(4) Value Your Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 5 April 2019, part 4
Translated from Bengali

শ্রীরাধার ভাবে যিনি সুবর্ণ বরণ ।
সাঙ্গোপাঙ্গে নবদ্বীপে যাঁর সংকীর্ত্তন ॥
কলিতে উপাস্য সেই কৃষ্ণ গৌরহরি ।
নবধা ভক্তিতে তাঁরে উপাসনা করি ॥

sri-radhara bhave yini suvarna varana
sangopange navadvipe yanra sankirtana
kalite upasya sei krsna gaura-hari
navadha bhakti tanre upasana kari

'I worship with nine kinds of devotion Sri Krishna who is worshipped in Kali-yuga as Sri Gaura-Hari garbed into the divine mood and golden complexion of Sri Radha and performing sankirtan pastimes in Sri Nabadwip.'

(Sri Sri Nabadwip-sataka, Bengali translation by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

So many people came from all kinds of places at the time of Gaura Purnima and, tolerating the austerity of staying in pandals, did the parikrama of Sri Nabadwip Dham. I was very happy. I woke up early and started leading kirtan. Even I did not know whether I would manage or not. I was not able to hold a pen to write, I was not able to walk, but you saw me today – I was able to climb the stairs to the roof. The Lord and Gurudev bestowed so much mercy on me. I climbed the stairs nicely today, like before, without any fear. I have a strong mind...

I take twenty-two tables every day, and this is how I am managing. During the parikrama, I could not eat my meals properly in the morning and afternoon. I would eat a full meal in the morning and then go out, but in the afternoon it was not regular.

Turning away from the Lord and forgetting the Lord, we have been serving Maya since time immemorial. We keep working for Maya, but do we have time for that? How long are we going to be in this world? We can leave this world at any time, even this very moment. Yesterday somebody died – I had never seen them in my life. A lady went to wash Deities' dishes at the ghat in the afternoon when she suddenly felt some pain in her chest. She went to lie down and died. They told me yesterday that they had stopped construction works in Bangladesh. I asked them why they had stopped the Lord's service, and they said that somebody had died. I asked who had died, and they said that somebody's daughter-in-law. I had never seen that son in my life (he was not born in my time), but his wife already died. Such is people's life duration. She must have been in her thirties.

People die in their thirties, forties – they die very young... But it never occurs to us that it can happen to us. We do not have the kind of fortune that Pariksit Maharaj or Khatvanga Maharaj had – we will not get any advance notice. Pariksit Maharaj got a death notice seven days in advance, Khatvanga Maharaj got his death notice forty-eight minutes ahead, but I do not know if I will die or not within the next seven minutes or seconds. None of us knows this. Although this life is so uncertain, we make so many plans, we have so many hopes. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote:

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

‘May I have the same kind of love for Your holy feet as I now have for this material world.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Srila Prahlad Maharaj also expressed a similar point. The love for the material world and everything in it is called lust (kama) – we have this kind of love for the material world, and it is slowly increasing. If you place a piece of wood into a fire, the fire will burn more; if you put ten more pieces of wood, it will burn even stronger; and if you put a thousand pieces of wood, it will burn even more – the fire cannot be put out like that. This is how our lust works, too. It is necessary to put out the fire. The kind of love we feel towards this material world must come towards the Lord.

Our material lust only increases, and when we cannot get what we want, we become angry – lust gives rise to anger. This is how we become slaves of our senses...

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