(11/16) Tottering Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 23 April 2019, noon, part 11
Translated from Bengali

We always forget the Lord. When we were ten months and ten days in the wombs of our mothers, we had to suffer so much. I described it in the third volume of Guidance. I also wrote about the suffering souls undergo in hell. Death is actually more fearsome than birth...

When we were in our mothers' wombs, we promised to the Lord:

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার-ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajiba baliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rahile tumi avidyara bhare

'Forgetting that you came to this world saying, "I will serve You," you remained engulfed in ignorance.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We promised, 'O Lord, I will use my hands to serve You. I will use my eyes to have the darshan of Your Deity. I will use my legs to do the parikrama of Your holy land and of Tulasi at home.' You must do Tulasi parikrama every day. Even when you leave home to go to work in the morning and come back home after work, you must first pay obeisance to Tulasi. If you pay obeisances to Tulasi before you leave, Tulasi will bring you back home safely. Whenever you go outside, there is no guarantee that you will come back – you may or may not come back. You can actually get to the crematorium instead. Death is fraught with fear, but this day will come to all of us – we must be ready for it.

Pariksit Maharaj was fortunate because he had got a notice seven days ahead that he was going to die. Khatvanga Maharaj was also fortunate to know that he was going to die within forty-eight minutes. But we do not know if we have even seven seconds, seven minutes or ten minutes left – we can die at any time. Kothay chhilam, hethay elam, kothay yabo bhavi nai (কোথায় ছিলাম, হেথায় এলাম, কোথায় যাব ভাবি নাই). Where was I? Where have I come? And where will I go after that? It never crosses my mind.'

You are struggling now, thinking, 'Oh, my legs are paining', 'Oh, my back is paining'... One time, I told somebody to chant the Holy Name on the beads, but he told me that he could not because his fingers were paining when he did it. These fingers, along with the rest of the body, will be burnt and get mixed with soil one day. We are talking with our mouths, but the day will come when we will have to leave everything and go away. This body is only flesh and bones – we will have to leave it. We will leave, but where will we go?

I am wearing these clothes today, but in the evening I will take them off, go to sleep and in the morning put on fresh clothes. Just as we change our clothes every day, we also change our bodies. As you sow, so you reap – everybody gets a body according to their actions. It can be a dog's body, a cat's body or any other body. We will have to be born wherever we are sent to.

— : • : —

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Length: 85 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Be Resolute
2) Pillars of Service Mood
3) Tongue's Attachment
4) Tread with Caution
5) Search for Reality
6) The Obstacle Is You
7) Bogus Love, Bogus Claims
8) Core of Devotional Life
9) Love Me, Love My Dog
10) Bad Days Turn Into Bad Life
11) Tottering Life
12) Control Your Mind
13) Devotees' Benevolent Kindness
14) Gift of Vision
15) Seal Your Heart from Maya
16) My Question to You