(8/8) Take Shelter

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, morning class
Translated into English from Bengali
15 February 2020, part 8

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went door to door, calling out to 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)

পিশাচী পাইলে যেন মতিচ্ছন্ন হয় ।

মায়াগ্রস্ত জীবের হয় সে ভাব উদয় ॥

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya
maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

"Those who are possessed by a ghost become delirious, and the same condition arises in those who are seized by Maya, illusion."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

So, now that we have got this human birth and intelligence, why do we not care and waste this life? The Lord personally comes in this Age of Kali and also appears in the form of the Holy Name. Going door to door, He would say, "You have lost your address! You have lost your home!" Sadhus come to beg you, "Krishna bolo, sange chala, ei matra bhiksa chai—I am begging you for one thing only: come with us and chant the Holy Name of Krishna!" "Come, come to your own home! Come back to the Lord's home! Go to the place where the Lord resides eternally." This is why sadhus spend so much money and arrange so many things.

Devotees work and earn a little money and make a festival with that money. They have given you this opportunity to hear Hari-katha. Not everyone is so fortunate to do this, not everybody is able to do it—not everybody has desire or enthusiasm to do it. People only think about their families, money, wealth, cars, houses. Will their desires ever end? You have no house, then you get a house, then want a three-storey house, then a four-storey house and so on—will you ever stop wanting more and more? Will you ever feel peace and happiness? Never. Your desires will never go away until and unless you start thinking about spiritual life and the Holy Name of the Lord.

"O Lord! I want You! I do not need all this money, wealth and property, I want only You!" If you get the Lord, you will have everything—His money, wealth, property, houses, cars, everything—but you will consider it all trifle, small. Our life must be Krishna-centred. Our guru-varga and devotees live in Krishna's family, and we only want to have whatever is necessary to serve them. Devotees do not want anything more than that, but they always get more than they need, without asking for anything. Devotees have no lack—they have no lack of cars, houses, money or anything else. They do not ask for anything, but even if they do not ask anything, everything automatically comes to them. But here people always run behind money.

God always exists, existed and will exist. He is eternal, but all these material things that everyone is so anxious to get are trifle. We are like children. A little boy eats soil and his mother comes and takes the soil out of his mouth. When the mother comes and throws the soil away, the child cries, but when she puts a sweet into his mouth, he understands, "Oh, my mother is right! She did good by taking soil away from me and giving me a sweet." Like such children, we want money, a house, a car and so on. When we see that all these temporary material things are trifle, then we can get the darshan of the holy feet of the Lord—we can know the Lord; at that time, all material things will have no value for us.

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want followers, I do not want beautiful women, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

ধন জন আর কবিতা সুন্দরী
বলিব না চাহি দেহ-সুখকরী ।
জন্মে জন্মে দাও ওহে গৌরহরি
অহৈতুকী ভক্তি চরণে তোমার ॥

dhana jana ara, kavita-sundari,
baliba na chahi deha-sukha-kari
janme janme dao, ohe gaurahari!
ahaituki bhakti charane tomara

"When will I declare that I do not desire wealth, followers, erudition, beautiful women, or any other bodily pleasure? O Gaurahari! Birth after birth, please give me unconditional devotion to Your feet."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

নাহি মাগি দেহসুখ বিদ্যা ধন জন ॥
নাহি মাগি স্বর্গ আর মোক্ষ নাহি মাগি ।
না করি প্রার্থনা কোন বিভূতির লাগি ॥

nahi magi deha-sukha, vidya, dhana, jana
nahi magi svarga ara moksa nahi magi
na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi

'I do not wish bodily happiness, knowledge, wealth or friends. I do not wish to attain heaven or liberation, neither do I pray for any supernatural powers'.

(Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You must remember this. There is no need for anything—there must be only devotion. You cannot please the Lord through any material activities, knowledge or mystic powers—the Lord is pleased only through devotion. And one must genuinely love the Lord, not out of some sense of duty, "There is God, so I must worship Him, I must offer Him flowers." Not like that. We must love the Lord. Just as a mother loves and takes care of her son from his birth—even when the child is still in her womb, she follows all the prescribed recommendations and rules because she cares for the child. She does this not out of some sense of duty but out of love. In the same way, the Lord is the maintainer of this world—He takes care of everything and everyone. Our parents give us a body, but they do not give us that which we are. It is necessary to know our identity—to know that we are a soul. Who am I? You think you are so-and-so Ray, so-and-so Mistri, so-and-so Das, so-and-so Bhagavan, so-and-so Maharaj, but no!

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck"

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

"Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primaeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

Because we forget the Lord, we suffer from the agony of threefold miseries. The only way to get out of this suffering is to take shelter at the holy feet of the Lord. "Bhagavata pada Vaisnavera sthane, ekanta asraya kara Chaitanya-charane (ভাগবত পড় বৈষ্ণবের স্থানে, একান্ত আশ্রয় কর চৈতন্য-চরণে): Read Bhagavatam under guidance of a Vaishnav and take exclusive shelter of the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu." It is necessary to take shelter.

আশ্রয় লইয়া ভজে তার কৃষ্ণ নাহি ত্যজে
আর সব মরে অকারণ

asraya la-iya bhaje, tare krsna nahi tyaje
ara saba mare akarana

"Krishna never leaves those who take shelter in Him and serve Him—all others die in vain."

Take shelter of a bona fide guru and practise Krishna consciousness.

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol!

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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