Your Fortune, My Fortune

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class
10 October 2015, part 1

You have come today to give me your mercy—by your mercy we can hear and speak about the Lord today. Actually, Gurudev is speaking to you through me. By the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma if we can hear and chant something about the Lord, then we can get some auspiciousness in our life. We do not get this kind of fortune every day to hear or speak about the Lord, therefore we must use this time to engage ourselves in the service.

You have assembled here today for this occasion to give mercy to a fallen soul like myself. I feel humbled and very fortunate. It is very difficult to get the darshan of Vaishnavs.

When I am giving initiation, do you know what I am remembering? I am thinking that Gurudev has kept me to serve you all, he told me to do that, but for you this is not a great fortune, this is not something great—what is greater than this is that you can call my Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, 'Param Gurudev'. This is your highest fortune. You must always remember this.

You must always remember why you have come to this world, what you have come for. You must think about it. Everybody always says, "I want Gurudev's mercy," but we do not understand the meaning of Gurudev's mercy, we only keep saying "mercy," "mercy." Gurudev's mercy means following his instructions, means living according to his instruction. That is called Guru's mercy. If you hear Gurudev and then your mind goes this side and that side, this is not good. Maya always tries to take you another way, always tries to take you away from service of the Lord and tells you to go another way. You can avoid it through practice. Practice means not only one day ("I have observed a festival, after that it is not necessary to do anything") or once, twice a month—no, birth after birth. You have entered an eternal relationship.

When you enter a relationship with your father or mother, it is for a few days only, but when you enter a relationship with your Guru, this is an eternal relationship, birth after birth. You get a father, a mother, a brother, a sister in every birth but you will not get a bona fide Guru in every birth. Therefore, we must remember that we have got this human birth to serve our Guru, Vaishnavs, the Lord.

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