(3/13) Turning Back Home

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Those who worship Lord Brahma come to live on the planet of Lord Brahma; those who worship Lord Siva come to live on the planet of Lord Siva; those who worship humans come to live on the planet of humans. But if you worship the Lord, you return to the Lord and you will then never again have to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease.

We are born, and we have to die. Do you all believe that? You do, but does anyone of us know when we are going to die? We do not know it, but anyhow one day we will have to leave this world.

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার,
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ ভার
নামাশ্রয় করি’ যতনে তুমি,
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari’ yatane tumi,
thakaha apana kaje

‘You must know the main truth that this life is not eternal and full of various dangers. Carry on your life but try your best to take shelter in the Holy Name.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We can leave this world at any moment – this life is temporary. For example, you can be talking, talking, talking and suddenly die. One day we all have to leave. We are saying now, ‘This is my house’, ‘This is my room’, ‘This is my son’, but what is all this for?

গর্দ্দভের মত আমি করি পরিশ্রম ।
কার লাগি’ এত করি না ঘুচিল ভ্রম ॥

gardabhera mata ami kari parisrama
kara lagi’ eta kari na ghuchila bhrama

‘I have been toiling like a donkey. Who am I doing all this for? But I still continue deluding myself.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Who are we struggling so much in this world for? We will have to leave everything once we close our eyes. We say, ‘I have ears’, ‘I have a head’, ‘I have legs’, ‘I have eyes’, but who is this ‘I’? Who are we? We are souls (atma). We are not so-and-so Maharaj, so-and-so Das, so-and-so Mallik or anybody else. When Mahaprabhu was asked, ‘Who am I?’ He replied,

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera ‘svarupa’ haya—krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’
krsnera ‘tatastha-sakti’ ‘bhedabheda-prakasa’

‘By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna. Souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.108)

I am wearing these clothes today, but tomorrow I will take them off and wear fresh clothes. Everybody is like that. For example, you are wearing these saris today, but tomorrow you will wear other saris. Just as we always keep changing clothes, we also keep changing our bodies. As the saying goes, ‘as you sow, so you reap’: we will get what we deserve according to our actions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If I kill something in this life, it will kill me in my next life. If I slaughter some animal in this life, that animal will slaughter me in my next life.

We have got a human body in this life, and we all have mothers and fathers. We call them ‘parents’, but parents only give us these bodies, they do not give us that who we are (they do not create our souls). If our parents could give us our souls, then do you think anyone’s parents or children could die? You call somebody a ‘mother’, but she only gave you this body – she did not give you your soul. Who gives life? The Lord. We come from the Lord, and we must go back to the Lord.

The Lord has given you life. You are laughing, moving your hands, doing everything only because there is a jiva soul inside your body. You can move this body only for as long as the jiva soul stays inside it. When the soul leaves the body, the body will be dumped at the cremation ghat.

শ্মশানে শরীর মম পড়িয়া রহিবে ।
বিহঙ্গ পতঙ্গ তায় বিহার করিবে ॥

smasane sarira mama padiya rahibe
bihanga patanga taya bihara karibe

‘My body will be dropped at a crematorium, and birds and insects will heartily enjoy it.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When a mosquito bites you, you kill it, but when your body is taken to the cremation ghat, so many ants, flies, insects and other creatures will come to eat it. If somebody dies and the person’s children or relatives cannot come for them within two–three days, the body starts decaying, as you know…

This world is not eternal! One day we have to leave this world. We must understand this. When we were coming to this world, we promised to serve the Lord. We stayed ten months and ten days in the womb of our mothers, with our heads facing down and legs facing up (so much suffering!), and all kinds of insects and worms bit our bodies. You know that pregnant women often like to eat sour things, but when they eat sour things, it increases the acidity inside and blocks nutrition for the baby. Suffering so much in the womb of our mothers, we begin to cry and call out to the Lord. The Lord does not come to every jiva soul, but if somebody has sukriti and much fortune, the Lord can grant His darshan to the soul. He comes and asks,

‘Why have you called Me?’

‘Prabhu,’ the soul pleads, ‘I cannot stay here anymore! Please get me out of here!’

‘I will, but you will come out and forget Me,’ the Lord warns.

‘No, no!’ The soul is suffering so much that it promises, ‘I will not forget You.’

‘I will give you eyes – will you use your eyes to see My Deity? Will you serve Me with your hands? Will you circumambulate My holy abode with your legs? Will you speak about Me with your mouth?’

The soul says, ‘Yes, I will’, ‘Yes, I will’, but then:

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajiba baliya ese samsara bhitare
bhuliya rahile tumi avidyara bhare

‘Forgetting that you came to this world saying, “I will serve You,” you carried on living in ignorance.’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘Ignorance’ (avidya) means Maya. Maya creates everything within this illusory world. Whatever you find here – your fathers, wives, sons, brothers, sisters, all your so-called near and dear – this is all Maya’s samsara (the family world of illusion).

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 54 Mb
Length: 112 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) An Auspicious Evening
2) An Auspicious Birth
3) Turning Back Home
4) Beyond Perverted Comfort Zone
5) What Are Your Plans?
6) Life In Lord's Family
7) Not So Fast, Not So Cheap
8) Mano-dharma vs. Bhagavat-dharma
9) Eternal Values
10) Ultimate Word of Scripture
11) Guided and Misguided
12) Exclusive Zone
13) Insurmountable Devotion