(3/6) Through Trials and Tribulations

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, 9 February 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

[To a devotee] What is wrong? Do you want to put the fans on? [The devotees says yes.] I can see it. You should not have brought your umbrella today. When I come here, I can walk. My doctor says that I should walk more whenever I get a chance, so I walked a lot today. Starting out in the morning, I have been to 110 houses today. I told ** that he did not have to do anything with the land today because it had rained yesterday. I told him, 'Serve the Lord instead, then everything will be all right!' He told me, 'Oh, my father has a family, they look after me.' I told him, 'This is not your father's family. It is Krishna's family! They should not be serving you – you all should be serving the Lord.' Later, he came home with the hose, saying, 'Oh, we do not need to go to the field today. It has rained.' It is necessary to have faith. If you have faith, then everything will be all right. You must have faith and devotion.

When Jivan Chakravarti heard Srila Sanatan Goswami's Hari-katha, he threw away his touchstone into the river. Many people had tried to find that touchstone – they looked for it all over the Yamuna. Later, when some king (I do not remember his name – I have never been good at history; I was a science student) came there in a ship and put the anchor down, the anchor accidentally struck some stone at the bottom and part of the anchor turned gold... So many people tried to find it out of greed for gold...

We learn these things at the very beginning. We always say, 'If you want to come to me, you must give up four things.' Gambling is the first of them. If you read the daily newspaper Ananda Bazar, you can see that they write about these cases all the time. We were told thousands of years ago that nothing good comes out of gambling. The other day, they wrote about a Muslim man called Ajij Molla who had won fifteen million rupees in a lottery. The people in his village caused so much disturbance, fussing over his win and trying to steal his ticket, that the police had to come there to guard the man. Then, the man got his money (after the taxes, it must have come to over eight million rupees). He built a two-storey house, bought a car, gave some money to his brothers and sisters. After that, he went to Kolkata and enjoyed there. In the end, he not only sold his house but also all his wife's jewellery. They are so poor now that they live off the little money his wife gets by rolling bidi. He had bought more lottery tickets worth almost two million rupees. His neighbours became also greedy and bought lottery tickets. Three people even ended up dead! One girl said, 'If the government banned lottery, my father would have been alive today.' But what does it have to do with the government? Do you have no brain? You buy the lottery, that is why you end up like that. Why is it the government's fault? When you go to the market, you can see there many things – you can see there rice, vegetables and you can also see there dog's stool and cow's stool. You have a brain, so you can decide yourself what you will eat, proper food or stool. People buy lottery tickets out of greed for money, but you can use your brain and do what is right for you. Do not blame it on the government. The government gets money from lottery because every time somebody wins, they get tax.

Listen to this. This world is a place where the Lord tests you. When you go to school, you take exams. For example, after you have studied for ten years, you take the matriculation exam to be allowed to study in the next grade. This is when it can be understood if you have studied well or not. How can we save ourselves from this ocean of material existence? The method is there. We have come to this world, and this world is the place where the Lord tests us. This universe consists of fourteen worlds (Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar, Maha, Jana, Tapa, Satya; Atal, Vital, Sutal, Talatal, Mahatal, Rasatal, Patal) that include this earth as well as hell and heaven. This whole world is a place of examination, where the Lord sends us to tests us, 'I am sending you into this human body to see if you are going to live in Krishna's family or in Maya's family.' I explained to you earlier where Maya gets her power from. She gets her power from the Lord and then plays out all her games. How is it possible to get out of this world? If a conditioned soul, as the result of sadhu-sanga, takes shelter in the Lord, then Maya Devi sees, 'Oh, this soul has taken shelter in my Master. I should go away from here.'

Devotee: There is nothing else we must do?

Nothing else. But Maya Devi will always try to look for a hole in you. She always stays near and waits to find a hole through which she can attack and take you away from the Lord's service. That is why there are many sannyasis who leave and go back to family life.

Devotee: Why does the Lord not make Maya help people live happily instead?

Because if this world did not work like that, there would be no need for Goloka. It is said, 'This earth, i.e. this material world, is an examination place. Those who want to pass this examination must practise sravan and kirtan (hearing and chanting) in the company of devotees.' It is straightforward. There is not much to it. We must practise sravan and kirtan. These are Srila Prabhupad's words. The only way to get out of this material world is to listen about the Lord and to chant the Lord's Names in the company of His devotees, every day. What does service to the Lord give? Answer: 'We consider that taking shelter in the service of the Lord is the only duty. Fortunate are those who serve the Lord. You must hear about the Lord, practise spiritual life and remember the Lord despite all difficulties. I have nothing else to offer you except this.' These are Srila Prabhupad's words and prayer to all of us. 'I am asking you all to please chant, hear and remember about the Lord no matter what difficulty you find yourself in.' These are very beautiful words.

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Length: 36 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Primary Realisation
2) Plain and Simple
3) Through Trials and Tribulations
4) Illusion and Delusion
5) Live in Sadhu-Sanga
6) Material Quirks