(4) Prasad Consciousness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
1 March 2019, evening, part 4
Translated from Bengali

We must always remember the Lord. You all know how we can do this and how we must live.

We suffer from five material diseases, and it is said in the scriptures that if we honour prasad, then all material illusion (prapancha) will be removed. Prasad-seva: we must honour prasad. What does it mean?

Suppose you plant a mango tree, a coconut tree or some flower or vegetable tree – you can plant it, but you cannot give life to any plant or tree. You are not the master of any plant to give it life. As I have told you earlier, our parents give us only bodies, but they do not give us life; similarly, you can plant a tree, but you cannot give it life.

Doctors and scientists can do so many things – they can transplant hearts, livers, brains, they can restore vision, they can do incredible things – but if somebody dies, can they give them life? Can they save them? Even if they cure somebody, the person still has to die, and they can do nothing about it. They say that it will be possible in a thousand years, but are we going to wait for that? We must think about our souls now. Scientists can also create robots that act like humans. They travel all over the world, give lectures and talk about life... Anyway, it is a long story, we can talk about it the whole night. The main thing that I wanted to tell you is this:

You can plant all these trees, but it does not mean that those trees belong to you. You are not the master to give life to anything. You think, 'I have planted this tree, so I will take its fruit,' but this is wrong. Everything should be used for the service to the Lord. If you work, you must work for the Lord. If you do farming, you must do it for the Lord. If you run a business, you must do it for the Lord. If you cook, you must do for Govinda. This mood should be our mood. If this mood comes to us, then it will be service to the Lord. Whatever you do, you must realise that everything is related to the Lord.

The Lord says that we must leave all kinds of religions (sarva-dharman parityajya), but what should we do having left all religions? We must remember the Lord. You do not need to follow any religion!

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

‘Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.’

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 'Leave all religions and surrender to Me. Everything that is created in this world is created for My enjoyment, but you are stealing My things. You eat anything and everything without offering it first to Me – it is a sin!' You must always remember this. We always live committing sins: overcome with pride, we take things that belong to the Lord and enjoy them ourselves. You think, 'I am growing vegetables so that I can eat and so that my children can eat,' or, 'I am running a business to provide food for my wife and children', 'I am cooking so that my husband can eat.' This is our mood, but it is wrong. You think, 'I will go to work tomorrow', 'I will cook tomorrow', but if the Lord does not want it to happen, it will never happen because nothing can happen without His will. Not a single leaf on a tree can move with His will. So, we cannot live forgetting Him.

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