go. It is already 12 o'clock, he must go to bed." This is how he taught me to study... If you always read and study a lot, then your memory will always be sharp...

The names of the two teachers of Prahlad Maharaj are Sanda and Amarka, the two sons of Sukracharya. They taught him everything. What kind of knowledge did they teach him? Sama, dana, danda, bheda (how to pacify, give money in charity, punish, and divide). They taught him these four types of knowledge, but he listened to none of it—he did not accept their teaching. He learnt what he knew from his mother's womb: "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).

* * *

What Is Anugatya?

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 1

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that anugatya, or surrender, means to serve the Lord under the guidance of the Guru, but anugatya can be of different kinds, it depends upon the devotee. I have told it many times, and Gurudev also told it many times: there are 60% devotees, 20% devotees, 80% devotees, and so on. The quality of a devotee depends only on anugatya, surrender. If you can give 80% of yourself to your Guru, you will get 80%. Those can give 100%, they will get 100%.

Gurudev also said that when your Guru tells you something, you may have no doubt about it, but if there is some confusion—sometimes we do not tell it, but we have some confusion inside, we always think about it—this is also not complete, not 100% anugatya. The same is true for everything we do—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we may do sixty-four types of bhaktyanga, we may do the five main bhaktyanga (we do sankirtan, we do sravan, kirtan, we do sadhu-sanga, we do some service, etc.), but if we do not have proper anugatya, proper surrender (if there is not 100% anugatya in it), then it all goes to karma and reaction will come to you.

When Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur got initiation from his Gurudev, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, he was a small boy, but how many times did Babaji Maharaj tell him to get out? How many times did he tell him, "You will not get initiation!"? How long Srila Prabhupad had to wait to take initiation. Babaji Maharaj thought, "How much does this boy believe in me? How much faith does he have in me? How much can he surrender to me?" He was testing and checking how deep his devotion and faith for him was. In the same way, Gurudev also chastised us, he told his disciples to get out, and sometimes, because of our ego, abhiman, ahankar, we think we will not do service any more, we will leave, but actually Gurudev wants to see, "How many percent faith does he or she have for me? How many percent love and affection does he or she have for me? I want to see whether they leave me and my service if I tell them to get out." Gurudev tests us. The rest of this test depends on what is called surrender—it depends on how much you can surrender.

I have told many times how Sanatan Goswami once also did wrong. After he had surrendered to Mahaprabhu, he wanted to commit suicide—he wanted to leave his body. Mahaprabhu chastised him a little for this and then he understood, "What I wanted to do is wrong, it is not surrender. I wanted to destroy my body committing suicide, but this body is for His service and I was following my mind!" This pastime of Sanatan Goswami is an example and a lesson for us.

When Mahaprabhu chastised devotees, for example when He chastised Chhota Haridas, it was not for him—it was for the next generation of devotees, to show them what should be the character of a devotee like.

In old days, the Oriya rice was not very good, so Chhota Haridas once brought Mahaprabhu some good rice from Madhavi Devi (she had collected it from Bengal), but Mahaprabhu chastised him so much. After that, Chhota Haridas gave up his life—he committed suicide. When it happened, Mahaprabhu showed us a lesson, "Chhota Haridas has committed suicide, but despite that he is still continuing to serve Me—even after his death he is still doing service."

If we read Chaitanya-charitamrita, we can understand what is anugatya through many of the pastimes of Mahaprabhu...

* * *

Anugatya: Gurudev's Example

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 2

In Gurudev and Guru Maharaj's pastimes, we also get some lesson.

Gurudev was staying outside the temple at that time. Srila Guru Maharaj (Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj) had been waiting for thirty years to give his chair to him, but Gurudev could not come out of the illusory environment, he always delayed, "I have to wait, I have to wait, I have to wait." Finally, Srila Guru Maharaj did not want to wait any longer because he had already waited for thirty. In the end, he was very disturbed and said to Gurudev, "If you do not take this chair, I will commit suicide!" When Gurudev heard it, he got very angry—he threw a chair, he threw a table around. Actually, you can see how much Srila Sridhar Maharaj loved him...

Once, I asked Gurudev why he got angry, and Gurudev told me, "Guru Maharaj had wanted to give his chair for many years, but if I had taken the chair at that time, he would have given it to me and disappeared. I did not want that, that is why I did not take his position immediately; that is why I had been waiting. That day Guru Maharaj said, 'You must take this chair today!' and I became angry..." A few years after that Gurudev did take Srila Guru Maharaj's chair.

Gurudev would often come to Nabadwip from Kolkata, and every time Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj called him, Gurudev would immediately come, stay with him in Nabadwip for a few days and then again go back to Kolkata. He did not leave his service. Even though he lived far from Nabadwip, he did not leave his service, he was always with his Guru Maharaj. One way or another, but he did his service from far also.

By these examples, we can understand how much surrendered Gurudev was, and what was his relationship with Srila Sridhar Maharaj also.

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

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

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

When you surrender to your Guru, Krishna thinks that your jivatma and His body are equal—at that time the disciple cannot leave his Guru, and the Guru also cannot leave his disciple. This kind of connection we have seen in Gurudev and Guru Maharaj.

Then, you can easily understand how much faith, how much love and affection to each other is there in surrender. If you give your heart, you will get your Guru's heart in return. Those who do not have any feelings cannot understand these things. Srila Sridhar Maharaj always says that we mostly do service emotionally, not devotionally. If we can do something with perfect devotion, if we can do some perfect devotional activities, with heart and soul, then we can easily understand what anugatya is and what surrender is.

Gurudev mentioned also the meaning of sastanga dandavat. Sastanga dandavat is when you give full dandavat, lying down on your stomach. Sastanga (sasta-anga, lit. six limbs) means the six types of saranagati. I asked Gurudev about its meaning and Gurudev explained it: when you pay full obeisance to your Guru, at that time you give your eyes, your head, your ears, your mind—everything—to your Guru, you cannot see what Gurudev is doing to you, and if you give him a sword, he can cut you anywhere. That kind of surrender is necessary. This is what surrender is.

These are very strong words...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Auspicious Invocation

6 May 2018, part 1

We have assembled here by a great fortune to speak about the Lord. It is not a cloudy day that is a bad day—a bad day is the day when there is no Hari-katha (discussions about the Lord).

It is necessary to hear Hari-katha and practise every day. Even if you are not able to practise, you still must practise, still must listen to Hari-katha. "I chanted today, tomorrow I will not chant"—not like that. You ate today, you will eat tomorrow too—you eat every day, you go to the bathroom every day, and you must do your service every day too. You must serve Govinda every day, we have no other way.

Let me give the jay now:

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda-sundar jiu ki jay

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga Prabhu ki jay

Jay Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay [Glory to Prahlad Maharaj, the foremost of devotees]

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay [Glory to Lord Nrisinghadev, the destroyer of obstacles on the path of pure devotion]

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay

Om Vishnupad Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj ki jay

Sachchidananda Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur ki jay

Sarvabhauma Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj ki jay

Rupanuga Guru-varga ki jay

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Vrinda Devi Tulasi Devi Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay

Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay

Sri Mayapur Dham Sri Nabadwip Dham Sri Vrindavan Mathura ki jay

Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay

Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay

Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay

Mahapur Yogapith ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Tandiya sakha Math samuha ki jay

Sri Mather sevak vrinda bhakta-vrinda ki jay [Glory to all the servitors of the Math]

Ananta-koti Vaishnav vrinda ki jay [Glory to all the innumerable Vaishnavs]

Sri Gaudiya Acharya vrinda ki jay

Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay [Glory to the holy feet of all the sannyasis]

Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay [Glory to the associates of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu]

Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay [Glory to the associates of Sriman Mahaprabhu]

Bhakta-raj Prahlad Maharaj ki jay [Glory to Prahlad Maharaj, the king among devotees]

Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Sada Siva Gangadhar jiu ki jay

Giriraj Govardhan ki jay

Jay samagata Gaura bhakta vrinda ki jay [Glory to the assembled devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu]

Jay gram-basi samasta bhakta vrinda ki jay [Glory to all the residents of this village, to all the devotees]

Sripad Bhakti Amrita Paramarthik Maharaj ki jay

Harinam Sankirtan ki jay

Bhagavat-utsav Hari-katha maha-mahotsav ki jay [Glory to the festival of the Lord, to the grand festival of Hari-katha]

Samagata Sri Vaishnav-seva maha-mahotsav ki jay [Glory to the grand festival of service to holy Vaishnavs]

Samagata Gaura bhakta vrinda ki jay [Glory to all the assembled devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu]

Samagata matri-mandala srotri-mandali bhakta-mandali ki jay [Glory to all the lady devotees (who are all like mothers), to all the listeners, and all the devotees]

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura prema-anande Hari bol

Devotee:

Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakachakrya-varya Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura prema-anande Hari bol

vande 'ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaisnavams cha

sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana raghunath-anvitam tam sa-jivam

sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam krsna-chaitanya-devam

sri-radha-krsna-padan saha-gana-lalita sri-visakhanvitams cha

I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of my Guru, the predecessor Gurus, the Lord's devotees, Sri Rupa, Sri Sanatan, Sri Raghunath, Sri Jiva, Sri Rupa's followers, Sri Krishna Chaitanyadev, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Advaita Prabhu, Sri Chaitanyadev's associates, Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, Sri Lalita Devi, Sri Visakha Devi, and all of Their associates.

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the salve of divine knowledge.

Devotee:

pujya sri-guru-varga-vandita mahabhavanvitayah sada

paurva parya parampara prachalita prajya pramurtta krteh

bhakter nirmala-nirjharasya nibhrtam samraksakam sadaram

vande sri-gurudevam anata-sira acharya-varyam nijam

I bow my head in eternal obeisance to my Gurudev, the best of Acharyas, Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj. He is the ever vigilant, stalwart guardian of the current of pure devotion whose highest form flows from our most worshippable Sri Rupanuga Guru-varga in their exclusive dedication to Mahabhava, Srimati Radharani.

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam

chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam

govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram

vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev's associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.

devam divya-tanum suchanda-vadanam balarka-chelanchitam

sandrananda-puram sad-eka-varanam vairagya-vidyambudhim

sri-siddhanta-nidhim subhakti-lasitam sarasvatanam varam

vande tam subhadam mad-eka-saranam nyasisvaram sridharam

I offer my obeisance unto my lord, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, whose speech is most pleasing; whose divine form is adorned with garments the colour of the newly-risen sun; who is an abode of intense, ecstatic devotion; who is the sadhus' sole choice; who is an ocean of renunciation and knowledge; who is a treasure-house of perfect conclusions; who is resplendent with pure devotion; who is the best of Srila Saraswati Thakur's followers; who is the giver of all good; who is the leading general of the tridandi-sannyasis; and who is my sole shelter.

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.

vrndayai tulasi-devyai priyayai kesavasya cha

krsna-bhakti-prade devi satyavatyai namo namah

Again and again I offer my obeisance unto Vrnda Devi, who is known as Tulasi Devi and Satyavati, who is most dear to Krishna, and who bestows devotion to Krishna upon us.

atha natva mantra-gurun gurun bhagavatarthadan

vyasan jagad-gurun natva tato jayam udirayet

Having offered obeisance to one's initiating Guru, to the Gurus who have taught one the meaning of the Bhagavat, and to all the authors of Vedic literature, who are the Gurus of the entire world, proclaim "Jay!"

jayah sa-parikara sri-sri-guru-gauranga-gandharvagovindasundar-padapadmanam jayastu!

All glory to the lotus feet of Sri Guru, Sri Gaurasundar, Sri Sri Gandharva-Govindasundar, and all of Their associates!

jaya nrsimha, sri nrsimha, jaya jaya nrsimha

prahladesa jaya padma-mukha-padma-bhrnga

"All glories to Nrisinghadev! All glories to Nrisinghadev, who is the Lord of Prahlad Maharaj and, like a honeybee, is always engaged in beholding the lotus face of the goddess of fortune."

ito nrsimha parato nrsimho

yato yato yami tato nrsimhah

bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimho

nrsimham adim saranam prapadye

"Lord Nrisingha is here and also there. Wherever I go Lord Nrisingha is there. He is in the heart and is outside as well. I surrender to Lord Nrisingha, the origin of all things and the supreme refuge."

(bhaje) sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrnda

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Please, everybody, say:

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Why Are We Here?

6 May 2018, part 2

We have come here today as a result of a great fortune.

First, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, begging him for his causeless mercy, after that I am offering my obeisance to all Guru-varga, to all God-brothers and sisters, to all devotees, praying for your mercy to this low soul.

Today is a very good day because today, by our great fortune, sadhus, Gurus, and Vaishnavs have assembled here at this house.

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)

Why do they come to other people's houses? They come to tell Hari-katha and to help those who come to hear it. It is for others' benefit and welfare that sadhus, Gurus, Vaishnavs visit houses or villages. They want to speak about Krishna and engage us in Krishna consciousness.

Some think that they go house to house just to eat well... You may have heard that there was Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj who used to stay at our Math, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math (sometimes he would travel to other places also). He was a big kirtaniya and a disciple of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and he is the composer of our [Bengali] Gaudiya Gitanjali kirtan book. One time, he came to the temple, and you know that everybody at the Math is not the same—not everybody who comes to the Math is a sadhu. Guru Maharaj said that four types of people come to the Math: artto, artha-arthi, jijnasuh, jnani. These four types of people come to serve the Lord. Artto means some poor people; artharthi are those who want some material happiness; jijnasur are those who want to know something, and the jnani are those who already have some knowledge and they come to the temple to acquire some more knowledge. If they come and practise selflessly, unconditionally, then they can become Krishna conscious and serve sadhus, Gurus, Vaishnavs in the holy abode of the Lord. Not everybody has such fortune. Many people come to the Math and many go; many take initiation and give it up later. Not everybody walks this path to the end. Just as at school—many pupils are enrolled into the primary school, but fewer pupils reach the high school, and fewer still go to college and maybe only one or two pupils go to university. Guru Maharaj said also that when you strain something through a strainer or a sieve, in the end not much remains.

So, one time Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj came to the temple, and one brahmachari told him, "This sadhu comes to the temple only to eat." Hearing this, Babaji Maharaj did not go to take prasadam again. He went into his room and thought, "Let me see if I can manage without eating or not." Three days passed like this—he stayed locked in his room and did not come out to take prasadam. After three days, everybody came to his room and called him. You understand, how many days can one live without eating and drinking? When everybody came to his room, they heard that he was only chanting softly, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, etc." Gradually, he came to the state when he could not chant any more (you know when you do not eat, your blood pressure goes low, etc.) When devotees saw him in this state, they forcefully fed him some juice, then the person who initially made that comment came and asked for forgiveness for his offence. Then, Babaji Maharaj took prasad.

If those who come are real sadhus, real Guru or Vaishnav, they do not come for food, for things. They do not come hoping, "I will get something there." They come to rescue the fallen souls, to bring them to Krishna consciousness. We always speak Krishna-katha and we always want to hear Krishna-katha. Srila Madhusudan Goswami Maharaj used to say when he went preaching, "Why do we go for preaching? Why do we make festivals? Because if we talk about Krishna consciousness, we get benefit and those who hear it also get benefit." This is the real purpose.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Life Is Uncertain

6 May 2018, part 3

Suppose you buy a mobile phone. If you keep it in your room, after a few days the battery will go flat and it will be necessary to charge it. If you do not charge the microphone, the battery will also go flat one day. Similarly, when you constantly hear Krishna-katha, you charge your battery. Otherwise, if we do not 'charge our battery,' after a few days it will go flat and we will leave Krishna consciousness (become averse to Krishna again)—maya (illusory environment) can attack us.

Maya is very powerful and, if you become weak, she can attack you. So, if you always keep good association, keep devotees' association, there will be no danger of maya. Wherever the Holy Name of Krishna is chanted, maya runs far away from there. Otherwise she can attack at any time.

People say, "Maharaj, please give me your mercy." To give mercy means you get service. Guru Maharaj said, "If you have service, you have mercy. If you have no service, you have no mercy." You must remember this. It is a great fortune to be able to participate in the service of the Lord. If you continuously do your service here, then one day you can go to Goloka Vrindavan and get the same service there. When you always serve here, it becomes your habit, and eventually you will be able to take part in the service of Radha-Govinda in Goloka Vrindavan.

We have come to this world and, as it is said in one of the kirtans, "Jivana anitya janaha sara tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara." Life is uncertain, we can leave at any time. Death is always near us, and we can leave this body at any moment. We do not have the fortune that Pariksit Maharaj or Khatvanga Maharaj had—we do not have so much fortune to know how many days we will be alive. Khatvanga Maharaj learnt that he had only forty-eight minutes left before he had to leave this world, Pariksit Maharaj learnt that his remaining lifetime was seven days. Munis, rishis can know how long they will live, but we do not have such fortune—we do not know whether we will be alive for seven days, seven weeks, seven years or not. There is no guarantee. We can leave at any second, so we must not lose time.

If we engage ourselves in the service of Govinda, then we will get super benefit and we will be able to take part in the service of Radha-Govinda.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Practise Without Deceit

6 May 2018, part 4

We must always listen to Hari-katha. Sravan means sreyo-yog-van. There are two types of katha—sreyo (beneficial) and preyo (pleasurable). Preyo-katha is dancing, singing, playing the harmonium, etc. Many of you have seen such kirtans—they hold twenty-four hour's kirtans, forty-eight hours' kirtans, many kinds of lila kirtans. But even if you do such kirtans all your life, you will not reach the Lord.

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."

When people hold hired kirtans, these kirtan players do whatever they want, they eat whatever they want, they do not practise anything—they talk about Mahaprabhu, but they do not follow His teachings.

"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)

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

Some show they are devotees but secretly do bad things. For example, you think, "I am doing nirjal ekadasi today. Everybody knows I am fasting and not even drinking water!" but when you go to bathe in the pond, you secretly put some water into your mouth. Others may not see it, but the Lord sees everything—He can see that hidingly, like a thief, you are taking water. So, whatever you do and whatever you do not do, Gaura knows you are a thief. He can catch you red-handed. Do not hide anything from the Lord, from Gurudev—they know everything.

Gurudev goes to Nabadwip, to Vrindavan, or Puri, and you sit here and think, "How will he know what I am doing and what I am not doing?" But he is antaryami, he can understand everything; he knows what you are doing and what you are not doing, you do not need to hide anything. If you do not have faith in this—if you think Gurudev cannot know something, cannot understand something—it is an offence against the Holy Name (to consider the Guru a mere mortal, like one of us). Those who think, "He is just like us, so he cannot know it," cannot know the Guru. Gurudev knows everything, he understands everything.

When you come to Krishna consciousness, you should practise properly. You must practise the teachings that Sanatan Goswami gave, the teachings that Rupa Goswami gave (Rupa-siksa, Sanatan-siksa), as well as the teachings that Mahaprabhu gave to Raghunath Das Goswami. You must practise it. If you practise it, you will get benefit.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Examine Yourself

6 May 2018, part 5

Vaishnavs have twenty-six qualities. You can examine yourself and tell it yourself whether you have these qualities or not. What to speak of twenty-six qualities, do you have even one of those qualities? Only you can judge it.

When you go to school, as you finish different grades you take exams and go to a higher grade, then you eventually get a qualification; but who will give you an exam here? You yourself must examine yourself: "Do I really do service or not? Have I become a sadhu or not? Do I have taste for Hari-katha or not? Do I criticise others and gossip about others? Do I sin thinking the Holy Name will remove the reaction?" You must judge it for yourself. You understand yourself whether you chant the real Holy Name or not.

It is our duty to serve the Vaishnavs. In this Kali-yuga, nirjan bhajan is simply cheating. To stay alone, not to associate with others—this is called self-deception. Kali-yuga is not for bhajanandi, Kali-yuga is for gosthanandi, gostha-bhajan—you must practise sankirtan with everybody. This is called the real Holy Name.

When you chant the Holy Name together with everybody, that is called sankirtan. When you chant the Holy Name on your own, you chant it in your mind and alongside you have so many other thoughts come to your mind. Even if you try to chant for ten minutes, so many thoughts will enter your mind during that time. But when you chant the Holy Name loudly, then animals, birds, ants, insects, etc.—all the creatures that cannot talk, cannot hear—can hear the sound vibration...

* Twenty-six qualities of a devotee: (1) kind to everyone, (2) does not quarrel with anyone, (3) fixed in the Absolute Truth, (4) equal to everyone, (5) faultless, (6) charitable, (7) mild, (8) clean, (9) simple, (10) benevolent, (11) peaceful, (12) completely attached to Krishna, (13) has no material hankering, (14) meek, (15) steady, (16) self-controlled, (17) does not eat more than required, (18) sane, (19) respectful, (20) humble, (21) grave, (22) compassionate, (23) friendly, (24) poetic, (25) expert, (26) silent.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Bhakti Jagat

6 May 2018, part 6

Guru Maharaj says that the sound wave, or the sound vibration, moves through the medium of ether. Ether means for example here the TV centre is in Kolkata, and when you turn your TV on, the antenna catches the signal from the TV centre in Kolkata and the sound wave comes here through ether. When we use a mobile phone here, we can hear people from a different place in India and abroad. It is the same principle. The sound wave travels through ether.

Suppose you, or somebody else, say that there is no such thing as world of devotion. What does Guru Maharaj say? Listen to it carefully. If your ears become deaf, will you hear anything that belongs to the world of sound? If your ears are deaf, you cannot hear anything—there is so much noise outside, people are talking, the microphone is working, but you cannot hear anything and you say, "There is no such thing as the sound world!" Is that the truth though? It is not. My ears are not deaf and I can hear everything. There is also the world of eye, a visual world, but for those who are blind there is nothing in this world—no light, no trees, no animals, no insects. So, you cannot see anything and you say there is nothing in this world, but is that the truth? It is not. For those who have ears there is a world of sound; for those who have eyes, there is a visual world. In the same way, those who have devotion know that the Lord exists. Remember this.

The Lord never says that you cannot hear Him—no, the Lord does exist for those who have devotion. Just as when you have ears, you know there is the sound of world, when you have eyes, you know there is a visual world (you can see buildings, you can see trees, pond, other people, and if you have no eyes, if you are blind, then you will not see anything)—in the same way, if you have devotion, you can see the Lord, you can have His darshan. Those who have faith in the Lord, who have devotion, can understand this.

You can get the Lord through the medium of devotion. Remember this. These are the words of Param Guru Maharaj Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. We must always remember about it.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Daily Service

6 May 2018, part 7

Even if you stay at your house, you can serve the Lord. Nobody says that everybody—the whole world—must suddenly give up their family and come here. I told this story at Nrisingha Palli, I do not know if you heard it or not. I read it in one of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's books.

One time, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was giving a class. After the class, a man came with his wife up to him and said, "My wife and I would like to take initiation from you."

"Why do you want to take initiation?" asked Prabhupad.

"We want our family to run nicely, we want our children to have good food, and so that everything is peaceful in our family, that is why we have come to take initiation from you."

"I cannot give you initiation for this," replied Prabhupad. "I tell you want you should do. I will give you a room, stay there for seven-ten days. I give lectures every morning and evening, come to my lectures every day, listen about the Lord. If you listen to it and you like me, then you may get initiation."

So, they stayed—they chanted kirtans, listened to Prabhupad's lectures during those seven-ten days. After that, Prabhupad asked them one day,

"So, do you want to take initiation or you want to go back to your house?"

"No, we will take initiation, then we will go home."

"All right, and why do you want to take initiation?"

"We have listened to your lectures, we understand the meaning of Guru now... That is why we want to take initiation."

"You will take initiation from me, but what will you give me?" asked Prabhupad.

"We are poor people, we did not come with a lot of money... What can we give you? We have brought ten rupees, we can give it to you..."

"No, it will not do."

"How much is necessary?" asked the man.

"I do not need your money."

"Tell us, what do you want?"

"I want this: you have some house, and I want you to give me a room in that house. Every day I want you to give me the food that I take. I will go to your house and stay there, and as long as I stay you must feed me. You must arrange some money and feed me."

Hearing Prabhupad's words, they were non-plussed, "Prabhupad is staying in such a big building and we have a tiny house! Where will we give him a room? What will we eat? We will feed him, and what will be left for us?" Seeing their faces, Prabhupad said, "Think about it and come to me later."

They went outside and started talking between each other. One Maharaj, a disciple of Prabhupad, was passing by and asked them,

"What are you whispering here about? Has Prabhupad not given you initiation?"

"No, he has asked for so much from us..."

"What did he ask you for?"

"He says we must give him a room in our house and feed him every day five-six times. How can we agree to this? We are poor people, how can we keep Prabhupad?"

"You are foolish, you cannot understand it! You did not understand Prabhupad!"

"What did he mean then?"

"When he gives you initiation, his servitor will give you his photograph. You must keep it on an altar. Buy a plate for him and every day give him bhoga with Ganges water and Tulasi leaves, offer flowers to his lotus feet, etc. After that, you can take that prasad. Do you think Prabhupad will come to your house and stay there? When you keep Prabhupad's vigraha (form) in your house, it means you keep Prabhupad in your house. Offer him bhog and whatever comes to you as his prasad, this is your food."

Then they understood it, "Yes, this is true! Then it is not a problem! We will keep Prabhupad's photograph on a singhasan, buy a plate, a glass—we will offer bhog and take prasad. I know this. Prabhupad spoke about it in his lectures! I did not understand it at first!"

Then, he came back to Prabhupad and said, "Prabhupad, we agree. We do not mind it. We will take initiation."

This is what is called practice. Whatever your situation is, whatever condition you live in, you must do continuous, uninterrupted service of the Lord, every day, with sincerity and dedication.

There are many people sitting here now, please those of you who do such continuous service at home every day, raise your hand. [Many raise their hands.] See? There are many. You must do such daily, perpetual service every day. Perpetual service.

Wake up early for mangal arati every day: take bath, wake up the Lord, do the arati, offer bhog, do the archan. (If you do not go to the bathroom in the morning, you can just wear fresh clothes, and if you do pass stool in the morning, you must take full bath, after that go to wake up the Lord.) If you must go out to work, then do the archan, arati, etc., cook something, offer the bhog, take prasad and go to work. If you work outside, do not make excuses saying, "How will I do it? I work..." If your wife loves the Lord and she can cook for you, then she can cook for the Lord too. She will cook, offer bhog to the Lord and you will take that prasad later. When you return home in the evening, again do evening arati, offer bhog in the evening. You must follow these rules. Offer some bhog (some fruit or something) in the afternoon also. Whatever you can—somebody can collect cucumbers, somebody has some fruit trees, etc. There are no rules that, "Oh, you must offer five kinds of fruits. Ten kinds of this, that, etc." No, offer whatever you can collect, whatever is available.

bhakter jinish prabhu lutiputi khay

abhakter jinish prabhu ulti nahi chai

"The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it, but He does not want anything from a non-devotee."

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Devotee Association

6 May 2018, part 8

bhakter jinish prabhu lutiputi khay

abhakter jinish prabhu ulti nahi khay

"The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it, but He does not take anything from a non-devotee."

A non-devotee cannot give anything to the Lord. A "non-devotee" means "sakam bhakta" (devotee with ulterior motives), they give something to the Lord and want to get something from the Lord in return ("Lord, give me this, give that"). They irritate the Lord with their perpetual requests. When people do demigod puja, they always say, "Give me wealth, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a good wife, make me a poet, etc." What did Mahaprabhu say?

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye

mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want knowledge, I do not want beauty, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 20.29)

nahi magi deha-sukha, vidya, dhana, jana

nahi magi svarga ara moksa nahi magi

na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi

"I do not pray for bodily pleasure, learning, wealth, or followers. I do not pray for heaven, I do not pray for liberation, and I do not pray for any supernatural powers."

(Sri Siksastakam, 4.1-2, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"I do not pray for heaven, I do not pray for liberation. I do not pray for any supernatural powers." We want neither heaven, nor liberation.

It is said in the scriptures that if you circumambulate four places of pilgrimage (Kedarnath, Badrinath, etc.) you will get liberation. We do not want liberation, so what will go to those places for? It is said that among millions of karmis there is one wise person, among millions of wise people there is one liberated soul, and among millions of such liberated souls there is only one devotee of Krishna. When we can get the Lord by chanting His Holy Name, what is the use for us circumambulating all those holy places? What will we get by that? Why will we exert ourselves so much?

tirtha-yatra parisrama kevala manera bhrama

sarva-siddhi govinda-charana

"The trouble of visiting holy places is simply a mental delusion—all possible perfection is the feet of Govinda."

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur, "Anya-abhilasa chhadi...")

You can get all perfection just by serving the lotus feet of Govinda. Remember this. It is necessary to serve the feet of Govinda. It is necessary to make garlands for Govinda, it is necessary to offer bhog to Govinda, it is necessary to do arati for Govinda, it is necessary to worship Govinda. Who is this Govinda? Where will you get Govinda? He is there in His Deity form, be it Gopal or a picture of the Lord. If there is a picture of the Lord, you can serve that picture.

It is also said that if you practise just one of the devotional practices, you will get the result of practising all sixty-four devotional practices. You do not need to follow all sixty-four practices. If you go to the Math, you do not need to worry that there is nobody at home to worship that picture now. When you come to the Math, you listen to Hari-katha there, you chant kirtan, etc., through that the worship of your Deity (picture) is done. If you have a Deity, you can keep it, then it is necessary to worship, but if it is a picture you do not need to worry. When you come to the Math, you hear about Govinda, about the Lord, chant kirtan, take prasad, there too the Lord is offered bhog, then your picture's service is done automatically too. "Gopinath amara se eka-i anga haya" (Cc, 2.4.160), have you not heard it? When Madhavendra Puripad started walking to Vrindavan with sandalwood and camphor, Gopal said, "You do not need to carry it all the way to Vrindavan. Gopinath and My body are non-different from each other. They are one and the same. Give the sandalwood and camphor to the pujari, he will offer it to Gopinath, then My service will be done automatically too."

This is how you must think.

So, you do not have to practise all sixty-four types of devotional practices. The main practices are,

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

Sadhu-sanga is the main thing. If you associate with non-devotees, your devotion to Krishna will be destroyed. If you mix with those who are offensive to Vaishnavs, you will become an offender too.

'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'—sarva sastre kaya

lava-matra sadhu sange sarva siddhi haya

"Good association", "good association," all the scriptures keep saying. Only by good association can you get all perfection.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.54)

In good association, you will chant the Holy Name. You must practise Nama-sankirtan, Bhagavat-sravan. You must chant the Holy Name, you must listen to Bhagavatam. Next is Mathura-vasa. Does it mean you must go live in Mathura? No.

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)

The house where there is service of the Lord going on every day (where bhog is offered, where devotees are served) is Goloka Vrindavan. It is not necessary to go to Mathura. The place where perpetual service is going on is actually Goloka Vrindavan, then why is it necessary to go to Mathura? It is necessary to do parikrama in sadhu-sanga. We sing in one of the kirtans, "Ekaki amara nahi paya bala hari-nama-sankirtane" (alone I do not have the ability to properly chant the Lord's Name). That is why it is necessary to associate with devotees, that is why we go to Vrindavan, Puri together. To go to the holy places with devotees is good, but it is not necessary to go there on your own. When you go to a holy place with devotees, you hear about the glories of this place, you hear Hari-katha from their mouths. This 'builds' devotion. Your mind becomes absorbed by it. If your devotion does not increase, then taste will not come. It is necessary to have taste—when taste comes, then gradually attachment comes, and after that bhav, mahabhav, prema, asta-satvika vikara (eight kinds of transcendental transformations), etc. These things come later, there is no question of it now—such things came to Mahaprabhu, to great devotees...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Devotional Qualities

6 May 2018, part 9

It is said that it is not necessary to practise all sixty-four devotional practices. If you practise just one of them, you will get the result. Somebody does puja, somebody cooks, somebody washes the temple floor, somebody cuts the vegetables, somebody makes garlands, somebody picks Tulasi leaves—everybody does some service. Nobody says that only those who worship the Deity get the Lord.

It is said in the scriptures that if you do Deity worship during one hundred lives, then the Holy Name will come to your mouth. It is necessary to do puja for one hundred lives for this! Otherwise the Holy Name cannot come to your mouth. So, those who chant the Holy Name are very fortunate.

yanhara darsane mukhe aise krsna-nama

tanhare janiha tumi 'vaisnava-pradhana'

"When you see somebody and the Name of Krishna comes to your mouth, then you should know them as a highest Vaishnav."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 16.74)

I saw when Gurudev went abroad, we were once going in a car and there was a lady sitting on the street—naked, she was smoking and drinking alcohol—but seeing us she said, "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" She does not know Bengali, she does not speak English, but she said, "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" seeing some Hare Krishna people were passing by. When somebody leaves aside gambling, cards, etc. and chants the Holy Name, we feel that is our credit.

So, if "Hare Krishna" comes even once to somebody's mouth, if seeing us somebody says Hare Krishna, they get some benefit. We also get sukriti through that.

It is said that if somebody chants the Name of Krishna once, they are a Vaishnav (kanistha-adhikari); if somebody constantly chants the Name of Krishna, they are also a Vaishnav (madhyam-adhikari); and if by seeing somebody people chant the Name of Krishna, they are the highest Vaishnavs (uttam-adhikari).

Gurudev is always uttam-adhikari, but he has to come down to the position of madhyam-adhikari to take disciples otherwise he cannot make a disciple because he sees Krishna everywhere. Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was like that: when a disciple would pay obeisance to him, he would say, "Daso 'smi. I am your servant." Coming down to the level of madhyam-adhikari, he would say, "I am your servant." He would pay obeisance to his disciples. He taught us in this way.

"Sakale sammana karite sakati"—we must give honour to everybody. We pray to Gurudev so that we may be able to give honour to everybody; whether somebody beats me or does not beat me, so that I could give them sweets; so that if somebody chastises me I could give them some sweets, some prasadam. May the Lord give us such tolerance, patience. If we do not become like this, we will never be able to serve Guru and Vaishnavs.

So, we must realise that we do not have to go to Mathura, we do not have to go to Vrindavan if we can really, sincerely serve Guru and Vaishnavs, serve the Lord. Faith is everything. If we lose faith, we lose everything. Always remember this.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Vaishnava Stance

6 May 2018, part 10

I tell it to you all the time, "Have you become a sadhu or do you only look like a sadhu?" In this world, there are many pretending sadhus. It is very easy to pretend to be a sadhu—put on a tilak, wear a mala... Our Guru-varga never say they are Vaishnavs, they are very humble and they consider themselves very poor (ami ati dina). When Mahaprabhu went to Ramakheli, Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami fell at Mahaprabhu's feet with straw in their mouth showing that they considered themselves lower than cows. We, on the other hand, think we have taken initiation, so we have become big Vaishnavs. This is not Vaishnav's qualities. It is difficult to become even anything close to a Vaishnav.

At the recent festival in Nrisingha Palli, there was a man who had taken initiation from me a few days before, and he sat with the Vaishnavs in one line to take prasadam, they took pranami and an umbrella also. How did he become a Vaishnav? Ten days ago they take initiation and today they sit with the Vaishnavs from Mayapur and take prasadam with them. I chastised them in front of everybody, "What is this? Is this devotion? Is this what a sadhu is like? Why did you come to take initiation?"

Maharaj gives sannyas to somebody and they think, "Guru Maharaj is a sannyasi, I am also a sannyasi, I will sit with him." You must think, "Do I have the right, the qualification to sit in the same line with them? Have I earned the right to sit there?" Guru Maharaj gave me sannyas, I may be a sannyasi, but it is not like I will now go and sit next to him to take prasad. It can never be like this. You must use your judgement. Never think, "I am just like him." This is a matter of a very high rasa. This is sakhya-rasa. Sridam, Sudam, Balaram sit next to Krishna in one line to take prasadam, they eat together. This is very high level.

Prahlad Maharaj is a santa-rasa devotee. Tell me, can we ever be like Prahlad Maharaj? Santa-rasa comes before sakhya-rasa. Prahlad Maharaj, a santa-rasa devotee, was thrown into fire but he did not burn—if you fall into fire, will you burn or not? Then, what kind of devotee are you? Prahlad Maharaj was thrown under the feet of an elephant, can anyone survive that? And we think about dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, we become sahajiya and venture into madhura-rasa thinking the prema I feel doing my service is the same prema that Radha Krishna experience... This is sahajiya. There are many sahajiya sampradayas—aul, baul, karttabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sakhibheki, jata-goswami...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Life in Kirtan

6 May 2018, part 11

I have said many things, but it is necessary to practise through kirtan. "Kirtana prabhave smarana haibe: chanting of the Holy Name arouses remembrance" (Vaishnav Ke?).

Wake up early in the morning, chant five kirtans in the morning, five kirtans in the evening. It does not take much. Chant the kirtan of Guru, Pancha-tattva, Vaishnavs, Nitai, Mahaprabhu, after that Hare Krishna maha-mantra, Hari haraya, and finish. Chant kirtans and learn them by heart. This is practice. Bhajan means practice.

Guru Maharaj said, "You think it is so easy to chant Hare Krishna, but when somebody hits you, does Hare Krishna slip from your mouth or 'Mother! Father!'?" People say, "I chant one lakh Names," but Guru Maharaj said, "I struggle to chant four rounds, I cannot do even that because I become short of breath." When you chant all the time, then the Name of Krishna always comes to your mouth. When you always chant, then the Lord, the Lord's pastimes and discussions always come to your mind, then we can get the Lord. Always remember this. Learn the morning and evening kirtans by heart.

You can chant "Sri Guru-charana-padma", "Gurudev, krpa bindu diya" in the evening and in the morning. You can sing the Tulasi parikrama song in the evening and morning also; after that, a kirtan of Pancha-tattva—"Sri Krsna Chaitanya Prabhu doya koro more" in the evening and "Sri Krishna Chaitanya jive doya kori" in the morning. You can sing "Thakura Vaishnava-gana kori ei nivedana mora bada adhama durachara" in the morning and "Ohe Vaishnava Thakura" in the evening, followed by "Sri Krishna Chaitanya doya koro more," "Nitai-pada-kamala," "Gaurangera dyuti pada," or "Avatara sara gara avatara," or "Emona durmati." We mostly sing "Nitai-pada-kamala" in the evening and "Nitai-gunamani amar", "Akrodha paramananda Nityananda Raya" in the morning or at any other times. There are many kirtans for Mahaprabhu. Guru Maharaj always sang "Emona durmati samsara bhitare," you can chant it in the evening and in the morning. "Bhaja re bhaja re mana mana ati manda, bhajan bina gati nai re" is a morning kirtan. "Vibhavari sesa aloka prevesa nidra chhadi utha jiva" is also a morning kirtan. Everybody can chant kirtans. I do not have time to read the kirtans with a book and learn them by heart but after singing them at the programmes I learnt them by heart automatically. Practise in this way always. Always engage in the perpetual, daily service of the Lord.

Keep a photo of Guru-parampara or of Deities, wake up early in the morning, do arati every day. It is not necessary to have much money for that—just one bell, one plate and the arati paraphernalia (you spend so much money on doctors, medicine, etc. [everybody can afford arati paraphernalia if they want to.] If you do this daily, perpetual service of the Lord, then you can attain such perpetual service.

Why do we serve the Lord? Because we want to go to the Lord's abode. Do you think you will go there and just sit? The Lord's abode is an abode of service, and we must enter into that service, take part in it. If you make flower garlands here, you can go and do this service there too. If you cook and offer bhog to the Lord here, you can go there and get this opportunity to offer bhog there. If you wash the Lord's temple here, you can go there and get this opportunity there too. You must think in this way and always remember these things that I am telling you and practise it.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Our Day-to-Day Life

6 May 2018, part 12

We come to your house, to your village to encourage you to practise. It is not enough to only take initiation and chant four rounds on your beads in your room once a day. It will not do. When you take initiation, you must take prasadam, "Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad I shall conquer all worldly illusions." It is not enough only to offer worship to the Deity—you give garland, you give everything, but when the Deity is hungry you do not give any food. You must feed your Deity every day. Just as we eat every day, we must give food to the Lord every day. This is called perpetual, daily service (nitya-seva).

You must wake up early in the morning and do the arati. Do not watch TV, series, etc. You must stop doing it. Do arati, offer bhog, do archan, chant kirtans, take prasad, do noon arati, then give the Deity time for rest in the afternoon, then offer some fruit, sweets in late afternoon. Offer what you have—some have banana trees, some grow cucumbers, etc. Give whatever bhog you have to the Lord, then do arati again in the evening, offer whatever bhog you make, then put the Lord to rest and take that prasad. These are our rules. You must always follow them. "Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

I am living in Kolkata now [Sevak Bhavan], not directly in the temple, and I have told them there that first they must offer bhog to Gurudev, then we will take that prasad. There is Gurudev's photograph, Gurudev's things in his room, Gurudev is there, we can feel it, so bhog must be offered to him every day. Devotees go to the temple to take prasadam, but I do not go there without necessity. There, they also do the worship, offer bhog, give prasadam. It is actually a fortune to get Gurudev's prasadam. This is how we continue our life every day.

* * *

Great Stumbling Block

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 1

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)

First of all, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj begging him for his causeless mercy. After that, I am offering my obeisance to all Guru-varga, all the worldwide acharyas, to all my God-brothers and sisters, to all devotees and all of you praying for your mercy to this low soul.

Param Gurudev Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said one thing, and you must always remember it. I heard it from Guru Maharaj, and he heard it from his Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Listen. He said, "Vaishnava haite mane chhila bara asa, kintu 'trnad api sunichena' sloke parilena badha." Does anyone understand the meaning? It means, "I had a great hope to become a Vaishnav, but here is the stumbling block—the sloka 'Trnad api sunichena...'" Before you become a Vaishnav, you must become humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and give all honour to others without desiring any honour for yourself. If you just call yourself a Vaishnav, you can never become a Vaishnav like that.

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Listen to this carefully. These are very serious and astonishing words. It is not written anywhere in the books, but it can be heard from the mouth of the Guru-varga, Gurupadpadma. "You had a great hope to become a Vaishnav, but the stumbling block is the sloka 'Trinad api sunichena'." You must be humbler than a blade of grass, you must be more tolerant than a tree, and you must give honour to others.

Every day, when we do parikrama in the morning and in the evening, we sing in the kirtan, "Sakale samman karite sakati deha natha yatha-yatha: O Master! Please give me the ability to give honour to everybody properly." We must give honour to everyone. "O Gurudev! Give me the power, give me the brain to be able to honour others and consider myself lower and fallen." Nityananda Prabhu rescued Jagai and Madhai, but there are many among us who are deprived of service—they are more fallen that Jagai and Madhai. "Prabhu, I am more sinful than Jagai and Madhai!" Who said this? Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami.

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)

I am lower than the worms that live in the stool. He considers himself so low and destitute. He says, "I am more sinful than Jagai and Madhai and I am lower than the worms in the stool."

[Some noise.] Do not talk, listen attentively. You have heard many things in your life, but you have never heard these things—nobody tells this. Nobody tells what qualities are necessary to become a Vaishnav. I have told it many times,

"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.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

If you do wrong secretly, Gora will catch you, He knows what you are doing.

* * *

Mercy Above Justice

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 2

"Yogyata vichare kichu nahi pai tomara karuna-sara. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj often said, "Mercy above justice." Do you understand the meaning? It means that Gurudev's mercy is above any judgement, that there is no judgement applied in it.

I just remembered there was a man who was sent to prison by the Siliguri court. The court decided that he had to be hung. To appeal against the hanging, he went to the High Court in Kolkata, there too it was judged that he had to be hung. Then, he went to the Supreme Court in Delhi, and there too his sentence did not change—he had to be hung. Do you know what he did in the end? He appealed to the president, "I have made a mistake, please forgive me! I have a child and a wife, if I die, they will have no one. Please forgive me!" In the end, he was acquitted. Look at this—he went higher, higher, and higher, and in the end appealed to the president and got acquitted.

So, Gurudev can do what even Krishna cannot do. Mercy is above justice. When it comes to the mercy of Gurudev, there is no place for judgement. "If I judge myself, I get nothing; I cannot come to the Lord if I am judged by my qualification, but Gurudev, if I get your mercy, then I can get the Lord." How beautifully it is said. If I judge my qualification—if I think, "I am chanting the Holy Name, I have done so many things, I have done so many fire-sacrifices, etc."—I cannot come to the Lord through this, but, "Gurudev, if you give your mercy, then it is possible. Tomara karuna sara—your mercy is everything."

I have seen so many people leave their service, I have seen service leave many people, and sometimes I think about it. I remember Gurudev's words that this is actually natural. We must always think that it happens because of our own fault.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Five Diseases

6 May 2018, part 13

It is necessary to do prasad-seva, to serve prasadam. You know the ekadasi kirtan, it is written there, "Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad I shall conquer all worldly illusions (prapancha)."

Prapancha means there are five faults, five diseases—avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits). Just as we have different bodily sicknesses—diarrhoea, etc.—there are also five material diseases.

Avidya means ignorance, nescience. Everything that you study at school is called avidya, ignorance. Material knowledge (jada-vidya) is ignorance (avidya). As a result of this ignorance, the jiva soul forgets its own identification. The soul forgets that "I am an eternal servant of Krishna." That is called ignorance.

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela

ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

Big scientists say, "We have discovered everything! We have done everything! God has nothing to do with this." But if God has nothing to do with it, then what is the very life, the soul, of a human being? As long as you are alive, the doctors can save your life, but once you are dead, can they save you? The soul forgets its own identity, its own conscious form (chit-svarupa), forgets that, "I am not this body, I am a spirit soul." This forgetfulness is called ignorance (avidya).

Next is asmita. This is mayavadis conception, identification with the body ("I am this body," "This is my wife," "These are my children," and so on). Is this actually true? It is not. I am a soul, and the body is made of five material elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether).

Raga means attachment to the material things and body, always thinking about one's body and its upkeep.

Dvesa means engaging in unfavourable actions in order to enjoy the material world, material and bodily consciousness. It also means that, for example, you see somebody chanting the Holy Name and you feel jealous of them. I do something to get something and if I see that somebody else does it, I feel envious. That is dvesa. Actually, we are neither enjoyers, no renunciates. Suppose there are some mangoes on a tree. Somebody picks a mango and eats. That is an enjoyer. Somebody says, "No, I will not eat it!" That is a renunciate. Both are wrong. We must pick that mango, peel it and offer to the Lord, and give prasad to everybody. That is service. And the opposite mood is dvesa.

Finally, abhinivesa. It means attachment to pleasant material things (that are unfavourable to devotion) and being unable to give them up, being unable to accept the things favourable to devotion. I know that it is unfavourable, but I cannot give it up. For example, I know gambling is bad, but I cannot give it up; I know smoking is bad, but I cannot give it up; I know it is not good to look at girls or feel some desire towards ladies, but I cannot give it up; or I cannot give up fish, meat, etc. That is called abhinivesa.

These are the five diseases. If you take prasad, these five diseases go away.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Learn to Be Human

6 May 2018, part 14

If you serve prasadam, the five diseases go away. These five diseases are listed in the calendar. You can read it carefully there.

Actually, you can give class just by reading the calendar. Before these things were not in the calendar, but I have put it there so that people can know it and understand it. Only I give class and you listen—why cannot you give class? What is the problem? If you can give a class sometimes, I want to hear it. I tell you these things every time, you too must learn these things.

What did Mahaprabhu say? "I have come to this house and I will not come here again. Now you must make all the villagers devotees. It is your responsibility. Come with them to Nabadwip, to Puri, to Ekachakra, Vrindavan. Make pilgrimage with them and they will get some devotion." This is not easy—you must shed gallons of blood to make somebody a human.

Do you remember what Rabindranath Tagore said? "This great multitude of children, O doting mother, confining them to a Bengali identity, you have not let them discover the greater in humanity." It is necessary to learn to be human.

* * *

Prasad's Purifying Power

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 6

Do you remember what is called prapancha? I have told it to you before many years ago. Prapancha means five diseases. First you must remove these five diseases, then you can take medicine. Suppose I make a guess and give you some random medicine—will it work? First you must diagnose the disease. First you do a blood test, then you can see if you have diabetes, if you have blood cancer or typhoid or something else. So, it is written that there are five prapancha (diseases). You can find this written in our calendar also.

Avidya means ignorance, ajnana. Almost everybody in this world is ignorant. People pass MA, MAC, PhD, MP—they get so many university degrees, but they are all unknowledgeable, they are caught in the net of ignorance. You can say, "What are you saying?" But I tell this in front of them also. They say, "We are great scholars, we are scientists! We are not ignorant, we are scholars." My reply to that is, "You cannot see yourself, you do not know who you are, that is why you are ignorant. As long as you do not have the conception of your real self, you are ignorant. Those who have the knowledge that they and this body are not the same, are true scholars, they know they are a spirit soul, and this body is merely made up of five gross elements."

Many people say that Brahman is the highest, for example Rabindranath Tagore also said it. He is a world-famous poet, everybody knows he is a good poet, a great thinker, but I would say he is ignorant. Why? Because he says Brahman is the highest and there is no atma—everything finishes when the body is finished.

So, avidya, or ajnana, means forgetfulness of one's own soul. We forget our own soul. We always think in terms of "me" and "mine"—my house, my room, my son, my family, etc. What does it mean? It means we forget the spirit soul. I am not this body, I am atma, a particle of the Lord. My name is such and such, but this is not me. It is necessary to understand this. Everything belongs to the Lord; there is a spirit soul within me that is a particle of the Lord, and this body is made of five material elements—those who have understood this are called jnani, they are not diseased.

The second prapancha (disease) is asmita—identification with the material body, strong attraction to one's wife, husband, child, little attraction towards the Lord, considering this body to be the self, always worrying what will become of this body, worrying about death. This is called asmita. Remember it, I will ask you later.

Next is raga. It is not anger (rag), it means attachment to the things favourable for the body. It means worrying, "Oh, when I lose this body, what will become of me? What if I die? Who will look after me when I get old?" (The Lord will take care of you.)

Dvesa means aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment. It means you have attachment to the material things and no attachment to the Lord.

Then, there is abhinivesa: being unable to give up unfavourable habits. You must accept what is favourable to devotion, but at the same time if you do not give up what is unfavourable to devotion, that is called abhinives. It is same as taking milk and taking tobacco—you take milk thinking of your health, but if you take tobacco, or pan, at the same time, then all the benefit of the milk is destroyed. I do something good, I chant the Holy Name, I serve the Lord, and in the meantime when I get time I sit and gossip, talk about this and that, listen to stories, talk bad about others, criticise others. What happens then? Then all these unfavourable things destroy the benefit of the favourable activities. If you do service for two hours and gossip for four hours, then the result of the unfavourable activities will be stronger, and in the end the sukriti you have come with will diminish.

Remember this. These are the five diseases called prapancha. How can this prapancha go away? By serving prasadam. You only need to take prasadam, then all these five will go away.

Suppose today they cooked eggplant, potato and patal (they do not cook karela), and you think, "It is Purushottom month now, I will not eat today!" so you go boil some karela on your own and take it mixing with rice. Taking something without offering it to the Lord—taking unoffered food—is not Vaishnava-dharma. You must give up taking unoffered food and take only what has been offered to the Lord. When you take food that has been offered to the Lord, you get relief from whatever sin that is committed while cooking. When you cook, so many souls (insects, etc.) die—when you burn fire, when you cook something, how many insects and plants suffer at that time! But if the plants are cooked for Govinda, they get some benefit. This is how one must live. "Prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad all material faults are removed."

Always remember this, always take prasad. Even if you stay at your home, cook and offer the bhog to Gurudev, and then take his prasad.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : "What sort of wealth makes you so rich?"

6 May 2018, part 15

Sometimes, I remember Rabindranath Tagore's words; what he says is not untruth, but his conception is brahma-jnani. In one of his poems, he writes, "What sort of wealth makes you so rich that you dismiss a touchstone? I place your feet on my head praying for a particle of that wealth..."

There was once Jivan Chakravarti who lived in a village called Mankar. He was very much devoted to the worship of Lord Siva. He always prayed to him. One day, Lord Siva appeared before him and said,

"Jivan, you have worshipped me so much. Tell me, what do you want from me?"

"Prabhu, can I ask you for something?" replied Jivan Chakravarti.

"Yes, tell me, I will certainly give it to you."

"My daughter has grown up and must be married, and I need some wealth for that."

"Listen, where will I get wealth from? Go to Vrindavan. There, you will find Sanatan Goswami—if you ask him for some wealth, he will give it to you."

"OK, I will definitely go there then."

He started walking and finally arrived in Vrindavan. He asked somebody on the street, "Where does Sanatan Goswami stay?" He was told, "There is Dvadasatila temple, he stays nearby with Madan Mohan." Jivan Chakravarti went there and asked a brahman,

"Sir, do you know Sanatan Goswami? Do you know where he stays?"

"Why? It is me."

"Really? It is you?..."

"Yes, do you not believe me?"

"Are you sure it is you?" He asked him a few times. Then, Sanatan Goswami asked him,

"Where did you come from?"

"I have come from a village in Bengal called Mankar. My name is Jivan Chakravarti..."

"What did you come for?"

"Lord Siva has sent me here."

"Lord Siva? What for?"

"To get wealth."

"Wealth?? Where will I get wealth? I go for madhukori collection every second day or so, I get some roti and maintain myself with that. Where will I get you wealth?"

"I also thought so. I think I have made a mistake by coming here." Looking at Sanatan Goswami, he thought, "At my house, we have some brass dishes, but this sadhu has only mud dishes..." Jivan went away, but as he began walking suddenly Sanatan Goswami called him, "Wait! Listen, I have remembered something. I went to the Yamuna to take bath the other day and I found there a touchstone. I threw it away somewhere there. Go and look for it in the sand."

Jivan Chakravarti went to the bank of the Yamuna but could not find anything there. He came back to Sanatan Goswami. Sanatan Goswami was surprised,

"You have come back? Have you got it?"

"No, Prabhu. I have not found it."

"Oh, so I must go there myself? OK, come, come with me."

Sanatan Goswami came to the bank of the Yamuna, dug a little sand and found the touchstone. Jivan Chakravarti had an iron kavach on his arm, and as soon as he touched the touchstone to that kavach, and the kavach turned gold. He was very happy. Sanatan Goswami said then, "Take it and go back to your home. Now you will be rich, you will have everything—house, money, car, your daughter will get married well, etc."

Jivan started walking back home, but, looking at the touchstone in his hand, he thought, "That sadhu wears torn clothes, lives in a mud house, but he throws this touchstone into the sand. Nobody throws such valuable things away. No doubt he has something more valuable!" He came back to Sanatan Goswami. Sanatan Goswami was surprised,

"Again you? Why have you come back?"

"I have a question..."

"What is it?"

"What kind of wealth makes you so rich that you dismiss a touchstone? I place your feet on my head desiring a particle of that wealth." (This is a quote from one of Rabindranath Tagore's poems.) "O sage, you disregard a touchstone—what sort of wealth do you have that you throw a touchstone away?"

"Do you want that wealth? Will you take that wealth, Jivan?"

"Yes, Prabhu, I want that wealth."

"Then, you must first throw this stone away. It may be a touchstone, but you must give up this attachment."

Jivan went to the Yamuna and threw the stone into the river. There was boat in the river, chained to the bank, and as soon as the stone touched the chain, it became gold. Then, Jivan came back to Sanatan Goswami and Sanatan Goswami told him, "Stretch your hand." He gave him chanting beads and said, "This is that wealth. Take this and chant the Holy Name."

In the meantime, everything went so well at his home, there was no end of prosperity—his daughter got married well, everything went very well without any problem, his sons ran the family, while Jivan became a sannyasi and stayed with Sanatan Goswami...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Lord's Department

6 May 2018, part 16

If you keep faith in the Lord, if you think about the Lord, the Lord looks after everything. You have heard the stories of Sudama Vipra, Vidura, and others. There are many stories about it.

It happened in Mahaprabhu's time also. Srivas Pandit was a grihastha (householder), he had a wife and a son, and everybody criticised him, "He goes for collection, but uses the money to maintain his family! He hoards money for himself!" When this reached Mahaprabhu's ears, He thought, "I cannot close these people's mouths, but I can stop Srivas." So, one day, Mahaprabhu said to Srivas,

"Srivas, I want to tell you something, will you do what I ask? From tomorrow, you must not go begging."

"Prabhu, You tell me Yourself—there are always kirtans in my house, everybody always comes for the kirtan in the evening, so will they stay here and leave with empty stomach? Must I not give prasadam to them? Must I offer bhog to the Lord and not give prasadam to them?" replied Srivas Pandit.

"No, no, you will give prasadam to everybody."

"Where will I get it from? How will I manage?"

"I do not know about this, but from tomorrow you must not go begging."

"All right, do not worry, I will not go," Srivas Pandit replied and then said, "Ek tali, du tali, tin tali [One clap! Second clap! Third clap!]!"

Mahaprabhu was surprised, "What language is that? Ek tali, du tali, tin tali??"

Then, Srivas Pandit explained, "One day, two days, three days. I will manage one day without eating. I will manage the second day without eating. And on the third day, I will not make it—I will jump into the Ganges."

"Srivas, you must believe what I say! Even if Laksmi Devi herself has to come from Vaikuntha to go begging for you, you will never have to beg again in this life."

[Devotees: Hari bol! Hari bol!]

After that, Srivas Pandit saw that every day there was no end of money, things, vegetables, etc. Later, one day, Mahaprabhu asked him, "So, Srivas, how are you getting on?" Srivas Pandit admitted, "Prabhu, 'getting on' means so many vegetables come, we cannot finish them all—there are many things that they get spoilt before we can finish them!"

Such is the glory of the Lord. If the Lord does not give something to somebody, they will not get anything, and when the Lord gives, He gives in abundance. Always remember this.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Beautiful Kirtan

6 May 2018, part 17

We want saranagati (surrender). Always read the Saranagati kirtans—there are very beautiful kirtans in this book by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. I can remember one kirtan now, it is the most beautiful kirtan:

sarvasva tomara, charane sapiya,

padechhi tomara ghare

tumi ta' thakura, tomara kukkura,

baliya janaha more [1]

"I have offered everything at Your feet and taken shelter in Your home. You are my Master; please consider me Your dog."

badhiya nikate, amare palibe,

rahiba tomara dvare

pratipa-janere, asite na diba,

rakhiba gadera pare [2]

"Tie me up nearby and maintain me. I will remain at Your doorstep. I will not allow any inimical persons to enter; I will keep them on the far side of Your moat."

"Tie me to your door, keep me near you." You know how faithful a dog is. "When your enemy comes (somebody who is not a devotee of Krishna), I will bark and chase them away, and if your own men come, I will affectionately see to them and give them a seat."

tava nija-jana, prasada seviya,

uchchhista rakhibe yaha

amara bhojana, parama-anande,

prati-dina habe taha [3]

"Whatever remnants Your devotees leave behind after honouring Your prasad I will eat every day with great joy."

And when we go to distribute prasad, we look how much paneer or sweets we give because we are afraid nothing will be left for us. This is not service to devotees. It is said here, "With great joy, I will take whatever remnants your devotees leave after honouring your prasad."

basiya suiya, tomara charana

chintiba satata ami

nachite nachite, nikate yaiba,

yakhana dakibe tumi [4]

"While sitting up or lying down, I will always think of Your feet. I will come to You whenever You call me, dancing all the way."

"I will come to you dancing when you call me." It is such a beautiful kirtan...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Question from Ladies' Quarter

6 May 2018, part 18

Tell me, do you have any questions? I have told so many things. There are so many things, so many stories—it would take a whole life to tell them all. I can tell you stories all day and night. If you have any questions, tell me, then perhaps something else will come to my mind. Why are you sitting quietly? Do you not have any questions? Not even one question? You should ask, foreigners always ask so many questions.

One time, I remember I went to Russia. I gave class in the morning and in the evening, there were many sannyasis (Ashram Maharaj, Janardan Maharaj, Avadhut Maharaj, Tirtha Maharaj, and many others) sitting along the stage. Guru Maharaj was not there at that time. One of the sannyasis said, "Let Acharya Maharaj take a question now," so it was my turn to take a question from the listeners. Suddenly, all ladies stood up from their seats and one of them said on behalf of them, "Please tell us, what is our fault? Maharaj gave class in the morning and said that Mahaprabhu had three and a half servitors. (Svarup Damodar, Raya Ramananda, Sikhi Mahiti are the three servitors and Sikhi Mahiti's sister, Madhavi Devi, was the remaining half of a servitor.) Why is a lady considered only half a servitor? Are we not complete? Why are we only a half??" When I heard her say this so forcefully, I thought, "O Lord, save me!" I began calling out to Gurudev, praying, "Gurudev, Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswarti Thakur did not write about this in his commentary to Chaitanya-charitamrita—nobody has asked this question and nobody has given an answer to it. Gurudev, please, you give the answer to this question! Only you can answer it, it is not possible by me." Then, I said, "There is one reason why Svarupa Samodar, Raya Ramananda and Sikhi-kanta Mahiti are three servitors and Madhavi Devi is only a half. Madhavi Devi cooked very good dishes and she would send them for Mahaprabhu, but she could not sit in front of the Lord and serve that food to Him. Because she was a lady, she could do only half of the service, and she could not do the other half. She wanted to serve the Lord directly—she wanted to sit near the Lord and serve Him the dishes she had cooked, but Mahaprabhu did not allow it. That is why she is half a servitor. She could do only half of her service, and all other servitors, boys and men, could sit with Mahaprabhu, could feed Him, but Mahaprabhu kept Madhavi Devi far because she was a lady. He allowed her to cook inside the house, but did not allow her to come in front of Him." Later, I told Gurudev what had happened and told him the reply I had given, and Gurudev said, "Yes, what you replied is true."

In this way, they ask so many questions...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Entering Higher Abode

6 May 2018, part 19

Foreigners ask so many questions, "Why must we worship Krishna and not Jesus or Buddha? What does Krishna do? He only steals all His life! Why must I worship Krishna? Why is Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Why is Lord Rama not the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" They ask me questions like this... You know these things and understand it, but those who come from other countries, come from a different religion—some come from a Christian background, some come from a Muslim or Buddhist background, but when they take initiation, they shave their heads and take the Holy Name!

Before, they used to eat beef, pork, lamb, goats, cats' and dogs' meat, but they come here, become vegetarian, and they chant the Holy Name, they do service. Do you think it is easy to come to this line? Even people from India cannot give up meat and fish. I try so hard, I tell people so many times that if you kill any soul, later that soul will come to kill you. I tell people so many things, but, attached to the pleasures of their tongues, they cannot give up eating meat and fish, or they agree to give up meat, but not fish—they take fish and think they are vegetarian. You cannot offer these things to the Lord; it is not written anywhere in the scriptures that you can do this.

It is very hard for the people of this world to come to this path, and even if everyone was to go to the Lord, what would become of the world then? It is not so easy to come to the Lord. Not everybody can cross the Viraja River—and it is not money that you cross it with, you can only cross it through service, through service to Vaishnavs, the Lord, the Guru. If you can engage yourself in this service while here in this world, then you can cross the Viraja River, and after the Viraja, there is Paravyoma, and then Goloka. Many people go to Vaikuntha because many people want liberation, and the abode of liberation is in Vaikuntha, but it is very difficult to cross the Viraja and enter into higher abodes. In order to cross the Viraja, it is necessary to chant the Holy Name, to serve the Vaishnavs, the Guru.

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva

iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, relish chanting the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

You must be merciful to the souls, you must feel taste for the Holy Name and you must serve the Vaishnavs. "Chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba: without service to Vaishnavs, you cannot get relief." Service to Vaishnavs is necessary.

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You must try to engage yourself in service. Be always joyful and serve the Vaishnavs. I always tell you, "Have you become a sadhu or do you only dress as a sadhu?"...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Internal and External

6 May 2018, part 20

"Being a sadhu or pretending to be a sadhu?" "Playing the role of a householder (pretending to live family life) or living as a householder (becoming involved and engrossed in family life)?" We must not live a family life, but we must maintain the role of householders. People can look at you and say that you are a householder, but you must not have attachment to family life or to this world in general. If you have attachment to this world, you will not get the Lord. If your mind is always engrossed in searching for good food, etc., you will not get the Lord because that world is different from this world.

You must give up all attraction to or fascination with this world, just as Jivan Chakravarti did—in the end, when he got the touchstone, he gave it up. He gave up what is small and insignificant to get something big. In the same way, when our Guru Maharaj came to his Guru Maharaj, his family had came to the temple many times to take him back. When I came to the temple, they came to take me back too.

One day, I was standing on the roof of the second floor of the building where I stay in Nabadwip when suddenly I saw an old lady walking down the road. I recognised it was my mother. I went downstairs and told the gatekeeper that an old lady was coming and she would ask about this person (I told him my previous name), and I asked him to tell her there was not such person there. I had to be so hard. My mother came looking for me from so far, but I told the gatekeeper to tell her I was not there and she left.

Maya is very strong...

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Twisted Turn

6 May 2018, part 21

There was a lady from Midnapore—she took initiation from me two years ago and came recently to Nrisingha Palli. She came a week before the festival, the festival was on Sunday, and on Monday I heard from my room that someone was crying. When I looked outside I saw that the lady was sitting opposite my door and crying. I asked her, "Why are you crying?"

"I am your disciple..." she said.

"Where did you come from?"

"From Midnapore."

"Midnapore? Who did you come with?"

"Devotees were coming all together, I came with them."

"Why did you not go with them? They have already left."

"I will not go back home. I have come to stay."

"You have come to stay, but do you have a husband at home?"

"Yes, I have, and children also, but they kicked me out, they did not even let me take my chanting beads with me. I only took a bag with some clothes and left as I was."

I told her to go into a room and stay there the night. The next day I was going to Kolkata, so I told her, "I will give you new beads, and tomorrow, when I go to Kolkata, I will take you to Kalna, you can stay in the ladies' ashram." I left her in Kalna where she stayed happily.

In the meantime, her two sons began looking for her. They went to our Midnapore temple, and they called me from there, asked about her. I said I did not know anything. Then, they came to Dum Dum Park, Kolkata. They would go out into town and look for her the whole day. I got their phone number and called them one day, saying, "This is Maharaj. Where are you all?" They said, "We are at the Howrah train station. We know you have a ladies' ashram in Kalna, we are going there." I asked them, "Are you going to talk to your mother?" "Yes," they said, "but we have not told her that we are coming." So, the two sons came to Kalna.

They arrived there by rickshaw and told the rickshaw wallah to wait because they were going to bring their mother. However, when they met with their mother, she said, "You can go yourself, I will not go anywhere." She sent them away. She said, "I getting along fine here. I am doing service, and I am at ease here. You two are grown up now, you can run the family. I cannot tolerate your atrocities anymore. I am serving the Lord here and I am OK." The sons could not persuade her, but before they left they gave their mother a mobile phone. That mobile phone did it for her—maya can attack in many ways.

One day, one of the sons called her and said, "Your younger son has not come home, he is missing one day already." She called me, "Gurudev, I have made an offence at your feet, my younger son is missing, he has not come home since one day already..." I told her, "It is all a lie. They are all plotting against you and trying to get you back. If you want to go there, you can go, I do not have anything against it. If you like it here, you can come back again." She said, "I will hang myself there, I will jump under a train!" I told her, "I have already saved you from suicide once! There is no offence in what you are doing this. If you miss your family, you can go back there, and if you struggle there again, you can come back."

That is maya for you. First she shows you something sweet, and then she will slowly, slowly suck your blood and finish you in the end.

You can see also that when a wife and a husband are old, they each get their share of pension—the wife gets her half, and the husband gets his half. What happens when the husband dies? The wife gets his pension. But if the wife dies, then nobody gets her pension. And what do people do? I saw yesterday in the newspaper—one man got a life certificate of his mother and used it to get her pension for eight years after her death! He managed to collect twenty-four lakhs rupees in those eight years. When his mother was alive, he got her to sign a life certificate that testified that she was alive, but after he had collected twenty-four lakhs in this way, the police caught up with him and arrested him. When I read this, I thought, "His mother died so long ago, but he was still sucking her blood!" That is the point—when the husband dies, the wife sucks his blood, and when the wife dies then her son sucks the blood from her dead body...

I think about all these things...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Samagata Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande haribol!

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya-varya Sri Srimad Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay! Harinam sankirtan ki jay! Nitai Gaura premanande haribol!

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Seek Shelter and Guidance

6 May 2018, part 22

[After the kirtans, His Divine Grace continues the class:]

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)

First of all, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj begging him for his causeless mercy. After that, I am offering my obeisance to all Guru-varga, all the worldwide acharyas, to all my God-brothers and sisters, to all devotees and all of you praying for your mercy to this low soul.

Today, you have spent some time listening to Bhagavat-katha, Bhagavat-kirtan. The Name, form, qualities, pastimes, features and associates of the Lord are completely non-different from the Lord, and there is nobody except the Lord Himself or His very own associates who can distribute them. So, we must always listen to such kind of favourable talks—the talks that can give some benefit to us. We may feel in our mind that we do not like these talks, yet these talks do not do any harm to our souls. Just as curry (vegetables) are the food for the body, the food for the soul is Krishna Nama sankirtan (congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Krishna). Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said,

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)

"Do not say anything except the Name of Krishna." We must listen to the Bhagavat-katha under the exclusive guidance of a bona fide devotee. You have heard also what Sivji Maharaj had said: "Aham vetti, Suka vetti, Vyasa vetti na vetti va. I know it, Sukadev Goswami, the son of Vyasadev, knows it, but Vyasadev himself, who composed Srimad Bhagavatam, may or may not know it." He who composed Bhagavatam may not know its meaning, but Sukadev, his disciple, knows it. Then, you can understand—where will you read Bhagavatam? You must understand that Hari-katha must be listened to through Guru-parampara. "Bhagavata pada Vaisnavera sthane, ekanta asraya kara Chaitanya-charane: Read Bhagavatam under guidance of a Vaishnav and take exclusive shelter of the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu."

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 complete cheating."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.1.2)

Srimad Bhagavad-gita also says,

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)

"Give up all religions and surrender to Me, I will look after you." You must give up all kinds of religion. The Lord Himself says, "Whatever religion I have given in Vedanta and other scriptures, leave everything. Surrender to Me alone, I will look after you."

It is necessary to listen to Hari-katha following exclusively in the footsteps of a Vaishnav, or Guru-varga.

One time, Parvati Devi asked Sivji Maharaj, "Of all kinds of worship, what worship is the best?" He said, "The highest is the worship of Lord Vishnu." Parvati Devi became upset, thinking, "I worship Lord Siva, but he says that the worship of Lord Vishnu is the best..." Understanding her feelings, Lord Siva said then,

aradhananam sarvesam visnor aradhanam param

tasmat parataram devi tadiyanam samarchanam

"Of all types of worship, worship of Lord Vishnu is best, and better than the worship of Lord Vishnu is the worship of His devotee, the Vaishnava."

"The worship of Lord Vishnu is the best, but even better than that is the worship of His devotee." Vaishnavs are those who serve Lord Vishnu, who are devotees of Lord Vishnu.

Worshippers of Lord Siva are called Saivites, worshippers of Surya are called Sauras, worshippers of Ganesh are called Ganapatyas, and worshippers of Shakti are called Saktas. These are the five kinds of worshippers in this world—Saktas, Saivites, Ganapatyas, Sauras, and Vaishnavs. Those who worship Shakti [Goddess Devi in any of her manifestations, such as Durga Devi, Parvati Devi, Saraswati, Lakshmi, et al.] go to heaven where that goddess stays—they enjoy there for many hundreds of years and in the end have to again return from heaven.

If you engage in pious works, you can also go to heaven, but you have to again come back to this mortal world. Only when you come to this world and engage in the service of the Lord, can you go to the abode of the Lord. As long as you are not able to engage in the chanting of the Lord's Names, in glorifying the Lord's qualities, you will have to keep on coming back, keep dying and being born again. We have got this human birth, the lifespan of this body is some hundred-hundred-twenty years, and fifty-sixty years have already passed, then who knows how much time you have left... If you want to get the Lord in this lifetime, you will not get Him by meditation, fire-sacrifice, or any yoga. Even if somebody says that one Holy Name equals a million fire-sacrifices, this is an offence. Even a million fire-sacrifices cannot equal chanting the Holy Name once—if you chant the Holy Name one time only, the result you will get is more than a million sacrifices. So,

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje

svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or asram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krsna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26)

If you practice brahmacharya (celibacy), grihastha (householders' duties), vanaprastha (duties of a retiree from household life), or sannyas (renounced order of life), whatever ashram you stay in, whatever varna you belong to, if you do not worship Lord Krishna, you will have to fall into a terrible hell and keep coming and going in this world and suffer a hellish existence. We must always think about this. How can we get the Lord? How can we get service of the Lord? If you want mercy, you must engage in service of the Lord and the Guru. Always remember this.

* * *

HARI-KATHA IN KULGACHIA : Closing Appeal

6 May 2018, part 23 (last)

When Mahaprabhu came in this Kali yuga, He said,

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

"Do not sleep, souls! Wake up! Worship Krishna! Give up your sleep! You must come to Me, you must come back to Me!" How can we come to Him? The scriptures give the prescription, "If you worship Me, you will come to the abode where I live." If you serve Lord Siva, you will go to Siva-loka, if you serve people, you will go to the human plane, if you serve the jiva souls, you will go to an abode of jiva souls, but if you serve the Lord, you will be able to enter the abode of the Lord—the abode of service to the Guru, the abode of daily, perpetual service.

Krishna comes in this Kali-yuga as Mahaprabhu, Radha-Krishna's combined form, to tell everybody, "Wake up! You have lost your address, you have lost your home. This is not your address, you must come back to Me." We are searching for the Lord, and at the same time the Lord is searching for us, His lost sons. We must go back to Him, otherwise we will never be able to get the Lord.

We must listen to Hari-katha from the sadhu, Guru, and Vaishnavs. There are many sadhus in this world, but the scriptures give a description of symptoms of a sadhu, and this is how you can see if one is a sadhu.

It is said, "I have had a great hope to become a Vaishnav, but here is the stumbling block—the sloka 'Trnad api sunichena...' (to be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, give honour to others without desiring it for yourself)."

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Practise the tolerance like that of a tree. Do not ill-treat others, instead nurture them."

Do not be cruel to others—if somebody does something bad to you, you must not do something bad to them in return.

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Live without causing anxiety to others; do good unto others without considering your own happiness."

You must forget your own happiness for the sake of others. You must be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and give honour to others. If you do not follow this, you will never get the result, you will never get the Lord. It is necessary to understand this, to know this and to explain it to others. Others must know this.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

“Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others.”

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Live without causing anxiety to others; do good unto others without considering your own happiness."

Forget your own happiness and try to help others. This is my prayer to you all—always chant the Holy Name of the Lord, offer bhog to the Lord, take His prasad, and take shelter of a bona fide Guru. Without service to the Lord you will never get rescued—you will have to keep coming here again and again.

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli

tabu tattva na sikhili

nijer matha nije khaili

e-dosa dibe 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?"

It is my fault, not yours—I am my own friend, and I am my own enemy. If I cannot help myself, I will not be able to help others (if I cannot save myself, I will not be able to save others). Always remember this.

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva

iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

There is no other religion except mercy to the jiva souls, chanting the Holy Name and service to Vaishnavs. Be merciful to the souls, bring the souls who turn away from Krishna to this path, then you will get super benefit, you will get super result. This is our prayer to you all. We have not come here to chant the Holy Name, we have come here to make you chant the Holy Name. We have not come here to sing songs, to sing lila kirtans, we have come here to make you chant the Holy Name. If even one of you comes to the Math, this would be good. It is a great fortune to be able to stay at a temple and serve the Lord...

You must all chant the Holy Name, come to the Math, always serve the Lord, then I will feel great peace and joy. If you feed me well, if you give me nice food, it will not make me happy. If you chant the Holy Name of the Lord, if you preach Gurudev's message, then I will be much happier. Even if you give me millions of rupees, it will not make me happy. How can you make me happy? Serve the Lord, serve with the Ganges water and Tulasi leaves. Serve through Vaishnav seva, Ganges water, and Tulasi leaves, and the Lord's Deity...

Ganges water, Vaishnav and Tulasi are always self-manifest. Wherever you get Ganges water, you must take it on your head; wherever you see Tulasi growing, even if it is somewhere on the street, you must pay obeisance; and whenever you see a Vaishnav or a Deity of the Lord, you must always pay obeisance. It is not necessary to make installation for Tulasi or Vaishnavs. When Gurudev gives somebody a certificate, it is not necessary to give them any further certificate. So, when you hear that certificate, take shelter of a real Guru, and serve the lotus feet of the Lord, then I will be extremely happy.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol!

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya-varya Sri Srimad Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay! Harinam sankirtan ki jay! Nitai Gour premanande haribol!

* * *

Half-Hen Logic

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 3

Question: Could you tell something about ardha-kukkuti nyaya ("half-hen logic")? What should we learn from that pastime?

Ardha-kukkuti nyaya is about not having faith. A man came to do puja of Mahaprabhu to the house of Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother, and when Minaketan Ramdas, a devotee of Nityananda Prabhu, came there, they had no faith in him. They love Mahaprabhu, they have love and affection, faith for Mahaprabhu because Mahaprabhu had told everybody to tell,

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)

Mahaprabhu had told everybody to preach the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, to chant the Holy Name, but what did Nityananda Prabhu chant?

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!"

Nityananda Prabhu did not chant, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna"—He chanted, "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!"

So, there was some programme in that house of Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother, but they did not give respect to Nityananda Prabhu, they only gave respect to Mahaprabhu.

Nityananda Prabhu is an avadhut—sometimes He changes the colour of His clothes, sometimes He goes house to house; some people could not recognise Him.

Balaram's avatar serves Krishna with ten hands—pillow, conch, chamara fan, peacock fan, etc. And even more than that—Balaram always protects Krishna. Only when Kaliya-daman lila happened, Krishna went there alone, and there was some problem. Balaram was not there at that time. Balaram always protects Krishna, and here also Nityananda Prabhu is asraya-vigraha. Krishna's Name, beauty and pastimes are non-different from Krishna. Although Mahaprabhu told to preach Krishna's Name, Nityananda Prabhu did not do wrong—He preached that Krishna is non-different from His Holy Name, beauty and pastimes. So, what He did was correct—He preached, "Say Gauranga, Take Gauranga's Name. Gauranga is also a very nice Name! Take the Name of Gauranga!" But they did not give respect to Nityananda Prabhu...

Gurudev also said that if you pay obeisance to the Lord and not pay obeisance to the Lord's servant, the Lord will not take that obeisance. That is why when we do puja, we first do Guru-puja. And Nityananda Prabhu is non-different from Guru—He is asraya-vigraha. If you do not take shelter of asraya-vigraha, you cannot go to take shelter of visaya-vigraha (Mahaprabhu is the visaya-vigraha)—He will not accept you.

Nityananda Prabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami also, "Ai chora, ai!" What does 'chora' mean? A thief. He said, "Come, thief, come! I will give you punishment! You must feed everybody, all Vaishnavs, today, then your offence will be removed. You have done wrong. Without My consent, without My instruction, you wanted to go and secretly meet with Mahaprabhu in Shantipur. That is why you are a thief. You went to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu without My knowing, without knowing Me first, that is why Mahaprabhu did not accept you so many times. Now I am giving you your punishment!" Punishment means mercy, and when Raghunath Das Goswami got that mercy, he said, "I am paying obeisance to You, please put Your feet on my head. Please give me some mercy—only you can take me out of this illusory environment, only You can rescue me." Then Nityananda Prabhu said, "Now you can go and meet with Mahaprabhu." Finally, he got that mercy.

Here also, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami got Nityananda Prabhu's mercy. Nityananda Prabhu told him, "You must not associate with them!" Giving respect to one and not giving respect to the other is ardha-kukkuti nyaya (half-hen logic). It means when you cut a chicken, only side gets mercy and not to the other one.

Gurudev gave also gave another example. There is a kind of a bird (I forgot its name in English) that goes to a jungle and closes its eyes thinking, "Now nobody can see me!" It closes its eyes and thinks nobody can see it now, but only it closes its eyes, and everybody can see. So, if you have ardha-kukkuti nyaya [half-hen logic] it means you will not get mercy, you will be like that bird. It happens in life. If you go to the visaya-vigraha and do not give respect to the asraya-vigraha, you will not get mercy. This is ardha-kukkuti nyaya.

* * *

Greatness of Gaudiya

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 4

Question: Gurudev, could you explain what Gaudiya is? What does the word 'gaudiya' mean?

You can understand it from one joke also... One time, Iskcon sent a brahmachari devotee here to invite Gurudev for the appearance festival of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj. He first came to me and said he wanted to see Gurudev, I said "OK" and took him to Gurudev. It turned out that the devotee did not know the name of our temple and wrote 'Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math' on the envelope with the invitation. When Gurudev saw it, he said, "Oh, Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math? Who are they? This is not Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math here. Prabhu, please forgive my offence, but we have not been able to become Gaudiya yet." The boy got very shy, "Oh, this is a mistake..."

This is what Gurudev said, in a joking way.

Actually, 'gaudiya' means Mahaprabhu's conception, the real conception. One time, Mahaprabhu chastised one man and His chastisement was only calling that man a gaudiya. Why?

When everybody was cleaning the Gundicha temple in Puri, that man took water that was used to wash Mahaprabhu's feet and he began throwing it into the air. Mahaprabhu saw it and showed anger, "Do you see it, Swarup Damodar? Do you see? Can you see what your gaudiya is doing?! Do you see what kind of character he has?!" This is all Mahaprabhu said—he only called that man a "gaudiya".

Actually, that man is a very perfect devotee. When everybody threw their plates, he would come and take that prasad. And he was very clever. Mahaprabhu did not allow anyone to touch His feet, what to speak of washing His feet and taking that water—this was very far. That man has so much love and affection for Mahaprabhu, he actually has the deepest devotion, that is why he is very clever—it is said, "Ye jana Krsna bhaje sei bada chatur: those who worship Krishna are very clever."

When he began throwing that wash water in the temple, the water came down and he put his hand and drank that water. Mahaprabhu saw it and said, "Do you see, Swarup Damodar? Do you see how bad your gaudiya is?! What is he doing?! He washes My feet in the temple and then takes that water?!" Thinking that Mahaprabhu was very angry, Swarup Damodar quickly grabbed than man by his neck and threw him out. Mahaprabhu was very happy—not because Swarup Damodar had thrown him out, but because He wanted to teach others. Internally, He felt very happy to see that that man had so much devotion. No one could do what he did. Big, big devotees, great senior devotees are all great big personalities, but no one of them could do what he did—only this one small old man came and taught everyone. That is why Mahaprabhu called him a gaudiya. One who knows Mahaprabhu, who knows the conception of Mahaprabhu, who knows Gauranga is called 'gaudiya'. That man knew the inner feelings of Mahaprabhu, knew His inner fulfillment, that is why Mahaprabhu said, "You are a 'gaudiya'!"

* * *

Simple, Sweet and Pure

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 5

Question: You were mentioning distributing simple, sweet and good things, not external things. Could you elaborate on that?

Yes. I tell simple things. Pure things means not imitation. We must not imitate devotees. Gurudev said, "Sadhu haowa, sadhu saja na—you must be a sadhu, not pretend to be a sadhu." It means only wearing a sadhu's dress outside and having other material desires inside. All that glitters in not gold. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told many examples about this. Just as externally, Harinam and Nama-aparadh look the same, a real sadhu and a pretending sadhu also look the same, but internally they are not.

We do not want to show so many things to others externally. Showing one thing externally and doing something else internally is not right. A sadhu must always give to others, not take from others; he may take for himself only what is necessary to maintain his life. We can show so much opulence, but how many percent devotional activities is there in it? Sieve it and you can measure how much purity is there.

If you look through a coloured glass, you cannot see things in their real colour. If you wear coloured spectacles, you will see everything in a different colour—if you put on blue glasses, you will see everything is blue; if you wear black glasses, you can see black everywhere. You must wear real glasses, then you can see how many percent of devotional activities is there inside something.

We can easily pretend, put on a show or a drama and we can easily convert people within a few minutes, but how will you be finally able to rescue them from the illusory environment, to take them to the main world, to the main destination? It is very difficult. You can easily convert people for a few days or a few years, but it is very difficult to actually take them from the illusory environment and take them to their destination. You can convert people through your pretending, through your drama or acting, but finally you will not be successful.

Our Srila Sridhar Maharaj's conception is pure and sweet, and you can easily accept it. Actually, we cannot accept it easily because we have a disease—we cannot digest pure things easily. For example, if you have a stomach problem (if your stomach is weak) or you have a liver problem and you take pure ghee, then you will have even more problems with your stomach. So, you must be without offence, you must be pure and clean. Make yourself pure through sravan and kirtan, through practising, then you will be able to accept these what is called simple things—you will be able to digest these small, sweet things easily and you can go to your destination.

* * *

Embarking on New Life

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 6

Question: At your Vyasa Puja in 2011 we heard beautiful words from you saying that you had not come to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math for Krishna, Radharani, or even Mahaprabhu, that you had come for something else. Could you explain that to us?

Yes...

Gurudev says that many people come who are arto, jijnasur, artharthi, jnani (the afflicted, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of happiness, and the self-realised; Bg, 7.16). Somebody is very poor, somebody comes to ask for money, somebody comes to earn money or knowledge. There are devotees who come for these things, but we do not come for that—we do not know who is Mahaprabhu, we do not know who is Krishna, who is Radharani. We do not know anything about that, we do not see it. I never tell anyone, "OK, you can join Chaitanya Saraswat Math, I can give you Krishna! I can show you an elephant with five legs ([a Bengali saying] hatir panch pa dekha)! I can show you so many things! I can show you some magic, I can show you tantra magic! I can show you Krishna now!" Chaitanya Saraswat Math does not tell things like that. Chaitanya Saraswat Math only tells simple things—we have come to our Guru through his love and affection. Srila Sridhar Maharaj also writes this about his Guru:

krpaya hari-kirtana-murti-dharam

dharani-bhara-haraka-gaura-janam

janakadhika-vatsala-snigdha-padam

pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

"He is the embodiment of Hari-kirtan. He mercifully relieves Mother Earth of the burden upon her. He is an associate of Sri Gaura, and more kind and affectionate than a father. Eternally I offer my obeisance to my master's feet."

"Janakadhika-vatsala"—Srila Sridhar Maharaj writes that his Guru is more affectionate than a father. We have come to our Gurudev, and what we have got from him is more than even our own father. He can chastise and say many things, but he does it out of love and affection. If we can please him through service to him, that is our happiness.

If you have no other material desires in your heart, you will feel happiness through service. You can see it yourself by serving him and continuing like that day by day.

When I joined the temple and met Gurudev for the first time (after that I listened to many of his lectures and took initiation), I thought, "My eighty-four lakhs (84,000,000) of births are already finished." I understood it clearly. "Darsane pavitra kara ei tomara guna: you purify souls simply by seeing them, such is your power." When I saw my Guru for the first time, this feeling came to me, "Now my eighty-four lakhs of lives have finished, I will not go back to that wheel of samsara (samsara-chakra) again. Now I must practise (that is, I must do his service, I must fulfil his desire)." This is what I thought before initiation, when I saw him for the first time. So, yes, I did not come for Krishna, I did not come for Radharani.

And, as everybody else, I can see some milestones and understand how far it is to my destination. Everybody can come and join and when they practise properly, they too can see the milestones and understand what distance it is to their destination…

* * *

Remedy for Stagnation

2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 7

Question: When we receive some inspiration or motivation for service in our heart, how can we keep it for a long time? How can we maintain that enthusiasm?

That depends only upon the devotee. I have told you that it is down to surrender and non-stopping service. You must understand that you are always surrounded by maya, maya is always nearby (nikatastha maya tare japatiya dhare—nearby Maya seizes the soul; Prema-vivarta, 6.2)

You must be always alert that maya is near you. As soon as we start to neglect our daily service—if we keep even a little distance, we do not do so many activities and start some material works—then slowly, slowly that service will be removed. How to keep it? Through sincerity, nistha. When you do something, and you must do it every day, non-stop. When you do some service, you must do it every day, with sincerity, nistha. You must be a sincere seeker, you must have chastity.

You think, "Oh, I am tired today, I will not do it." You must stop and think, "No, my mind is feeling tired! No! I will wake up!" Haridas Thakur said also, "Yes, Prabhu, it is correct. I am not sick, my mind is sick." If you do your service every day with sincerity, then you will get energy, you will get enthusiasm. Gurudev said, "If you want to play football, the ball will always come to you; and if you are scared of the ball and keep some distance from it, then the ball will run away from you." If you always go forward, service will always come, more and more.

"Oh, this service has come today... No, I will not do it today, I will do it tomorrow." Tomorrow you will have another job. No. "I will do now. Gurudev gave me this service today, OK, I will do it." Not today—do it now. If you think, "Oh, I will do it later, I will do it tomorrow," then tomorrow you will be even lazier and gradually that service will run away from you. So, it depends on your activities. It is necessary to be active and to act, otherwise day by day you will be going down.

You can check yourself—do you do more and more service or less service every day? If you think you are doing less, then it is not good, you must jerk yourself and wake up, "No, I must do it now!"

I can tell you my own example also. Three-four days before ekadasi, I think, "Oh, I must finish all service, all works, before ekadasi, then on the ekadasi day I will not have to do so much. There is no breakfast on ekadasi, so I will be hungry in the morning and will not be able to do that much." So, I finish everything before ekadasi, but on the ekadasi day more things come up! On the ekadasi day too I have to go out, run here, there, and I think, "Oh, this is my good fortune!" My example is like that.

* * *

Service Life—not Leisure

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 3

You have heard this kirtan (I always sing it), "Sukhe duhkhe bhulo nako vadane Harinam koro re." You must chant the Holy Name whether you are happy or sad. Not that you are sad, you call out to the Lord, and when the Lord gives you happiness (gives you a car, a house, money, etc.), then your forget the Lord. After that, when again some unhappiness or difficulty comes, you again remember the Lord. Is this what the scriptures say? It is not.

Just now I received a letter, one of our Maharajs (Sripad Parvat Maharaj), was admitted to hospital diagnosed with blood cancer. He is staying there, chanting the Holy Name. He came to Nrisingha Palli at Gaura Purnima, then went with us for the disappearance festival in Tarakeshwar. He stayed in Kolkata and did a lot of collection. In Gurudev's time also, he would come every year and do the collection for Gaura Purnima. And when he collects, he does not collect some 200 rupees, he collects 10-15,000 rupees from a person, sometimes 1,500-2,000 rupees from a person. This is the kind of collection he does. But when he went back to his country, he got to know he had leukaemia. They do not have the medicine for this even in America, but they admitted him to hospital and they can help him for some time with medication. Anyway, even in such circumstance, does it mean you will stop chanting? There was another Maharaj also, Sripad Vaishnav Maharaj (Srutasrava Prabhu). He too had cancer, but he took sannyas and started travelling country to country and preaching. He said, "Must I lie in my room and do nothing now? Better I go country to country and preach about the Holy Name." Parvat Maharaj also wrote to me saying he was in hospital, remembering the Lord and Gurudev, chanting the Holy Name, and that whether it was today or the next year, he had to die and leave this body any way.

So, "sukhe duhkhe bhule nako vadane Harinam koro re: in happiness or sadness, never forget it, always chant the Holy Name."

Even when you are very sad, will you leave the Lord's service? Will you give up the Holy Name? When I first came to the temple, I heard that my mother had been going to many places looking for me, then she heard that I had taken sannyas and was staying in a temple. She understood she had lost me forever and she cried so much. In the end, she had a heart attack and died. By Gurudev's mercy I could stay in the temple, and so many things happened during that time—when I just came, there were only three buildings there... Recently, after all the atrocities there, I was forced to leave, but I cannot stop my work—I cannot stop my service, I cannot stop the parikrama. They tried to stop me in so many ways. One time, I was told that when I was returning from Siliguri, when I got off Testa Torsa express train, there were some gundas who had tried to shoot me. They got to know that I was on that train, but when they shot the bullets, the bullets did not fire. If I was to die there, it is OK, but because Gurudev protected me, I am still alive. What can I do? Always sit inside a room? Must I not go out now? Must I not chant the Holy Name? Must I not go out for preaching? I have no time. I have got some time and I am using it.

I have come here for the Deity installation anniversary festival; I have promised to go to other places also for preaching and I must go there; later also there is Panihati chira-dahi festival; in July there is Ratha yatra parikrama programme, I must go there. Not so long ago Sripad Puri Maharaj left his body in Puri, it was necessary to make a good festival there, so I went there myself. So, the preaching is always hectic, there is always much to do. There was also Nrisingha-chaturdasi festival recently, I spent there a week arranging the festival. There was Deity installation at the Nrisingha Palli temple there—now the worship and service is running there properly. It is not easy though, there are two temples there—one side there is Gaura Nitai and the other side there is Laksmi Nrisinghadev and Prahlad Maharaj. People sweat to do puja in one temple, and here there are two temples.

I do not think that this is all an austerity. Whatever the Lord sends, it is good. It is not like I will leave my service because of that or will have ego—we must leave our ego...

* * *

Servitor's Chastity

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 4

We must leave our ego. If you do not give up your ego, you will not get the result. When your boat becomes too heavy (you have too much ego), it will sink. Ego must go away through service and practise. If you do service and ego does not go away, then you can understand that this is not service.

Ego destroys everything and removes us from service, so it must be given up. You do service for one day and start thinking, "Oh, I am the manager! I am so big!" What is not right. We are only servitors. Whatever service the Lord gives, that is good. We are not enjoyers and we are not renunciates—we are servitors and we must think like servitors. We are not managers, we are not in charge of the Math. If you do not understand this, you are in danger. We must always think about this.

"Sukhe duhkhe bhulo nako vadane Harinam koro re: in happiness or sadness, never forget it, always chant the Holy Name..."

The temple here was opened in 2007 and since then you have heard so many things here, but actually the real and proper conception and chastity have not come yet. First it is necessary to be sincere, then detachment must come, then taste. After these three, chastity comes. Very few people have chastity—those who have chastity do not know anything except Krishna consciousness, except this conception, do not understand anything except it. Gopis were like that, and such mood must come to us...

* * *

Painless Existence

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 5

Think about it yourself: why have you come to this line? Why do you chant the Holy Name? Why do you practise? Why do you serve the Lord? You can answer these questions and judge it yourself.

I have also one question for you. How many thousands of living entities do you kill every day in order to stay alive? How many jiva souls do we kill each time we breathe (each time we inhale and exhale)? How many plants do you kill when you cook rice or cut vegetables? You take cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, etc., but you do it at the expense of killing so many living entities. Even when you drink water, you kill souls. When you go down the street for your own purpose, so many ants, insects die, or when you drive a car, so many frogs, snakes, etc. die. And all fault is yours.

You will have to suffer the result of all this sin, birth after birth. If you commit sin in this life too, then you will suffer its result next lifetime (it can be this lifetime, it can be future lives). What is the only way to escape this sin? Srimad Bhagavatam says (1.1.2):

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 complete cheating."

You can change your life though. Nobody tells you that you must give up whatever job you are doing ("grhe thako, vane thako, sada 'Hari' bole dako, whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name"); but you can use your life in the service of Govinda. Somebody lives in a family, somebody stays at a temple, somebody lives alone—if you cook, offer the bhog to the Lord and then take His prasadam, you will get supreme benefit. When you offer bhog to the Lord and take that prasadam, then whatever sin you commit (by killing the living entities) is removed. "Prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad all material faults are removed."

Do you remember what the five material diseases, or faults (prapancha), are?

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Prasad's Purifying Power

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 6

Do you remember what is called prapancha? I have told it to you before many years ago. Prapancha means five diseases. First you must remove these five diseases, then you can take medicine. Suppose I make a guess and give you some random medicine—will it work? First you must diagnose the disease. First you do a blood test, then you can see if you have diabetes, if you have blood cancer or typhoid or something else. So, it is written that there are five prapancha (diseases). You can find this written in our calendar also.

Avidya means ignorance, ajnana. Almost everybody in this world is ignorant. People pass MA, MAC, PhD, MP—they get so many university degrees, but they are all unknowledgeable, they are caught in the net of ignorance. You can say, "What are you saying?" But I tell this in front of them also. They say, "We are great scholars, we are scientists! We are not ignorant, we are scholars." My reply to that is, "You cannot see yourself, you do not know who you are, that is why you are ignorant. As long as you do not have the conception of your real self, you are ignorant. Those who have the knowledge that they and this body are not the same, are true scholars, they know they are a spirit soul, and this body is merely made up of five gross elements."

Many people say that Brahman is the highest, for example Rabindranath Tagore also said it. He is a world-famous poet, everybody knows he is a good poet, a great thinker, but I would say he is ignorant. Why? Because he says Brahman is the highest and there is no atma—everything finishes when the body is finished.

So, avidya, or ajnana, means forgetfulness of one's own soul. We forget our own soul. We always think in terms of "me" and "mine"—my house, my room, my son, my family, etc. What does it mean? It means we forget the spirit soul. I am not this body, I am atma, a particle of the Lord. My name is such and such, but this is not me. It is necessary to understand this. Everything belongs to the Lord; there is a spirit soul within me that is a particle of the Lord, and this body is made of five material elements—those who have understood this are called jnani, they are not diseased.

The second prapancha (disease) is asmita—identification with the material body, strong attraction to one's wife, husband, child, little attraction towards the Lord, considering this body to be the self, always worrying what will become of this body, worrying about death. This is called asmita. Remember it, I will ask you later.

Next is raga. It is not anger (rag), it means attachment to the things favourable for the body. It means worrying, "Oh, when I lose this body, what will become of me? What if I die? Who will look after me when I get old?" (The Lord will take care of you.)

Dvesa means aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment. It means you have attachment to the material things and no attachment to the Lord.

Then, there is abhinivesa: being unable to give up unfavourable habits. You must accept what is favourable to devotion, but at the same time if you do not give up what is unfavourable to devotion, that is called abhinives. It is same as taking milk and taking tobacco—you take milk thinking of your health, but if you take tobacco, or pan, at the same time, then all the benefit of the milk is destroyed. I do something good, I chant the Holy Name, I serve the Lord, and in the meantime when I get time I sit and gossip, talk about this and that, listen to stories, talk bad about others, criticise others. What happens then? Then all these unfavourable things destroy the benefit of the favourable activities. If you do service for two hours and gossip for four hours, then the result of the unfavourable activities will be stronger, and in the end the sukriti you have come with will diminish.

Remember this. These are the five diseases called prapancha. How can this prapancha go away? By serving prasadam. You only need to take prasadam, then all these five will go away.

Suppose today they cooked eggplant, potato and patal (they do not cook karela), and you think, "It is Purushottom month now, I will not eat today!" so you go boil some karela on your own and take it mixing with rice. Taking something without offering it to the Lord—taking unoffered food—is not Vaishnava-dharma. You must give up taking unoffered food and take only what has been offered to the Lord. When you take food that has been offered to the Lord, you get relief from whatever sin that is committed while cooking. When you cook, so many souls (insects, etc.) die—when you burn fire, when you cook something, how many insects and plants suffer at that time! But if the plants are cooked for Govinda, they get some benefit. This is how one must live. "Prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya: by honouring the Lord's prasad all material faults are removed."

Always remember this, always take prasad. Even if you stay at your home, cook and offer the bhog to Gurudev, and then take his prasad.

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Inner Wealth

22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 7

...Another thing is that you must be a sadhu, not pretend to be sadhu. It is very difficult to be a sadhu, and it is very easy to pretend to be a sadhu. Do you understand what a sadhu means? Somebody who is wearing a renunciate's dress, etc. You can see many of such people in the world.

Suppose I wear the uniform of a policeman and take a gun, do I become a policeman? I will be a false policeman. In the same way, there are also false sadhus in this world, and everybody must be careful of them. If somebody has a car accident, some glass breaks and scatters everywhere on the ground, and you go past in a car—seeing these bits of glass glittering in the sun, you think they are diamonds, so you stop the car and scoop some in your hand. What happens then? If you take glass in your hand, will you not cut your hand? You will. In the same way, if you come to such false sadhus, they will bring inauspiciousness in your life and your religion will be destroyed. They are a pitfall on the path to the Lord. Such sadhus are all over the world—they put on tilak, mala, they look just like a real sadhu. They dress as a sadhu, inside they are full of envy and insincerity, false renunciation. That is why it is said—you must be a sadhu, not pretend to be a sadhu.

Also it is said, you must pretend to be living in a family, but you must not live a family life. Suppose you have a family. You should stay in your family showing that you live with them, but internally you must have no attachment to them, you must have more attachment to the Lord. Always chant the Holy Name, and you will see that such mood will come to you—you will get the supreme benefit. We are advised to live in a family externally, but we are forbidden to live a family life. Live always remembering this.

The nature of a sadhu is

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)

You must always, all the time chant the Holy Name. You have all heard about Vasudev Vipra. How did he live? You must listen to it with your very heart.

Vasudev Vipra had worms in his skin—he had leprosy. The worms would eat his flesh and fall out of the sores on his body, but he would scoop them and put them back into the sores. He thought, "This rotten body will be burnt one day at the Ganges or Yamuna, so if these worms are happy to eat my body, let them do so, let me bear the struggle."

We must have that kind of patience, forbearance, we must have that kind of tolerance. O Lord, when will that day be mine?

trnadhika hina kabe nije mani

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I feel that I am lower than a blade of grass, when will I bring the quality of tolerance into my heart?"

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"When will that quality of tolerance be mine, O Lord? Please tell me when will that day be mine?" Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes this. When will the Lord give me the ability to tolerate? We must always think about this. It is necessary to tolerate otherwise you will not get any result. Always tolerate, always be patient.

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Example for the World

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

28 June 2018, part 1

Today is the installation day of Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. Every year this day comes and you celebrate it very happily. Nitai Gaur appeared in Caracas many years ago and you have been celebrating this festival every year for fifteen years. Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra have also very happily been taking service from the Caracas devotees for these fifteen years.

There are so many obstacles in your country, you have so many problems, but still you are doing this service for Venezuela without thinking about yourself. So many austerities, so many troubles, so many problems come, but still you serve Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra in this situation in Venezuela, and Nitai Gaurachandra are very happy—They know how much you are suffering. You are struggling to collect some bhog, etc., but Nitai Gaurachandra know how much you do for the Deities. I am also happy with you all because even in this situation you still serve Nitai Gaurachandra.

Krishna, Lord Nityananda, Lord Gaurachandra are always with those who do service without any complaint, with much tolerance and humbly—with the three qualities of humility, tolerance and giving honour to others. You are tolerating so much in this situation—you are suffering so much, facing a very bad and difficult condition—and you set an example for the entire world. You must get the result for this tolerance. I am sure that you will get the result and you will be successful in everything.

I will give you one example of what service mood is. You have heard the story of Gauridas Pandit, a dearmost devotee of Lord Nitai Gaurachandra. Gauridas Pandit had a disciple called Chaitanya Das, who was also a dearmost devotee of Gauridas Pandit. Gauridas Pandit had many disciples—there were many educated and scholarly disciples—but Chaitanya Das was uneducated and like foolish, so Gauridas Pandit told him that his only service was to cultivate and take care of the Deities' garden—to water the trees and plants in the garden. Although Chaitanya Das was uneducated and foolish, he followed what his Guru had told him and did that service (watered the garden) every day. Other devotees always went to their Guru Gauridas Pandit—they would pay him obeisance, hear his lecture, his Hari-katha; but Chaitanya Das said, "I have no time to go to Gurudev because I am always doing the service that Gurudev has given to me." He was also very afraid to come in front of his Guru. So, he did not see his Guru so much and he was always busy with his service because at that time there were not pipe lines—he would go to a pond (the Ganges) and bring water in a bucket on his head, and then give that water to all the plants...

One afternoon, Gauridas Pandit went to see the garden and how Chaitanya Das had been taking care of it. When he came there, he saw so many flowers blooming and he was very happy, "Oh, how nice the garden is! Very good." He was very happy to see it. As soon as Chaitanya Das, who was just coming with a bucket of water on his head, saw his Guru, he was also very happy and smiled, "Oh, my Guru has come today to see my garden! I am very fortunate!" and he immediately put the bucket of water on the ground and paid obeisance to his Guru. When Gauridas Pandit looked at Chaitanya Das and saw his head, he was astonished because Chaitanya Das had a very bad infection in his head and there were so many insects in it, but Chaitanya Das had never complained and he was still bringing the water. Gauridas Pandit said to his disciple Chaitanya Das, "What is this?! You have never told me, you have never complained to me, but you still bring the water on your head! Come, come, come to me." Gauridas Pandit took him to a hospital, provided treatment for him and after that Chaitanya Das's head got cured.

Later, when Gauridas Pandit became very old, he started thinking who would take care of his temple after him, who would be his successor. Even though he had many scholarly and educated disciples, he did not appoint any of them his successor, but he declared Chaitanya Das to be his successor. After Gauridas Pandit's demise (disappearance), everybody was very angry and all these educated scholarly disciples kicked Gauridas Pandit out of the temple. Chaitanya Das did not complain.

When they ousted him from the temple in Kalna, Chaitanya Das went to Vrindavan. There, he slept under a tree and always chanted, chanted, without thinking about anything. He felt, "This is not a problem, I do not need a temple, I can stay under a tree." One day, a big rich merchant from Delhi had a dream. Lord Nityananda Prabhu came to him in a dream and said, "Prabhu, one of My devotees is suffering so much, he does not have any house. You have so much money—please make a temple for him." When the rich man woke up, he wondered, "What is this? I must go and see that devotee." When he arrived in Vrindavan, he saw a sadhu (Chaitanya Das) sitting and chanting the Holy Name under a tree, and he made a temple for Chaitanya Das. After that, Chaitanya Das stayed in that temple and made so many disciples and so many more temples. As for his previous temple in Kalna where Gauridas Pandit and Chaitanya Das stayed, that temple was eventually broken because all the scholars were fighting among each other.

Then, you must understand that those who have the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, who have the mercy of Gurudev, have everything, but those who do not have any mercy from their Guru and Nityananda Prabhu, have nothing. You can have many temples, many buildings, much money, etc., but if you have no mercy from your Guru, from Nityananda Prabhu, then you have nothing.

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