(3/6) Burning Your Boats

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
27 February 2019, afternoon, part 3
Translated from Bengali

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার
নামাশ্রয় করি’ যতনে তুমি,
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari’ yatane tumi,
thakaha apana kaje

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers. Carry on your life but try your best to take shelter in the Holy Name.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

[His Divine Grace notices that devotees are getting lethargic.] When you get sleepy, you must know that it is Maya Devi catching you. To avoid it, chant the Holy Name of Lord Krishna. Say together with me:

হরে কৃষ্ণ হরে কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ হরে হরে ।
হরে রাম হরে রাম রাম রাম হরে হরে ॥

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said if, when you are chanting the Holy Name or practising Krishna consciousness, you become absent-minded, distracted or some bad thoughts come to your minds, you should loudly chant the Holy Name of Lord Krishna. Chant Lord Krishna's Name, you will get benefit. Why cannot we chant the Name of Krishna? The reason is only one. There are very few people in this world who actually practise spiritual life, chant the Holy Name and serve the Lord, the rest of the world are always busy with sense-gratification. Why cannot they practise Krishna consciousness? Because they live in the bondage of the illusory environment.

What is Maya's game like? One time Srila Prabhupad was asked about it and he gave an example. If you take an iron rod and put it into fire, the rod will become very hot and red after a while and you cannot touch it – if you try to touch it, it will burn your hand. You must take some cloth or use some protection to be able to handle it, and if you touch that iron rod to some plastic, cloth or somebody's body, it will burn everything. Where does the iron rod get this power to burn? From fire. Getting power from fire, the rod can burn anything and everything. Maya Devi is also like that. She gets her power from the Lord and keeps living entities away from Him, turning them into her own servants and maidservants. Just like an iron rod becomes hot and can harm others, Maya Devi turns living entities into her servants and keeps them away from the Lord.

If, by some fortune, we anyhow become attracted to Krishna and develop a very strong desire to serve Him, to have His darshan (just like Maharaj Prataparudra was so determined to anyhow, by hook or by crook, have Mahaprabhu's darshan that he did get it in the end by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu) – if the soul surrenders to the Lord and His devotees – then Maya Devi will see that this soul has submitted itself to her Master (Krishna is Maya Devi's master) and will leave that soul alone. When that happens, the soul can genuinely practise Krishna consciousness.

After that, if we do something wrong and forget the Lord (if we lose Krishna consciousness), Maya Devi will enter us again – she will again remove us from the Lord's service and use us for her own service. You can see many devotees who stayed and served at the temple for a long time and who now live as Maya's slaves, practising 'Kama consciousness' (lust consciousness) and 'Maya consciousness' (illusory consciousness). If you try to practise spiritual life bypassing gurudev, this is Maya consciousness, not Krishna consciousness. It is not possible to practise spiritual life without strict, chaste adherence to your guru and Vaishnavs. We must always remember this.

Always remember these things. Always be conscious of how you can get rid of all your evils (anarthas) and come to the Lord. Outside people cannot understand these things...

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Length: 31 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Beyond Superficial Reverence
2) Your Faith and Priorities
3) Burning Your Boats
4) Coming Unstuck
5) Beware Imitation
6) Daily Grind or Daily Gain?