(4/4) Awake, Arise

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

There was once a king called Chitraketu. He had many queens, but none of them had any children. One day, a sage called Angira Rishi came to his kingdom. As soon as King Chitraketu saw Angira Risihi coming, he welcomed him with much respect, offering him proper seat and worship.

'Dear king,' the sage asked Chitraketu, 'how are you keeping? How is your kingdom and how are your subjects?'

'Everything is going on well, we have everything, but I am very uneasy...' replied Chitraketu.

'What is it you worry about?'

'I do not have any children, but I want to get a son. If I have a son, my kingdom will be looked after in the future. If I have no heir, who will look after my subjects and this kingdom?'

'If you have a son,' the sage said to the king, 'you will get both happiness and unhappiness.'

When Chitraketu heard the sage say that he would get a son, he became happy and did not think about the unhappiness that the sage had mentioned. He had other desires, so if he were to be told good things, he would not listen – he had many wives, but none of them had children, so he only thought, 'When will I have a son?' So, when Angira Risihi blessed him to get a son, he only could think of the happiness that was to come, and he forgot about the unhappiness. Then, his first wife had a son. The king was very happy, he danced around his son, and the queen who had the son was also very happy. But there were also other queens, and they felt jealous – poison was planted in their minds, 'The king only cares about his first wife, he does not care about us. He only always loves and takes care of her.' Then, they all together decided to kill the boy because he was the cause of all that joy, and their jealousy. They fed poison to the boy, and the boy died.

The nurse who looked after the boy came to him came to the boy and noticed that he did not move. She started shaking him, 'Get up! Get up!' Hearing her shouts, the mother of the boy (the first queen) came there and began to cry, 'What has happened to my boy?' Then, the other queens came and pretended to cry too, and even louder than the first queen, 'Oh, what will happen now? The boy has died!'

Angira Rishi was watching what was happening from far. He decided to come to the king himself and also send Narad there. When he came to the king, he asked him, 'O King! How are you?' The king lamented, 'Oh, when I had a son, I was very happy, but now that he has died, I feel even more pain than when I had no son!' Then, Narad used his mystic power to enter the body of boy and spoke with the boy's mouth, 'Where have I come? How did I come here?' The mother of the boy cried, 'I am your mother!' The king also cried, 'I am your father!' The boy replied, 'When were you my father? When? In which age? I cannot remember anything.' Then, Narad explained the nature of the soul and said, 'I must go back to the Lord now. There is no other way.' Hearing the boy's words (what Narad said through the boy), Chitraketu obtained knowledge of the soul and intelligence. He understood, 'It is true. This world and this body are temporary.' Chitraketu became a great Vaishnav sadhu. Mounting his puspa-ratha, he started travelling everywhere and preaching about the Holy Name of the Lord.

One time, as Chitraketu was travelling, he came to Sivaloka to meet with Sivji Maharaj. At that time, Sivji Maharaj was sitting stark naked (he is detached and does not wear any clothes) in the assembly of some sages who were discussing some topics with him, and Parvati Devi, his sakti, was sitting on his lap. Commonly, everybody would feel upset to see somebody sitting naked with their wife on his lap. Chitraketu did not mind it because he had faith in Lord Siva – he knew that Sivji Maharaj could not do anything bad. Sivji Maharaj was so powerful that once he even subdued Cupid, Kamadev. But because it did not look right, Chitraketu decided to tell Lord Siva about it as a friend, 'Sivji Maharaj, you are sitting here like this. We are like friends to you, so we do not think anything about it, but if any outside people see it, they will not understand it. They will think bad about it, "What kind of nature does a sadhu have? He is sitting naked with a girl on his lap!"' When Lord Siva heard it, he did not think anything bad, but Parvati Devi became angry, 'Who are you and where have you come from? How dare you criticise my husband? I curse you to go to hell and stay there!' When Chitraketu heard it, he did not become angry or disturbed. He thought, 'If Parvati Devi says I must go to hell, I will go. It is all right.' Wherever devotees are, they do not mind it – whether they are in heaven, hell, jail or any other place, it is all the same to them.

Therefore, for as long as we material desires (for as long as we want to get something in this world), the teachings of Rupa-Raghunath, which bestow the greatest benefit, will not enter our ears.

You will be in this world for a short time, so take shelter of a bona fide guru and come to the line of pure Krishna consciousness. Worship and serve the Lord genuinely, with your heart and soul. If you only come and chant, 'Hari bol! Hari bol!' but when you go away, you do other things, this is not right.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

'Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

I have told you before that when a child eats soil and the soil is taken away from it, it will cry, but if you give a sweet to that child, it will smile and understand, 'Yes, mother was right, this sweet tastes much better!' We live in this world and, like children, want to eat soil and dung. We want a car, we want a house, we want some money. We always ask the Lord for all these things. But if we say, 'O Lord! I want You', then the Lord will arrange everything – we will know no want of anything.

You have read Srimad Bhagavad-gita. When the Pandavas – Yudhisthir, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakul and Sahadev – fought with the help of Krishna against the Kauravas, they won and got their kingdom back. After the war, Krishna decided to test them. He came to Kunti Devi, His aunt and the mother of the Pandavas, and said, 'Auntie, your sons have won the battle. You have got your kingdom, so My job is finished, I am leaving then. I am going to Dvaraka now.' Kunti Devi replied, 'Prabhu, if You do not stay with us, what will we do with this kingdom? We do not need any kingdom without You. If You are there, then we have everything.'

Dhruva Maharaj also was like that. In the end, he begged the Lord for forgiveness, 'Prabhu, please do not cheat me. I made a mistake. I have spent five years in the forest to get the throne of my father. I was wrong. You are telling me to take the throne I have wanted, but now that You have personally come in front of me, I do not need any throne. I have got You, and that is enough for me.'

Always remember this. Always chant Krishna-kirtan. I saw that when we were chanting, everyone was sitting with their mouths closed. And when the class starts, then you will sit and talk the whole day, but the Holy Name of Lord Krishna will not come out of your mouths even once. How unfortunate this is! Mahaprabhu was asked once when the Holy Name does not come out of people's mouths, and Mahaprabhu gave a very hard answer. He said, 'Because they are offenders of the Holy Name. They make offences, that is why the Holy Name does not come out of their mouths.' Guru Maharaj also said that somebody can chant the Holy Name so much, but if you hit them in the stomach, they will cry, 'Oh mother!' 'Oh father!' Hare Krishna will not come out of their mouths then. This is our bad fortune. We are very unfortunate because we have got this rare human birth, but we are wasting this lifetime. This is my pain. There are over six billion people in this world, but not even 0.1% chant the Holy Name here. I doubt that among 100,000 people there is even one person who would chant the Holy Name. What will become of all these people? Do you understand what I am saying? They will keep coming and going. They will have to wait for a very long time to come to the Lord. But even though we have got initiation, we also do not study, do not practise – when the Vandana is recited, we cannot repeat it; when kirtans are chanted, we cannot chant them. We cannot do anything. We cannot serve the Lord. We cannot love the Lord. We cannot chant the Lord's Name. We do not know anything.

Please come for Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Every jiva who has come to this line must come. Nabadwip Dham is nondifferent from Vrindavan Dham. We arrange Nabadwip Dham parikrama every year. There have been so many problems, but I have never stopped this parikrama. You know that I have left the main Math, but still I have not stopped Nabadwip Dham parikrama. By hook or by crook, I will this parikrama with devotees. Our temple is far now, but I take everyone in buses every year. This time too we have rented many buses. There are more devotees now, so I have booked the dates with ISKCON buses. Because the temple is quite far, it is very far to walk all the way, so I have arranged for buses for the parikrama. What more is there that I should arrange? If people can come and do this parikrama, if they can practise Krishna consciousness, they will get benefit.

Anyhow, please forgive my offences. I would like to finish now.

Also, please buy the books – whatever we have been discussing is written in them. The calendar for the next year has also come out, it came yesterday, fortunately. Please buy it. In this way, we must always, at every moment engage ourselves in the service to the Lord.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Be Serious
2) Result of Proper Practice
3) Keep Your Vision Clean
4) Awake, Arise