(5/6) Repairing Bad Fortune

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, evening class
20 January 2020, part 5

Common people who have not yet come to this line are stretching for time, but how long are they going to be alive? You are alive in this world now, but at every moment you are killing hundreds of thousands of living entities. Do you realise how much you are indebted to the Lord? What will happen if, for example, the wind stops? If it becomes impossible to breathe, thousands and thousands of people will die. The Lord gives us air, light and all other facilities, and we accept them, but what do we give to the Lord in return? We become indebted to the Lord.

The Lord has made wonderful arrangements for us, and He has sent us to this human birth, but if we misuse this human birth, then our fortune is very bad. Gurudev has given you shelter and got you a ticket to Vrindavan, but if you get off in Bardhaman in the middle of the way, then it is your misfortune. You go down this path, but in the middle of the way you go to another place. You become deprived and cheated out of service. This is bad fortune. But Gurudev is merciful:

দুর্দ্দৈবে সেবক যদি যায় অন্য-স্থানে ।
সেই ঠাকুর ধন্য তারে চুলে ধরি' আনে ॥

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane
sei thakura dhanya tare chule dhari' ane

"If, by some misfortune, a servant goes in a wrong direction, glorious is the master who catches him and by the hair and brings him back."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.47)

Gurudev mercifully brings you back and again engages you in the service of the Lord. It is necessary to take shelter of a guru who can give you the right for the service to the Lord—who can use you in the service of the Lord. We must always hear and hear about the Lord from such a genuine guru. You must always keep the right association.

অসৎসঙ্গত্যাগ,—এই বৈষ্ণব-আচার ।
'স্ত্রীসঙ্গী'—এক অসাধু, 'কৃষ্ণাভক্ত' আর ॥

asat-sanga-tyaga,—ei vaisnava-achara
'stri-sangi'—eka asadhu, 'krsnabhakta' ara

"Vaishnav's line of behaviour is to always give up bad association. Those who associate with women is one kind of bad persons, and another kind is those who have no devotion to Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.84)

Unless we keep proper association, we will not be successful. It is necessary to keep proper association.

We are born in a certain environment and call our kin "relatives" and "family", but are they you family? They are not! What did Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur call them? Svajanakya-dasyu (স্বজনাখ্য দস্যু)—dacoits in disguise of relatives. They are not your family. They dress and pose as the kin (as persons who are close to your soul), but they behave as dacoits—they use and exploit you (enjoy at your expense). The first thing that we learn when we come to this line is our identity. We are not so-and-so Haldar, so-and-so Biswas, so-and-so person, so-and-so guru or so-and-so sabar (low caste). No. Our identity is that we are infinitesimal jiva souls. We come from the Lord, and we must go back to the Lord. But somehow or other, we have come to this world. What did we come here for? It is necessary to understand what we have got this human body for.

The Lord accepts service with all parts of His body. For example, in Gaya, there are lotus feet of Lord Vishnu worshipped. For example, devotees offer milk to the Lord there, but how does He accept it? With His feet. We can hear only with our ears, but the Supreme Lord can hear with His eyes, nose, mouth and all other parts of His body. He can even eat with His feet. You can see Lord Jagannath also—how does He eat? We must always live thinking about all this. If we forget about it, then:

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

"Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primaeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

We are suffering in this agony of three-fold miseries as the result of our forgetfulness of the Lord. The only way we can get relief from this situation is to take shelter at the lotus feel of Gurudev and the Lord.

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Pure Kirtan Springs from Heart
2) Loving Relationship and Obedience
3) Stumbling Along
4) Build Service Relationship
5) Repairing Bad Fortune
6) Chastity and Purity of Association