(2/8) Surrender or Suffer!

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, Basirhat, evening,
14 December 2020, part 2

What has happened? Are mosquitoes biting? Use the spray. Mosquitoes come to disturb. This is what they were born for. When there is Hari-katha going on, they come and bite. And when you are fast asleep at night, they come and bite you so that you wake up and cannot sleep. Use spray or other mosquito repellants. The Lord has created mosquitoes so that they disturb you: they come to drink your blood. Do you know how powerful mosquitoes are? So many people die from dengue every year. You can do so many things in this world, but one tiny mosquito can bite you, and you will be gone – no amount of money will save you. You can imagine what kind of things the Lord has created.

I began telling you about the rarity of human birth. We have got this human birth having crossed 8,400,000 births. What are these births?

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 as various species living in water. We were born 2,000,000 times as various trees and plants (mango trees, jackfruit trees, bel trees, and so on). There are so many trees and plants in forests, and we were born 2,000,000 times as such trees and plants. You can imagine how much time we spent in those species. Even trees have souls. Just as you have a soul, trees and mosquitoes also have a soul. We were also born 1,100,000 times as worms and insects (there are many species who crawl and cannot stand on their feet). We were also born 1,000,000 times as birds flying all over the sky. We were born 3,000,000 times as beasts (pigs, cats, cows, goats, sheep, and many other species). You can see so many kinds of animals living in different forests all over the world (you can see some in films or on TV). For example, there are many forests in Brazil, and so many animals live in those forests; we have not even heard of such animals. And we have also been born 400,000 times as humans.

Even though you have got this very rare human birth, you still live only worrying about eating, dressing up and sleeping. Nobody prohibits you to eat and sleep. You can see devotees here who chant the Holy Name. Do they not sleep? Of course they do. You can live your family life, but live for the Lord. You can see this small girl here. She is vegetarian, she fasts on ekadasi, she chants the Holy Name. We wear garlands, we wear Tulasi neckbeads, but what do we practise? There is one lady – she has grown old, but she is only crying all the time. Her granddaughter is good, she is vegetarian, but that old lady still cannot give up fish. I told her, 'Grandma, how come you still cannot give up fish? You will die tomorrow, but you still cannot give it up! You are only sitting like a dummy in your house.' She is actually like a football. One of her daughters says, 'Mother, come to my house, I will cook vegetarian food for you,' but she says, 'I do not like vegetarian food. I do not have much time left to live, so I want to eat fish!' Actually, widows should not eat fish in any case. This is the common rule for widows, but people in this country do not follow this. Sometimes when a husband gets very sick (for example, he gets high blood sugar and become paralysed), the wife will cry, 'If he dies so soon, I will have to give up fish!' They know the rule.

Gurudev also told a story. There was one man who did Kali-puja at his house and who would send a sacrificial goat to a Kali temple every year. One year, he did not send a goat. Gurudev said, 'Do you know why? His teeth have fallen out and he cannot chew meat, that is why he did not send it!' Gurudev said it as it is.

How long we have been in this world already? It has been twenty years already since the first time I came to this village, and so many people became disciples in our line. Actually, many people have received initiation: many people wear tilaks and Tulasi neckbeads, but I know that they do atrocious things, they eat fish and meat. I told them that if you have no choice, you can cook meat or fish, but you must not eat it yourself. I have given you this chance to still practise Krishna consciousness – if you have children, husband, in-laws or other family that do not follow this line, it is OK, you can cook for them if you have no other way, but do not eat meat and fish yourself, and when you are cooking, you must cry to the Lord, 'O Lord! Please save me so that I do need to cook all this.' When they see their mother crying so much, one day they will take pity, 'We should not give her so much pain.' You will see that the Lord will arrange something for you.

What are you doing? How can you be eating meat? It is written in the scriptures, in Padma Purana in particular, that if you kill somebody in this life, in the next life it will come to kill you. Even if you eat fish, it is the same as eating cow's meat. Why? You can think about it yourself. When somebody dies (be it a human or any animal), their bones are burnt or buried and eventually end up getting mixed with soil. Do you know how a body is created? It is created with five elements: earth (ksiti, ক্ষিতি), water (apa, অপ), fire (teja, তেজ), air (marut, মরুৎ) and ether (vyoma, ব্যোম). The body is created from soil – it comes from soil and returns to soil. When bodies are cremated and turn into ash, what happens to that ash? It becomes mixed with soil again. So, if I kill somebody in this life, in my next life it will kill me. You eat a chicken or some fish, produce stool, and that stool becomes mixed with soil, and from that soil another body will appear: that chicken or fish will get a human body, and you will get a chicken or a fish body. This is why it is prohibited to eat fish and meat in the scriptures. Even science says, 'Every action has equal and opposite reaction.'

When there is some public or Hindu festival, people sell goat meat on the streets, and the people queuing to buy it start fighting over who will get to buy it first ('I am buying two kg, sell it to me first!'). When I see this, I think that when a cow or a goat dies and its body is thrown away on the street, dogs come and start fighting over it just like that, too.

Do you not like hearing these things? There is no way out. These things must be said, it is inevitable. Everybody must come to this line one day, but instead of coming to this line now, we choose to suffer so much...

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Length: 53 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Subdue Your Tongue
2) Surrender or Suffer!
3) Eternal Benefit
4) Family Matters
5) Search Beyond Maya
6) Mining Innermost Humility
7) What Is Your Substance?
8) Live and Learn