(4/14) Cry, Pray, and Serve

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance, evening class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 25 February 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

‘আমি ত বৈষ্ণব’, এ বুদ্ধি হইলে,
অমানী না হ’ব আমি ।
প্রতিষ্ঠাশা আসি’, হৃদয় দূষিবে,
হইব নিরয়গামী ॥

‘ami ta vaisnava’, e buddhi haile,
amani na ha’ba ami
pratisthasa asi’, hrdaya dusibe,
haiba nirayagami

‘If I think, “I am a Vaishnav”, I will never stop desiring honour – my heart will become polluted with the desire for prestige, and I will end up in hell.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I start thinking that I have become a Vaishnav, then I will not be able to give honour to others. We sing in one of the kirtans, ‘Gurudev, please give me strength so that I can give proper honour to everyone, then I will be able to happily chant the Holy Name and all my offences will go away.’

সকলে সম্মান, করিতে শকতি,
দেহ নাথ যথাযথ ।
তবে ত’ গাইব, হরিনাম সুখে,
অপরাধ হবে হত ॥

sakale sammana, karite sakati,
deha natha yatha-yatha
tabe ta’ gaiba, hari-nama sukhe,
aparadha habe hata

‘Master! Give me the strength to give everyone appropriate honour, then I will happily chant the Holy Name and all my offences will be destroyed.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I can give honour to everyone, my offences will go away because if I pay dandavat to someone, my ego and pride go away. We must offer obeisances to everyone. It can even be somebody younger than us by age, but we will still offer them our obeisance. When we do Tulasi parikrama, we pray,

বাঞ্ছাকল্পতরুভ্যশ্চ কৃপাসন্ধুভ্য এব চ ।
পতিতানাং পাবনেভ্যো বৈষ্ণবেভ্যো নমো নমঃ ॥

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha
patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

‘Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord’s devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy and wish-fulfilling trees.’

Do you understand what I am saying? We must offer obeisances to everyone. Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, ‘Daso ’smi. I am your servant. You are all not my disciples; rather, I am your servant.’

বিষয় ছাড়িয়া কবে শুদ্ধ হ’বে মন ।
কবে হাম হেরব শ্রীবৃন্দাবন ॥

visaya chhadiya kabe suddha ha’be mana
kabe hama heriba sri-vrndavana

‘When will my mind reject this material world and everything in it and become pure? When will I behold Sri Vrindavan?’

(Prarthana, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

When will I leave this material world and my mind become clean? When will material desires be removed from me? We must always cry and pray for this. Always cry, ‘When will material desires go away from me? When will I forget all material desires?’ We have lived our material family lives for so long, and so many things have happened. We have crossed 8,400,000 species and have lived in 8,400,000 material families, and more is yet to come. Now you have reached old age, but the older you get, the more you think, ‘I want to live more and more! I want to enjoy my material life more and more!’

Sometimes you can find ants inside molasses – nobody puts them there; they come themselves to enjoy the sweet molasses, but once they come there, they are finished – they fill their bellies so much that they get stuck in the molasses and die. Our material lives are just like that – we have become entangled and stuck in material life just as ants get stuck in molasses.

When I was preaching before Gurudev’s festival, I told one lady, ‘There is nobody to wash the dishes at the temple. The lady who used to wash the dishes has sores on her hand and cannot do it anymore. Come and do this service, it will be good,’ but she refused. The next morning she died, and she was rather young, not so old. Do you know if she had any sons? [Devotees say she had two daughters.] Yes, she had arranged her daughters’ marriage and stayed alone at home without any income. I told her, ‘Why are you staying alone and eating on your own? Stay at the temple, serve there.’ But she did not have enough fortune to do that… She refused, and the next day she died. What will you do? Such is fate. This life is not eternal. We do not know when we will have to leave this world.

We carry on our material life with its happiness and unhappiness, and we have become so deeply entangled in it. What happiness is there in it? If only we could give our whole life for the service of the Lord! How long, how long more are you going to sleep in the lap of Witch Maya? Wake up, wake up, brothers! There is no time! Worship Krishna! Loudly chant the Holy Name of Krishna!

উঠরে উঠরে ভাই, আর ত সময় নাই,
‘কৃষ্ণ ভজ’ বলে উচ্চৈঃস্বরে ॥

uthare uthare bhai, ara ta samaya nai,
‘krsna bhaja’ bale uchchaihsvare

‘Gaudiya Vaishnavs call out loudly: Wake up! Wake up, brother! There is no time left! Worship Lord Krishna!’

(Acharya Vandana)

Gurudev opened all these temples so that we could live there and sincerely serve the Lord…

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 50 Mb
Length: 104 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Free Yourself From Deceit
2) Be Truthful, Pious, and Sincere
3) Chastity In Preaching
4) Cry, Pray, and Serve
5) Service: Labour of Love
6) Service: Adherence and Attachment
7) Forging Fortune
8) Concentrate Your Mind on Nityananda Prabhu's Service
9) Direct Your Mind to Bhagavatam
10) Keep Yourself On Track
11) Are You Getting Off?
12) Gentle Clean Hearts
13) Do Not Give Up
14) False Attachments