(1/6) Slaves of Lust

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Jaipur, evening class,
4 November 2019, part 1
Translated from Bengali

By the mercy of our Sri Gurupadpadma, we have had visited the temples of Sri Sri Radha-Govindaji and Sri Sri Radha-Gopinathji today. Actually, we do not have the capacity to have Their darshan, but we can only come to Them and pray, 'O Lord, please forgive my offences.'

Gurudev told, 'How can we see the Deities? We have no eyes to see Them because our eyes are always full of the dust of the illusory environment. That is why all we can do is come in front of Them and ask Them to please forgive our offences.' Our Param Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also told that we only have the power to do some eye exercise – we do not have the capacity to have darshan (receive transcendental vision of the Lord, His devotees and abode).

I know that you have had to struggle on the way here, but I came together with you all in two buses. Despite all the austerities – tolerating all the inconveniences – we arrived this morning. We had a little difficult journey, but you have seen how the local devotees received us. Actually, I do not see them as my disciples – I see them as servitors of the Lord and Gurudev. There are only a few devotees staying here, but they have made very nice and costly arrangement for all of you. Seeing their reception, I feel very happy. We were travelling at night, and they stayed up and kept calling me the whole night. They had cooked very nice, expensive rice and dal, and it all went off. What can we do? We were supposed to arrive last night, but nothing happens without the will of the Lord – and it happened so that we got late and could not arrive last night. Despite all that, they stayed up all night worrying about us, and when we arrived in the morning, they were there to meet our buses and made all the arrangements for everybody.

Actually, we have a very little budget for this trip, so if we were to rent a guesthouse, it would have been quite austere, with very few bathrooms, etc. But owing to the help of these two devotee brothers, my problem has become very small. When we arrived, they arranged a rented car for me and showed me to my room. I still have not gone up to my room actually.

This is something all of my disciples must learn. They should understand what service to the guru is. Many people want to become gurus, but first they must become genuine disciples. Learn from my example. When I came here together with you, I went to the guesthouse first in the rented car, but I did not go to my room. I came first only because I wanted to check what arrangements had been made for all the devotees, to check if there were enough rooms and facilities, to see if the meals were arranged or not. Only after I saw that everything had been taken care of did I go to my room and take a shower.

In the afternoon, I went upstairs to see the arrangements again. I was astonished and pained to see that the devotees actually have no interest in the Lord or Gurudev... There is no enthusiasm to serve the guru and Vaishnavs, but this should be there above everything else. I saw people fighting over some small things, over who got what and who did not get what. They worry so much about such trifle things! They worry so much about themselves!

আর কবে নিতাইচাঁদ করুণা করিবে ।
সংসার-বাসনা মোর কবে তুচ্ছ হ'বে ॥

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe
samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchchha ha'be

'When will Nitaichand give me His mercy? When will my material desires lose all their importance?'

কবে নিত্যানন্দ মোরে করি' দয়া ।
ছাড়াইবে মোর বিষয়ের মায়া ॥

kabe nityananda more kari' daya
chhadaibe mora visayera maya

'When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?'

('Kabe habe bala se dina amara' Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

When we chant the kirtan in prayer to Lord Gopinath, we sing that we are slaves of lust (gopinath, ami ta' kamera dasa). This is our situation. We are slaves of lust and material desires – we only think about what we will eat, where we will sleep, where we will live, and so on. These are our first and foremost thoughts, and we do not think about the Lord or about serving our guru and Vaishnavs. This is what astonishes me. You are all initiated, you have come here to practise spiritual life and worship the Lord – you travel so far to serve the holy place, to serve your guru and Vaishnavs. This should be everybody's mood and the only thought in your hearts.

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Length: 39 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Slaves of Lust
2) Consuming Callousness
3) Aversion to Service
4) Known and Knowable
5) Mahaprabhu's Exclusive Gift
6) Preach for the Math