(4/5) Transcendental Transformation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
28 February 2019, noon, part 4
Translated from Bengali

How should we love God? I spoke about it during the class yesterday. We have a chief minister in our country, her name is Mamata Banerjee. When she comes to her office or comes somewhere on business, everybody folds palms and bows down to her, saying, 'Didi, namaskar.' When this Mamata Banerjee comes home, her grandchildren and other relatives talk to her informally, and a maid can come and say, 'Oh, Didi, I told you there is no salt at the house. Have you got it?' Her grandchildren will run to her and say, 'Granny, have you bought me a new toy?' Everybody talks to her as family, nobody treats her as a chief minister at home. At home, she is somebody's grandmother, mother, sister, auntie. It is like that with God, too.

যে যথা মাং প্রপদ্যন্তে তাংস্তথৈব ভজাম্যহম্ ।
মম বর্ত্মানুবর্ত্তন্তে মনুষ্যাঃ পার্থ সর্ব্বশঃ ॥

ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante, manusyah partha sarvasah

'Howsoever people surrender to Me, I accordingly reward them. Being the ultimate goal of all paths, I am the objective to be attained by all. O Partha, all men follow My various paths.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.11)

'Howsoever people worship Me, I reciprocate their feelings accordingly.' This is how we must practise spiritual life. We must never forget the Lord.

We forget Krishna, but He is our only object of worship. Non-different from Lord Krishna, Sri Gurupadpadma is our only object of worship. We must have sincere devotion for him and sincere faith in him; we should not serve him only to get something in return. If you serve your guru desiring to get something in return, this is not service – this is karma-marga (selfish material activity), kapata-marga (practice of duplicity) or chhala-marga (practice of pretence). We must not want anything in return. Materialists, knowledge-seekers and liberation-seekers worship God desiring to attain some perfection or liberation in return, but it is said in the scriptures:

ভুক্তি-মুক্তি আদি-বাঞ্ছা যদি মনে হয় ।
সাধন করিলেও প্রেম উৎপন্ন না হয় ॥

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya
sadhana karile prema utpanna na haya

'If you have some material desires, if you want liberation, enjoyment, some mystic powers or any other remuneration, then even if you practise all life, or life after life, divine love will never come to you.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.175)

No matter how much you practise, if you want to attain some enjoyment, liberation or perfection in your hearts, divine love for the Lord will not come to you. In other words, you will not feel love for Lord Krishna and there will be no transcendental transformation within you.

কৃষ্ণভক্ত—নিষ্কাম, অতএব 'শান্ত' ।
ভুক্তি-মুক্তি-সিদ্ধি-কামী—সকলি 'অশান্ত' ॥

krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva 'santa'
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami—sakali 'asanta'

'A devotee of Krishna has no desires and is always peaceful. Those who have material desires, who desire liberation or some perfection, are always lusty and never know peace.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.149)

You can find these verses if you read Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, but if you read it on your own, you will not understand anything. You must hear it from the holy mouth of a devotee. That is why it is said,

ভাগবত পড় বৈষ্ণবের স্থানে ।
একান্ত আশ্রয় কর চৈতন্য-চরণে ॥

bhagavata pada vaisnavera sthane
ekanta asraya kara chaitanya-charane

'Study Bhagavatam under guidance of a Vaishnav and take exclusive shelter of the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.5.131)

You must study any scripture about God in the association of Vaishnavs, then you will understand its meaning.

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

'If devotees aspire for enjoyment or liberation, Krishna hides the knowledge about pure devotion from them and dismisses them, giving them enjoyment or liberation.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.18)

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

'Devotees submit their entire being when they take initiation. At this time, Krishna accepts them as His very own.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.192)

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥
আমি-বিজ্ঞ, এই মূর্খে ‘বিষয়’ কেনে দিব ?
স্ব-চরণামৃত দিয়া ‘বিষয়’ ভুলাইব ॥

krsna kahe,—"ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi' visa mage,—ei bada murkha
ami—vijna, ei murkhe 'visaya' kene diba?
sva-charanamrta diya 'visaya' bhulaiba"

'Krishna says, "They worship Me desiring material happiness — leaving aside nectar, they ask for poison. They are big fools, but I am intelligent: Why will I give these fools material things? Instead, I will give them the nectar of My lotus feet and make them forget the material world."'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.38-39)

The Lord says, 'If a devotee asks Me for something material (if they want money or anything else), why will I give it to them? I am not a fool. They are fools, so they can ask Me for material things, but I will not give it to them. Instead, I will give My holy feet and make them forget all about their coveted material things.'

[A party passes by playing drums.] It is not necessary to worry about anything... They are going to enjoy Maya.

Devotee: This is Maya walking by.

[His Divine Grace laughs.] They have some desires, so they are doing this; otherwise, they would not be worshipping Saraswati Devi like that.

Devotee: They are going to Ma Kali...

Oh, all right. You can see how this world is. To gratify their own senses, to indulge their enviousness, they come to kill an animal and put it in front of their Mother. Instead of destroying their own animal qualities, they destroy and sacrifice another animal. Can such sacrifice ever destroy your own animal qualities? Never. You must live always remembering this, always thinking about it.

Actually, instead of worrying about all this, we should go straight and serve devotees of Lord Krishna, serve Vaishnavs, then we can get supreme benefit. There is no other way to attain such benefit. Please remember this.

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Length: 28 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Purity Comes From Within
2) Sadhus' Protection
3) Highest Internal Ideal
4) Transcendental Transformation
5) Live Riveted to Service