(1/12) Eternal Servitude

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
23 February 2019, noon, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Say once again:

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

[Devotees place multiple thick garlands on His Divine Grace's holy neck. His Divine Grace notes softly.] When you put a fat garland on a fat man's neck, it feels like the garland is drowning you. You should not give so many garlands; it is necessary to always be light...

You have been chanting the Hare-Krishna maha-mantra just now. It is said that wherever there is Hari-katha being spoken, that place is a holy place of pilgrimage, Vrindavan, and the Lord Himself comes there. Will you remember it? Wherever there is Hari-katha, that is where a holy place of pilgrimage is, that is where Goloka Vrindavan is. 'Ye dina grha bhajana dekhi grhete goloka bhaya (যে দিন গৃহে ভজন দেখি গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায়). On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there.' The Lord stays at the house where devotees serve Him daily, eternally, where devotees chant His Names every day. 'Eternally' means every single day: it is not like you will do service one day, and then you will not do it. The Lord will not come just for one day. The Lord says, 'If I come, I come to stay.' So, you must chant the Holy Name every day. Outside people chant 8-prahar, 16-prahar, 24-prahar kirtans – they chant the Holy Name for one–two days, and then they do whatever they want (they go back to their houses and live a dirty life). The Lord does not come to such houses. Where does the Lord stay? In the heart of His devotees.

One time, Mahaprabhu was asked, 'Prabhu, where do You stay?' and He replied, 'I stay at Srivas Pandit's house (Srivasa-angane), where My kirtan is chanted every day; at Raghav Pandit's house (Raghava-bhavane), where devotees cook for Me every day; and wherever Nityananda Prabhu dances (Nityananda-nartane).' In other words, the Lord says that wherever devotees speak about the Lord, the Lord is eternally present there. Where is Hari (Hari kothay)? In Hari-katha (Hari-kathay). In which forest (vane) does the Lord stay? In the service to the Lord (Hari-sevane). You can get the Lord by serving Him.

It is your and our great fortune to be present here today. A bad day is not a cloudy day. What is a bad day for us? A bad day for us is the day when we cannot hear about the Lord. So, we must serve the Lord every day. Just as we go to the bathroom every day, we cook and eat every day, we sleep every day – in the same way, we must also serve the Lord every day. We have come to this world for Him.

I have this body, but this body and I are not one and the same thing. You have a wrong idea, that is why when somebody asks you, 'Who are you?' you tell your name (for example, Vasudev Prabhu will say, 'Oh, I am Vasudev'). If you say, 'Govinda Das,' that is correct – 'I am a servant of Lord Govinda' is our true identity. All living entities are eternal servants of Lord Krishna. This includes not only humans; even cows, goats, sheep, cats, trees, plants, insects, worms, fish – whatever living entities there are – everybody is eternal servants of Lord Krishna. Everybody comes from the Lord. But according to the result of their actions, every living entity gets a corresponding body – for example, a goat lives in a goat house; a hen lives in a hencoop; a cow lives in a cowshed; a snake lives in some jungle (some snakes also live in a zoo); some dogs roam the streets, and some dogs stay in big A/C houses. According to the result of their actions, somebody is born in Bangladesh; somebody, in Pakistan, etc. – everybody is born in different countries, and somebody has white skin, somebody has black skin, somebody has red skin, etc. All these things do not define who we are. If you see the blood of all animals and humans, it is the same blood. If you cut a fish, blood will flow; if you cut a chicken, blood will flow; if you cut a cow, blood will flow; and if you cut a snake, blood will flow, too. Virtually all species have the same blood in their bodies.

If we go to jail, we get some place to stay in. If we go to hell, we also get some place there to stay in. And everybody stays together – whether you are a brahman, a ksatriya, Hindu, Muslim or anybody else, everybody stays there together. It is actually only here that we draw distinction between different castes and creeds. We say that somebody is a ksatriya, somebody is a vaisya, somebody is a brahman, and somebody is a sudra.

We must always think about this and understand these things.

— : • : —

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Eternal Servitude
2) Morning Tells the Day
3) Real Milk – Real Benefit
4) Sins and Animals
5) Remember Your Promises
6) Core of Krishna Consciousness
7) Relief from Miseries
8) Toxic Life
9) Keep Your Charge Up
10) Brahmans' Trade
11) Greed Is Sin, Sin Is Death
12) Seeking Happiness and Peace