Going Home?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 9 March 2015

When devotees come to their own home, it is a great joy, a great pleasure for them, but when they start going back, then sadness comes...

Once, the Gaura Purnima festival finished and before going back to their homes everybody wanted to see Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur to pay their obeisance and give some pranami, but they could not find him. They looked for him everywhere, wondering, "Where has Prabhupad gone?", and when they finally found him they saw that he was crying. He was crying because all the devotees had enjoyed, sung kirtans, gone on the Dham parikrama, given some pranami, but after that they were leaving and any time maya could attack and catch them if they did not get proper nourishment.

Prabhupad would always say with so much sadness, "Do not forget me. Do not cheat me. You have come here and I have made a relation with you—it is not just for two days, it is a birth-after-birth relationship. Your relationship with your parents and other relatives is temporary, but your relationship with me and the Lord is not."

"You" means your soul—we are not this body. This relation with the Lord was there before, but, covered by the illusory environment, we became conditioned and forgot it—that is why we are suffering...

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through all kinds of material suffering.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117

We forgot the Lord and are suffering now from the three-fold miseries [caused by our body and mind, by others, and by the environment]... What are we to do now?

এ ঘোর-সংসারে পড়িয়া মানব
না পায় দুঃখের শেষ ।

e ghora-samsare padiya manava
na paya duhkhera sesa

Those who have fallen into this terrible world never cease to suffer...

'E ghora-samsare' from Jaiva-dharma by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

For so many years, for so many births we have been in this family life, suffering through so many births and deaths... As a cow we had a family, as a goat we had a family, as a cat or a dog we had a family too—in each birth we get parents, children, a house, etc., and it never ends. We have fallen into this material ocean, but how can we get out of it? If we do not come out, we will simply lose our body, but the jiva soul will still get another body, and we do not know where we will be posted in our next life. There is a solution however:

সাধুসঙ্গ করি' হরি ভজে যদি
তবে অন্ত হয় ক্লেশ ॥

sadhu-sanga kari' hari bhaje yadi
tabe anta haya klesa

...but if they associate with sadhus and serve Hari, their suffering comes to an end.

'E ghora-samsare' from Jaiva-dharma by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

If you get good association, if you worship the Lord, practise Krishna consciousness under the guidance of a great Vaishnav, under the guidance of a bona fide Guru, then you will get relief from this suffering. This is what the scriptures say. But if you do not serve the Lord, you will again become a dog, a cat, a goat, again will have to change your body...

So, you should think now what you will do—whether you will practise Krishna consciousness or not, whether you will use your property (your eyes, nose, ears, etc.) for service to the Lord or for another purpose. It is up to you.

সংসার ভজিলি শ্রীগৌরাঙ্গ ভুলিলি
না শুনিলি সাধুর কথা ।
ইহ-পরকাল দুকাল খোয়ালি (মন)
খাইলি আপন মাথা ॥

samsara bhajili sri-gauranga bhulili
na sunili sadhura katha
iha-parakala dukala khoyali (mana)
khaili apana matha

You served your family (mundane ends), forgot Sri Gauranga, and never listened to the sadhus' words. O mind, you wasted both this life and your next life. You depraved yourself.

'Avatara sara Gora avatara' by Srila Lochan Das Thakur.

You are worshipping the family life, the material life, and you are not worshipping Krishna, not listening to sadhus' katha, Hari-katha, Krishna-katha, not following the sadhus' advice, so you become your own enemy—you are eating your own brain (খাইলি আপন মাথা, khaili apana matha)!

Do you understand? This is how you should practise—you must understand what you should do and what you should not do. You must make a relationship with the Lord through the guardian of devotion—through a relationship with the bona fide Guru, a great Vaishnav. Make this relationship and continue your family life—worship the Lord, cook for Him, do everything for Him—and who will be the head of your family? Krishna will be the head of your family.

Continue your practising life in this way and you will get relief from birth and death and you can go back to God, back to home!

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