(8/15) Evading Maya's World

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kalarait (Kolkata), 4 December 2020, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Having conceived Srimad Bhagavatam, Vyasadev then thought, 'Who will distribute it to the world?' He remembered Sukadev.

At that time, Sukadev had not appeared in this world yet – he was still in his mother's womb. And he was twelve years old already! He spent twelve years in his mother's womb. So, when Vyasadev decided that Sukadev would distribute Srimad Bhagavatam in this world, he came to his wife and called his son, 'Sukadev, come out!'

'No, I will not,' Sukadev replied. 'Maya will attack me. I will not come out!'

Then, all the sages came to Vyasadev and told him, 'Vyasadev, you can stop Maya's activity, can you not?'

'Yes, I can,' Vyasadev replied.

'Then stop Maya's work for five minutes so that the boy could come out.'

The Lord has created Maya, and the Lord has also created His devotees whom He sends to this world. Do you know what Maya's work is like? There is a verse in Srimad Bhagavad-gita:

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

'My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

The Lord says, 'I have created Maya. Receiving her great power from Me, Maya keeps living entities far away from the Lord and engages them in her service.' That is why you are saying now, 'This is my house', 'This is my room', 'This is my son' – you say this because of Maya. You are not saying anything actually; Maya is making you say this: you are opening your mouth, but Maya is doing everything. Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave one example. If you put a piece of iron into fire, it will become red-hot. After that, if you touch this iron to your clothes, the clothes will catch fire. Where does iron get this power to burn? From fire. Before that, if you touch a piece of iron to your clothes, it will not burn them. But once iron gets power from fire, it can burn things. In the same way, the Lord says, 'Maya Devi herself does not have any power, but when she gets power from Me, she takes living entities away from Me and engages them in her own service – she makes everyone forget Me.' That is why it is said in the scriptures:

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)

What miseries are they? There are three kinds of miseries. Adhidaivik, adhibhautik, adhyatmik (আধিদৈবিক, আধিভৌতিক, আধ্যাত্মিক): sufferings caused by demigods or nature, other living entities and our own minds or bodies. 'Adhibhautik' means suffering caused by other living entities created by the Lord. The Lord creates this world where one living entities eats other living entities – no living being can survive here without consuming other living beings. Even for you to survive, you kill millions of living entities every day. How many sins you commit! Even when you drink water, you can examine what water is made of and you will see that there are so many living entities in it! Be it rice, cabbage, cauliflower, squash, spinach or anything else, when you eat it, you eat killing that plant or vegetable. When you drink milk, you drink the milk of a cow who ate by killing grass. Every living entity lives off killing other living entities. When you burn fire to cook, so many bugs and other insects get burnt and killed and you use so many logs to keep the fire burning (many trees have to be cut). Both those who cut the plants and those who eat or use the plants commit sins. But sadhus do not eat anything, and it does not mean that they live fasting – they take only prasad. When they cook, they do not cook for themselves – they cook for Govinda.

One time, a high court judge, who was a devotee of Rama Krishna Mission, came to our temple. We call that mission a 'murgi mission' (chicken mission) because they say that they are renounced, that they are monks, but they cannot live without eating chicken (murgi, মুরগি), that is why the saying started, 'Instead of Rama Krishna Mission, they should be called Murgi Mission.' I am not afraid to say this to their face – they can come and talk to me; if eating chicken is allowed in any scripture, they can come and show it to me. So, that judge came and asked me, 'For example, you cut and eat red spinach, do you not kill it?' I told him, 'I do not cut it for you or for myself. I cut it to cook it for Govinda. Govinda will eat it, and after that He will keep some prasad for His devotees. This is what we take. We do not cook for ourselves.'

It is said in Gita also, 'If you eat something without offering it to Me, then you are a thief!' Wives say, 'If I do not cook, you will die', and husbands say, 'If I do not work and earn money, if I do not go to the market to buy food, you will all die.' Everybody is proud of themselves, but does anyone have the power to earn even one cent? Who are you serving? Whose things are you enjoying? Everything must be used for the service of He whom everything belongs! His things must be used for His service! Otherwise, you will be committing sins. I have just told you that you live every day killing millions of living entities. When you walk, so many ants get killed under your feet. But when we come here, we do not come to enjoy – we have come to tell you about the Lord; so, even if some ants get killed under our feet, we think, 'Prabhu, what am I to do? I went there for Your service.' When we go anywhere in the car, so many ants, bugs also get killed under the wheels. What can we do? We always think about the Lord...

Devotees always think about the Lord, always serve the Lord. I was going to tell you about Pariksit Maharaj, but I have digressed...

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Demolish Wall of Ego
2) Live in Hari-Katha
3) Do Not Waste Time
4) Waiting—Not Wanting
5) Focus on the Lord
6) Stepping over Liberation
7) Beyond Karma-Misra Bhakti
8) Evading Maya's World
9) Descend of Scriptures
10) Please Come Home!
11) Do Not Live Like Outside People
12) Fruits of faith
13) Pure Sankirtan in Pure Association
14) Covet All, Lose All
15) Kali-Yuga Brahmans