(1) Bound and Benumbed

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
26 February 2019, noon, part 1
Translated from Bengali

...We had to undergo so much hellish suffering in the wombs of our mothers. After that, emerging from that suffering, we took birth and again fell into illusory bondage (maya). This illusory bondage (Maya Devi's energy) is created by the Lord Himself. Therefore, I am praying at your holy feet to please practise Krishna consciousness.

Do you know why the Holy Name does not come out of your mouths? Because the Holy Name is said to consider offences: the Holy Name judges whether the person who is trying to chant is an offender or not – if the person is an offender, then the Holy Name will not come to their mouth. Everybody can say all kinds of things – people talk about their parents, family, friends, and so on – but it is not so easy for everybody to pronounce the Holy Name of Lord Krishna. The scriptures explain why. If you read Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, you will find it mentioned there:

‘কৃষ্ণনাম’ করে অপরাধের বিচার ।
কৃষ্ণ বলিলে অপরাধীর না হয় বিকার ॥

'krsna-nama' kare aparadhera vichara
krsna balile aparadhira na haya vikara

'The Holy Name of Krishna considers offences: when one who commits ten offences of the Holy Name takes the Name of Krishna, it produces no transformation in them.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.24)

Even if such people take the Holy Name, it never produces any transformation in them. Even though such is our situation, the scriptures also give the solution to it.

If you are covered by unwanted habits (anaratha), you can never feel taste for Krishna's Name. You can understand it yourselves also: if you have a fever or you are very sick, then whatever you are given to eat will not have a good taste – everything will taste bitter. We all have been sick, and we all know that when we are sick, we do not feel like eating anything and no matter what is cooked and given to us, we do not feel the taste. In the same way, until and unless there are offences in our bodies, or hearts, our tongues can never feel any taste while chanting the Holy Name of Lord Krishna – even if we try to chant, it will never produce any transformation in us.

Our hearts are afflicted by many diseases: avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment) and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits). Ignorance means any knowledge except knowledge about Lord Krishna. Apart from that, we live amidst atyahara (overeating), prayascha (material zealousness), prajalpa (nonsense talks), niyamagraha (selfish attachment to rules and regulations), jana-sanghancha (material association), laulancha (uncontrolled greed). Always thinking about ourselves, we are busy the whole day with anything and everything except God. We want money, we want wealth, we want a car, we want a house – living amidst all these insatiable desires, we never think about the Lord.

The Lord has sent us to this human birth and has given us a wife, a son, friends, a husband, a daughter, grandchildren, and so on. You think that once you arrange your son's or daughter's marriage, they will have their own children and you will have grandchildren, but they can only produce their bodies, they cannot create the souls of those grandchildren. Our bodies are given to us by our parents, but they did not give us our souls that live inside these bodies. When you die, your parents, relatives and friends will cry and burn your body, but do you ever think about that which leaves the body, that which makes the body move, speak and do everything? Does it ever cross your minds that there is a soul inside?

We must be selfish in our lives. What does it mean? It means that we must think about how our real selves (our souls) can get benefit.

— : • : —

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