To Be or Not to Be—No Such Question

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Speaking online to devotees in Caracas, part 5
22 July 2012

Question: I engage in so many sinful activities that I am thinking it is better I neither die not live...

You can read this sloka from Srimad Bhagavad-gita (9.30),

অপি চেৎ সুদুরাচারো ভজতে মামনন্যভাক্ ।
সাধুরেব স মন্তব্যঃ সম্যগ্ব্যবসিতো হি সঃ ॥

api chet suduracharo, bhajate mam ananya-bhak
sadhur eva sa mantavyah, samyag vyavasito hi sah

"If even a very sinful person serves Me exclusively with devotion, he should be regarded as saintly, for his resolve is perfect."

This sloka says that if you think you have done some sinful work, you can surrender to the Lord, you can serve the Lord, then Krishna will remove all that sinful activity and He will engage you in His service.

Why should you die? Death is not a better option, it is actually worse for you. If we have service to Krishna, if we have service to the Lord, then we must engage ourselves in His service—why should we die? To die means to finish this body. If you have no service, then death is good, but when you have service, why will you die??

If we die, we will have to come back, but if we can fulfil Krishna's desire, if we can finish Krishna's service in this life, then it is not necessary to come back—we will not have to come back and be born again. If Krishna thinks, "I need to send him for My preaching, for My job," then Krishna will send us here again, just as Guru and devotees always come in a human body.

Krishna sends us to serve Him, so we must chant His Name, we must serve Him. Always remember this. What does Krishna send us in this human body for? Not for enjoyment and living like other jiva souls. If we do the same things that other jiva souls do [sleeping, fearing, defending, mating], then what is the difference between us and them? Then there is no difference. Krishna has sent us in this human body to service Him. It is easy to understand this. Those who have intelligence and brain (sumedha) can easily understand this.

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