(7/10) How to Capture the Lord

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District, evening
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, part 7

Everyone keeps saying: sravanam, kirtanam. It is also said that among the sixty-four limbs of devotion, there are five main practices, and among those five main practices, there are two main: sravan and kirtan. Sankirtan means congregational chanting (chanting all together, just as we were doing now). Many people think that they want to practise on their own – they want to go to Vrindavan or Prayag, practise there and go to the Lord. But it is necessary to rescue the jivas of this world also! For their sake, gurus and Vaishnavs go door to door and preach:

জীব জাগ, জীব জাগ, গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া-পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jago, jiva jago, gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

'Sri Gorachand says, "Wake up, souls! Wake up! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

পিশাচী পাইলে যেন মতিচ্ছন্ন হয় ।

মায়াগ্রস্ত জীবের হয় সে ভাব উদয় ॥

pisachi paile yena mati-chchhanna haya
maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

'Those who are possessed by a ghost become delirious, and the same condition arises in those who are seized by Maya, illusion.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.3)

Just as people talk gibberish when possessed by a ghost, we take untruth for truth being overwhelmed by false ego and pride (ahankare matta haina, asatyere satya kori mani; অহঙ্কারে মত্ত হৈঞা অসত্যেরে সত্য করি' মানি). We think, 'This is my house', 'my room', 'my son', 'my family' – we forget who we are! We do not even know who we are.

'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)

We do not even know this much. Because we forget that we are eternal servants of the Lord, Maya attacks us. And the Lord is always thinking how to rescue us from this Maya. He is so merciful! I told it the other day that even when somebody came to kill Him, the Lord rescued them. You know that the demoness Putana came to kill Krishna when He was a small baby, perhaps, two–three days old only. This is not just a murder – it is a murder of a baby, which is an even worse crime. She came to kill the Lord when He was a baby, but the Lord bestowed His mercy on her. Can you imagine this? Putana came dressed as a gopi, with beautiful tilak marks and Tulasi neckbeads. Seeing her in this disguise, Krishna became charmed and gave her the place of His mother — He drank her breast milk. Putana had smeared poison on her breasts to kill Krishna, but when Krishna took her breast into His mouth to suck the life out of her, He sucked so hard that Putana cried, 'Leave me! Gopal, leave me!' Krishna said to Himself, 'I do not catch anyone so easily, but once I catch someone, I do not let them go.' Then, not to alarm everyone in the house, Krishna made Putana run out of the house and a little far into the nearby field. She then assumed her enormous body and eventually fell down dead. Everyone was astonished to see that a demoness had entered Vrindavan. When she died, they had to burn her body, but how will they do it? Putana's body was enormous. So, her body was chopped into small pieces and burnt piece by piece. At this time, the whole of Vrindavan, Gokula and Mahavan became filled with the scents of sandalwood and camphor. Everyone was amazed, 'What is this smell?' It was the smell of Putana's body being burnt. That is how we can understand that Krishna had given His mercy to her. When our bodies are burnt, does any pleasant smell come out of it? It does not; only bad smell comes – everybody closes their noses. But when Putana was being burnt, there was the scent of sandalwood and camphor.

Lord Nrisinghadev also bestowed His mercy on Hiranyakasipu. We must remember these pastimes. As long as we have desires (to enjoy through the senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting), diseases (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy and hankering for money, women and fame) within us, these pure teachings will not enter our ears.

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Detach Yourself from Illusion
2) Tenacious Tenants
3) Nurture Natural Devotion
4) Eternal Loving Worship
5) Essential Admonition
6) Where Is Substance?
7) How to Capture the Lord
8) Pillars of Spiritual Life
9) Undiluted Spiritual Life
10) Power of Sambandha-Jnana