(3) Awaking from Lethargic Sleep

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, morning class
Translated into English from Bengali
15 February 2020, part 3

The religion of this Age of Kali is Harinama-sankirtan (congregational chanting of the Holy Name). Mahaprabhu, the Lord Himself, offered His Holy Name to everyone. He came to this world with this highest gift. Krishna understood that in Kali-yuga, people's intelligence, power of memory and duration of live is very small. In Satya-yuga, people lived for 100,000 years; in Treta-yuga, people lived for 10,000 years; in Dvapar-yuga, people lived for 1,000 years; and in Kali-yuga, people's lifetime is only 120 years (but now people cannot live even to that age—everything finishes quickly, at sixty–seventy or eighty years). In Satya-yuga, people would practise meditation and yoga-asana—it was very austere, but you cannot get the Lord through this practice now. In Kali-yuga, as soon as you sit to chant the Holy Name or if you chant for some ten minutes, your mind becomes fickle. So, in Kali-yuga, it is not possible to get the Lord through meditation. It is not possible in this age to control your mind, it always goes here and there; we cannot even chant the Holy Name properly. But Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that in this case, we must chant the Holy Name loudly, then our mind will be less restless.

In Satya-yuga, people practised meditation; in Treta-yuga, performed fire sacrifces (asvamedha-yajna, rajasuya-yajna, manusya-yajna and other enormous sacrifices with a lot of ghee and other ingredients); in Dvapar-yuga, they practised Deity worship and were always busy with that—they lived for one thousand years and were always busy with Deity worship during their entire lives. But in Kali-yuga, the duration of life is very short, so Lord Krishna personally takes the heart and halo of Srimati Radharani and appears as Gauranga. He would go door to door and tell everyone:

জীব জাগ, জীব জাগ, গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া-পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

"Sri Gorachand says, 'Wake up, souls! Wake up! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?'"

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

"O jiva souls! Stop sleeping! Wake up!" When somebody is sleeping, you can call them, and they will wake up, but if somebody sleeps even after waking up, how can they wake up? Even when we are called, we do not stir. Sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs tells us so many times, "Practise Krishna consciousness", "Chant the Holy Name", "Think about the Lord", but we are not doing any of it—we are always busy with our material lives. We do not listen to what the scriptures say; we do not listen to what sadhus say. We have no enthusiasm, no desire to practise.

Anyhow, amidst all that, the two of you have come to this line, so you are fortunate. I am sure you know all rules and regulations....

— : • : —

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Length: 60 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Our Golden Chance
2) Detach Yourself from Mental World
3) Awaking from Lethargic Sleep
4) Become Aloof to Material World
5) Calling Out for Mercy
6) Cultivate Your Heart
7) Imperilling Imprudence
8) Take Shelter