(2/6) Consuming Callousness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Jaipur, evening class,
4 November 2019, part 2
Translated from Bengali

We are very fortunate to have been able to see today the holy Deity of Sri Govindaji who was served by Srila Rupa Goswami. When Muslim people led by King Aurangzeb were breaking all Hindu temples in Vrindavan, devotees took the Deities away to save Them. There are three main Deities worshipped by Gaudiya Vaishnavs: Govinda, Gopinath and Madan-mohan. There are also other Deities – Gokulanandaji, Srila Lokanath Goswami's Radha-Vinodjiu, Srila Jiva Goswami's Radha-Damodar (the temple is right next to yours in Vrindavan). All these Deities are now in Jaipur. Although we have no capacity to have the darshan of these Deities, we are still very fortunate to come here to Jaipur, and today we have had the darshan of Lord Govindaji and Lord Gopinath.

There is one thing we must always think ‒ all of you should be conscious of it. Whether you come here or not, whether you will come here ever later or not, it is not going to make any difference to me, but mind one thing. You are doing this parikrama in the association of sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs. You visit various places and listen about the Lord, and this is also service. Listening about the Lord is service. They are cutting vegetables, cooking, offering bhoga to the Lord, serving devotees, distribute prasad to everybody. These are all services.

Many of you think, 'When we come in the morning, what prasad are we going to take?' but nobody wonders what they must do before that. You come, take prasad, quickly go away and then come back again at noon to have lunch. Nobody wonders how the cooking is done, what is necessary to do at the kitchen, and so on. It is necessary to think about these things. We must help to do all the services. If you think, 'Oh, I have given money, why must I do anything?' then it is just a business transaction. If you come with this mentality, then you will not get any good result even if you circumambulate all the holy places. You cannot serve Vaishnavs or the holy places like this.

I always watch who does or not does what service. In Vrindavan we do not have place for taking prasad, so everybody takes prasad in the nat-mandir. I noticed that after taking prasad in the evening everybody went to their rooms. You do not think, 'Oh, everybody will come to this same nat-mandir the next day in the morning.' Do you ever do like this at your homes? When you eat at home, you always wipe and clean the place after every meal, and you make sure the place is kept clean. Everybody does this at home. But here I see that nobody even thinks of it. I saw that only two girls, one of whom is just a child, cleaned the nat-mandir together. I was very happy to see it because it means that they have service mood – that is why they think about these things.

What is necessary for you to do? Your guru thinks, 'I must do service,' and he does service, you all can see it. I am spending all day and night with you all, you can see how I live. I could have travelled separately in a comfortable car or taken a train, but, even though I was unwell, I went together with you all in a bus, tolerating all the austerities and trouble. And when we arrived, I was very sad. You know, if some outside people (who have just come to this line and not taken initiation yet) came and said, 'Oh, I need this', 'Oh, I am not happy with the room', 'Oh, it is difficult to stay like this,' then it would be understandable. But you are all initiated, you are chanting the Holy Name – what Holy Name are you chanting?! What have you learned? You come and immediately ask, 'Gurudev, where is my room?', 'Gurudev, where will I stay?' Does it ever cross your mind to think, 'Gurudev, have you got a room? Is everything all right? Have you taken prasad? Have you not gone to your room yet?' Nobody thinks like this. I think about all the devotees, but it is the duty of the disciple to think about their guru – to think what their guru needs, to think where their guru will be staying, and so on. This is something disciples must think of.

We use our guru, we use Krishna. 'Krishna, give me this, give me that.' 'Gurudev, give me this, give me that. Do this for me, do that for me.' But how much are you doing for your guru? How much are you doing for the Lord? Think about it. You always think about yourselves, is this what you have learned? Is this what your guru has taught you?

Again, if somebody comes from outside who does not understand anything, who has not taken initiation, they can do this (it is understandable) – they can complain and ask for things. But I cannot conceive that such behaviour would come from those who have taken initiation – from devotees.

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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