Exclusive Opportunity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
15 November 2010

"Jivana anitya janaha sara (জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার)"—this life is not certain, we can leave at any time... This life is not eternal, but you have got a good chance, a good opportunity and you must try to use this opportunity—you must use this body for the service to the Guru. This is the main point. If you do not use this body for the service to the Lord, it will be wasted.

Why did Krishna send me here in this body? To serve the Lord. For example, trees also have jiva soul inside but they cannot do service to the Lord themselves; cows also cannot serve themselves but if you use the milk of the cow to make some sweet rice, then the cow can get a chance to do some service. Human being can do serve, but they do not do it because their consciousness (chetan) are covered by the illusory environment—that is why in this age of Kali Krishna comes as Sri Krishna Chaitanya and gives consciousness to the souls (Krishna consciousness).

...There lived once a lady in Hapaniya, do you know what kind of opportunity she got? She did service to Gopinath. Hapaniya is a very nice place for bhajan, and that Gopinath Deity was installed by Sripad Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj, Jajavar Maharaj—you can understand what a great opportunity this was. But she lost it [got married and left]. Why? Because

ভুক্তি-মুক্তি আদি-বাঞ্ছা যদি মনে হয় ।
সাধন করিলেও প্রেম উৎপন্ন না হয় ॥

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya
sadhana karile prema utpanna na haya

"If you have material desires, if you want liberation, enjoyment, some mystic powers, and so on, then even if you practise all life, or life after life, prem, divine love, will not come."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.175)

Many years ago also, I had another experience. I was going from Vrindavan to Kolkata and came across a sweeper boy in the train. If you have travelled by train in India, you have seen small boys, ten-twelve years old, go from train to train, sweep the floor and ask for some money. They collect maybe one rupee from here and there. This is how they maintain their life. I saw one boy like this at Mughalsarai (it is from from here, about eight hundred kilometres) and asked him,

"Did you eat anything today or yesterday?"

"No, I have not eaten anything today," he answered.

"What do you do with the money then?

"I give it to my mother."

"Does your mother not give you food?"

"Sometimes she does not, sometimes she does... Sometimes people give me something to eat—if they eat something, like a banana, they can give a half of the banana to me if I ask..."

I offered that boy to come with me and stay at the temple. I gave him some good nourishment and told Sripad Tirtha Maharaj to look after him. Tirtha Maharaj was the manager of our Kolkata temple at that time, so he took him to our Dum Dum Park temple. Tirtha Maharaj is actually more affectionate—I can chastise somebody, but he never chastises anyone; so he gave him some good cloth, good prasadam, everything, but at two o'clock at night the boy jumped over the wall and ran away.

Do you see? A ten or eleven year old boy, he has no food, no house.. Just as you can see many homeless people at Howrah or Sealdah stations who have no houses and sleep in the open air at the station, but if you bring them here where so much prasadam is wasted every day and given to the dogs, if you give them a nice room, they cannot stay. Why? Can you say why?

This is not an easy place to stay in. If it was that easy why is then Laksmi Devi still crying in Belvan? Why cannot she cross the Yamuna and join the rasa-lila? It is very difficult to do intimate service—you need not just a little fortune, a great fortune is necessary for that. But we have at last got this kind of opportunity, and we must use it. Do not lose your chance.

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

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