(5/10) Always Think about Hari-Katha

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Morning class during village preaching
16 February 2020, part 5
Translated from Bengali

You chant the Holy Name one day and think that it is sufficient, but how many years will you be alive in this world? Somebody will be here for ten years; somebody, for twenty; somebody, for thirty; somebody, for forty years. But even if you live in this world for a hundred years, what is a hundred years compared to eternity? I saw today a photograph of the flood in Nabadwip that was in 2000 (we would all go by boats and take prasad from the kitchen to the prasad hall in a boat)—twenty years have passed now, but I have not even noticed how these twenty years have passed. Time is passing so fast. Time and tide wait for none. Today is passing, and when you go to sleep, you wake up to the next day. You went for the parikrama today, and I was thinking, "Oh, we still have much time left", "There is still much time," but before I knew it, the time had finished. There cannot be forty-eight hours in a day. So, always think about Hari-katha.

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

"Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?"

If we do not have a strong desire, then nobody can force us to do anything. You must want to chant the Holy Name; you must want to come to this line.

A lion or a tiger have no intelligence. If you do not give them five kg of goat, cow or chicken meat, they will raise much noise. But people have intelligence—if they want to give up eating meat and fish, if they want to become vegetarian and follow ekadasi, they can do it. It is necessary to have desire. If you are very greedy and want to eat meat and other non-vegetarian food, if you cannot stop it altogether, then you should try to stop it slowly, gradually. You can see those who have taken initiation—they do not eat meat, fish, etc. (if somebody does eat meat secretly, they are making a big offence). There are many householder devotees, and they are all vegetarian. They have many family members, they have children, and you can see that everyone's health is good, there are no problems (it is not like one cannot live without meat). There is *** Prabhu here. He is seventy-three, eleven-twelve years older than me, but he is working so much in a factory. Waking up at four, he goes to work early in the morning and works the whole day. Many cannot work like that when they are fifty or sixty (their backs pain, their legs pain and so on).

Many of you say, "Why practise spiritual life now? When I get old, then I will practise" or, "Who will take care of my children? Who will take care of this? Who will take care of that? What will happen? My son is dependent on me—he lives looking into my eyes, and I am his guardian, I must take care of him." We are not guardians! The only guardian, or maintainer, is Lord Krishna—He is the owner, and He looks after everyone and everything (goptritve varan). Krishna personally takes care of everyone, so how can we take care of ourselves? Remember this. Krishna is our maintainer. We do not maintain or look after anyone. And those who say, "Later!" are cheating and talking nonsense. This is deception of others and the self: you are cheating the Lord and cheating yourself also. You say you will retire at sixty and then practise Krishna consciousness, but your back will pain, you will not be able to hear well, you will have all kinds of difficulties; you will not be able to do the parikrama, and others will have to worry about you. If your health is not good, do you think you will be happy to serve the Lord? If you have a fever or are sick, do you like chanting the Holy Name?

— : • : —

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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