Beyond Perverted Comfort Zone

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

We live in the world of Maya (illusory environment). It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita,

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

"My alluring, 'trimodal,' illusory potency is practically insurmountable. However, those who take shelter in Me can overcome this powerful obstacle."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

The Lord Himself says that He has created Maya and it is impossible to overcome this Maya because Maya Devi is very strong—her power comes from the Lord Himself. If you put a piece of iron into fire, it will become hot and if you keep it a little longer in the fire, it will become red; after that, if you touch somebody with that iron, it will burn the person. Iron itself does not burn anybody, but when that iron gets some power from fire, it can burn. In the same way, the Lord has empowered Maya Devi. Just as iron gets its power from fire to burn things, in the same way Maya Devi gets her power from the Lord and becomes invincible—it is impossible to overcome her. What is the solution then? Lord Krishna says that if anybody takes shelter of Him, if anybody surrenders to Him, then He rescues that soul from Maya—Maya Devi runs away from that soul. When you surrender to the Lord, Maya Devi cannot attack you anymore. When such surrender comes, you will feel, "This family is not mine—I am only a security guard here." Usually, the father says, "I am the head (master) of the family," when the father dies, his son says, "Now I am the master of the family," and then the grandson takes over, and so on. The truth is that nobody is a master. Who is the master? The only master is the Lord. Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "I existed before, I exist now, and I will always exist in future."

The Lord was, is, and will always be there, but you will not—you will have to leave this world. But as long as we are in this world, we must use this life wisely. What for have we come here? Have we come here to earn money, to eat and to sleep? Who does not do that? There are so many street dogs—do they get no food? Do they get not place to stay at? You can see so many dogs sleep on the street—they are all alive somehow, and they also get to eat, sleep and do everything. What is the difference between us and dogs then? You know, you can cook nice things, some nice paneer rasa—if you tell a pig to eat it, it will never eat it, but if you give it a bucket of stool or filth, it will enjoy it so much. You can see elephants. They eat banana trees and live happily. Yet we struggle so much just to get nice food. You may have seen camels also. Gurudev says camels eat certain plants with thorns—their tongues bleed eating thorns, but they still do not stop eating it, they continue eating. Just like that, we too live in this material world and struggle so much, but we still do not want to give it up. We cannot leave Maya. No matter how much we suffer, we still think, "No, it is OK, I will stay here."

You think you will go and come to this world again again, but there is no guarantee that you will get a human life again. You can see so many dogs, cats, goats, chicken, cows, etc. roaming the streets. What makes you think you will be born as human next life? You have already crossed all these species and got this human body now through some good intelligence—yet if you misuse this life and become demoted, you will have to go back to all those species again according to your actions (karma).

Lord Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "If somebody thinks about Me, if somebody worships Me, then I will personally take care of them." Krishna says, "My devotees do not know anyone except Me, and I too do not know and do not see anyone except My devotees." Therefore, we must become devotees of Lord Krishna. We must want the mercy of Vaishnavs.

We are prepared to do anything for the sake of some trifle gain, for the sake of some trifle interest, but at the same time we cannot give up meat, fish, etc. Do you think that people die if they do not eat meat and fish? You are very attached to your food, but you know people abroad eat cow's meat, in China they eat snakes, frogs, dogs, I have seen in some places where people eat raw pork. Raw! In Nagaland, they eat hundred of kilograms of dogs' meat, and not only that—they have dogs' corpses lying on the streets and people in Nagaland eat dogs' vomit(!!!). These are such people. You feel repulsed at that, but some people eat dogs' vomit, and that too here in this very country. So, if cannot leave some small trifle things, then how will we get great things?

We must return to the Lord—if you do, we will not have to suffer birth, death, old age and disease, we will not have to keep on coming and going getting all kinds of bodies (dogs, goats, cats, sheep, etc.). However, in order to attain that, we must give up small things. Some sacrifice is required...

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