(11/13) Who Will You Blame?

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 11, translated from Bengali

We must always read Hari-katha. If you just read Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali (the kirtan book), you can find the purport of all scriptures in it. Be it Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam or Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, everything is there in Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali. There is also a small book Saranagati, you can read it too – you will learn so much from it. Even if you always stay at home, you can still practise Krishna consciousness.

There is ‘grantha Bhagavata’ (the book embodying Bhagavatam) and ‘Vaishnav Bhagavata’ (devotees embodying Bhagavatam). There is no difference between them. If you listen to Vaishnavs, it is the same as listening to the scriptures because what comes from their holy mouths is all written in the scriptures; and if you read scriptures, it is the same as listening to Vaishnavs. You should read books, you should study…

Some of you started preparing to leave yesterday in the morning, thinking, ‘When will I get back home?’ You love your homes so much… I fled to my room and locked the door, otherwise everyone would have started queuing outside. Everyone is waiting anxiously, ‘When will I run home? When will I go home?’ You think that your homes cannot stay without you, that there is nobody to look after your families, but when you die, who will look after your houses and families? You never think about it!

ভাল মন্দ খাই, হেরি, পরি, চিন্তাহীন ।
নাহি ভাবি এ দেহ ছাড়িব কোনদিন ॥

bhala manda khai, heri, pari, chinta-hina
nahi bhavi e deha chhadiba kona-dina

‘I eat, see and wear whatever I fancy without a worry in the world. I never think that I will ever leave this body.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You never think you will leave this body, but death is always running behind you! You know, you can go to the Howrah station, and even if you offer somebody a book, for free, they will tell you, ‘No, no, I have no time! I have no time!’ and they run away to catch their trains, pressing their bags and folders under their arms. One time, somebody had just stepped onto the train, one leg was still outside, when the door closed and the train started moving – the person fell down, and as the train dragged the man on, he hit a pillar at the station and died! They are in such a hurry! They are so anxious about money. This is how people live in this world. Only ‘money’, ‘money’, ‘money’… They cannot understand that money is the root of all evils. If the Lord wants to give you His wealth, then nobody can stop Him, just as nobody can stop it if the Lord wants to take something away from you.

We have forgotten the Lord. We remember everything, but we have forgotten the Lord. We remember our fathers, mothers, wives, sons, friends, relatives, but we do not remember the Lord, we do not remember our guru. We are stricken with grave misfortune. We are so unfortunate, so ill-natured – as we sing in one of the kirtans, ‘I am very bad, I have fallen into this material world (emana durmati samsara bhitare padiya achhinu ami; এমন দুর্ম্মতি, সংসার-ভিতরে, পড়িয়া আছিনু আমি).’ I am earnestly praying to you all: please never forget the Lord, always remember the Lord. You must never forget your guru.

If you send a letter directly to the Lord, you will not get a reply, but if you send your letter to the guru, who is the Lord’s representative, or deputy, you will get a response – the guru can tell you the news about Lord Krishna and His home. You must come to the Lord – take shelter in a bona fide guru, and after you take shelter in a bona fide guru, you must practise Krishna consciousness. You must never forget the Lord. If you forget the Lord, Maya will catch you.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha

‘Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

Because we have been forgetful of the Lord since time immemorial, Maya is constantly, repeatedly giving us various miseries and agonising suffering – we keep falling again and again into this prison of illusory environment. We are forced to suffer again and again. When we learn to forget our own happiness and think about the happiness of the Lord, then the Lord will keep us in a happy place. The Lord Himself says, ‘If you worry and think about Me, then I will think about you, and if you do not think about Me and worry only about yourself, then I will not look at you – whether you are dead or alive, I will not care, it is not My duty to look after you then. I have sent you to this world, and I have also sent a sadhu (My deputy) to you so that you can hear about Me, but you did not listen to him carefully, you did not follow what he said, you did not live following his guidance, so I will not look after you. I will keep pulling you in and out of this prison of illusory world; I will keep forcing you to come and go in this material world.’

কয় বার এলি কয় বার গেলি
তবু তত্ত্ব না শিখিলি ।
নিজের মাথা নিজে খাইলি
এ দোষ দিবি কারে ভাই ?

kaya bara eli kaya bara geli
tabu tattva na sikhili
nijer matha nije khaili
e dosa dibe kare bhai?

‘Coming and going, coming and going, you never learnt anything! You have been eating your own brain – who will you blame for this, brother?’

Whose fault is it? Only our own! We are our own friends, and we are our own enemies. Sri Guru and Vaishnavs come and keep telling us the truth again and again, but if we do not listen to them, if we do not make a step forward – if we do not remember the Lord, if we do not think about the Lord – then we are ruining our own fortune.

Therefore, always practise Krishna consciousness. If you practise Krishna consciousness, the Lord will bestow auspiciousness and spiritual benefit onto you.

— : • : —

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Size: 39 Mb
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