Embracing Controlled Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar, 10 February 2021, part 12

We have made such a big building, but how many Bengali people have service? Our Math has got such a big building, but how many Bengalis come and serve here? When the police catches you, you give money to the police, and when you get into hospital, you give money to doctors, but you do not think about the service to the Lord. People always think about their own enjoyment and pleasure, "How can I enjoy?" That is why the souls of this world are getting so much pain. I come and say, "Come to the temple, do service." I have been coming here for so long, but how many people have come to this line? Materially, they have everything, but they do not come to this line...

Sometimes, I asked **, "Why are you breaking your own arm?"

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

When you took initiation, you gave your body, mind, heart, everything to your Gurudev's lotus feet. So, I told him, "If you do not use this body for the service of Gurudev, then can and stay here for some time." He said, "I have no time, I have to see to the potato," but the Lord has arranged everything in such a way that now he is sitting without work for three months, and he will continue sitting like this. That is why I say that when you take initiation, you have given your body and you have promised that you would use your body, mind, soul, everything for the service of the Lord. So, when Gurudev tells you to do some service or to go somewhere, you must do that. If you do not do that—if you keep saying you have no time, then one day the opportunity will be gone. That is why I tell you: you surrender everything (your body, mind, heart, etc.), and whichever way Gurudev will use it, it is his matter.

Srila Sanatan Goswami was going to commit suicide, but Mahaprabhu told him, "Do you have no shame? How can you be destroying My things?! This body is not yours. You have given this body to me, and I will do so many things with this body—I will write scriptures, I will serve Vaishnavs, I will rescue all the holy places with this body, but you are going to destroy it by committing suicide! Do you have no shame?" So, this body, life, mind are all for the Lord. All living entities of this world are meant for the Lord, but we are overcome with ego, so we do not use everything properly—we use everything for other purposes. People do not understand this... One day you will die and you will regret that you could not spend even one day using this body for the service of Govinda.

Radharani serves and worships (aradhya) the Lord the most, that is how She got Her name, Radharani. Yet as soon as we feel unwell, we do not do anything. I have gone to many houses and I have seen how people live. They are busy with their lives, their health is not good, they cannot walk, they cannot see, cannot hear—they cannot practise Krishna consciousness...

শরীর অবিদ্যা-জাল জড়েন্দ্রিয় তাহে কাল
জীবে ফেলে বিষয়-সাগরে,

sarira avidya-jala jadendriya tahe kala
jive phele visaya-sagare

"The body is a net of illusion, and the material senses are one's enemies; they throw the soul into the ocean of mundanity."

This tongue throws us into the ocean of material existence, and we cannot control it. We cannot find the great things because of some small matters. "I will eat nice food," "I will wear nice clothes"—there is only one reason why people cannot come to this path: it is because they cannot control their tongues. There is nothing else. The soul does not want all this. Material gurus say, "Eat whatever pleases your soul," but the soul's job is to serve Paramatma. The soul is a part and parcel of the Lord—can it ever want to eat meat and fish? Never...

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