(3/8) Eternal Benefit

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, Basirhat, evening,
14 December 2020, part 3

You want to stay in a good room, with a nicely working fan, and live an easy life, but how do insects, spiders, cats and dogs live out there on the street? You are sitting here wrapped in shawls, on a nice carpet, but where do dogs or cows lie on the street? When mosquitoes bite us, we use sprays to kill mosquitoes, but when mosquitoes bite cows, they cannot do anything about it.

শ্মশানে শরীর মম পড়িয়া রহিবে ।
বিহঙ্গ পতঙ্গ তায় বিহার করিবে ॥

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
bihanga-patanga taya vihara karibe

'My body will be left at a crematorium, and birds and insects will heartily enjoy it.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When a mosquito or some insect bites us, we use various creams and ointments (boroline, etc.), we do so many things to protect the body, but once this body is taken to the cremation ghat, nobody will care what bites it. When somebody dies, after one–two hours, you will hurry to take the body away because it will start smelling bad – you will rush to spray and clean the room. You decorate your room and keep your room nicely, but once you die, they will rush to take your body away. Does it not happen like that? You have to accept it. Once you are born, you have to die; and once you die, you have to be born again. This is the cycle of birth, death, old age and disease. We always hear that this person died, that person died; people only keep dying all the time. You even say, 'Janma-mrtyu-biye tin Vidhatar niye (জন্ম মৃত্যু বিয়ে তিন বিধাতার নিয়ে). There are three things – birth, death, and marriage – these three things are not in the hands of anybody, they come according to the Lord's arrangement.'

হাট-বাজারে শাখা-সিঁদুর অনেক পাওয়া যায
কপালে থাকলে তখন তবেই পরা যায়

hata-bajare sakha-sindura aneka paowa yaya
kapale thakle takhan tabe-i para yaya

'There are a lot of conch bangles and sindoor sold at the market and in shops, but you can only wear them if you are destined to.'

Many people wear conch bangles, but does it mean that you can just buy some bangles at the market and wear them? Nobody does this. Your husband puts these bangles and sindoor on you. But when he dies, this sindoor is wiped off with his thumb: the same hand that gave it to you will wipe it off. So, these things are temporary, they are not eternal. What is eternal? Tilaks. When Vaishnavs pass away, their bodies are bathed with Ganges water, dressed in nice clothes, decorated with tilaks and a garland and then taken to the cremation ghat (those who are given samadhi are placed in the ground). These are eternal things.

Many of you worship Deities of Gopal. What is the proof that Krishna (or Mahaprabhu) are the Supreme Lord? Have you seen how babies are born? Have you ever seen anybody born dressed in clothes, with a garland on their necks and tilaks on their bodies? Have you ever heard anybody born like this at anybody's house? But Krishna was born like that. When He appeared from His mother's womb, He appeared in His four-armed form, standing and holding a conch, a disk, a club and a lotus flower.

Sukadev Goswami's birth was also miraculous. He stayed in his mother's womb for twelve years. Vyasadev told him, 'Come out of your mother's womb!' But Sukadev replied from his mother's womb, 'I will not come out.' It is the truth! It is described in the scriptures. Vyasadev asked him, 'Why will you not come out?' Sukadev said, 'Because if I come out, Maya will attack me and take me in a wrong direction.' Then, all the great sages came and told Vyasadev, 'You have much power. Why do you not stop Maya's work for five minutes so that Sukadev can come out?' Then, they asked Sukadev, 'Sukadev! If your father stops Maya's work for five minutes, will that be enough for you to come out?' Sukadev replied, 'Yes, five minutes will do. I will come out.' When babies are born, they lie and cry, but as soon as Sukadev came out of his mother's womb, he dashed to the forest! Vyasadev ran after him, 'Hey, listen to me! Wait, wait!' Sukadev did not hear or see anything – he only thought about the Lord. He continued running and eventually came to the Himalayas.

It is very cold and rains often in the mountains, and when girls bathed, they bathed without clothes because it takes a long time to dry them. Actually, in Satya-yuga, women bathed without clothes (Vraja-gopis also did so). When Sukadev came to the mountains, he passed some place where girls were bathing naked, but when Sakadev was passing, they did not feel shy – they were very pure ladies, but they did not bother to cover themselves because they knew that Sukadev did not have eyes, he did not see anything (he only saw the Lord – he simply went wherever the Lord took him). But when they saw Vyasadev walking behind him, they quickly covered themselves with some clothes. This is how much power Sukadev had.

When Sukadev later came to Pariksit Maharaj's assembly of great sages, he also did not see anybody – when he came, a sixteen-year-old youth, he did not greet anybody, did not offer anybody respect, not even to his grandfather Parasara Muni. At that assembly, there were sages with ten–twenty-hath beards [1 hath is 1.5 ft, or approx. 46 cm]. There were such people in Satya-yuga. And in Kali-yuga, it is said that people would sit under eggplant trees. The duration of the Age of Kali is 432,000 years, and only 5,124 years have passed so far – the rest of the time is still ahead. At the end of Kali, people will be so short that they will sit under eggplant trees. This is written in the scriptures. But in Satya-yuga, people were very tall. If sages had ten–twenty-foot beards, you can imagine how tall they were (if we had such long beards, we would not be able to walk: we would always step on it and stumble). In Satya-yuga, people were very tall, so they had very long beards.

Pariksit Maharaj asked Sukadev, 'What is good for me?' The whole of Srimad Bhagavatam tells only one thing – the only way to attain benefit is by chanting the Holy Name. But the Holy Name does not come to our mouths. We speak so much, but the Holy Name does not come to our mouths...

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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