No Excuses

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela
29 September 2019, Tarakeswar, part 1

Spiritual life depends on tolerance and on following the guru's instruction—always. Christian people go to the church every week and pray, "Please remove all my offences, please remove all my sins!" They say this once a week, but in our line, Krishna-bhaktas are not like that. Devotees of Krishna, devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, devotees of Gurudev pray to their guru at every moment, and that is why it is necessary to have a proper connection with the guru.

The problem is that it is very rare to find a proper disciple in this world. People say, "Oh, Gurudev chastises me! He does not love me, he does not like me—I will leave this Guru and go away!" This is not a real disciple. What does it mean to be a disciple? A disciple always tolerates chastisement. Actually, we are always afraid of austerity, but we must accept any austerity, we must accept any unhappiness for our guru, for the service to our guru. It is not a problem for us.

Sometimes people say, "Oh, now that I am young I will enjoy in this material world, and when I become old, then I will join Krishna consciousness." Once, some foolish man did not want to go to Sri Dham Mayapur. He told Srila Prabhupad (Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur) some excuse, "Oh, I am afraid of going by boat—I will go when the Ganga dries." But Srila Prabhupad replied, "What if the Ganga never dries? You will never be able to go to Mayapur!"

Another time, some man came to Srila Prabhupad and said, "If I come to Krishna consciousness and decide to stay at the temple, my wife and relatives will leave me..." Srila Prabhupad asked him, "Yes, I know, they will leave you, but I want to ask you one question. Can you tell me the truth? You want to come and join the temple and your family will leave you—but can you leave them?" People join Krishna consciousness, come to the temple, but two months later or half a year later they say, "Oh, Gurudev, my wife (my husband/son/daughter) is crying—I must go back to them!"...

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