(4) Transform Your Life Inside and Outside

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching in Basirhat, noon programme,
13 December 2020, part 4

When you come to this world, there are certain rules because the Lord wants to scrub, clean and wash you and take you to Him. You are living in this world in Maya's bondage. The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna said 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)

'I have created Maya, I am the Master of Maya, so it is not possible to overcome her. Only if you surrender to Me, I will rescue you from her. I will come to you in the form of a guru or a Vaishnav, and they will rescue you from Maya and send you to serve Radha-Krishna, or Govinda.' Therefore, it is necessary to surrender to the holy lotus feet of the Lord.

মায়ারে করিয়া জয় ছাড়ান না যায় ।
সাধুর-গুরুর কৃপা বিনা না দেখি উপায় ॥

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya
sadhur-gurur krpa bina na dekhi upaya

'You cannot conquer illusory environment and become released from it. I see no other way to get relief except by the mercy of saints and Guru.'

(Prarthana, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

If you want to overcome Maya, you need the mercy of the guru and Vaishnavs. We always live in Maya's bondage, and if you are to escape this bondage, you must surrender at the holy feet of sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs: if they bestow their mercy on us, then we will get their mercy.

It is my prayer to you all to leave your petty attachments and practise Krishna consciousness. Because of some trifle things you do not want to come to this line, but those things are not only prohibited by the scriptures, they are bad for health also (they are bad in all respects). The main four things that are prohibited are gambling, intoxication, illicit sex and slaughter. Gambling means playing dice, cards, chess. Intoxication means drinking alcohol, taking drugs, smoking bidi or cigarettes, drinking tea. You take initiation and then sit on the street smoking bidi or drinking tea; or you take initiation, receive beads from gurudev, and when you come home, you eat meat and fish – this is not how you take initiation. Even if you practise like this your whole life, your next life or for a million lives, it will not be the chanting of the Holy Name. That is why you must give up these things. Do not eat fish, meat, garlic, onion, lentils, eggs. Illicit sex means men mixing with women (other than their lawful wife) or women mixing with men (other than their lawful husband) – and even if you do not do this, it is good, but being very attached to your husband or wife is also bad. Finally, slaughter means killing any living entities. Krishna lives within all living entities (sarva-jive Krishna-adhisthan; সর্ব্ব-জীবে কৃষ্ণ-অধিষ্ঠান). Therefore, do not eat any meat, fish, eggs, garlic, onion, lentils (masoori dal). And you must follow ekadasi, it is favourable to devotion.

There are sixty-four limbs of devotional practice, the main five of them are sadhu-sanga (holy association), kirtan (chanting the Holy Name, practising), Bhagavat-sravan (listening to narratives about the Lord), Mathura-vasa (residing in a holy place), sraddhaya sri-murti-seva (serving Deities with faith). You must keep the association of saints. Regularly. I have arranged for many facilities for you – I have made the strict rules easier for you all. Sometimes, a wife wants to come to this line but her husband does not want to come, or the husband wants to come but his wife does not want to come, or a child wants to practise but the child's parents do not approve of it. I have told you that if you have no choice (if your family says that they will not be able to live without meat and fish), you can cook meat for your husband, but you should not eat it yourself. You can cook it and cry to the Lord, 'O Lord! Please rescue me from this agony! I am killing and committing sins!'

Actually, how many sins we commit living in this world! When we walk or drive down the street, when we walk here and there to do so many things, we kill innumerable living entities. Even when we drink water or eat rice and other things, we kill many living entities. Even when we cut some spinach, we kill so many living entities. When we drink milk, we take it from a cow who has been eating grass and also killing so many souls. These are all sins that we commit. The only way to get relief from all these sins is to surrender at the holy lotus feet of the Lord because if you serve the Lord, then whatever you do (cultivate the land, run a business or work in an office), you will do it for the Lord and your whole life will become Krishna-centred. It is necessary to become Krishna conscious. That is why it is necessary to always practise. You cannot get anywhere without that.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Spiritual Sincerity and Chastity
2) Half-Hen Ill Logic
3) Purpose of Birth
4) Transform Your Life Inside and Outside
5) Run behind Krishna
6) Power of Kirtan
7) Become a Servant
8) Beg for Spiritual Life