(6) Between Scylla and Charybdis

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Evening preaching programme,
13 March 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

You have been listening about the Lord and chanting the Lord's glories so far. Listening (sravan) means 'that which is beneficial' (sreyo) plus 'forest/harmony' (van). It means listening to something that can bring you the highest benefit.

We turned away from the Lord and have been living in aversion to Him since the time immemorial. We forgot the Lord. But whenever you do something, you have to reap the reaction. What is the solution to such a life? How can you live without sinning and killing millions of living entities every day? You must turn your families into Krishna-centred families. I am not saying that you must leave your nice houses and come to live at the temple. You can live at home, you can live in a forest – it does not matter; always call out to the Lord.

You plant a mango tree, and the tree produces mangoes; you plant a guava tree, and the tree produces guavas; or you plant some flower tree, and the tree produces flowers – these are not for you to enjoy. Remember this. If somebody thinks, 'I planted this tree, so I will eat the fruit,' they are called 'bhogi' (enjoyers); and if somebody thinks, 'I have a mango tree, but I do not eat mangoes, so let the fruit fall and rot,' they are called 'tyagi' (renunciates). Neither of the two will come to the Lord. Neither renounced people, nor enjoyers come to the Lord. Among the two kinds of people, there is another class of people that is midway between them – they are called 'sevi' (servitors).

Many people make a show of taking initiation from a guru, but this is only pretence – such people are guru-bhogi (they come to use their guru). They think, 'This guru has a lot of money, I can get some profit here. I can live comfortably and happily.' They take initiation hoping to gain something – many people come to worship God because they want to get something. It is the same as getting a job by bribing some official. For example, you want to work as a school teacher, you can apply and see that there are no vacancies, so you bribe some official and they give you a job. You come and make the person a bribe-taker. In the same way, we turn worshippable Gods into bribe-takers. We make them serve us.

The solution to this situation is, instead of bribing Gods, to serve the Lord with heart and soul. We should engage ourselves in the service to our guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord.

You can live at home and serve the Lord. For example, you plant a flower tree, and if you can use the flowers of this tree for the service to Lord Govinda, then the tree will get some benefit and in the meantime you can also do some service. There is no selfishness in such action. If you plant a mango tree or a guava tree, offer the fruit to Govinda and then give everybody prasad and take the remnants yourselves, then you will be servitors (sevi) – then you will be neither an enjoyer, nor a renunciate. Those who live on the plane of impersonalism are called renunciates – they do not do anything for Krishna. But for Krishna, you can both enjoy and renounce, as long as it is for Krishna. For Krishna you can do anything. For Krishna, you can enjoy, and for Krishna you can renounce. Always remember this.

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