(2/5) "Theirs Not to Reason Why"

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, evening class
Translated into English from Bengali
15 February 2020, part 2

Why must we serve the Lord? What should be our motive? What will I get by serving Him? We always think of what we gain or lose by doing something. For example, we know that if we love our father, we will get his property; if we associate with our friends or some relatives, we will get honour. But what will we get if we serve the Lord? Why must I love Him? Why must I serve Him? You must know this. Why must you serve the Lord and His dearest, closest associates? Until and unless this consciousness does not awaken in you, you will keep living engrossed in the bodily relationship with your wife, sons and daughters. Our connection, or relation, with our parents and other relatives is bodily. My parents have given me this body, but they have not given me that which I am. Always remember this. My parents have given me this body, but they have not given me that which I am.

Many of you say, "I do whatever as my mind fancies" or "I do whatever my soul facies," but this is not so. My mind judges the external world, and my mind is related to my body through senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin). Suppose I am coming here and see something nice on the street. I can be sitting here now, but my mind may not be here—my mind can go to that nice thing which I saw on the street on my way here. Always remember this: mind is always concerned with the external world. I can hear something on the way here—for example, somebody said something bad to me, and it will be always nagging my mind; I heard it in another place a while ago, but I can be sitting here and still feeling upset about it. This is how mind works. When you take shelter of a guru, you get some good intelligence, and with the help of good intelligence, you can make your mind still and bring it to the right path. We must always try to do that; we must always want to do that. It is necessary to have desire and to keep trying. When Mother Yasoda went to bind Krishna, she was determined, "I will bind Him! I do not care how much rope it takes, but I will do it!" As she kept bringing more and more rope, she felt tired, but even then she did not give up. We, too, must keep trying; we must not give up.

We always think about our friends, family and relatives, but it is necessary to make effort, then the Lord will come to your house. We have been coming and chanting kirtans here for so many years. One by one, years are passing, but how much more time is there left? When somebody falls asleep, you can wake them up, but you cannot wake up those who are awake. In other words, there is a difference between doing something wrong without knowing it and doing something wrong consciously. If somebody is ignorant and makes some offence, it is possible to forgive them, but if we do something wrong consciously, then it is punishable. You can see this in court also: if somebody commits negligent homicide, the punishment is one; and if somebody deliberately plans carefully and kills somebody, the punishment is another. In the same way, there is an unconscious offence, when you make an offence at the holy feet of the Lord, Sri Guru and Vaishnavs unknowingly, and there is also a conscious offence, when you do something knowingly (you have heard that it is wrong, you know that it is wrong, but you still do it).

So, devotion to the Lord out of love, out of duty, out of fear or hoping, "I will get something," is not the same. We are always pushed and shoved by our ego: we are proud of wealth, knowledge, friends and family, beauty. All day long, we keep thinking, "Where will I stay?", "Where will I eat?", "Where will I sleep?", "What will I wear?" But Vaishnavs never think about themselves—they always think about the Lord, their Guru and other Vaishnavs. "How will service to my Guru and Vaishnavs be done?", "How will the Lord's service be done?"—their interest always lies in this direction. It is at the holy feet of such Vaishnavs that we must take shelter.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) My Question to You
2) "Theirs Not to Reason Why"
3) Move Forward
4) Gift of Willpower
5) Ultimate Remedy