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His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Those who worship Lord Brahma come to live on the planet of Lord Brahma; those who worship Lord Siva come to live on the planet of Lord Siva; those who worship humans come to live on the planet of humans—but if you worship the Lord, if you return to the Lord, you will never again have to suffer from birth, death, old age, and disease. We are born and we have to die. Do you all believe that? Does anyone of us know when we are going to die? We do not know it, but anyhow one day we will have to leave this world.

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ-ভার ।
নামাশ্রয় করি' যতনে তুমি
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari' yatane tumi
thakaha apana kaje

"Understand the essence: life is temporary and filled with all sorts of adversity. Carefully taking shelter of the Name, engage in your work."

(Gitavali, Arunodaya kirtan, 1.3, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We can leave this world at any moment—this life is temporary—one can be talking, talking and suddenly die. One day we all have to leave. We are saying now, "This is my house," "This is my room," "This is my son," but what is all this for?

গর্দ্দভের মত আমি করি পরিশ্রম ।
কার লাগি' এত করি না ঘুচিল ভ্রম ॥

gardabhera mata ami kari parisrama
kara lagi' eta kari, na ghuchila bhrama

I toil laboriously like a donkey. For whom am I doing this? Still my illusion has not been dispelled.

Who am I struggling so much in this world for? You will have to leave everything once your eyes close. I say, "These are my ears," "This is my head," "These are my legs," "These are my eyes," but who am I? Tell me, who am I? I am a soul (atma). I am not so-and-so Maharaj, I am not so-and-so Das, I am not so-and-so Mallik, etc. When Mahaprabhu was asked, "Who am I?" He said,

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

I am wearing these clothes today, but tomorrow I will take it off and wear fresh clothes. Everybody is like that—you are wearing one sari today, and tomorrow you will wear another sari. Just as I always keep changing clothes, in the same way I keep on changing bodies. As the saying goes, "As you sow, so you reap." You will get what you deserve according to your actions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If I kill something in this life, next life it will kill me. If I slaughter some animal in this life, next life that animal will slaughter me. I have got a human body in this life, I have my mother, father—they are my parents, but they only give me this body, they do not give me that who I am, they do not produce my soul. If they could give me the soul, then do you think anyone's parents or children could die? You say "my mother," but she only gave you this body, she did not give you your soul. Who gives life? The Lord. We have come from the Lord and we must go back to the Lord.

The Lord has given you life. You are laughing, moving your hands, doing everything—this is only because there is a jiva soul inside. You can move this body only for as long as the jiva soul stays within your body. When the soul leaves the body, then this body will be left at the cremation ghat.

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
vihanga-patanga taya vihara karibe

My body will be laid to rest at the crematorium. There birds and insects will enjoy it.

If a mosquito bites you now, you kill it, but when this body is taken to the cremation ghat, so many ants, insects, etc. will start eating it. If somebody dies and the children cannot come within two-three days, you know the body starts decaying...

This world is not eternal! One day you have to leave this world. But, you must understand that you have come to this world promising to serve the Lord... You stay for ten months and ten days in the womb of your mother with your head facing down and legs facing up (so much suffering!), all kinds of insects or worms bite your body. You know that pregnant women often like to eat sour things. When they eat sour things, it increases acidity and blocks nutrition for the baby. Suffering so much in the womb of our mothers, we begin to cry and call out to the Lord. The Lord does not come to every jiva soul. If somebody has sukriti and a great fortune, then the Lord can give His darshan to that soul. He comes and asks, "Why have you called Me?" "Prabhu, I cannot stay here anymore! Please take me out of here!" "I will, but you will come out and forget Me." The soul is suffering so much that it says, "I will not forget You." "I will give you eyes, will you use your eyes to see My Deity? Will you serve Me with your hands? Will you circumambulate My holy abode with your legs? Will you speak about Me with your mouth?"

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

bhajiba baliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rahile 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."

'Ignorance' (avidya) means Maya. Maya creates everything within this illusory world. Whatever you get here—your father, wife, sons, brothers, sisters, all your so called near and dear—this is all Maya's samsar (the family world of illusion).

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