(1/3) Power of Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
19 October 2019, Nrisingha Palli, evening, part 1
Translated from Bengali

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay.
Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay.
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay.
Vrinda Devi, Tulasi Devi, Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay.
Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay.
Sri Mayapur Dham, Sri Nabadwip Dham, Sri Vrindavan, Mathura ki jay.
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay.
Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay.
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay.
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay.
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay.
Tandiya sakha-math-samuha ki jay.
Sri Mather sevak-vrinda, bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Ananta-koti Vaishnav-vrinda ki jay.
Sri Gaudiya Acharya-vrinda ki jay.
Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay.
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay.
Suddha-bhaktir-vighna-vinasa-kari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay.
Sri Sada-Siva Gangadhar, Giriraj Govardhan ki jay.
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
All the assembled devotees ki jay.
All the worldwide devotees ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-varenya Astottara-sata-sri Srimad Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay. Nitai-Gaura premanande Hari bol.

I spoke yesterday about Srila Narottam Das Thakur, it was his disappearance day. Srila Narottam Das Thakur did the lowest service although he was an educated man, which was very rare at that time, and was born in a zamindar's house. His guru, Srila Lokanath Goswami, said that he would not take any disciples, but Srila Narottam Das Thakur liked him and decided that he would take initiation from him. Do you know what he did? At that time, Vrindavan was covered with forests and sadhus lived under trees. There were no bathrooms, so everybody passed stool somewhere in the forest. Srila Lokanath Goswami was very old, so he passed stool not far from the place where he stayed. Srila Narottam Das Thakur would take a hoe and come to clear away the stool and turn the soil – he did it every day. One day, Srila Lokanath Goswami wondered, 'What is this? I come here every day to pass stool, but I do not see any stool here. Who is doing this?' Eventually, he found out that it was Srila Narottam Das Thakur. Then, he could not but give him initiation.

Srila Narottam Das Thakur's house was in Sripat Kheturi Dham, Rajshahi, on the bank of the Padma River. When you cross the Bangladeshi border, the Ganges' name there is Padma. When Mahaprabhu went to Bangladesh (it was East Bengal at that time – there was no Bangladesh), He picked up some soil and threw it into the river with all His might, shouting, 'Narottam! Narottam!' Everybody was surprised, 'Who is that Narottam?' Later, Narottam was born there.

When Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He went to Puri and later disappeared there. Later, Srila Narottam Das Thakur came to Mayapur and visited the house of Sri Sachi Mata and Sri Jagannath Misra. Sri Jagannath Misra was no more at that time, and only Sachi Mata was at home, continuing her service. He visited Advaita Prabhu in Shantipur, met with his son Achyutananda Prabhu. From there, he went to Kalna and met with Gauri Das Pandit and his servitor Hriday Chaitanya.

Hriday Chaitanya lived with Gauri Das Pandit and served at his temple. His service was to look after the flower garden outside the house. Gauri Das Pandit told him, 'Hriday Chaitanya, I have this land and we need flowers. Can you make a garden there?' In those days, there were no water pipes, so Hriday Chaitanya would keep going to the Ganges and bringing water from there. Slowly, there appeared a very beautiful garden. After a while, one day, Gauri Das Pandit thought, 'I told him to make a garden. Let me go and see how it is coming along.' He came and saw a nice garden, full of beautiful flowers. He was very pleased. He wondered, 'Where is Hriday?' Somebody pointed, 'There he is! He is bringing water.' Hriday Chaitanya was walking to the house with a pot of water on his head. Seeing his guru, he put the pot down and paid a full obeisance to his gurudev. Suddenly, Gauri Das Pandit saw that Hriday Chaitanya had a very bad sore on his head – it was so neglected that there were even many insects falling from it. Hriday Chaitanya had been bringing so much water that he had a terrible sore on his head. Despite the sore, he continued bringing water.

'What has happened to you, Hriday?' Gauri Das Pandit asked him.

'No, no, nothing, Gurudev. It will come right, I am fine!' he replied quickly.

'Nothing??' Gauri Das Pandit grabbed Hriday Chaitanya and forcefully took him to a doctor. The doctor cleaned the sore, applied some medicine and bandaged it.

Gauri Das Pandit was very happy with him, 'How much tolerance he has! He has insects in his sore, but he is still carrying water!' Although Hriday Chaitanya was an illiterate man, seeing his service, Gauri Das Pandit was very happy. In the end, he gave all charge for the temple to him. In the end, Hriday Chaitanya went to Vrindavan. Such was his service to Sri Gauri Das Pandit.

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Length: 28 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Power of Service
2) Spiritual Shield
3) Purity and Imitation