(8/8) Search and Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Radhapur (Howrah district),
17 November 2020, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

You must practise Krishna consciousness seriously. We turned away from Lord Krishna a very long time ago, falling into material bondage. We do not know when death will come to us – we do not know when the time for us to leave this world will come.

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e-dosa dibe kare bhai?

'Coming and going, coming and going, and never learnt anything. You have been eating your own brain, who will you blame now, brother?'

Who will I blame for this? I am my own enemy, and I am my own friend. 'Vrddha-kala aola, saba sukha bhagala, pida-vase ha-inu katara (বৃদ্ধকাল আওল, সব সুখ ভাগল, পীড়াবশে হইনু কাতর): now old age has come and all happiness has fled—distressed by diseases, I have become miserable' (Saranagati). When old age comes to us, we will have to suffer and struggle so much, but when we were young, we did not practise Krishna consciousness – we did not think about the Lord, we could not know the Lord. Our fate is very bad. We have got this human birth and were born right here in India, but we are only busy with eating, sleeping, fearing and procreating. We only eat, sleep, we make a house because we are afraid and we spread our family. But you can practise Krishna consciousness even when you live in your home. You can see many householder devotees here seated among us today. 'Grhe thako, vane thako, sada Hari bole dako (গৃহে থাক, বনে থাক সদা 'হরি' বলে ডাক), whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name.' It is possible to practise Krishna consciousness even if you stay at home.

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava-janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu—duhkha kahiba kahare?

'I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom will I tell about my misery?'

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

'samsara' 'samsara' kari' michhe gela kala
labha na ha-ila 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-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

'My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Pariksit Maharaj received a notice that he would face death within seven days. A brahman cursed him, 'You will die in seven days!' After that, he asked Sukadev Goswami a very nice question, 'Prabhu, what can give me benefit?' Srila Sanatan Goswami also asked Mahaprabhu five fundamental questions. First, it is necessary to know your own identity – if you do not know who you are, you cannot understand anything else. It is first necessary to get atma-buddhi (consciousness of the soul as your genuine identity). If you identify yourself with the body (deha-buddhi), it will not take you anywhere. Who am I? Am I such-and-such Maity? Such-and-such Samanta? Somebody asks you, 'Who are you?' and you say, 'I am Samanta Pora.' This is not your identity! This is not who you are. We are anu-chaitanya (small particles of consciousness), and the Lord is brihad-chaitanya (great consciousness). We are particles of the Lord, but this body is not a part of the Lord. This pancha-bhautik body is composed of earth, water, fire, air, ether (ksitiri, apasa, tejo, marad, vyoma; ক্ষিতির, আপস, তেজো, মরুদ, ব্যোম), and as soon as I leave this body, it will be taken to the crematorium.

শ্মশানে শরীর মম পড়িয়া রহিবে ।
বিহঙ্গ পতঙ্গ তায় বিহার করিবে ॥

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
bihanga-patanga taya vihara karibe

'My body will be left at a crematorium, and birds and insects will heartily enjoy it.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Dogs and jackals will make a feast of this body that I worry so much about now. I think, 'My house', 'My room', 'My son', 'My family', 'My child'. Possessed by ego, we always live in the world of 'my', 'my', 'my'.

অহঙ্কারে মত্ত হৈঞা নিতাইপদ পাসরিয়া
অসত্যেরে সত্য করি মানি ।
নিতাইয়ের করুণা হবে ব্রজে রাধা কৃষ্ণ পাবে
ধর নিতাইয়ের চরণ দুঃখানি ॥

ahankare matta haina nitai-pada pasariya
asatyere satya kari' mani
nitaiyer karuna habe vraje radha-krsna pabe
dhara nitaiyer charana duhkhani

'Maddened with pride, forgetting Nitai's feet, I accept untruth as truth. When Nitai bestows His mercy you will reach Radha-Krishna in Vraja. O suffering soul! Grasp Nitai's feet!'

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

First know who you are! Who am I? Who are you? I am not so-and-so Samanta, not so-and-so Maity, not so-and-so Maharaj, not so-and-so brahmachari or so-and-so sannyasi.

'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)

Possessed by ego, we forget that we are jivas, eternal servants of Krishna. We become proud that we are disciples of so-and-so guru, but Mahaprabhu said that we are servants of the servants of the servants of the servants. We are their eternal servants. Therefore, we are jivas, eternal servants of Krishna. Because of we forget this, we live in the world of 'I', 'me' and 'mine' – in the world of the body.

Always think about these things.

We always think about our body, thinking about 'my house', 'my room', but where will it all go?

হায় হায় নাহি ভাবি অনিত্য এ সব ।
জীবন বিগতে কোথা রহিবে বৈভাব ? ॥

haya, haya! nahi bhavi—anitya e saba
jivana vigate kotha rahibe vaibhava?

'Alas! Alas! I never considered that all of these things are temporary. When my soul departs, where will all these opulences be?'

Where will all these things go? Everything will be gone. Nobody and nothing will stay. We have so many extensions in this world, but everything will be gone. This body will be replaced with another one. I am wearing these clothes now, but tomorrow I will wear other clothes. Just as I am changing clothes all the time, so do I change my bodies all the time. This body is just a cover. We call dogs 'dogs', cats 'cats', goats 'goats', but they also eat, sleep and live with their families. If you think that it is all the same (that people live in the same way as animals), then it means that you have got a human birth and a fine brain, but you could not do anything good with it – it means that you have not been able to search for eternal things. If we search for the original source from where we all have come, we will be able to reach our home. If you find the original source of everything, you can come to the Lord. If you rent a house and keep changing places all the time, one day you will become tired and say, 'If I can get some land and have at least a mud house, it would be better.' If you find your own home and can come there, you will never have to return here again to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease. People are born in all kinds of places – in America, London, Pakistan, Bangladesh, France, Mexico and so on. If you find the Lord, you will find eternal life and will not have to come back to this world.

Who can give you such things? Who can tell you about it all? If you send a letter to the Lord, you will not get a reply, but if you send your letter to your Gurudev, if you speak to your Gurudev, then you can get some news about the Lord. Therefore, it is necessary to come to a bona fide guru. When you take shelter at a bona fide guru and get sadhu-sanga, you must practise Krishna consciousness. You heard us singing this kirtan:

তব নিজ-জন কোন মহাজনে
পাঠাইয়া দিলে তুমি ॥
এক বর দয়া করি' মোরে পতিত দেখিয়া
কহিল আমারে গিয়া ।
ওহে দীনজন শুন ভাল কথা
উল্লসিত হবে হিয়া ॥
তোমারে তারিতে শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য
নবদ্বীপে অবতার

tava nija-jana kona mahajane
pathaiya dile tumi
(ek bar) daya kari' more patita dekhiya
kahila amare giya
ohe dina-jana suna bhala katha
ullasita ha'be hiya
tomare tarite sri krsna-chaitanya
navadvipe avatara

'You have sent a great soul, Your associate (to rescue me). Seeing me so fallen and being merciful, he came to me and said, "O humble soul, listen to this wonderful message and your heart will rejoice. Sri Krishna Chaitanya has appeared in Nabadwip to deliver you."'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

The Lord sends His own associate to this world to tell everyone about Him. If we can come to the lotus feet of this messenger, we can reach the Lord because such messengers come from the Lord. There are some rules and regulations. If I am to tell you about those rules and customs, you will say, 'Oh my, I do not need all this!'

(1) Gambling – playing cards, dice, chess. If you do this, you do not need to come to this line. You cannot come to this line cutting some lottery ticket. You think, 'Oh, then I do not need to go there. I want to buy my lottery tickets. I am poor, how will I get rich?' (2) Taking intoxicants – alcohol, ganja, baan, bidi, cigarettes, tea. You must give up even tea! (3) Illegal mixing with women – it means illegal sex. A man has a wife, but he mixes with other ladies, and a woman has a husband but mixes with other men. This is prohibited. (4) Slaughter – destroying jivas. You must never again eat fish, meat, onion, garlic, masoori dal. You do not need to eat all this – you can look at us, we are living a good life. Guru Maharaj asked me once, 'That man does Kali-puja every year and sacrifices a goat. Why did he not give a goat this year?' I said, 'I do not know.' And Guru Maharaj replied, 'Because he has lost all his teeth!' I always remember what Guru Maharaj said...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.
Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

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Length: 63 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Satiating Hunger for Hari-Katha
2) Service Arrangement
3) Humble Service Mood
4) Attaining Unattainable
5) Advent of Govardhan
6) Worship of Govardhan
7) Govardhan-Dhari Gopal
8) Search and Surrender