(5/8) Exclusive Enquiry

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Noon preaching programme in Adra,
13 November 2020, part 5
Translated from Bengali

What I have come to tell you today is this.

Why must we chant the Holy Name? Why must we practise Krishna consciousness or worship God? What will God give us? This is what we think. If we do not get anything, we do not want to continue serving. We always do something hoping to get something in return. This is karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits). No. 'O Lord, wherever You keep me, whichever situation I am in, I will only think about You.' This should be our mood. The Lord Himself says, 'If you think about Me, I will think about you. And if you think about your own self yourself, then why will I think about you?'

Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami says in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita:

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vanchha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

'The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (divine love).'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.4.165)

These are Mahaprabhu's words. Atmendriya-vanchha means thinking about yourself and relying on yourself. We keep thinking, 'How will I get a house?', 'How will I get money?', 'How will I get a car?' But what did Pariksit Maharaj enquire in the end? Sukadev Goswami said, 'You are a good searcher. There is only one question, and the answer is also only one.' What did Pariksit Maharaj ask him? He asked, 'Prabhu, how can I get benefit?' Sukadev Goswami was a sixteen-year-old boy at that time. He came to the assembly of Pariksit Maharaj naked. Sukadev's father, grandfather and many other great sages, but he did not recognise anybody. He did not see any palace, horses or houses around him – he could only see Pariksit Maharaj and Krishna in front of his eyes. So, when Pariksit Maharaj asked his question ('How can I get benefit?'), Sukadev Goswami first replied, 'You are a good searcher. This is the question everybody must ask.' But Mahaprabhu has given us even more. He told that we should ask five questions. What are these questions? (1) Who am I (ke ami, কে আমি)? (2) Why am I suffering (kene amaya jare tapa-traya, কেনে আমায় জারে তাপত্রয়)? (3) How can I get relief from this suffering and austerity? How can I get benefit? (kise hita haya, কিসে হিত হয়)? (4) What is the eternal goal (sadhya vastu ki, সাধ্য বস্তু কী)? (5) How can I attain this main goal (sadhya vastu ki korle paowa yaya, সাধ্য বস্তু কী করলে পাওয়া য্য়)?

Who am I? You say, 'I am so-and-so Jana', 'I am so-and-so Maity' and so on. When you are asked who you are, you always say your name or your surname. But this is not who you are. First you must know your own identity. You cannot know who the Lord is without first knowing who you are. The problem is that we have forgotten our identity. We are eternal servants of Krishna. Eternal means we are servants always, all our life. We are not servants for two days, three days or one hour. We are Krishna's eternal servants, life after life. Mahaprabhu said:

'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)

When we say, 'My father', 'My friend', 'My wife', 'My daughter', we forget our identity. We are all eternal servants of Lord Krishna. Mahaprabhu told it very nicely, but it may be difficult for you to understand it.

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)

You have all heard about Srila Sanatan Goswami. Srila Sanatan Goswami was the one who asked Mahaprabhu those five questions. The first question was, 'Who am I?' The next question is, 'Why am I suffering from all this agony?' When we were coming here, the driver told me that one leader from this area had died recently and he had a wealth of 8,400,000 rupees. He had all this money, but was he happy? That is the problem. Why are we suffering so much in this world? There are three kinds of miseries. Adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (আধিভৌতিক, আধিদৈবিক, আধ্যাত্মিক): miseries caused by others, by the nature and demigods and by one's own body or mind. 'Adhibhautik' means one jiva makes other jivas suffer. 'Adhidaivik' means the suffering inflicted upon us by the demigods. For example, it can rain a lot, it can be very hot or cold. I have just heard recently that there was a big flood in Kerala in the South of India. Everything will be flooded one day. I have seen water building up in many places. When it rains heavily and rivers come out of their banks, this is all adhidaivik suffering. The third kind of suffering is adhyatmik. This is mental suffering. Some think, 'I have no money, so I will commit suicide.' Lo, there is no lack of money in America. There, if there are ten sons in a family, the family will have ten cars. And in some families, when a baby is born, it gets ten cars as birthday presents from all the relatives. People have no lack of money in that country, but why is the suicide rate the highest in that country? There was news that New York had the highest suicide rate in the world. Why is it so? Because people are not happy – they suffer mentally. This is what the three-fold miseries are.

Why are we suffering from these miseries?

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

'Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primaeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

We have fallen into this material bondage and suffer so much because we have forgotten the Lord. Forgetting the Lord, we live worrying about 'my son', 'my wife', 'my daughter', 'my friend'...

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Sincerely, Conscientiously and Without Offences
2) Greatest Benefactors
3) Learn to Call the Lord
4) Loving Service Connection
5) Exclusive Enquiry
6) Rare Birth, Rare Gift
7) Devotional Progress
8) Step on Clean Path