(2/6) Greatest Conquest

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 28 January 2020, part 2
Translated from Bengali

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava-janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu—duhkha kahiba kahare?

"I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom will I tell about my misery?"

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

"This pain of material existence must come. Whom will I tell that I have not been able to worship Lord Krishna?" You are your own friend, and you are your own enemy. You say that you have conquered the whole world, but have you been able to conquer your own self? Have you managed to control your own senses? You have six enemies inside you: kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (desire, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy); you are attacked by rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (seeking pleasures of the eye, taste, smell, ear and touch), and kanak, kamini, pratistha (money, women, fame). On top of that, you are afflicted by five diseases: (avidya, asmita, raga, dvesa, abhinivesa; ignorance, false identification, misdirected love, aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment, being unable to give up unfavourable habits). Have you defeated all these? You say you have conquered the whole world, but first try to conquer your own self. Give advise to your own self!

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava-janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu—duhkha kahiba kahare?

"I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom will I tell about my misery?"

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

"I have not been able to worship Krishna!"

সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy with my material life, and the result is nothing—only garbage."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We have fallen into this material life, what are we to do now? Should we all leave everything and go to live in the jungle? No. Living in the jungle or in a cave (escaping material world) is false renunciation. I always tell you this: whenever there are some problems at the temple, you say you will leave and stay in a cave in Haridwar, but where will you keep your stomach? Your stomach will come with you! You will go to stay at Govinda Kunda, but you will get hungry and have to go house to house, begging for some rotis. Wherever you go, your stomach will go with you. So, if you want to leave everything and go to live in a secluded place, this is false renunciation (show-off renunciation). People like to say, "I will go to Vrindavan and stay at Radha Kunda", "I will go to Vrindavan and stay at Govinda Kunda, I will practise spiritual life on my own." This is not spiritual life. These are whims of your mind. Satisfying the whims of your mind is not Krishna consciousness—it is only pretence of Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupad said that our line is gostha-anandi, Mahaprabhu also said that the spiritual practice in this Age of Kali is gostha-bhajan: we must engage in Nama-sankirtan all together, we must practise Krishna consciousness all together, we must preach about our Gurudev and about the Lord all together. It is necessary to preach in this world.

সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy with my material life, and the result is nothing—only garbage."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

A genuine guru is a member of Krishna's family. It is necessary to make your life Krishna-centred. We live in this material world, and at every moment we are killing thousands of living entities. Remember this. We are breathing in and out, and we are killing so many living entities during that time. We cannot see their bodies, or form, but we are taking so many living entities when we are breathing in and out, and they all die. We are using the Lord's wind, we are using the Lord's light, we use the Lord's vegetables, wheat, rice. You think you grow vegetables or wheat, so it is yours, or you think that you have bought vegetables and wheat with your own hard-earned money. This is ego. We do not do anything in this world. You say, "I will wake up tomorrow, cook and go to the office," but you have no power—if the Lord wants it, you will have to go to the crematorium instead or you will stay sleeping in your bed. Why do you forget this? Even after sadhus, Guru and Vaishnavs come and tell you about it, you still do not have the consciousness—even when they tell, tell and tell you about the Lord again and again, you still do not realise it, your consciousness does not awaken. We have become so rusty! We have been forgetful of Krishna since time immemorial.

We do not know our own identity. We are not so-and-so Haldar, so-and-so Ray, so-and-so Chaudhary. This is not who we are! Such-and-such minister, so-and-so king, so-and-so village's president, so-and-so committee's member—people identify themselves by all these names, but this is all not who we are.

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck"

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

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)

Why are we suffering so much in this material world? Why are we burning in the agony of the three-fold miseries (adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik, আধিভৌতিক, আধিদৈবিক, আধ্যাত্মিক: miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls)? Because we have forgotten the Lord. There are many scriptures written to help us—in particular, Srimad Bhagavatam is a very beautiful scripture. I will speak about it today.

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Length: 30 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Search for Reality
2) Greatest Conquest
3) Wasted Love
4) Go Beyond Your Mindset
5) Faith Must Come from Heart
6) Bizarre Life