(9) Be Serious

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 5 April 2019, part 9
Translated from Bengali

Let us chant some kirtan. Oh, do you want to say anything? Say it.

Devotee: He wants to take initiation...

Who? Why does he want to take initiation? He says that he wants to take initiation, but he has not heard any lectures, he has not been coming to programmes.

[To another devotee] You have many books in the bookroom. How many books do you want to read? You can just sit in the book room and read, nothing else to do. You are old now – you are staying at the temple, so you can sit in the book room and read, chant the Holy Name. When it is time for arati, you can close the bookroom and join the arati. You do not have to sit there the whole day. You have a room, so you can also go to your room and rest there for some time. Have you got a room with a bathroom?

Devotee: Yes, but the room is a bit big... I would like a smaller one.

Must I make a small room now? You have a bathroom in the room, then stay there comfortably. When you lived in Vrindavan, you lived in a small room, but here you can stay in a bigger room. You can see this room here, where I am staying. Originally, I made it for Gurudev – all the rooms on this veranda were made for Gurudev ‒ but Gurudev could not come, so I ended up staying here. I also made a big nat-mandir without a parapet wall on the roof thinking that Gurudev could come by helicopter and land there. Now that Gurudev is gone, no helicopter will come and land there, so I built more rooms there instead.

Devotee: So, can he take initiation?

What initiation is he going to take? Does he understand anything about initiation?

Devotee: Yes, he understands a lot. He loves doing puja.

[His Divine Grace chuckles] He loves doing puja? First, you must ask him why he wants to take initiation! If he thinks, 'Oh, I have walked two miles to the east of Kolkata, so I have come to Howrah!' Do you think you will get any train there? You will not. You must first find out where Howrah is; after that, when you know that it is to the west of Kolkata, you must go there, and then only can you get a train. If you go in the opposite direction, you will get to an opposite place. I wrote about this in Sri Nityananda Mahimamrita. Have you read it? If you think that you can get to Howrah station by walking to the east, you will get to a Howrah station of your imagination. These are Srila Sridhar Maharaj's words. There are not my words. What is the value of my words? Do I know anything? I take the words of great Vaishnavs (I see what Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Prabhupad say and instruct) and write all that in the books. I try to explain what they say as best as I can.

Actually, I do not have time. We printed four books in two–three months, it is not a small matter. The books also came out in English, too. They translated Guidance 3 in just seven–ten days and had it printed by Gaura Purnima.

So, you say that you love doing puja, but first you must practise Krishna consciousness. Practise properly. Do you know what Guru Maharaj said? 'Yata chhila nadabune haye gela kirtane ara kaste bhenge gadano kattala (যত ছিল নাড়াবুনে হয়ে গেল কীর্ত্তনে আর কাস্তে ভেঙ্গে গড়ানো কত্তাল). Lit. all the foolish peasants come to do kirtan with broken scythes as kartals (Clodhoppers have turned artists; fools have turned leaders).' One time, I came to Guru Maharaj and said, 'That man does not know how to chant kirtans. I come to chant kirtan, but he keeps singing out of tune.' Guru Maharaj replied, 'What am I to say? All the foolish peasants come to do kirtan with broken scythes as kartals.' Such were Guru Maharaj's words. Do you know what else he said? He said, 'People come to the temple thinking they would stay and do so many things, but after a few days, they come and say, "Gurudev, I feel like my chest is about to burst!" You asked them why, and they reply, "My heart is breaking because I feel so bad for my mother!"' This is what happens. So, how many days will pass before you say this?

You can see the lady who cooks here. She does such a nice service, but she says, 'I have to go back to my home because my sons are asking why I am staying outside in my old age, they say that I must come back home.' I wrote in Guidance 3 about temple-interest vs. home-interest. If you think, 'I have a place to stay, I have a backup,' that is Maya. We have no other shelter, we have no backup plan! We come to the temple to serve our guru. If we can serve the Lord properly, the Lord will never send austerities in our lives. We will never suffer.

You can see that they filed so many cases against me and created so many problems – have you ever seen me brood over it? I always smile and happily chant kirtans and give classes. I have had to come to court so many times, I have even bought a special diary to keep track of all the dates when I have to go there – the country has its laws, so we have to abide by them. So many things have happened, but I have never felt any pain over it. I am carrying on. You can see how many temples I have built, how many parikramas I have made. I go on parikramas during Kartik, Gaura Purnima and Ratha-yatra. They have kicked me out of the temple, but I came to Nrisingha Palli, built a temple there and started doing the parikrama from there. I have never stopped Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, not once. If they want to take over the temple and stay there, all right, go and stay there, I do not mind it – when you no longer can run it and leave from there, then I will come back. And it is getting there – they are leaving slowly one by one. The time is coming. All the wicked minds have now ganged together...

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