(4/6) Escaping Foreign Land

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, 1 January 2020, part 4
Translated from Bengali

We must think about the Lord. You have heard Bharat Maharaj's name. He was a king, but he would think, 'When will I go deer hunting?' Because he always thought of deer, he ended up being born as a deer in his next life. You should think about it. Even a king, who is like a god, had to take birth as a deer.

It is also said in the scriptures (in both Srimad Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam) that even all gods and goddesses who reside in heaven eventually have to come down and be born in this material world. We all have to come and go, again and again. You may have some good qualities and, as the result of those good qualities, come to live in heaven, but you will have to come back from there. People dream of going to heaven, but even when you get there, you will have to come back one day when you exhaust your pious merit.

Suppose one man kills somebody, and another man steals something. The punishment they get will not be the same – the man who has killed will get a life sentence, but the man who has stolen something will get only one or two years in jail. In the same way, the more sins you commit, the longer you will stay in hell, and the more pious merit you earn, the longer you will stay in heaven, but in any way, you will still have to return to this world. The question is how you can come to a place where you do not have to return from.

In this Age of Kali, the Supreme Lord comes as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, a combined form of Radha and Krishna. He went door to door, calling everyone:

জীব জাগ, জীব জাগ, গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া-পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jago, jiva jago, gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

'Sri Gorachand says, "Wake up, souls! Wake up! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

পিশাচী পাইলে যেন মতিচ্ছন্ন হয় ।

মায়াগ্রস্ত জীবের হয় সে ভাব উদয় ॥

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya
maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

'Those who are possessed by a ghost become delirious, and the same condition arises in those who are seized by Maya, illusion.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

We are possessed by a ghost, by illusion, and the Lord comes to this world and goes door to door, telling us, 'This is not your home! This is not your address! You have lost your address! You live in a house thinking it is yours, but you are only a guard in this house, you are not its owner. You will have to leave this world. You are not the master of this house. Come back to God, back to home. Come to your own home, to the home of the Lord. Your home is in Goloka Vrindavan, so please come back there!'

To return to your home, you must start preparing yourself now. People say, 'Oh, I will chant the Holy Name later, when I get old,' but you can see that now you are old and cannot even sit at the class... When you are old, your back will pain, your legs will pain, you will not like chanting the Holy Name, you will keep falling asleep, and various diseases will come. When you lose your health, you will not feel happy chanting the Holy Name. When you are old, you will need another person to help you walk from one place to another and to bring you a glass of water; you will not be able to do any service to the Lord – you will not be able to cook and offer bhog. How can you say that you will serve when you are old? When you say this, it means you are cheating the Lord. If you want to practise Krishna consciousness, you must do it from a young age, from now. 'I will chant tomorrow', 'I will chant in ten years' – there is no guarantee you will be alive the next ten minutes, what to speak of the next ten years.

Khatvanga Maharaj had only forty-eight minutes to live. When gods and demons had a fight, gods won and told Khatvanga Maharaj, 'Maharaj, we will fulfil your any wish. If you want, we can give you a place in heaven.' Khatvanga Maharaj replied, 'You want me to go and live in heaven, but tell me first how long I will be alive.' The gods sat down in meditation and then replied, 'Maharaj, you will have to leave your body in forty-eight minutes. You have only one muhurta left.' Hearing this, Khatvanga Maharaj said, 'Only forty-eight minutes? Then I will not lose a second! I will sit and meditate on the Lord during this time.' He attained the Lord in this way.

Pariksit Maharaj got the news that he would die in seven days. Do you think you will get such news? Who will tell you how long you will live? If somebody told you, 'Didi, you will die in one month,' you will worry about pepper, elaichi and other things at the kitchen, and you will worrying about your money in the bank. When will you chant the Holy Name, tell me? Worrying about all these trifle things, your time is going. Pariksit Maharaj was told so many things by many people, 'Maharaj, do this', 'Leave your kingdom to this person', 'Put this person in charge', 'Put that person in charge.' In the end, Sukadev Goswami told him to listen to Srimad Bhagavatam carefully, and Pariksit Maharaj listened to nothing else except Srimad Bhagavatam. All his other affairs were all resolved on their own.

We must always think about these things. We must always think, 'How can I come to the Lord? How can I chant the Holy Name?' Always remember this. We are not as fortunate as Pariksit Maharaj, so we can leave this world at any moment – no matter how many houses and buildings you make in this world for yourself, everything will stay behind once you close your eyes. The religion of this Age of Kali is Harinama-sankirtan. Always remember this.

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Length: 36 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Krishna-Centred Renunciation
2) Live for Guru
3) His World, His Will
4) Escaping Foreign Land
5) Non-Sectarian and Non-Liberal
6) Adjust Your Faith and Priority