(8/12) Toxic Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Hooghly District, preaching programme,
23 February 2019, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

There are many gurus all over the world who say, 'Eat whatever you want. Do whatever you like. Just take initiation from me and keep aside fifty rupees and fifty kg of rice a year for me.' If they get a few of such disciples, they can live off them the whole year. The ancestral and gosai gurus are like that; there are such gurus even here, in this locality. They are all members of aul, baul, kartabhaja, nera, darvesh, saki, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosani, atibari, chudadhari, gauranga-nagari. We must never associate with these thirteen apa-sampradayas.

There are also mayavadis who say that the Lord has no form. They believe that God either has no form or does not exist altogether. They themselves have a form (they have two legs, two arms, two ears, two eyes, and so on) – the Lord has created their forms – but they say that the Lord Himself has no form. Such people are voidists – they take the Lord's things and discard them. They think they can live 'eating' air. Go ahead. There are many people like this. They put up big signboards saying, 'Jive prema kare yei jana sei jana sevichhe isvara (জীবে প্রেম করে যেই জন সেই জন সেবিছে ঈশ্বর). Love God by loving others.' Are only humans 'jivas'? Do goats and chickens have no souls? You want to love others, so you distribute medicine among people to help them recover from some illness, but where is the guarantee that once they recover, they do not become dacoits or some bad people? On the other hand, genuine sadhus bring people to this path and give them real benefit.

One man wins one and a half million rupees in a lottery, and everybody in his village then starts to buy lottery tickets – people lose all their money, sell their jewellery, valuables, etc. and become paupers, ruining their families and lives. And the man who won the lottery spent all his money on alcohol and drugs. Whose fault do they say it is? The government's. They cry, 'Why does the government not prohibit lottery?' Do you have no brain of your own? You win one and a half million rupees – you can live happily with your family; instead, you use that money to enjoy and to buy more lottery tickets. What is the point in so much greed? We must not be like that. Whatever the Lord arranges for us – in whichever condition He keeps us – we must be content with that. Whatever the Lord sends us as our food, clothes, etc., we must be content with that. The main thing is that we must not forget the Lord.

We must understand this and live our lives practising Krishna consciousness. We must worship Nitai, we must worship Krishna.

Maya's work is like that. Why do people of this world not chant the Holy Name? Because Maya controls everybody. The Lord created Maya:

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

'My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

Lord Krishna says here in Gita, 'I have created Maya.' I will tell you one example. I tell it at almost every lecture. If I take a piece of iron and put it into fire, after some time the iron will become red – if you then touch that red-hot piece of iron to your hand, it will burn you (or if you touch it to your clothes, it will burn them). Why is it like that? Before, that piece of iron did not burn anything. How does a piece of iron get so much power? From the fire. That is how iron can become capable of burning things. In the same way, getting her power from the Lord, Maya Devi takes others away from the Lord's service and uses them in her own service – she turns everybody into her servants and maidservants. Just as iron burns everything with the power of fire, Maya Devi also turns everybody into her menial servants. That is why we spend twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, worrying about our children, wives or husbands. From the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we fall asleep at night, we only think, 'What shall I eat?', 'What shall I wear?', 'Where shall I go?', 'Where shall I find money?' We always think about ourselves; we do not have time to think about the Lord. But if you live in Krishna's family, then you will be thinking about the Lord.

Those who live in Krishna's family think about Krishna. They offer Krishna bhoga; they cook for Krishna; they do shopping for the Lord; they go to the market for the Lord; they work for the Lord; they run a business for the Lord – they do everything for the Lord. But materialistic, attached householders live intoxicated with their material lives. They do not know, do not notice anything else in this world.

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Eternal Servitude
2) Morning Tells the Day
3) Real Milk – Real Benefit
4) Sins and Animals
5) Remember Your Promises
6) Core of Krishna Consciousness
7) Relief from Miseries
8) Toxic Life
9) Keep Your Charge Up
10) Brahmans' Trade
11) Greed Is Sin, Sin Is Death
12) Seeking Happiness and Peace