(4/9) Appealing to Intelligence

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
24 February 2019, evening, part 4
Translated from Bengali

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

'My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that death is there, waiting right next to me.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

The whole day long we are only working, working, working following Maya's orders, serving Maya, and we think that we will live for a long time; but the truth is that death is always near – we can die tomorrow! Does it ever occur to you? Do you ever think about how you can die at any moment? You do not; you only work and work. But what will become of you in the future? What birth will you get? As you sow so you reap: you have to reap the results of your actions.

That is what very merciful sadhus come to your houses to tell you about.

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

'The innate nature of great souls is to deliver vile, fallen souls: great souls never come to their homes for any personal purpose.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.8.39)

What do they come to other people's houses for? They come so that averse souls can get to hear about the Lord because, as they hear and hear about the Lord, they can develop love for Lord Krishna and start living a Krishna-centred life. I have never said that you must leave your families and go to live in a forest or at an ashram. It is not like that. 'Grhe thako, vane thako, sada Hari bole dako (গৃহে থাক, বনে থাক সদা 'হরি' বলে ডাক). Whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name.' Whatever your situation is, wherever you may live, think about the Lord, it will bring you supreme benefit.

This is something each of us must do in their own lives. If you hire people to come and sing kirtan at your houses, they will come, sing for two hours and, taking your money, go away, but what benefit is it to you? They come and only make nama-aparadha (offences to the Holy Name). You cannot chant the Holy Name for a ten-rupee fee, just as you cannot read Srimad Bhagavatam for a fifty-rupee fee or worship a Deity for a ten-rupee fee. All these things must be done with heart and soul – it is something you must do yourselves. Service must come from the heart. You cannot pay somebody to do arati – you must take initiation and offer arati yourselves. Similarly, you must offer bhoga to the Deity and then distribute and take prasad. These are some of the things you must do yourselves, in your own lives.

We live enjoying everything in this world, but I want to ask you something. Does it ever occur to you that we live in this world and every single day we have to kill thousands and millions of living entities to survive? For example, you drink some water, do you know how many living entities exist in water? We kill them each time we drink water. We eat rice – how many rice paddy plants do we kill to get that rice? We take cabbage, cauliflower, gourd, spinach, and, even worse, outside people eat fish, meat, etc. – we kill living entities every single day. When we drive a car or walk, so many ants and other insects get killed by us. Not only that, each time we take a breath, as we inhale and exhale every second, so many living entities enter our bodies and die inside us. There must be a reaction to all this killing. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. So, when you subsist on killing, you must get a reaction to your actions. What is the solution? How can we save ourselves from all these sins? The answer is given in Srimad Bhagavatam. Srimad Bhagavatam comes from the Lord Himself – He composed it through Vyasadev; and there, it is described very nicely how we can escape such a life of sin.

Previously, we were born in a goat's body, in a dog's body, in a cat's body. Now that we have got a human birth we have got some intelligence and we are able to hear something that can give us benefit. If you try to explain something to a goat or a dog, will it understand anything? You can put a garland on a goat's neck, a cow's neck or a monkey's neck, they will not appreciate its value – the monkey will just throw it away, and the cow or the goat will eat it. They do not have intelligence, but we have a human form, so we have some intelligence – our consciousness is more developed.

Therefore, I am telling you, appealing to your intelligence: make your life Krishna-centred. '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.' What does it mean to live a Krishna-centred life? We do not live in this world only to eat. We have the right to exist in this world only to serve the Lord. So, we must live to serve God, not just to eat...

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Length: 48 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Cherish Tulasi Seva
2) Know Thyself
3) Align Yourself with Your Soul
4) Appealing to Intelligence
5) Turn Karma Into Seva
6) Mental Hunger
7) No Cheating
8) Kali's Poison
9) A Taste of Sadhu-Sanga