(5) Look Deeper

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

Srila Prabhupad said about Lord Jagannath:

‘Lord Jagannath is not an object of vision, Jagannath is the seer. When jiva souls give up the ego of a “seer” and become completely established in the pure ego of being objects of Jagannath’s vision and enjoyment, then they will attain service mood and will be able to receive the darshan of Lord Jagannath with the eyes of divine love, filled with serving attitude.’

This is how you can see Lord Jagannath; otherwise, you will see only all kinds of nonsense. You come to see the Lord, but instead of the Lord you will only see a nice building.

‘For as long as we think, “I will see Jagannath,” we will not see Jagannath – instead, we will see only wood, stone, a formless figure from Buddhist literature or historical accounts, an enjoyable idol; and when we can wholeheartedly feel, “He will see me. We are objects meant for His enjoyment; there is no veil of our own enjoyment when it comes to His pleasure; He is free to act as He pleases without any constraints,” then Jagannath will manifest Himself before us.’

Lord Jagannath Himself becomes manifest before those who understand, 'We are ingredients for His enjoyment. He is to enjoy us, not the other way.' This is what Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur says.

What is Maya Devi's play like? If you place a piece of iron into fire, this iron will become red; after that, if you touch that red-hot iron to somebody's body, some cloth or paper, it will burn everything. Where does iron get this power to burn everything? From fire. Maya is also like that. Getting her power from the Lord, Maya turns everybody into her servants and maidservants and removes everybody from the Lord's service. How so? For example, a boy's mother tells him, 'You must serve me,' or his father says, 'You must serve me.' They think, 'I gave birth to this son, so he must serve me.' But parents only give bodies to their children, they do not create the soul that lives within those bodies. If you take your parents' blood and your blood and analyse it, you will see that it is the same blood. But do you understand who you actually are? Your parents give you a body, but who are you? The body they give is temporary, fleeting – once you die, they will burn it. But that which we are was created by the Lord. The problem is that we forget Him and sit in this world serving our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends and relatives. Is that so or not? We waste our time!

Time will not wait for anybody. Moment after moment our time is passing, and we waste all this time. Do you think you have time for all this material attachment? We have no time!

উঠরে উঠরে ভাই, আর ত সময় নাই,
‘কৃষ্ণ ভজ’ বলে উচ্চৈঃস্বরে ॥

uthare uthare bhai, ara ta samaya nai,
‘krsna bhaja’ bale uchchaihsvare

‘Gaudiya Vaishnavs call out loudly: Wake up! Wake up, brother! There is no time left! Worship Lord Krishna!’

(Acharya Vandana)

The Lord says, 'I have given you children and let you enjoy a nice life. I have given you everything but I may not have given it all, too. And even if I give you a wife, a husband and children, I can also take it all away. I have such power. Why do you forget Me? Why do you only think about them? Because you forget Me, you are suffering this agony of threefold miseries!' These miseries are adhyatmik, adhibhautik, adhidaivik (আধ্যাত্মিক, আধিভৌতিক, আধিদৈবিক) – miseries caused by one's own body and mind, by other souls and by the nature or gods.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি’ সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

‘Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

The solution to this all is to chant the Holy Name without offences!!

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