(3) Mahaprabhu's Lesson

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Puri Dham, 3 July 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

In Guru Maharaj's time, there was nothing big, no facilities, no manpower, but so many things have appeared since then. You know, in the early days, there were only thirty–forty people coming for parikrama. One time, when they were doing a parikrama, the man in charge telephoned Guru Maharaj and said with much excitement, 'Maharaj, our parikrama has turned out very good!' Guru Maharaj asked him, 'How many people came?' The man said, 'Thirty-five people!' [His Divine Grace laughs] They were going to buy something for the festival, but when they got it, they ended up keeping it in their room because they were afraid that everybody would use it and there would be nothing left of it after that. It made me laugh when I heard it. Is this how you run a temple? It is necessary to have a good heart – whenever you do something, you must do with heart and soul; if you can be like that, then the Lord will always make all arrangements. In the olden days, there were no facilities, so we used to struggle and make do with whatever we had, but, eventually, everything grew and developed, and now you can see how big our parikramas are.

Mahaprabhu also taught these things. What I am telling you are not my words – doing service with heart and soul is something we learn from Mahaprabhu Himself.

You have been to Gambhira the other day (we did not get time to sit and speak properly there as we had to leave fast). Gambhira is Mahaprabhu's room, and every day Govinda came there to serve Him. Who was Govinda? Actually, he was Mahaprabhu's godbrother (he was Iswar Puri's disciple), but he respected Mahaprabhu as his guru and as the Lord Himself. In Iswar Puri's time, Govinda asked him, 'Prabhu, you are quite old now – who shall I serve if you leave?' Iswar Puri told him, 'Why? Mahaprabhu is there, so you must serve Him, of course.' So, when Iswar Puri left, Govinda came to Mahaprabhu and said, 'My Master has left this world, please take me for Your service.' To teach everybody, Mahaprabhu hesitated at first, 'How can I do that? You are My godbrother, so how can I take your service? A servant of one's guru must be given much respect. You served My gurudev, so I must respect you – how can I take your service?' Then, Govinda replied, 'Yes, this is what is said in the scriptures, but what did Your gurudev say? Your gurudev said that You must engage me in Your service. Which will You follow then?' Mahaprabhu was silenced. He was testing Govinda, but when Govinda said that, He could not say anything to that. In the end, Mahaprabhu said, 'All right, I have no objection. I have to accept the order of My gurudev.' Since that time, Mahaprabhu accepted Govinda's service.

Govinda served Mahaprabhu every day. One day, Mahaprabhu danced and chanted kirtan together with all the devotees, and by the time He got back to Gambhira that day, He was very tired. You saw that Gambhira is a very small room and Mahaprabhu was very tall, so when He lay down at the door of His room, He actually blocked the entrance – His feet were facing one way, and His head was facing the other way. When Govinda came there, he could not enter the room.

'Prabhu', he said gently, 'please move a little. I need to come inside to serve You.'

'I cannot move,' Mahaprabhu replied.

'But I do this service every day...'

This is called sincerity (nistha): 'I do this service, so I must do it every single day.' Service is not just for one or two days – if you do something, you must do it every day.

'It is your problem,' Mahaprabhu replied, 'What you do or how you do it, it is your matter.'

Mahaprabhu decided to test Govinda to see how he would do his service and how attached he was to his service. So, what did Govinda do? He took off his uttaria, covered Mahaprabhu's body with it and, crossing Him, entered the room. Everybody knows that it is an offence to cross over your guru's body, but Govinda crossed over Mahaprabhu. What for? To serve Him. Once he was inside the room, he massaged Mahaprabhu's feet nicely and Mahaprabhu got a very nice rest.

In the middle of the night, Mahaprabhu suddenly woke up and saw Govinda sitting next to a wall, dozing.

'Govinda? What are you doing here? Did you not go away? Did you not go to take prasad and take rest?!'

'Prabhu, how will I go? You are lying in the doorway.'

'How did you come inside then?'

'I came inside to serve You, but I cannot cross over You for my own needs (to go to eat, rest, and so on).'

You can find this pastime described in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, and Srila Prabhupad wrote in the commentary that for the sake of service you can even commit an offence, but you cannot commit any offence whatsoever for your own enjoyment. We are just the opposite, though. For example, if somebody is born or dies at home, we stop watering Tulasi, we stop cooking for the Lord, we stop offering bhoga – at the same time, we continue feeding our own children. Even eating vegetarian food is an austerity for us. Many people cannot eat only vegetarian food – they can do it for a few days, but then they have to eat some fish or meat. Such is our situation. We can even commit an offence for our own enjoyment, but we do not want to do anything to serve the Lord. This is wrong. For the sake of service you can even commit an offence, but you cannot commit any offence whatsoever for your own enjoyment.

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