(6) What Are You Waiting For?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, Lord Siva's Temple inauguration,
5 March 2019, morning, part 6
Translated from Bengali

I have told you about it a hundred times, and I will tell you a thousand times more. How should you serve Lord Siva? You think that you can come, put two flowers or wave some incense and go away. This is not all there is to it. You can offer flowers, it is all right, but you should also clean the temple, wipe the stairs and do other services.

How long are you going to be in this world? You can see ** Prabhu. The temple here is being opened owing to him, he is behind it all, but he is not here now because he has a big problem in his family. He told me this morning, 'I have to leave at once.' I asked him, 'Why? What has happened?' He explained that his sister-in-law (his younger brother's wife) was dying in hospital. I know her. She is a young girl. She went with us to Delhi and some other places. She has one or two children, and she must be about forty years old only. She was hospitalised, and in the morning the doctor said that she had only half an hour at most left to live. I went there to see her, too (** Prabhu insisted that I come to see her), and I saw that everybody was crying, but I told them, 'Instead of crying, chant the Holy Name of Lord Krishna.' This is how this world is. She is only thirty-eight or forty years old. When I saw her last time at their house, just a few days ago, she was absolutely all right, but when she suddenly got into hospital, the doctors said that she had blockage in four(!) arteries. She must have passed away already... I told them, 'She still has half an hour. She should call out to the Lord. The doctors say that she has half an hour left to live, but the Lord can also save her. Nothing happens without the will of the Lord.' This is what happened. So, how long do you think you are going to be in this world? Everybody has to leave one day.

You worry about your families, households, what you will eat, what you will wear, where or how you will sleep, what your children will do, but you will have to leave all this behind. When life leaves your bodies, your bodies will stay behind, but you (your soul) will leave. Your bodies will be thrown away and burnt, and your family may not even get time to come at that time. That lady I have told you about had only one son. He found a job in Bengalore and moved there. They kept telling him, 'Come home, stay with us. We have a big business here. Come and stay with the family.' Now they told him the news that his mother had passed away; he did not even get time to come to see her.

You must think about these things. We will not be in this world for a long time. We have to leave this world one day, and nobody knows when our time will come. So, why are you waiting? What are you waiting for? Start serving the Lord right now, from this very moment.

We will not be in this world long. We have to leave this world. Having spent ten months and ten days in the wombs of our mothers, we promised to the Lord, 'I will serve You, I will use my eyes, my hands, etc. to serve You.' So, if you can live in your houses doing everything for Krishna, it will be very good. You cook for your husbands and children anyway, but if you could instead cook for Govinda, do you think Govinda will eat everything and leave you starving? You can see devotees cooking here today for Lord Govinda. After they make the offering to Govinda, His prasad will be offered to Lord Siva. Do you think They will eat everything? Yes, They will eat, but They will not keep any of you starving. Everybody will get prasad.

You must turn your houses into Krishna's households. They will finish cooking bhoga soon and then offer it to the Lord with a bhoga-arati. This is the rule. Actually, they are a little late today because it took time to prepare the vegetables. The rule is that you must offer whatever vegetables are in season – for example, okra, jhinga (ridge gourd), green jackfruit and karela are growing now, so we must offer them to the Lord. Some ingredients were brought only this morning, so they are still cooking. They are making vegetables with paneer and other things...

You must do everything for the Lord, then the Lord will take care of you. If we think about ourselves and take care of ourselves, then the Lord will say, 'If you are taking care of yourself yourself, then I will not take care of you.' We should leave everything to the Lord. We must have faith, 'You are the master, so You will manage everything.' We are not managers. The only manager is the Lord. Krishna manages everything. He gives water, light and everything else. People plant potato and make so many plans, thinking they will get a big harvest and profit, but you can see how much rainfall there has been in Tarakeswar and Hooghly – all their potato is destroyed now. No matter how many plans you make, everything is in the hands of the Lord. He can do anything He likes.

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