Bhuliya Tomare Meaning – Even success story is sorry story

Hare Krishna so today morning, today we will discuss from discuss this song by Bhaktivinod Thakur Bhuliya Tomare this is a remarkable song for the simple reason that it actually demonstrates how a success story is a failure story, in this song Bhaktivinod Thakur outlines what most people would consider to be a very successful career chart and then he shows how that which is materially successful is actually not spiritually successful Bhuliya Tomare Samsare Asiya Veyena Navitha Vyatha so many of the songs of Bhaktivinod Thakur are like direct addresses to Krishna so here he speaks Bhuliya Tomare my dear lord I forgot you and Samsare Asiya the material world is a place of forgetfulness of Krishna and the more we forget him the more we become settled in material existence Samsare Asiya Veyena Navitha Vyatha and here in this samsara, in this material existence I got varieties of miseries turning away from Krishna this material world is like a prison where we are trapped Tomare Charane Asiya Chiyami Boli Bo Dukhe Rakatha Tomare Charane at your lotus feet Asiya Chiyami Asiya Chiyami I came I came and I am coming now Boli Bo Dukhe Rakatha and I am speaking my sorry story I am speaking my heart breaking plight actually we all have a personal relationship with Krishna and through the means of a song Bhaktivinod Thakur shares with us how we all can approach Krishna personally there is a remarkable combination of personal intimacy and intense humility in the mood of Bhaktivinod Thakur over here that he is directly speaking to Krishna and at the same time he is telling how I am fallen, how I am lost how I am miserable Boli Bo Dukhe Rakatha I am speaking my sorry story Janani Jathare Chila Majakona Visham Bandhan Pahashe Ek Bar Prabhu Dekha Diya Vanchi Le Dina Dase Janani Jathare Janani is the mother Jathare in the womb so Bhaktivinod Thakur starts a sorry story with the birth itself the moment we are born actually he starts even before we are born in the prenatal stage in the natal stage when we are in the womb of the mother Janani Jathare Chila Majakona so in that tiny constricted cavity Visham Bandhan Pahashe actually I experience severe bondage so for the infant to be trapped in that small cavity and sometimes turned upside down sometimes tossed up and down because of the movement of the movement of the mother’s womb that is miserable from the biological point of view some people say that the amniotic fluid and the womb act as a good shock absorber now that is true if the infant were just a unconscious lump but it is a conscious person consciousness does come soon within a few months it starts manifesting and for that person to be it’s like if we are trapped in a local train there may be enough space for us to stand but if we are crammed from all sides it is uncomfortable so like that the soul is trapped and it is a state of great misery so at that time this is described in the 10th canto, in the 3rd canto of Srimad Bhagavatam that how the child in the womb prays desperately to Krishna to the lord please oh lord help me rescue me I surrender to you and in reciprocation that intense call of the embodied soul in the infant’s body so because of that desperate intense fervent call the lord appears and Bhaktivinoda says over here my dear lord you should reveal yourself to me but then unfortunately you are lost to me now it is for the soul to have connected with Krishna and then to have lost that connection is the greatest bereavement it’s not that the Krishna abandons but Krishna Krishna wants our surrender which is whole hearted not which is compelled so when surrender is offered under duress under the misery that is good at least at that time we are going towards Krishna but the test of our devotion is whether when we have alternative ways of enjoyment even at that time we stay faithful we stay devoted to Krishna that is the test of our faith and you know when the faith passes through that test then that faith becomes glorious so Krishna gives us a glimpse of his sweetness of his shelter and then he allows us to come in this world where we can experience the alternatives to him and after after due deliberation choose him so Bhaktivinoda Thakur is talking from the point of view of his having lost that shelter of the soul having lost that shelter he says oh this fallen servant he lost you my dear lord he lost you he became bereaved so at that time in the womb what does the soul pray oh so at that time I prayed that in the future when I will be born I will worship you so I prayed that my dear lord now you have delivered me I will surely worship you in future we often also pray when we are under some intense misery Krishna just get me out of this misery please rescue me please give me your shelter and in the future I will surrender to you I will not let myself get distracted from you please help me my lord janam hoi lo podi maya jale na hoi lo gyaan lo but unfortunately once janam hoi lo once birth takes place podi maya jale we fall into the illusion of maya na hoi lo gyaan lo na hoi lo that there is no more knowledge that is left na hoi lo gyaan lo the knowledge that was produced or knowledge that emerged because of the misery this world is misery only Krishna is the shelter real shelter that knowledge gets lost because the world appears promising and it seems as if we can get lot of pleasure in this world so na hoi lo gyaan lo lo is a very small fractional quantity that much knowledge doesn’t remain the soul when it is born as a infant actually has practically no knowledge at all no spiritual knowledge and not even any material knowledge it has to be learnt so of course the spiritual growth that has been done that is there but that is covered it is not available and the soul has to usually begin has to come into this world and start grouping learning ABC and how exactly does the soul fall into maya after being born that is being described in the next verse adhare rachhele swaje nirkole hasiya kata nu kaala janak janani snehe te bhuliya samsara nagilo bhaala so adhare rachhele so actually with great affection swaje nirkole with great affection the swaje na the loud ones offered affection to me offered glorification offered love to me hasiya kata nu kaala hasiya happy smiling laughing kata nu kaala i started spending my time when a child is born the child is the centre of affection sinosure of all eyes for the relatives they want to touch him cuddle him cuddle him or her cuddle the baby and then kiss it kiss her then in that way play with make the baby smile and in that way the baby feels oh i am the centre everyone loves me and hasiya kata nu kaala started happily passing the time janak janani snehe te bhuliya samsara nagilo bhaala janak janani the word janani is coming again the second stanza janani jathari so its coming here janak janani the father and the mother snehe te bhuliya in their affection in their love bhuliya i forgot what samsara nagilo bhaala but this world is a nice place its a enjoyable place now is it wrong for the parents to love their children is it wrong not at all is it wrong for the parents to strive for the children’s happiness no not at all they have to do it and they will do it out of their affection that certainly the parents should never increase the misery of the children intentionally at the same time the parents are also meant to educate the child and if the child is not educated about the nature of their world then that child on growing up becomes extremely frustrated and even at the material level parents who pander to every whim of the child those children on growing up becomes spoiled children who suffer from the disease of entitlement they feel that you know I am entitled to get this, I am entitled to get that every toy that they want, every trinket, every gadget that they want, the parents provide and when they grow up and they go in college and say they find a boy finds a girl who looks good or a girl finds a guy who looks hot and they want and then somehow that person doesn’t reciprocate and they just can’t take no and those who have spoiled children in their childhood when they are forced to take no forced to they are forced to situations where they don’t get what they want, they become extremely frustrated so what is the solution? sometimes the children just who have grown up into teenagers or youth now, they may just attack and pour acid on the girl who has spurned them or just take a gun and shoot her or take the gun on themselves and shoot them so all this extreme frustration comes because of unrealistic expectation so certainly the parents should love their children but the parents need to not create unrealistic expectation in the children that oh this world is a wonderful place, all my desires will be fulfilled and I will be happy here rather while providing for the comfort and the growth of the child, the parents also have to provide education that in this world there are many things we will not get because this is not our home, this is a place of transition and rather than trying to settle down here comfortably by getting various things by getting all the things that we desire we need to focus on going beyond this world, it’s just like a doctor has to definitely care for the patient and whenever the patient is in pain, the doctor has to give painkilling medicine, at the same time the doctor also needs to you see the doctor also needs to ensure that the patient does not that the patient does not think that I am okay and there is no need for me to take medicine and there will never be any pain in my life the doctor has to educate the patient about the sickness so that the sickness can be cured similarly the parents need to educate the child also, they offer affection and they offer education and then there are no unrealistic expectations which leads to unacceptable frustration so the child whose infant has now grown up and after he has grown up he became a balaka and as the balaka from the infant came to the children and started playing children enjoy playing with others in fact playing is the purpose of their life, studies is something which is like imposed due to the they have to do they simply play and nowadays children do not even play themselves they often watch others play they watch sports or they play video games where actually there is no exercise for the body also, there is not much there is not much development unless the video games are educational and they lead to intellectual development but often the point is that play catches the people so the distraction goes on so as time, some more time what so he says that I started acquiring knowledge Bhaktivinod Thakur is telling his own story so day after day, day and night I started studying so here Bhaktivinod Thakur is demonstrating that he is not talking about a sluggard, a dullard, a failure who just plays and fools around and doesn’t study at all neglects his responsibilities no he is talking about a good student, an ideal student day and night day after day after day studying consistently as a student it will be recommended as a good student such a child will become the pride of the parents, oh my child studies so much, so wonderfully so now here we will see how Bhaktivinod Thakur is treading not a chart of a materially wasted life he is outlining, tracing the chart of a materially successful life and that becomes more and more evident as you move forward out of desiring the glory of Vidya desiring the pride of learning and attaining that pride of learning that means I became learned and based on my learning I was invited come give a lecture here, come do a project there Brahmi Deshe Deshe I went from this place to that place Deshe can mean area or region or it can mean country Bhaktivinod Thakur himself did not travel outside India because at that time aeroplanes were not there and ship travel was quite slow and Bhaktivinod Thakur did not travel but if we apply the principle of this song over here in India people when they get a chance to go abroad especially to America, they think it’s like going to the dream land and Brahmi Deshe Deshe so somebody can go not just to some people think that if I can just go once to America my life is successful but if they can go to multiple countries Deshe Deshe then they think oh just see my visa how many countries I have travelled to, what a glorious person I am and generally when people go abroad especially if the company is sending them then, they often get increments or they get incentives they earn more so there is a double intoxication there is the intoxication of travelling to a much glorified destination and there is also the increased prey that comes and one gets obsessed oh I want to succeed I just want to be the top performer, I want to be the number one and I want to crush my competition and in this way certainly whatever work we do we should be competent in that work and we should do justice to our talents and justice to our professional obligations at the same time, he tells the danger in this Swaja na pala na goriye kamane bhuli na tomare hare so again Bhaktanath Thakur is talking here, we see not of a obsessive workaholic people who become successful in their careers often that taste of success goes so much to their head that they neglect everyone even their loved ones, they have no time for their spouses, no time for their children no time for their parents Bhaktanath Thakur is saying I was not like that kind of person Swaja na pala na goriye kamane with one pointed ekamane, with sincerity with dedication with one pointedness Swaja na pala na I took care of my loved ones so here again we will see that this would seem to be like an ideal human being studied diligently travelled abroad, earned a lot of money and cares for the family members also and we say what more do you ask such a person has arrived, such a person is wonderful is successful, but Bhaktanath Thakur says bhuli na tomare hare, unfortunately Lord Hari, I forgot you, I forgot you so ekamane my mind was so caught in in earning and maintaining that I had no time for you so we see Bhaktanath Thakur is echoing the theme in simple vernacular Bengali, what is talked about by by Suta Goswami in the second canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, the conversation between Suta Goswami and Parikshit Maharaj it is said that divacha arthe haya rajan, kutumb bharane nava, so in the day time the attached householder they spend in arthe haya rajan in earning money or kutumb bharane nava, or doing family maintenance and in this way the time gets dissipated of course the Bhagavatam also says that vidrayariyate naktam vivyavayena chavadi vayaha, so at night one spends time either in sleep or in sex life so either way the point is bhulinu tomare hari, Bhaktanath Thakur does not jar any sensibilities of people by mentioning sex over here he just says that he is talking about not a person with lusty or anything, a person who is materially successful but still such a person has forgotten Krishna he says my dear lord I live like this and I forgot you, bhulinu tomare hari so obsession with material comfort, material success material security causes not just distraction from spiritual life but causes spiritual blackout, spiritual oblivion and that’s what happened here and then bardhat ke kona bhakti vinod kandiyaka tarati na bhajiya dore dina bhritha gelo ekona kiha bhigati so bardhat ke ekona bardhat ke old age has come now ekona, it has just come upon me now we don’t want to become old but old age simply comes upon us bhakti vinod kandiyaka tarati so bhakti vinod said kandiyaka I am grieving, I am crying desperately I am crying filled with regret, kandiyaka tarati, I am distressed now it is not that bhakti vinod thakur wrote all his songs when he was old he started writing quite early and yet actually kandiyaka tarati that he wrote his songs he is writing his songs and even if you say that when he wrote this particular song he was old, the point is he was immensely devoted to Krishna but he is taking the role of a conditioned soul and he is saying that when we become old what happens? our material shelters no longer shelter us that the body does not have any capacity for sense gratification, we cannot travel around because the body has become weak and sickly and rickety and those people for whom we gave our life, often they are so caught in their own lives they have their careers, they have their families they don’t have any time for us also so often an old person is treated like a burden is neglected, is rejected na bhajiya tore dina pritha gelo ekho na kiha begati so na bhajiya tore my dear lord i did not worship you i neglected you dina pritha gelo my life has been wasted pritha means wasted my life has become wasted why is Bhaktanath Thakur saying that? my life has been wasted because he is saying here that actually what did i achieve? whatever we have achieved materially it starts slipping away from us even in this lifetime sometimes nowadays people are getting more and more degenerative brain diseases because of which a person may have been the president of America but if the person slips into Alzheimer’s then the person cannot remember I was the president even in this lifetime so what was achieved? everything that was achieved was lost now we may say that extreme cases i may become a great cricketer or a great movie star or i may become a big politician and i will be in good health till the end of my life and i will remember i will have full control over my faculties and i will enjoy my position and prestige and power and achievements but still we can see that it is all slipping away from us suppose we have got a bucket of some precious liquid some life saving medicine and we have got a bottle of that and the bottle has got a leak and there is no way to fix that leakage, we have nothing to fix nothing can fix that leakage and we just see that precious medicine just slipping away, dripping away getting wasted with every passing moment a drop is going out and at the end although we treasure that medicine it will be lost so like that life is just going away drip, drip, drip moment after moment and quite often we are so caught up in things that we don’t even realise that life is slipping away but even if we realise that life is slipping away still we can’t do anything about it because it is inexorable so the time that we treasure Bhaktivinoda Thakur is not talking about a time waster, he is talking about a person who used the time quite constructively from a material perspective became learned became an international traveller took care of the family became famous but in spite of it all everything has to be given up at the time of death and all of it will be lost actually my life has been wasted my time has been wasted oh my dear lord why did I waste my time like this what will be my destination what will be my destination so now this song may seem to be ending on a very pessimistic note Bhaktivinoda Thakur is saying what will be my destination and he is saying that oh I am old, I have not worshipped Hari and my body is weakening now, I am crying what will happen to me other than pessimism there is within the womb of this pessimism is the supreme optimism because amidst this pessimism the person is not Bhaktivinoda Thakur is depicting that the person is not wallowing in self-pity, feeling sorry for oneself rather he is actually come to Krishna and take shelter of Krishna and the very fact that the person has realised that Krishna is what I need desperately and without Krishna I have no shelter and that’s why as he said tomara charane asiyam isyami boli bolu khera katha start of the song that I have come to your feet my dear lord to tell my story so he comes here and he speaks he is seeking shelter of Krishna and the very fact that he is admitting his destitute condition, his desperate condition, his helpless condition indicates that indicates that he has recognised the need for Krishna’s shelter and the more we recognise this need the more we take shelter of Krishna wholeheartedly and by thus taking shelter of Krishna we attain life’s eternal destination we get relief by taking shelter of Krishna, we get relief from this material misery and we get release we get released into spiritual existence, to life of eternal love with Krishna so just like a person who is very sick and understands that I have not taken the medicine for so long, the disease has become acute but thankfully it’s not incurable it’s curable and I have understood the gravity of the disease having understood the enormous blunder in neglecting the medicine for so long now when the person comes to senses the patient will take the medicine very earnestly very diligently and will be cured so like that Bhaktivinoda Thakur better late than never so even in old age if somebody comes to the shelter of Krishna and recognises that I have wasted my life then that person can take shelter of Krishna and attain by Krishna’s shelter the supreme perfection and by meditating on songs like these which Bhaktivinoda Thakur has sung in this particular song we can prevent our life from becoming a sorry story where we may become materially successful but we end up becoming spiritual failures instead of course the worst possibility is that we may not even become we give up Krishna we become spiritual failures because we are only materially successful and sometimes we don’t even get material success so we fail both ways but we don’t have to do like this although this world will in a million ways try to persuade us that samsara la gila bhal through advertisements through through movies through the smiling faces smiling faces of the icons of materialistic culture movie stars and models and other things the world will try to convince culture will try to convince that this world is a place of enjoyment but if we remember if we meditate on songs like this then whatever illusion that those portrayals are created those illusions will be dissipated and we stand in the light of truth recognising beyond the superficial glamour to the actual misery and thus we will be able to shirk the temptation to enjoy in this world and focus ourselves on devotion and with a devotional disposition when we serve Krishna we can achieve wonderfully even in our career but that material achievement will not be at the cost of our spiritual development rather the material achievement will be a result of our spiritual development because we see that our work is also a service to Krishna when our heart is connected to Krishna with devotional service then our work will also be a service to Krishna and we will be able to march onwards towards him steadily and go beyond this miserable material go beyond this stage of bhuliya tomare we will be able to remember him and relish that remembrance eternally thank you Hare Krishna