"A Devotee's Desire"

8 Feb 77, Mayapura listen

Prabhupada: One-hundred-third birth anniversary. So this is formal, one-hundred-third or, or, or -second. It is eternal. It is eternal. Just like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has described, nitya-lila. Nitya-lila means it is going on. Just like just now it is eleven o'clock. This eleven o'clock, and when it becomes twelve o'clock noon, it does not mean that eleven o'clock is passed. Eleven o'clock is existing somewhere. In India it is eleven o'clock, somewhere else it is ten o'clock, and when in India it will be twelve o'clock that eleven o'clock will be somewhere else. Therefore one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, you take, that is going on. It is not that one is finished. That is material calculation. Material calculation, this body we have got. When this body will be finished it is finished forever. It will never come. Tatha dehantara-praptir. In the spiritual world there is no such thing as finished. Nitya-lila. Nitya-mukta. We have to understand that. In the material world, one minute's lost, it is lost forever. Canakya Pandita has given us instruction from the material point of view, ayusah ksana eko 'pi na labhyah svarna-kotibhih sacen nirarthakam nitah ka ca hanis tato 'dhikah Ayusah ksana eko 'pi. Suppose I shall live fifty years or hundred years maximum. So out of them, one moment lost, it will be never returned. From our birth, when a child is born we ask the parents when the child is born. The parents say, "This child was born in the morning, ten o'clock." So if the child is born at ten o'clock and I am asking at eleven o'clock, the one hour life of the child lost. Eleven o'clock means child has already died one hour out of his one hundred years. So for Vaisnava it is not like that. It is not like that. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. This is material calculation: one hour lost, two hours lost, body's life is transient, it is losing one moment, one hour. But spiritual life is different. Nityah sasvato yam, na hanyate hanyamane sarire. So, as Krsna comes, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata tadatmanam srjamy aham [Bg. 4.7]. Krsna is eternal, but still, He appears. The same example. Just like the sun is in the sky but we see in the morning it appears; in the evening it retires. That is defectness of our eyes. Actually the sun is always there. So similarly Vaisnava, as Krsna comes, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir. Similarly, a Vaisnava means the confidential servant of Krsna, he also comes for some purpose by the order of the master. So their life and Krsna's life, it is same. There is no question of past, present, future. Nityah. Nityah sasvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. So they are the same thing as the appearance and disappearance of sun. And Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, our master, spiritual master, he also came in this world to execute some mission of life or mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So he executed it, and when it was required, he left this place and went to another place to do the same business. Just like the sun rises at six o'clock and seven o'clock there is six o'clock in another place, and it is eight o'clock another place. It is going on. Nitya-lila. So we have nothing to lament for disappearance. We should simply remember his activities. That is Vaisnava -- you

 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with permission.