(10) Spiritual Sacrifice

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's
appearance day, Hooghly district
24 February 2019, morning, part 10
Translated from Bengali

I have a question for you. Who can give you the right to serve Lord Krishna, to serve the Supreme Lord?

Answering this question, Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave the following answer. Krishna belongs to Radharani, He is Her property, and who is Radharani? She is non-different from Sri Gurupadpadma. So, if you take shelter of such a guru, he can give you the right to serve the Supreme Lord Himself. Do you understand it now? Remember this.

We wrote all these things in our books. You do not need to give me a single rupee. But steal twenty–forty rupees from home and buy books. If your husbands do not give you money, take it from his pocket and buy books. Buy the books and read them secretly. I will tell you what you should do. When your husband comes home and takes his shirt off to go to the bathroom, check his pocket and steal some money. I am not telling you to steal money to buy creams, powders or lipsticks! Buy books with that money. Do you understand? If they do not give you money, then steal it and buy books. Do you feel bad hearing my words? I am giving you good advice. To serve the Lord, you can do anything.

I told a very nice story yesterday. I will tell it to you today again. Listen carefully to how you should serve the Lord and how people can change. You will find this story in one of my books.

There was one householder devotee called Dhanur Das. He lived with his wife. They were very poor and did not have anything – they lived in a broken house and lived by begging. Whatever they got by begging, they offered it as bhoga to the Lord and then took prasad. They lived serving the Lord. This is how devotees live...

One day, Dhanur Das told his wife, 'Instead of going to beg together, let us split up – you go to that village, and I will go to the other one. We will be able to collect more, and if any devotees come to us, we will be able to give them prasad.' So, they went separately. Dhanur Das's wife went alone, and some naughty man started following her. He told her, 'Oh, you look so beautiful, why are you begging in this scorching sun? You are collecting only a handful of rice going house to house; you should come to my house, I will give you a lot of rice and money!' Dhanur Das's wife understood that the man was not good, so she made some excuse, 'Yes, yes, I will come one day. Later, later.' Then, she went in another direction, but the man still followed her and kept asking her, 'When will you come to my house?' She told him, 'Do not worry, I will come. You do not need to follow me.'

She did not tell her husband about all this not to disturb him. One or two months passed like that. One day, she told Dhanur Das, 'Go out alone today. I will stay at home – there is a lot of work to do at home. I must do the laundry – all the clothes have gone dull, it is not nice to go out wearing such clothes.' Dhanur Das said, 'All right, I will go alone today.' He left, and his wife started doing the laundry. Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. She got scared, 'Gosh, who can that be?! I am alone at home. What if that man got to know that I did not go begging today and has come here?' Then, she thought of her gurudev, 'O Gurudev, please protect me. If I do not open the door, he will break the door, and it will be even worse!' So, taking her gurudev's name, she went to open the door, and when she opened it, she saw her gurudev standing at the door!

She was very surprised, 'Oh! Gurudev!' She hurried to find something for her gurudev to sit on, 'Oh, where will gurudev sit?' There was no chair at the house, but she took out the only broken stool they had and gave it to gurudev. Then, she gave him a glass of water and said, 'Gurudev, please drink this water, I will go get some fruit for you.' But there was nothing at home. There was no fruit, no rice, no dal. She was waiting for her husband to come back from collection, and then she would cook and offer bhoga. What was she to do now? She thought, 'I told gurudev that I would bring some fruit for him, but where will I get it?' Then she remembered, 'Oh, that man has been calling me to his house! He promised to give me a lot of rice, money and fruit... Let me go to his house today. Whatever happens happens, such is my fate.'

For the Lord's service, she was not afraid to go to that man's house. Sacrificing her own life and shame, she ran to the man's house.

'I have come!' she said, out of breath after running. 'You kept inviting me, so I have come today!'

'Oh, very good! Very good! Come in, have a seat!'

'I have no time to sit. I have left my gurudev at home, he is waiting for me to come back. You told me that you would give me whatever I want. Please give me whatever you have at home! Hurry!'

Then, the man gathered whatever he had at home (rice, dal, vegetables, etc.) and put everything into two big sacks.

'I can take one sack, but I will not be able to carry two,' Dhanur Das's wife said. 'Come with me! Help me carry it home.'

The man went together with the lady to her house. He kept the sacks in her house and was about to leave, but she stopped him.

'Wait! Sit with gurudev. I am going to cook now. Stay and listen to gurudev's Hari-katha. Do not leave.' Dhanur Das returned home at that time, and she said quickly, 'You two sit and listen to gurudev, I am going to cook.'

She finished cooking and then told the man, 'You gave us all this rice, you must stay and take prasad.'

As the man listened to her gurudev's Hari-katha, his heart changed. He told Dhanur Das's wife, 'By your mercy, I have got the darshan of your guru. Please ask your gurudev if he can give me initiation.' The man took initiation, and all his ill intentions vanished – his heart changed.

This is the kind of jagat guru one must take initiation from. This is how you must always practise Krishna consciousness.

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