(2/7) Leave False Hopes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, Nrisingha Palli
14 December 2019, morning, part 2
Translated from Bengali

How should you serve the Lord? There are many kinds of ways to serve. It is necessary to understand it and to always keep it in mind. Devotees go to extremes for the Lord. When I woke up this morning, I studied a scripture and I read about how much difference there is between the vatsalya-rasa of Dasarath and Vasudev or Nanda Maharaj.

When Kamsa told his sister Devaki, 'I have heard that your eighth child will be the cause of my death,' Vasudev (Devaki's husband) reassured him, 'Brother, do not worry. We will give all our children to you.' But then see what happened! When their eighth child was born, they saw that it was the Lord Himself – He appeared in His four-armed Narayan form holding sankha, chakra, gada, padma (a conch, disk, club and lotus). Vasudev and Devaki started to offer praise to the Lord. After that, the Lord assumed the two-armed form of an ordinary baby and Vasudev took Him away. Despite a severe storm outside, despite the turbulent waters in the Yamuna at the time (Anantadev came to give them protection), he carried Him to Nanda Maharaj's house. Leaving Krishna by Mother Yasoda's side, Vasudev took her newly born baby girl (Mahamaya) and carried her back with him. When he returned, Kamsa received the news that his sister had got her eighth child and came to see her, 'Where is it? Give Him to me!' Devaki told him, 'Brother, I had a girl.' Just look at this – it is a sheer lie! They told a lie to protect the Lord. They did not care. 'I can be bad, I can become a sinner, but I do not care what happens to me as long as my Lord is well and safe, as long as my Gopal Krishna can grow peacefully.'

But in the case of Dasarath, Dasarath loved his son Lord Ramachandra, but to preserve his own dignity he exiled his son and sent him to live in the forest. His fatherly affection was such that he could do that.

So, there is a vast difference between the vatsalya-prema of Nanda Maharaj and Dasarath...

There is a very beautiful verse in Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (3.2.25):

কামাদীনাং কতি ন কতিধা পালিতা দুর্নিদেশা,
তেষাং জাতা ময়ি ন করুণা ন ত্রপা নোপশান্তিঃ ।
উৎসৃজ্যৈতানথ যদুপতে ! সাম্প্রতং লব্ধবুদ্ধি-
সত্বামায়াতঃ শরণমভয়ং মাং নিযুঙ্ক্ষ্বাত্মদাস্যে ॥

kamadinam kati na katidha palita durnidesa,
tesam jata mayi na karuna na trapa nopasantih
utsrjyaitan atha yadu-pate! sampratam labdha-buddhis
tvam ayatah saranam-abhayam mam niyunksvatma-dasye

'O Lord! How many kinds of wicked orders from lust and others I followed! They had no mercy on me, nor were they ever satisfied! O Krishna! Suddenly, I managed to leave their side and got some good intelligence – I have surrendered at Your fearless lotus feet, please engage me now as Your servant.'

'I have followed so many orders from lust and desires. O Yadupati! O Krishna! Please engage me in Your service! I have followed so many orders of kanak (desire for wealth) and kamini (desire for companions)! I have ruined my health for their sake! I have wasted so much money on them! Despite that, they did not even have any mercy on me. O Prananath! I have no other way, no other shelter or refuge, except You! You are my all-in-all. Please find a way to give me relief. I am kept prisoner in the prison house of my material life and material duties!' In every country bad people are placed in jail: if anybody steals or kills, they are put in prison. We are also like this. The Lord creates this illusory environment as a prison house to keep us all away. This is how we end up passing our lives struggling in this prison house of Maya. 'I have seen many things in my life, but nothing has made me happy. Please give me service, allow me to serve Your holy lotus feet birth after birth. Please engage me in Your service!'

This is the real purpose and meaning of human birth. This is the highest happiness.

We live amidst so many things scattered all around us in four directions: rupa (eye-enjoyment), rasa (tongue-enjoyemnt), gandha (nose-enjoyment), sabda (ear-enjoyment), sparsa (tactile enjoyment). We do not need to bother collecting all these things to live a devotional life!

If you walk down the street or go to the market, you can see so many pharmacies, but does it mean that having all those pharmacies removes our diseases? There are millions of pharmacies, millions of doctors, so many medicines are invented every day, but has any of this helped us avoid death? Scientists create so many drugs, they have even discovered a drug that can fight cancer, but as they create a new drug, more and more new diseases appear. They invent a drug against one disease, but in the meantime, another disease appears. Death is running behind you! How much can you invent with your meagre intelligence? Yamaduts can destroy thousands and thousands of people within a moment. Yamaraj is very powerful. There was a big fire at a Delhi factory recently, and so many people died there. This is how powerful Yamaraj is.

You think, 'I am just twelve, it is time for me to study now', 'I am a thirty-year-old newly married husband, so it is time for me to enjoy my married life and youth', 'When I finish taking care of my children and grandchildren, then I will practise spiritual life. When I grow old, then I will call out to the Lord.' You must think! When you grow old, your whole body will become invalid, and all the eagerness and enthusiasm that you had in your youth will be gone. Your health will be ruined by the time you grow old, and you will need another person's help even to move from one place to another. At that time, even if you want to practise spiritual life, you will not be able to.

'জীবন সমাপ্তি কালে করিব ভজন,
এবে করি গৃহসুখ ।'
কখন একথা নাহি বলে বিজ্ঞজন,
এ দেহ পতনোন্মুখ ॥

'jivana samapta kale kariba bhajan,
ebe kari grha-sukha'
kakhana ekatha nahi bale vijna-jana
e deha patanonmukha

'"I will practise spiritual life at the end of my life, but now I will enjoy family life at home" – intelligent people will never say such things because this body is bound to perish.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Many people think, 'I will start practising spiritual life when I am sixty,' but what if your life finished before that? Life is uncertain! It is like a drop of dew tottering on a petal of a flower, about to fall and disappear at any time. When you enter your retired life at sixty, you will be lying in bed and counting days, 'When will I leave this body?' This is not intelligent. This is just cheating the Lord. You think that you will practise Krishna consciousness when you grow old, but you will not be able to do it because you will not be able to bend your mind – you will not be able to feel any taste for spiritual life. Your old age will obstruct you so much that you will not be able to overcome it – you will not be able to withstand the pull of your accumulated karma.

দুর্ল্লভ মানব জন্ম লভিয়া সংসারে ।
কৃষ্ণ না ভজিনু দুঃখ কহিব কাহারে ॥

durlabha manava-janma labhiya samsare
krsna na bhajinu—duhkha kahiba kahare?

'I have got a very rare human life in this world, but I have not worshipped Lord Krishna. Whom will I tell about my misery?'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You have not come to this world to become a daddy, a mommy, a granny or a grandpa. You have come to this world to call to your Supreme Father and to worship Him. The very purpose why you were created is so that you can live in God consciousness.

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

'One who has taken birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of this birth by bringing benefit to others.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.9.41)

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Length: 50 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Take Advantage of This Day
2) Leave False Hopes
3) Seva-Vigraha
4) Rules of Love
5) Science of Devotion
6) Do Not Take This Birth for Granted
7) Sweetness in Bitterness