(4/5) Drowning in Maya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Nrisingha Palli, 27 November 2020, part 4
Translated from Bengali

The more you run towards Maya, the more Maya will attack you. We say, 'I will leave my family', 'I will leave my family', 'I do not want to live with my family', 'I will do this, that' – and we want to leave our material life, we may have left it, but the problem is that material life is not leaving us.

I have told this example many times. There were two sadhus sitting on the bank of the Ganges in Haridwar. The current of the river is very strong there (if anything falls into it, it will immediately float away), but the river is not deep – you can see the stones in it. Suddenly, they saw something black floating down the river. One of the two sadhus said to the other sadhu, 'Hey, look, there is a blanket going down the river. If you could pull it out, we could use it at night.' The other sadhu jumped into the river and caught hold of the blanket, but it turned out that it was not a blanket but a bear! The bear was stuck in the current of the river and wanted to get out, so when the sadhu caught the bear, the bear also caught the sadhu. The sadhu who stayed on the bank saw that something was wrong. He shouted to the sadhu in the water, 'Leave the blanket! Get out!' The sadhu replied, 'I have let the blanket go, but the blanket is not letting me go!'

So, we have left the blanket, but the blanket does not leave us. We want to leave Maya (material life), but Maya is not leaving us. Suppose you have two glasses in front of you – a glass of milk and a glass of limestone mixed with water. Both glasses will look the same, but are they the same? In this world, many people wear saffron clothes and beg. Some people go begging; after that, they stop at a tea stall to drink some tea and smoke bidi. [A new devotee: Bidi too??] Yes, I have seen it many times. I saw such saffron-clad 'sadhus' in Nabadwip also – somebody was sitting at a tea shop, drinking tea and smoking bidi. Some babajis also walk around and beg together with matajis. If you ask them why a lady is with them, they will say, 'Oh, she carries my bag. I have given her initiation.' What happens when they give them initiation? They are ladies, then they start mixing. There are many such babajis and matajis. People call them 'sadhus'. They are part of the thirteen apa-sampradayas: aul, baul, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, saki, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosani, ativadi, chudadhari, gauranga-nagari. We must never associate with any of them.

সাধুসঙ্গে কৃষ্ণনামে—এই মাত্র চাই ।

সংসার জিনিতে আর কোন বস্তু নাই ॥

sadhu-sange krsna-nama—ei matra chai
samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

'I desire only to chant the Name of Krishna in the association of sadhus. There is no other way to conquer this material world.'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.13, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

Always remember this. Chant the Holy Name in good association of genuine saints.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Kirtan – Highest Practice
2) Three Pillars of Spiritual Life
3) Outer and Inner Surrender
4) Drowning in Maya
5) Still Waters Run Deep