Finishing Samsara

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
17 February 2017, Tarakeswar
Bengali evening class, part 4

দুর্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu duhkha kahiba kahare?

"I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom can I tell of my misery?"

সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy in my material life, and I have got nothing—only became burdened."

Samsara (material life) means husband, wife, children, but we do not say that you must give up everything and live in the temple. There is a boy sitting here, he works, looks after his family, does all his duties at home and serves the Math, he offers bhog to the Lord at his home and takes prasad. Those who serve the Lord, get much joy. I remember when I first came to the Math, Gurudev told me, "Brihat svartha paite haile, ksudra svartha tyaga korte habe (বৃহৎ স্বার্থ পাইতে হইলে, ক্ষুদ্র স্বার্থ ত্যাগ করতে হবে)." At that time, I left my job and came here—when I came to the Math I had only twelve rupees with me and I gave it to Gurudev when was taking initiation from him, but you can see that by the mercy of Gurudev so many temples have appeared.

If we engage ourselves in real service of the Lord, we can get supreme benefit.

কোটি জন্ম যদি করে শ্রবণ কীর্ত্তন ।
তবু না পায় ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন ॥

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajendranandan

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

Even if you serve the Lord for millions of lives, you will not get the Lord because of the offences. It is necessary to give up offences, otherwise you can chant the Holy Name, you can do sravan and kirtan for millions of lives, but you will not get the Lord.

eka bara hariname yata papa hare
patakira sadhya nai tata papa kare

"No sinner can commit the amount of sins that the Holy Name chanted just once is capable of removing."

This is the result of chanting the Holy Name just once, but we chant the Holy Name and do not get the result. Why is it so? Because when we chant the Holy Name we make so many offences—if we chant the Holy Name giving up the offences, we will get the supreme benefit. Unless we serve Krishna, unless we serve the Lord, we will not get anything.

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?"

How many times will you keep on coming and going? To stop coming and going does not mean you must give up your family, you must give up your job, business, etc.

grhe thaka, vane thaka
sada 'hari' bale' daka
sukhe duhkhe bhulo naka
vadane hari-nam kara re

"Stay at home, or stay in a forest, regardless, always call out 'Hari!' In happiness and in sadness, don't forget: chant the Lord's Name aloud."

In happiness or sadness, you can stay in your family, but you must make your family Krishna's family—when you cook, you must cook for Krishna. In many houses, people cook, but they cook for their husband, children, other family members—they cook and wait for them to come back from school or work, but you do not know if they will come back. On the other hand, if you cook for Govinda, then Govinda will bring your family back home to take prasad. One is karma, and one is seva. If you do karma (if you do something for yourself), you will become bound by karma and the result of that bondage is suffering in hell.

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

If you do something for your own self, it is called "atmendriya vancha" (sense-gratification), and if you do something for the happiness of Krishna, Lord, it is called "Krsnendriya-vancha" (seva, service). One is lust, the other is love. Externally, both look the same. For example, one time a cat carries a mouse in its mouth and another time the same cat carries its kitten in its mouth—both look the same, but when the cat takes its child into its mouth, it does it to carry the kitten with affection to a safe place, but when it carries a mouse, does it do it with affection? No, it carries the mouse to eat it. One is karma, and the other one is seva. If you do karma, you will be bound by that karma and the result of that bondage is suffering in hell—you will have to come to this world again and again to 'enjoy' the hellish suffering.

If you do something pious, you will go to heaven. You will enjoy there, but the demigods too have to come back from heaven, and you too will have to come back. If you do something sinful, you will go to hell, and when the result of your sins finishes, you will have to come back from hell. But where is the place where you can go and do not have to come back? It is your own house. Back to God, back to home. When you come to the Lord, you come back to your own home.

Mahaprabhu would go house to house saying,

জীব জাগ, জীব জাগ, গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া-পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

পিশাচী পাইলে যেন মতিচ্ছন্ন হয় ।

মায়াগ্রস্ত জীবের হয় সে ভাব উদয় ॥

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya
maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

"When someone is possessed by a ghost, they become bewildered. This condition overtakes souls bound by Maya."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

As if possessed by a ghost we say, "Oh, it is my room. It is my house. It is my son. It is my family. My name is such and such," but it is not true. We take untruth for truth (asatyera satya kari mani).

se sambandha nahi yara vrtha janma gela tara
sei pasu bada durachara

"The life of one who had no connection with Nitai passed in vain. Such an animal is very wicked."

ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha
samanyam etat pasubhir naranam

"Eating, sleeping, sex, and defense—these four principles are common to both human beings and animals."

It is necessary to engage in real service of the Lord.

People worship Lord Siva, but they think, "Siva takes ganja, so I will take ganja too." They think they have become Siva! But Siva swallowed poison, can you swallow it? There is Vaishnav Siva who is worshipped by the devotees and Gaudiya Vaishnavs. Laksmi Devi could not come to the rasa lila, but Sivji Maharaj could enter there, and Krishna gave him the name Gopeshwari. If you go to Vrindavan you can see there Gopeshwar Mahadev near Vamsivat. In Govardhan, there is Chakraleswar Mahadev, at Surya-kunda there is Bhuteswar Mahadev, and here in Takeswar there is Taraknath.

You can see now there are so many missions here in Tarakeswar. After Mahaprabhu there appeared so many different apa-sampradayas—aul, baul, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, saki, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosani, ativadi, chudadhari, gauranga-nagari. In Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's time, the situation in Bengal was such that there was not a single Chaitanya-charitamrita to be found anywhere.

Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami wrote in Chaitanya-charitamrita,

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

If you just keep faith that by serving Krishna all duties are fulfilled, then you are no more indebted to your forefathers, demigods, or anybody else. We must understand this.

So, I am finishing here and will not keep you any longer.

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

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