Material Perils

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class
Sri Varaha Dvadasi, 6 February 2020, part 9
Translated from Bengali

You can see now coronavirus coming from China—they have closed several provinces in China and do not let people come out of their houses. There are some people here in Bardhaman already with this virus—somebody went to work in China and when returning here, the whole plane he was returning on was placed in a hospital to make sure the virus did not spread! This is the state of the world... Even doctors do not know anything about this disease, and they say that this disease is transmitted from animals—from pigs, snakes, cockroaches.

You know, we all eat fried pakoras, and in China they eat fried cockroaches in the same way as we eat pakoras. They eat spiders also. In our country also, there is an area called Nagaland—they take dogs by the tail and start swinging them until the dog vomits, and people eat that vomit. [Devotees make noise being grossed out.] Yes, we also were like that. We too were born there. But now we have got this human birth as a result of a great fortune, and none of us want to be demoted again. Not to fail the test and not to get demoted, you must chant the Holy Name of Nitai Gauranga, the Holy Name of Hari, Guru, and Vaishnavs.

Explain it to your husbands, wives, and children, and if you cannot explain it to them, then grab them and bring them to me. Tell them that they are going down a very dangerous path! In this Kali-yuga, people take marijuana, heroin, betel, but we prohibit even bidi and cigarettes. Do you know many boys who do not smoke and drink tea now? Sometimes, people ask me, "Maharaj, please can you find a husband for my daughter? She does not like boys who smoke, so please find somebody who does not smoke." I tell them, "Where will I get such a boy for you? It is very hard!" Even teachers at school—what do they teach students when they themselves drink alcohol? They earn money teaching at school and buy liquor with that money, they associate with bad people. So, what will money give you? Will money give you happiness?

People have money, but they have no happiness. Yet you can see some poor people—they eat spinach with salt, but they have happiness in their homes. Those who eat spinach and salt (the simplest meals possible) know happiness. So, it is not necessary to have money—money will make us forget about the Lord. We do not need to have an ego, we do not need to have a big land that will make us forget the Lord. We do not need houses, cars, money that will make us forget the Lord, it will take all our time and we will have no time to practise Krishna consciousness. People only know to worry about money, money, money. People do not sleep at night, thinking, "Where did I keep the money? Let me get up and see if it is still there." They go to the bathroom and check if the money they kept hidden somewhere on top is there or not. [Devotees burst out laughing.] Yet my grandfather was like that. When he died he became a boa constrictor. When our ancient house was broken, they saw there was a boa constrictor guarding a clay pot full of silver coins. He had buried it before under the house, and when the house was broken, they found those coins and a boa constrictor next to it, guarding it.

This is how desires are. Desires for enjoyment, liberation, supernatural powers, etc. It is said in Chaitanya-charitamrita that if you dig in the west, you will get one thing, if you dig in the south, you will get another thing; if you dig in the north, you get something else; but if you dig in the east, you will get the true wealth—you will get devotion. Bhukti, mukti, siddhi-kami (desire for enjoyment, liberation, and perfections) will be all around you, but the real treasure—devotion—is only in one direction.

কৃষ্ণভক্ত—নিষ্কাম, অতএব 'শান্ত' ।
ভুক্তি-মুক্তি-সিদ্ধি-কামী—সকলি 'অশান্ত' ॥

krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva 'santa'
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami—sakali 'asanta'

"A devotee of Krishna has no desires and is always peaceful. Those who have material desires, desire for liberation or desire for some perfection are always lusty and never know any peace."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.149)

People only want money, money, money, and they do not know anything else except for money—they cannot do anything else in their lives. They live engrossed in material life and the life passes, but they have not been able to worship the Lord even a little. Childhood, youth, adulthood have passed and now at your final age, in your old age you think will do something...

বার্দ্ধক্যে এখন উপায় বিহীন
তা'তে দীন অকিঞ্চন ।

vardhakye ekhana upaya-vihina
ta'te dina akinchana

"Now aged, I am devoid of any means of deliverance and thus destitute and distressed."

(Saranagati, 5.6)

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