Sharanagati

Question of Premananda: In “Bhaktya-loka” Bhaktivinod Thakur speaks about the urgency of devotional service. My humble request would be if you can comment a bit about the urgency of devotional service?

Tirtha Maharaj: Yes! Do not waste a moment! Other questions?

But let us imagine a situation. You are a happy owner of a house – which is a nice achievement. And just imagine that your house is on fire. What do you do?

Somebody: Run away.

Tirtha Maharaj: This is the lazy guy. The real owner will try to protect and put the fire out, bring the water – irrespective of the height of the flames. You try to do anything to save the situation. And immediately! You do not hesitate, you do not ask your neighbor: “Shall I do this or shall I not do this? Maybe like this…” No! You get a bucket and bring the water.

Your consciousness is on fire! Bring the water! Do something about your spiritual progress! If we would understand our real situation, we would be very busy carrying the water. This is the urgency. Until you are deeply absorbed in illusion, you do not even realize your situation. You feel: “Ah, very nice warmth in this house!” But is not that situation urgent? It is.

Yet in most of the cases we do not understand our real situation in life. We are thinking: “Ah, quite nice! Warm, safe. I can say I am happy.” Right? We explain everything to ourselves. But if we would call everything by the real name… Or if we would realize the chance of Krisna-bhakti, what improvement it would bring in our life, we would not hesitate a moment.

So, do not waste a moment! Because what can we lose if we do not join he devotees? This is only the nectar. You will miss the nectarean moments if you do not join. We should not be so stupid and we should use buddhi-yoga, because this is whatKrishna is explaining – be intelligent.