(7/9) Who Are You? Where Are You?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 November 2020, noon, part 7
Translated from Bengali

If you cannot know the Lord, if you cannot understand the Lord, then it is a very difficult situation. It is necessary to know the Lord. And it is necessary to give up everything for the Lord.

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 are suffering from the agony of the three-fold miseries because we have forgotten the Lord. To give us a solution from this misery, the Lord Himself says that we must take shelter at His holy lotus feet. The Lord Himself says, 'Only serve My devotees.' We are not servants of Krishna – we are servants of the servants of Krishna. Krishna says, 'The worship of My devotees is higher than even My worship.' So, Krishna will never accept any worship without service and worship of Vaishnavs, His devotees. That is why our rule is that we always first worship our guru, then everybody else. When you recite the gayatri mantra, you must first recite the guru-mantra and the guru-gayatri, then all the other mantras. This the procedure is given by Krishna Himself, and Mahaprabhu comes in Kali-yuga as the combined form of Radha-Krishna to distribute this procedure to everyone.

Guru Maharaj said very beautifully about the result of proper chanting of the Holy Name. For example, being here in India, we get phone calls from America, from the other side of the world, through the medium of sound – when the phone rings there, it rings here, and we can hear what they say and we can speak to them also. So, if we can reach through the medium of sound various places that are thousands of miles away from us, then why cannot we reach the Lord's holy abode, Sri Goloka Vrindavan, through the medium of transcendental sound vibration? A material universe is comprised of fourteen worlds (Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar, Maha, Jana, Tapa, Satya; Atal, Vital, Sutal, Talatal, Mahatal, Rasatal, Patal). Beyond these fourteen worlds, there is the Viraja River, crossing which you can find Vaikuntha, Paravyoma and, finally, Goloka Vrindavan. The Lord resides eternally in Goloka Vrindavan, living eternally happily with His gopas and gopis, who always speak and chant the glories of the Lord. There is no lack of food, clothes or anything else in that world – nobody there thinks about all these things, they only always think about the Lord forgetting about everything else. There is no death in that abode. When you are there, you do not have to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease. When you are born, you have to die, but in that world there is no birth and no death. If we can reach this holy eternal abode of the Lord, we will no longer have to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease.

Search for your true identity! Search for your own home! First, you must understand who you are (you must know sambandha-jnana). Who am I? Why am I suffering so much? You must understand these things first. If you do not have this knowledge of the relationship, you will not be able to understand anything. I and this body is not the same things. I am an eternal servant of Krishna, but I have forgotten it.

'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)

'Every living entity is a servant of Lord Krishna' – this is what we forget.

Therefore, we must first of all know who we are. Because we have this body now, we think that we are humans, but this is not who we are. I am not a human, a cow, a goat, a sheep, a cat, a sannyasi or a Maharaj.

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)

The actual identity of every living entity is an eternal servant of Krishna, but because living entities forget that they are eternal servants of Krishna, illusion throws its ropes around their necks and keeps them in its illusory bondage.

That is why sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs come and explain to us who we are. How many times have we heard it? Thousands of times.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Result of Great Fortune
2) Beyond the Walls of Your Ego
3) Hanker and Try
4) Govardhan's Arrangement
5) Krishna, Stealer of Pride
6) Annakut Mahotsav
7) Who Are You? Where Are You?
8) Enter Service Plane
9) Taking the Holy Name