What Are You Doing With Your Life?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Begampur, 7 March 2021, part 2

So many incarnations of the Lord have come to this world, but in this age of Kali, Krishna takes Srimati Radharani's heart and halo and becomes Gauranga, Radha-Krishna's combined form.

মহাপ্রভু শ্রীচৈতন্য, রাধাকৃষ্ণ নহে অন্য,
রূপানুগ জনের জীবন ।

mahaprabhu sri chaitanya radha-krsna nahe anya
rupanuga janera jivana

"Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is nondifferent from Sri Sri Radha-Krsna and is the very life of Sri Rupa's followers."

Who is Sri Krishna Chaitanya? He is Mahaprabhu, none other than Radha-Krishna, and He is the crest-jewel of all avatars (incarnations of the Lord).

We must leave material world, material ego,

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya

"When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?"

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana

"When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?"

Those who are rich have ego, those who are beautiful have ego, those who are powerful have ego. But how will we leave this ego? When will we be able to give respect to Vaishnavs?..

This is a very good song. We always sing it, but we may sometimes not understand its meaning.

It says here, "Bhaja bhaja bhai chaitanya nitai sudrdha visvasa kari'. Brother, serve, serve Sri Sri Chaitanya-Nitai with firm faith!" It is necessary to have the strongest faith. Faith is the main foundation in devotional life. When I am born, my mother tells me, "This is your father," and we believe that. In the same way, sastra, grantha, so many scriptures, all the rishis, all the munis tell us something, and we must believe that. It is necessary to have the strongest faith. There are four types of faith—kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, drdha-sraddha, sudrdha-sraddha (tender faith, fickle faith, strong faith, and the strongest faith). If somebody has little faith, they can leave this line very quickly, but it is necessary to have the strongest faith. Sudrdha visvasa kari—always keep the strongest faith.

Mahaprabhu told about Nityananda Prabhu,

মদিরা যবনী যাদি নিত্যানন্দ ধরে ।
তথাপি ব্রহ্মার বন্দ্য কহিল তোমারে ॥

madira yavani yadi nityananda dhare
tathapi brahmara vandya kahila tomare

"Even if Nityananda Prabhu takes a drunk lady by Her hand, He is always worshippable even for Lord Brahma."

"Even if Nityananda comes drunk, even if He takes a Muslim lady, He will be still worshippable even for Lord Brahma." That is why, it is necessary to have the strongest faith in your guru—Nityananda means guru-tattva. Keep the strongest faith in your guru.

বিষয় ছাড়িয়া সে রসে মজিয়া
মুখে বল হরি হরি ॥

visaya chhadiya se rase majiya
mukhe bala hari hari

Leave aside worldly affairs, merge into this rasa, and chant aloud, 'Hari! Hari!'

Giving up all visaya means,

আসক্তিরহিত সম্বন্ধসহিত ।
বিষয়সমূহ সকলি মাধব ॥

'asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'
visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

"When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Madhav Himself."

('Vaishnav ke?' verse 12)

You must be detached. It is not necessary to be materially attached. One time, somebody asked Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj when he was staying in a public toilet, "Babaji Maharaj, why are you staying here? Are you not getting the bad smell?" Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj said, "Yes, I am getting a bad smell, but this smell of stool and urine I can tolerate, but what I cannot tolerate is the smell of gross materialists—that smell is very dangerous!"

বিষয় ছাড়িয়া সে রসে মজিয়া
মুখে বল হরি হরি ॥

visaya chhadiya se rase majiya
mukhe bala hari hari

Leave aside worldly affairs, merge into this rasa, and chant aloud, 'Hari! Hari!'

We tell many things, but how much time do we spend chanting the Holy Name? How much time do we spend practising properly? And how many hours do we spend on our own self, on our own body?

ভাল মন্দ খাই, হেরি, পরি, চিন্তাহীন ।
নাহি ভাবি এ দেহ ছাড়িব কোনদিন ॥

bhala manda khai, heri, pari, chinta-hina
nahi bhavi, e deha chhadiba kona dina

I eat luxuriously, look around, and dress carelessly, never considering that one day I will leave this body.

We think, "I will never leave this body! I will eat fancy food, wear fancy clothes!" This is what we are doing, but Sriman Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami,

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Therefore, it says here

বিষয় ছাড়িয়া সে রসে মজিয়া
মুখে বল হরি হরি ॥

visaya chhadiya se rase majiya
mukhe bala hari hari

Leave aside worldly affairs, merge into this rasa, and chant aloud, 'Hari! Hari!'

We must always think about the Lord! It is not necessary to think about anything or anyone else. We must go back to our home! Amritasya-putra—we are all relatives because we are all sons and daughters of nectar, and we must go back to that nectar. We have lost our own address, we have lost our home...

They are very kind! We are fallen souls, and Nityananda Prabhu is perfect for fallen souls—only He can rescue us from this situation. We are constantly attacked by the illusory environment (we have fallen into the nets of illusion), and He is our only hope. Madhai beat Him, but Nityananda told him, "You can beat Me, I have no objection, but chant the Holy Name!" Even Mahaprabhu was very angry with Madhai, but Nityananda begged Mahaprabhu for Madhai, "Give him to Me! Please give him to Me as alms!" How merciful Nityananda Prabhu is!

শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য-দয়া করহ বিচার ।
বিচার করিলে চিত্তে পাবে চমৎকার ॥

sri-krsna-chaitanya-daya karaha vichara
vichara karile chitte pabe chamatkara

"If you consider the mercy of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, you will be wonder-struck to realise it."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.15)

How much mercy of Chaitanya-chandra He bestowed all over the world! Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Gurudev, they all distributed Chaitanya's mercy, Prabhupad's mercy everywhere all over the world.

Hearing the glorification of Nityananda and Gauranga, even birds cry! When Mahaprabhu went to Jharikhand, all tigers and deer sat together and chanted, "Hari bol! Hari bol!" When Mahaprabhu was walking down the street, even birds would cry, but our heart is as hard as a rock! Our heart never gets melted. Even though we hear about Nitai-Gaura, even though we hear the glorification of Nityananda, our heart, our mind remain very hard, as hard as a rock! Even birds and beasts start crying, but our heart does not melt!

We are too much attached with family life—we always think about kanak and kamini (money and women). Yet we do not think about Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, we do not think about Gurudev's mercy. We are so engrossed into material life that we have no time, no energy to think about Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, about Gauranga's mercy. We have no time for anything! But,

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 are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Day by day our life is passing, and each day our age is not increasing—our age is decreasing! Day by day our lifetime is becoming less. We are suffering from the results of our actions that we did in previous lives and in this life also.

Srila Lochan Das Thakur composed this "Parama Karuna" song, it is a very nice song.

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