Monkey's Life

By His Divine Grace
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
31 May 2013

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

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

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

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

"What idea?"

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

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

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

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

Jay Gurudev.

· · • • • · ·

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Download (2.2 Mb)