(2/5) Beyond Surface Understanding

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, evening class, 10 July 2020, part 2
Translated from Bengali

সংসার সংসার ক'রে মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na haila kichhu, ghatila janjala

"Time has passed as I have been busy with my material life, and the result is nothing—only garbage."

কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি' বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

kisera samsara ei chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari vrtha dina yaya

'What sort of world is this? It is only a trick, a show. While I affectionately take it as my own, days pass by in vain.'

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje, nisa nidra-vase
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe vase

'My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting and waiting right next to me.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We never think that at any moment this life can end and we will have to leave. That is why we must always remember:

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ-ভার ।
নামাশ্রয় করি' যতনে তুমি
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari' yatane tumi
thakaha apana kaje

'Know that the main thing is that life is temporary and filled with all sorts of danger. Carefully take shelter of the Name and do your work.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must spend our live taking shelter of the Holy Name and living in the family of Krishna. It is possible to practise Krishna consciousness even if you live at home.

আসক্তিরহিত সম্বন্ধসহিত ।
বিষয়সমূহ সকলি মাধব ॥

asakti-rahita, sambandha-sahita,
visaya-samuha sakali madhava

'When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Madhav Himself.'

('Vaishnav ke?' Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur)

You must have no material attachment to your home, family or anything in this material world! You must become detached from your material home and family. You must practise this, then gradually you will develop transcendental feelings towards your Guru. For example, when a baby boy is born, his parents start taking care of him in various ways, and gradually they develop attachment and tender affection towards the child. Similarly, in spiritual life also, as you keep serving Krishna and His devotees, you develop attachment and affection towards the Lord and His devotees. It is not possible to get there except by practising. It is necessary to have a relationship. There must be a relationship between a disciple and the Guru.

Many people take initiation, take the mantra, thinking, 'I have got the mantra and given some donation, that is it. I am a disciple.' You can find many such 'disciples' in this world, and you can also find many gurus in this world who open temples and give mantras to anyone and everyone. The genuine guru–disciple relationship is not like that. There is a relationship between a father and his son, between a husband and his wife – in the same way, there must be a relationship between a disciple and their guru. If we do not realise the nature of this relationship (if we do not acquire sambandha-jnana), we will not be able to understand anything. I have written about the relationship between a guru and a disciple in my book Guidance, Volume 4. I also wrote there about the relationship with the Deity. Deities are not some idols made of wood, stone, clay or sand. If you do some service seeing the Deity in this way, this is not service to the Lord – it is service to a wooden or stone idol. We must think about these things deeply – it must come from within our hearts.

You have got this human birth promising to the Lord:

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার-ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajiba baliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rahile tumi avidyara bhare

'Forgetting that you came to this world saying, "I will serve You," you remained engulfed in ignorance.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We promised that we would serve the Lord, that we would see the Lord's Deity with our eyes, that we would speak about the Lord and His glories with our mouths, that we would serve Him with our hands, that we would circumambulate His holy abode with our legs. But once we came to this illusory world, Maya Devi made us forget everything. The Lord has given some duty to Maya Devi, and she fulfils the wish of the Lord. She is a potency of the Lord, and the Lord told her, 'O Maya Devi, spread illusion in this world to keep everyone busy with their material life and make them forget about Me.' This is the job that the Lord gave to Maya Devi. But when a genuine devotee surrenders to the Lord's devotee and serves the Lord, Maya Devi automatically flees from them. It is very difficult to surpass illusion. There is a verse in Srimad Bhagavad-gita:

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

'My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

The Lord says, 'I have created Maya, so she draws her energy from Me, and it is very difficult to overcome her. But if any devotee surrenders to Me, I bestow upon them devotion to Myself (Krishna-bhakti) and give them a place at the soles of My holy feet.' And if somebody cannot overcome Maya, they will have to keep coming to this material world, wandering all over the universe, again and again – Krishna keeps Himself and His devotees far away from them.

When Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj came to Nabadwip from Vrindavan, for some time, he was staying in a public toilet, where people come to pass stool and urine. One time, somebody asked him, 'Babaji Maharaj, do you not feel the stench of stool and urine here? How can you tolerate it?' Babaji Maharaj replied, 'It is possible to tolerate this smell, but when it comes to materialists who are always busy with material life, who are deprived of the Lord's service, who have forgotten the Lord and who are busy with all kinds of nonsense things – the stench that comes from them is a very dangerous stench. That kind of smell is not possible to tolerate.' Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj's words hurt, but this is the truth. It is possible to tolerate the worst of smells, but we must keep as far away as possible from materialists who have forgotten the Lord and live in the world of Maya.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Kirtan-Seva
2) Beyond Surface Understanding
3) Read and Apply In Your Life
4) Be a Disciple
5) Deities' Pastimes