(4/13) Worshipful Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

তোমার কিঙ্কর, আপনে জানিব,
‘গুরু’-অভিমান ত্যজি’ ।
তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট, পদজলরেণু,
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥

tomara kinkara, apane janiba,
‘guru’-abhimana tyaji’
tomara uchchhista, pada-jala-renu,
sada niskapate bhaji

‘May I consider myself your servant and give up the ego of a guru. May I always earnestly worship the remnants of your food, your foot dust and the water that has washed your feet.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘I am your servant (kinkar), slave (das).’ Srila Prabhupad also told, ‘Daso ’smi. I am your servant.’ So, ‘I will consider myself your slave, and I will leave all ego of a guru.’ When people think, ‘I am a guru, I am an acharya [I can teach others],’ this ego is very bad. It is necessary to give up the ego that you are a guru. You must not think, ‘I have become a guru’, or ‘I will become a guru.’ Even if you think, ‘I can give a nice class’, ‘I can sing kirtans well’ – if you have this kind of ego, it will not take you anywhere.

‘Tomara uchchhista pada-jala-renu sada niskapate bhaji’ means that when Vaishnavs take prasadam, I will take the remnants of their prasadam. ‘Pada-jala-renu’ means the water that has been used to wash Vaishnavs’ feet and the foot dust of Vaishnavs. You can notice that when people pay their obeisances, they always want to touch the feet of the person who they bow down to. Do you know why Vaishnavs do not let others touch their feet? Because they consider themselves very lowly and vile. Do you know the reason why I do not let you touch my feet? A guru must always think about others, ‘I am your servant.’ I do not allow you to touch my feet because you use your pure hands to make garlands for the Lord, to cook for the Lord, to serve the Lord – why will you touch the feet of this lowly, fallen soul with your pure hand? That is why I always prohibit everyone to touch my feet.

At the same time, ‘Ye jana Krsna bhaje sei bada chatur (যে জন কৃষ্ণ ভজে সেই বড় চতুর). Those who worship Krishna are very clever.’ At the time of Gundicha-marjan, Mahaprabhu personally cleaned the temple of Gundicha Devi, where Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra were to come. There was one very clever Gaudiya Vaishnav who managed to drink the water that had washed Mahaprabhu’s feet. You know that during Gundicha-marjan, everyone brings pots with water to the temple. That Vaishnav took a pot and dropped the water on Mahaprabhu’s feet, and when the water started flowing down from Mahaprabhu’s feet, he put his hand under the water and drank it. Mahaprabhu was pleased internally, but externally He showed that He was angry. He said, ‘Hey, Svarup Damodar! Just look at your Gaudiya [‘your Gaudiya’ means he was also from Bangladesh, as Svarup Damodar]! He is throwing water at My feet in the temple and drinks that water to impress others!’ Mahaprabhu told him to go away, although He was internally pleased with that Vaishnav. In this way Mahaprabhu showed that we must not allow others to touch our feet, and that is why in particular, we also never allow others to wash our feet.

At another time, Mahaprabhu went inside the temple of Lord Jagannath. You know that there is a faucet at the entrance where you can wash your feet before entering the temple (many people come to the temple barefoot, so not to enter the temple with dirty feet, they wash their feet at the entrance). That day, when Mahaprabhu came to the temple and was washing His feet at the entrance, a devotee called Kalidas came there and tried to touch Mahaprabhu’s feet. All the devotees rushed to stop him, ‘Do not touch! Do not touch!’ but Mahaprabhu said, ‘Do not stop him. He ate the food remnants of Vaishnavs in Bengal, so he has became a “jhanu vaishnav” [“seasoned, or expert, Vaishnav”]!’ Kalidas was such a Vaishnav that he never sat together with other Vaishnavs to take prasad. Sometimes, everyone would be invited to some place for prasad. He would come, too, but he would sit quietly a little far, in some forest, or stand somewhere afar. He watched where everyone threw their plates (in those days, everybody ate from banana leaves; there were no plastic plates), and after everyone finished taking prasad, he would go there and take the remnants from those plates. Such was his quality. He also brought once a mango to the house of Jhadu Thakur. When Jhadu Thakur ate the mango and his wife sucked the stone and threw it away into a bush, Kalidas went there and started sucking the stone, dancing for joy! Such was Kalidas’s character.

How beautiful this is. Such are Nityananda Prabhu’s associates.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) This Is Not a Playground
2) Wrong Worries
3) Pure Identity
4) Worshipful Devotion
5) Meaning of Discipleship
6) Free Mercy, Exclusive Rights
7) Path of Devotion
8) Krishna Conscious Life
9) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (1)
10) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (2)
11) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (3)
12) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (4)
13) Clean Mood