(9/13) Eternal Values

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 9
Translated from Bengali

If your father does not truly bring you to this path of Krishna consciousness, he is not a father to you. If your friends do not truly bring you to this path of Krishna consciousness, they are not your friends. Your greatest friends are those who can give you attachment to the lotus feet of Sri Krishna – your kin, your own are those who bring you to the Lord, who take you out of this world of Maya and engage you in the service to the holy lotus feet of the Lord. You should come to this kind of personalities and serve them. ‘O Vaishnav Thakur! You are the nearest person to me – you are my greatest friend!’

We are sons of nectar. All of us are children of one father – we are sons and daughters of the Lord! We are relatives to each others. You think that I am in Nabadwip, and you are here in Basirhat, somebody else is in Mexico, somebody is in Colombia, somebody is in Venezuela, somebody is in London, somebody is Muslim, somebody is a brahman, somebody is a ksatriya, and so on, but all these distinctions are created by us.

Somebody can wear a brahman thread and say, ‘I am a brahman!’ which means that people can wear a thread today and they are brahmans, but if they take it off tomorrow, they are not brahmans anymore. Is that really so? First, you must become a brahman, and one does not become a brahman just by saying so or by wearing a brahman thread.

Surrender to a bona fide guru and practise Krishna consciousness in your own lives. Mahaprabhu is so merciful! He is not an ordinary soul. Choosing Sachi Mata and Jagannath Misra as His parents, He appears in this Kali-yuga and gives this world the transcendental magnanimous love for Supreme Lord Sri Krishna! He tolerated so much in this world, but He did not take up any weapons. Have you read Mahaprabhu’s teachings? They are very beautiful. What teachings did He give to this world?

People worship Kali, Durga and many other gods, but they turn God into their servant or a bribe-taker. People say, ‘O Mother Durga, please give me strength’, ‘O Mother Durga, please give me money’, and so on, and in return for that they give Mother Durga some money. In this way she becomes their servant because people come and expect her to serve them. Devotees do not behave like that; they never say such things to the Lord. When brahmans do their puja during Durga Puja, you can hear them say in loudspeakers, ‘Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, bharyam dehi, kavitam dehi, sundarim dehi. Give me wealth, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a good wife, make me a poet, give me a beautiful girlfriend.’ ‘Give me this’, ‘Give me that’ – they turn gods into their servants and in lieu of that they give their gods some bribe (a banana, some money, flowers, and so on). You come to worship gods but instead of worshipping them, you turn them into bribe-takers and your servants. But Mahaprabhu said:

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

‘O Supreme Lord (Master of the Universe, Jagadiswar)! I do not desire any wealth (religion, money or material desires), any followers (wife, sons, servants or maidservants) or material knowledge (beautiful poetry). My only prayer is that I may birth after birth have pure devotion to You, devoid of seeking any result.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

প্রভু ! তব পদযুগে মোর নিবেদন ।
নাহি মাগি দেহ-সুখ, বিদ্যা, ধন, জন ॥
নাহি মাগি স্বর্গ, আর মোক্ষ নাহি মাগি ।
না করি প্রার্থনা কোন বিভূতির লাগি’ ॥

prabhu! tava pada-yuge mora nivedana
nahi magi deha-sukha, vidya, dhana, jana
nahi magi svarga, ara moksa nahi magi
na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi’

‘O Lord! I am submitting this appeal at Your feet: I do not pray for any bodily pleasures, knowledge, wealth or companions. I do not pray for heaven or liberation, neither do I pray for any godly opulence or powers.’

(Sri Gitavali, Sri Siksastaka, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Devotees do not want heaven. Heaven is temporary. If you perform pious activities, you go to heaven, and if you commit a lot of sins, you go to hell, but even if you go to heaven as the result of your pious activities, once your pious credit finishes, you will have to come back to this world. Even if you stay there for hundreds of thousands of years, you will still have to come back. That is why devotees do not desire heaven. Neither do they not want liberation.

What do devotees want? ‘My Lord, please allow me to have devotion and attachment to Your holy lotus feet birth after birth. Whatever birth I may take, even if I am born as a dog, please allow me to be born as a dog at Your devotee’s house – having taken Your prasad, Your devotee will throw the plate away, and I will take the remnants from that plate.’

Devotees do not want to become Lord Brahmas. When Hiranyakasipu asked Lord Brahma for immortality, Brahma said that it was not in his power, ‘Even though I am a disciple of Krishna and was created by Krishna, I have to die one day, too. I will have to leave this body and go to some other place, too.’ So, Kali, Durga, Ganesh and other gods live for a few days, and then somebody else becomes Kali, Ganesh, Laksmi or Saraswati…

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Length: 112 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) An Auspicious Evening
2) An Auspicious Birth
3) Turning Back Home
4) Beyond Perverted Comfort Zone
5) What Are Your Plans?
6) Life In Lord's Family
7) Not So Fast, Not So Cheap
8) Mano-dharma vs. Bhagavat-dharma
9) Eternal Values
10) Ultimate Word of Scripture
11) Guided and Misguided
12) Exclusive Zone
13) Insurmountable Devotion