(4/8) Primary Realisation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, morning
Translated into English from Bengali
18 February 2020, part 4

We must not aspire for dharma (religion), artha (wealth), kama (material desires, fulfilment of lust) or moksa (liberation). There are many kinds of religion, wealth, desires and liberation. Pure devotees never pray to the Lord for any of it, but material people (the people of this world) always pray for religion, wealth, fulfilment of their lust or liberation. Those who come to the pure line want the Lord, they pray, "May I have devotion to Your holy lotus feet. I want devotion to You." If there is no service to pure devotees in some activity or place, the Lord is never pleased with that. No matter how much kirtan you sing, no matter how much you dance and sing, if there is no service to a pure, genuine devotee, then it is all useless. Therefore, I am praying to you all. Sadhus come to you again and again, chant kirtan again and again, walk around the village again and again—you worship the Lord and chant the Lord's Name for only one day, but it is necessary to continue this kirtan every day. Where does the Lord stay? The Lord says, "I do not live in the hearts of yogis; neither do I live in Vaikuntha. Narada, I stay wherever My devotee chants My Name and glories." So, if somebody is talking about Me and you are talking or thinking about other things, then you are an offender. The mind is always fickle. When you sit to chant the Holy Name, it always wanders off in another direction, but if you chant loudly, then the mind will not be so fickle. That is why it is necessary to chant kirtan loudly.

Today you chant kirtan, and tomorrow you go back to your home and start eating meat, fish. Then this is as useless as the bathing of an elephant. When an elephants takes a bath, it comes out of the water and immediately throws dust on its body again.

You must have enthusiasm, desire for service. You must have extreme eagerness, extremely strong desire to serve. Instead of that, we are always busy with the temporary and the body. This body has various senses and paraphernalia (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue, mind, intelligence, ego), and we always strive to please this body. We always think, "What will I eat?", "What will I wear?", "Where will I sleep?"

ভাল মন্দ খাই, হেরি, পরি, চিন্তাহীন ।
নাহি ভাবি এ দেহ ছাড়িব কোনদিন ॥

bhala manda khai, heri, pari, chinta-hina
nahi bhavi, e deha chhadiba kona dina

"I eat, see and wear whatever I fancy without any thinking and never think that one day I will leave this body.

(Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We never think that we will have to give up this body. We live always thinking, "What will I eat?", "What will I wear?", "Where will I sleep?", "Where will I live?", "Where will I build a house?", "What will my son eat?", "Where will my mother eat?", "When will I get grandchildren?" and so on. We do not know who we are—we do not know our own soul. We do not try to know our own soul, we do not know who we are.

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.108)

We forget that we are eternal servants of Lord Krishna

'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)

This is what we forget. Until and unless this knowledge of our actual selves comes to us, nothing will come to us. Do you understand it? Without understanding who we are, we remain bound by the illusory environment, Maya. Until we surrender to the Lord and His devotees, Maya will never leave us and run away—she will always keep us ensnared.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 16 Mb
Length: 36 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Deposit Your Heart
2) Special Price
3) Watch Your Step
4) Primary Realisation
5) Full-Hearted Appeal
6) 'My Constant Sadness'
7) Become Devoted
8) Decision Is Yours