(13/13) Muddled Minds

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur (West Bengal), 5 February 2021, part 13
Translated from Bengali

There is a religion of a father, mother, friend, relative, well-wisher, and so on; there is a religion of a sudra, brahman, brahmachari, grihastha, sannyasi, vanaprastha – but Lord Krishna says, ‘Leave all religions and surrender to Me.’ Do you understand what that means?

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

‘Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.’

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

‘Do not be upset, do not be disheartened that you do not do your duty, that you will incur sin – I have liberated you from all sins.’ Many of you think, ‘I have not served my father’, ‘I have not served my mother’, ‘I have not served my daughter’, ‘I have not served my friends’, but the Lord says, ‘If you serve Me, all kinds of other services are automatically carried out.’ If you serve the Lord, all demigod worship is automatically carried out – you do not need to worship any god (Laksmi, Durga, Ganesh et al.) separately. You can see that many people set up museums of Deities at their homes. They think that if you do not worship Manasi, she will get angry and you will be bitten by a snake and die. People are very afraid of death, but everyone must die one day, so why fear it so much? One who is born has to die one day.

You know how the saying goes, ‘Janma mrtyu biye tin Vidhatar niye (জন্ম মৃত্যু বিয়ে তিন বিধাতার নিয়ে).’ There are three things – birth, death and marriage; these three things are not in anybody’s hands, they are only in the hands of the Lord (they come through the Lord). If you have marriage written in your destiny, then you will get married, and as for the other two, everyone gets birth and death: you are born, so you must die; you die, so you must be born again. If you do not want to suffer from birth, death, old age and disease, then there is only one way out – surrender to the Lord, call out to the Lord. ‘Grhe thaka, vane thaka, sada “Hari” bale’ daka (গৃহে থাক, বনে থাক, সদা হরি বলে’ ডাক). Whether you live in a house or in a forest, always call out to the Lord (always chant the Lord’s Name). Sukhe duhkhe bhulo naka, vadane Harinama kara re (সুখে দুঃখে ভুলো নাক, বদনে হরিনাম কর রে). In happiness or sadness, never forget it, always chant the Holy Name’ (Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur). When happiness comes, we forget the Lord, and when unhappiness comes (for example, when we are suffering in hospital), we remember and call out to the Lord. You get on a motorcycle and drive it without thinking about anything, but when your leg gets broken, you start calling out to the Lord while you are being taken to hospital.

মায়াজালে বদ্ধ হ’য়ে, আছ মিছে কাজ ল’য়ে ।
এখনও চেতন পেয়ে, রাধামাধব-নাম বল রে ॥

maya-jale baddha ha’ye, achha michhe kaja la’ye
ekhana-o chetana peye, radha-madhava-nama bala re

‘Bound in Maya’s net, you waste your time on useless work. While you are still conscious, chant Radha-Madhav’s Names!’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

[Clamour in the audience. A devotee tries to hush them.]

They are hungry. I have told you – people are hungry for food, but ‘O mind, what kind of pauper are you? What are you begging for?’ Srila Prabhupad wrote: ‘Are you coming to beg for bhojan (food) or bhajan (Krishna consciousness)?’ There is a small book of Srila Gurudev’s Hari-katha that has been composed recently, and that article of Srila Prabhupad is printed in it.

There was once a festival at the temple of Gaudiya Math and somebody came and had the guts to ask, ‘When are they going to give food to the poor here?’ Hearing this question, Srila Prabhupad replied:

O mind, tell me, what pauper are you? What do you lack? What do you beg for? Do you need money? Do you need good qualities? Do you need beauty? Do you need followers? Is this what you are roaming around searching for? Because you are not getting what you want, you consider yourself a pauper, is it not so? Somebody says that they are poor because they have no money. Somebody does not have some coveted qualities, so they say they are poor. Somebody does not have beauty (they think they have dark skin, and if they had lighter skin, they would have got a nice husband) – such people also think that they are poor (poor for beauty). Yet, the truth is this. What pauper are you? You want to enjoy the pleasures of the material world – you think you will be well off if you could eat nicely and get all these material things – but you are mistaken! You are greatly mistaken! All these things only increase your disease! All the things that you find here at the temple are serving the Lord, but you want the things that even animals get! You think that you are a pauper because you lack food, but even goats and dogs eat the food you want so much. Why do you need to come here then? If you want to give a pill to a child, the child will not take it, so you have to sugar-coat it (put it inside a sweet-ball). It is the same here. Prasad is given to entice the public. This here is a great place of pilgrimage, a temple where the Supreme Lord resides and where His Hari-katha is going on, so there is only maha-prasad available here. Come, dear mind! If you desire your own welfare, then come! Do not come here as a beggar for food! Come here as a beggar for Krishna consciousness! Place the dust from the holy lotus feet of greatly merciful devotees of the Lord on your head!

ভক্তপাদধূলি আর ভক্তপাদ-জল ।
ভক্তভুক্ত-শেষ তিন সাধনের বল ॥

bhakta-pada-dhuli ara bhakta-pada-jala
bhakta-bhukta-sesa—ei tina sadhanera bala

‘The dust from devotees’ feet, the water that has washed devotees’ feet and the remnants of devotees’ food – these three are the sole strength of one’s spiritual life.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.16.60)

This is how we must think. You can see that wherever there is a festival, people start coming when it is time to eat. If you invite everyone in the morning, nobody will come. You can see this now, too. The place was empty at first, but now it is full. I have reprinted this article of Srila Prabhupad in the book, you can buy it.

You should all come to the festival. Please take care of yourselves.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj.

I will chant one more kirtan now and then finish.

কে যাবি কে যাবি ভাই ভবসিন্ধু পার ।
ধন্য কলিযুগে রে চৈতন্য অবতার ॥১॥

ke yabi ke yabi re bhai bhava-sindhu para
dhanya kali-yuge re chaitanya avatara [1]

Brother, who is coming? Who is coming to cross this ocean of material existence? Lord Chaitanya descends in this blessed Kali-yuga!

আমার গৌরাঙ্গের ঘাটে উজানখেয়া বয় ।
কড়িপাতি নাহি লাগে অমনি পার হয় ॥২॥

amara gaurangera ghate ujanakheya vaya
kadipati nahi lage amani para haya [2]

At the ghat of my Gauranga, there is a ferry-boat going upstream without any fee – everyone crosses just like that.

হরিনামের তরীখানি শ্রীগুরুকাণ্ডারী ।
সংকীর্ত্তনকেরোয়াল দু’বাহু পসারি ॥৩॥

harinamera tarikhani sri-guru-kandari
sankirtana-keroyala du’bahu pasari [3]

The Holy Name is the boat, the guru is the captain, and the oars are two upraised arms in sankirtan.

সর্ব্বজীব উদ্ধার হৈল প্রমের বাতাসে ।
লোচন পড়িয়া রৈল করমের দোষে ॥৪॥

sarva-jiva uddhara haila premera vatase
lochana padiya raila karamera dose [4]

All jiva souls have been rescued by the wind of transcendental love. Only Lochan Das is left behind due to his own karma.

(Srila Lochan Das Thakur)

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Length: 108 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Honouring Hari-Prasad
2) Exclusive Path
3) Lord's Messenger
4) 'Managing' Your Life
5) Internal Purity
6) Pray To Be One-Pointed
7) Mahaprabhu's Gift
8) At Vaishnavs' Mercy
9) Spiritual Deposit
10) Lacking Spirituality
11) About Srila Lochan Das Thakur
12) Leave Separate Interests
13) Muddled Minds