Spiritual Reinforcement

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
9 September 2011

If somebody does even some small service, it is also service. For example, somebody is cleaning the temple, somebody is cleaning the bathroom, somebody is cooking, somebody is cutting vegetables—it is all service...

Gurudev is the captain of a boat, and we must try to stay in that boat—we must keep faith in what Gurudev tells us. If Gurudev tells us something and we do not follow it, it means we have no faith in our Guru. If somebody tells you something, will you believe that or will you believe what your Guru says? You must ask yourself this question.

It is necessary to keep the strongest faith. "শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী, sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari: the quality of devotion depends upon faith" (Cc, 2.22.64). There are four types of faith. A strong faith means a strong foundation—if you do not have a strong foundation, a strong basement, there will be no devotion. It means we cross the line, go here and there: we swim in the ocean and cannot get to the shore because we do not have the proper foundation.

Everybody has different eyes: I see something with my eyes, you see something with your eyes. Just as when you wear coloured spectacles, you will see everything in that colour—if you wear white spectacles, you will see white everywhere, if you wear blue spectacles, you will see blue everywhere. We need pure devotion (nirmal bhakti, suddha bhakti), and that comes through a great bona fide Guru, a bona fide devotee. We are unqualified, but Gurudev can make us perfect, that is why we must depend upon our Guru.

Some think, "I am a big Guru, I am a great bona fide Vaishnav," but Srila Prabhupad said: "দুষ্ঠ মন ! তুমি কিসের বৈষ্ণব ? Dusta mana! tumi kisera Vaisnava? My dear mind, what kind of Vaishnav do you think you are?" Our mind always disturbs us, our mind is naughty, always does bad things... So, we think we can control the whole world, but we cannot even control ourselves. You must understand this.

When you have a very strong faith in your Guru, you will get good association through that faith. You are staying in your country, but it is not a problem—if you listen to the lectures, sing the songs regularly, practise regularly, it will be good.

Tomorrow is Bhakti Vinod Thakur's appearance day. Read Gurudev's lectures, remember Bhakti Vinod Thakur's life story, Bhakti Vinod Thakur's advice...

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