(18/18) Absolute Self-Submission

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa-Puja Adhivas, Tarakeswar,
Evening, 28 September 2019, part 18
Translated from Bengali

Does anybody have any questions? Are you coming tomorrow in the morning? You should come and listen to Hari-katha.

When we go for preaching, we must remember that we do not come to stay at some house, to eat and sleep there. When you go for preaching, you must think, 'I am at the temple (at the Math).' So, you must do mangala-arati, worship and serve the Deities. Even when you go out for preaching, you must do all these things.

When you go for preaching, you must have the feeling that you are in the temple. Just as every morning at the temple, you give the class, chant kirtans, do mangal-arati, Tulasi-parikrama, serve the Lord, in the same way you must live your life immersing yourselves in the service of the Lord, in Hari-katha, in lectures and kirtans when you go for preaching. Otherwise, you go to some house and eat there nice things (curd curries, posta-boras, etc.) – this is not what you go there for! You must preserve all the eternally practised devotional activities following all rules and regulations. You should practise preserving this mood as much as possible, then you will progress in your own devotional practising life; otherwise you can be attacked by illusion (Maya).

What is the meaning of self-submission (atma-samarpan)? It means you must give everything – your soul, wealth, life, ego, youth. 'It is necessary to clean the temple, to plough and plant the garden, but my job is to do the writing, so why must I leave my job and take up ladles and spoons (and go to cook)?' – if you think in this way, this is not self-surrender. It is necessary to do all kinds of services. Srimati Radhika is the highest worshipper – She has given everything to the service of Sri Govinda: Her body, soul, beauty, youth, etc. She serves the Lord with all Her senses and faculties. For example, if you earn money and give it for the service, but you do not give your body for service, this is also not self-submission or self-surrender. It is necessary to give everything. Do you remember Bali Maharaj's story? He gave everything to the Lord, but he forgot to give himself. His wife had to tell him about it. In the end, Bali Maharaj gave absolutely everything to the Lord.

You must listen to these things very attentively. There are so many things written here...

Question: What does 'goptrtve-varan' mean?

It means that the Lord is our guardian – He nurtures and takes care of us.

Sri Sri Gaurasundar is extremely happy with the sankirtan of pure Vaishnavs. Chanting kirtan purifies one's heart and attracts Gaurasundar. If you chant kirtan, you can attain a tangible result: you will feel so much joy in your heart that you will not be able to look anywhere else. What you cannot get by practising yoga, fire sacrifices or meditation, you can very easily get it through kirtan. This is the miraculous gift of Sri Gaurasundar. So, compared to all the other practices, chanting kirtan brings much more benefit. In Kali-yuga, souls actually cannot connect with their hearts or minds, that is why the Lord came and inaugurated kirtan.

The very root, or gist, of kirtan is heart. It is necessary to chant with heart and soul, with your entire being. Chanting kirtan is not about any tune or melody – these things are secondary. The real essence of kirtan is in chanting with your entire being, or heart. If you do not chant with all your heart, it will not be proper kirtan. Sri Gaura-Nitai dance, but They do not chant kirtan – everybody else chants, and They dance. If you can chant the Holy Name and dance with your heart and soul, the Lord will become attracted easily. If you have unwanted elements, crookedness, hypocrisy inside, if you have a mess inside you, then you will not be able to chant the Holy Name. Heart is the most important ingredient of kirtan – not tune, rhythm, measure or tempo; just as in cooking, salt is the main ingredient because if you put all the spices but do not put salt, your cooking will be inedible. If your heart is clean, then you can easily chant with heart and soul. Therefore, heart is the most important thing in chanting and dancing.

The sringara pastimes happen at His holy feet through the Tulasi leaves, sandalwood paste, etc. The parts of the Lord's body are not mundane, they are transcendental (endowed with consciousness). Men can only see with their eyes, they cannot eat with them. Human senses are limited. Also, Sri Jagannath's limbs are not manifest, but His peculiar lotus eyes are manifest fully. I have told you about Lord Vishnu's lotus feet that are worshipped in Gaya – you may wonder, 'How can He eat with His feet?' He can. He can eat with His feet, with His ears, nose, eyes. He does not only see with His eyes – He can do everything with His eyes.

Sri Jagannath's limbs are not manifest, but His peculiar lotus eyes are manifest fully. Sriman Mahaprabhu would come to have the darshan of His lotus eyes. Sri Jagannathdev is Krishna Himself. He is Vraja-Bihari-lal in Sri Dham Vrindavan: here He reveals His very own original self to the topmost degree.

'Kartavya na akartavya anya tara kartama.' When we think something will never happen, it can happen, and when we think that something must definitely happen, it may not happen. Everything depends on His will. Always remember this.

In a devotee's life, service is the vow, service is the very life and service is the duty. There is no other duty except for service. Liberation means you become free from bondage. We do not want to suffer from unhappiness, we do not want disturbances, troubles. These are called a thirst for liberation, or a desire for salvation (mumuksa). For a practitioner of pure devotion, this desire for salvation is extremely unfavourable to devotion. Many have this love for peace or luring attraction to peace. 'It is not necessary to suffer from any problems,' 'Everything happens without any struggle' – this is called a thirst for liberation or seductive attraction to peace. Those who want to live in peace become pursuers of knowledge. Because they want peace, they live in a cave in the Himalayas. Those who want to practise devotion have to completely give up all their attraction to peace, love of peace, or dreams about liberation.

For the Lord, we should be ready to suffer and do anything. 'No worry! Whatever the Lord arranges, it is well and good!' We must do whatever is necessary to do for the Lord. We must not think if it is good or bad, if it is going to bring about sin or piety, if it is our duty to do it or not. We must become crazy! Who can ever stop one who has gone mad for the Lord? ('Chaitanya-chandrera "batula" ke rakhite pare?') When you go mad for Krishna, you will not think about any duty. When a mother loves her child, she does not love the child out of duty; when a wife loves her husband, she does not love him out of duty – they do not have any sense of duty, they do everything out of love. So, when you give everything in your life to the Lord, you will not have any sense of duty, too.

Always remember these things. I have spoken a lot today. Tell me, does anybody of you have any questions? Come tomorrow in the morning. You do not have to fast tomorrow – nobody should fast on my birthday. Everybody should eat. 'Prasad akantha kariya bhojan, sara dina-rata kara sankirtan (প্রসাদ আকণ্ঠ করিয়া ভোজন সারা দিন-রাত কর নাম-সংকীর্ত্তন). Eat up to your neck and chant the Holy Name the whole day and night.' Wake up early in the morning, come for the mangala-arati, listen to the morning class and kirtans. Everybody will be given prasad then. After that, wash your hands and mouths and again come sit here for the programme. Always stay busy, always do service. Some people try to avoid service, they feel that they need to sleep, etc. It is necessary to build up good habits. For example, many people eat at noon and go to sleep, and if they do not get some sleep after lunch, they feel unhappy. It is necessary to stop such habits. You must chant the Lord's Name, which means that you do not only chant the Name on the beads – you must chant when you are doing service and even if you are lying down and cannot sleep. Remember this.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Harinam-sankirtan ki jay.

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Size: 40 Mb
Length: 83 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Disciple's Dependence
2) How Does Devotion Come?
3) Indispensability of Guru's Mercy
4) Stop Threshing the Husk
5) Disciples' Hypocrisy
6) Strong Desires, Wrong Desires
7) Identifying Yourself with Kirtan
8) Patience Is a Virtue
9) Internal Hypocrisy
10) Unhappy Mind
11) Kirtan Is Not a Show
12) Cook to Perfection
13) Install Gurudev in Your Heart
14) Submission without Resistance
15) Service Is Not a Rite
16) Vaishnavs' Ornaments vs Demons' Ornaments
17) Vaikuntha Vani
18) Absolute Self-Submission