(1/13) Know and Love the Lord

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
1 January 2021, part 1, translated from Bengali

The festival in honour of our beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj has taken place today, and you have observed this festival properly. I feel very happy when we can observe Gurudev’s festival properly and beautifully.

I am very pleased that you have come, and I am pleased with how you have served. Some participated in service, and some have not been able to do service, but they sat here and listened to Hari-katha. If you just come to hear Hari-katha and chant the Lord’s glory (sravan, kirtan), I am pleased with that. The Lord will give you mercy through that. I want everyone to get benefit, and I am very happy when someone can nicely join and take part in Gurudev’s service and Gurudev’s festival.

So, you are present here today to observe this holy day. You are thinking, ‘The festival is now over, so Maharaj will tell us to leave.’ Actually, it is not so. The day after tomorrow, on Sunday, is the disappearance day of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. It always falls on this day: two days after Srila Gurudev’s appearance day. I think all of you have the photograph of our guru-parampara at home, but not everyone knows whose photographs they are. When I sometimes ask somebody the names, they cannot say it, and many cannot recite the Jaya Dhvani. You must learn these things well. If you give ‘jay’ to our guru-varga every day, it will increase the desire for devotion in your hearts. Many cannot give ‘jay’ to their guru-varga, they cannot pronounce the names properly, or they cannot even tell their own guru’s name properly. At home, there is a wife, husband, sons and other family or friends, and you know everyone’s names very well, but you do not know your guru-varga’s names properly. Not only that, some cannot even properly chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra… It is very sad.

So, the day after tomorrow is Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s disappearance day, and we will observe this day with whoever stays at the temple on this day. I have no objection if all of you stay. You have come leaving your homes, so stay here at the temple for a few days. Take this family as your own.

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)

Do you understand the meaning of this verse? May we love the Lord in the same way that we now love our houses, wives, sons, friends, etc. When will this day come? Until and unless this day comes, you will have to keep coming to this material world and keep changing material families. Listen to what sadhus say. This is not just something that only I am saying – all sadhus say this. Some say more, some say less, but all sadhus say the same things. Jiva souls have fallen into material bondage, and sadhus come to tell them:

সংসার সংসার করি মিছে গেল কাল ।
লাভ না হইল কিছু ঘটিল জঞ্জাল ॥

samsara samsara kari michhe gela kala
labha na haila kichhu ghatila janjala

‘I have wasted all my time on material life and family and have got nothing but garbage as the result.’

কিসের সংসার এই, ছায়াবাজী প্রায় ।
ইহাতে মমতা করি বৃথা দিন যায় ॥

kisera samsara ei, chhayabaji praya
ihate mamata kari vrtha dina yaya

‘What kind of life is this? It is only a trick, a show. I have wasted time taking this world and the people around me in it as my own.’

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)

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Know and Love the Lord
2) Develop Deepest Dedication
3) At Lord's Home
4) Pure Preacher's Position
5) Clear Vision
6) Clear Identity
7) Sustaining Yourself on Gurudev's Words
8) Internal Purity
9) Kirtan-Yajna
10) Give Up Illusory Luxuries
11) Who Will You Blame?
12) Analysis Is Paralysis
13) Western Idiosyncrasies