(3/4) Unblemished Sacrifice

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees worldwide
Nrisingha Palli, 1 January 2021, part 3

Today is Gurudev’s appearance day. You all know everything – where Gurudev was born, how he came to the mission, and so on. I do not want to describe so many things now. However, there are some people who criticise Gurudev, and I would like to give some message to them.

Actually, Gurudev said that we are all paraphernalia. For example, when you do the Deities’ arati, you sometimes use a pancha pradip, sometimes a candle, and so on – you take some pot or some vessel, clean it and then use it for the worship. Gurudev said that he did leave Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math at some point, but he never left his guru. Gurudev said, ‘I may have left Chaitanya Saraswat Math physically, but I have always kept Chaitanya Saraswat Math in my heart.’

When Gurudev lived as a householder, he ran a printing press: he would use a little bit from whatever money he earned to maintain his family and send the rest for Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s Mission. Moreover, Srila Sridhar Maharaj himself never changed his mind – from the beginning, Gurudev was the secretary of Chaitanya Saraswat Math and Srila Sridhar Maharaj was the president, and Srila Sridhar Maharaj never removed Gurudev from this position. Gurudev may have changed his clothes only, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj decided that Gurudev would be his successor from the beginning, from the time when Gurudev was a brahmachari, and he never changed this decision.

Many years later, Srila Sridhar Maharaj brought Gurudev back and said that he had been waiting to give his chair to Gurudev for thirty years and did not want to wait any longer. Gurudev tried to argue, saying, ‘My lifetime is very short, my horoscope says I will live only fifty-five years. Why are you giving this position to me?’ but Srila Sridhar Maharaj would not listen. He said, ‘Throw your horoscope away! I am giving you eighty-two years of life.’ In his own life also, Srila Sridhar Maharaj was told by an astrologer that he would die early, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj ended up living for ninety-two years. In the end, Srila Sridhar Maharaj wanted to give his chair to Gurudev and leave this world, but Gurudev did not want that. Gurudev knew that if Guru Maharaj stayed longer and longer, it would be good for all devotees, and all the world, too.

Even all the Gaudiya Vaishnavs, all the Gaudiya acharyas always came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj to hear his Hari-katha. They all knew, ‘If you want to hear Hari-katha of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, you must come to Srila Sridhar Maharaj,’ and many came. This is how Gurudev got an opportunity to serve all the Vaishnavs, all the godbrothers of Srila Sridhar Maharaj – he was Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s servitor at that time, and when all godbrothers came to see Srila Sridhar Maharaj, Gurudev served everybody.

Gurudev told me many things, and I know that he protected the Mission in so many ways. He told me some of his childhood stories from his brahmachari life, and he taught me so many things.

Once, I came to complain to Gurudev about something, and Gurudev told me, ‘I have kept an Alsatian dog downstairs, but when there is some danger, that Alsatian dog jumps on my shoulder and cries, “Please save me! Please save me!”’ Gurudev taught me in this way. When you are a manager, you must be humble, but sometimes you also have to take a stick in your hand – both are necessary for management if you want to protect the Mission.

I remember Gurudev told one story from the time when he was a brahmachari. Srila Sridhar Maharaj had given Gurudev a bicycle, and Gurudev would always go everywhere riding that bicycle. (I kept his bicycle in the museum in Nabadwip, but I do not know if it is still there or not; I do not know what they did with it. There was Gurudev’s name engraved on its handlebar.) One day, when Gurudev was about to go out on his bicycle, a surveyor, or an overseer, came from the Nabadwip municipality office to measure the temple’s kitchen building. Srila Sridhar Maharaj was upstairs at that time, so the man spoke to Gurudev. Gurudev told him, ‘All right, you can take the measurement, but from outside!’ If he measured the building from outside, the area, and subsequently the tax, would be bigger, so the surveyor was supposed to be happy with that, but instead he started arguing, ‘Why cannot I enter the kitchen?’ The problem was that he was going to go there with his shoes on, so Gurudev said, ‘It is the kitchen of the Deities, so you cannot go inside.’ The man got angry, ‘Why not? I am a brahman!’ Finally, Gurudev said, ‘If you try to enter the kitchen again, I will cut off your leg!’ The man went upstairs to Srila Sridhar Maharaj and complained, ‘This little boy threatened me that he would cut off my leg! What is this?!’ Srila Sridhar Maharaj asked him calmly, ‘Which boy? Bring him here. Perhaps, there is some mistake…’ The boy came, and Srila Sridhar Maharaj saw that it was Gurudev (Gaurendu Brahmachari at that time).

‘Gaurendu’, Srila Sridhar Maharaj asked him, ‘did you say you would cut off this gentleman’s leg?’

‘Yes, I did,’ Gurudev answered.

‘Why did you say that?’

‘He says he is a brahman, but he wants to enter the kitchen with his shoes on!’

Then, Srila Sridhar Maharaj said to the surveyor, ‘Oh, then he is right. You cannot enter the kitchen. If you want to measure the building for taxation, you can measure it from outside. Why is it necessary for you to enter the building? The boy is right. He did not make any mistake. If you try to enter forcefully, well, then what to do? He will cut off your leg…’

This is how Gurudev protected this Mission, this Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

There is also another story. It happened in 1978, when there was a big flood at Chaitanya Saraswat Math, just like there was one later, in 2000. In 1978, there was no boundary wall around the temple (the temple was very poor), so the whole territory of the temple was heavily flooded. Gurudev made a raft tying together some banana trees and would move around the temple on that raft. One day, he saw a man who was about to chop some banana tree at the temple’s territory. Gurudev went to the man on the raft.

‘What are you doing here?’ Gurudev asked the man.

‘Oh, my cow is hungry,’ answered the man. ‘I wanted to ask for a banana tree to feed it to the cow.’

‘You did not ask me for it before. You have already come to the temple compound, and you have come from behind, not from the front. Because you have come to steal, I will not give you any banana trees.’

The man got angry and tried to protest, but Gurudev said, ‘No problem, I am the security of the temple, and you are a thief. Let us see how you will steal this banana tree!’

This is another example of how Gurudev protected Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

Gurudev said also: Like a dog, I had fallen into a hole, a big well, and was barking for help. Nobody came to my rescue, but my Guru Maharaj caught me by the hand and took me out of that well – he cleaned me and engaged me again in the service to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math…

Some people criticise Gurudev for leaving the temple, but I say what is the problem? You know that even Mahaprabhu Himself told Sri Govinda Ghosh to get married and live as a householder. Moreover, Mahaprabhu told Sri Raghunath Das Goswami:

স্থির হঞা ঘরে যাও, না হও বাতুল
ক্রমে ক্রমে পায় লোক ভব-সিন্ধুকূল

sthira hana ghare yao, na hao batula
krame krame paya loka bhava-sindhu-kula

‘Go back to your home, do not become crazy. It takes time: one reaches the shore of material existence gradually.’

মর্কট-বৈরাগ্য না কর লোক দেখাঞা ।
যথাযোগ্য বিষয় ভুঞ্জ' অনাসক্ত হঞা ॥

markata-vairagya na kara loka dekhana
yatha-yogya visaya bhunja’ anasakta hana

‘Do not show your false renunciation to impress people. Use whatever material things you require, but without attachment.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.16.237–238)

‘Go back to family life, but do not show attachment to it – give your life, sacrifice your life for service. Do not be attached to material things.’ Do you understand what I am saying? Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami not to behave like a monkey.

Gurudev told me so many things and taught me in so many ways. I am very happy because I realise that I am very fortunate to have got this kind of gurudev, and I think that you are all also fortunate because you have got this kind of personality, this kind of representative of the Lord. Gurudev is not an ordinary person! He was sent here by the Lord, and we have got the fortune to take shelter at his lotus feet. This is our greatest fortune.

I am a simple beggar, and I pray to you all, I beg you all to give me some mercy so that I can serve my guru until my death. This is all I beg you for. Please give me some mercy so that I can increase my service position day by day, so that I can serve the Mission of my Gurudev, the devotees and the Deities of my Gurudev more and more every day. I am begging you all for this mercy.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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Length: 28 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Grand and Joyous Festival
2) Protecting Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
3) Unblemished Sacrifice
4) "My Pride, My Joy and My Hope"