(2/9) Know Thyself

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
24 February 2019, evening, part 2
Translated from Bengali

You have heard many kinds of kirtans in many various places, but what I will tell you is something that nobody except Gaudiya Vaishnavs will tell you.

The main, most important and actual thing is actually your soul, or your heart. We think that we know everything, that we understand everything; we have come here having studied a lot, having gained much knowledge, but the problem is that, even knowing so much, we still do not know who we ourselves are.

If somebody asks you, 'Who are you?' you at once reply telling the person your name, or you say that you this person's aunt, that person's grandson, that person's father, and so on. You consider this your identity, but it actually is not – it is only an identity that pertains to this world. This is how we tell the untruth taking it for the truth.

You have these identities only because you were born in this world as humans. Our parents give us these bodies, but they did not produce that which we are. For example, if I drop dead now, my friends and relatives (my disciples) will start crying, and then they will throw my body into the Ganges and come back to their houses. Is that not so? But I will be gone at this time. So, what is that substance, that person, that leaves the body?

I am moving my legs, I am moving my arms, I am speaking to you all, I can see so many things around me – there is something inside me that animates this body. What is that something? Have you ever thought about it? What makes it possible for me to do so many things with this body? This substance, or this person, within that allows this body to move and do so many things is what I actually am. When somebody asks you, 'Who are you?' you tell them your name, but this is only your name. If somebody points at your leg and asks, 'What is this?', you will reply, 'This is my leg.' You know, when children are small and are only learning to speak, their parents teach them, 'Look, this is your eye. This is your nose. This is your ear.' So, you have this name, you have this body, but you must know who you actually are.

We are eternal, and we must search for the eternal. This eternal substance within us is called the soul (jivatma). The same kind of soul is there within all living entities – an ant has a soul, an elephant has a soul, a bamboo tree has a soul, a guava tree has a soul, a Tulasi tree has a soul, a mosquito has a soul, and all the tiny flies that swarm around a light bulb have a soul, too. Everybody has the same soul within them independent of the kind of body they have.

It is the soul is what we all must think about. These here are our bodies. The soul and the body are not the same thing. So, when genuine sadhus come to your houses, they come to speak to you about the benefit of the soul: they come to tell you how you can bring benefit to your souls.

When you leave this body, you will get another body. This is how this world revolves – you leave a body and get another body. This circle continues eternally. For example, you have got this human body now, and it is said in the scriptures that you have got this human body having crossed 8,400,000 species of all the kinds of animals, trees and insects: monkeys, sheep, dogs, cats, goats, snakes, frogs, sharks, crocodiles, etc. There are 400,000 human species and 8,000,000 other species (animals, trees, etc.). So, sometimes you are born as a dog, sometimes as a human, sometimes as a monkey, sometimes as a crow, sometimes as a pigeon, a chicken, a goat, a cow or an ox. We have gone through all these innumerable bodies, and not only that, we have also crossed 400,000 human bodies. Sometimes we were born in Pakistan, sometimes in Afghanistan, sometimes in America, sometimes we were born as Christians, sometimes as Buddhists, sometimes as brahmans and lived as brahmans for one thousand years. Sometimes, we were born as demons also. We have gone through all these births, but now we are born here in India.

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

'One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

This human birth allows us to do something good for others, but first it is necessary understand what is actually good for others...

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 23 Mb
Length: 48 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Cherish Tulasi Seva
2) Know Thyself
3) Align Yourself with Your Soul
4) Appealing to Intelligence
5) Turn Karma Into Seva
6) Mental Hunger
7) No Cheating
8) Kali's Poison
9) A Taste of Sadhu-Sanga