(8/11) Life beyond Ego

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 20 December 2020, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

I have told you to leave your material life, but I have not told you to stop eating. You must take the Lord's prasad. 'Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha-jaya (প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয় সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়): by honouring the Lord's prasad I shall conquer all worldly illusions' (Saranagati). You must serve prasad. If you eat something without giving it to the Lord, you are stealing and eating it. Everything that is created in this world belongs to the Lord and is meant for the Lord's enjoyment.

For example, there is a coconut tree. I plant the seed, water it, and I think, 'I have planted it!' but what if the tree dies? Am I its owner to give it life or to save it? I can water it and do everything for it, but I am not the master, or the owner, to give it life! The master is the Lord. That is why you must do everything through Him. When you see a green coconut on the tree, you must offer it to the Lord, 'O Lord, I am giving this coconut to You, and if You give it to me as Your prasad, I will take it.' We must take the Lord's prasad. Even when you drink water, you must offer it to the Lord and then take it. 'I am doing farming', 'I am running a business', 'I am going to the office' – you must give up this 'I' mood. Give up your ego. 'Dear Lord, if You do not make it possible, I cannot even move my leg and make a step. If You wish, You can even finish me off this instant.'

Everything happens by His wish. Even a leaf cannot appear on a tree without the Lord's wish. Even the son or the moon cannot give light without the Lord's wish. There cannot be any rain or water without His wish. Everything happens by His wish. He is the master, the owner, the lord, but we forget Him. We have forgotten our Supreme Father, and as the result we are suffering in the agony of three-fold miseries.

If you want to come to the Lord, there is a certain method how to do that. You must think about it: when you are walking down the street, so many insects, ants die under your feet; or when you cook on fire, so many insects die in the fire. Even when you cut wheat, cabbage or red spinach, you cut them and kill the plants. If you want to stay alive in this world, you have to kill millions of living entities to survive. What is the solution to this situation? The solution is to make your life Krishna-centres (Krishna-maya, ক।ষ্ণময়). It means you must realise, 'I am cooking, but I am not cooking for myself – I am cooking for the Lord.' What does Gita say? Lord Krishna says, 'If you eat something without offering it to Me, you are stealing and eating it – you are committing a sin. Everything that is created in this world is created for Me, not for you! Because of your ego, you think that everything belongs to you, but you can only have something if I give it to you – if I do not give it to you, you will not have it.' If the Lord wishes, He can give something to us. We say, 'I am cooking so that I and my family can eat,' but we should cook for Govinda. When your husband goes to work and children go to school, they may not return home. My Guru Maharaj often said, 'When you go outside, you must go carrying death in your pocket.' Why? Because you can step outside and get into an accident (you can be hit by a motorcycle, a car, you can have a stroke, etc.). But if you cook for the Lord, then if the Lord wishes, He will bring your family back home and let them take His prasad. Is this so or not? You must remember this. Why do you keep forgetting Him? We must always think about these things. If you forget Him, you will be nowhere. This is the fourth limb of surrender is 'avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana': to have faith that Krishna will certainly protect.

The fifth limb is doing what is favourable to devotion (bhakti-anukula), and the sixth is to give up what is unfavourable to devotion (bhakti-pratikula). For example, somebody drinks alcohol and later drinks milk also. Will there be any benefit from drinking milk? If you drink alcohol, it destroys all vitamins and benefits of drinking milk. Or for example, I am diabetic. If I eat potato, rice and sweets whenever I want, then no matter how much medicine I take, will there be any use? When you have high blood sugar, you must go to a doctor, and the doctor will say, 'Take this medicine and stop eating potato, rice and sweets. If you have to eat rice, eat it less, but do not eat potato, and do not even touch sweets.' If I take medicine and carry on eating potato and sweets, will the medicine work? It will not. Therefore, you must take what is good and reject what is bad: you must do what is favourable to devotion and reject what is unfavourable. When we do a fire sacrifice, we put ghee into fire, but if I put a spoon of ghee and then a spoon of water, then again a spoon of ghee and a spoon of water, will the fire burn like that? So, do what you have to do and give up the rest.

Those who come to the line of devotion must offer bhoga to the Lord and take prasad. That is why we say that four things are prohibited. Those four things are the dwelling places of Kali. 'Kali' means 'kalaha', quarrel. Do you know why people fight so much and kill each other in this world? Because money (kanaka), women (kamini) and fame (pratistha). Sometimes, one workers gets more commission and others start fighting with him. When some boy spends two days with a girl, they start fighting. And the fight for fame is the fight over who is bigger – if somebody becomes big, others start thinking how they can get rid of that person. These are the three things people fight for. And there are four places where Kali lives. These are very bad things.

(1) Gambling: playing cards, chess, dice, buying lottery tickets. People buy lottery tickets all the time to win some money, but only one–two people actually win anything (the others waste their money), and those who win some money only become greedy, 'I want more!' Sucked into gambling and the lottery race, people start selling things from their houses and the gold jewellery of their wives to get money for gambling.

(2) Intoxication. Some people earn two hundred rupees, but they spend three hundred rupees on alcohol, and when they get home, they beat their wives and children. Intoxication includes alcohol, tobacco, drugs, cigarettes, bidi, even tea. You cannot use tea in the Lord'd service, that is why it is also prohibited.

(3) Illegal sex (extramarital mixing with women). It means a man is married but he is mixing with other women, or a woman is married but she is mixing with other men. This is prohibited. If you get married, you can associate with your wife – you can run the household nicely. 'Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi' anachara (করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার)—you must make your family Krishna's family and give up all unwanted and unfavourable habits.' We have full-timers in our Mission – they send their whole life as full-timers. The sannyasis in our Mission give up everything and also become full-timers. The householders give half of their time to the temple and spend the rest of the time on the family. So, some are part-timers and some are full-timers.

(4) Slaughter. Do not kill any living entities. Krishna lives in every living entity: sarva-jive Krishna-adhisthan (সর্ব্ব-জীবে কৃষ্ণ-অধিষ্ঠান). Somebody can ask, 'Oh, but you have just cut some vegetables in the garden. Have you not killed the plant?' I do not cut vegetables for myself – I cut it and bring for Govinda. We take Govinda's things to give them to Govinda. Devotees offer bhoga to Govinda and take prasad, they do not eat anything else. They do not take any outside things. If you are somewhere outside and have to eat, you can buy some fruit, offer it to Govinda and your gurudev in your mind and take it. Devotees do not take anything except for prasad.

Always remember these things.

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥
ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara
sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara
tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

'(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion. Lord Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in these six ways.'

রূপ-সনাতন-পদে দন্তে তৃণ করি' ।
ভকতিবিনোদ পড়ে দুই পদ ধরি' ॥

rupa-sanatana-pade dante trna kari'
bhakativinoda pade dui pada dhari'

'Holding a straw between his teeth, Bhaktivinod falls before Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu and Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu, clasping their feet.'

কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া বলে, আমি ত' অধম ।
শিখায়ে শরণাগতি করহে উত্তম ॥

kandiya kandiya bale, ami ta' adhama
sikhaye saranagati karahe uttama

'Crying and crying, he prays, "I am very low! Please give me the highest qualification by teaching me surrender."'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Take Advantage of This Chance
2) Die to Live or Live to Die?
3) Immerse Yourself in Hari-Kirtan
4) Attachment to Sri Guru
5) Highest Gift, Highest Pastimes
6) Mahaprabhu's Teachings
7) Maintained by the Lord
8) Life beyond Ego
9) Control Six Urges
10) Subjugate Six Faults
11) Six Good Qualities