(8/17) From Hell to Heaven and Back

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, evening, 19 January 2019, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Sadhus do not want even heaven because they know that both heaven and hell are within the fourteen worlds of this material universe. When you accumulate a lot of piety, you go to heaven and stay there for as long as your piety lasts. Once that piety is finished, you will have to come down here again.

You can see that there are many people in this world who have a lot of money and live very comfortable lives, but after a few generations, the wives in such families become beggars. At first, they live in luxury, like in heaven, but then their grandchildren kick them out and turn them into beggars. Have you not heard such things happening in this world? So, both hell and heaven are within the material universe. You can even see hell and heaven on this planet also. We enjoy vegetables with curd, but another soul next to me does not like it and prefers eating stool instead! The insects that live in drains will not like living in a clean place because they enjoy living in drains. If you pick a worm out of stool and put it in some nice place, it will not stay there because it enjoys living in stool (this is where it finds a happy life).

We, too, were all those species before – we were worms in stool, we were pigs and dogs, we also lived in such, and much worse, hell before. I do not know if you have seen it or not, but there are people who burn pigs alive! I have seen this in Nabadwip. They tie a live pig by its legs and grill it over a fire, then they take the skin out and eat the meat raw or fry it... In some foreign countries, they also eat raw meat of pigs and dogs. They also eat dog's meat here in Arunachal, and it is very expensive (a thousand rupees a kilo). We have devotees who go to preach in China – there, you cannot even wear sannyasi clothes openly (because they are communists and can arrest you) – and they tell that people there eat snakes, frogs, insects, raw pork and other abominable things. But even in such a country, there are now devotees of the Lord who eat vegetarian food, who fast on ekadasi and forget their local food. They are very fortunate. But we are born right here in India and do not appreciate it.

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

'One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

We forget that we must take care of others. People usually understand 'taking care of others' as giving people clothes, umbrellas, etc. If you give somebody an umbrella today, they will think tomorrow, 'It would be nice to have a coat also.' When you have no electricity, you suffer from heat in your room, but when you have an electric current, you run a fan and after a while start thinking, 'No, fan is not so nice. It would be better to have an air cooler.' You get an air cooler, but then you again think, 'No, an air cooler is also not so good. It is better to get an air conditioner.' There is no end of desires. You have a three-storey house, but you still think, 'This is not enough, when family come, it is too crowded. I should make the fourth floor.' You keep expanding and increasing things around you. If you use everything in Krishna's service (for the Lord and the Lord's devotees), that is OK, but if you increase your wealth and property to satisfy your own desires, then it is wrong. I have told you earlier today that you must turn karma (selfless activities) into seva (service). We are neither enjoyers nor renunciates. Remember this.

— : • : —

{ 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