(1/12) A Life of Imperfection

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bhanjipur, 1 December 2019, evening, part 1
Translated from Bengali

In Treta-yuga, Dasarath had a son called Rama, and there is also Rama who is Radha-raman. This is not the same Rama that you know about from Ramayan. Radha-raman means Krishna ('He who charms Radha'). He steals (haran karen), therefore His Name is Hari. Who is this thief? Krishna. He steals everyone's hearts, minds, everything.

[Clamour] Why is this noise? Are they cooking outside? Tell them not to speak.

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥
অমানী মানদ হঞা কৃষ্ণনাম সদা ল'বে ।
ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ সেবা মানসে করিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe
amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la’be
vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

‘Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour from others, give all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krishna and serve Radha-Krishna in your mind.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236–237)

From the time you wake up in the morning until the evening when you go to bed, you only keep struggling and fighting. Is that no so? Both woman and men spend all their time struggling in so many ways. They only work, work, work... But have you ever thought that you are working so hard to earn money, to build a nice house now, but when you close your eyes, will anything be there? If you close your eyes right now, will you see anything? You will not – everything will be dark. So, when your time comes and you close your eyes (die), will anything be there? We came naked, and we will leave naked. None of us were born clothed. We were born naked, and when time comes for us to leave, we will leave naked, too. Have you ever thought what will happen to you then?

I know that you are all householder devotees. You took initiation, you offer flowers to your guru, you offer worship to the Lord's Deity at home. You offer bhoga and take prasad. It is so, I am not denying this, but is this the end? Have you attained perfection? When will you attain perfection? When you can submit your minds, hearts, your very beings at the holy feet of Lord Govinda. We have intelligence, we have ego, we have life force, we have our hearts and other things – we must submit everything at the holy feet of our gurudev and Govinda. If you submit everything at the holy feet of your guru, it is same as submitting it at the holy feet of Govinda because you will not get a letter from Lord Govinda directly (Govinda will never write you a letter).

[Clamour] Why are they talking so much?

দিনের মধ্যে আবল-তাবল
কত পচাল পাড়িতে পর
তার মধ্যে কিন্তু তুমি একবার
গোবিন্দ বলিতে নারা

dinera madhye abala-tabala
kata pachala padite para
tara madhye ki ek-bara
govinda balite nara

‘How much nonsense you can talk every day! How many idle talks you have! Can you not say the Name of Govinda even once?’

How much we talk all day long! We only talk about food, clothes and all the other trifle things. When the Lord takes your mouths away (when He takes away the power of speech from you), you will not be able to say anything anymore. You are talking nonsense day and night! As soon as you learned to speak at two or two and a half years old, you started calling your father, mother, grandfather, and every since you carry on talking your whole lives until the last moment when the power of speech is taken away from you. Do you ever think about God? Do you ever call out to the Lord? How many times have you done this? How often do you remember your guru? How often do you remember God? You only carry struggling, fighting, working like asses the whole day... Donkeys carry sacks of sugar on their backs, but they do not even know the taste of that sugar. We are like that, too. We carry the load of our material lives our whole lives without ever thinking about getting free from this material bondage. You are all householders, but how can you get relief from your material family lives? Just think about it! Give some time to God – think about God! You only work all day long, from morning until evening. You live your whole lives for yourselves. But why did the Lord send us to this world in this human form? We were not born as dogs, cats or goats this time. We were born as dogs, cats, goats and all kinds of other species before, but this time we got a human birth. God has given us some intelligence, but do we use it? Do we take advantage of this opportunity? No. We sit at tea stalls and shops, gossiping and chatting about nonsense. We meet up with friends and play cards, football, go for picnics. We waste so much time...

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

‘My days pass in useless work and nights are wasted on sleep. It never occurs to me that death is there, waiting right next to me.’

(Sri Kalyan-Kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Does it ever cross our minds?

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Size: 33 Mb
Length: 69 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) A Life of Imperfection
2) Open Your Door to Mercy
3) Eternal Focus
4) Harinam: Devotees' Heartbeat
5) Humans' Advantage
6) Call Out to Gaura-Nitai
7) Repent and Revolt
8) Gift of Sankirtan
9) Seat Sankirtan In Your Hearts
10) Survive and Thrive
11) Service Life—Joyful Life
12) All Walk, No Talk