Resting on Illusory Laurels

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Two days before Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's Vyasa Puja
Nrisingha Palli, 30 December 2020, evening, part 5

You have got this human birth, but if your whole life passes in pursuit of money, food, material life, sleep, then even if you have been touristing Nabadwip every year, you have not understood the relationship—it means you have yet not created a relationship with your Guru, with the Lord. You took initiation and went home, and you do not keep in touch. You think you have got initiation and now you are free, you have no duty. Taking initiation means getting admitted to a school. So when you take initiation, it means you have got admission to this school, but when the final exam comes, you will not pass it because you have not been studying the whole year. What have you been doing the whole year? Have you been practising Krishna consciousness the whole year? The Lord will test you. How much have you done for the Lord? What have you done during this life? After death—when you leave this body—you will have to account for it.

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার-ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajibo boliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rohile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

('Jiva Jago Jiva Jago' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"Because of your ignorance (avidya), you have forgotten Me. What have I sent you here for?" Do you know why we forget? We know our friends and family very well—we know our father, mother, sister, brother, friends, relatives, in-laws very well—but we do not know our Lord, we do not know our Guru. We have not entered into any relationship with the Lord, we do not know our Guru, we do not understand them so well. It is necessary to understand them well, it is necessary to keep a good connection with them. You must keep connection with Vaishnavs. This is what we forget—we forget this knowledge about our relationship with the Lord and our Guru.

So, you think you have taken initiation and everything is complete. It is not like that. If you do not practise, if you do not live in Krishna consciousness, you will not get any result. How much time do you give to the Lord? How much time do you give to chanting the Holy Name? How many times do you think about your Guru during the day? How many times a day do you think about the Lord? You can ask yourself this. When you are sad (for example, when you get admitted to a hospital), you suffer, and then you remember the Lord; but when you are happy, when you spend your days in material happiness, when everything is going well in your family, then you forget the Lord. When we are unhappy, when we are sick, then we call out to the Lord. This is not right. "Sukhe duhkhe bhule nako vadane Harinam koro re (সুখে দুঃখে ভুলো নাক, বদনে হরিনাম কর রে ): in happiness or sadness, never forget it, always chant the Holy Name." Whether you are happy or sad, you must always call out to the Lord. If you call out to the Lord only when you are sad, and when you are happy, you do not call out to the Lord, it will not do.

We are eternal servants of Lord Krishna; then why do we forget? The cause is Maya, illusion. We fall into the clutches of Maya and forget everything. Maya makes us forget everything. You know, sometimes people become possessed by a ghost—they start talking gibberish and forget everything, they cannot even remember their own name: they call themselves the name of the ghost. In the same way, we have forgotten that we are sons of the Lord: we are children of nectar, and we must go back to nectar. Gurudev spoke about it very beautifully—we are children of nectar (amritasya putra). Come, search for that nectar.

There is a sloka in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (15.6) where Lord Sri Krishna says, "Yad gatva na nivartante, tad dhama paramam mama. If you enter that place, you will not have to ever come back from there. You will be very pleased to be there."

I can give you an example, and you can understand it yourself. I do not know how many of you live in a rented house, but if you do not have a permanent address and stay in a rented place, you stay in one place for two months—after that, you can be cheated or there can be some problem, and you go to another house; in the new place, you again get cheated or have some other problem, and you again move to another place. If you keep changing places like this, you will end up thinking one day, "Tsk, I do not want to live like that! If I can buy some land and make even a mud house or a tin shed, I will live there happily. I will not have all these problems." Our situation is also like that. That is why, Lord Krishna says, "Yad gatva na nivartante, tad dhama paramam mama. If you come to My place, you will not have to come back." If you stay in your own house, do you need to go to any rented place? The place where we are staying now is a rented place! Remember this. You can only stay here as long as you are paying the 'rent.' Do you agree or not? Is it right or wrong? So, if you realise you are staying in a rented place, you will know that you will not be able to stay here forever—one day I will have to leave this place.

You know, some women apply a lot of sindoor on their heads, but they feel shy to apply tilaks. They are attached to that which is temporary. After a few days, your husband will leave and you will rub your sindoor off with a thumb; there will be no trace of it. Yet you cannot put a tilak on, you feel shy. You are scared to use tilaks, but you are not scared to use other things. That is why, it is said, "Nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari (নিজ সুখ লাগি' পাপে নাহি ডরি). For my own happiness, I am not afraid to do any sinful work." Whatever, as long as I am happy! People kill jiva souls, kill people, fight, bully and harass others, people can do so many things—anything for their own happiness; for their own happiness, they are not afraid to commit a sin. That is why, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says, "Daya-hina, svartha-para (দয়াহীন স্বার্থপর): we are unkind and selfish."

নিজ সুখ লাগি' পাপে নাহি ডরি
দয়াহীন স্বার্থপর ।
পর সুখে দুঃখী সদা মিথ্যাভাষী
পরদুঃখ সুখকর ॥

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari
daya-hina svartha-para
para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi
para-duhkha sukha-kara

"I am never afraid to engage in sinful activities for the sake of my own happiness. I am unkind and selfish. I always tell lies. I am unhappy when others are happy, and happy when others are unhappy."

We do not know anything except our own interest. We think only about ourselves, we do not think about others—we never think about others, we never worry whether somebody is doing well or not. Moreover, when we see others happy, we feel sad, we cannot stand it. Yet when we see others unhappy, we feel very happy.

অশেষ কামনা হৃদি মাঝে মোর
ক্রোধী দম্ভপরায়ণ ।
মদমত্ত সদা বিষয়ে মোহিত
হিংসা-গর্ব্ব বিভূষণ ॥

asesa kamana hrdi majhe mora
krodhi, dambha-parayana
mada-matta sada visaye mohita
himsa-garva vibhusana

"There are unlimited sinful desires within the core of my heart. I am angry and arrogant, always maddened with vanity, infatuated with mundanity, and malice and pride are my ornaments."

We have endless desires—we want to do this, we want to do that, but if it is the Lord's desire, then you will be thrown into the Ganges tomorrow. Nobody can save you then. You have so many desires, but do you have the power to do anything? You do not surrender everything to the Lord; instead, you rely on your own power, "I will do this, I will do that." But if the Lord wishes, your life will end the same moment—everyone will have to go to collect patal [a Bengali euphemism for 'die']...

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