Muddled Minds

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur (West Bengal), 5 February 2021, part 13
Translated from Bengali

There is a religion of a father, mother, friend, relative, well-wisher, etc.; there is a religion of a sudra, brahman, brahmachari, grihastha, sannyasi, vanaprastha—but Lord Krishna says, "Leave all religions and surrender to Me." Do you understand?

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Do not be upset, do not be disheartened that you do not do your duty, that you will incur sin—I have liberated you from all sins. Many of you think, "I have not served my father," "I have not served my mother", "I have not served my daughter," "I have not served my friends," but the Lord says, "If you serve Me, all kinds of other services are automatically carried out." If you serve the Lord, all demigod worship is automatically carried out—you do not need to worship any demigod (Lakshmi, Durga, Ganesh) separately. You can see that many make a museum of Deities at their homes. They think if you do not worship Manasi, she will get angry and you will get bitten by a snake and die. People are very afraid of death, but everyone must die one day, then why be afraid of death so much? One who is born has to die one day.

You know how the saying goes, "Janma-mrtyu-biye tin Vidhatar niye (জন্ম মৃত্যু বিয়ে তিন বিধাতার নিয়ে)." There are three things—birth, death, and marriage—these three things are not in the hands of anybody, they are only in the hands of the Lord, that is they come through the Lord. If you have marriage written in your destiny, then you will get married, and everyone gets birth and death. You are born, so you must die; you die, so you must be born again. However, if you do not want to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease, then there is only one way—surrender to the Lord, call out to the Lord. "Grhe thako, vane thako, sada 'Hari' bole dako (গৃহে থাক, বনে থাক সদা 'হরি' বলে ডাক), whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name." "Sukhe duhkhe bhule nako vadane Harinam koro re (সুখে দুঃখে ভুলো নাক, বদনে হরিনাম কর রে ): in happiness or sadness, never forget it, always chant the Holy Name." When happiness comes, we forget, and when unhappiness comes, when we are in hospital and suffer, then we remember and call out to the Lord. You get on a motorcycle and drive it without thinking about anyone, and when your leg gets broken, then you call out to the Lord while you are being taken to hospital.

maya-jale baddha ha'ye
achha michhe kaja la'ye
ekhan-o chetana peye
radha-madhav-nam bala re

Bound in Maya's net, you work in vain. Now, while you are still conscious, chant 'Radha-Madhava'.

[Clamour in the audience. A devotee tries to hush them.]

They are hungry. I have told you—they are hungry for food, but O mind, what kind of pauper are you? What do you beg? Srila Prabhupad wrote, "Are you coming to beg for bhojan (food) or bhajan (Krishna consciousness)?" There is a small book of Srila Gurudev that has been composed recently, that article of Srila Prabhupad is written there.

There was once a festival at the temple of Gaudiya Math and somebody came and had the guts to ask, "When are they going to give food to the poor here?" Hearing this question, Srila Prabhupad gave this answer. O mind, tell me, what pauper are you? What do you lack? What do you beg for? Do you need money? Do you need good qualities? Do you need beauty? Do you need followers? Is this what you are roaming around for? And because you are not getting it, you consider yourself a pauper, is it not so?" Somebody says they have no money, they are poor. Somebody does not have some coveted qualities, so they say they are poor. Somebody does not have beauty—they think they have dark skin and if they had lighter skin, they would have got a nice husband!—such people also think they are poor (poor for beauty). Yet the truth is this. What pauper are you? You want to enjoy the pleasures of the material world—you think you will be well off if you eat nicely and get all these material things, but you are mistaken! You are greatly mistaken! All these things only increase your disease! All the things that you find here at the temple are serving the Lord, but you want the things that even animals get! You think you are a pauper because you lack food, but even goats and dogs eat the food you want so much. Why do you need to come here then? If you want to give a pill to a child, the child will not take it—you must sugar coat it (put it inside a sweet-ball). In the same way, this is a great place of pilgrimage here, a temple where the Supreme Lord resides and where His Hari-katha is going on, there is only maha-prasad here. Come, dear mind! If you desire your own benefit, then come! Do not become a beggar for food! Come here as a beggar for Krishna consciousness! Take the dust from the holy lotus feet of the greatly merciful devotees of the Lord on your head!

bhakta-pada-dhuli ara bhakta-pada-jala
bhakta-bhukta-sesa—ei tina sadhanera bala

"The dust of the devotees' feet, the water that has washed the devotees' feet, and the devotees' food remnants—honouring these gives one strength to engage in spiritual practice of Krishna consciousness."

This is how we must think. You can see that wherever there is a festival, people start coming when it is time to eat. If you invite everyone in the morning, nobody will come. You can see now too—this place was empty at first and now it is full. I have reprinted this article of Srila Prabhupad in the book, you can buy it. You should all come to the festival, please take care of yourself.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj.

I will chant one more kirtan now and finish.

ke yabi ke yabi bhai bhava-sindhu para
dhanya kali-yuge re chaitanya-avatara

Brother, who will cross? Who will cross this ocean of material existence? Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appears in this fortunate Kali-yuga!

amara gauranger ghate ujanakheya vaya
kadipati nahi lage amani para haya

At my Lord Gauranga's ghat the upstream ferry runs without requesting any fare. Everyone crosses freely.

hari-namera tarikhani sri-guru-kandari
sankirtana-keroyala du'bahu pasari

The Lord's Names are the ferryboat, Sri Guru is the captain, and the arms raised in the sankirtan are the oars.

sarva-jiva uddhara haila premera vatase
lochana padiya raila karamera dose

All souls have thus been delivered by the winds of divine love. Only Lochan Das has fallen and remained behind, as a result of his sins.

— : • : —

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