Srila Gurudev's Festival Etiquette

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vrindavan-Worldwide, 11 April 2021, part 3

Question: I am your disciple, please give me your mercy and service. All devotees want to arrange the disappearance festival of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Please instruct us what to do to offer an appropriate festival.

Gurudev and Guru Maharaj's appearance and disappearance are non-different. They are the same. On this day Gurudev always gives his mercy. Gurudev is always eternal, so his tirobhav and avirbhav, disappearance and appearance, are not different from each other, they are the same. That is why, you must serve Gurudev's mission and Gurudev's devotees at any time, all the time, not only on these days.

As for how to hold this festival, there are many rules and regulations. You can cook something that Gurudev likes and offer it to Gurudev. Remember him, speak in his glorification. That is sufficient. You can also try to serve the mission Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math according to your capacity. These are the main things. The important thing is to do it under the guidance of your Guru.

At the same time, all of our guru-varga never say, "Oh, you are all my disciples." Rather, they say, "You are all my gurus." So, you are all my gurus, when you took initiation from me, it means you gave me mercy, that is why you took shelter from me. This is the vision of our guru-varga.

I always want to be a disciple, I do not want to be a guru. I always want to remain a disciple, therefore I want to serve everybody—even those who took shelter of Gurudev, who took shelter of Guru Maharaj, who took my shelter. These things do not matter. For me, everybody is great Vaishnavs, and I am their servant. This is my vision.

So, understanding that Gurudev's appearance and disappearance are non-different from each other, you can always serve him in whichever possible way. Every day when we come to do puja, we start from guru-puja, when we come to do abhisekh, we start from guru-abhisekh, if we do archan, we start from guru-archan. Whatever we do, we always start from guru-puja. This is our line, this is Gaudiya line. Gurudev is asraya vigraha, embodiment of shelter—he is non-different from Sriman Nityananda Prabhu or Srimati Radharani.

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

Gurudev is the Lord Himself, he is non-different from the Lord. Sri Uddhav Maharaj also says that Sri Guru is non-different from the Lord. So, we have to follow proper etiquette and be humble, tolerant, give honour to others... Do not discriminate, "He is Acharya Maharaj's disciple," "He is another guru's disciple," "He is that guru's disciple," "He is this guru's disciple." It is very bad to see like that. Those who see it in this way have a very short-sighted vision. Your heart must be broad. Do not be narrow-minded.

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