(10/10) Surrender and Thrive

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
26 February 2019, evening, part 10
Translated from Bengali

...It is necessary to be surrendered at the holy feet of your guru – such surrender must come to us. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur sang:

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥
ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara
sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara
tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

'(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion. Lord Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in these six ways.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must remember these things. We must always remember service to Lord Krishna:

করিতেছ উপকার যাতে পর উপকার
লভে জীব শ্রীকৃষ্ণ-সেবায়

karitechchha upakara yate para upakara
labhe jiva sri-krsna-sevaya

'Your benevolent kindness is such that receiving it, souls get the benefit of attaining service to Lord Krishna.'

(Acharya Vandana)

Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's help was such that everybody got benefit. For example, when we plant a flower tree and bears flowers, we do let the flowers dry and die – we pick them and offer them at the holy feet of Lord Govinda. In this way, the tree gets benefit – it gets to earn some sukriti (spiritual merit). Devotees try to use everything in service to Lord Govinda like this. Everything belongs to the Lord, everything is related to the Lord. We do not reject or throw anything aside – we use everything in service. His things, for His service. We must use His things for His service. We worship the Ganges with the Ganges water.

We get money, we get wealth, we get property, we eat and live using many things – if the Lord wishes so, everything can be destroyed within one second. The problem is that the Lord has given us all these things, but we forget Him and without offering anything first to Him, we enjoy everything ourselves, thinking everything belongs to us.

One day, you make a huge offering of sixty-four dishes, you offer opulent flat-rice dishes and hire a band to play and sing – do you think the Lord will eat one day, and after that He does not need to be fed? It does not work like this. Do you understand it? It is necessary to serve every single day, eternally. If you do it one day, and then do not do anything, this is one of the offences to the Holy Name: to sin and chant relying on the purifying power of the Name. So, if you live like this (doing something for God one day and then doing your own things the rest of the time), you will never be able to chant the real Holy Name. You spend money on hired singers, but it brings no benefit to you because these people say wrong things. Instead wasting money like this, practise Krishna consciousness yourselves. They come and chant God's Names, but what benefit is it to you? If they eat, will your stomaches be full? So, if you cannot join and do service yourselves – if you cannot live serving the Lord every day – then, no matter what you do, it is not service to the Lord. To teach this, to tell us about this, sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs come to your houses year after year – they keep coming every year so that you all can come to this line. They take so much trouble to reach out to everybody...

Come to this line. Make a step forward. If you make one step towards the Lord, the Lord will make ten steps towards you. There is no time to lose! Never forget these things now. If you come to this line and start serving the Lord, nothing will happen to your children or grandchildren. Live all together as members of Krishna's family, give up all your bad habits and ideas. I want you to always remember this. Never forget this. 'Seva-i karma, seva-i dharma, seva-i chatur-vargera phala (সেবাই ধর্ম, সেবাই কর্ম, সেবাই চতুর্বর্গের ফল). Service is the religion, service is the only activity in life, and service is what gives the result of pursuing all four goals of life.' We pass our days thinking about bad things, but we do not understand anything about service to Lord Krishna – you never realise that service is the religion, service is the only activity in life, and service is what gives the result of pursuing all four goals of life. That is why I keep telling about these things again and again.

Starting from Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, our Param Gurudev Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj (the founder acharya of ISKCON), they all spread this Krishna consciousness all over the world, and you can see devotees coming here from all over the world now. They come and walk with me house to house, they chant the Holy Name, they chant the glories of the Lord. They come from so far searching for the hidden treasure, and, having got it, they now chant the Holy Name and join Harinam-sankirtan. They cry out loud, 'Nitai Gaura Hari bol!' You can see this new young boy here. They have everything in their countries – they do not lack money, they do not lack houses or anything else, they do not worry about such things; but leaving all their houses, cars, property and wealth, they come here and chant, 'Nitai-Gaura Hari bol!' and coming to Sri Gaura Mandal, Sri Nabadwip Dham, to your houses, they chant, dance and roll in the dust. This should make us think. What kind of taste are they getting? What do they come for? Why do they come to India?

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

'One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

Opening a school and giving people education is not real help. When people become educated, they become proud scholars. You can see so many people studying, getting a degree, becoming rich and creating so much disturbance and nonsense in the world. Is this what is called religion or religious life? People are fighting so much – is this part of any religion? People study so much and then end up fighting and killing each other. Hindus, Mulslims, everybody is like that. Everybody is thinking, 'Who can I kill to become big and great? Who can I put in jail to get a good name?' People roam this world in the search of pratistha. Somebody wants to become a famous poet, somebody wants to become a famous scientist, somebody wants to become a great writer, somebody wants to become a great doctor, engineer, etc. Do they ever think about themselves? Do they ever do anything for the benefit of their souls? Brain-washed, they are steered down the wrong path. They keep coming to this world, but 'Nitai-charana na bhajila asa-yaowa sara haila – if you do not worship Nitai's holy feet, your coming and going in this world is all in vain.'

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

'Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?'

Whose fault is it? It is our fault, nobody else's. Always remember this. Do not forget that you cannot get in life anything without service to Lord Krishna. It is not a matter of only one or two days. You chant some kirtan and offer bhog for three days, arrange a programme, but this is nothing – you must practise yourselves.

How can you make me happy? I will be happy if you can take shelter of a bona fide guru and practise Krishna consciousness. Practise Krishna consciousness every day, offer arati every day, do parikrama every day. This is what I want, and this is what will make me the happiest, and the Lord will also be pleased. You can understand it yourselves that if you worship the Lord, it will make the Lord happy. When you call your children, you call them by their names and they get happy, 'Oh, my mother is calling!', 'Oh, my father is calling me!' In the same way, if somebody calls out to the Lord every day, the Lord becomes happy. Chant loudly, 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!' Do not forget us. Do not waste time. Our souls can leave these bodies at any moment, our bodies can be thrown away at the crematorium at any moment – without delaying any further, we must start practising Krishna consciousness starting from now.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

[His Divine Grace chants 'Sarvasva tomara', 'E ghora samsare' and 'Hari Haraye Nama Krsna' and, reciting Sri Jaya Dhvani, concludes the programme.]

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Length: 66 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Our Predicament
2) Life Worth Living?
3) Grow Up
4) Relief from Burden
5) Wrecked Intelligence
6) Misdirected Love
7) Devotion Comes from Devotion
8) Lost and Languid Souls
9) Grasp onto Guru, Not Maya
10) Surrender and Thrive