Be Conscious

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
16 April 2013

You must keep the mridanga in front of you, not behind. It is an offence. Mridanga is Nityananda Prabhu Himself, and if you neglect it, it is an offence.

If you think the Deity has no life—it is made of stone, made of wood—it is also an offence. If you think the mridanga is made of clay, brass, and other things, it is a kind of offence. When they give chandan (sandalwood), they first give it to the mridanga, kartal, and the books. When you give 'jay', you say, "Chaitanya bhagavata ki, kol, karatal ki"—why do you give 'jay' to them? Because they have life. Do you understand? We say, "Kol, karatal ki, grantha Bhagavata ki, Chaitanya-charitamrita ki"—they are nondifferent from the Lord.

Krishna's beauty, pastimes, Krishna's Name, virtues, activities, are nondifferent from Krishna, nondifferent from the Lord. But if you think, "Deity is made of stone," "Mridanga is made of clay," and so on, it is martya-buddhi (seeing everything as mortal, being ignorant). If you actually chant the Holy Name of Krishna properly, you will get so much energy, life, enthusiasm...

Dogs too have life. When you are going to die, you shout, "Father! Mother!" and the dogs too shout, "Father! Mother!" but we do not understand their language.

There are different types of consciousness: achchhadita-chetan (fully covered consciousness), sankuchita-chetan (closed, subdued consciousness), mukulita-chetan (budding consciousness), vikachita-chetan (blooming consciousness), and purna-vikachita-chetan (fully blossomed consciousness).

How do we know that trees, plants have consciousness? I can give you an example. There is a plant called lajjapati (লজ্জাপতি, Mimosa pudica, or 'shameplant'). Lajja means shy—if you touch that plant, it immediately closes up its leaves. There are also plants that can live on a tree, outside the soil and with no roots. I have seen such plants. When I studied biology, they showed me many things...

In this world, you are born as a human being and you have full consciousness, purna-vikachita-chetan, but if you do not utilise that chetan-sakti for the right purpose, then you will lose this life and again have to get another life, and you may not get purna-vikachita-chetan (full consciousness) again...

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