(3/4) Wrong Vision

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Ganga Sagar, morning class
12 January 2020, part 3

Those who have no intelligence live for the pleasure of their senses, for their own happiness. We have five karmendriya, or senses (indriya) for action (karma): feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth (pada, pani, payu, upastha, vak); five jnanendriya, or senses (indriya) for collecting knowledge (jnana): eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin (chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak); and there is also mind, intelligence, and ego (man, buddhi, ahankar). For example, when we see some picture, we use our senses to see or appreciate it. Each of our senses has a corresponding desire, and these desires have no end. Recently, an MP from Delhi arranged his daughter's wedding in Dubai—he rented a whole plane to bring the groom there. They have so much money that they do not know how to spend it. There are also millionaires here in West Bengal. One such millionaire gave his wife a plane as a birthday present! It is worth 440–500 million rupees, and it is so big that you could play badminton inside it. Such people are so rich, and they always want more and more and more, but if you come to them and ask them for ten rupees for a temple that is being built or for the service to the Deities, to the Lord, they will never give anything. Their desires (kama-sakti) are always growing more and more.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

You can see yourself that when a son is born in a family, they say, "Oh, I will come to the temple after I arrange his marriage." A year later, they will have a granddaughter and again cannot leave the family. Then, the granddaughter grows up. You tell them, "Come to the temple, serve the Lord!" but they say, "I will, but let me just arrange my granddaughter's marriage first." Then, they stay and wait for great-grandchildren to come... Will they be alive after that?

One time, I asked one man, "You promised me that you would come to the temple in Mednipore and serve there when you are old. Why are you not coming?" He said that he was working and supporting his family with the salary. I told him that I would even give him five thousand rupees a month for his family—I wanted him to come and serve at the temple. He did not agree. Another person likes to say, "Oh, Acharya Maharaj is a great guru!" but I cannot call that person a disciple. When I come to Mednipore, he does not show his face. There is a popular song (I often hear it on the street), "Tomar dekha nai re, tomar dekha nai. Oh, I cannot see you! I cannot see you!" [His Divine Grace and devotees laugh] We also sing like that, "Oh, I cannot see you! I cannot see Gurudev! I cannot see the Lord and the devotees!" Some say, "Oh, my mother is one hundred years old. When she passes away, I will come," but if you die before your mother, then you will never be able to practise Krishna consciousness! This is what happens.

There is another devotee who had come for this Ganga Sagar festival before. He worked so hard on his piece of land. In the end, he sold the land for 1,300,000 rupees. He told me, "Maharaj, there is such a big problem now. I sold the land and gave 900,000 rupees to my son and his wife, keeping only 400,000 rupees in my name, but they have stopped giving me food!" I told him to leave his family and come to the temple. Later, he called me again in the evening and spoke to me for about fifteen minutes. He said, "Maharaj, it is your birthday tomorrow, I am coming. I have never given anything to the Math, but I have kept something aside, I want to give it to the temple now." I told him, "It is not necessary to give anything, just come as you are." At night, he had some pain in his body, and his wife gave him some injection or something. He was very restless the whole night, and when they finally went to take him to hospital in the morning, he died on the way. We always say, "I will come", "I will come", but we do not get the time in the end. Another person also told me he would come later, but when I asked after a while where he was, I was told that he had gone to 'collect patal' [Bengali euphemism for 'kick the bucket']. Such relatives who hold you back are dacoits in disguise of your family.

Sri Prahlad Maharaj told also:

নাথ যোনিসহস্রেষু যেষু যেষু ব্রজাম্যহম্ ।
তেষু তেস্বচ্যুতা ভক্তিরচ্যুতাস্তু সদা ত্বয়ি ॥
যা প্রাতিরবিবেকানাং বিষয়েস্বনপায়িনী ।
ত্বামনুস্মরতঃ সা মে হৃদয়ান্মাপসর্পতু ॥

natha yoni-sahasresu yesu yesu vrajamy aham
tesu tesv achyuta bhaktir achyutastu sada tvayi
ya pritir avivekanam visayesv anapayini
tvam anusmaratah sa me hrdayan napasarpatu

"O master, in all the thousands of births through which I must wander in this world, please let me have unfailing devotion to You, the infallible Supreme Lord. Just as unintelligent persons have unflinching affection for the objects of sense gratification, may I always remember You, so that that same attachment, applied to You, never leaves my heart."

(Visnu Purana, 1.20.18–19)

Your love and attachment to sense pleasures will never finish—you will want more, you will want more, you will want more and more. Even if you get heaven, you will still want more and more. This kind of attraction and pull must awaken in you towards the Lord, then it will be devotion. Practise such devotion. Practise Krishna consciousness, then you will get the supreme benefit.

You know, when you study in primary school and the teacher talks to you about some university topics, you will say that the teacher is a fool because you do not understand anything. It is necessary to have the capacity to understand the highest things...

One time, when Gurudev was in Puri, he told me to sit in a chair near him. There were some servitors also and some other devotees. Suddenly, Gurudev asked me, "Acharya Maharaj, can you tell me how Mahaprabhu, who was 7'6 tall, could dance with His arms upraised in His tiny room in Gambhira?" How will I know it? I said, "I do not know, maybe the room was bigger at that time?" Gurudev said, "Whom can one tell it? Who will be able to understand and hear it? When it comes to the Lord, everything is possible. When the Lord is dancing, the ceiling slowly expands and grows higher. But can we see it with our eyes?" With these eyes, we can only see the material world—great buildings and other things. The Lord also gives you eyes in your heart, and when Maya lifts her illusory net and those eyes become uncovered, you will be able to see pure holy abode (nirmal dhama), filled with consciousness (chit dhama). You can get the darshan of the pure holy abode, but when Maya Devi throws her illusory net over our eyes, we only see great buildings and external, material things...

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Sincerity in Service
2) Love and Preaching for the Lord
3) Wrong Vision
4) Root of Unhappiness