(7/9) No Cheating

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
24 February 2019, evening, part 7
Translated from Bengali

It is written in the scriptures that when you are eating fish, you are eating your own flesh. Even when you eat fish, it is the same as eating cow's meat. You may wonder, 'How is that so?'

I am wearing these clothes today, but tomorrow I will change them and wear new clothes; the day after tomorrow, I will again change my clothes and wear different clothes. So, just as we change our clothes every day, we also keep changing our bodies all the time – when we die, we leave these bodies and get other bodies. You all know what these bodies are made of. For example, when a tree dies and is burnt, it turns into ash. Muslim people bury their bodies – the body decays and gets mixed with soil. Hindus burn the bodies – the body burns and turns into ash and then that ash is usually thrown into water (some river or the sea). If it gets windy, some ash also flies away and gets mixed with the air. When a cow dies, a snake dies, a frog dies or a dog dies in the street – their bodies decay and get mixed with soil, too.

All bodies are made of five elements: earth (ksiti, ক্ষিতি), water (apa, অপ), fire (teja, তেজ), air (marut, মরুৎ) and ether (vyoma, ব্যোম). The Lord creates all bodies from these elements and when our bodies die, they again become mixed with these elements. But the soul is not made of those elements: the soul is part and parcel of the Lord, and this is who we actually are. When somebody asks you who you are, you are not some Chaudhary, some Rai, some Majhi or some Haldar – you are a soul (jivatma).

So, if I eat fish in this life, when I die, my soul, according to my previous actions, will get a cat's body, and some fish will be created from the human body I leave. This is how in my next birth I will be eating raw fish in my cat's body – I will be eating my own body. My soul will get a cat's body, and my previous body will be used to create the fish I will eat. So, I will be eating my own flesh. Mamsa (meat) means 'mam' (I) and 'sa' (he): the living entity I eat in this life will eat me in my next life. If I kill or eat fish in this life, in my next life that fish will come to kill me.

This is how this world works. There is a way out of such a life, though. If we can live as members of Krishna's family and think about the Lord, serve the Lord, then we can rescue ourselves from such a sinful life. Everything in this world belongs to the Lord. For example, to get rice, we have to cut some rice paddy; if we want to get some spinach, we have to cut the plant from the ground. If we take these things for Lord Govinda, then we will not be doing it for ourselves – we will be doing it for Him. These are Govinda's things, so we are giving His things to Him. If we do not do anything for ourselves, where is the problem then? So, use His things for His service. 'Ganga jal ganga puja (গঙ্গা জল গঙ্গা পূজা). Worship the Ganges with the Ganges water.'

[His Divine Grace notices somebody falling asleep.] You are sleeping! Give him a pillow. Do you know why you get sleepy? If you are weak (if your devotion to the Lord is not strong enough), Maya Devi comes and attacks you. Maya Devi said, 'Goloka and Lord Krishna are present wherever there is Hari-katha, so whenever there is some service to the Lord going on, I will always come there and try to disturb them.' Just as when your health is weak, you are attacked by many diseases; if your spiritual life is weak, Maya will come and attack you. Say loudly, 'Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!' If you say it loudly like this, Maya will go away. When you take the Name of the Lord, you must do it loudly, then sleep will not come. Anyway, what have you been doing so much today that you are sleepy? I have been up since early morning and I am not sleepy, and I go to bed at one–two o'clock at night. Every day I give class until nine o'clock, then I go to my room and read or write books until one or two o'clock at night. The next day, I wake up in the morning and go out for programmes again. I do not get sleepy. Eating (ahara), sleeping (nidra), fear (bhaya) and mating (maithunamcha) – the more you increase these things, the more their power over you will increase. The more you eat, the more you will want to eat. The more you sleep, the more you will want to sleep. The more you fear, the more fear will come. The more you mix with women (indulge in sex), the more you will want to do that.

So, coming back to what I began saying, there are many doctors in this world. Suppose you see a doctor and the doctor runs some blood tests and tells you that you have diabetes (it turns out that you have high blood sugar). He will tell you, 'Do not eat any potato or sweets. I am prescribing you this medicine, take it regularly, and try to walk more.' This is what a doctor will say. You may object, 'Doctor, I have much money. I cannot live without sweets, I am used to eating ten sweets a day. Give me the medicine, I will take it, but I cannot give up sweets.' If the doctor loves you and not your money, he will want you to recover and be healthy, so he will say, 'I do not want a patient like you. You cannot take medicine and carry on eating sweets because you will never get well like this. If you eat sweets, your sugar will keep rising and you will keep coming to me for more and more medicine. I do not want to treat you. Come to me only if you agree to give up sweets.' But if the doctor is bad and loves your money, he will think, 'Oh, if I send him away, he will go to another doctor and I will lose my money. Better I tell him to eat whatever he is eating. If he likes sweets, he can carry on eating them. Even if he dies, what is it to me? At least I will earn some money.' Just as there are such doctors in this world, there are also such gurus in this world. They cheat you and say, 'Do whatever your soul wants. Do whatever you please. Drink, smoke, take drugs. Do whatever you want! Just take initiation from me, and I will come to you once a year, you can give me some donation [tax].' What will you get from such gurus? They only cheat you. In this world, there are such karmi-gurus (who teach you how to fulfil your material desires), jnani-gurus (who teach you all kinds of knowledge), yogi-gurus (who teach you superpowers), kaulik-gurus (ancestral teachers), laukik-gurus (family teachers), and so on. It is very rare to find a genuine spiritual master. Sivji Maharaj told Parvati Devi, 'O Devi! In this world, there are very few santap-harankari gurus (who will "rob" you of your material agony), but there are many vitta-harankari gurus in this world (who will rob you of your money).'

So, based on all that, we tell everybody that we prohibit four things: gambling, intoxication, illegal sex and killing.

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CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 23 Mb
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