(7/7) Universal Stumbling Block

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
1 March 2019, evening, part 7
Translated from Bengali

We are suffering from the burning agony of the threefold miseries because we forgot the Lord, and the only way to get relief from this suffering is to take shelter in the Lord (to take shelter at the holy feet of a genuine guru). The problem is that we do not realise that if we want to get something great, we must sacrifice small things. Our only difficulty is that we cannot do that.

What are those small things? It is the greed of our tongues. I know that you all would agree to take initiation, but there is only this one obstacle that does not let you do it: you do not want to change your food...

Do you know what Srila Prabhupad said also? 'Vaishnava haite mane chhila bara asa, kintu "trnad api sunichena" sloke parilena badha (বৈষ্ণব হইতে মনে ছিল বড় আশা, কিন্তু ‘তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন’ শ্লোকে পড়িলেন বাধা). I wanted to become a Vaishnav, but when I heard about this verse that says that I must become lower than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, that I must give honour to others, then I realised that I would not be able to do it – I will not be able to become a Vaishnav.' If you want to become a Vaishnav, you must be humbler than a blade of grass, you must have the tolerance of a tree.

When I was giving a class this morning, I explained what the six urges are, what the six faults and good qualities are. It is late now, so I will not explain it in detail now again.

What prevents you from taking initiation? There are four prohibitions: gambling, intoxication, illegal sex and slaughter. Among them, there is one that everybody is afraid of.

Gambling (making bets, playing cards, dice, etc.) is not a very big problem because not everybody does it, but there are such people. They work very hard the whole day long. Many people commute to Kolkata – they leave early in the morning and return home only at ten or eleven at night. Those who live in Kolkata come back home earlier, but those who come to Kolkata from Katwa or Durgapur spend so much time commuting that they do not even see their children's faces. When they get home, their children are already in bed, and when they leave, they are still sleeping. They only see them on Sundays. People work so hard... They go to work, work the whole day, and in the evening, instead of chanting the Lord's Name, doing Tulasi parikrama, doing arati, chanting kirtans, they go to a tea stall or to a mancha (platform) under a tree where they sit and gossip with neighbours about village news and politics (which party will win, which party did what, who stole from whom, which party they will vote for or not vote for, and so on). Women are also like that. When they are free, they group up and gossip about each other (who did what, at which house, what girl spoke to what boy, what others cooked, and so on). What does it give you? It brings only harm. Those who gossip and criticise others invite inauspiciousness into their lives.

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la’be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

‘Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour from others, give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236–237)

People buy lottery tickets hoping to become rich, but they end up so hooked on it that they sell everything they have at home and become street beggars. The Bumper lottery says that you can buy a ticket for ten rupees and win ten million rupees! Well, if you are lucky, you can, but people get so greedy to get the prize that they sell their houses and ruin their lives. It is necessary to have faith in the Lord – He will give you what is necessary.

The second vice is intoxication. It means drinking alcohol, taking drugs. The family can have no food at home, but the husband will be staggering home, drunk. He works earning two rupees and buys spirits with that money. In this area, I have not seen this so much, but if you go out late in the evening, you can see people staggering on the streets. Do you think I do not know it? I go to many places, and I see it everywhere. People are delusional (they take untruth for truth). It happens in Nabadwip, too. One time, some man got drunk and fell into a drain: his legs were in the drain and his head was outside. We came and told him, 'Get up! Go away from here!' Do you know what he said? 'Why must I go away?! I am the chief minister!' We told him, 'O chief minister, you have fallen into a drain!' He replied, 'What drain? I am lying nicely on my soft bed!' A drunk guy is lying in a drain, but he is saying that he is sleeping in his bed! You can beat such people with a stick, but they will still not budge. I have seen such things in many places, especially in Kolkata.

The third vice is illegal sex. It means mixing with women out of wedlock. You all know what this is about. It means that you have a husband, but you mix with other men; or you have a wife and you mix with other women. You must never associate with such people. Not everybody lives like that, but there are such people. Sometimes husbands go to other cities to work and their wives stay at home... Just recently I have read about one family. The husband went to work in Kerala, and his wife stayed at home. There was one moulvi (a socially respectable Muslim man) living near the house, and he had some illegitimate connection with the wife. Her six- or seven-year-old son (a first grader) found out about it, and when he saw that man, he cut his head off and threw it into a heap of stool. He got caught after that. Such things are happening every day... So, all these things only disturb family life. Gaudiya sadhus strictly prohibit this. Even thinking about another woman is bad. It is also association.

Finally, the fourth vice is slaughter. This is the main problem for everybody. Slaughter means killing living entities. You cannot kill anybody for yourselves. This is where your main obstacle is. You think, 'Oh, I will not be able to eat fish', 'I will not be able to eat goat meat', 'I will not be able to eat chicken.' What do the scriptures say?

যো যস্য মাংসমশ্নাতি স তন্মাংসাদ উচ্যতে ।
মৎস্যাদঃ সর্বমাংসাদস্তস্মান্মৎস্যান্ বিবর্জয়েৎ ॥

yo yasya mamsam-asnati sa tan mamsada uchyate
matsyadah sarva-mamsadas-tasman-mat-syan vivarjayet

'Those who eat meat are called meat-eaters, but those who eat fish devour all kinds of meat (cow, pig, etc. even one's own meat). Therefore, one must completely give up eating fish.'

(Manu-samhita, 5.15)

Those who eat meat eat their own flesh. Many people do not eat meat, but they eat fish. Even if you eat fish, you are eating cow's meat. How so? I will give an example. How are bodies created? When a cow dies, its body decays and gets mixed with soil, the same soil that fishes' bodies are created from. If you kill something in this life, it will come to kill you in a future life. Remember this.

Those who studied science have read that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It is the third law of Newton. So, when you do something, you get a reaction for your actions. There is a saying in Bengali also, 'It marle patakale khete hay (ইট মারলে পাটকেল খেতে হয়). If you hit a brick, you will get hit by a brickbat.' And in scientific language, it also means 'the forward momentum of the bullet equals the backward momentum of the gun.' I used to have a gun when I was young – Gurudev told me not to take a gun in my hands (because my hand is sharp and somebody can die), and since then I have never touched it again. So, when you fire from a gun, the bullet comes out and the gun also hits you back – if you are not very strong, you can even fall back.

So, the word 'meat' (mamsa) means 'mam' (I) plus 'sa' (he): if I kill somebody in this life, he will come to kill me in a future life. So, if I kill a chicken in this world, I will become a chicken in the future and that chicken will get a human body and will kill me. There is a soul living in all species, so you should stop eating fish, meat and other things that cannot be offered to the Lord. You may ask, 'Oh, but you also eat! You cut vegetables, greens, and so on. It is also killing!' As I have told you earlier, everything that is created in this world is created for the pleasure of the Lord. So, what do sadhus do? They do not cut or kill anything for themselves. They do not cut bananas from a tree for themselves, they do not cut rice paddy for themselves, they do not cut spinach for themselves. Whatever they cut, they cut it for the service to Govinda. If you offer everything to Lord Govinda, then there is no sin – your action will be in the nirguna plane. Always remember this.

Anyhow, much has been said, and it is already late. Let us chant some kirtan now.

Come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. There are devotees in this area who are coming, so you can join them. The parikrama itself lasts four days; come the day before ekadasi – the parikrama is on ekadasi, dvadasi, trayodasi and chaturdasi. Then, it will be the purnima day when we celebrate Gaura Purnima (it is a fasting day). Do not go outside or play with color dyes on this day. The day after purnima is the big festival. After that you can go back. Come for these six–seven days.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Do not worry about anything, do not be afraid of anything – wherever I am at that time, come there. I will make all arrangements for everybody. I am going to Nrisingha Palli the day after tomorrow to see to the accommodation. I do not want any fighting. It is only human to want to live in peace. If you have a house but no peace, you will not like staying there. We did not take initiation from big buildings – we took initiation from the guru, so wherever the guru is, we will come and stay there. We did not take initiation from big buildings – do you understand what I am saying? Mahaprabhu also did not make any temples. When many devotees came to Puri to see Him, they would stay in different houses nearby. Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami did not many any temples, too.

Hari bol. Hare Krishna! We are also making a temple in Mayapur, you will see it soon – I should finish it in a year...

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Length: 34 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Our Happiness and Mission
2) Where Does Your Submission Lie?
3) Do Not Take This Life for Granted
4) Prasad Consciousness
5) Material Killing, Spiritual Killing
6) Every Day Service Day
7) Universal Stumbling Block