(9) Live as Servants

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, Lord Siva's Temple inauguration,
5 March 2019, morning, part 9
Translated from Bengali

Do not forget the Lord. You must always think about Him. Why do we suffer from the threefold miseries? You think that you have no money, that is why you are unhappy, but those who have money suffer even more. You can see the example of California. How old is this girl here? Five years old? In California, when a five-year-old child celebrates their birthday, they get five cars as birthday presents. When their children are born, the children get ten–twenty cars as birthday presents. This is how reach that place is. Despite that, the suicide rate is the highest in California. Why? What do they lack? They have no peace, no happiness. You think that you are unhappy because you have no money, and if somebody gave you money, you would be happy. It is not like that.

There are three kinds of miseries. Adhibhautik miseries are the miseries caused by other souls. For example, to get rice, we have to cut paddy – it also feels pain. If you come to a gourd plant and cut its head off (cut the vegetable it has produced), it also feels pain. If you cut cabbage, the plant also feel pain. When you cut bananas of a banana tree, the tree also feels pain. Every single living entity lives at the expense of killing other souls. Obviously, those who kill goats and chickens also cause pain to other souls. I told you yesterday that we are alive in this world by killing millions of living entities every day. When we breathe in and breathe out, we consume so many living entities living in the air – they all enter our bodies and die. When you drink water, you also kill living entities living in the water. When you drive or walk down the street, you kill so many ants and other insects. When you grow paddy or potato and use pesticides, you kill so many insects. What can we do about it? Whenever we make some action, we have to reap a reaction. What is the solution?

The solution is to do it for the Lord. If you cut paddy for Lord Krishna, if you do farming for Krishna, if you run a business for Krishna, then you will not have to suffer from the reaction of actions. Krishna says, 'Everything that is created in this world is created for My pleasure.' You can plant a mango tree thinking that you and your children will eat the fruit, but this is wrong. You can plant a mango tree, collect the mango fruit and use it for the service to Lord Govinda. Keep the Lord in your homes (a photograph) – place the Lord and your guru-varga on a throne, and whenever you get some mango or whenever you cook something, come and offer it to them, 'Here, eat it.' After the Lord takes that mango, you can give prasad to your children and everybody else. If you live like this, you will not incur any sin: you give the Lord's things to the Lord, you do not steal anything. It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 'Everything that is created in this world is created for My enjoyment. If you take something and eat, wear or enjoy it yourself, it means that you are taking My things and using them for yourselves. This is stealing.'

You think that you have planted the mango tree, but can you give life to a tree? You plant a coconut palm, but can you give life to the palm? Can you do anything to keep it alive? You cannot. You have no such capacity. Even when you are hospitalised and treated by doctors, do you think that your life is in the hands of the doctors? Can they save you? If the Lord wants to take somebody away, He will take them away, and nobody can stop it.

Such is the power of the Lord, but we forgot Him and live as either enjoyers or as renunciates. Both enjoyers and renunciates are bad. Without going to any of the extremes, we must live as servants. If you think, 'Oh, there are mangoes on the tree? I do not care – let them rot and fall! They belong to the Lord, so why must I take them? Let them rot.' It means that you are spoiling and wasting the Lord's things. You do not use His things in His service. You plant a flower tree and enjoy its beauty, but the plant thinks, 'I have give birth to these flowers, but they have not been offered at the holy feet of my Lord Govinda. My life has passed in vain.' If you pick those flowers and use them in the service of the Lord, then the flower tree will get benefit. Some of you brought some rice or potato to the temple – this rice will be used to serve the Lord. You are very fortunate because through you have brought this rice and so many rice plants have got benefit. Those who are unfortunate miss this kind of an opportunity. Always think about this. This is what it means to live in a Krishna-centred family.

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