(9/13) Genuine Benefit

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sitalpur (Bagnan), West Bengal,
31 January 2021, part 9

মায়ারে করিয়া জয় ছাড়ান না যায় ।
সাধুকৃপা বিনা আর না দেখি উপায় ॥

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya
sadhu-krpa bina ara na dekhi upaya

‘It is impossible to conquer illusory environment and break free from it. I see no other way to get relief except by sadhus’ mercy.’

(Prarthana, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Maya, the illusory environment, is very strong. We fell into the bondage of this illusory environment and forgot Krishna, our Supreme Father. We are all sons of nectar. You, I, all of us sitting here are one family. Somebody may be from America, somebody may be from Bengal, somebody may be from Uluberia, somebody may be from Kolkata, somebody may be from this area, but this is not our actual identity. We are actually all sons of nectar – we come from God, and we must go back to God.

জলজা নবলক্ষাণি স্থাবরা লক্ষবিংশতি
কৃময়োরুদ্রসঙ্খ্যকাঃ পক্ষিণাং দশলক্ষনম্
ত্রিংশললক্ষাণি পশবঃ চতুরলক্ষাণি মানুষাঃ

jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati
krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah

‘There are 900,000 aquatic species; 2,000,000 nonmoving living entities (trees, plants, etc.); 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles; 1,000,000 species of birds; 3,000,000 species of beasts; and 400,000 species of humans.’

(Sri Padma Purana, Sri Vishnu Purana)

We have been born in water 900,000 times (as fish, crocodiles, sharks and other species); we have been born as trees, plants, mountains and other nonmoving entities 2,000,000 times; we have been born as worms, insects, spiders, and so on 1,100,000 times; we have been born as birds and flew in the sky 1,000,000 times; we have been born as various animals (cows, goats, sheep, cats, and so on) 3,000,000 times; and we have been born as humans 400,000 times, but:

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara

‘One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

‘Benefit to others’ means distributing Krishna consciousness (the consciousness, chetan, of Krishna) to the souls who forgot Krishna. This is why when Nimai took sannyas at the ashram of Keshav Bharati, His name became Sri Krishna Chaitanya. In the time of Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami, there were four more goswamis:

জয় রূপ সনাতন ভট্ট রঘুনাথ ।
শ্রীজীব গোপালভট্ট দাস রঘুনাথ ॥

jaya rupa sanatana bhatta raghunatha
sri-jiva gopala-bhatta dasa raghunatha

‘All glory to Sri Rup a, Sanatan, Raghunath Bhatta, Sri Jiva, Gopal Bhatta and Raghunath Das!’

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Today is Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami’s appearance day. He composed a book called Sat Kriya Sara Dipika (for the sraddha ceremonies [funeral and last rites]) and several other important scriptures. He was a great scholar. He wrote how Vaishnavs must be worshipped. The appearance and disappearance days of Vaishnavs are non-different from one another. In this world, people either live or die, but for Vaishnavs, there is no difference between appearance and disappearance – their appearance (avirbhav) and disappearance (tirobhav) are one and the same. When a Vaishnav’s pastimes are completed in this world, we call it tirobhav, and when a Vaishnav’s pastimes begin in this world, we call it avirbhav, but both days are actually the same: we must worship Vaishnavs on both their appearance and disappearance days.

Since time immemorial we have been averse to the Lord Krishna, and as the result of forgetting the Lord, we are now suffering from the burning agony of the threefold miseries: adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (miseries caused by other souls, by the nature and by one’s own mind). There are three types of suffering in this world. You think that you are suffering because you have no money, but those who have money suffer even more! There is no happiness, no peace in this material world – we are only suffering from various miseries here.

If we surrender to the Lord, we will not like anything in this external world anymore, but the problem is that we are unfortunate:

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu duhkha kahiba kahare?

‘I have got a rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Who shall I tell about my misery now?’

সংসার সংসার করি মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

samsara samsara kari michhe gela kala
labha na haila kichhu ghatila janjala

‘I have wasted all my time on material life and family and have got nothing but garbage as the result.’

কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

kisera samsara ei, chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari vrtha dina yaya

‘What kind of life is this? It is only a trick, a show. I have wasted time taking this world and the people around me in it as my own.’

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

‘My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that death is there, waiting right next to me.’

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Pariksit Maharaj was very fortunate because he got a seven days’ notice – he had been told that he would leave his body in seven days. Many sages, many great scholars came to him and started offering him various advice, but nothing touched him – the dirt in his heart did not go away by hearing all that. However, when Sukadev Goswami told him about the path of genuine benefit, Pariksit Maharaj listened to it in one go – he left everything behind and did not even think about his food, clothes, sleep or anything else. This is how, in the end, Pariksit Maharaj listened to Srimad Bhagavatam from Sukadev Goswami during seven days. There was no book called Srimad Bhagavatam at that time: what Sukadev Goswami spoke at that meeting of Pariksit Maharaj was later written down and became known as Srimad Bhagavatam. Sukadev Goswami said that our real benefit is in following the path of exclusive devotion. This is the kind of devotion that is described in Srimad Bhagavatam.

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Size: 57 Mb
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