(16/17) Cure from Material Misery

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, evening, 19 January 2019, part 16
Translated from Bengali

There are two things in this world, sreyo and preyo. Preyo means that which is pleasing to you, and sreyo means that which brings benefit to you. Why do you sometimes not like to hear what is beneficial? If you are sick, then no matter how many nice things you cook, you will not feel the taste. In the same way, we will not like to hear Hari-katha if we other desires within us – if we hanker after money (kanak), women (kamini) and prestige (pratistha), if we want to enjoy with our eyes (rupa), tongue (rasa), nose (gandha), ears (sabda), skin (sparsa). Where will we place the Lord? You want to seat the Lord in your heart, but your heart is full of other things. For example, there are ten–twenty people sitting here, but the room was full of sacks with rice, where would anybody sit? So, before you invite the Lord to your heart, you must clear the space. When you keep hearing and hearing this Hari-katha, your heart will become clean one day, then you will be able to seat the Lord there.

[A devotee seems to be dozing off] Are you getting sleepy? We can chant some kirtan, then all sleep will go away. You feel sleepy when you listen to Hari-katha because Maya Devi comes and attacks you by casting sleep on you or taking your mind to some other place, making it impossible for you to hear Hari-katha. You must always think about the Lord internally, you must always chant His Name, then sleep will go away. Say with me:

হরে কৃষ্ণ হরে কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ হরে হরে ।
হরে রাম হরে রাম রাম রাম হরে হরে ॥

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

If you feel your mind is going to some other place or you feel sleepy, chant Hare Krishna.

When I studied at school, I would come from school and study at home until midnight, and my father would always sit next to me. By ten o'clock in the evening, I would feel tired and drowsy. Do you know what he did? He tied my hair to a hook in the ceiling, so whenever I started falling asleep, I would get pulled by the hair, and all sleep would go away... This is how he punished me. Now there is no punishment... Before, teachers used to beat us – they would beat even girls. But now if you try to punish somebody, they will beat you instead. Do you know what punishment we got in my time? They would take an empty coconut shell, make a hole in it and put the boy's foot inside – the boy had to stand on that foot and have the other foot in the air and look at the sun for ten minutes. This is the kind of punishment we got at school if we were naughty. Now you cannot raise your hand on anybody – if you do, they will file a case against you. In my days, school teachers could beat us on the head with the wooden duster. Now students differentiate between teachers and private teachers, but in my days we did not know what a private teacher was – anybody who taught at a school or college was a teacher and was respected. And when we saw a teacher walking down the street, we would run and hide. When I later taught at college myself, my students would also flee as soon as they saw me coming down the street – among themselves, they called me 'shala' (শালা, a derogatory word for a man), so whenever they saw me coming, they would cry, 'That shala is coming! Run for life!' They knew that I would catch them and ask where they were going. But now I see that students can be sitting in the bus, and the teacher is standing next to them – they do not let the teacher sit. What kind of system is this in this world now? And both students and the teacher can stand and smoke together...

Devotee: Now students even beat teachers! When I worked at school, I saw it.

Yes, there are fights at colleges every day these days. What will people learn like this? Actually, the situation in our spiritual life is the same. If you bunk off or always sit at the back of the class and do not listen to the class, you will not learn anything. In my days there were no mobile phones, so the boys would sit at the back and write the names of the girls they liked on their arms. Now they sit at the back and scroll through girls' photos in their phones. This is how they study. What do children learn these days? Now they give kitchuri at schools, so the children just sit and wait for kitchuri the whole time – they do not learn anything... Some people go to school only to go there and come back home. They cannot even write in Bengali or English! When I went to Uluberia the other day, I asked somebody to write for me – the man has finished college and works as a teacher now, but he cannot write in Bengali! He said, 'Oh, this is very difficult Bengali.' I told him, 'What did you learn at school? You cannot write in English, you cannot write in Bengali. What did you learn?' People have a degree in English, but if you ask them to draft something in English, they cannot do it! They do not know any grammar. How did they pass M.A. in English and how are they teaching at schools now? Such teachers earn twelve lakh rupees, but what kind of students do they create?

I understand these things because I was a teacher myself, but I left all that as stool and urine and came to this line. If teachers teach like this, what kind of students will they create and what will those students do in this world? That is why Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur said:

জড়বিদ্যা যয়, মায়ার বৈভব,
তোমার ভজনে বাধা ।
মোহ জনমিয়া অনিত্য সংসারে,
জীবকে করিয়ে গাধা ॥

jada-vidya yata, mayara vaibhava,
tomara bhajane badha
moha janamiya, anitya samsare,
jivake karaye gadha

'All mundane learning is a manifestation of illusion (maya) and an obstacle to Your service. It brings about infatuation with the temporary world and turns the soul into an ass.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You can see what is happening from the newspapers also. In one family, the daughter-in-law worked as a bank manager, and the son was a pilot. You can imagine how much money they had – pilots earn very much. But the mother ended up coming to High Court in tears. The father of the family knew what kind of man his son was, so before he died, he left the house and everything else to his daughter-in-law. The mother did everything for her daughter-in-law, but when the woman got the house, she kicked the mother out. The mother wandered around the city and one day came to the High Court building... People work as big bank managers, as pilots, but this is what they learn in their lives – they take advantage and kick their mothers out. When parents become old and cannot work anymore, their son beats them and does not feed his wife. There are thousands of beautiful women living in Kasi and Vrindavan as widows. They live in so much misery, walking from temple to temple just to get some food – they used to live in big houses, they come from rich families, but they end up like this. Sometimes I think about it, that is why I made a ladies' ashram in Kalna. I could not get a big land, but I have made a small temple there. If ladies want to serve the Lord, at least they can come there and do some service. In Birchandrapur, there are also four ladies serving at the temple. They have families, children, but they chose to live at the temple to practise Krishna consciousness and do service. They work hard at the temple, they cook nicely, do everything, and they live very happily there – they smile and do everything with a happy mind. But if they stayed at home, they would be busy with their grandchildren – and some daughters-in-law do not even allow them to come close to their grandchildren, or when they come to visit, they do not give them any vegetarian food. That is why many devotees stop visiting their families. This is the material family life...

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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