Weak and Illusioned

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
17 March 2019, translated from Bengali, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Jay sa-parikara Gaura Nityananda Prabhu ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Rupanuga Guru-varga ki jay
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay
Vrinda Devi Tulasi Devi Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay
Sri Shyama Kunda Radha Kunda Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay
Sri Mayapur Dham Sri Nabadwip Dham Sri Vrindavan Mathura ki jay
Purusottam Ksetra ki jay
Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Tadiya sakha-math samuha ki jay
Sri Mather sevak-vrinda bhakta-vrinda ananta-koti Vaishnav-vrinda ki jay
Sri Gaudiya Acharya-vrinda tridanti-pada-gan ki jay
Sa-parsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu Mahaprabhu ki jay
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay
Suddha-bhakti-vighnar vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Jay Sri Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama ki jay
Parikrama-kari-bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Jay Sri Godrumdwip Madhyamdwip parikrama ki jay
Jay Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Harinam sankirtan ki jay. Gaura premanande Hari bol

[Having chanted "Sri Guru-charana-padma' and 'Kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya':]

How beautiful this is,

কবে শ্রীচৈতন্য মোরে করিবেন দয়া ।
কবে আমি পাইব বৈষ্ণব-পদছায়া ॥

kabe sri chaitanya more karibena daya
kabe ami paiba vaisnava-pada-chhaya [1]

When will Sri Chaitanya be merciful to me? When will I reach the shade of the Vaishnavs' feet?

We must clasp the feet of Vaishnavs and cry, "When will Lord Gaura Hari give His mercy to us? When will I attain the feet of Vaishnavs? When will I be able to serve Vaishnavs?" 'Attaining feet' means we must take shelter at the feet of Vaishnavs and 'service' means following what the Vaishnavs tell us, following their instruction.

কবে আমি ছাড়িব এ বিষয়াভিমান ।
কবে বিষ্ণুজনে আমি করিব সম্মান ॥

kabe ami chhadiba e visayabhimana
kabe visnu-jane ami kariba sammana [2]

When will I give up this mundane ego? When will I honour the Lord's devotees?

"I have money", "I have a car", "I have a house", "I have a wife", "I have a son", "I have a daughter"—when will I be able to leave all this material ego? When will I be able to give honour to the Lord's devotees giving up all this material ego? Everything is the property of the Lord. Overcome by ego, we try to enjoy everything that there is in this world; that is our problem. "My house", "My room", "My land", "My son", "My wife"—actually, because of such ego we use everything for our own pleasure, i.e. for the pleasure of Maya.

If you put a piece of iron into fire, the iron will become red, which means that the iron gets some power from the fire; if you then touch this red-hot iron to some plastic or cloth, the iron will burn it. Maya Devi's play is also like that. This world is run by the play of Maya—everyone in this world is attracted by Maya. Maya gets her power from the Lord and turns us all into her servants and maidservants. How much wrong, how many atrocities are done in this world because of that.

Our ears want to hear nonsense things, our eyes want to see nonsense things, our mouth, that is meant for service and Krishna-katha, wants to say nonsense things and gossip. Maya Devi deceives us and makes us forget everything. Making us her servants and maidservants, she keeps us far away from the service to the Lord. However, if some fortunate soul becomes attracted to the service of the Lord and makes a step towards service, then Maya Devi gradually leaves their side, but she will always try to find a hole through which she can enter.

When you are weak, you are attacked by various diseases—in the same way, if you are weak in your practice of Krishna consciousness, if you have a weak foundation in devotion, Maya Devi will always attack you. It is first necessary to make a strong foundation. When you build a house, you must first make a strong foundation before building the walls, etc. The foundation in devotion is also like that. The problem is that we do not have faith. We are always controlled by the desire to eat good food, to get good money, to get good rest, etc. We are always controlled by rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (the senses of sight, taste, smell, hearing, touch). We are controlled by the desire to get good things, we want to taste good things, we want to hear pleasant things, etc. All living entities of this world are like that. Even dogs fight for the food they find in some refuse—if you throw something away, they will fight for those discarded things. If a pig passes stool, it will then fight over that stool with other pigs. This is the situation in this world.

But you understand these things. You struggle and circumambulate this holy abode—the sadhus take so much trouble to take you on this parikrama so that you may see so many places. Many of you walked during all parikrama today, and I was thinking how we will go from here to Mayapur tomorrow (it is far). I have sent many boys today to find buses for us, but there were no buses available in Mayapur. I sent somebody by a motorcycle, and they drove around Mayapur in rain. (There was hardly any rain here, but it rained in Mayapur.) In this way, devotees work so hard, they do so much, but we do not feel any desire for service—we are not attracted, not attached to service. We worry how we (i.e. our body) will manage, but everything comes from the Lord. This body may have been given to us by our parents, but 'we' are not created by them. Maya Devi always tries to remove us from the service to the Lord, that is why we always only run behind trifle things, but Gurudev said, "If you do not give up trifle things, you will not get great things."

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