Sambandha Jnana: Launching Pad

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vaishnav Seva Programme, Bangaon,
31 January 2021, part 3

The Lord is there within everyone. I am speaking now, moving my hands, moving my legs, but when I leave, this body will fall off, then I will know, "I have left this body"—that which is inside this body leaves. When the soul leaves the body, everyone says, "This is a dead body," and they will throw it into the Ganges. A dead body has no value. Yet now we speak, we move our hands, we move our legs, we do so many things.

It is necessary to know this relationship. Avidya and asmita are two main diseases. We sing on ekadasi days:

প্রসাদ-সেবা করিতে হয়
সকল প্রপঞ্চ জয়

prasada-seva karite haya,
sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Prapancha means pancha-rog, the five diseases. Among these five diseases, the first disease is avidya, ignorance—thinking that you are the body. As for asmita, it means attachment to the gross body. People are very deeply attached to their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends—they are attached to this perishable body. This is what asmita is. If we can leave these two diseases (ignorance and material attachment), we will get some result. It is necessary to eradicate these two diseases from ourselves.

Even Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, the seventh goswami, said, "I am now old and ruined by the five-fold diseaes. How shall I serve You? (bardhakye ekhana, pancha-roge hata, kemane bhajiba bala'—বার্দ্ধক্যে এখন, পঞ্চরোগে হত, কেমনে ভজিব বল’)" How can I practise Krishna consciousness now that I have gone so old? I have become a victim of five diseases!

শৈশব-যৌবনে, জড়সুখ-সঙ্গে,
অভ্যাস হইল মন্দ ।
নিজকর্ম্ম-দোষে, এ দেহ হইল,
ভজনের প্রতিবন্ধ ॥

saisava-yauvane, jada-sukha-sange,
abhyasa ha-ila manda
nija-karma-dose, e deha ha-ila,
bhajanera pratibandha

In my childhood and youth, I always indulged in material happiness and I have become habituated to bad things. Because of my own sins, this body has become an impediment to spiritual practice.

Since our young days, we have developed bad habits—you like to sleep on a nice bed, in a nice room, you get your wife to massage your feet, fan you, etc. These are all bad habits! What happens as a result? We enjoy this material world and have got all these bad habits, and these habits now prevent us from practising Krishna consciousness. For example, we cannot wake up early in the morning. You know, I am going to give a class in zoom today (I give it every Sunday evening)—many wake up at 2 a.m. for this class. Yet you can see that the scriptures prescribe to wake up at four, but many cannot wake up, they sleep and how will they if they do not have this habit? Those who worship the Lord at four in the morning, they get up at three—they wake up, go to the bathroom, take a shower, then they enter the temple or the prayer/altar room. And when your habits are bad, then you will wonder, "How will I worship You, O Lord?" This is how our habits prevent us, obstruct us from practising Krishna consciousness—because we have got into bad habits since childhood, when we enjoyed material happiness.

Remember these things. You must learn it by heart: "I am a soul, and my identity is that I am an eternal servant of Krishna." We have forgotten that we are eternal servants of the Lord.

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

I am a soul, and every living entity has a jiva soul. There is a soul within me, within a Tulasi tree, within a mango tree, within a mosquito, a fly or any other creature. All living entities have the same soul as we all have. This is what "I" is, and we must know this. The function of the soul is that it always wants to serve the Supersoul (Paramatma). The soul also needs nourishment. You know, when it comes to ekadasi, people eat a lot before and gain 1 kg weight, then they fast, losing 1 kg weight, and after that they eat rice full stomach again on dvadasi and put on another 1 kg weight. So, all the vegetables, etc. are the food of the body, but it is also necessary to procure food for your soul as well. The food of the soul is Hari-katha (narratives about the Lord). The soul always wants to hear about Krishna. We sing in one of the kirtans:

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

"When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?"

When will I get the mercy of Sri Chaitanya and come to the shade of the holy lotus feet of Vaishnavs? When will Sri Chaitanya bestow his mercy on me? There is chaitya-guru in your heart, and he takes you to your mahanta-guru. Without the mercy of this chaitya-guru, you cannot be taken to the mahanta-guru. That is why, we hanker for the mercy of Sri Chaitanya. We want the mercy of the guru within our hearts.

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

When, when will I give up this material ego? Everybody has ego. Ego always destroys everything. What is this ego? We are proud of our wealth, knowledge, beauty, friends and family, money, etc. But:

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

We sing this in the kirtan. You must sing five kirtans in the morning and give kirtans in the evening. I will now chant some kirtans, then I will again speak some Hari-katha. At the end, we will offer arati for the Lord, we will do Tulasi parikrama, then the bhog will be offered, and everyone can take prasad.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (2.4 Mb, 6 min)