Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-March.1.

A Typical Worldly-minded Person

All saints have prescribed a remedy for the common man's attachment to the sensory world. Shri Samartha, in particular, investigated and accurately diagnosed this 'disease' as consisting in the belief that worldly life is pleasurable, whereas it is fundamentally the exact opposite. To effect a cure, however, needs a medical regimen besides correct diagnosis. The medicine must be the one appropriate to the illness. Spirituality will be acceptable to one who finds worldly life rife with misery.
A confirmed drunkard squanders all his money and belongings in drink. When not drunk, he thinks quite sensibly about his wife and children and his life in society, but his reason fails to find the way out of the impasse. To forget the tangled situation, he resorts again to drink even more vigorously, until eventually he lands in utter ruin. Exactly similar is the situation of the common man with his infatuation for worldly life. He feels charmed when he begins. After some time he becomes wearied and loses his zest and, despairing of ever being able to pursue the spiritual quest, again plunges into worldly life until, finally, he miserably succumbs.
One who seeks to inflict harm on others is bad enough, but the world has at least the chance to defend itself. On the other hand, who can help a person who is determined to ruin himself? Isn't it truly suicidal? So, too, is one who thinks of nothing but the material world and material life. Knowing well that they are illusory and transitory, he tries to feel happy with them. He takes it for granted that God has created the world for him to enjoy, and gets more and more entangled with it till he comes to his end. Men do the self-same things every day, without noticing the monotonous repetition; the same eating, the same service or business, the same striving for money, and such other things. The marvel is that they do not feel bored with the monotony. The reason can be either that it is genuinely pleasurable, or that greed and hope have no end. Evidently, the latter is the correct reason; greed and desire are truly insatiable. Is it not surprising that, though repeatedly disproved, the idea that worldly life is going to be pleasurable is one to which man fondly and tenaciously clings? One who refuses to take his own experience into account can never learn wisdom.
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Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-March.1

श्री ब्रह्मचैतन्य महाराज गोंदवलेकर यांची प्रवचन 

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-March.1

ಶ್ರೀ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಚೈತನ್ಯ ಮಹಾರಾಜರ ಪ್ರವಚನ 

Sri Maharaja's Pravachan in Marathi - Feb.29

Sri Maharaja's Pravachan- in Kannada -Feb.29

Sri Maharaja's Pravachan in English- Feb.29

Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-FEb.28

Pray God Only for Love for His Name

What blessing will you pray God for? Ask Him only for love for His name and nothing else. Make no mistake in the matter. A teacher may have taught his students very efficiently during the year, and given them all the likely questions together with the correct answers; yet, at the time of examination, he cannot guide them even if he is present and notices that an answer is incorrect. I am in that position. After all, it is for you to pray and beg for the favour you desire, and I caution you in the matter lest you ask for something other than love for His name.
If you never let the nama of the Lord slip from memory, whatever the circumstances, your mind will not be agitated by pleasant or unpleasant happenings. A man gets frightened when calamities befall him. But at least those who believe in God should not get scared. When the father covers his face with a veil to pretend being a bug-bear, the child becomes apprehensive, but once it knows that it is only its father pretending as a bug-bear, it gives up all fear. So, too, everyone should remember that all happenings are the acts of God or our sadguru. This will remove fear and sorrow for unpleasant happenings as well as jubilation over pleasant happenings. For this, one should constantly meditate on the Supreme Being.
Sometimes we find that a thing does happen as we desire, but it does not result in happiness; conversely, it also happens the other way round. In other words, we cannot judge immediately whether a happening is ultimately conducive to our happiness or sorrow. So let us learn to wait and watch before we jubilate or grieve over anything.
When the body goes through suffering, which is the result of prarabdha we should be glad like one repaying a debt. To evade prarabdha is equivalent to evading a creditor. Prarabdha is nullified only when the ego dies out. Remember what Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, asked for from Lord Krishna: "Lord, I cannot blame you for what I suffer, for it is simply the result of my prarabdha; but if that suffering keeps me in constant awareness of your presence, then pray keep me always in suffering throughout my life." Let us realise the wisdom underlying this request, and do our utmost to remain in communion with God.