(5/11) Spiritual Selfishness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sundarpur, 18 January 2019, noon, part 5
Translated from Bengali

You must become good practitioners.

One time, when Pujyapad Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj was collecting in Kolkata, he accidentally entered the prostitute quarters. At first, he did not realise where he was, so some women gave him a little money, but when he realised where he had come, he was very upset, 'Oh no! I have lost everything!' Crying, he came back to Prabhupad. He gave whatever money he had collected and said, 'Prabhupad, I have lost everything today! I do not have any spiritual life left now...' Srila Prabhupad asked him what had happened and after that said, 'So, does it mean that I am also doing wrong? If you think that you have done wrong today, that means that I have been doing wrong all my life. You went to the area of prostitutes and took some money they earn by selling their bodies – they will get some benefit through that. I also go to householder people, take their sons or husbands and use them in the service to the Lord. Utilising them in service, I make brahmacharis and sannyasis out of them and after that again send them to those rotten householders to rescue them. Am I doing wrong as well? How are the dirty people of this outside world, who have fallen and flounder now in this material world, eating the stool of illusion, any better than those women who do business trading their bodies? If I can send brahmacharis and sannyasis to those people to take money from them or to bring them to this path, then what wrong have you done by going to those women? You did not do any wrong.' Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave this kind of example for us.

We have been averse to Lord Krishna since time immemorial – we forgot the Lord and now suffer from the agony of three-fold miseries. We keep coming and going, struggling in the ocean of this material world. How can we get relief from this suffering? Just yesterday I was writing and proofreading a chapter about the suffering the soul experiences in hell – how much souls suffer there! I wrote there what Srimad Bhagavatam tells about hell (the book, Guidance 3, will come out at Nityananda-trayodasi). There is not only one hell – there are many kinds of hell...

We are struggling in this ocean of material life so much; we keep coming and going in this world so many times... But now we have fortunately got this human birth – what is the meaning of this birth? Why have we got this human birth? I told you today also that you must first understand who you are. Until and unless you actually realise it, you will not be able to enter this line of devotion. First, you must know who you are.

When I went to Nepal recently, I gave a lecture at a medical college. There, one scientist asked me, 'How can I know that I am not this body? I think that this body and I are the same.' This is what all people from this outside world say – 'I am this body.' I told that man, 'Your science says that whatever you eat becomes dissolved in the body. For example, if you eat rice, part of it becomes absorbed by the body and the rest comes out with stool. So, if you think that you are your body, it means that when you eat potato, you become a potato!' The man was nonplussed. That which you are and your body are not the same thing. You must first understand it. If I compare the blood of the person who gave me birth and the blood from my body, it is the same blood because my parents gave me this body, but did they give me that which I am? They did not. Where does my life come from? I am talking now, moving my hands and legs, doing everything, but I can do it only owing to that I have got from God – when God takes it away, I will not be able to do anything (the body will fall down lifeless, like a stone). I have seen dead goats and dogs lying on the street – our bodies will fall dead and lie just like that. All living entities shed off their bodies. So, that which we call 'I' is the soul, not the body.

We are always busy trying to take care of the body, making sure that the body gets all benefit, but we should instead be selfish. All devotees of the Lord are selfish – what does 'selfish' mean? Why are devotees selfish? Because they think about the benefit of their 'self'. Being selfish means thinking about your own soul.

Think about your souls! You have been thinking only about your body your whole life. Even dogs think about their bodies, 'What will I eat?', 'Where will I sleep?' and so on. Like animals, we also always think about eating, sleeping, fearing and breeding. We never think where this body will go after we die and where our soul will go, which other body our souls will get. Among a hundred thousand souls, only one single soul may get a human body, and all other souls will get some animal body. So, even if you cannot get full benefit in this body, at least try to do so that you can get a human body to serve the Lord in your next life.

The problem is that we have not been able to do anything this life, and our time has gone! Time is passing every moment!

উঠরে উঠরে ভাই আর ত সময় নাই
'কৃষ্ণ ভজ' বলে উচ্চৈঃস্বরে

uthare uthare bhai ara ta samaya nai
'krsna bhaja' bale uchchaihsvare

'Wake up, wake up, brother! There is no time! "Worship Krishna!" they call out loudly.'

(Acharya Vandana)

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 24.1 Mb
Length: 67 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Basis of Mahaprabhu's Conception
2) Learn the Ropes
3) Watered Down Conception
4) Become a Good Practitioner
5) Spiritual Selfishness
6) Do Not Overstep
7) Internal and External Devotion
8) Step Forward
9) We Are Servants, Not Devotees
10) Learn Proper Meaning
11) Come to Nirguna Plane