(8/8) Whom Will You Tell?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Mejhiari, evening, 20 April 2019, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this world 534 years ago and when He appeared in this world, He always cried. Why did He cry? Because the people in this world do not chant the Holy Name of the Lord! His mother and aunties would take Him on their laps and try to tell Him not to cry, but He did not stop. Then, some pious lady suddenly said, 'Hare Krishna!' and He stopped crying. He distributed the Holy Name of the Lord through His crying! He would stop crying only when somebody said, 'Hare Krishna! Hari bol!'

When Nimai was only about three years old, a sannyasi (a brahman) came to the house of Sachi Mata and Jagannath Misra. He begged them, 'Mother, can you give me some alms?'

'Yes, we can, but you have come at an odd time – please cook something, offer it to the Lord and take that prasad.'

The sannyasi agreed.

He cooked something and went to offer it to the Deities. He began to recite the mantras for offering bhog when suddenly Nimai showed up and began to eat from the plate!

'Hey! Naughty boy, where have You come from?!' the sannyasi cried.

Hearing the shouts, Jagannath Mirsa and Sachi Devi came to the room and asked the sannyasi what had happened. 'Your naughty son has come and when I was offering the bhog He ate from the plate!' he explained. Jagannath Misra was surprised, 'What? But I offer bhog every day, and He has never done this before. He has become so naughty... All right, I will guard Him. Please cook again.' The sannyasi cooked again. By the time he finished, it was already late afternoon. Looking around to see if Nimai was there or not, he went to the Deities' room and began offering bhog to Them. Suddenly, Nimai came and started eating from the plate again. When Jagannath Misra saw Nimai, he chased Him out and wanted to beat Him, but Nimai hid in a neighbour's house and asked the lady in that house not to open the door because His father was very angry and was going to beat Him. Jagannath Misra cried, 'Open up! Nimai! A guest has come to our house, and You are disturbing him so much! What is this?' Nimai trembled with fear.

He who the whole three worlds shiver with fear for is shivering for the fear of His father. Who is able to understand this? Can anybody understand that the Lord Himself has come to this world? He appeared from the womb of Sachi Devi in the house of Jagananth Misra, but who can understand that He is the Lord Himself? Jagannath Misra and Sachi Mata were very upset because a guest had come to their house, but they could not feed him. Then, evening came. Visvarup, Nimai's elder brother, came home.

'What is going on? Why is everybody so upset at home?' he asked his parents.

'Who are you?' the sannyasi asked him.

'This is my elder son. His name is Visvarup,' Jagannath Misra replied.

'Oh, his name is Visvarup, and his appearance is visva-rup (very beautiful).'

'What has happened at home?'

'I offer bhog again and again, but your little brother Nimai keeps coming and taking it!'

'Please offer bhog again. He is afraid of me, so you will see that he will not come this time.'

The sannyasi cooked again. It was already late evening. He carefully looked around him to make sure Nimai was not coming ('I have taken so much trouble to cook again, I hope He will not come again!') and when he saw that Nimai was sleeping peacefully on His mother's lap, he came into the Deities' room to offer bhog. He called the Lord and started to recite the mantras very intently. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Nimai had come and cleared the plate again!

'Hey! Again You?'

'Listen, sadhu, why do you keep chasing Me around? You keep calling Me, and when I come, you chase Me away! I was sleeping just now, and you called Me, so I have come.'

'Why would I call You? I did not!'

'Who did you call then?' Nimai asked.

'The Lord, of course.'

'Oh, you called the Lord, not Me?' saying this, Nimai showed His six-armed form to the sannyasi. 'You were fortunate to see Me in Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga and Dvapar-yuga, and now, too, in this Kali-yuga I am giving My darshan to you. Please do not tell anybody about it though.'

The brahman offered his obeisance to the Lord and ran away from the house. Nobody saw him ever again in Nabadwip.

So, who can understand Nimai? Who can recognise Him? He defeated Keshav Kashmiri, He rescued Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya in Puri and Prakasananda Saraswati in Kashi. When He travelled through Jharkhand, all the animals were attracted to Him and even deer, who always run away from tigers, ran together with tigers behind Him. Who can conceive of such things? Who can recognise who Mahaprabhu is? Only those who have got mercy can know Him. It is not possible to know Him without Vaishnavs' mercy.

These days, when you speak Hari-katha, young people carry on talking. When the Lord takes the power of speech from you, then you will understand it.

শ্মশানে শরীর মম পড়িয়া রহিবে ।
বিহঙ্গ পতঙ্গ তায় বিহার করিবে ॥

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
bihanga-patanga taya vihara karibe

'My body will be left at a crematorium, and birds and insects will heartily enjoy it.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When your body is thrown at the cremation ghat, so many flies and bugs will feast on it – then it will be too late, everything will be gone.

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

'Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?'

Whose fault is it? I am my own friend, and I am my own enemy. If I cannot change myself, who will change me then? You must ask yourselves: (1) Who am I (কে আমি, ke ami)? (2) Why am I suffering (কেনে আমায় জারে তাপত্রয়, kene amaya jare tapa-traya)? (3) How can I get relief from this suffering and austerity? How can I get benefit? (কিসে হিত হয়, kise hita haya)? (4) What is the eternal goal (সাধ্য বস্তু কী, sadhya vastu ki)? (5) How can I attain this main goal (সাধ্য বস্তু কী করলে পাওয়া য্য়, sadhya vastu ki korle paowa yaya)? Srila Sanatan Goswami asked Mahaprabhu these five questions. In reply, Mahaprabhu said that I and my body are not the same thing – I am a soul!

My parents produced my body (if I compare my blood with the blood of my parents, I will see that it is the same blood), but they did not produce me. I am a particle of the Lord. Just as we wear these clothes today and change them tomorrow – just as we change clothes every day – we change our bodies each birth. Today we can be born as goats, tomorrow as cows, another time as humans. In this way, we keep on changing bodies. One mosquito lives for fifteen days, and during this time it creates a family and has children and grandchildren, and it also thinks, 'I want to eat more, I want to drink more and more blood.' We are like that too. We will live for seventy-eighty years, but in terms of millions of years or births it is nothing; still, we want more and more – our desires never end. You must understand this yourselves. Who will you tell this?

Who am I to tell all these things? Is there anybody to hear it? There is not... Nobody at all... The problem is that we do not practise spiritual life ourselves; others cannot do anything for us.

[His Divine Grace chants 'E ghora samsare', 'Sarvasva tomara' and 'Hari Haraye', concluding the class.]

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Length: 62 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Arise from Oblivion
2) Embrace Conscious Living
3) Our Misery-Fraught Slumber
4) Unhealthy Condition
5) Sincere Worship
6) Troubled Souls
7) Turn Yourself into Servant
8) Whom Will You Tell?