(6) Service Through Self-Abnegation?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 29 January 2020, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Many people say (here in Basirhat as well) that the Lord is served by inflicting suffering and struggle onto one's soul (through self-abnegation). Is it not what they say? Others will say, "There is no point in serving the Lord by making your soul suffer. Eat whatever your soul wants!" They think the soul wants fish and meat, onion, garlic, chicken, goat, beef, anything and everything. In foreign countries, they like eating frogs, dogs, jackals. People from Pakistan like beef and goats. People in Purulia like raw pork. In every place around the world, people have all kinds of tastes. Some eat spiders and cockroaches also. At the place where there is some virus now, they like to eat crunchy fried cockroaches! They eat them in the same way as people here like to eat eggplant pakoras (fritters)!

Is the soul and the mind one and the same? The mind always judges the external world. It is the mind that wants to gamble, that wants to eat meat, rice, that wants to go here and there, go to the cinema and travel around. But the soul does not want all this. What is the soul? Illusion keeps it covered from us. Where does illusion (Maya Devi) get her power? Why is she so powerful? She gets her power from the Lord. If you put a piece of iron into fire, what happens? It becomes red—it gets power from the fire, and if you touch that piece of iron to your skin or some cloth, it will burn it. Just as iron can get power to burn from fire, Maya similarly gets her power from the Lord.

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

"My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

The Lord created Maya, illusion, and Maya, empowered by the Lord, keeps souls away from the Lord. If you touch an ordinary piece of iron to your skin, it will not burn it—it gets power to burn from fire. In the same way, Maya has also got all her power from the Lord. Getting this power, she keeps jiva souls away from the Lord and turns them into her servants and maidservants. There is also a famous sloka:

কামাদীনাং কতি ন কতিধা পালিতা দুর্নিদেশা,
তেষাং জাতা ময়ি ন করুণা ন ত্রপা নোপশান্তিঃ ।
উৎসৃজ্যৈতানথ যদুপতে ! সাম্প্রতং লব্ধবুদ্ধি-
সত্বামায়াতঃ শরণমভয়ং মাং নিযুঙ্ক্ষ্বাত্মদাস্যে ॥

kamadinam kati na katidha palita durnidesa,
tesam jata mayi na karuna na trapa nopasantih
utsrjyaitan atha yadu-pate! sampratam labdha-buddhis
tvam ayatah saranam-abhayam mam niyunksvatma-dasye

"O Lord! How many kinds of wicked orders from lust and others I followed! They had no mercy on me, nor were they ever satisfied! O Krishna! Suddenly, I managed to leave their side and got some good intelligence—I have surrendered at Your fearless lotus feet, please engage me now as Your servant."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.16)

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Serve with Love
2) Deep Renunciation
3) Perverted Taste
4) Life of Awakened Consciousness
5) Genuine Spiritual Life
6) Service Through Self-Abnegation?
7) Service Is Not a Play
8) Brahmans' Position
9) Hari-Katha or Self-Deception?
10) "I Have Come to Help You"
11) Do Not Be Duped
12) Penniless Life
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