(9/14) Devoured by Darkness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
26 February 2019, noon, part 9
Translated from Bengali

You can see, and can easily understand, what I want to say.

There are people who serve the Lord (such people are called devotees of the Lord). At the same time, in this material world, there are also other people who cannot serve the Lord. What is the reason? Why cannot they serve the Lord? Because their souls are attacked by Maya: Maya keeps their souls covered, and they cannot see anything. Just as when you have cataracts in your eyes you cannot see anything, but once those cataracts are removed you can see everything again; in the same way, Maya keeps souls so deeply riveted to herself, so deeply bound within the bondage of the illusory environment that they become her servants and live serving her. She turns them into her servants and does not let them see the Lord.

Despite that, if some fortunate soul makes a step forward towards the Lord and receives the seed of the devotional creeper from gurudev (lets the guru plant it in their heart) and after that genuinely practises sravan and kirtan (listens about the Lord and chants the Lord's Names and glories), then the soul becomes exposed and feels attracted to serve the Lord. Until and unless your soul remains covered by Maya, it can never serve the Lord. Remember this.

What is Maya's play like? Suppose you put a piece of iron into fire and keep it there for some time. The fire will heat the iron and make it red-hot; after that, if you touch that iron to a piece of cloth or some paper or touch it with your hand, the iron will burn everything. Before that, the iron did not burn anything, so why does it burn now? Because it gets this power to burn from fire. In the same way, getting her power from the Lord, Maya takes us away from the Lord and turns us into her servants. This is how she runs this world.

Lord Sri Krishna is the master of Maya, as well as all other created living entities. If a fortunate soul surrenders at the holy lotus feet of the Lord, at the holy lotus feet of the Lord's devotee, at the holy lotus feet of a bona fide guru, then Maya thinks, 'This fortunate soul has fallen at the holy feet of my Master. I cannot do anything now. I am going to leave this soul alone.' This is how Maya eventually flees from a soul.

Wherever there is darkness, there is Maya; and wherever there is light (wherever there is service to the Lord going on), Maya has no right to be there. You must always remember this. If you cannot understand this, you will not achieve anything in your lives. Therefore, it is our prayer at your holy feet to practise Krishna consciousness. You are doing so many things in your lives, but you are doing everything bypassing, or avoiding, God, and all your efforts become reduced to zero.

Krishna Himself says that among numbers He is number one – if you put a zero after one, you get ten; if you add one more zero, you get a hundred, then a thousand, ten thousand, and so on. But if you take number one out, then all these zero have no existence – everything becomes empty (sunya). That is why those for whom there is no God are called sunyavadis (voidists) or mayavadis (impersonalists). Leaving God aside, they claim to be gods themselves. Mayavadis consider themselves gods – they say, 'This body is my god!' They call 'nara' (an embodied human being) Narayan (God). A man can never become Narayan, neither can Narayan ever become a man. Not only that, many people promote 'service to poor Narayan' (daridra Narayana seva; দরিদ্র নারায়ণ সেবা). Lord Narayan can never be poor, neither can a poor man be ever Lord Narayan. A poor man can only be a human. Lord Narayan is the storekeeper of all wealth, how can He ever be poor? People are preaching wrong things. A man can never be God. We are all souls, and our souls are parts and parcels of the Lord.

At the same time, disciples can sometimes say that their guru is the Lord Himself who mercifully appears in this world in the form of a guru. It is said in the scriptures also:

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

'I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all scriptures to be no doubt the Supreme Lord Himself and considered to be so by pious souls but who is also no doubt the Lord's dear associate.'

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur)

Gurudev is the Lord Himself (saksad-hari). The Lord comes as a guru in this world to bestow His mercy upon us. But the guru himself will never say, 'I am God!' Always remember this.

— : • : —

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Length: 76 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Bound and Benumbed
2) Within and Without
3) Think about Your Actual Self
4) Pivotal Difference
5) Forget Me Not
6) Antidote to Material Life
7) Mixing in Adulteration
8) Wholesome Life
9) Devoured by Darkness
10) Spiritual Power
11) Depths of Devotion
12) Guard Your Spiritual Purity
13) Focus on Lord's Happiness
14) Pure Devotees' Pure Hankering