Eradicating Aversion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, evening programme
18 January 2020, part 3
Translated from Bengali

যে দিন গৃহে ভজন দেখি ।
গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায় ॥

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi
grhete goloka bhaya

"Any day there is devotional service at home, I see Goloka manifest itself in it."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You chant this kirtan every ekadasi day. Does anyone ever open our Gaudiya Gitanjali books? Many of you do not have this book, buy it from the bookstall here. We have a small kirtan book for twenty rupees because many struggle to buy the big books for eighty rupees. No wonder. When you go to the market, you spend thirty-forty rupees on tea, wasting your money, but you cannot buy a book (a holy book, a scripture!) for some fifty-eighty rupees. We do not like to read what Sri Guru and Vaishnavs say, what comes from their holy lotus mouths, we do not like to hear Hari-katha, to hear and read the conclusions of the scriptures, such as Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata and Srimad Bhagavatam.

পৃথিবীতে যত কথা ধর্ম্মনামে-চলে ।
ভাগবত কহে সব পরিপূর্ণ ছলে ॥

prthivite yata katha dharma-name-chale
bhagavata kahe saba paripurna chhale

"Bhagavatam says that whatever is taking place in this world in the name of religion is complete cheating."

We do not like to read, we do not get any energy—we have no enthusiasm or eagerness for service! We took initiation and received the Holy Name many years ago, but our spiritual practice is gradually diminishing. We always think about our bodies and worry, "How many days will I be alive?" and those who have not come to this path are merely cheating the Lord. How so? They say, "Now is not the time. When I become a little older and get all my children married, then I will practise Krishna consciousness." The problem is that when they become sixty, their hands will pain, their backs will pain—they will not even have strength to move (if they want to move from one place to another, they will need get somebody to help them). When you have no health, do you think you will like to hear about the Lord? Tell me. Will you like to chant the Holy Name when you are sick and frail? At this time, you will be always thinking about your past, remembering what you have done in your life during all these years. You will feel pain, "I have struggled so much to raise my son, but he is not even looking at me now. I looked after my grandchildren and took care of them, but they do not even come to see me now." Our lives pass as we worry about all these things...

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina jaya michha kaje, nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

"My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting and waiting right next to me."

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We never think that death has come close to us. We can never understand this. That is why we must associate with sadhus. First, surrender (saranagati) must come. Spiritual life cannot begin without surrender. Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that if a surrendered soul commits some offence, the Lord personally removes it.

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

[Limbs of surrender] "Humility, self-submission, accepting the Lord as your maintainer, keeping faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me.'"

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Spiritual life means serving the object of your service, to please and make the object of your service happy. In other words, Krishna consciousness means pleasing our Guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord.

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Language: Bengali