(4) Unfathomable Thoughtlessness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Singur,
7 May 2019, noon, part 4
Translated from Bengali

In this world, even if somebody lives for one hundred years, how much is it? We are born in these human bodies now having crossed millions of other births, but even though we have got such a rare birth, we still live only thinking about food, clothes and money.

'When will Sri Chaitanya (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaishnavs’ feet?' Does anybody think about this? We chant with our mouths:

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

‘When will Sri Chaitanya (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaishnavs’ feet?’

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

‘When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When will I give respect to Vaishnavs? When will I give up material ego? 'My house', 'My room', 'My son', 'My family', 'My grandchildren', 'My this', 'My that' – from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep at night, we only keep thinking about this. We spend our time thinking about our husbands, wives, children, but we have no time for all this! We have very little time in our hand. We can leave this world at any moment – before that happens, you must learn from sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs what you must do about it. I have just told you that the only way to save yourselves from this material world is by practising sravan and kirtan in sadhu-sanga (listen about the Lord and chant the Lord's Names and glories in the association of pure saints).

There are many people living in this village. You will see that when the time comes to feed everybody, then the place will be filled with people. Now there are only fifty or a hundred people at most, but there are many people in this village. You can see when it comes to the time to take prasad... to eat! If they understood that it is prasad, then it would be something, but people only come to eat kitchuri, rice, etc. When it is time to eat, many people come. Is that the truth or a lie?

Nobody thinks about these things...

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

‘When will Sri Chaitanya (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaishnavs’ feet?’

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

‘When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'When will I offer my obeisance when I see a Vaishnav? When will I be able to treat them with respect?' We never think about it...

গলবস্ত্র কৃতাঞ্জলি বৈষ্ণব নিকটে ।
দন্তে তৃণ করি’ দাঁড়াইব নিষ্কপটে ॥

gala-vastra krtanjali vaisnava-nikate
dante trna kari’ dandaiba niskapate

‘I will stand before a Vaishnav sincerely, with a cloth around my neck and joined palms, holding a straw between my teeth.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'When will I stand before a Vaishnav with all sincerity and tell them my story?' I told you the other day that you will not get a letter from the Lord. Even if you send the Lord your letter, you will not get any reply. Do you even know the Lord's address? Even if you do, try and send anything to Him and see if you get any reply. You will not. But if you send your letter to a Vaishnav – if you pray to a Vaishnav – the Vaishnav will convey your words to the Lord.

কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া জানাইব দুঃখগ্রাম ।
সংসার অনল হৈতে মাগিব বিশ্রাম ॥

kandiya kandiya janaiba duhkha-grama samsara anala haite magiba visrama

‘Weeping, I will tell Vaishnav Thakur about my miserable life and pray to him for respite from the fire of material existence.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Prabhu! O Vaishnav Thakur! I do not want to stay in this material world anymore!' What does it mean? Does it mean that you will leave your house and run away to live in the jungle? No. 'I do not want to stay in this material world' means, 'May my attachment to this world diminish and may my attachment to you increase. May I have no attachment to material life. I want some respite from the blazing fire of this material life.' We can get such a respite, but we do not do anything for that...

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }