(6/6) Truth and Untruth

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Pancha Palli, preaching programme, noon
12 November 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Every year you come to this village on this day. Today is a very auspicious day: the rasa-purnima day. Actually, rasa-purnima is a very high matter, and it has nothing to do with the love of this world. Rasa (transcendental dance) comes from rasa (transcendental feelings). The rasa (divine relationship with the Lord) exhibited during the rasa-purnima is not the same rasa (loving interactions) found in this world. What will you understand of it? You only keep talking nonsense, gossiping in this world...

The Lord has given you mouths to speak about Him, but you do not chant the Lord's Name – instead, only nonsense talks come out of your mouths. You do not talk about the Lord, you do not chant the Lord's Names, you cannot even utter the Lord's Name. You live worshipping gods and goddesses, but do you think you can worship all 330,000,000 demigods? Mostly, people worship Durga, Laksmi, Kali, Ganesh, Kartik, Manasa. It is impossible to please everybody. There is a solution though.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

'Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

Your debt to your father, mother, rishis (sages), demigods – all debts are cleared if you serve the Lord. You may think, 'Oh, Maharaj left the service to his parents...' but it is written in the scriptures:

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

'Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

This is the last verse of Srimad Bhagavad-gita. 'Leave all religions of this world. Leave your human religion, social religion, friend religion, village religion, political religion – leave all this and surrender to Me, I will take care of you. Do not worry. I will remove all your sins.' This is the reassurance Krishna gives in Srimad Bhagavad-gita.

When we recently were at Kuruksetra, we visited the place where Krishna spoke the Gita to Arjuna. By the mercy of Vyasadev, Sanjay also heard it and related it to Dhritarastra. We all know Srimad Bhagavad-gita, we all know what it says. What did Krishna lastly tell Arjuna? 'Whether you are meditating, whether you are making fire sacrifices, whether you perform worship, whether you are practising yoga or anything else, I am the enjoyer and the recipient of all endeavours.' The difficulty is that when we worship Durga, Kali or Ganesh, we come to do business with the Lord. How so? Because we come to worshippable gods and say, 'O Lord, I am giving this rice, bananas and money to You, and in lieu of that, I want something from You. Please let my son find a good job and let my daughter get married well. Please keep me in good health.' This is called sakama-bhakti (selfish devotion) or karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits), not niskama-bhakti (selfless devotion). 'I will give something to the Lord and ask Him for something in return.' Real Vaishnavs, real sadhus do not ask the Lord for anything. They come and pray, 'O Lord, please forgive me. I make so many offences to You, please forgive me. Wherever I am, whatever my situation is, I want to serve You.'

কীট জন্ম হউ যথা তুয়া দাস
বহির্ম্মুখ ব্রহ্মজন্মে নাহি আশ

kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa,
bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa

'May I be born even as an insect, as long as I can be Your servant – I have no wish to be born as Brahma, averse to You.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Even if I am born as an insect, may I be born as Your servant. I do not want to become Brahma and live in aversion to You. I do not need to become Indra and go to heaven because I know that if I go to heaven, I will have to come back from there.' People want to go to heaven, but everybody who goes there has to come back. We enjoy various kinds of happiness in this world – somebody lives in a seven-storey house, somebody becomes a chief minister, somebody travels everywhere by plane, somebody becomes prime-minister and traves everywhere by helicopter, people enjoy luxurious lives – but whether you go to heaven and enjoy happiness or you go to hell and suffer, neither lasts long. Whether you go to hell or heaven, you still have to come back from there. Where will you go then?

'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.' Do you ever think about it? Where do you want to go? Where will you go? What will happen to you? You can see people leaving right in front of your eyes – you see people die and their bodies get burnt. Everybody worries about their bodies so much, but does anybody think about the souls that live inside the bodies? What is good for the soul? Does anybody think about it? People only think about their bodies: 'How can I eat nicely?', 'How can I live nicely?', 'How can I sleep nicely?', 'How can I protect my health?' You walk everywhere, you talk about all kinds of things, you look at all kinds of things – all this is possible only because there is a soul inside your body. Once the soul leaves your body, you will not be able to do anything – after a few days, your body will start decaying and it will have to be thrown away. When somebody dies, their children have to quickly get rid of the body, otherwise two–three days later, the body starts decaying. This is situation of our bodies, but we have become slaves and servants of our bodies.

যে দেহের এই গতি তার অনুগত ।
সংসার বৈভব আর বন্ধুজন যত ॥

ye dehera ei gati, tara anugata
samsara-vaibhava ara bandhu-jana yata

'The same fate befalls all extensions of this body – all its family, wealth and friends.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We live as slaves of Maya, but she has no mercy on us! We have been serving Maya for so long, we have been getting so much lashing from her, but she has never taken any pity on us! Now somehow we have got some sadhu-sanga and we have come to our senses – we realise that we want to practise Krishna consciousness. We want to search for Sri Krishna. We search for happiness, we want to come to the Lord, we want to serve Him!

We must live thinking about Sri Gurupadpadma and Nitai! Soon is the festival of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance. Come to Ekachakra. There is a very beautiful festival and parikrama arranged every year on this day. Come. We have a temple in Ekachakra, and I am inviting you all to come. Nityananda Prabhu is non-different from the guru. You cannot come to Krishna without His mercy. 'Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe (নিতাইয়ের করুণা হবে ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ পাবে). You can come to Radha-Krishna in Vraja if you get Nityananda Prabhu's mercy.'

[His Divine Grace chants 'Nitai-pada-kamala'.]

নিতাই পদ-কমল, কোটীচন্দ্র-সুশীতল,
যে ছায়ায় জগত জুড়ায় ।
হেন নিতাই বিনে ভাই, রাধাকৃষ্ণ পাইতে নাই,
দৃঢ় করি ধর নিতাইর পায় ॥১॥

nitai pada-kamala, koti-chandra-susitala,
ye chhayaya jagata judaya
hena nitai bine bhai, radha-krsna paite nai,
drdha kari dhara nitaira paya [1]

'The whole world is soothed in the shade of Nitai’s lotus feet, which are as cooling as ten million moons. Brother, it is not possible to come to Radha-Krishna without this Nitai. Firmly grasp Nitai’s feet!'

সে সম্বন্ধ নাহি যার, বৃথা জন্ম গেল তার,
সেই পশু বড় দুরাচার ।
নিতাই না বলিল মুখে, মজিল সংসার সুখে,
বিদ্যাকুলে কি করিবে তার ॥২॥

se sambandha nahi yara, vrtha janma gela tara,
sei pasu bada durachara
nitai na balila mukhe, majila samsara sukhe,
vidya-kule ki karibe tara [2]

'If you do not know who Nitai is, your life has passed in vain – you are just an animal who lives an abominable life. You have never uttered Nitai’s Name, living immersed in material pleasures – do you think your education and noble birth will save you?'

অহঙ্কারে মত্ত হৈঞা, নিতাইপদ পাসরিয়া,
অসত্যেরে সত্য করি মানি ।
নিতাইয়ের করুণা হবে, ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ পাবে,
ধর নিতাইয়ের চরণ দুঃখানি ॥৩॥

ahankare matta haina, nitai-pada pasariya,
asatyere satya kari mani
nitaiyera karuna habe, vraje radha-krsna pabe,
dhara nitaiyera charana duhkhani [3]

'Maddened with pride and forgetting Nitai’s feet, you take untruth for truth. If you get Nitai’s mercy, you will come to Radha-Krishna in Vraja. O miserable soul, grasp Nitai’s holy feet!'

Because of pride, we take unthruth for truth. 'My house', 'My room', 'My son', 'My family', 'My wife', 'My friend' – how long is all this going to be there? How many days do you think your relationship with all this is going to last? The relationship you have with your husbands and wives is only a bodily relationship. Untruth means all these houses, rooms, family, etc. If you leave right now, where will your house be? It is all false. We are only guards, gatekeepers in our houses, nothing more. You are proud, 'Oh, my father/grandfather has built this house!' This house belonged to your grandfather, then to your father. Now you are the owner, and after you, it will be passed down to your children and grandchildren. Everybody will leave one after another. You only pretend to be owners for a few days. The real owner is the Lord, but we forget Him. We have forgotten Nityananda Prabhu!

নিতাইয়ের চরণ সত্য, তাঁহার সেবক নিত্য,
নিতাই পদ সদা কর আশ ।
নরোত্তম বড় দুঃখী, নিতাই মোরে কর সুখী,
রাখ রাঙ্গা চরণের পাশ ॥৪॥

nitaiyera charana satya, tanhara sevaka nitya,
nitai pada sada kara asa
narottama bada duhkhi, nitai more kara sukhi,
rakha ranga charanera pasa [4]

'Nitai’s feet are truth, and His servants are eternal. Always hanker for Nitai’s feet. Narottam feels very sad… "O Nitai! Please make me happy – keep me beside Your crimson feet."'

What does 'Nitai's mercy' mean? Sriman Nityananda Prabhu is non-different from Sri Gurupadpadma. If we can get mercy from Sri Gurupadpadma, then we can meet Sri Sri Radha-Krishna in Vraja. It is impossible to reach Them otherwise.

I have told you earlier that you will not get a letter from the Lord, but if you come to gurudev and give him your letter (if you tell him everything), gurudev will give your letter to the Lord. He knows where the Lord is, so he can send your letter to Him. The guru knows where you must go to find the Lord. We must be always anxious, eager to know where that place is. If we make one step towards the Lord, the Lord will make ten steps towards us, but we must have desire. Do you think that the Lord will Himself make tens steps towards you and you can do nothing (you can stand where you are)?

When Krishna allowed His devotee to tie Him, the rope was first always two fingers too short. This is the ulukhal-bandhan pastime when Mother Yasoda tied Gopal to a big wooden mortar because He was naughty, stealing butter and other things from the storeroom. At first, the rope was always two fingers too short. Gopal was a small baby at that time, but even though Mother Yasoda brought all the rope from 900,000 cows, she still could not tie Him. Why? Gopal is the Supreme Lord, and He is His mother's son, but He was showing us: His mother was trying and trying to bind Him, and in the end she was able to. We must keep trying, then we can come to the Lord. But if we do not try, then our entire life loses its meaning.

What is the meaning of the human birth? What have we got it for? If we do not practise Krishna consciousness, then what is the point getting a human birth? We may as well be born as cows or goats. A man without religion is no better than an animal.

আহার-নিদ্রা-ভয়-মৈথুনং চ
সামান্যম এতৎ পশুভির নরাণাম ।
ধর্ম্মো হি তেষাম অধিকো বিশেষো
ধর্ম্মেণ হীনাঃ পশুভিঃ সমানাঃ ॥

ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha
samanyam etat pasubhir naranam
dharmo hi tesam adhiko viseso
dharmena hinah pasubhih samanah

'Both animals and humans eat, sleep, fear and copulate. The difference between a human life and an animal life is that a man can search after God but an animal cannot. Therefore, a man devoid of spiritual quest is no better than an animal.'

(Hitopadesh, 25)

If we do not worship the Lord, we will be in great danger...

[His Divine Grace then chants 'Emana durmati', the recording breaks.]

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Rare and Rarest
2) Guru-Seva Is Main
3) Difficult Does Not Mean Impossible
4) Wasted Time – Wasted Life
5) Be Conscious, Be Good
6) Truth and Untruth