(10/13) 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 we realise how many sins we commit every day? We are riding a bicycle or walking down the street, and so many insects get killed under the wheels of our bicycles or under our feet. We cut vegetables and eat them; we eat wheat, rice and many other things. These are all sins. Even when we breathe or drink water, so many living entities are killed and finished off at this time. How can we get relief from such a sinful life? If our lives become Krishna-centred, then whatever we do – whether we cook, build a home, create a family, cultivate the land, cut cabbage, cauliflower, drumstick vegetable, bananas or do anything else – we will be using everything to serve the Lord. If we live like this, we will not be doing anything for our own enjoyment. For example, you can see the devotees cooking here: so many insects and other living entities suffer because of the smoke and heat of the fire, but the devotees are cooking for the Lord, so all those living entities are actually getting mercy. This is how we can get relief from the sins we commit. We must make our lives Krishna-centred. You must always explain this to everyone. Scriptures say, ‘Give up everything unfavourable and live in Krishna’s family (kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi’ anachara, করিয়া কৃষ্ণের সংসার ছাড়ি' অনাচার).

If you do not do that, then whatever you earn every day (by doing business, farming or any other work) 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 be of no use. I read the other day in the newspaper about some so-called ‘coal thieves’ and ‘cow thieves’. One day, people noticed that there had appeared a three-storey house nearby, and everybody wondered how it had appeared there. Apparently, the owners stole cows, coal and other things at the market and built the 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, have a small job and earn an honest living, you live well. You do not need to get a master’s degree or anything like that to live peacefully. Those thieves now have to flee and live abroad. Is there any happiness in that? There is not. As the saying goes, ‘Greed is a sin, and sin is death (lobhe papa, pape mrtyu; লোভে পাপ, পাপে মৃত্যু।).’ It is not necessary to hire people or have many things: you can live an honest life in your house and eat rice with salt or rice with spinach (take simple food), 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.

We must 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 trifle things, and it is because of all the trifle things that we are losing the greatest things. We are always hankering for and running behind trifle matters. For example, almost nobody comes to this line because people cannot give up fish and meat.

There are many gurus in this world running their guru businesses – you can take initiation from them, but you will not get any result or benefit. Unless you take shelter in a bona fide guru and practise God consciousness, you will never get any real spiritual benefit. They say so many things – they will tell you that there are no scriptures or that there is no need to follow any scriptures. They will explain to you that one plus one equals four, but you will never get any benefit if you follow such gurus. It is necessary to take shelter in a bona fide guru. Mahaprabhu Himself set the example by taking shelter of a guru. When Mahaprabhu was in Gaya, as soon as He saw Sri Ishwar Puri, He prayed:

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-bhagavata, 1.17.54)

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

[I asked My guru,] ’My lord, what kind of mantra have you given Me? What kind of power does it possess? Chanting this maha-mantra has driven Me mad!’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.7.81)

Mahaprabhu Himself said this! And what did Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur say?

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

kabe navadvipe, suradhuni-tate,
‘gaura-nityananda’ bali’ niskapate
nachiya gaiya, bedaiba chhute,
batulera praya chhadiya vichara

‘When will I wander along the banks of the Ganges in Nabadwip, sincerely calling out, “Gaura-Nityananda!”, dancing, singing and running about without any thinking, as though mad?’

কবে হবে বল, সে দিন আমার ।

kabe habe bala se dina amara

‘Tell me, when will that day be mine?’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘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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Length: 80 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Know and Love the Lord
2) Develop Deepest Dedication
3) At Lord's Home
4) Pure Preacher's Position
5) Clear Vision
6) Clear Identity
7) Sustaining Yourself on Gurudev's Words
8) Internal Purity
9) Kirtan-Yajna
10) Give Up Illusory Luxuries
11) Who Will You Blame?
12) Analysis Is Paralysis
13) Western Idiosyncrasies