(3/8) Where There Is No Will There Is No Way

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

We chant in one of the kirtans: "Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়): by honouring the Lord's prasad I shall conquer all worldly illusions" (Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur). We honour prasad every day—we offer bhog to the Lord every day and take His prasad, but tell me, has our material illusion gone away? Have offences left us?...

On the other hand, those who have not come to this line are very unfortunate.

সে সম্বন্ধ নাহি যার বৃথা জন্ম গেল তার
সেই পশু বড় দুরাচার ।

se sambandha nahi yara vrtha janma gela tara
sei pasu bada durachara

"Those who do not know who Nitai is live in vain—they are animals and extremely wicked."

Such people are compared to animals. Why? Because animals—cows, goats, sheep, cats, dogs and so on—do not know who Krishna is, who the Lord is. Even the people in this country do not want to understand this. If they tried, they could understand it—they can hear Hari-katha from sadhus. But the problem is that they have no desire to do so. It is the same as in any matter. Suppose I study at school. If I have no eagerness to learn or study anything, then I will not get a good result at the exam. No matter how much the teacher will try to teach me, if I do not have desire to study and if I do not try to study, then I will never be able to progress. The main thing is that we must try. If you make one step towards the Lord, the Lord will make ten steps towards you.

Mother Yasoda tried so hard to bind her son, Gopal. She thought, "He is my son, why can I not bind Him?" She gathered rope from hundreds of thousands of cows—she tried so hard that Krishna, seeing how tired she had become, allowed her to bind Him. Seeing how much she tried, Krishna conceded.

We do not want to practise Krishna consciousness. You think you cannot practise, but the truth is that you do not want to practise. We are scared, thinking, "What if I love the happiness and comfortable life that I have in this world?" But if you tell a small child—perhaps, a six-month-old or a one–two-year-old child—to throw soil away, it will not do it; instead, the child will put it into his mouth. When the child's mother gets the news that her child is eating soil, she will come, open the child's mouth and take it out. The child will begin to cry, "Mother does not let me eat!" The child does not understand that if you eat soil, you will become sick. We have fallen into the bondage of material life in this world. As we live our lives, we experience both happiness and unhappiness. It is not that we can live here and be always happy—it is not like that. Just as happiness must come, unhappiness must also come. Sooner or later, unhappiness will come—somebody dies, and we feel unhappy; we fall ill, and we feel unhappy.

Some people say, "Oh, there is no God, I do not know, do not understand these things." But when they get sick, then something will begin to stir in their minds, "O Lord, please be merciful to me. Please remove my disease, I am suffering so much." Then they will think about the Lord—something will stir within them and make them think that there is someone above, there is someone who is called 'God'. This is how faith is born. But if we have no faith in the Lord, then how can we come to the Lord?

If we keep listening and listening to Hari-katha, then one day faith will be born within us, "Yes, I can come to the Lord." Gurudev says, "If you chant the Holy Name, you must get the Lord", "If you serve the Lord, you must get the Lord." We must have this faith.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Bhajana-Siddhi
2) Ignorance Is No Excuse
3) Where There Is No Will There Is No Way
4) Mind Over Matter
5) Choice Is Yours
6) Load of Luggage
7) Caught!
8) Internal Poison