(1/5) Traversing Unconscious Lives

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Sirajpur,
30 November 2020, part 1
Translated from Bengali

We have been singing the Damodar kirtan every day for one month:

নমামীশ্বরং সচ্চিদানন্দরূপং
লসৎ-কুণ্ডলং গোকুলে ভ্রাজমানং ।

namamisvaram sach-chid-ananda rupam
lasat-kundalam gokule bhrajamanam

'To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula....'

(Damodarastakam)

In this month, Mother Yasoda tied Lord Sri Krishna.

[Clamour] Please do not speak. Listen carefully. There is no need to speak here. Do not speak about anything except Krishna. If you call Krishna, He will respond. When you call your son or your daughter, do you do it by doing ula-dhvani or by calling them by their name? If you do not call them by their name, will they respond to your call? They will. But if you do ula-dhvani, will they respond? They will not. So, when you call to the Lord, you must call Him by His Name, Krishna. We are conditioned souls, ruined by Kali. We have fallen into illusory bondage and are now struggling in it. We do not understand anything except the happiness of our senses. We always seek the eye-happiness, the ear-happiness. Having fallen into this illusory ocean, we are floundering in illusion. It was Rasa Purnima yesterday, and there was a demons' frenzy in Nabadwip. Because of the pandemic situation due to the covid, the frenzy was a little less this year. I saw it when I was in the car earlier today.

When a cow, a goat or a dog dies, people throw them on the street. If somebody dies and no family comes to claim the body, they throw the body on the street and dogs and jackals come and start fighting for this body (they fight over who will get more of the meat). When I was in the car today, I saw somebody killing a goat and people were queuing and quarrelling over who will take which part of it. I was thinking about the conditioned souls... Even though the souls born in a human body have more intelligence, they still behave like dogs and jackals. I feel much pain to see it.

Do you know why people suffer so much? They have got a human body having crosses 8,400,000 species. There is this verse from Vishnu Purana (it is quoted in Srimad Bhagavatam also in some places):

জলজা নবলক্ষাণি স্থাবরা লক্ষবিংশতি
কৃময়োরুদ্রসঙ্খকাঃ পক্ষিণাং দশলক্ষনম্
ত্রিংশললক্ষাণি পশবঃ চতুরলক্ষাণি মানুষাঃ

jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati
krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah

'There are 900,000 aquatic species; 2,000,000 nonmoving living entities (trees, plants, etc.); 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles; 1,000,000 species of birds; 3,000,000 species of beasts; and 400,000 species of humans.'

(Padma Purana, Vishnu Purana)

We were born 900,000 times in water as various living entities, getting one body after another. It means that one time we are born, for example, as a rui fish, রুই মাছ, then as a horn fish, শিং মাছ, then as a catla fish, কাতলা মাছ, and so on, crossing 900,000 births in water. Great sages have seen all this. Then, it says here that we were also born 2,000,000 times on the ground as various trees, plants, hills and mountains. We were born 1,100,000 times as insects, bugs, spiders, snakes, ants. For example, when you cultivate rice, you can see so many bugs in it that you will not even be able to tell their names. We were also born 1,000,000 times as birds and 3,000,000 times as various animals such as dogs, cats, cows, goats, sheep. There are so many animals in this world. You can see on TV that so many animals live in Africa and jungles. We were born as all those animals 3,000,000 times. Finally, we were also born 400,000 times as humans. These are the 8,400,000 species we have gone through. Having travelled through all these 8,400,000 species we were born as humans. We may have been born in India before too, but we were born in some states where we did not meet much luck, for example, Garo, Khasi, Naga. In Nagaland, people eat people, dogs, cats. But this time, we have got a very good birth in India.

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

'One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

We took birth in this country to help others, but we do not even know what is good for us...

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Traversing Unconscious Lives
2) Detach Yourself from Maya
3) Escape Parasitic Existence
4) Path of Aural Reception
5) Searching for Maya or the Lord?