(15/17) Make Effort

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, evening, 19 January 2019, part 15
Translated from Bengali

Those of you who are already old have gone through a lot in life. You have spent your lives following the cravings of your tongues, but I have just told you what the scriptures and even common science say. There is action and reaction. When you are eating fish or meat, you are eating your own flesh. How is it so?

Think about it. You will leave your body one day, and your relatives will take your body to the ghat and burn it. Take a dog, a cat or a fish, when they die, their bodies decay and get mixed with soil. For example, if you leave a fish outside for a week or a month, it will decay and become mixed with soil. If you throw a dead chicken outside, it will also decay and become mixed with soil. When our bodies are burnt, they turn into ash – when it is thrown somewhere outside and is mixed with water, it gets absorbed into soil. Scriptures tell that material bodies are made of five elements: earth (ksiti, ক্ষিতি), water (apa, অপ), fire (teja, তেজ), air (marut, মরুৎ) and ether (vyoma, ব্যোম). Everybody's bodies are made of the same elements. Even when an elephant dies, its body becomes mixed with soil. Muslim people bury bodies, but whether you burnt the body or bury it, it still gets mixed with soil. It is the same thing. All bodies are created from soil, and when they die, they become again mixed with soil. The soul gets one body and after the body dies, it gets another body. If you make an action, you shall reap a reaction. Suppose you like eating fish. To allow you to eat fish as much as you want, your soul will get the body of a cat, and when your human body dies, it will get mixed with soil and some fish will be created from it. Cats eat fish raw. So, when you are born as a cat and some fish is created from your previous body, it means that you will be eating your own flesh. So, it is said in Varaha Purana that if you eat meat or fish, you are eating your own flesh. These are not my words, these are the words of the scriptures. Even if you eat fish, it is the same as eating cow's meat or any other creature's meat.

যো যস্য মাংসমশ্নাতি স তন্মাংসাদ উচ্যতে ।
মৎস্যাদঃ সর্বমাংসাদস্তস্মান্মৎস্যান্ বিবর্জয়েৎ ॥

yo yasya mamsam-asnati sa tan mamsada uchyate
matsyadah sarva-mamsadas-tasman-mat-syan vivarjayet

'Those who eat meat are called meat-eaters, but those who eat fish devour all kinds of meat (cow, pig, etc. even one's own meat). Therefore, one must completely give up eating fish.'

(Manu-samhita, 5.15)

If you still eat fish and meat even having learnt about the harm it causes, then what can I say? I also ate it before, I also ate paan like everybody else because I did not know any better, I did not know that it was wrong, but when I came to the holy feet of a bona fide guru and learnt about these things, I gave it up. I had taken a lot of beating, a lot of orders from Maya! I had done so many things on her order! But now all that misery is gone after I accepted my Master's holy lotus feet.

বড় দুঃখ পাইয়াছি স্বতন্ত্র জীবনে ।
সব দুঃখ দূরে গেল, ও পদ বরণে ॥

bada duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane
saba duhkha dure gela, o pada varane

'I was very unhappy in my independent life, but all my unhappiness is gone now that I have embraced the Lord's feet.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If you are to get the Lord, you must surrender to His devotee. Krishna Himself says, 'Those who say they are My devotees are not My devotees. My devotees are those who are devotees of My devotee.' That is why we must become devotees of Mahaprabhu and Radharani, and before that, we must become devotees of Their devotees: listening to Hari-katha from them, taking shelter in them, we must make sincere effort.

You may think, 'What if I die if I do not eat meat and fish? How can I live without onion and garlic?' There are many kaulik, laukik and other gurus in this world who say, 'Eat whatever you like. Give me fifty rupees and you can take initiation. You do not need to go begging house to house collecting anything; do whatever you like.' Taking initiation from such gurus will not bring you any benefit – it will not give you anything. When you hear such gurus' kirtans, you feel pleasure in your minds, but the result of such kirtans is nothing. One time, the famous singer Radharani came to our Math to see Gurudev. She could not meet with him at that time (Gurudev was abroad), so she came to speak to me. She said, 'I came to see your Guru Maharaj, but he is not here. I just paid obeisance at his house and took some dust on my head.' I asked her, 'Didi, can I ask something? I came the other day to the place where you often do kirtan. When I read Bhagavatam there, one–two hundred people came, but when you come there in the evening to do kirtan, thousands of people crowd near you. How many people have you managed to bring from this world to this path?' She replied, 'Brother, shall I tell you the truth? I do kirtan to earn money, but you chant kirtans to take people from this world and take them to this line so that they can come to practise Krishna consciousness.'

You may wonder, 'What benefit is it to you, Maharaj, if you bring others to this line?' This is my duty. On the order and by the mercy of my guru and Vaishnavs, who are sent here by the Lord, I get an opportunity to speak some Hari-katha. Where would I be otherwise? I would be working somewhere, living with family, children, etc. I would not have been able to come to this line. But I was fortunate, so I could take shelter at the holy feet of a bona fide guru. This is how I have got this opportunity to speak in front of you today. This is Gurudev's mercy. It is my duty to speak Hari-katha to bring people to this line. I want everybody to come to the Lord, then the Lord will also see that through me these two–five people have come to practise Krishna consciousness and I will get some commission from the Lord. I do not need any commission, I am not doing this to gain anything. My duty is to practise myself in this world and to preach about the Lord in this world. This is my goal. If a few people can come to this line through that preaching, they will get spiritual benefit. I have told you earlier that you cannot worship a Deity by paying somebody ten rupees, just as you cannot chant kirtan by paying somebody fifty rupees to do it. Genuine kirtan is when it brings benefit to the soul.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 48.5 Mb
Length: 98 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Self-Realisation
2) Seek Soul's Solace
3) 'Why Am I Suffering?'
4) Relief from Reaction
5) Escaping Life of Sin
6) Highest Attainment
7) Learn to Love Lord
8) From Hell to Heaven and Back
9) Sadhus' Clothes and Sadhus' Hearts
10) Genuine Gurus' Mission
11) Money Does Not Buy Devotion
12) Higher and Highest Devotion
13) Learn the Conception
14) Start Practising Sincerely
15) Make Effort
16) Cure from Material Misery
17) Live for the Lord