(6) Conditioned Soul's Plight

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 1 April 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

When Mahaprabhu went to Sridhar Prabhu's house, He said, 'Sridhar, although you live in a poor mud house, I feel deep satisfaction and nourishment in My heart when I come here.' Sridhar Prabhu had only one glass, and that glass had a hole. Mahaprabhu would close the hole with His finger and drink water from it. As He drank it, He said, 'Oh! I feel deep cooling satisfaction in My heart.' Such is the Lord's appreciation for His devotees' things. Sridhar Prabhu was very poor – he lived by selling banana fruit, stems, leaves and flowers. Mahaprabhu would come and forcefully take banana stems from him. He could have taken it from any wealthy person, but He did not do it – instead, He would come to this poor brahman and take it from him. The Lord eats what His devotees give Him; He does not want to take anything from non-devotees. Actually, non-devotees cannot even give anything to the Lord because even if they do give something, they want to get something in return. They turn God into their servant: 'O God, give me this', 'O God, give me that.'

All we can pray for is that the Lord gives us some place at His holy feet. We serve the Lord, and whether He accepts our service or not, it is His matter. Our job is to continue doing our service. We must be determined to serve the Lord until our very last breath.

The problem is desires. Material desires are such that they keep throwing us back into the bondage of the illusory environment. If you place a piece of iron into fire, the iron becomes red – after that, if you touch that red-hot iron to some paper, cloth or your body, it will burn everything. Where does iron get this power to burn? From fire. Maya is also like that. Getting her power from the Lord, Maya deceives us and removes us from the Lord's service. She tells us, 'Serve me! Do what I tell you! Live as my slave.' As the result, we end up living our whole lives serving our wives, sons, daughters, grandchildren.

When we were small, we lived surrounded by affection, enjoying in the lap of our aunties and grandparents. After that, we grew up a little and started studying. We went to school, college, university. We got education and then found a job. We went abroad, got a job there, and with the money we earned we found a wife and started a family. Then, our life was focused on serving our wife. Then, we had children; when our children grew up, we got grandchildren. Now we live petting our grandchildren, taking care of them. Such is our life in the material world of Maya, and we cannot get out of it.

কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

kisera samsara ei, chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari vrtha dina yaya

‘What kind of life is this? It is only a trick, a show. I have wasted time taking this world and the people around me in it as my own.’

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Is there time? We live engrossed in our material lives, but how long are we going to be in this world? Even the scriptures say, 'Subhasya sighram asubhasya kala-haranam (শুভস্য শীঘ্রম্‌ অশুভস্য কালহরণম্). If you think something is auspicious and good for everyone, do it immediately; and if you think that something is inauspicious or not good, delay doing it.' When you have a chance to do something good, you must do it immediately.

** wanted to come – she said, 'Just let my son grow up, then I can come and serve the Lord.' But I understand what this means... So many obstacles and dangers will come, so many problems will come in the future to prevent her from doing it. Nobody even knows if she or her family will be alive or not in the future. Nobody knows these things, but one thing I know is that Gurudev said, 'The wetter a blanket gets, the heavier it becomes.' Obstacles will come, so you must not run behind obstacles – do what you must do now. You think, 'Oh, I will chant the Holy Name tomorrow', 'I will take initiation later', 'Let this pass, then I will take initiation' – there is no time!

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

‘My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that death is there, waiting right next to me.’

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If you only keep ploughing the ground but do not plant the seed, what harvest will you get? It is necessary to plant the seed! So, you must approach a genuine guru and clean your hearts (prepare them for the seed).

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

‘Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

Obstacles will come. Dangers will come. Maya will come. Greed and various thoughts will come. When there was nothing at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Gurudev's godbrothers never came to cause any problems, but when there appeared all the big buildings (the five-storey building at Govinda Kunda, etc.), then greed took over them. When there was only one thatched house, nothing else, then nobody was eyeing it. But when good brick houses were built, then they got greedy, thinking, 'How can I enjoy this? I can live in a nice, comfortable house, too!' When that greed came, they could not control it. They see gurudev's property as objects for their own enjoyment. Desiring to enjoy, they came to the temple to fight and cause unrest. They had left Gurudev and stayed in another place for twenty–thirty years – in all this time, they did not earn the qualification to make their own temple. They want to become great gurus, but they did not earn the qualification to make a temple. And now they came to the temple that Gurudev made and you know what they did. I am not going to speak about myself, but they came to Gurudev's temple and started selling cows, things, trees, fish, etc. What service mood is there? Only those who have no service mood can be like that.

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