Give Up Illusory Luxuries

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
1 January 2021, part 10, translated from Bengali

You must tell about this to new people:

We are alive in this world, but do you realise how many sins we commit every day? You are riding a bicycle, you are walking, so many insects get under your feet. You cut vegetables and eat them, you eat wheat, rice, etc. These are all sins. Even when we breathe, so many living entities are killed at this time. Even when we drink water, we finish off so many living entities. How can one get relief from it? If your life becomes Krishna-centred, then whatever you do—whether you cook, make a home, build a family, cultivate land, cut cabbage, cauliflower, drumstick vegetable, bananas, etc.—you will be using everything in the service of the Lord. When you live like this, you do not do anything for your own enjoyment. You can see devotees cooking here—so many insects, etc. suffer because of the smoke and heat, but these devotees have got mercy today because they were cooking for the Lord. This is how we can get relief from the sins we commit. We must make our life Krishna-centred. You must always explain this to others. Scriptures say: "Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi' anachar (করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার), you must give up everything unfavourable and live in Krishna's family."

If you do not do that, then whatever you earn every day by doing business, agriculture or any other work, everything will be wasted. You cannot run a family if you do not rely on the Lord, even if you have millions of rupees, it will not help. I read the other day in the newspaper about some so-called "coal thieves" and "cow thieves." One day, people noticed that there appeared a three-storey house, and everybody wondered how it had appeared there. Apparently, the owners stole coal, cows, etc. at the market and they built a house with the money. Now the police and CBI are looking for them and the stolen money. Is that a happy peaceful life? When you eat simple, rice and dal, and had a small job and earned a living, you lived well—you do not need to get a master's degree or anything like that. Now they have to run and live abroad. Is there happiness in that? There is not. As the saying goes, "Greed is a sin, sin is death" (লোভে পাপ, পাপে মৃত্যু।). It is not necessary to hire people, to have so many things, etc. You can live an honest life in your house and eat rice with salt or rice with spinach, that is well and good. Stealing others' things, taking others' things, destroying others' things, getting other people to do such things—it is not good. Some may live like that, but one day or another they will be caught, and they will be ruined.

That is why it is necessary to live an honest life, it is necessary to live in Krishna's family and give up all bad things and habits. The problem is that we cannot leave some trifle things. Because of all the trifle things we are losing the greatest things. We are always hankering for and running behind trifle matters. For example, some cannot give up fish and meat. That is why nobody comes to this line. There are many gurus in this world, there are many gurus who make business, you can take initiation from them, but you will not get any result. You will not get any benefit. Unless you take shelter of a bona fide Guru and practise Krishna consciousness, you will never get any spiritual benefit.

They say so many things—they will tell you that there are no scriptures, that there is no need to follow any scriptures. They will explain to you that 1 plus 1 equals 4, but you will never get any benefit through that. It is necessary to take shelter of a bona fide guru. Mahaprabhu Himself showed the example of taking shelter of a guru (Sri Ishwar Puri). When He went to Gaya, He told Sri Ishwar Puri as soon as He saw him:

সংসার-সমুদ্র হৈতে উদ্ধারহ মোরে ।
এই আমি দেহ সমর্পিলাঙ তোমারে ॥

"samsara-samudra haite uddharaha more
ei ami deha samarpilana tomare"

"Please rescue Me from this ocean of material existence! I am surrendering Myself to you."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Adi-khanda, 17.54)

"Please rescue Me from this material ocean. I have surrendered this body, mind, soul to you." Later, somebody criticised Him, "Oh, You are not reading any Vedas, Vedanta," and Mahaprabhu replied,

কিবা মন্ত্র দিলা, গোসাঞি, কিবা তার বল ।
জপিতে জপিতে মন্ত্র করিল পাগল ॥

kiba mantra dila, gosani, kiba tara bala
japite japite mantra karila pagala

"My lord, what kind of mantra have you given Me? What kind of power does it possess? Chanting this maha-mantra made me mad!"

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.81)

Mahaprabhu Himself told this! What did Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur say?

কবে নবদ্বীপে সুরধুণী-তটে
'গৌর-নিত্যানন্দ' বলি' নিষ্কপটে ।
নাচিয়া গাইয়া, বেড়াইব ছুটে,
বাতুলের প্রায় ছাড়িয়া বিচার ॥
কবে হবে বল, সে দিন আমার ।

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,
'gaura-nityananda' bali' niskapate
nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,
vatulera praya chhadiya vichara
kabe habe bala se dina amara

"When will I wander along the banks of the Ganges in Nabadwip, sincerely calling out, 'Gaura-Nityananda!', while dancing, singing, and running about, without any thinking as though mad? Tell me, when will that day be mine?"

(Saranagati)

"When will I become crazy? When will I go so mad that I will roam the banks of the Ganges, dancing and calling out, 'O Gauranga! O Gauranga!'" These are Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur's words.

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