A "Happy Style" Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Talking online to the devotees in London
21 May 2016

Yesterday we went to Nrisingha Palli, paid our obeisance there. We cooked sweet rice from 25 kg of milk, but yesterday we had to fast and could not take grains, so we distributed that sweet rice to the devotees today at the paran time...

Everything happens by the wish of the Lord. Actually, if you come for devotional activities, you should not make yourself an enjoyer, should not make your life a "happy style" life, a comfortable life. Do not be a deha-rami [lit. 'being into bodily pleasures']—eating good, fancy food, sleeping in a fancy way, and so on. Do not live like this. When you are in a service mood, you will get some austerity, but you must be patient. If you want to reach your goal, you must wait—in spiritual life it is necessary to have patience.

You can see that in heaven, where they have everything—dharma, kama, artha, moksa (religion, fulfilled desires, wealth, liberation)—the demigods live in a very comfortable way, but sometimes they forget Krishna, forget the Lord, the Supreme Personality, and sometimes by the will of the Lord Vishnu, Krishna turns His own men into demons, like it was in the case of Jay and Vijay.

Jay and Vijay were the Lord's own security guards, but Lord Vishnu, Lord Narayan wanted to fight with them, so by the curse of the four brahman sons of Brahma (Sanak, Sanatan, Sanandan, Sanat-kumar) Jay and Vijay became demons Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa. How does this happen? It is all the will of Narayan, the will of Vishnu.

These two demons, Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa, created so much disturbance in the heaven that the demigods had to run away, and they cried and cried until Krishna gave them some peace and taught the demons, as well as the demigods, a lesson. At that time, by the will of the Supreme Personality, there came an avatar (incarnation of the Lord). His Name was Varaha-avatar, "varaha" means a pig. This Varaha-avatar killed Hiranyaksa.

After his brother's death, Hiranyakasipu became even angrier and went to the jungle to do tapasya (practise austerity) to get a boon from Lord Brahma. He had got very much austerity and suffering during this time and finally Lord Brahma came to him and asked,

"What boon do you want?"

"I do not want to die, make me immortal."

"This is not my hand. I am also created by Krishna, so even though my lifetime may be so long, I too have to die. I cannot give this to you. You can ask me for something else besides this."

"All right, make so that I will not die during the day or at night."

"Yes."

"I will not die by any weapon created by you."

"Yes."

"Make so that I cannot die in the sky or on the ground."

"Yes, it is OK, no problem."

Hiranyakasipu got this kind of boon from Lord Brahma.

In the meantime, when Hiranyakasipu left for the jungle, his wife Kayadhu stayed at home with a baby in her womb. The demigods thought that since it was Hiranyakasipu's baby, it would also become a demon, so they wanted to kill Kayadhu along with the child. However Narad Goswami could understand that the boy who was in Kayadhu's womb would help and protect the demigods in future, so he persuaded the demigods not to kill her, and instead, he took her under his shelter.

At Narad Goswami's ashram, Kayadhu did a lot of serve—she cleaned the plates, made garlands, and so on. Narad Goswami was very happy with her service and wanted to give her some boon. Kayadhu said, "I want to ask you for one thing. My husband is in the forest now and he may be a demon, please make so that my baby does not come out of my womb until my husband returns." Narad Goswami agreed.

When Hiranyakasipu came back having got the boon, he was even stronger and angrier than before. He wanted to fight with the Lord, with the demigods and everyone else. He saw his wife was not there, and, when somebody told him that she was still alive and lived in Narad Goswami's ashram, he went there and brought her back. By that time she had already given birth to the baby and named him Prahlad Maharaj.

Hiranyakasipu sent the baby to Gurukula to study under the teachers Sanda and Amarka, sons of Sukracharya. By and by, Prahlad grew up, and one day Hiranyakasipu wanted to know what his son had learnt. He had told the teachers to teach his son economics, politics, and so on—all kinds of other bad qualities, jada-vidya (mundane knowledge), or rather avidya (ignorance); but Prahlad Maharaj did not learn it (he had already learned everything from Narad Goswami from his mother's womb). So, when his father asked him, "What you good things have you learned?" Prahlad Maharaj answered,

ঈশ্বরঃ পরমঃ কৃষ্ণঃ সচ্চিদানন্দবিগ্রহঃ ।
অনাদিরাদির্গোবিন্দঃ সর্ব্বকারণকারণম্ ॥

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

Hiranyakasipu was surprised, "Who has taught this to this boy?!" He called his teachers and warned them, "Perhaps one of my enemies comes secretly to the school and gives these teachings to my son! Be careful!" But how was it possible to prevent it? Not only he did not learn the material sciences, Prahlad Maharaj taught devotion to the other boys at school.

When Hiranyakasipu called his son next time and asked him what good things he had learned at school, Prahlad Maharaj answered,

sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, vandanam,
dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam

"Hearing, chanting, remembering, offering obeisance, rendering service as a servitor, as a friend, and self-submission..."

He said, "This is nava-vidha bhakti, this is the main thing." His father got angry, "Born in my family, but he is my enemy! I have to kill him." He ordered his men to kill Prahlad. They tried in so many ways—they put him into fire, they threw him from a hill, they tied a huge stone to him and threw him into the sea—but everything failed. Finally, Hiranyakasipu said, "If no one can kill him, OK, I will give him a good lesson—I will kill him myself and properly!"

One day, he called Prahlad Maharaj and said,

"No one can kill you, what kind of strength have you got?!"

"I got it from the same place where you have got yours. You got a boon from Brahma, but where did Brahma get it from? He got it from Hari, but you forgot it. You have become so proud that you think you are the enjoyer and you do not have any faith in Hari, you do not believe that your powers come from Hari. That is why you are suffering like this and thinking you are the boss. You have got a boon, but you do not know who you have gotten it from. You do not know anything..."

"You are a small boy and you dear teach me?! Where is your Hari?"

"Hari is everywhere."

"What?! Everywhere?! Is your Hari here?"

"Yes, He is here."

"Where? Is He perhaps in this pillar?"

"Yes, Hari is there."

Mad with anger, thinking, "My enemy is here!" Hiranyakasipu crushed the pillar, and a terrible sound came out—everything around, svarga, martya, patal, heaven, earth, and hell, all began to shake, and the demigods shook for fear too. Then, there appeared a lion-man! The Lord came out of the pillar in this form, and, eager to fight, He rushed at Hiranyakasipu.

They started fighting, but the Lord was playing and did not defeat Hiranyakasipu at once. The demigods watched the fight, thinking that maybe the Lord would be defeated by the demon. When Hiranyakasipu gave a strong blow to Nrisinghadev, the Lord started acting. He caught the demon and put him on His lap; breaking Hiranyakasipu's chest with His nails, He took out his intestines and put them on His neck as a garland.

The Lord was furious. When a cow gives birth to a calf, if she does not see her baby, she becomes very angry—in the same way, the Lord became very angry because He could not at first see Prahlad.

Demigods told Laksmi Devi to come and pacify the Lord, but Laksmi Devi refused, "I cannot go there. I have never seen the Lord in such an angry mood, and I am very afraid myself." Seeing no other way, they then came to Prahlad Maharaj and asked him to go to the Lord. Prahlad Maharaj came and Nrisinghadev become peaceful. He put Prahlad Maharaj on His lap and asked him affectionately, "Tell Me, what boon would you like to get?" At first he refused to ask for anything, but the Lord insisted, and Prahlad said, "Please, rescue my father." Nrisinghadev said, "Those who chant My Name, who see Me, automatically go to my loka, abode, but your father has touched Me—he may have done it in an angry mood, but it does not matter. I have already given him liberation, so it is not a boon, ask Me for something else." Then, Prahlad Maharaj said, "Prabhu, please remove this 'desire' mood from my heart."

This is the main lesson.

Jay Bhakta-raj Prahlad Maharaj, Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay!

Are there any questions from you?

Question: When will this desire mood be removed from me?

When? [His Divine Grace chuckles.] Practise and practise, practise and practise, always practise, then your 'asking' desire will be removed from you. Practise at all times, fulfil your practice and wait, you must wait and be patient—then your desires will be removed...

— : • : —

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

• Download (4.9 Mb)