(4/10) Create a Relationship

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Morning class during village preaching
16 February 2020, part 4
Translated from Bengali

"Sakti-buddhi-hina, ami ati dina, kore more atmasatha (শক্তিবুদ্ধিহীন আমি অতি দীন কর মোরে আত্মসাথ). O Gurudev, I have no strength, I have no intelligence, please hijack me!" In other words, we pray, "O Gurudev! I am fallen into this material bondage, I live in the illusory world. Please give me shelter in your family!" There is so much work in Gurudev's family—Lord Krishna's family is a whole world: somebody's work is to make garlands, somebody's work is to wash the dishes and so on. Krishna's family is running in various ways in this world, and we pray, "Gurudev, there are so many kinds of jobs in your family, please give me some work in your family."

If we go directly to the Lord, the Lord may not listen to us, but do not forget it:

বৈষ্ণবের আবেদনে কৃষ্ণ দয়াময় ।
এ হেন পামর প্রতি হবেন সদয় ॥

vaisnavera avedane krsna dayamaya
e hena pamara prati habena sadaya

"Satisfied by the Vaishnav's prayer, Krishna will be merciful to this sinner."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If you tell something to a Vaishnav, the Vaishnav will tell about it to Krishna. After that, Krishna will take pity on you and bestow His mercy: "My dear associate has referred this devotee to Me." When you want to get a job in some office or factory, you need to have reference from a reliable source; or if you want to learn some work, you have to go to a reliable person who will utilise you in different tasks. So, if you are to establish a relationship with the Lord, you must also go to a reliable source. For example, when you want to get married, you must go to a matchmaker who solicits your marriage with the other party's family on your behalf. In the same way, if you want to enter into a relationship with the Lord, then great Vaishnavs, who are dear associates of the Lord, act as matchmakers between you and the Lord.

If you send your letter to the Lord, you will not get a reply, but if you give your letter to a Vaishnav, the Vaishnav will give your letter to the Lord, saying, "O Lord! Please be merciful to this devotee."

বৈষ্ণবের আবেদনে কৃষ্ণ দয়াময় ।
এ হেন পামর প্রতি হবেন সদয় ॥

vaisnavera avedane krsna dayamaya
e hena pamara prati habena sadaya

"Satisfied by the Vaishnav's prayer, Krishna will be merciful to this sinner."

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

This is how the Lord becomes merciful to the lowly and fallen.

Why cannot we follow this? Because how do we always pay obeisances? We offer obeisances with one hand, or we are so busy that we only pay obeisances haphazardly, by anyhow folding our palms and running by. People in this world are so busy! They only run behind money. If you give them a book or want to say something to them, they say, "I have no time! No time!" But when Yamaduts comes to take you away, what will you do?

I spoke to some person yesterday. I have been telling them to chant the Holy Name, but they do not do it. They have a son and a daughter—the son has just passed the higher secondary, and their daughter has passed M.A., she is not married. I have been coming to their house for twenty years, but I have not been able to make anyone chant the Holy Name there. I am trying and trying, I have been calling then for twenty years, but nobody has taken up chanting the Holy Name. They make programmes, they give some money to the mission—they give everything, but they cannot come to this line. They are full of superstitions, and I cannot bring them out. Now the situation is such that both parents, and even grandparents, are alive, but their son died. So, now they have two children left. The father had spent almost two million rupees on treatment, but it was of no use—when your time comes, you can sell the whole world, but nobody can stop death and keep you alive. In this world, scientists create thousands of medicines, they are said to have even invented some medicine against cancer; I have heard that they can even cut one person's neck and attach it to another person's head, and it can work. But no matter what they make, they cannot create the soul. The soul is eternal—nobody can create it. The soul is created by the Lord, and when the time comes, it will return to the Lord [in His nondifferentiated, impersonal form]. Our parents do not create us—they only give us this body. Remember this. But they do not give us our soul—the soul is indestructible. The soul is neither created nor can be destroyed. All souls come from the Lord and exist eternally. When a soul enters a body, the body becomes animate. Everyone gets a suitable body according to their past actions.

You have got this human body now as the result of great fortune. For example, when you work, you can be promoted or demoted. If you work well, you get promoted, but what happens when you work bad? You become demoted or even dismissed. So, if you do good things, you get promoted, but if you are born as a human and live as a goat or a dog, then you will be demoted. Dogs also eat, sleep; dogs can also have a big house; they can even travel by plane or stay in an A/C room (when people have a lot of money, their dogs live in luxury). Some of you sleep on mats, but there are dogs that sleep in A/C rooms and on posh mattresses and beds. Some dogs even travel abroad and have passports! This is how people enjoy in this world, but they do not think about the Lord. We have got this life and body from the Lord, but we do not think about Him from whom we have got everything. We have so many friends, relatives, and we are busy trying to satisfy and please them—we keep connection with them, but we do not keep any connection with our Guru and Vaishnavs. You take initiation and after that never even call to find out some news about your Guru. You think you have taken initiation, and this is it, but after you take initiation, you must establish a relationship (sambandha), you must practise (abhidheya).

Suppose you go to a doctor and take a prescription from him. If you do not follow this prescription, will your disease go away? I am telling you that it is necessary to practise sravan and kirtan, it is necessary to practise Krishna consciousness, it is necessary to serve Sri Guru and Vaishnavs. You think you make a programme once a year, and that is sufficient, but it is not so. You must cook and offer bhog to Gurudev and the Lord every day, eternally. When you do it every day, you will develop a habit, and then you will be able to go to serve in Goloka. Suppose you cook very well, but if you do not cook for a year or two, you will see that you cannot cook well anymore—you forget how to cook. So, if you do not practise everything all the time, then what to speak of going to Goloka, you will not have any qualification for service. You must practise serving now and here. We must listen to the narratives about the Lord every day; we must speak about Krishna every day. You may ask, "How can I listen to my Guru every day?" There are books. In this age, there is also internet, modern mobile phones. I speak so much Hari-katha every day there. You can see it every day in your mobile phones, in facebook and other media, but if you cannot do that, then there are books. What I speak is also published as books. You can read those books every day. If you cannot understand something, you can ask me, "Gurudev, I cannot understand the meaning of this." There is no problem. My phone is on the whole day; I get phone calls until midnight—I turn it off only at midnight because I have to sleep.

You must always think about these things. You must create a relationship.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 42 Mb
Length: 87 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Life Suffused with Kirtan
2) Listen with Your Heart
3) Internal and External Transformation
4) Create a Relationship
5) Always Think about Hari-Katha
6) Connection with the Transcendental
7) Inane Interests
8) Bhakta-Vatsala Krishna
9) Become Pure Servant
10) Come to Worship the Lord