(1/7) Lord's Liberal Mercy

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, evening, 28 January 2020, part 1
Translated from Bengali

I have come here again after many days. ***'s parents were disturbed, thinking that I had done a great wrong—I came to this village, hijacked a boy and went away. They said I had come here to rob, but I am thinking, "Who else can give me another place like this to 'rob'?" A darling son is the greatest, most treasured wealth of the house. You can find so much money and wealth in this world, but a son is more precious than any wealth in the world, and I came here, stole their beloved son and went away. Now they have understood that I have not done any wrong, that is why they called me to come, and I have come again this time. I have not done any wrong because it is a great fortune if a father's or a mother's son can go to the holy dham and serve the Lord there.

অল্প ভাগ্যে সেবা নাহি হয়
কোটি জন্ম থাকলে ভাগ্য
বিষয় ছেড়ে হয় বৈরাগ্য

alpa-bhagye seva nahi haya
koti janma thakle bhagya
visaya chhede haya vairagya

"Service does not come by just a little fortune. Only after ten million births of good fortune, can you give up this material world."

Only if you have the fortune accumulated over ten million lifetimes can you become renounced from the material world and everything in it. At the same time, the Lord is so merciful—even if we do some wrong, He still bestows His mercy. A very nice story was told yesterday, but many of you were not present, so I will tell it to you now. Param Guru Maharaj told this story.

It happened more than 1,000 years ago. You all know who Prahlad Maharaj is—you have heard about him from Srimad Bhagavatam or other sources. Many have also travelled to South India with me, where we received the darsan of Prahlad Maharaj and Hiranyakasipu's house, Prahlad Maharaj's school, Simhachalam, Ahobilam, temples of Pana Nrisingha, Laksmi-Nrisingha and other places. Lord Nrisinghadev appeared because of Prahlad Maharaj. Lord Krishna Himself says, "I am bound, I am tied to the hearts of My devotees. I cannot hide Myself from My devotees." Moreover, the Lord says, "I cannot escape Srimati Radharani—even when I show My Narayan form, even if I show My four-armed form, when She comes, I cannot hide Myself anymore. I always become caught by Her." Srimati Radharani is the best among worshippers of Krishna, that is why Her Name is Radhika.

So, as you know, Prahlad Maharaj was born in the house of Hiranyakasipu, but what many do not know is that Prahlad Maharaj become a devotee as the result of some sukriti from his previous life. If you hear what kind of sukriti it was, you will be surprised. In his previous life, he was born in one village as a boy called Vasudev. In the jungle near the village where he was born, there was one very old broken temple of Lord Nrisinghadev. Because the temple was abandoned, it was in a very dirty state, and many trees and plants started growing in and on it. Nobody cleaned it. Sometimes, some widows would come once a week to offer some food, and then they would go away from there. Lord Nrisinghadev stayed in the temple in this way, fasting all week long. Nobody served or took care of the Deity. At some point, Vasudev fell in love with a beautiful girl and wanted to do something wrong with her. Where was he to go with the girl? They went to the forest and looked for a suitable place. Eventually, they came to that abandoned temple, but seeing that the temple was very dirty, the girl refused to enter it. Vasudev said, "Wait, I will clean the place!" He cleaned the temple of Lord Nrisinghadev—although he had come to do something bad, the Lord did not look at it; rather, the Lord thought, "My temple has not been cleaned for so long, but this man, no matter what his intention was, came and cleaned it." As the result of this, Vasudev earned sukriti and became Prahlad Maharaj—he was born as a devotee of the Lord.

The Lord is so merciful! The Lord bestows His mercy even on those who come to kill Him, as was the case with Atasur, Bakasur, Batsasur, Putana and many others, but we chant the Holy Name so much, we do so many things, and nothing happens to us. Why? Because we make offences more than we try to serve the Lord. We make offences to the Holy Name, we make offences to the holy abode of the Lord, we make offences to the service of the Lord, we make offences to Vaishnavs. It is said that the service to the Lord cannot be obstructed, but sins and offences are not one and the same. If you make an offence, it will obstruct your service. That is why we must always steer clear of offences. We must always avoid offences to the Holy Name, offences to service, offences to holy abodes and offences to Vaishnavs. We also talk too much prajalpa—we engage in atyahara, prayasa, prajalpa, niyamagraha, laulya, janasanga (অত্যাহার, প্রয়াস, প্রজল্প, নিয়মাগ্রহ, লৌল্য, জনসঙ্গ—too much eating, hoarding, too much talking, doing what is favourable while not giving up what is unfavourable, greed, associating with nondevotees). These are thorns on the path of devotion—they obstruct devotion.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Lord's Liberal Mercy
2) Deepest Distraught and Desire
3) Can We Ever Do It?
4) Find Evidence
5) Living in Mathura
6) Make Your Heart Pure
7) Run Behind Genuine Krishna Consciousness