(4/6) Forging Your Destiny

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Varahadev's Appearance day, morning class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 24 February 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

[Noise in the audience. One of the devotees asks them not to speak so loud.]

Leave them, Prabhu. Not everybody comes to practise Krishna consciousness… Some come to goggle, some come for entertainment. There are different kinds of desires; everybody does not have the same desire. That is why we cannot bring everyone to this path. Those who have such fortune, who are destined to come, they come. You know, there is a famous saying in Bengali that people like to sing, ‘There are a lot of conch bangles and sindoor sold at the market and in shops, but you can only wear them if you are destined to’ (hata-bajare sakha-sindura aneka paowa yaya, kapale thakle takhan tabe-i para yaya; হাটে বাজারে শাঁখা সিঁদুর অনেক পাওয়া যায় কপালে থাকলে পরে তবেই পরা যায়). It is the same here. One must have the fortune.

Gurudev said that there is an annual fair in Jamalpur where people sacrifice goats. So many thousands of goats are sacrificed there that the slaughterers do not give them even one minute – as soon as a goat is brought, they chop off its head. A goat a second. They smear sindoor on all sacrificial goats’ heads before killing them. So, not all goats in the world are destined to have sindoor on their heads. We, too, are sacrificial goats, but not all of us get to have our heads smeared with ‘sindoor’.

Not everybody can understand the glory of a holy dham. It takes great fortune to know it. People come here to do all the other things. Everybody is chanting, ‘Hari bol! Hari bol!’ but who takes it seriously? Who takes Krishna consciousness seriously? Who thinks, ‘I have taken a vow (vrata) to practise Krishna consciousness’? Who thinks, ‘Without Krishna consciousness this life is useless. The Lord has sent me into this human body, but if I do not practise Krishna consciousness, then it is useless to keep this body – my very life is useless’?

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)

We sing every morning,

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার
নামাশ্রয় করি’ যতনে তুমি,
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari’ yatane tumi,
thakaha apana kaje

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers. Carry on your life but try your best to take shelter in the Holy Name.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

This life is not eternal. You will face so many dangers in this life, but amidst all these dangers you must take shelter of the Holy Name. Engage yourselves in the service of the Lord.

We are told to take shelter of the Holy Name. The Lord is very merciful. If you have a strong desire and if you try, the Lord must certainly bestow His mercy. It is necessary to have a strong desire and faith. You must try, otherwise you will not get any result. Mother Yasoda tied Krishna! She was able to do it because of her tireless effort. She kept bringing more and more rope, but it was always two fingers too short. What do these ‘two fingers’ mean? One finger is desire, and the other finger is mercy. We must make effort to practise Krishna consciousness. You cannot practise Krishna consciousness without making effort. You must keep practising, you must keep trying. That is what Krishna consciousness is.

There are nine kinds of devotion: sravanam (listening about the Lord), kirtanam (chanting the Lord’s Name and glories), smaranam (remembering the Lord), pada-sevanam (serving the Lord’s lotus feet), archanam (worshipping the Lord’s Deity), vandanam (offering obeisances and prayers to the Lord), dasyam (serving the Lord as a servant), sakhyam (serving the Lord as a friend), atma-nivedanam (submitting yourself to the Lord). You must practise this every day.

সাধুসঙ্গে কৃষ্ণনামে—এই মাত্র চাই ।
সংসার জিনিতে আর কোন বস্তু নাই ॥

sadhu-sange krsna-nama—ei matra chai
samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

‘I desire only to chant the Name of Krishna in the association of sadhus. There is no other way to conquer this material world.’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 6.13, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

The Lord does not catch someone so easily, but once the Lord does catch someone, He does not let them go. Think about it. The Lord is so merciful! You cannot even conceive of it. Krishna has bestowed so much mercy on everyone. Sisupal went to kill Krishna, Putana went to kill Krishna, but they all received His mercy.

Everybody knows that it is a crime to kill a man, but it is an even worse crime to kill a baby. The demoness Putana went to kill a three-day-old baby! Receiving Kamsa’s order, she had smeared poison on her breasts and came dressed as a beautiful gopi to Gokula. She came to kill Krishna, but when Krishna saw her beauty, He became charmed. He took her as His mother and drank her breast milk. Although He showed that He was drinking her milk, He knew that it was not a mother – He knew that it was just a demoness who had come disguised as a mother. Krishna drank her milk with so much force that Putana began to cry, ‘Leave me! Let go!’ But Krishna did not leave her. He grabbed her so strongly that she was about to die. In a frenzy, she ran out of the house to a nearby field, where she then fell down dead, revealing her enormous form of a demoness. Because her body was so huge and nobody could move it, they had to cut it into pieces. But how can we know that Krishna bestowed His mercy on her? Think about it. Does a burning body smell good? On the contrary, it smells very bad. But when they were burning Putana’s body, her body emanated the smell of camphor in all four directions. So much nice aroma spread all over Gokula that it could be felt all the way in Vrindavan! Everybody wondered, ‘What has happened? What is this? What is this nice smell?’ Then somebody spread the news that they were burning Putana. The Lord bestowed mercy on her…

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Length: 54 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Clear Your Path
2) Nurture Exclusive Desire
3) Sri Ekachakra Dham: Our Fortune To Be Here
4) Forging Your Destiny
5) Extreme Mercy
6) About Nityananda Prabhu