Unpretentious and Forgiving Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
22 May 2018, Siliguri, part 8

You have been serving the Lord for so long, you have been chanting the Lord's Name for so long, but you still have not got the result. Somebody thinks, "Why will I chant so much then?" and they start chanting less. What will be the result? We chant so much, we practise so much, we do so much service, but nothing happens—we have not been able to do anything... Always think about this. You should read the life description of great souls, you should listen to their lectures—how did they serve the Lord?

You have all heard Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's name—all Gaudiya Vaishnavs respect him as a profound expert of siddhanta. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave him this name 'Sridhar'. There is Sridhar Swami who composed the commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam. It is said, if a woman does not respect her husband (swami), then she is no better than a prostitute. In the same way, if somebody does not respect Sridhar Swami, their position is like that too. With this in mind, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave him the name Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

In old days, there were no brick walls at the Math, there were only some trees that marked the boundaries. One time, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was working with the soil, and a person came to the Math from a far away place. He had heard Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's lecture somewhere and knew that Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was a great pandit, a great sadhu and possessed much knowledge, so he had come to meet him.

When he arrived at the Math and got off the rickshaw, he saw Srila Sridhar Maharaj in gumcha, and, thinking it was some menial worker, asked him,

"Is Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj here at the temple?"

"Yes, he is here."

"Where is he?"

"He is over there, upstairs. You please sit down here, I will inform him and he will meet with you."

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj went to his room, took a quick shower, put on his clothes and uttariya and sat in his chair. Then, somebody came to him and gave him the news that a man had come to see him. Srila Sridhar Maharaj told them to bring him in. The devotee went back to that man and told him that Srila Sridhar Maharaj was waiting for him upstairs and took him there. When the man came upstairs, he saw that it was that same person he had first met when he arrived.

"You are Sridhar Maharaj?!" the man exclaimed.

"Yes, it is me."

"I did not understand it, please do not take my offence."

In this way he taught that even though he was so great, he did not think it was beneath him to wear a gumcha and do low menial jobs like cleaning a bathroom or the drain. He was that kind of a sadhu. Our Gurudev took initiation from him and got an opportunity to serve in his shelter, and our Gurudev too served in this way—when he came to the Math, he never slept in the afternoon, he would do the gardening, dig the soil, plant trees, serve the cows, etc. When I came, I also did the cow service at first—I would feed the cows, etc. In this way, we must learn from our Guru-varga.

Neither Krishna nor Mahaprabhu were proud—Mahaprabhu Himself would distribute prasad, He would personally arrange Vaishnav seva. We must learn from this, we must learn to live in the plane of service.

We must leave our ego. Our religion is forgiveness—forgiveness is one of the qualities of a Vaishnav. If we cannot forgive everybody, then, as Guru Maharaj says, how can you become a Vaishnav? If somebody does something wrong to you, offends you, and you cannot forgive them, how can you be a Vaishnav then? Nityananda Prabhu was beaten, but He still forgave them. This is Mahaprabhu's teaching for us. Who beat Nityananda Prabhu? Madhai. When he did it, Nityananda Prabhu forgave him, but Mahaprabhu did not. Nityananda Prabhu is Guru-tattva (asraya-vigraha), and Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan (visaya-vigraha). Even though Mahaprabhu could not forgive Madhai, Nityananda Prabhu did—He threw Madhai at Mahaprabhu's feet.

If the Guru gives his mercy to you, he can pick you up from a very low position, and if you do not have the Guru's mercy, you will not achieve anything... You may have everything, but if have no mercy of your Gurupadpadma, if your Guru is not happy with you, then you will not be able to get anything. If you do what your Guru wants, that is called seva. If you do something that your Guru does not want, that is not service. You must do service—do what your Guru wants you to do. Always think about this. Try to understand these things.

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