(6) Halo of Service Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kadigachha, festive morning programme,
6 March 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

This life is not eternal! I am talking here to you now, but is there any guarantee that I will not be burnt at the crematorium tomorrow?

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার
নামাশ্রয় করি’ যতনে তুমি,
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari’ yatane tumi,
thakaha apana kaje

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers. Carry on your life but try your best to take shelter in the Holy Name.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We are not telling anybody to give up their work – we do not prohibit anybody to go to work, to do farming, to cook, etc. You can continue doing everything, but do it for Govinda. If you cook, cook for Govinda. Keep a Deity photograph at home, cook for Him, offer bhoga to Him with some Tulasi leaves. Whatever you usually cook, cook it for the Lord and offer it to Him; offer some water in a glass. If you cannot buy offering bowls, you can offer bhoga on a plate. Otherwise, buy a plate and a set of bowls and offer bhoga like that, pray with the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, 'O Lord, please accept this offering.' After that, you can give that prasad to everybody at home. If you do this, then the rice paddy will get benefit, the vegetables that you cook will get benefit – if you cook cabbage, the cabbage will be able to do some service; if you cook potato, the potato will be able to do some service; if you cook spinach, the spinach will be abel to do some service.

To grow something, you need water, wind, soil and other facilities – water, wind and soil are all represented by demigods, and even they want to serve Lord Govinda. It is within sadhus' and devotees' capacity to engage everybody in the service of Lord Govinda. If there is no water, there will be no crops. If there is no sun (if you plant something indoors), there will be no crops, too. You need soil to grow something, so people worship Kurmadev, a tortoise incarnation of the Lord, the Deity of the Earth. After Sri Ratha-yatra festival, we will go to South India, and we will visit Kurmaksetra. Mahaprabhu also visited that place. Do we worship Kurmadev? We do not – He is worshipped in South India. Do we worship the God of Sun? We do not – He is worshipped in Bihar. Do we worship the God of Water? We do not. You cannot worship each and every god, but if you worship Lord Krishna, then the worship of all gods is automatically accomplished.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

‘sraddha’-sabde visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

‘Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

[To one of the ladies] Didi, are you sleeping? Do you need a pillow? If you sleep, I will get you a pillow. [Laughter] It is actually necessary to joke sometimes; it is not good to always talk seriously. I am not a very funny person, I always speak seriously, that is why people say that I am an angry man, but I am not – I like joking...

Your debts to your father, mother, rishis (sages), demigods – all debts – are cleared if you worship Lord Krishna. Do you think that you can worship all 330,000,000 gods? You cannot. Even if you worship one god, all the other gods will be unhappy. But if you worship Lord Krishna, then you automatically worship all gods. Just as when you pour water on the root of the tree, the whole tree is nourished, and then you do not need to water all the branches and leaves separately. Therefore, you must worship Lord Krishna.

We were chanting just now:

জয় যশোদানন্দন কৃষ্ণ গোপাল গোবিন্দ ।
জয় মদনমোহন হরে অনন্ত মুকুন্দ ॥

jaya yasoda-nandana krsna gopala govinda
jaya madana-mohana hare ananta mukunda

'Glory to Mother Yasoda’s Son, Krishna, Gopal, Govinda! Glory to Madan-Mohan (Enchanter of Cupid), Hari (Supreme Lord), Ananta (Infinite), Mukunda (Granter of Liberation)!'

জয় অচ্যুত মাধব রাম বৃন্দাবনচন্দ্র ।
জয় মুরলীবদন শ্যাম গোপীজনানন্দ ॥

jaya achyuta madhava rama vrndavana-chandra
jaya murali-vadana syama gopi-janananda

'Glory to Achyuta (Invincible), Madhav (Beloved), Rama, Vrindavan-chandra (Moon of Vrindavan)! Glory to Murali-vandan (Flute Player), Shyama (Dark-Hued Lord), Gopi-jana-ananda (Joy of Gopis)!'

This is such a beautiful kirtan. We must always chant Krishna-kirtan. This is the main thing.

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