(3/13) Sambandha-Jnana: Launching Pad

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sitalpur (Bagnan), West Bengal,
31 January 2021, part 3

The Lord is present within everyone. I am speaking now, moving my hands, moving my legs, but when I leave, this body will fall off, and I will know, ‘I have left this body’ – in other words, that which is inside this body will leave this body. When the soul leaves the body, everyone says, ‘This is a dead body,’ and they will throw it into the Ganges because a dead body has no value; but now we can speak, we can move our hands, we can move our legs, we can do so many things.

It is necessary to know this relationship (to know what is what). 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

‘The entire material world can be conquered by honouring the Lord’s prasad.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Prapancha means pancha-rog, the five diseases. Among these five diseases, the first disease is avidya, ignorance (thinking that you are the body). Asmita 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 and all that is related to it. This is what asmita is. If we can leave these two diseases (ignorance and material attachment), we will get benefit. It is necessary to eradicate these two diseases from ourselves.

Even Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, who is the seventh goswami, said, ‘Vardhakye ekhana, pancha-roge hata, kemane bhajiba bala’. I am now old and afflicted by five-fold material diseases. Tell me, how shall I serve You now?’ How can I practise Krishna consciousness now that I have gone so old? I have become a victim of the five diseases!

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

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

‘Having enjoyed in my childhood and youth, I have developed bad habits. Because of my previous actions, this body has now become an obstacle to practising spiritual life.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

From our young days, we 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 and serve in every possible way. These are all bad habits! What does this lead to? We have been enjoying this material world, developing all kinds of bad habits, and now these habits prevent us from practising Krishna consciousness. For example, we cannot wake up early in the morning. You know, I am going to give the weekly Sunday evening online class today, and many devotees wake up at 2 a.m. for this class. On the other hand, you can see that although the scriptures prescribe everyone to wake up at 4 a.m., many householders, and even devotees staying at the temples, cannot do it here – they sleep till late. How will they wake up if they do not have this habit? Those who worship the Lord at four in the morning get up at three – they wake up, go to the bathroom, take a shower, then they enter the temple or the prayer/altar room. But if your habits are bad, you will lament, ‘O Lord, how will I worship You?’ This is how our habits, which we developed from a young age while enjoying material happiness, prevent us, obstruct us from practising Krishna consciousness.

Remember these things. You must learn it by heart: ‘I am a soul. 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

‘Jiva souls forgot that they are eternal servants of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around their necks.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

I am a jiva soul, and every living entity has a jiva soul inside them. 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 – we must know this. The function of the soul is service to the Supersoul: the soul always wants to serve the Supersoul (Paramatma).

Just as you eat to nourish your body, your soul also needs nourishment. You can understand how much people are attached to food and to nourishing their bodies if you see what some people do when it comes to ekadasi. Some people like to eat a lot the day before ekadasi – they eat a lot, put on one kilogram, the next day they fast and lose that kilogram, and after ekadasi (on dvadasi) they eat rice full stomach and put on one more kilogram of weight. All vegetables and plants are the food of the body, but it is also necessary to supply food to your soul. The food of the soul is Hari-katha (discourses 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 (my chaitya-guru) be merciful to me? When will I come in the shade of Vaishnavs’ feet?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When will I get Sri Chaitanya’s mercy and come to the shade of Vaishnavs’ holy lotus feet? When will Sri Chaitanya bestow his mercy on me? There is a chaitya-guru in our hearts, and he takes us to our mahanta-guru. Without the mercy of the chaitya-guru, we cannot come to the mahanta-guru. That is why we hanker for the mercy of Sri Chaitanya: in other words, we want the mercy of the guru situated 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 give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When, when will I give up this material ego? Everybody has some ego, and ego always destroys everything. What is this ego? Ego means that we are proud of our wealth, knowledge, beauty, friends, families and so many other things. Instead, we should pray:

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 give honour to the Lord’s devotees?’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Sing five kirtans in the morning and five kirtans in the evening. I will now chant some kirtans and then speak some Hari-katha again. At the end, we will offer arati to the Lord and do Tulasi parikrama, then the bhoga will be offered, and everyone will be able to take prasad.

— : • : —

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Length: 119 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) In Search of Hidden Treasure
2) Know Your Own Identity First
3) Sambandha Jnana: Launching Pad
4) Utter Desperation
5) Path to Qualification
6) Sincere Devotion
7) Highest and Rarest
8) Rivet Yourself to Sadhu-Sanga
9) Genuine Benefit
10) Great Gift
11) Enter the Land of Faith
12) Unchaste Faith
13) A Test of Faith