(4) Love for Temple

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 1 April 2019, part 4
Translated from Bengali

We often see that people first come to stay at the temple but then they become overwhelmed with various burdensome works or they hear that others swear and criticise them, and they start thinking of giving up temple life. They cut off all connection with the temple because they see that there are so many problems at the temple. But if you feel in your heart that you are forever tied to the interest of the temple, then come what may you will never be able to leave the temple and go to stay in any other place. No matter how much you suffer, you will keep thinking about the temple. 'Outside the temple, I have a place to go to. I have a house, I have some shelter' – such thinking is Maya. This is what Srila Prabhupad says. To think that you have another shelter outside the temple is a wicked idea; such a folly can arise in one's heart.

Whether you are a grihastha, a sannyasi or a brahmachari, if you can genuinely love and identify yourself deeply with the service to your Sri Gurupadpadma, to Vaishnavs, the Supreme Lord and the temple, such loving attachment is a bridge to highest spiritual benefit. If one does not feel that kind of natural love and attachment to the temple (when they feel sincerely, lovingly that the temple is their very own), you cannot teach them to love it by any reasoning, beating or forcing. You cannot teach one to love.

You know that there are many people who have not come today. Somebody thinks, 'Oh, if they were making a temple next to my house, it would be much better.' There is such jealousy in people. People do not like to see others doing well. It is natural. For example, I have sent a devotee to Bangladesh (they are building a temple at my birthplace), and I know that there are some people staying there who do not like me – when I left, they used to say, 'Oh, he left his job and his mother and went to stay at the temple! Look at him, he has become a sadhu now!' They told many things to my father and mother, but their children are now working at the construction site, building the temple. They sent me some photographs over the Internet, and I saw them carrying bricks, sand, etc. They are jealous people. My father and uncle gifted some land, and they see that we are making a big building there – they have never even seen such big buildings in their lives. We sent builders from here because in Bangladesh they do not construct buildings like here. For example, they still do not use stone chips or marble there – they use only bricks and break bricks into powder by hand (using hand tools) and sometimes with a machine. In our country, we transport soil in trucks, but over there they go everywhere by boats, down the channels.

They use what is called dredger machines. The channels often get fully covered with water hyacinth (kachuripana, কচুরিপানা) – they clear all the plants, then bring a boat and install a machine on the boat, after that they fit a kilometre-long pipe and transport soil through the pipe. Some people have ponds that they want to fill with soil to build something there, so it takes a lot of soil to do that. We had to get thirty thousand cubic meters for our land (the land is quite big). I saw that they had filled the place and now the construction works have started.

So, we always argue and quarrel over who is better, grihasthas, sannyasis or brahmchararis, but the main thing is that the temple is your temple – you are the ones who will stay here, you are the ones who will serve here. I will come here for a festival, perhaps, after the niyom-seva month in Kartik. At that festival, we will install the Deities. I will pray to the Lord that it becomes possible in the coming year. Even if we have to install a pandal, we can still make a programme and install the Deities in the Kartik month here. Try to complete the works fast. If everybody helps, it is possible. Help in whichever way you can – some of you are carpenters, so you can help with the carpentry works. Rama Prabhu himself is good at masonry. He can take a water pipe and help mix the cement to make sure it is very strong. The workers want to finish everything fast, but it is important for us to make sure that the works are done properly. It is necessary to make sure they use enough water. If you can get somebody to supply current here for now, tell them that we will foot the bill and compensate all expenses. Look after everything. See where you will keep the cement. If there is any problem, call me. Watch the workers and make sure they do the work. I could have sent workers from Nabadwip, but then you would have to arrange a place for them to stay, feed them, and so on. It is a headache. When they start making the domes (in four months), then I will send my workers – they can stay in somebody's in-law's house. They eat vegetarian food, so you can feed them rice, dal, potato. It will not be a problem. We have a lot of rice and potato. I will bring some here. I have already told the workers about the domes and told them to be ready to come here to make them.

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