(7/12) Relief from Miseries

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
23 February 2019, noon, part 7
Translated from Bengali

They tell you wrong things. They say, 'Eat whatever your soul desires.' Your mind and your soul is not one and the same! Listen to this and remember it.

If you go to a good doctor, a doctor who loves you, that doctor will send you for a blood test and, supposing you are diagnosed with diabetes, the doctor will tell you, 'You have diabetes. Do not eat any sweets, cut down on potato and rice, and take this medication.' If you say, 'Doctor, I have a lot of money. Please do not tell me to cut out sweets – just prescribe me more medication,' a caring doctor will say, 'I do not want a patient like you because I cannot save you. No matter how much medication you take, unless you stop eating sweets, your sugar will keep rising. You will end up taking insulin, and when your kidneys and eyes are finally destroyed, you will die.' And if the doctor loves money more than you, he will think, 'Oh, if I prohibit this patient to eat sweets, he will go to another doctor. He will find some greedy doctor who will allow him to eat sweets.' Such doctors only love your money – if you come to such a doctor, your disease will never be cured. In the same way, there are many gurus roaming this world. Sivji Maharaj told Parvati Devi, 'O Devi! There are many vitta-harankari gurus in this world (who crave your wealth, money, etc.), but such gurus cannot relieve you from the threefold misery of this world.'

The threefold miseries are adhidaivik, adhibhautik, adhyatmik (miseries caused by the gods, by other souls, and by your own mind or body). The adhidaivik miseries are the miseries caused by gods. For example, when there is a flood, it comes from Indra. You sit at home and think, 'Oh, I will get a hundred sacks of potato from a bigha of land,' but if there is a lot of rain, you will not get a single sack of potato, what to speak of a hundred sacks. You must rely on the Lord. He is the manager, so rely on Him – let Him be in charge. 'O Lord, whatever You do will happen. I do not know anything. My job is to cultivate the land and plant the seeds, but what happens after that is up to You – You may do as You like.'

When I was in Tarakeshwar, somebody asked me, 'When we plant potato, we use some medicine to prevent insects – how can we avoid the reaction for this?' I told them, 'If you use that potato, wheat or whatever you grow in the service of the Lord – if you live in Krishna's family and use whatever money you get from selling your harvest to run Krishna's family – then what is the problem? Whatever insects may die, there is no sin in that then.' For example, if you steal some flowers from a garden to offer them at Lord Govinda's lotus feet, then there is no sin in that because you do not steal those flowers for yourself – you took them for Lord Govinda. You must know, understand and remember this. So, 'Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi' anachara (করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার). You must make your family Krishna's family and give up all unwanted and unfavourable habits.'

Another thing is that you cannot chant the Holy Name until and unless you give up anarthas (unwanted elements, bad habits). If you are to chant the Holy Name of Lord Krishna, you must leave anarthas. How can you get rid of anarthas? Many kinds of thoughts come to our minds – and this refers even to those who have taken initiation; many different thoughts can come to your mind even when you are chanting the Holy Name – in this case, you must chant loudly. Do not chant silently, in your mind – chant loudly, forcefully, 'Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama Rama! Hare Hare!' Chant loudly, and you will see that all thoughts back off. Another way to get rid of anarathas is to chant Nitai-Gaura's kirtan. Doyal Nitai! Doyal Gour! Nitai Gaura Hari bol! Nitai Gaura Hari bol! Nitai Gaura Hari bol! Shout out and cry! The more you think about Nitai-Gaura, the farther anarthas will go away, and you will get taste for chanting the Holy Name. 'Takhan krsna-name ruchi ha'be ghuchibe bandhana (তখন কৃষ্ণনামে রুচি হ’বে ঘুচিবে বন্ধন). Then you will get taste for the Holy Name of Krishna and all your material bondage will be removed.' If we get Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, we can get free from material bondage and get taste for the Holy Name of Lord Krishna. Nitai's mercy means the mercy of guru-tattva.

Who gives the right to serve Lord Krishna? Srimati Radharani. Who is Radharani? Gurudev. Whom does Krishna belong to? He belongs to Radharani.

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ-ভজন তব অকারণ গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

'If you did not become devoted to the worship of Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna was in vain.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You cannot worship Krishna or Gauranga bypassing the guru.

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Language: Bengali

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