(6/13) Pray to Be One-Pointed

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur (West Bengal), 5 February 2021, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

[His Divine Grace chants kirtans.]

গুরুদেব!
বড় কৃপা করি’, গৌড়বন-মাঝে,
গোদ্রুমে দিয়াছ স্থান ।
আজ্ঞা দিল মোরে, এই ব্রজে বসি’,
হরিনাম কর গান ॥

gurudeva!
bada krpa kari’, gauda-vana-majhe,
godrume diyachha sthana
ajna dila more, ei vraje vasi’,
harinama kara gana

‘Gurudev! Bestowing great mercy on me, you have given me a place in Sri Godrumdwip amidst the forests of Gauda. You ordered me: “Reside in this abode that is non-different from Vraja and chant the Lord’s Name.”’

কিন্তু কবে প্রভো, যোগ্যতা অর্পিবে,
এ দাসেরে দয়া করি’ ।
চিত্ত স্থির হবে, সকল সহিব,
একান্তে ভজিব হরি ॥

kintu kabe prabho, yogyata arpibe,
e dasere daya kari’
chitta sthira habe, sakala sahiba,
ekante bhajiba hari

‘But when, O Master, will you mercifully grant this servant the qualification to do this? When will my heart become steadfast? When will I tolerate everything and serve the Lord exclusively?’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Our minds and hearts are always fickle. They cannot sit still, and we are not able to concentrate them on the Holy Name. Mind is always fickle: as soon as there is some disturbance, we say, ‘I should stop chanting!’ Many live in their families, and when some trouble comes (for example, somebody dies or gets sick, or some other problem comes), people lose interest in chanting the Holy Name and they give it up. People cannot tolerate anything. Do you remember Prahlad Maharaj? How much austerity Prahlad Maharaj suffered! Because Prahlad Maharaj was serving the Lord and chanting the Lord’s Names, his worshippable father (Pita Thakur) threw him into fire! He tied Prahlad Maharaj to an elephant’s leg! He threw Prahlad Maharaj from a ten-thousand-feet mountain! He threw his ten-year-old son into water, trying to drown him! This is the kind of austerity Prahlad Maharaj had been getting from five years old, and he tolerated everything. Is anyone giving us so much austerity? No. Nobody throws us into fire, nobody throws us from a mountain, nobody ties us to a mad elephant’s leg. If a five-year-old boy could tolerate all this, then why cannot we tolerate a little? We must learn from his example.

We pray, ‘When will my heart become fixed? When will I be able to tolerate everything?’ You know, there is a Bengali proverb, ‘Bend the bamboo while it is green.’ If you try to bend a bamboo tree when it matures, it will crack. (Kanchaya na nayale vamsa, pakle kare thasa thasa – কাঁচায় না নোয়ালে বাঁশ, পাকলে করে ঠাস ঠাস. Equivalent to the English proverb, ‘Strike the iron while it is hot.’) Learn from a young age. You can bend the bamboo when it is green, but if you try to bend it when it is mature, it will not bend – it will break. Somebody says, ‘I will practise Krishna consciousness when I get old.’ Do you think you will be able to? When you grow old, your health will be bad, your legs will pain, your back will pain. You think that you will chant the Holy Name when you are old, but when you grow old, your fingers will pain, so many kinds of pain and problems will come in old age – how do you think you will practise?

How beautiful these words are. ‘When will my heart become steadfast? When will I tolerate everything and serve the Lord exclusively? When will I be able to concentrate my mind and make it one-pointed?’ We must become one-pointed, exclusive devotees: our minds must be fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord, at the lotus feet of Sri Guru. We pray to be able to know and understand our guru properly. We know well who our mother, father, brother and friends are – in the same way, we must understand our relationship with the guru and the Lord.

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)

We were small, then we grew up, and we have never been waking up for the arati. We ate in the afternoon and went back to sleep. We should have woken up in the afternoon to offer some fruit to the Lord, but we did not do it. (Those who do puja must be alert: they cannot only eat and sleep till the evening. It is necessary to wake the Deities up and give Them bhoga at four in the afternoon.) This is how, from a very young age, we have got into bad habits under the influence of bad association, and now our bodies has become an obstacle to spiritual practice. Our bodies are not favourable to devotional life; rather, they have become unfavourable. It is all our own fault because this situation is the result of our own actions.

If I had come to this path in my childhood, if I had practised Krishna consciousness from an early age, then my body would not have become like this. If I had been waking up for the mangal-arati from my childhood, if I had been doing service from my childhood, then my habits would be good now. Man is a slave to his habits. If our habits are bad, then what will become of us? We find ourselves amidst all kinds of bad habits, and now we pray to gurudev for mercy. We are ruined by the five diseases:

বার্দ্ধক্যে এখন, পঞ্চরোগে হত,
কেমনে ভজিব বল’ ।
কাঁদিয়া কাঁদিয়া, তোমার চরণে,
পড়িয়াছি সুবিহ্বল ॥

vardhakye ekhana, pancha-roge hata,
kemane bhajiba bala’
kandiya kandiya, tomara charane,
padiyachhi suvihvala

‘I am now old and afflicted by five-fold material diseases. Tell me, how shall I serve? Crying incessantly, I have fallen at your feet, utterly bewildered.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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Length: 108 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Honouring Hari-Prasad
2) Exclusive Path
3) Lord's Messenger
4) 'Managing' Your Life
5) Internal Purity
6) Pray To Be One-Pointed
7) Mahaprabhu's Gift
8) At Vaishnavs' Mercy
9) Spiritual Deposit
10) Lacking Spirituality
11) About Srila Lochan Das Thakur
12) Leave Separate Interests
13) Muddled Minds