(3/8) Your Responsibility

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, 18 April 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

When you come to cross the river, the ferryman will ask you what you have done in your life, especially after you have got this rare human birth.

When you sat during ten months and ten days in your mothers' wombs, suffering from hellish pain, you cried out to the Lord, 'O Lord! Please show Yourself to me! I cannot take this pain anymore.' The Lord appeared in front of you and said, 'I am giving you eyes to see My Deity, I am giving you ears to listen about Me, I am giving you legs to visit My holy abodes – even if you cannot come to My land, you can always take shelter at whichever place where there is Hari-katha going on. Will you do all this?'

Where is a holy place? A holy place is wherever there are devotees talking about the Lord. 'Ye dina grha bhajana dekhi grhete goloka bhaya (যে দিন গৃহে ভজন দেখি গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায়). On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there.' Where is Goloka Vrindavan? At the house where devotees serve the Lord every single day. Offering some insense and ringing the bell – this is not how one serves the Lord. You must feed the Lord every single day.

When you wake up in the morning, you think about having a cup of tea – in the same way, you must think of offering some sweet to the Lord. 'I will offer some balya-bhog to the Lord early in the morning – as soon as I wake up and before I offer insense, etc., I will offer some balya-bhog first. After that, I will cook something and offer that to the Lord and later take His prasad.' If you eat something without offering it first to the Lord, this is stealing! You will be eating sin. This is stealing because you take His things and enjoy with that.

We are alive in this world every day at the expense of killing millions of living entities. When we breathe, we take oxygen and so many living entities enter our bodies and die inside it. When we drink water, when we cut cabbage, cauliflower or any other vegetable, when we make rotis out of wheat flour – how many plants we kill to do all that! Even when you walk on the street or drive a car, so many ants are crushed under your feet or wheels. We live in this world killing millions of living entities, every single day. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, you will have to reap the result for your actions. Why do you forget about this?

Sadhus come to you, and they keep telling you, keep reminding you again and again about this, but you still choose to live in Maya's prison-house, serving her interests. Maya is only doing her job, it is not her fault. Actually, Maya Devi is very powerful because she gets her power from the Lord:

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

'My supramundane trimodal illusory potency (alluring those who are averse to Me) is extremely difficult to overcome. However, this insurmountable potency of Mine can be overcome by those who exclusively surrender to Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

The Lord says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 'I created Maya, so she gets her power from Me.' How does it work? If you take a piece of iron and put it into fire and keep there for a while, the iron will turn red. After that, if that piece of iron touches some plastic or cloth or if you touch somebody with it, it will burn everything. This iron did not burn anything before, so where does it get this power to burn? From fire. In the same way, getting her power from Lord Krishna, Maya Devi removes you from the Lord's service and turns you into her slaves. But:

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

'Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151–152)

If some fortunate souls get the holy association of a sadhu or a guru, such souls can get their mercy and their hearts will slowly, gradually become clean. If you bath in the Ganges, your body can become pure, but do you think it will clean your hearts? Do you think it will take the dirt out of your hearts? If you want to make your hearts pure, you must associate with sadhus. When your heart becomes clean, gurudev will plant the seed of the devotional creeper in it. After that, your job is to nurture this seed with sravan (listening about the Lord) and kirtan (chanting the Lord's Names and glories) and make it grow into a strong tree.

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Length: 42 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Life in Hari-Kirtan
2) Busy Lives
3) Your Responsibility
4) No Shortcuts
5) Sacrifice to Thrive
6) No Double Standards
7) Selfless Devotion
8) Serve with Heart and Soul