(9/16) Think about Your Soul

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ganga Sagar, evening class,
11 January 2019, part 9
Translated from Bengali

Rather than becoming devotees of Krishna, etc., it is better if we become servants of the servants of devotees. We want to serve devotees. We think that we have become Vaishnavs, but '"Ami ta vaisnava" e buddhi haile amani na ha'ba ami ('আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে অমানী না হ'ব আমি). If I think, "I am a Vaishnav," then I will never stop expecting honour from others.' If such thoughts cross your mind, it is a big problem.

It is necessary to preach proper things and practise proper things. If somebody does not practise but preaches, it does not work like that. 'Achara-prachara Namera adhikarya: one earns the right to chant the Holy Name by practising and preaching.' If you preach and practise, that will work. If you preach but do not practise or practise but do not preach, it will not do. You must both practise and preach. This is Mahaprabhu's conception.

You must always read about Mahaprabhu's conception. His conception is very beautiful:

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

'One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

We must become humbler than grass, we must tolerate like trees, and we must give honour to others.

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

'Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion.'

Remember what jive daya (compassion to souls) means. They call this 'jiva-seva' (doing various charitable works to help the needy) in this world, but they refer to us is service to the body.

We have two sannyasis in our Mission. They did PhD and had very big jobs, but then they left everything and took sannyas. I went with them to South India. They preach now in various scientific colleges and take part in conferences attended by big scholars, lecturers and professions. Do you know what scientists do now? When somebody is about to die, they cut the person's head off and attached another person's head to the body. You know also that when somebody dies, they can take the heart out and transplant it into another person's body. Scientists can do all these things, but can they give life to anybody? Can they give life to even one small frog? Some of them said, 'Oh, we cannot do it now, but we will be able to do it in a hundred years.' If I said, 'Let me borrow half a million rupees from you now, and I will give it to you back five years later,' will you give the money to me? So, when people say, 'We will do it in the future', 'We will do it later', 'We will discover a way later', 'We will be able to give life' – what is the value of such words? They will never be able to do it. We even use such words as 'biological father' and 'biological mother' – our parents only give us this body, but they cannot give us life.

Therefore, you must think about the benefit of the soul! You must not think only about this body. I and this body is not one and the same thing – this is what we must think about. First understand, 'Who am I?' and 'What is this body?'. I am not this body. Remember this.

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

'By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.108)

Our true identity is that we are eternal servants of the Lord.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Keep Trying
2) Highest Realm of Devotion
3) Bribing and Increasing Stool
4) What Is a Soul?
5) Service with Faith and Love
6) Core of Devotion
7) Set Your Heart for Govinda
8) Think and Learn
9) Think about Your Soul
10) Sadhya-Sadhan-Tattva
11) With Faith and Surrender
12) Surrender and Learn
13) Bhakta-Seva Pravritti
14) See Good and Do Good
15) See Through It
16) 'Lord Exists for Those Who Have Devotion'