Instructions to Devotees Entering Household Life

Harikatha, Sreela Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj

Srila Gurudev was asked to give instructions to a devotee entering married life. Srila Gurudev advised him to live Krishna-centered life with the sole aim of serving Krishna only.

  • A household devotee should make Krishna as the centre of his life (do Krishna Samsara) and should serve Krishna.

    ātma-nivedana, tuyā pade kari’,
    hainu parama sukhī,
    duḥkha dūre gela, cintā nā rahila,
    caudike ānanda dekhi

    ‘Tuya’ means ‘Your’, i.e. Supreme Lord’s lotus feet, where I have surrendered myself completely. So, if one fully surrenders to Supreme Lord, he would be at peace. All his unhappiness will go away, and there would be no more anxieties. He would see happiness in all directions.

    aśoka-abhaya, amṛta-ādhāra,
    tomāra caraṇa-dvaya

    Your lotus feet are reservoirs of immortal nectar where one may live free from sorrow and fear.

    tāhāte ekhana, viśrāma labhiyā,
    chāḍinu bhavera bhaya.

    Now I have found actual peace/rest there and have given up the fear of worldly existence.

    tomāra saḿsāre, kariba sevana,
    nāhiba phalera bhāgī,

    Tomara samsara … In Your (Supreme Lord’s) world. We should render service in His world (Sri Krishna’s household) and not ask for any fruits of that service. But rather we should strive for whatever pleases Him, fully devoted to His lotus feet.

    purva itihaas bhulinu sakal,
    āmi to’ tomāra, tumi to’ āmāra,
    ki kāja apara dhane

    I am of Supreme Lord, this body is also of Him. And He is mine. Then what need is there of any other wealth?

    We have come in this world after forgetting Supreme Lord. Any moment these worldly relations can come to an end. We have been through millions of births. After passing through eight million species, human life is attained. There are four hundred thousand human species. Only in human form Supreme Lord has given intelligence to discriminate between eternal and non-eternal. One should give up non-eternal and accept eternal and worship Supreme Lord. Therefore, we should not lose this opportunity. Later whether we will get a human form is not guaranteed. The way one thinks at the time of death next life is attained.

    E.g. King Bharat in his young age itself, left his wife and children and went to the forest for performing bhajan. Bhajan cannot be performed in worldly life. Once he went to fetch water from a spring. At that time there was a roar of a lion by which a pregnant she-deer got scared. She jumped across and her baby fell in water. She fell on the other side and died. Bharat Maharaja saw that child will also not survive and felt compassionate towards him. He picked up that baby and brought with him and assumed its responsibility considering his mother is not there. Ironically though Bharat Maharaja had renounced the world he went to a village to get milk for the child deer. Gradually the child grew up. The deer had very beautiful eyes. Bharat Maharaja got attached to this deer. He was always thinking of this deer, how to protect him from ferocious animals. Even at the time of death he was thinking of that deer—who will look after him after me? He left his body while thinking of that deer.

    yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ,
    tyajaty ante kalevaram,
    taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya,
    sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
    (Srimad Bhagavad Gita 8.6)

    At the time of death whatever you will think, you will have birth accordingly.

    So, he became a deer in his next life. However, his bhajan was not destroyed. He remembered his previous life and spent his deer-life near the hermitage of rishi-munis. In the next life he became Jada Bharat—while he was in knowledge he posed as ignorant.

    So, there is no guarantee that you will achieve the next life as human being. Therefore, it’s said:

    labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte
    mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ
    tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvan
    niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt
    (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.9.29)

    Our Param Gurudeva, grand Gurudeva, most venerable Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur explained this verse for a month yet he was not satisfied. This very rare human life is obtained after extreme difficulties.

    Arthadam … However, in human life you can achieve the ultimate objective i.e. the complete reality. Until you achieve complete reality you will not achieve complete peace.

    oṁ pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ
    pūrṇat pūrṇamudacyate,
    pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya
    pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate
    oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

    Complete reality is Supreme Lord. I can achieve that Supreme Lord in human life.

    yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati
    yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati
    (Mundaka Upanishad 1.3)

    By knowing and gaining Whom, we will know and gain everything.

    yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ
    manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ
    yasmin sthito na duḥkhena
    guruṇāpi vicālyate
    (Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.22)

    Upon gaining Him he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty.

    Anityam—however this human life will not stay for long. Any moment it can go.

    Tūrṇaṁ yateta—Therefore immediately, without a moment’s delay you start bhajan.

    One day, as I heard from our Gurudeva, when our Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur was explaining this verse, two students of Scottish Arts College of Kolkata, they are coming from the college and going to their homes. On the way they have heard that some great saint is there. Let us see. With hands filled with their books they entered and sat behind other devotees. They saw Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur, a dazzling personality, and golden complexion. They had never seen such person. They were very much attracted (and curious). He was explaining this ‘tūrṇaṁ yateta’. Don’t make late, immediately, just this moment (start Haribhajan). Don’t spoil your time, a moment’s time without serving Krishna. ‘Tūrṇaṁ yateta’, so immediately you should start, he said this looking at the two new students. They sat at the end. They were afraid, “What is this? This Swamiji is looking at us, why? Will he not allow us to go from this place?” They asked,”Swamiji, what do you want to say? You do not allow us to go to our house? Oh No! We have committed a great mistake,” (they thought) inside. Now they thought, “How we can get ourselves freed from this place? We have to go back to our house.”

    They thought, Let us say this reason. “Swamiji, if my house catches fire, am I not to go there to extinguish it?”

    “If your house will burn, what can you do? Nothing.”

    “What sort of Sadhu! Even if my house gets burnt, you think it to be nothing?”

    “Yes, nothing.”

    “If I could not extinguish that fire then other houses will burn.”

    “Let the whole world get burnt, what do you lose? You brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. You are not jada bhūta i.e. you are consciousness not matter. Consciousness begets matter and not vice versa."

    yato va imani bhutani jayante,
    yena jatani jivanti
    yat prayanty abhisamvisanti
    tad vijijnasasva; tad brahma.

    Nothing can’t produce something. From complete consciousness (Supreme Lord) have all the conscious entities emerged. We have not come from matter. Even the whole universe is burnt we lose nothing.

    brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
    na śocati na kāṅkṣati
    samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
    mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
    (Srimad Bhagavad Gita 18.54)

    in Gita it is said. Brahma-bhūtaḥ, you are conscious entity.

    Now while returning home you will not die, who can say that? Therefore, now when you have understood you should start immediately. These boys could never go home from there.

    (Similarly, there was a boy who once followed Prabhupad in an ox-cart. Just by seeing him he was so attracted that he left his house. Because they are awakened souls. An awakened soul can awaken thousands and millions of people. But if all are sleeping who will wake up whom? (Guru Maharaja says jokingly…) So there is danger in going near a sadhu. But there is no danger in coming to a person like me.)

    You will find sense enjoyment, sabda, rasa, rupa, gandha, sparsha in every species. However, you can worship Supreme Lord only in human life.

    So you should enter worldly life by making Krishna as centre. Worldly relations are perishable. When you don’t serve Supreme Lord as master or friend or son or husband you will get worldly master or friend or husband or son. All our relationships are with Him.

    (On being asked to bless the devotee so that he assimilates these teachings Gurudeva says) – He will be able to understand. Because Supreme Lord is residing inside the heart. He is closest... īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati.

Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math © 2025
info@bbtirtha.org