(8/9) Kali's Poison

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
24 February 2019, evening, part 8
Translated from Bengali

There are four things that are prohibited for us because Kali lives in these four places.

(1) Dyuta. It means gambling, playing cards or dice. I have read a story in the newspapper the other day. A man from Basirhat had won fifteen million rupees in a lottery. Having got the money, he paid the tax and then bought himself a car, a house and many other things. Although he had got so much money and could get anything he wanted or could afford a comfortable life, he could not stop buying lottery tickets. So, he spent almost two million rupees on lottery tickets! In the end, he ran out of money and started selling his wife's jewellery, then he sold the house and the car he had bought. Now his wife rolls and sells bidi (cigarettes) at the market, and he has become a beggar. The neighbours of that man saw that he had so much money, so they started buying lottery tickets, too, and ended up in the same state. People blame it on the government and say that the government must ban lottery. But what is the government's fault? They get tax from lottery winners, and it can help common people in some way because the government can spend that money to do something for people. So, the question is not why the government allows lottery, the question is why you go and buy lottery tickets? Why be greedy? This is what gambling is about.

(2) Pana. It means drinking alcohol, taking drugs and other intoxicants. You can see what happens to the people who live like this. Some men earn a little money and spend everything on liquor and then come home and beat their wives. [An elderly lady says that this is happening in her family.] See? You know yourselves what this is and what this leads to.

(3) Striya. It means illicit sex. For example, a husband goes away to work and sends some money to his wife from time to time, and in the meantime his wife mixes with some other man. Or the wife stays at home while her husband goes away to work and gets married to another woman. Do you think a family can live happily like this? It cannot.

(4) Suna. It means killing living entities (jivas). We do not kill any living entities for ourselves because Krishna lives in each and every creature (sarva-jive krsna-adhisthan; সর্ব্বজীবে কৃষ্ণ-অধিষ্ঠান). We do not do anything for ourselves.

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vanchha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

'The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (divine love).'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.4.165)

We do not do anything for our own pleasure. We try to do everything out of love for the Lord – to serve Him. Devotees do not serve the Lord because they want to get something: 'Bhaktera hrdaye sada govinda-visrama (ভক্তের হৃদয়ে সদা গোবিন্দ-বিশ্রাম). Govinda always rests in the heart of His devotees.' Devotees do not serve the Lord to get anything from Him – they serve the Lord's devotees only out of devotion. Their mood is, 'I have got this human birth to serve the Lord, so if I can live serving the Lord and His devotees, I can get devotion to the Lord.' Service to devotees gives devotion.

We come to take shelter in our gurudev, and it is gurudev who can give us the right to serve Lord Krishna. Whom does Krishna belong to? He belongs to Srimati Radharani, and Srimati Radharani is non-different from Sri Gurupadpadma. So, if we take shelter in such Sri Gurupadpadma, he will give us the right to serve Lord Krishna (he will make us fit to serve Him). Always remember this. Sri Gurupadpadma can give us the right to serve Lord Krishna, so we must take shelter in him and practise Krishna consciousness under his guidance. This is the main thing in our lives. We must hear this, understand this and know this. If we cannot understand this, we will not be able to do anything – our lives will be simply wasted.

That is why it is written in the scriptures:

হরি হরি ! বিফলে জনম গোঙাইনু ।
মনুষ্যজনম পাইয়া, রাধাকৃষ্ণ না ভজিয়া,
জানিয়া শুনিয়া বিষ খাইনু ॥

hari hari! viphale janama gonainu
manusya-janama paiya, radha-krsna na bhajiya,
janiya suniya visa khainu

'O Lord! My life has passed in vain. I have got a human birth but have not served Radha-Krishna. I have been consciously drinking poison (I knew it, I heard about it from others, but I still drank it).'

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

We consciously take poison! We are not worshipping Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, so we are consciously taking poison! We have not been able to do anything to resolve the agony of this material existence...

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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