Taking a Stand Against Maya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Nrisingha Palli, 3 February 2021, part 7
Translated from Bengali

We have a disciple of Gurudev in Begumpur. He received two bighas of land (1.2 acres)—he plants vegetables there himself and runs his family with that. They also have two sons, they study at school... He is working so hard to maintain his family. Their family had six bighas of land, and there are five brothers and their father. The father got initiation and stayed with this devotee, so the devotee ended up getting two bighas of land. I know how hard it is to do agriculture. I used to cultivate the land too. I planted rice twice, one time mustard, and every year also some wheat around the perimeter (the yield was 14-15 maund, or 560-600 kg). It also gave straw for the cows at the temple. Here, it is difficult with the cows. One man told me, "I will come in Paush month (January-February)," but then his wife came, then his sons came for him...

It is not so easy to practise Krishna consciousness. You must know your interest (you must be selfish in this sense). My own parents cried so much for me—they shed tears, but I ran away. That man told me, "I will never run away, I will come in January/February," and I told him, "You will not be able to come..." and this is what happened. His wife beat him, and he wanted to come here, but now that he came, his wife showed some affection to him and he went back. Such is the pull of material life... His son also cried for him. So, it is not so easy—you must have fortune to practise Krishna consciousness. First, there must be sukriti. If you do not have sukriti, you cannot practise Krishna consciousness. Yes, they will cry, let them. Mother, father, brother, sister, relatives, sons, daughters—let them cry. You must be hard with them, "No, I will practise Krishna consciousness. By hook or by crook, but I will practise Krishna consciousness. I will not surrender to Maya and run behind any desires." You must always try to be like that; otherwise, you cannot practise Krishna consciousness...

Later this will bring you result. You must have patience. That is why it is said, "Chitta sthira habe, sakala sahiba, ekante bhajiba hari ( চিত্ত স্থির হবে, সকল সহিব, একান্তে ভজিব হরি). My heart will become steadfast, I will tolerate everything, and I will serve the Lord sincerely." You must tolerate everything—tolerate all unhappiness, all struggles, all austerity. Practise Krishna consciousness exclusively, be one-pointed.

Those who used to stay at the temple and then went to their homes, got much austerity later. For example, there is ***. Her father was a brahmachari, Srila Sridhar Maharaj's disciple, but then his parents forcefully took him away and got him married. He then had three daughters. He had managed to only get his younger daughter married, and then he had a stroke. Later, his daughters took initiation from me, at least this is good—his daughters are practising Krishna consciousness, but their father's life finished... Such situation comes in your life that you get retirement from spiritual life—you become cheated and deprived of your Guru's service. We must be always very careful. You must know what you want in life (you must know your interest).

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