GUIDANCE

Issue #17

Lectures of His Divine Grace

Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj

published at SCSMathInternational.com during October-December 2018

CONTENT

Your Fortune, My Fortune

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 1

You have come today to give me your mercy—by your mercy we can hear and speak about the Lord today. Actually, Gurudev is speaking to you through me. By the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma if we can hear and chant something about the Lord, then we can get some auspiciousness in our life. We do not get this kind of fortune every day to hear or speak about the Lord, therefore we must use this time to engage ourselves in the service.

You have assembled here today for this occasion to give mercy to a fallen soul like myself. I feel humbled and very fortunate. It is very difficult to get the darshan of Vaishnavs.

When I am giving initiation, do you know what I am remembering? I am thinking that Gurudev has kept me to serve you all, he told me to do that, but for you this is not a great fortune, this is not something great—what is greater than this is that you can call my Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, 'Param Gurudev'. This is your highest fortune. You must always remember this.

You must always remember why you have come to this world, what you have come for. You must think about it. Everybody always says, "I want Gurudev's mercy," but we do not understand the meaning of Gurudev's mercy, we only keep saying "mercy," "mercy." Gurudev's mercy means following his instructions, means living according to his instruction. That is called Guru's mercy. If you hear Gurudev and then your mind goes this side and that side, this is not good. Maya always tries to take you another way, always tries to take you away from service of the Lord and tells you to go another way. You can avoid it through practice. Practice means not only one day ("I have observed a festival, after that it is not necessary to do anything") or once, twice a month—no, birth after birth. You have entered an eternal relationship.

When you enter a relationship with your father or mother, it is for a few days only, but when you enter a relationship with your Guru, this is an eternal relationship, birth after birth. You get a father, a mother, a brother, a sister in every birth but you will not get a bona fide Guru in every birth. Therefore, we must remember that we have got this human birth to serve our Guru, Vaishnavs, the Lord.

* * *

Be Conscious and Cautious

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 2

As a result of great fortune we have got this birth to serve Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord, therefore we must utilise it properly. We must always think, "How will I engage this human body in the service of Govinda?" If we always have attachment to the lotus feet of the Guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord, then we will be able to reach their lotus feet.

Happiness and sadness always come in this human world, but even amidst sadness we can engage ourselves in the service of Guru and Govinda.

If you do not come, how can there be a festival? You have come, then there is a great joy, then there is a festival. When everybody would be leaving after Sri Ratha-yatra, Mahaprabhu would tell devotees, "Pratyabda asibe Gundicha dekhite: you must come every year to see the Gundicha pastimes (at the time of Ratha-yatra)." In this way, you join different festivals throughout the year—you take the trouble to come, you spend money on the tickets, etc. Even though not everybody has such fortune to come here, many do come. This is very fortunate.

However, simply coming here and going having taken prasadam and not getting anything, that is not the point. We must ask ourselves, "What have I taken from here? What have I got?" Why did Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj create and Gurudev protect this temple? We must understand this deeply. I told you yesterday also—what will you get by chewing the peel of the sugar cane? If you take the juice, the sugar of the cane, then you will get some taste. In this way, you come here, you see the sights, you play around and go back, this is not the point. You come here, take some prasad and leave, but even taking prasad is one of the sixty-four devotional practices.

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi

grhete goloka bhaya

“On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there.”

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

To live eternally in Vraja, you must enter a relationship (sambhanda) with your Guru, after that if you practise (abhidheya), you can understand the prayojana tattva (your destination, your true necessity). Otherwise you will not get any result. How can Krishna be pleased? How can we make Gurudev happy? If we can understand it step by step, then we will be able to understand the main teaching.

Gurudev often said that suppose there is a servitor who already has one leg in Vaikuntha and the other leg may still be outside, in the material world. If some bad fortune come, his leg that was already in Vaikuntha can be removed and go back to the material world. Maya Devi always tries to pull us, and she can pull the leg that is already in Vaikuntha and bring it outside. Many have fallen prey to that, but the Guru, Vaishnavs, and Bhagavan are extremely powerful:

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane

sei thakura dhanya tare chule dhari' ane

“If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair.”

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.47)

The mind of an unfortunate servant can go to another place, but the Guru and Vaishnavs can grab him by his hair and again engage in the service of Govinda.

* * *

Greatness Is Not Measured by Cloth

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 3

What does jive daya mean? Mahaprabhu told Sanatan Goswami,

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva

iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, there is no other religion besides this."

Religion (dharma) means we must bring the jiva souls to Krishna consciousness. Gurudev gave this duty to me, and this is not only my responsibility, it is your responsibility too. One time, somebody asked Gurudev, "Maharaj, what is the meaning of sannyas?" Gurudev replied, "Sannyas does not mean wearing the cloth—one does not become a sannyasi just by wearing a sannyasi's clothes."

When our temple did not exist, when all the Gaudiya Maths did not exist, there was only one Chaitanya Math. There was Kunja Babu at that Math—when big sannyasi came there, they would pay obeisance to him—Prabhupad would give his pranam to him and all the sannyasis would offer him their full prostrate obeisance even though he was a grihastha and worked at the post office. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, whose his appearance day was recently, was also like that—although he was a grihastha, when big pandits, scholars, sannyasis, babajis saw him, they would offer their full prostrate obeisance to him.

Mahaprabhu left six goswamis—

jaya rupa sanatana bhatta raghunatha

sri-jiva gopala-bhatta dasa raghunatha

ei chaya gosani kari charana vandana

"All glory to Sri Rupa, Sanatan, Raghunath Bhatta, Sri Jiva, Gopal Bhatta, and Raghunath Das! I offer my obeisance to these six goswamis."

They preached Mahaprabhu's teaching in Vrindavan, but after Mahaprabhu, some opposition sampradayas appeared (aul, baul, karttabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sakhibheki, jata-goswami) and Bhaktivinod Thakur resumed the preaching calling himself "a sweeper of the Nama-hatta."

nadiya godrume nityananda mahajana

patiyache nama-hatta jivera karana

"In the land of Nadiya, on the island of Godruma, Nityananda opened a marketplace of the Holy Name for the deliverance of all fallen souls."

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Bhaktivinod Thakur manifested himself as a sweeper at the 'market' of the Holy Name. Taking up a broom, he cleaned the place of all dirt—whatever misconception (aul, baul, karttabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sakhibheki, jata-goswami) there was, he cleaned the place from it. Param Guru Maharaj wrote about him,

guru-dam grantha-dam gaura-dhama-dam nama-dam muda

bhakti-dam bhuri-dam vande bhakti-vinodakam sada

"I perpetually offer my obeisance unto Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. Guru-dam: he is the bestower of Sri Guru (Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur). Grantha-dam: he is the author of numerous commentaries, treatises, articles, novels and songbooks. Gaura-dhama-dam: he is the revealer of the abode of Sriman Mahaprabhu. Nama-dam: he is the giver of the Name. Bhakti-dam: he is the granter of pure devotion. Bhuri-dam: he is the bestower of an abundance of divine fortune."

(Sri Laghu-chandrika-bhasya, 1.8)

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur gave us our Guru. If he had not come, where would we have got Prabhupad? One day, Bhaktivinod Thakur went to the Jagannath Temple and before taking prasad he came to Bimala Devi (Laksmi Devi) and prayed together with Bhavagati Devi (Srila Prabhupad's mother), "O Bimala Devi, I pray to you for Jagannath's mercy. Please send us such a person who could carry and protect Mahaprabhu's teaching." Bhaktivinod Thakur gave us our Guru.

He gave us Gaura. Many say many things about Gauranga Mahaprabhu, but there are many evidential verses in Srimad Bhagavatam,

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam

sangopangastra-parsadam

yajnaih sankirtana-prayair

yajanti hi su-medhasah

"Those of sharp intellect will worship Krishna who appears with a non-black bodily hue, who is armed and surrounded by His associates and servants, and who always chants the Holy Names."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

There are many similar slokas, from which we can understand that the Lord appears in Kali-yuga as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, but as it is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita also, foolish people do not understand it—they think the Lord appears from the womb of some person, so He is an ordinary human like them…

* * *

Surrender: Eye-Opener

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 4

When Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He went to Puri from Shantipur. On the way to Puri, Nityananda Prabhu broke His danda. Mahaprabhu showed His anger, "I have brought only one danda with Me, and You have broken it! Go, I will not go with You!" Then, Mahaprabhu went fast to the Jagannath Temple and fainted there upon arrival. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, who was the manager of the Temple, told the guards, "Whoever He is, let it be. Bring Him to my house."

In the meantime, Nityananda Prabhu, Mukunda Prabhu and others caught up and began searching for Mahaprabhu in Puri. They asked somebody if they had seen Mahaprabhu and were told that Mahaprabhu was at Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house. They went there and saw Mahaprabhu lying without senses. They began chanting the Holy Name into His hear and Mahaprabhu came round.

After that, Gopinath Acharya asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya,

"Do you not know who this is? Can you not recognise Him? He is the Guru of all, He is Lord Krishna Himself! He has come to this world to awaken the souls. He took sannyas from Keshav Bharati." Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not believe it. He asked Mahaprabhu, "Why did You take sannyas at such an early age?"

"What can I do?" Mahaprabhu replied humbly. "I have become crazy. At this age, I am supposed to serve My mother, but I gave it up and took sannyas. You are a very learned scholar, please give Me your mercy so that I can keep this sannyas."

"What have You studied?" asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya.

"Not much. I have studied primary grammar."

"What will primary grammar do for You? You have become a sannyasi but You have not read Vendanta! You must read it. Stay here with me and I will teach it to you."

"All right, Prabhu. You read it and I will listen," Mahaprabhu agreed.

Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya began reading and explaining Vendanta and Mahaprabhu would sit and listen to him. Seven days passed. Finally, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked Him, "Hey, new sannyasi! I have taught You Vendanta for seven days, but You have not said a word. I do not understand if You understand any of it or not."

"Prabhu, can I say something?" Mahaprabhu asked.

"Yes, say it."

"When you read from the Vedanta, I understand it, but when you begin to explain it, I do not understand anything."

"What??"

The thing was that Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya taught mayavada bhasya, the conception of mayavadis, atheists. Mayavadis are actually worse than sahajiyas because sahajiyas at least accept that there is God. Do we not sing in the kirtan, "Yasomati nandana..." "navina-nagara-bara"? What does it mean? One who has several women is called "nagar". Sahajiyas imitate Krishna, dress like Krishna, do Krishna-lila, etc., but mayavadi do not even believe in Krishna, do not believe that God has a form or that the soul leaves the body and takes another body. So, instead of worshipping God, mayavadis do idol, or doll, worship.

So, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya explained Vedanta from the mayavadi point of view of. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya gave nine different explanations of the verse "Atmaramas cha munayo," Mahaprabhu explained it to him in eighteen other ways. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya heard it, he began to tremble and his eyes bulged, "My God! Whom have I been teaching these seven days! Who is He?" But even then he could not believe Mahaprabhu was the Lord—only when Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya surrendered himself could he see Mahaprabhu's Sadbhuja form and understand who He was.

* * *

Mercy Means Anugatya

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 5

Once, there was a big assembly of sannyasis in Kashi. Mahaprabhu came there and sat humbly in a dirty place. All the sannyasis were sitting on an elevated place (podium, or stage), but He sat in a lower place. He sat quietly but manifested His radiant opulence and when they looked at Him they thought they were looking at Narayan Himself.

"You are a sannyasi, why are You sitting in this lower dirty place?" somebody asked him. "You look like an exalted person, but You are sitting in this lower place. Come onto the podium, come."

"No, no," Mahaprabhu replied. "I am fine here."

"No, come sit with us. You have taken sannyas from Keshav Bharati, You are a sannyasi of our sampradaya, then why will You not sit with us? What is the problem? Come, come."

Mahaprabhu came closer. Then, Prakasananda Saraswati asked him,

"You have taken sannyas from Keshav Bharati, You are a sannyasi of our sampradaya, but why are You dancing and singing like a madman? A sannyasi is supposed to practise meditation and yoga."

Then, Mahaprabhu replied, "My Guru thought I was foolish, so he said I had no qualification to read Vedanta. He told me to only dance and chant kirtan, that is why I am following the order of My Guru and dance and chant."

It is necessary to always think about the order of your Guru. Guru's mercy means following the order of the Guru—if you follow the order of your Guru, then you get his mercy. I often tell this funny story about a disciple and his Guru. The disciple once got very hungry and the Guru gave him one rupee saying he must go to the market and buy some chickpea (chana). The disciple went to the market and started asking the price of all the other things—apples, grapes, etc. Finally, he went into a sweets shop and asked the price of chnana (paneer). The shopkeeper said that everything was the same price—everything was one rupee. The disciple got very happy and thought, "Then I can buy chhana instead!"

That is how the mind is—it cannot follow the order of the Guru. We are also like that. Gurudev often said, "If Krishna asks you for a singara (samosa), then you must give a singara." Suppose Gurudev has blood sugar. He comes to a house of a disciple, and the disciple asks him, "What shall I cook for you, Gurudev?" Gurudev tells you to give him something boiled, but you think that something boiled is not good, so instead of giving him what he has asked for you give him some sweets and milk. Our mind is always perverted.

So, Gurudev of that disciple sent him to buy some chana (chickpea), and he bought chhana (paneer) instead. When he came back, the Guru told him, "Give me what you have bought, give me the chana." The disciple replied, "Gurudev, what chana? This is such a nice place, everything is the same price here!"

A few days ago, seeing our Math's car somebody told me, "Oh, Your Deity is Krishna, and we also worship gods, it is the same!" What do the scriptures say? Krishna says, "If you worship Durga, Kali, Laksmi, Ganesh or any other demigod, whoever you worship, you are actually worshipping Me but in a wrong way—it is avidhi, it goes against the prescribed rules (viddhi)."

Srimad Bhagavad-gita finishes at "Sarva-dharman parityajya..." which is karma-misra bhakti, but Mahaprabhu said, "Go further." In His conversation with Ramananda Ray, Ramananda Ray first spoke about karma-misra bhakti. It means means whatever you do, whatever you cook, do it for the Lord—if you work, work for the Lord; if you cook, cook for the Lord; do everything for the Lord. Mahaprabhu said, "Eho bahya, age kaha ara. It will not do, go further." Then, Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-misra bhakti. Mahaprabhu again said, "Eho bahya, age kaha ara." Then, jnana-sunya bhakti, and Mahaprabhu said, "Eha haya. Yes, this is." What is jnana-sunya bhakti? It means you realise, "My Lord, I do not know anything, I do not understand anything."

I have told it many times—sometimes you can see that the Name of Krishna does not come out of somebody's mouth. Do you know what the scriptures say? It is said that if you worship the Lord in a temple for one hundred births as a brahman, then the Name of Krishna will come out of your mouth. It is not so easy! If you kick somebody in their stomach, they never say "Hare Krishna!"—they cry out, "Father! Mother!"

You have got this human birth, do not waste it—you must practise, you must engage yourself in the service of Guru, Vaishnavs, and the Lord.

Param Guru Maharaj also told that when you are sick, you must go to a doctor—if you do not go to a doctor, if you do not try to cure your disease, but instead go to a shop and buy some nice things, will your disease be cured? You must take the medicine that a doctor prescribes for you. You can go to the market, buy chanting beads and chant on them—but it is not the same thing as what the sadhus do. When you take the chanting beads from Gurupadpadma's hands with his blessing, then there will be some result from such chanting, then it will work. Also, if you do not chant yourself but give the mantra to others, that mantra will not work. You must chant yourself and engage others in chanting.

* * *

Neither Cry nor Laugh

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 6

There are many examples in this world—Bharat Maharaj gave up his mother, Prahlad Maharaj gave up his father. Many ask, "Did Bali Maharaj give up his Guru?" Yes, he did. There are many who come to the Guru for want of money and other things—but you must ask yourself first, "Do you love yourself or your Guru more? Do you love the Lord or yourself more?" Examine yourself.

Guru Maharaj said that sometimes there were so many problems that he was not able to tolerate it and wanted to run away to the USA and stay there. When I said I did not understand what he meant, he said I would understand it later. I am remembering now that when I returned from Australia, Gurudev was in Kolkata at that time, he told me to come close and, grasping my hand, asked me, "So many problems will come, will you run away?" I said, "No, Guru Maharaj. As long as I have a drop of blood in this body, I will not run away."

Some time ago, I went to Ekachakra, and got the news that somebody had sent some gundas to kill me. I felt neither sad nor happy—it's neither something awful nor exciting. Everyone has to die one day, so what is it to me? I neither cry nor laugh.

Such is the mood of Vaishnavs—there is never any sadness or grief. Happiness, unhappiness, grief, separation, joy—everything is the same. A few days ago I got the news that one of my godbrothers had hung himself. He was not a very good person, and the person who told it to me seemed happy. I asked him, "Does this make you happy? Why does this come to your mind? He may be my friend or my enemy, but he was Gurudev's disciple, he took initiation, chanted the Holy Name."

Several days ago, it was ekadasi, a group of devotees went to the ocean in Venezuela. You know that many people come to the ocean in Puri, pay obeisance to the ocean and swim in it. The ocean is a maha-tirtha (a great place of pilgrimage), but people go there and every year somebody breaks their legs or drowns there, only this year I think it did not happen. We must not go to the ocean for our own enjoyment. Anyhow, devotees went there to swim and one of them drowned.

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base

nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

“My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.”

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We do not have the fortune that Pariksit Maharaj had—he was very fortunate and got a seven-days' notice that he would leave his body. Khatvanga Maharaj got a forty-eight-minutes' notice, but we do not even know if we will die in seven minutes. If we were to know that we are going to die in seven minutes, we could give up everything and think about the Lord, but we do not have that kind of fortune. We can leave this body at any moment, and only the Lord can give us the solution to this problem. We must surrender to His lotus feet.

nijera posana, kabhu na bhaviba,

rahiba bhavera bhare

"I will never think about my own maintenance; I will always remain within the shelter of loving attachment for You."

(Saranagati, 19)

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes this in the kirtan "Sarvasva tomara charane sampiya." In the morning, we also sing the kirtan,

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says this for our sake—how long will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya? How long will you choke and struggle in the waters of maya?

(michhe) mayara bese, yachchha bhese,

khachchha habudubu bhai

“Brother, you are swimming in maya for nothing, sometimes coming up to surface, sometimes choking and struggling.”

radha-krsna bol bol bolore sabai

Say, "Hare Krishna"! Say, "Hare Krishna"! All of you, say it!

* * *

Pure Current

Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class

10 October 2015, part 7

We must think about what Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says in his kirtans. He is the seventh Goswami in this world. He has given us so many scriptures, he has given us the Holy Name—the Name that Mahaprabhu spoke about,

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

"Only chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name—there is no other way, no other way, no other way."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.76)

This Name was chanted in many villages, but with offence, and Bhaktivinod Thakur, holding the current of devotion, preached the pure Holy Name that Mahaprabhu brought to this world just as Maharaj Bhagirath brought the Ganges to this world. He preached in this world through Prabhupad, through our Guru-varga.

We must always think about it.

He has given us the Dham. Now many people travel to Nabadwip, take a rickshaw and go to different places—to Mayapur, Gauranga Setu, etc. It was Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur who discovered all these places:

gaura amara ye saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se saba sthana heribo ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Rabindranath Tagore was a Brahma-vadi (he did not believe that God has a form). He opened a university, but he was a mayavadi and did not believe in God. This Rabindranath Tagore said in one of his poems, "What kind of wealth makes you so rich that you dismiss a touchstone? I place your feet on my head desiring a particle of that wealth." He says he prays for that wealth at the Lord's feet—so how is it that the Lord has feet and does not have a head? That is why:

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

sadhu paoya kasta bada jivera janiya

sadhu-bhakta-rupe krsna aila nadiya

"Understanding that it is very difficult for a soul to find a sadhu, Krishna came to Nadia in the form of a pure devotee."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.8)

Krishna has come to Nadia in form of Gaura to teach the world.

yadi gaura na ha'ta tabe ki ha-ita

kemane dharitam de

radhara mahima, prema-rasa-sima

jagate janata ke?

"If Gaura had not come, then what would have happened? How would we have maintained our lives? Who would have revealed to the world Radha's glory and the extremes of Her ecstatic divine love?"

(Srila Vasudev Ghosh Thakur)

* * *

Sri Vyasa Puja Speech

Sri Vyasa Puja day of His Divine Grace

10 October 2018

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-chudamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay

Jay Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundar jiu ki jay

All the assembled devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Samagata Sri-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Pramahamsa Parivrajakachakrya-varya Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Tadiya Vyasa Puja maha-mahotsav ki jay. Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam

chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam

govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram

vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

“I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev’s associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.”

Actually, all the devotees have come here from all over Bengal and many countries also and they are celebrating my birthday, but I am not thinking about my birthday or anything like that because I do not want to take any puja from devotees, be it my disciples, Godbrothers, or Godsisters.

I told Gurudev when he wanted to give me sannyas, "Gurudev, I do not want to be an acharya." Gurudev said, "It is not necessary to think about it now. I am only giving you sannyas for preaching." After he said that, I accepted sannyas in 1999. Actually, since my brahmachari time when Gurudev had just given saffron, I have never thought (and everybody can say it) that I am a Vaishnav. I did not come to the temple for that. Gurudev knows I had come from a jungle—I was like an insect in the stool, and Gurudev picked me up from the stool and kept me at his lotus feet.

I always want to be servitors' servitor, I do not want to take any service from others. I want to serve them. Sometimes, when my Godbrothers, Godsisters, or even my disciples give me dandavat, I can chastise somebody because they think they have become a Vaishnav. We did not come here to become a Vaishnav—we have come here to become a servant of a servant of Vaishnavs.

Sometimes they criticise me and tell many things about me. It is not a problem—if they are happy to criticise and tell bad things about me, I am happy. Sometimes, those who live with me come to me and say, "Maharaj, in this country somebody is saying this, saying that." I told them, "I do not want to hear that because I am much worse than whatever they say about me. So, what can they say about me?"

I hear now they say that I have deviated from the Gaudiya siddhanta because I installed the Deities of Nrisinghadev in Nrisingha Palli in Nabadwip, Godrumdwip. What am I? Who am I? Is it possible for me to install Deities? Deities came to Nrinsigha Palli Themselves. In Gurudev's time, in 2002 or 2003 (I do not remember the exact year, it is written in the registration book), Nrisinghadev wanted to come to take service from Gurudev, but there was some chaos coming at that time and Gurudev told me not to make any chaos. I also told Gurudev, "I do not want any chaos or any problem in your society. I do not want to give any problem to any devotees." So, if they are happy to criticise me, it is OK, but who am I to install Deities in Nrisingha Palli? Who am I?! If Nrisinghadev Himself had not come to take service from us, it would have been impossible. Gurudev told one thing—he said, "Deities come from a pure heart."

Even Bhaktivinod Thakur himself installed the Deity of Nrisinghadev in Yogapith. Is he too ousted from the Gaudiya siddhanta?! Even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu chanted the Nrisinghadev mantra a hundred times. Even when Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was at Radha-kunda, he did not praise Srimati Radharani—he praised Prahlad Maharaj's devotion. How can I see who is a devotee, who is a Vaishnav? A Vaishnav will always say, "I do not know anything." And we do not know anything. We say that Vraja-gopis have the highest devotion, they are great super-servitors of Lord Krishna, but even these Vraja-gopis say, "We do not have so much devotion as Prahlad Maharaj." Devotees themselves do not think they are devotees. I myself also do not think I am a Vaishnav. If you do not think that you are a servant of a Vaishnav, how can you be a Vaishnav? Vaishnav always thinks

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

Gurudev has hijacked me from the mundane world and kept me at his lotus feet, this is how I can understand something. Somebody can say, "We stayed with Gurudev, so we know," or, "I have stayed with Gurudev for a long time, so I am more than Acharya Maharaj." I do not mind that. I did whatever service Gurudev gave me—Gurudev gave me service in Bamunpara, Gurudev gave me service in Siliguri, Gurudev gave me service in Ekachakra, Gurudev gave service in Dum Dum Park, Gurudev gave service at Govinda-kunda, Gurudev gave me service in the crops field, he even told me, "If I tell you to sit with me and do nothing, you think it is not service, but that is your service." When Gurudev sent me to the crops field, I can think, "That is not service, what have I come here for?" but it is not true—if Gurudev sends me there, there is some service there. That is called service. Gurudev sent me to Bamunpara, and when making the temple there I used to spend much money on the car to get there. Gurudev thought later, "He will make the temple in Bamunpara one way or another, I'd better give him a car," and he gave me his old car. You all know this.

How can I reject Prahlad Maharaj's devotion? Even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bhaktivinod Thakur, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, even Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, even my Gurudev praised it. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself wrote,

jaya nrsimha, sri nrsimha, jaya jaya nrsimha

prahladesa jaya padma-mukha-padma-bhrnga

"All glories to Nrisinghadev! All glories to Nrisinghadev, who is the Lord of Prahlad Maharaj and, like a honeybee, is always engaged in beholding the lotus face of the goddess of fortune."

We sing this at the arati in Nrisingha Palli. This song was composed by Mahaprabhu. I heard Gurudev sing it, that is why I wrote it on a paper and everybody now sings it at the arati there. Gurudev sang that song.

I may not have stayed with Gurudev for a long time, neither do I think so, but I got whatever I have from my Guru and I want to maintain that with my friends and well-wishers. I am happy with what I have got from my Gurudev, I do not want anything more than that. I only want to maintain what I have got.

Prabhu, this is the service I have got from my Guru. Even when my disciples come to me, I always see them as my Gurudev—I always think that my Gurudev has come to me in the form of a disciple and I need to serve them. Somebody may come to me as a Godbrother or a disciple, but I want to serve them. That is our siddhanta (our main things), and we must proceed with that.

They say that Gurudev said Acharya Maharaj was only the Acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Nabadwip, but Chaitanya Saraswat Math is not only Nabadwip. It is in many places. Gurudev declared many sannyasis, his Godbrothers, as Acharyas or Gurus of the Mission. I do not have any problem if they give initiation and take disciples, but what I want tell them is that they must not preach anything wrong about my Guru.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, "If somebody thinks about me without Govinda Maharaj, I do not think they are my disciple." Many say that Srila Sridhar Maharaj is great, but they do not consider Srila Sridhar Maharaj's opinion is great—Srila Sridhar Maharaj is great, but Gurudev is not. They preach about Gurudev so many things, but they are also preaching a lie! You must ask them a question, "Where did Gurudev say this? Where did Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj say that Acharya Maharaj is the Acharya of Nabadwip only?" Where did he say it? Ask them where they saw this nonsense. This is false preaching about Gurudev, and it is not acceptable. It is not good for them.

I am telling them: if you need disciples, you can take disciples, but do not preach like this, do not tell lies about Gurudev. Gurudev will not be happy with that. I am sure about that. I may not have listened to many lectures of Gurudev, but from what I have got from Gurudev I can understand what Gurudev wanted.

I do not want to say more than that because I am a fallen soul and I do not know anything. I only want to serve you all, but when somebody is preaching what Gurudev did not tell, that is not acceptable, that is why I am telling you all now what the truth is. You must preach what the real truth is.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

On this day I say: Gurudev bless you, Krishna bless you. Do not listen to nonsense things. You have no time to listen to bad things. You must listen to good things, do not listen to bad things, it is not good for your spiritual life.

I am also very pained to hear that some devotees are reading some swami's books, that they are reading these books, those books. Did Srila Sridhar Maharaj tell you to read other swami's books, or these books, those books? Did your Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, tell you to read it? No, they did not. Gurudev never told you that. Gurudev said that our conception is written in the books of Chaitanya Saraswat Math, and what Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave is sufficient for us. Do not go to others' ponds for food, otherwise you will have an indigestion. If you take food from other ponds thinking it is very sweet, you will get sick, you will have a stomach problem and many other problems—you will be ousted from Chaitanya Saraswat Math, you will come out of the main channel. Be careful with that. Think about that.

Maintain your spiritual life in the proper line, proper channel. You can get Ganges water from the Ganga. Ganga does not flow through another channel, Ganga flows only through one channel. If you take water from another channel, you will not get pure Ganges water.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay

All the assembled devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Samagata Sri-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

* * *

Servitor's Livelihood

12 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

There was a festival two days ago and I am feeling a little tired today, but at the same time I must also give nourishment to the devotees all over the world.

First, I am paying my full obeisance to my beloved Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. I am giving my full obeisance to all the Guru-varga, to my Godbrothers and Godsisters, as well as my well-wishers and all of my friends. My dandavat to you all.

Everything we have actually comes from our Guru. Without Gurudev's mercy we are nothing, we have no power. We are only instruments. Gurudev gives all power. That is the main thing. I have got whatever I have from my Guru. I am a fallen soul, I do not think that I am a Vaishnav—I never think that, nor do I want to be a Vaishnav. I want to be Vaishnavs' servitor—a servant of the servant of Vaishnavs. That has been my desire from the beginning, since the time I started my temple life in 1992.

Even before that, I did not know any Krishna consciousness or anything, but I tried to follow the rules and regulations of the temple, I tried to follow Gurudev's instruction. Even when Gurudev chastised me so much, even when he beat me many times, I never had ego, nothing bad came to me. I always thought that Gurudev gave me this chastisement and it was good for me because I had read Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita scripture—Mahaprabhu chastised Jagadananda Pandit so much and Sanatan Goswami cried, he told Mahaprabhu, "You are giving bitter to me, and You are giving sweet to Jagadananda Pandit"; Mahaprabhu got shy hearing that. That is how I understood what Gurudev's mercy is. He also told me many time what mercy is—mercy means when somebody has service, then they have mercy, and if somebody has no service, they have no mercy.

I always tried to follow Gurudev's instruction, Gurudev's order, and he taught me everything. I would wait for him to come. I always stayed in Nabadwip, and Gurudev came there only a few times a year, not so many times—before Gaura Purnima and before his appearance day (before his Vyasa Puja). He mostly stayed in foreign countries, giving nourishment to the foreign devotees. Gurudev always told me, "Vinod, you are in Nabadwip, you have taken a very big burden from me, that is why I can sleep properly when I am in Kolkata or abroad." I said, "Gurudev, I have not taken any burden from you because you are doing everything, I am only an instrument."

When I joined the temple, Gurudev told me to always do kirtans, follow the rules and regulations, attend mangal arati and all the programmes, and I tried to do that. Sometimes I would go to the crops field and as soon as I came back at noon I heard the bhoga arati had finished and I would run with my legs all covered with mud and I would start Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's arati. Sometimes, I remember I could not attend Param Gurudev's arati and I joined the temple arati.

In the morning some senior Vaishnav would read Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, at noon and in the afternoon Srimad Bhagavatam, and in the evening Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. After so much responsibility came to me (some seva in the crops filed, construction and other things), I could not properly attend the programmes and sit at the class at noon and in the afternoon, but I would be there every time in the evening, listening to the class on Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. Before, I had some wish, "Oh, I want to give the class on Chaitanya-charitamrita," but them I told myself, "Gurudev did not give me order to give class and read Chaitanya-charitamrita." One day, however, Gurudev was sitting in the Western brahmachari building (somebody give him an asan and he was sitting there), and he asked me, "You always go to the crops field, you are doing the marketing, etc., but you must also read Chaitanya-charitamrita sometimes. You can give class on Chaitanya-charitamrita." I answered, "Gurudev, yes, if you give me an order, I can give class on Chaitanya-charitamrita at night time." Then I started giving class. At first, I was afraid to give class, but Gurudev gave me an order, so strength came to me and I started.

I understood also one thing, Gurudev told it many times also. Gurudev said he was a very naughty boy, but Srila Guru Maharaj gave him a certificate, he taught him so much, and then he became a good boy. My example is also the same—Gurudev taught, beat me and I also became a good man, I think...

* * *

On Chastity

12 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

Gurudev told that no one could become a Guru without their Gurudev's permission. In this age of Kali, there are so many Gurus because, as Gurudev said many times, this Guru business is a very good business—it is very easy to cheat foolish people. That is why in this age of Kali there are so many Gurus here, there, everywhere, but Gurudev told it many times that you can never initiate people without the permission from your Guru. We must understand that, it is the main thing.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had many qualified scholarly pandit disciples, but he chose Gurudev. You can read many scriptures many times, you may know many things, but the Guru can understand who can follow his conception, who has chastity for him. That is main thing.

I want to tell now about chastity. Gurudev always explained the meaning of chastity. If Guru tells you that the sun rises in the west today, you must believe it. Suppose, you are waking with Gurudev and you see a snake—you say, "Gurudev, O, there is a snake! Please be careful," but if Gurudev tells you this is not a snake, this is a piece of rope, you must believe it. That is called chastity. There is another example also. One time, Gurudev was in Nabadwip and I was in the downstairs office in the Centenary building. Suddenly, I head Gurudev's car coming. I immediately came out of my office and paid dandavat, I did not even lock my office. Gurudev stopped his car in front of me and asked me, "Will you go with me?" I was foolish and I asked him, "Where?" Gurudev's mood became strange, he was a little angry mood. I immediately closed the office and went with him—he went to the place where they were making some Deities and some other place. It was 2004 or 2005. In the car, he told me, "You are a very foolish boy—your Guru asks you, 'Will you go with me?' and you ask, 'Where?' This is not 100% chastity. If your Guru goes to hell, you must go with him. What is the problem? It is not necessary to ask any questions." Then I understood what is chastity.

Gurudev also taught me what it means to give honour to others. One time, I was a brahmachari then, I gave a class on Chaitanya-charitamrita, and after reading Chaitanya-charitamrita I came to serve prasadam. At that time, there was no prasadam hall in Nabadwip—the new prasadam hall construction had not even started—so, everybody would take prasadam in front of the kitchen and in front of the temple. So, I was serving prasadam to everybody and I gave a little more subji to one of the brahmacharis. He got very angry—he took the spoon from my hand and beat my finger with it. My finger began to bleed, but I did not say anything—I wrapped it with some cloth and continued serving prasadam. Gurudev was not in Nabadwip then, but when he returned a few days later he heard what had happened and asked me, "Why did you not beat him when he beat you?" I did not know so much about the scriptures that time, so I quoted a Bengali saying which means something like, "If a dog bites a man, the man will not bite the dog." Gurudev became somewhat grave and said, "What you are saying is not correct. It is wrong because you are giving disrespect to a Vaishnav. You are calling him a dog, and that is also Vaishnav aparadh." This is what Gurudev told me.

So, without Gurudev's order, Gurudev's mercy, it cannot be possible to be a Guru.

* * *

Mercy of Guru

12 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

You must do the service that Gurudev gives you properly. If you want to go to Gurudev, if you want to go to the highest place and get service from your Gurudev, then it is not necessary to be a Guru, not necessary to be an acharya of a temple, not necessary to be a secretary of a temple, not necessary to be a manager of a temple—if you only do some simple service, that is sufficient for you all. It is not necessary to be a big speaker or a big singer (kirtaniya), not necessary to be anything. It is sufficient to be just a small servitor. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Mahaprabhu, Bhaktivinod Thakur also told this. That is what is necessary. We must understand all this and understand that you cannot get a good result in your spiritual life without the mercy of the Guru. That is why I am telling everybody: be careful with this.

In his last moment, Gurudev also said that wherever you live, whether you are staying in a forest or a jungle—you can be in a car, on a bus, in a big house or a thatched house—it is not a problem: you must maintain your spiritual life properly. That is the main thing.

"The material world is full of many varieties of problems, and all those problems are mainly manifesting due to our unwillingness to surrender to the will of the Supreme Absolute. We all love our free will and that is why we want to follow it at any cost, but that brings us all kinds of miseries and binds us within the laws of karma. The material world is a facility created by the external energy of the Lord (Maya Devi) for such type of souls who want to live a life of separate interest. We have no service connection with Krishna without Sri Guru. We can know the will of the Supreme Absolute only by our attitude of submissive inquiry to the transparent via media that is Sri Guru."

That is the main thing. Without the mercy of the Guru, without the instruction of the Guru you cannot cross, you cannot overcome the illusory environment. We must understand clearly what is the mercy of the Guru.

We sing, "Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya: make the teachings from Sri Guru's lotus mouth one with your heart." If you think like that, somebody can say it is being fanatic, but we must follow this line. One time, Gurudev was sitting at his veranda in Nabadwip, and some brahmachari downstairs was singing, "Karuna na ha-ile kandiya kandiya prana na rakhiba ara: Gurudev, without your mercy we will cry and leave our body." Gurudev said (I was there at his veranda at that time), "You see? They are singing it, but they are all telling lies." Gurudev laughed and I laughed too. We sing, "Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya," but how many per cent of us follow this? That is my question. That is why, I am praying to everybody: you must follow what Gurudev tells us, you must follow the instruction that Gurudev gives you. That is the main thing in your spiritual life.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

All the glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga

All the devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Jay Harinam sankirtan ki jay

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

* * *

Guided Life

13 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

By the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Guru and Vaishnavs, I am here today at Sri Chaitanya Saraswata Krishnanusilana Sangha, Dum Dum Park. I would like to speak about the Guru-tattva.

The scriptures also talk about the mercy of Gurudev: without the mercy of Guru and Vaishnav, we cannot conquer, overcome or fight Maya. That is why we must first get the mercy of the Guru and Vaishnavs.

Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wrote his book Sri Guru and His Grace, and our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Krsihnanusilana Sangha logo also shows this conception. When a lotus flower blooms in a pond, there can be so much light and heat, but the sun cannot burn, cannot destroy the lotus flower because it is in the water and soil of the pond. However, as soon as we remove that lotus flower plant from the pond—from the water and the soil—the sun can immediately burn and dry it.

In this example, the lotus is like a jiva soul, ourselves, the soil and water is the Guru, and the sun is compared to the Lord. As long as the lotus is in the shelter of the water and soil, the sun cannot do anything, but as soon as the lotus is out of the soil and water, the sun can easily burn it. It means that if we take shelter of the Guru, if we run according to the Guru's guidance, then even Krishna cannot do anything to us because we are under the guidance of our Gurudev. If, however, we run without Gurudev's mercy, we can fall down at any time as it happened to Eklavya who did not follow his Gurudev's instruction because he wanted to become more expert than his Guru—he was destroyed. It is necessary to practise under the guidance of Gurudev.

* * *

Service to Gurudev's Mission

13 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

Our beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj expressed his opinion. We always speak about it in the lectures. In Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time also, some Vaishnavs, some devotees preached that Srila Sridhar Maharaj is great, Srila Sridhar Maharaj is the highest pandit, highest siddha purush, many things, this and that, but we must also think that if Srila Sridhar Maharaj is great, then his opinion is great too. His opinion was that we must follow Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. He would say, "If you want mercy from me, then you must serve under the guidance of Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. If you cannot follow that, then you cannot stay in our Mission—you will be ousted from my heart." So, if somebody says that they have a direct connection with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, they can say many things, but how is it possible to get mercy from Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj without the mercy of Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj? Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj himself said it.

We can see Raghunath Das Goswami also. At first, he went to Sriman Mahaprabhu—he want to serve Mahaprabhu directly, but Mahaprabhu always sent him back home and told him many things; but when he had made the festival at Panihati on the order of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and after he had got the mercy of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu, then all his obstacle, all his bondage, all his maya was removed from him and he could easily reach Sriman Mahaprabhu.

We can see in Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's books the example of Mirabai who worshipped Krishna. Krishna himself says, "If somebody says, 'I am Krishna's devotee,' they are not My devotee. Those who are My devotees' devotees (My devotees' servants) are My devotees." That is why it is said, "Radhara dasira krsna sarva-vede bole." Who does Krishna belong to? He is a servant of Srimati Radharani. Bhaktivinod Thakur also says, "Radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela krsna-bhajana tava akarane gela: if you worship Krishna directly, without Radharani, then it is useless, it is nothing. You cannot do that." That is why we do not give so much respect to Mirabai's worship or service—because she worships Krishna directly, she wants to please Krishna directly. That is not our conception; that is not our realisation.

Our Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, also told his opinion many times in many places, and we must follow what he told, we must follow the instruction that he gave us. He told it many times and in many ways, and in the end he also made an acharya board, making acharyas and gurus in various countries. They are the Gurus declared by our beloved Gurudev, and they can give initiation. It is not a problem. But if somebody becomes a Guru without his instruction, then Gurudev told what happens—they can give initiation, they can become a guru, but it is not our mission—they will not be disciples of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, they will not be members of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. We cannot accept them as a devotee of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. Gurudev told this directly. Gurudev told his will. These are the main things.

We must follow Gurudev's order, follow what he told us and told to the Mission. That is the main thing. We must follow the service that he gave us—this is the service that he takes, and this is what giving respect to Gurudev means. If you glorify Gurudev but do not respect his opinion, then this is not giving proper respect to him. He told his opinion, he told to follow his instruction, and if you do not follow it, then whatever glorification you make it will not give any relief, it will not bring any mercy, love or anything to Gurudev. If you want to help Gurudev's mission, if you want to love Gurudev's instruction, then you must follow his instruction. That is the main thing that I want to tell you all over the world. That is sufficient.

* * *

Choose Your Association Wisely

13 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

I am trying to follow Gurudev's instruction and do the service that Gurudev gave me as much as possible. So many difficulties, so many problems come and I happily accept it. Gurudev had told me that some problem would come after him. When I returned from Australia, I came to Gurudev—he was lying down, I paid dandavat to him, and he called me close to his bed. Then, he caught my hand and asked, "Will you not run away from these problems?" I said, "Gurudev, as long as I have blood in my body, I will try to follow your instruction, I will try to do the service you have given me." That is why I am here. So many problems, so many things are coming but I never run away from these problems. Gurudev had warned me about it in many ways.

Sometimes we cannot understand what we are doing. We always search others' fault. I may be not qualified, I may have so many faults, and I always say that I am not qualified, but Gurudev gives me energy, gives me strength. I get strength from my Guru.

Gurudev also always tells that we should be careful with our association—we must always reject bad association. It is necessary because we can become bad in bad association and it can remove us from the spiritual service. That is the main thing.

When I was new (when I just came to the temple) and started to do some service, there was one disciple of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, a householder, who was helping Gurudev—he would go to crops field, do the marketing, etc. Gurudev gave him his own bicycle (that bicycle is still there in Nabadwip, in the Centenary building), and he used it to do the marketing, to go to the crops field, etc. I would see him going out of the temple. Some time later, one of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's disciples who was the manager of the temple at the time, told me, "Prabhu, you must start go to the field. I cannot always go there myself, but one of my faithful men, also a disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, always goes the crops field, but if you can give me a proper report whether the workers are working there or not and what is going on there, that will be good." Gradually, he gave me many other services.

One day, I went to the crops field and asked the disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj who lived there (his name is Keshto Prabhu, he left his body a few months ago), "The temple manager always sends a supervisor to the crops field, where is he?" Keshto Prabhu told me that he had not come to supervise for three-four days. I reported that to the manager, and he understood what was happening—that devotee was doing some other business for his family instead and was not taking proper care to supervise the field for the temple.

What did I do one day? I locked his bicycle. I was a new person, and he got very angry and upset. He went to Gurudev to complain: "This new boy came and locked my bicycle!" Gurudev called me and asked, "Have you locked his bicycle? He always goes to the market, crops field and does other services." I told Gurudev, "He does not go to the crops field. He is not doing proper service with the bicycle, he is using it for his own job. When the manager Prabhu was reading the scriptures, he said that everything that exists in the world, and everything that exists in the temple especially, is for the service of the Lord; but you gave the bicycle to him and he is not using it for the service of the Guru and the temple, he is using it for his own purpose. That is why I locked it." Gurudev was like astonished for a few seconds: "He is a new boy, how does he know the siddhanta?" He looked at me for some time and then said, "OK, I will see to it. Give the bicycle to him now." I unlocked the bicycle and gave it to him. Later, Gurudev told me, "What you said was very good. If Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was alive and heard what you said, he would be very happy. I was thinking what a good thing you said."

But we are in the mundane world—we are conditioned souls and we do not follow Gurudev's instruction properly; we use everything for ourselves, for our own purpose, for our own business and interest. Why did we come to the temple? Why did we joined Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math? We came to serve the Guru, we came to serve the temple, we came to help the Deities and devotees, and if we do not do it properly—if we follow a wrong conception and do wrong things—it is not good for the devotees, for our spiritual life; it does not help devotees. That is why, we must see who gives a good instruction, who follows Gurudev's instruction and gives what Gurudev told, his conception, properly.

Actually, we cannot understand, we cannot recognise a sadhu with our mundane eyes and by someone's mundane activities. Jagadananda Pandit also says in Sri Prema-vivarta:

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

You cannot recognise if one is a sadhu by their material, external, activities. Somebody can show externally that they have become a sadhu, but they may have some material desires, some personally interest inside. You must see with your heart, then you can understand it. That is the main thing.

Think with your heart—there is a mahanta-guru and a chaitya-guru; you have a Guru in your heart—you can ask your heart and that chaitya-guru can give you the proper instruction who will be your Guru, who can give you proper advice and guidance, who will direct you towards the proper line.

We must understand and follow this line. In Padma Purana, Sivji Maharaj also says that in this age of Kali the number of vitta harankari guru is great, but the number of santap harankari guru is very small—it means some gurus can steal your money (vitta) and there are many gurus of this kind in this world; but santap harankari guru who can relieve your tritap jvala (adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik, miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls) are very rare. We are sick, we are suffering so much from mundane problems—for example, we are suffering from mental problems so much—but if you can accept the Guru who can relieve that, it is good for you—that will give you relief and so much benefit. These are the main things.

* * *

Proper Adjustment

14 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam

chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam

govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram

vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

“I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev’s associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.”

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

First, I am paying my full obeisance to my beloved Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's lotus feet and I am also paying obeisance to my Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Then, I am paying obeisance to all the devotees, all of my Guru-varga, all of my godbrothers and godsisters, all of my friends and well-wishers. I am paying obeisance to you all.

Actually, you know that in this world people cannot give much attention to the Lord's service—some cannot understand, some can understand what is necessary, what will give benefit to their spiritual life, why we have got this human body, what this human body must be used for. Not everybody knows it because we have forgotten the Abosulte, we have forgotten the lord, and that is why we are suffering from so many kinds of problems.

We cannot understand properly what is necessary for our spiritual life because we are always attacked by the illusory environment—we work under Maya, and Maya always takes us in the other, wrong, way, she always tries to remove us from our service. We always think about kanak, kamini, pratistha, but we must understand who kanak is for, who kamini is for, and who pratistha is for. All kamini (ladies) are for Krishna. Kanak (money) is for Narayan, Laksmi Devi. And pratistha (name and fame) is for Gurudev.

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur composed a song where he says, "Pratistha lagiya sathya-acharana lobha-hata sada kami: I engage in deceitful behaviour in pursuit of prestige. I am ruined by greed and constantly covetous." We run behind name and fame, but name and fame are for Gurudev. Even when somebody is giving me a garland—just now you saw that somebody gave me a garland—I pray to Gurudev, "This garland is for you." If I think this garland is coming to me, that I am wearing it, then some pratistha can come to me and it will be bad for my spiritual life. Whatever pratistha comes to me, it is for Gurudev. It is necessary to understand this because if we think that we do everything, that without me it cannot run, it is false and wrong. Guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord are doing everything. That is the main thing. They do everything, without their mercy we cannot make even one step. First of all we must have desire to receive the mercy of Gurudev.

* * *

Strongest Faith

14 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

For a newcomer, it is necessary to have faith, sraddha. There are different kinds of faith—kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, drdha sraddha, sudrdha sraddha. It is necessary to have the strongest faith. Devotion comes through faith—depending on what kind of faith you have, that kind of devotion will come to you. Not everybody has the same faith for the Lord, for the Guru.

I have explained it before. Kamal-sraddha means little or soft faith, newcomer's faith. Taranga-sraddha is, for example, when there is some festival or programme, their faith is there like a wave—just as when the wind is there, the water of the river always comes in waves; but as soon as the festival finishes, everybody goes to their homes and almost everybody is attacked by maya.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told also: when Gaura Purnima finishes, everybody is ready to go to their own home, but they do not know what their real home is. He even cried in sadness, "They have come here and done Nabadwip Dham parikrama for seven days, and now they are going to that home, which is not their real home, but they go there thinking it is their home." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur would say, "You are going there, but do not cheat me. You are going to your homes, but do not forget me, do not forget the Lord."

These are the main things. When there is a festival, so many devotees come, so many people come, but after the festival almost all people leave and they are attacked by maya—they return to their own job. That is taranga-sraddha.

So, there is kamala-sraddha, taranga-sraddha, then drdha sraddha, much faith. We may have strong faith, but sudrdha-sraddha (the strongest faith) is the faith that Srila Haridas Thakur has: when Muslim people beat him at twenty-two market places, everybody told him not to chant the Holy Name, not to chant Hare Krishna (they said, "If you chant, we will beat you!"), but Haridas Thakur chanted loudly. They beat him, but he still chanted loudly. That is called the strongest (sudrdha) sraddha. That is main thing.

"Adau sraddha, tatah sadhu-sanga...": first faith, then good association. Good association means not only sitting with the Guru. Actually, we always think the opposite—we see Gurudev doing some material work, we see Guru as martya-buddhi (mortal), but this is not so. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said also, "Baba Radha badha." His brother Lalit Prasad thought, "Bhaktivinod Thakur is my father," but Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur always thought, "Bhaktivinod Thakur is more than a father. He is not an ordinary human being—his body is transcendental. He has come from the Lord—he is my Guru who is the Lord Himself or His associate coming in front of me. He is not an ordinary person, an ordinary human body. Bhaktivinod Thakur's body is transcendental. Ultimately, he is an associate (parsad) of Srimati Radharani." Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur saw Bhaktivinod Thakur like that. Somebody thinks about our Gurudev also, "Oh, he is my uncle, why cannot I stay at the temple?" But we think Gurudev is not an ordinary person—he is not only a father, uncle, etc. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj brought him from Goloka Vrindavan, he did his service in this world, showed us so many pastimes, and after that the Lord Himself, or his Gurudev, called him and he went to him. That is the main vision.

Gurudev is

saksad-dharitvena 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)

Mother Yasoda and Sachi Mata also thought that Krishna or Nimai Vishvambhar is their son. It is vatsalya rasa. But we see the scriptures, we see Chaitanya-charitamrita, and we can learn from Mahaprabhu's teachings. Sanatan Goswami and Rupa Goswami also clarified it. The Guru is the Lord Himself who comes to us in the form of the Guru, and the Lord Himself also wants to hear His teaching, His conception—Krishna Himself wants to hear Krishna-katha from Sri Ramananda Rai.

* * *

Beneficial Association

14 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

What is association? What is good association? Sadhus always speak about Krishna-katha, Bhagavat-katha, about spiritual things. Bad association means you should not listen so much to gossips, do not listen to others criticising Vaishnavs. We cannot recognise a Vaishnav—even Brahma himself says that we cannot recognise who is a Vaishnav and who is not with our mundane eyes. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says:

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If I think that I am a Vaishnav, then I cannot give respect to others. Gurudev always says, "Be humble, tolerant and give honour (give respect) to others." That is the main thing. This is Mahaprabhu's conception and Mahaprabhu told it to us also in His Siksastakam. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also told this, Gurudev also told this.

Gurudev said many times that it is necessary to have tolerance, that tolerance is the main thing. We can understand what is tolerance from Vasudev Vipra's story. How much Vasudev Vipra tolerated! Many insects were eating all his body, but if some insects sometimes fell down, he would pick them up and put again back into his body. He would say, "This body will be anyway burnt one day, it is useless—this body cannot serve the Lord; so, if this insect is happy to eat this body, what is the problem?"

These are the main things in our spiritual life.

Once, a sadhu was sitting on the bank of the Ganges, chanting the Holy Name. Suddenly, he saw a scorpion going towards the Ganges. The sadhu thought, "If a wave comes from the Ganges, it will die"—he caught the scorpion and put it in a safe place. As he was doing it, the scorpion bit him. After a while, the scorpion again began moving towards the Ganges and the sadhu protected the insect again. It repeated four-five times more. After that, and a cowherd boy who was taking care of cows nearby at the bank of the Ganges, noticed what the sadhu was doing and he came to him and asked, "What is it to you if this insect dies? Why do you keep saving it when it bites you? Whether it is saved or dies, what benefit is it to you?" The sadhu replied, "If this insect cannot change its character, why should I change my character?" A sadhu's character is to always save. It is important to understand this in our spiritual life.

What is good association? It is the association that will benefit you. Sadhus do not ask where your house is, what your problems are. There are mundane things.

Gurudev never asked me, "What is your education? What caste were you born in? What is your religion? Where were you born?" Even many years after I took sannyas he never asked me that. These are practical things, and it is the truth. Gurudev does not think what caste I was born in, what my culture is. This is not a question. You can be born anywhere, the important thing is what you are doing, what your main things (siddhanta, conception) are.

I never asked Gurudev for any position. I do not want anything—I do not want to be the Math's trustee member, or the Math's secretary, or the Math's president. And I do not think about these things. Before, although somebody was the official secretary, I was doing all the secretary's work. Whatever the secretary was supposed to do, I did everything. In Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time, Gurudev was the secretary of the temple, and in 1999 when Gurudev told it was necessary to make a governing body, he first made me a member of that governing body and a year later, in 2000, he gave me the secretary's post. Despite that, I do not think that I am the secretary or that I am the manager—I need service, and I am getting service. I am happy with that.

Gurudev told also about me, "That boy loves spending money. I have money, and no one can spend my money except him—he knows how to spend it [properly], that is why he is spending it. What is the problem?" Gurudev always said it.

* * *

Sincerity in Service

14 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

We must understand what is favourable to devotion and accept it, and we must reject what is unfavourable to devotion. What know what the offences of the Holy Name are, we know what sadhu-ninda (criticism of sadhus) is—we must be always careful with this. We know what can happen to those who criticise the sadhu, it is very dangerous. Gurudev, Vaishnavs can protect us if we make some mistake, but who will help us if we criticise Gurudev and Vaishnavs? We must understand this. You know what Ambarish Maharaj did and Durvasa Muni did, you know what happened (it is described in Srimad Bhagavatam).

Our life is very short. Khatvanga Maharaj learned that he had only forty-eight minutes left in his life. What did he do? He did not spend that time on gossiping or listening to gossips. We must ignore it. This is how we must manage the temple, manage our service. These are the main things.

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur also says, "Amara jivana sada pape rata nahika punyera lesha...: my life is always full of sin, there is nothing in it except sin. I give so much stress and anxiety to others!" This is not good.

Sriman Mahaprabhu shows us what sincerity is. Sincerity, nistha, means when you do something, you must do it properly and do it regularly. You eat every day, you sleep every day, you go to work every day—in the same way, you must sometimes give time to your Guru, to the Lord. You can make a family, but that family must be Krishna's family. You can run and live in Krishna's family, but instead you are wasting time on nonsense, on talking nonsense. This is not good for you.

I am telling to all the devotees: you must wake up for mangal arati, make an offering to the Deities (first offer some balya bhog, then your wife can cook and offer the bhog to the Deities), take prasadam, take something with you for lunch, and when you come home from work in the evening sing some songs. Do not waste your time on other things. This is called sincerity.

Mahaprabhu's servitor showed what sincerity is. His name is Govinda Das, he was actually a disciple of Ishwar Puri, but he was a servitor of Mahaprabhu. Once, having chanted and danced the whole day, Mahaprabhu came to His room in Gambhira and fell asleep in the doorway. Govinda used to come every day to massage His feet, but that day he could not enter because Mahaprabhu was lying in the doorway and it was impossible to enter the room without having to cross Mahaprabhu's body. Govinda asked Mahaprabhu,

"Prabhu, could You move a little?"

"No, I am very tired," said Mahaprabhu. "I cannot removed."

"But I do this service every day..."

"That is your matter. Whether you do it or not, it is up to you, you will think about it."

Govinda thought, "For His service, I will have to cross Him"—then, put his cloth on Mahaprabhu's body and entered the room crossing Him. After he massaged Mahaprabhu's feet, Mahaprabhu got a good rest.

At midnight, Mahaprabhu woke up and saw Govinda in the room. He asked him,

"Govinda, you are still here? Did you not go to take prasadam? Why did you not go to sleep?"

Govinda replied, "Prabhu, how will I go crossing You?"

"How did you come then? You crossed Me then."

"Prabhu, I came here for service—I came to massage Your feet; but I cannot cross Your body for my atmendriya tarpan, for my own interest (to take food, prasadam or to sleep). I cannot do that."

Then you can think that for the service to the Guru, for the service to the Lord, you can make any offence, you can accept it. Gurudev told me also, "If I tell you I have much pain in my shoulder and ask you to hit me, this is not beating—it is seva." You will think, "Oh, I am beating my Guru!" but this is not so—if your Guru says he has pain and tells you to hit him, this is seva and you can do that. The main thing is that you cannot use your Guru for your own interest, for your own enjoyment—you must serve your Guru. If Gurudev says something, you cannot argue with him—if Gurudev says anything, it is Veda-vakya (instruction of the Vedas). We must follow this.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj believed in my Gurudev. I remember Gurudev told me one story. When he just came to the temple, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told him, "Gaurendu, do not follow what you mind tells you. You must follow what I tell you." At that time, there was not so much money in the temple, and when there was some prasadam left in the evening, everybody would take it in the morning the next day. One day, there were some rice and dal leftovers, but somebody did not cover the dal at night, so when they served that dal to Gurudev, he saw there were insects in it. At first, Gurudev thought, "There are insects in the dal!" but then he quickly realised, "Oh, my mind is telling this to me, but I should take it!" and he took the insects out and took the dal. Srila Sridhar Maharaj was walking nearby, chanting the Holy Name, and saw what Gaurendu did. He said to Gurudev, "Gaurendu, come to me after you finish taking prasadam." Gurudev came to Param Guru Maharaj, paid his dandavat and asked, "Did you call me? What service can I do?" Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, "I saw when you were taking prasadam you seemed not to like the dal, but you still took it—why?" Gurudev replied, "Because you told me not to follow my mind. My mind was telling me not to take it, but you always say that we must not throw prasadam away, we must take it. That is why I took prasadam. I must follow my Guru's instruction." Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was very happy to hear it.

So, for your service, for the Deities, for the Guru, you can make an offence, you cannot make any offence, you cannot do anything for your own interest. Do not use your Guru for your own enjoyment, for your own interest. That is my message today.

* * *

Association: Root of (Mis?)fortune

15 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

I am giving first an obeisance to my beloved Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, to all of my Guru-varga, all of my godbrothers and godsisters, all of my friends and well-wishers.

First we must understand what is good association, what is bad association. When somebody is talking to you, what kind of talk are they doing? Is it actually beneficial to your spiritual life or harmful? You must understand this; you can ask your Guru also—he can explain it to you; you can also read Gurudev's books, Guru Maharaj's books—everything is told there.

If you do not have Gurudev's mercy, then you cannot understand the Guru, you cannot have the mercy of Vaishnavs, you cannot even recognise who is a Vaishnav, and you end up making some Vaishnav aparadh, going against your Guru. If you have mercy, then you can understand Gurudev easily—you can understand what he wants to do, what is his desire, we can easily understand his mercy.

Those who are always covered by the illusory environment cannot understand their Guru, their Gurudev's mercy, cannot understand the Lord and the Lord's mercy. Maya will always try to take us away from the service of the Lord, it is her duty to always engage us in her service, but Gurudev always engages us in the service of the Lord and Vaishnavs. If we are covered by illusion, by the illusory environment, then we cannot understand what is Gurudev's mercy.

I also read one very nice story in one of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's books. Once, two sadhu sannyasis went to Haridwar and were sitting on the bank of the Ganges. Suddenly, one of the sadhus saw something black floating in the swift current of the Ganges. The sadhu said to the other sadhu, "Please, go to the Ganges. There is not much water here, you can go there and take the blanket out. We will dry it and can use at night." (You know that it is cold in Haridwar.) The sadhu did that—he jumped into the Ganges and as he was about to catch the blanket, the blanket caught him! It turned out that the blanket was actually not a blanket—it was a bear (bhaluk). The bear got caught in the current of the Ganges and wanted to get out, but he could not because the current was too strong. So, when the sadhu came near thinking it was a blanket, the bear caught the sadhu and they began to fight—the sadhu wanted to leave the bear (still thinking it was a blanket), but the bear grasped him well and did not let him go because he wanted to get out of the Ganges. Then, the other sadhu shouted from the bank, "Hey, leave the blanket, it is not necessary. Come out!" The sadhu replied, "I want to leave the blanket, but the blanket is not leaving me!"

That is the moral of the story—we want to leave maya, but maya always attacks us; we want to leave the mundane condition, but the mundane condition cannot leave us properly. We often say,

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya,

sadhur-gurur krpa vina na dekhi upaya,

"It is not possible to conquer maya by illusory environment (by engaging in maya), but it is only possible to get relief by the mercy of Guru, Vaishnav."

('Ki rupe paibe seva', Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

You cannot conquer maya without the mercy of the sadhu. Then, you must understand that if we do not take proper guidance from the sadhu—if we do not accept what the sadhu is telling us properly, if we do not realise it properly—then we cannot get the mercy of the sadhu and Vaishnavs, we cannot get the mercy of the Guru also.

* * *

Improving Spiritual Life

15 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

We sometimes bargain with the Guru, we sometimes think about the material things of the sadhu. We do not think what is the service to the sadhu, what is the sadhu's priority, what is necessary for the sadhu. We always make Vaishnav aparadh, sadhu aparadh, Guru aparadh, and it is very harmful. What for have we come to Krishna consciousness? What for have we joined the temple? We must first see to our spiritual life, we must not think about our material enjoyment, material interest—we must not think about it, we must follow Gurudev's instruction, Guru Maharaj's instruction.

Gurudev told that when he was a brahmachari, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told him, "Do not follow your mind. If I tell you something, if I give you an order, you must follow that. Follow my instruction, then you can easily understand everything." We must understand this properly.

Outside people cannot understand devotion, they cannot understand many things because they are covered by illusory environment, but if they get sadhu-sanga—if they get proper treatment from the sadhu—they can understand everything. If you want to go to a doctor to improve your health, to relieve your mundane disease, then we must take prescription from a doctor, go with the prescription to a pharmacy, take the medicine, and then you can get benefit through that. In the spiritual world, in the spiritual matter it is also like that. Who is the doctor here? Guru and Vaishnavs. If you do not follow what Gurudev prescribes to you properly, you will not be able to improve your spiritual life. This is not the proper line. We must understand properly what is spiritual life.

The main thing you must understand is what is service and what is karma. This is what Gurudev told me: if your Gurudev tells you to read Bhagavatam, then it will be reading Bhagavatam, otherwise if you read Bhagavatam without his permission, it will be like reading a newspaper.

Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami,

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also told in his lectures not to listen to gossips. He would also say, "Bahu grantha na paribe, bahu kalabhyasa na karibe: it is not necessary to read so many books, it is not necessary to practise so many artificial things." In his lectures about Srila Prabhupad, Gurudev also told that it is not necessary to read so many volumes and volumes of books—the main thing you must understand is what is the service to Gurudev, what is Gurudev's necessity.

* * *

Rusty and Nasty

15 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

I heard one story about service in 1995 from one sadhu, an acharya sannyasi, who came to our temple as a guest at the inauguration of the centenary building in honour of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's 100th appearance day. I can remember that story now. Gurudev asked him to speak some Hari-katha at the assembly and I can remember what that sannyasi said until now.

Once, two brahmacharis stayed at some temple. They would fight each other every day—one of them would say, "I do so much service and you are not doing anything!" and the other one would say, "I do everything, it is you who is not doing anything! You only do puja, and I arrange everything—I do the shopping, I do the cooking, etc. I do everything!" and so on. One day, they fought like this in front of their Guru. Their Gurudev was old and blind, he could not see anything, so when the two brahmacharis fought in front of him saying, "O Gurudev, I do everything, I cook and do this and this and this, and on top of that I come to massage your body with oil, I help you to bath!" and the other one said, "It is not true! I also come to help Gurudev to bathe! And I also give him prasadam. I do everything!" Hearing this, Gurudev told them, "You are always fighting because of my service. I am going to divide your service." Then he said to one of the brahmacharis, "From today, you will massage my left leg, and you," he said to the other brahmachari, "will massage my right leg."

And they did that every day—one of the disciples massaged his Guru's left leg, and the another one right leg. A few days later, one of the brahmacharis who was supposed to massage his Guru's right leg got a little sick and could not come to massage his Guru's leg, so the other brahmachari came and massaged only the left leg of his Guru. Gurudev asked him, "You are massaging only my left leg, why are you not massaging my right leg?" The disciple replied, "Gurudev, you divided the service a month ago and said that it was his leg. It is not my leg, that is why I am not massaging it." Gurudev said then, "Oh, that is his leg?! Is it not my leg?! Then I will break my leg!" Gurudev was very sad and felt pain to see this—what kind of service is this?

That is the kind of service we do. It is actually not service. What is spiritual life service? The main thing is that you must make your Gurudev happy. That is what service is. If we see how our Guru-varga, our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, preach Krishna consciousness, what they do to make their Gurudev happy, how they serve their Gurudev, then we can understand what service is. How much service Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Sanatan Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami, Srila Narottam Das Thakur did for their Guru. If we look at their examples, we can understand it. That is the main thing, but we cannot understand it.

How will we understand these things? If you keep an iron outside, it becomes full of rust and a magnet cannot attract it. Magnet always attracts iron, but if that a piece of iron is full of rust, magnet will not attract it. We have been covered by the illusory environment for so many years, so many lifetimes—how will Krishna take us from this illusory environment to Krishna consciousness, to our proper place in Goloka Vrindavan? How we will get service of Radha Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan? How is it possible? If we do not get proper association of a proper sadhu, it is impossible. You must understand that. That is why we need to make our Guru happy. That is called service. If you do whatever service Gurudev has given you properly, you will be able to understand easily what is service of the Guru and Vaishnavs. That is the main thing.

* * *

What Is Service?

15 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 4

I remember one time, when Gurudev was staying in Sevak Bhavan (guesthouse) in Dum Dum Park, and there was a new brahmachari (a foreign devotee) who had just taken first initiation from Gurudev. He asked Gurudev, "What is my service?" and Gurudev replied, "You must only sit here at the veranda in front of me."

Day after day he sat there and gradually he became bored. He thought, "Gurudev is not saying anything, he told me to only sit here..." Then, another, a little senior, devotee came to him one day and said, "You are only sitting here in front of Gurudev, you are not doing anything. From tomorrow, come with me to the temple building, you can clean the kitchen and prasadam hall with me."

So, the next day he went with the devotee to clean the kitchen. The day passed and he had not finished cleaning, then the next day passed, he had not finished, after that, another day passed, he had not finished. He could not come to Gurudev for three-four days and when he came to Gurudev after that, Gurudev asked him, "Prabhu, I have not seen you for four days. Perhaps, you do not want to see my ugly face?" The devotee got shy, "No, Gurudev. Some Prabhu told me why I am sitting here, I should come with him and I have been cleaning the kitchen these days." Then Gurudev told him, "Oh, you think that if you clean something with another devotee, that is service, and if I tell you to sit here, it is not service? I want to tell you then what is the service. If I tell you to sit here, you may think you are not doing anything, maybe you think there is no job here, but that is service—if you Guru tells you to sit here and do nothing but you go to clean the kitchen with another brahmachari, then it is not service."

I was there when Gurudev was telling this to the devotee and I hear it. That is the main thing—what our mind tells us to do is not service, service is what Gurudev tells us to do. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told, "Satisfying the whims of your mind is not bhajan." Even if it looks like bhajan (worship), but if it is what our mind tells us to do, it is not bhajan—service is serving Guru and Vaishnavs under the guidance (anugatya) of Guru and Vaishnavs; without guidance of the Guru it is not service.

I also remember Gurudev told me one story. One time, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj and Srila Bhakti Vichar Jajavar Maharaj were sitting together. Srila Madhusudan Maharaj and some other devotee (another sannyasi) were reading a newspaper, and Srila Goswami Maharaj asked Srila Jajavar Maharaj to pass him a newspaper. Srila Jajavar Maharaj was chanting the Holy Name at that time and he did not want to leave the chanting beads, so as he was chanting with his right hand, he passed the newspaper to Srila Goswami Maharaj with his left hand. Then, Pujyapad Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaj said, "When a Vaishnavs gives an order, that is Harinam." When a Vaishnav gives some order, even it is not something important (for example, he tells you to bring a newspaper), but that is service. What is Hari Nam? The Order of a Vaishnav.

* * *

Learn Siddhanta

15 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 5

Our Guru-varga has been trying to preach Krishna consciousness so much.

I heard about Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaj's temple at Satish Mukherjee Road, Kolkata. There was time when not so many brahmacharis would come when he gave class, but so many brahmacharis would turn up at the prasadam time. So, one day, he took Chaitanya-charitamrita, came to the hall when the devotees were taking prasadam, and, sitting on a Vyasa-asan, started reading it during prasadam time. He told everybody, "You take prasadam with your hand and mouth, it is not a problem, but you must listen to my reading of Chaitanya-charitamrita with your ears, I going to read it to you and you must listen." Everybody got shy and after that they started coming to the class on Chaitanya-charitamrita. This is what happened.

How much our Guru-varga has been trying to teach proper Krishna consciousness, to teach proper etiquette! I can say also that I understand well what Gurudev teaches us, what is Gurudev's mood, and what is service. Even some small service can please the Lord.

There was a lady working in Srivas Pandit's house—she had no relatives and she would clean the plates, bring water (at that time, there was no tap water; water had to be brought from a pond or a river) and do other works around Srivas Pandit's house. Her name was Duhkhi ('duhkhi' means 'sad'). One day, Mahaprabhu's appearance day was coming and Srivas Pandit told that lady, "Duhkhi, do you know who will come today? You are going to bring some water, but do you know who will bathe with your water? The Lord Himself, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, is coming! He is going to bathe with the water that you are going to bring." Duhkhi became very happy and began to cry (sometimes people cry out of happiness also). Soon after that, Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit's house. Seeing Duhkhi bringing water and crying, Mahaprabhu asked her, "What has happened? Why is wrong with you? Why are you crying and what is your name?" She replied, "I am Duhkhi [sad]." Mahaprabhu said at once, "From today your name will be Sukhi [happy]!" She got mercy of Mahaprabhu.

Srivas Pandit also had a niece Narayani, she is the mother of Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur. Narayani would often come to Mahaprabhu when He was taking prasadam, stretch out her hand and asking for prasadam. Mahaprabhu would give her of His prasadam because she was just a baby—normally, Mahaprabhu never gave His prasadam to anyone, but she was one three-four years old, a little girl, so He gave some prasadam to her. Taking that prasadam, she got Mahaprabhu's mercy—even though later she got married and her husband did not follow Krishna consciousness properly, she got a good son, Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur who composed Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat. Then you can understand the effect of good association.

You can also see the result of Vaishnav aparadh when brahman Gunarnava Mishra made an offence to Ramdas Minaketan. What kind of offence did he make? Gunarnava Mishra did not like Nityananda Prabhu, and when Nityananda Prabhu's servitor Ramdas Minaketan came to the programme at the house of Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother, Gunarnava Mishra did not give proper respect to him (even though he was worshipping Mahaprabhu, he did not give respect to a servitor of Nityananda Prabhu). Ramdas Minaketan was a little upset and told about it to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami. Later that day, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami dreamt of Nityananda Prabhu—Nityananda Prabhu told him not to keep this bad association. He said, "Because your brother is not good, do not stay in Jhamatpur [the place where the two brothers stayed]. Do not stay in this house with your brother—leave it and come to Vrindavan." The next day Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami left his birthplace and went to Vrindavan. After that, he got much mercy from Madan Mohan and composed Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita.

We can become good and proper devotees through good association. We did not know anything, but through our Gurudev's association, by our Gurudev's mercy we have become a good boy and we can understand what is the mercy of Gurudev. You too take his instruction, take his association and you will become a proper devotee—you can get proper devotion and proper service and you can reach Goloka Vrindavan to serve Radha-Krishna; through Nityananda Prabhu you can get service and go to Goloka Vrindavan.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

* * *

Damodar Month

25 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

I am paying my full obeisance to my beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's lotus feet, as well as to all Vaishnav-vrinda, all the devotees of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and the worldwide devotees from other sampradayas also; I am paying obeisance to you all.

Yesterday, our temple Chaitanya Saraswat Math and already other temples all over the world started Kartik vrata, niyam-seva vrata. In Kartik month, we must sing the Damodarastakam song ("Namamisvaram sach-chid-ananda rupam lasat-kundalam gokule bhrajamanam...") every day.

Now is Damodar month—'dam yog udhar,' 'dam' means a rope, 'udhar' means belly. Mother Yasoda tied her son, our Lord Krishna. It is vatsalya rasa and she always thinks, "Krishna is my son."

In one particular instance, Krishna wanted to take His mother's milk, but His mother was very busy—she was boiling milk to make paneer, butter and other things. She told Krishna, "Wait, the milk is overflowing and the fire is on. Wait." You know that if the Lord wants something, He will do that—He disturbed His mother with His face, and His mother pushed Him away a little. Then, Krishna took whatever His Mother had kept in the store room—paneer, milk preparations, butter, etc.—and distributed it to the monkeys of Gokula.

When Mother Yasoda saw it, she was very angry, "I have cooked all this for You! Whatever I make or keep is all for You, but You have become so naughty—You are distributing everything among monkeys! It is very bad!" Then, she decided to tie her son. Krishna also showed His lila, thinking. "Oh, My Mother wants to tie Me? I will teach her a lesson!"

He showed He was very afraid that His mother was going to tie Him, but every time Mother Yasoda tried to tie Him with a rope, the rope turned out to be too short. She would bring more and more rope—she called all the gopis and told them to bring the rope from all the cows (and they had so many cows—nine hundred thousand), but no matter how much rope she tied, it was always two fingers too short. In the end, she became very tired, and then Krishna allowed her to tie Him.

There is some meaning why the rope was two fingers too short, we can explain it. One finger means a very strong, the strongest desire, and the other finger is mercy. If you have much desire, if you have the strongest desire to get the devotion to Krishna, Krishna will give you His mercy—if you have the strongest desire to serve the Lord, to serve the Lord's devotees and associates, then Krishna will arrange everything, He will engage you in the service to His associate or in His service. So, these two fingers means first it is necessary to have strongest desire—if you come one step to Krishna, Krishna will come ten steps to you.

This Kartik month (Damodar month) is Krishna's dearmost month. There is Radha-Damodar temple near our Vrindavan temple and every Kartik we go for parikrama in Vrindavan. This year also we have a great wish to start Vrindavan parikrama in Damodar month.

* * *

Damodarastakam

25 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

We sing Damodarastakam,

namamisvaram sach-chid-ananda rupam

lasat-kundalam gokule bhrajamanam

yasoda-bhiyolukhalad dhavamanam

paramrstam atyantato drutya gopya [1]

"To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who [due to the offence of breaking the pot of yogurt that his mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing] is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of Mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed—to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances."

rudantam muhur netra-yugmam mrjantam

karambhoja-yugmena satanka-netram

muhuh svasa-kampa-trirekhanka-kanthasthita-

graivam damodaram bhakti-baddham [2]

"[Seeing the whipping stick in His mother's hand,] He is crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace of pearls around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conchshell, is shaking because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother's pure love, I offer my humble obeisances."

That is a very important song in our spiritual life. We pray,

namo deva damodarananta visno

prasida prabho duhkha-jalabdhi-magnam

krpa-drsti-vrstyati-dinam batanugrhanesa

mam ajnam edhy aksi-drsyah [6]

"O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O Visnu! O Master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become visible to my eyes."

You know that when Krishna's mother became very tired [trying to tie Krishna with a rope that always appeared to be two fingers too short], Krishna thought, "Oh, My Mother has become tired, she has got so much austerity" and He Himself allowed her to bind Him with the rope.

After that, Mother Yasoda tied Krishna to an ulukhal (wooden mortar, it is a kind of very heavy wood) and returned to the boiling milk. Krishna started crawling around with the mortar behind His back. Krishna carries the entire universe, so do you think He cannot carry just one piece of wood? Do you think it is impossible? Suddenly, Krishna appeared in a place little far from His home. We go to that place every year (it is called dam-bandhan lila place, the Yamal-Arjuna trees are there).

You know that Kuver had sons Manigriv and Nalakuvar, and these two sons had very big ego and were very proud of their property and wealth. They did not care for anybody. One day, they were playing in a river with completely naked ladies when suddenly Narad Muni went past that place. Seeing Narad Muni, the ladies covered their bodies, but Kuver's sons did not care—they did not care who is Narad or who was going past. Narad Muni cursed the two proud sons of Kuver and said that next life they would become trees. Manigriv and Nalakuvar were shocked. They apologised to Narad Muni, and Narad Muni said, "When Krishna appears in Dvarap yuga, He will stay in Gokul Mahavan. He will rescue you from this condition and you will get your previous body back." That is why it is written in Damodarastakam,

kuveratmajau baddha-murttyaiva yadvat

tvaya mochitau bhakti-bhajau krtau cha

tatha prema-bhaktim svakam me prayachchha

na mokse graho me 'sti damodareha [7]

"O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera—Manigriva and Nalakuvara—were delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation."

Kuver's sons were suffering so much in the tree bodies, but Krishna is very merciful—He removed their bondage.

So, when Krishna was crawling around, He came to a place where there stood two trees. He crawled between the trees, but the wooden mortar that He was tied to got stuck between the trees—Krishna pulled the mortar and the trees immediately fell down. There was no cloud, nothing—the trees fell just like that. Nanda Gopal looked behind and smiled.

Hearing the sound of the falling trees, many people came to the place. They were astonished, "What has happened? How did these big trees fall down?" Both trees were lying on the ground and Krishna was there too. Nanda Maharaj came there too and he was very worried. He thought, "What has happened? Is my son Krishna OK?" Nanda Maharaj had a little quarrel with Mother Yasoda, he chastised her, "Why did you tie my son? What would you do if something had happened?" I even heard that he had not talked to Mother Yasoda for three months after that. Such is Krishna's pastimes, Krishna's lila.

kuveratmajau baddha-murttyaiva yadvat

tvaya mochitau bhakti-bhajau krtau cha

tatha prema-bhaktim svakam me prayachchha

na mokse graho me 'sti damodareha [7]

"O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera—Manigriva and Nalakuvara—were delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation."

namas te 'stu damne sphurad-dipti-dhamne

tvadiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne

namo radhikayai tvadiya-priyayai

namo 'nanta-lilaya devaya tubhyam [8]

"O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisances to the brilliantly effulgent rope which binds Your belly. I then offer my obeisances to Your belly, which is the abode of the entire universe. I humbly bow down to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I offer all obeisances to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays unlimited pastimes."

This song Damodarastakam about the pastimes of the Lord is written by Satyavrata Muni, and we sing it every Kartik month.

Radharani's devotion, Vraja gopis' devotion is the highest conception, the highest devotion. Krishna Himself wants the foot dust of Vraja gopis, He took their foot dust on His head! Then you can understand that we cannot consider ourselves to be even their foot dust.

We also sing 'Radhe jaya jaya madhava daite' song composed by Srila Rupa Goswami:

radhe jaya jaya madhava-dayite

gokula-taruni-mandala-mahite

"Glory to Radha, the beloved of Madhava! All the young girls of Gokula, beautiful like Laksmi Devi, are charmed to see Your exquisite beauty."

damodara-rati-varddhana-vese

hari-niskuta-vrnda-vipinese

"You are always decorated with many beautiful garments and scented flowers and is irresistible to Damodar. Your Pastimes with Krishna are going on eternally in the groves of Sri Vrindavan Dham."

vrsabhanudadhi-nava-sasi-lekhe

lalita-sakhi guna-ramita-visakhe

"Just as the moon is said to have appeared from the ocean, so You have appeared from the ocean of Vrisabhanu Maharaj. You are a friend of Lalita and the joy of Visakha."

karunam kuru mayi karuna-bharite

sanaka-sanatana-varnita-charite

"All liberated devotees, the highly qualified mukta-purusa devotees such as Sanaka and Sanatan, always glorify the abode of Krishna with His devotees and particularly the Supreme Servitor of Krishna, Srimati Radharani. O merciful Srimati Radharani, please bestow You mercy on me."

(Sri Sri Radhika Stutih; translation is adopted from the interpretation given by Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.)

* * *

En Route to Dvaraka

31 October 2018, on the train Kolkata-Dvaraka

I am very sorry that I could not speak yesterday and the day before yesterday because I have been very busy—you know that the devotees are taking me to Dvaraka, Vrindavan and Govardhan. I am speaking now from the train because this is an almost three-day journey from Kolkata to Dvaraka. Right now we are in Madhya Pradesh. We started from Howrah, Kolkata, and have already passed West Bengal, then Bihar state, after that Jharkhand and today we are passing Madhya Pradhesh.

I myself have never actually been to Dvaraka, have not been to the temples of Dvarakanath, Somnathji, but this year devotees told me, "Maharaj, we want to go to Dvaraka with you," that is why we have arranged some programme and going there now with more than two hundred devotees; but our main spiritual things, our target is always Vrindavan and Govardhan. This [Kartik] parikrama has been going on since Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time—sometimes we also go to Haridwar, Hrisikesh, Benares (Kashi), and Gaya (Mahaprabhu went to Gaya and Kashi, that is why we also visit them). This year it was not possible to go to Gaya and Kashi, so we finally decided to go to Dvaraka and Somnath (Prabhas Patan) this year. After that, we will go to Vrindavan. In this way, we are going to do this very auspicious tour in the niyam-seva month, Kartik month. Such parikramas—visiting holy places in the association of devotees—are very necessary for our spiritual life.

Mahaprabhu could not go to Dvaraka, but Nityananda Prabhu went there. Some of our Guru-varga also went there, and now we are too for the first time going to Dvaraka. Our main target remains Sri Giriraj Govardhan puja. We celebrate it every year—some year we could not observe it in Govardhan due to my health, but this year we expect to be in Govardhan for Sri Govardhan puja. So, after Dvaraka we are going to Vrindavan, after that to Govardhan, and, finally, back to Kolkata.

As we will read in Garga-samhita, Krishna stayed in Dvaraka with His mahisi (queens) and most of His pastimes took place here in Dvaraka (He lived here, managed everything from here and left from here also), but even when He was staying in Dvaraka with Rukmini, Satyabhama and the rest of His 16 108 queens, He was always thinking about all the Vraja gopis.

We are very glad to be with all the devotees and to be continuing our spiritual tour and programme. We gave devotees prasadam at breakfast time and we have also brought some lunch prasadam which we will give later today. We are going to live here on the train today and tomorrow, and, according to the train schedule, we expect to reach Dvaraka at 9 o'clock in the evening. There in Dvaraka, some devotees are helping us with the accommodation and other arrangements. This is our programme. We will speak about the glories of Dvaraka in the Dvarakanath Temple, we will visit Rukmini's temple, Satyabhama's temple, etc. We will see the places where Krishna's pastimes are going on. After that, we will go to Vrindavan and Govardhan and in this way spend Kartik month, by the mercy of Gurudev, with the Eastern and Western devotees. You too can help us—stay in touch with us and we can make these programmes together.

Everything depends upon Krishna—without His mercy we cannot go anywhere, we cannot visit the places of His pastimes. Actually, Krishna's pastimes, Krishna's beauty, Krishna's Name, form, etc. are non-different form Krishna Himself. We must remember that. Who can preach these things? Only Krishna Himself can preach about Himself—if Krishna allows us to preach His conception, then only can we preach Krishna consciousness, otherwise, without His mercy, without the mercy of Gurudev, we cannot understand it.

Anyway, we will talk and hear about the Dvarakanath temple tomorrow; we will speak about the pastimes that we know. I am going there and will see what is going on there. Krishna consciousness is preached all over the world and we will also preach it.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Here with us there are some devotees coming from Malaysia, some from Mauritius, some from Venezuela, some from Colombia, from Australia, there are also some Indian devotees. Sripad Mahayogi Maharaj also came from London, Sripad Niskinchan Maharaj, Sripad Paramarthik Maharaj are here, and Sripad Shanta Maharaj and Sripad Muni Maharaj are on their way to Govardhan now to arrange everything there—they also arranged some prasadam from the Iskcon that they will give us after one or two stations. All together we are going on the parikrama and we are continuing our programme.

Somebody may think, "Why are we going to Dvaraka?" Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we may be following Krishna consciousness, but we must still study Vishnu consciousness (Garbhodakasayi, Ksirodakasayi, Karanodakasayi Vishnu). That is also our conception and we must also read about it from Chaitanya-charitamrita and Garga-samhita. I have just seen here in Garga-samhita a part about Dvaraka, but it is very big and I cannot read it all now, but I will try to tell something tomorrow and you can see the importance of Dvaraka. We can read from Garga-samhita next time. Maybe we can also read once we reach Dvaraka.

* * *

A Night Talk in Dvaraka

1 November 2018, on the train Kolkata-Dvaraka

One time, Rukmini and Satyabhama asked Krishna,

"Why are You not sleeping?"

Why was Krishna actually not sleeping? Because He was thinking about Srimati Radharani, thinking about the Vraja gopis. Before Krishna could answer, they suddenly saw some injury on His feet. They asked,

"How did You hurt Your feet? Oh, is it because of this injury that You cannot sleep? Tell the truth, tell the truth," they insisted.

Then, Krishna said, "Actually, My heart is cool because Radharani's lotus feet are in My heart, and as for the other things, yes, My body is burning because I have hurt my feet..."

"How will you sleep then? What can we do for You?"

"Well, you can give Me some milk..."

Then, they boiled some milk and gave it to Krishna. After Krishna drank the milk, He fell sleep.

I have seen this very nice story in Garga-samhita.

Our conception is service of Vraja gopis and Radharani and Her associates, but we are not qualified for that. Even Vraja gopis themselves say, "We are not qualified," then we must think that we are not qualified. What to speak of Vrindavan, gopis, and so on, this is the highest place—we cannot even compare ourselves to Rukmini and Satyabhama. It is very difficult. When Rukmini and Satyabhauma saw Srimati Radharani, they actually surrendered to Her and the Vraja gopis. With this in mind we are going to their place.

* * *

"May Our Pilgrimage Be Successful"

31 October 2018, on the train Kolkata-Dvaraka

First of all, I am offering my full obeisance at the lotus feet of Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, begging him for his causeless mercy, after that I am offering my obeisance to all Guru-varga, all the worldwide acharyas, to all my God-brothers and sisters, to all devotees and all of you praying for your mercy to this low soul.

Today is a very good day. We have not been able to have a proper class for a few days because I have been very busy—yesterday, since the afternoon I had been arranging everything, and today, together with all the devotees, we are going to Vrindavan and we are going to stop first in Dvaraka.

We will visit Dvarakadish temple, Byet Dvaraka, Rukmini's temple, Satyabhama's temple, Somnath (Prabhas tirtha). As a part of our tour, the day after tomorrow we will also observe the appearance festival of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj in Dvaraka, we have already made the necessary arrangement. From Dvaraka we will go to Vrindavan and Govardhan.

Actually, we are going to Dvaraka to learn something about the pastimes of Krishna—He performed many pastimes there, He lived there with Rukmini, Satyabhama and His 16 108 queens. One time, Sudama Vipra also went to Dvaraka from Vrindavan. We will see the place where he stopped when he had got thirsty and remember how he got the water from a well there. It is a very authentic place. How special was Sudama Vipra and his wife. Krishna called His friend Sudama to Dvaraka and Sudama came. A poor brahman who had suffered so much in his life—he does not know anything, he only knows that he has love and affection for Krishna; when he met Krishna, Krishna embraced him and he got so much mercy from the Lord.

A while ago, I spoke here on the train and said that we always visit many holy places—we always go to Govardhan for Govardhan puja—but many may think, "Why go to Dvaraka instead of Vrindavan?" Although Mahaprabhu could not go there, Nityanada Prabhu did—He came to Dvaraka to take darshan of Krishna-lila. Satyabhama became Jagadananda Pandit. Narad Muni stayed here also. If we are fortunate, by Krishna's mercy, we can get the darshan of this place. We pray to Gurudev and to the Lord that our pilgrimage may be successful.

I would like to finish here.

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha

patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

"Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees.”

* * *

Sudama Vipra

2 November 2018, Beyt Dvaraka

Narad told the story of Sudama Vipra [in Sri Garga-samhita, Dvaraka-khanda, chapter 12].

There was a brahman called Sudama Vipra. He was a friend of Lord Krishna who lived with his wife Satya in Sviyapur. Sudama Vipra was an expert in the Vedas (he knew all Vedas) and all scriptures, and he was a very poor brahman—he had no wealth, no property and always kept distance from money and things (he did not like these things and always felt annoyed towards them).

One day, Sudama Vipra told his wife, "You know, Dvarakanath Sri Krishna is my friend. When I stayed at the house of my Guru Sandipani, we studied together there. Now Krishna has become the king, he is Dvarakanath and very rich. I have not seen Him for so many year. I remember He was very kind and always helped poor people." When his wife heard it, he asked her husband, "You say your friend is a very rich person—why do you not go to Krishna and ask him to help you? You do not have proper food and clothes, you have nothing... Whoever goes to Krishna returns from there very rich, you can go there too." She told him many things, but Sudama Vipra replied, "What are you saying? I teach everybody not to be attached to money, wealth, property, etc. and you are telling me I must go take some money from Krishna. I cannot do that, I do not like this." Satya kept asking him and saying, "Can go there. We are suffering from so much sadness and poverty, and we are now becoming old... Go there." Sudama Vipra explained to her, "What will I achieve by that? Such is my fortunate—whatever Lord Krishna gives us, I am very happy with that, it is not necessary to want much money. So, what will I go there for? It is not necessary for me to go there, I can pray to the Lord from my house."

Soon after that, when he was praying to the Lord, Krishna Himself told him, "Sudama, please come. I want to meet with you one day." This inspiration came to him. Sudama Vipra thought, "I will go to Krishna, but I have nothing to give to Him! What will I give to the Lord, to my friend Krishna?" With the help of his wife Satya, he collected four handfuls of tandul (rice) from some houses, tied it in his soiled cloth and went to meet with the Lord.

When he came to Dvaraka, he saw big houses and palaces everywhere—he was puzzled, "Where is Krishna?" He asked a gatekeeper, "Where does my friend Krishna live? There are so many houses..." The gatekeeper told him, "Krishna is everywhere!" Sudama thought, "Oh, Krishna is everywhere? Then I will go to this house!" He entered one of the houses and saw that Krishna was there. Krishna immediately appeared in that house and was ready to receive him—as soon as He saw Sudama Vipra, He embraced him, spoke to him sweetly, took him to His own singhasan (seat) and made him sit there. Sudama Vipra was very uncomfortable—there were nice big cushions, big singhasan, etc. and Sudama Vipra was a poor brahman. Then, Krishna said, "Oh, you have come from so far and have been walking for so long, your legs must be paining!" and He started to massage his feet. Not only that—He told his mahisi (queen) Rukmini, "Why am I serving my friend alone? You too must serve him!" Krishna engaged everyone to serve His friend (sakha) and devotee.

You can see from this example: we want to serve Krishna, but Krishna Himself serves His devotees. Gurudev also said, "If you serve devotees, Krishna will come to serve you." If you serve devotees, if you give love and affection to the devotees, Krishna will give love and affection to you. The example of this is Sudam Vipra—Krishna Himself shows that He himself comes to serve His devotee.

Another thing is that the scriptures say that if you want to meet the king, if you want to meet the Lord or your Guru, you must give something to them according to your capacity. If you have nothing, then you can collect something—just as Sudam Vipra had nothing, his wife had nothing, but his wife went house to house and collected some tandul (rice), he tied it in a dirty cloth and gave it to Krishna.

This is the place we have visited today with the devotees, by the mercy of Gurudev. It is Beyt (Bet) Dvaraka, we came here to see the place where Sudam Vipra met with Krishna.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

* * *

Srila Sridhar Maharaj's Line

Appearance day of Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj

2 November 2018, Sri Dvaraka Dham, part 1

We have assembled here on the bank of the Gomati River and we are very fortunate because by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu we are staying here on the bank of the Gomati, near the Dvarakanath Temple in Sri Dvaraka Dham and today we are going to celebrate the appearance day of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, our Param Gurudev and the founder acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

I am first giving obeisance at the lotus feet of my beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj and Prabhupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and asking them for some blessing. Then, I am giving obeisance to all the Vaishnav-vrinda, to all my Guru-varga, all my godbrothers, all the sannyasi-vrinda who are present here and who are not present here. I am giving my full obeisance to all the mothers, all the sisters, all the godbrothers, I am giving my full obeisance to you all.

We have come here to Sri Dvaraka Dham to do Dvaraka parikrama, this is our first time here. This morning we went on parikrama and went to take some water from the Gomati River on our head and now we have gathered here to celebrate the festival of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's appearance day. Today is a very auspicious day, a very joyful day—our Param Gurudev and also Virachandra Prabhu appeared in the Kartik month on this day.

You all know that Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was born in Hapaniya Dham, Bengal, in a brahman family, and he started practising Krishna-kirtan, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in his childhood when he was only twelve years. At this age, children usually play but, instead of playing, he chanted kirtan with other boys. His childhood name was Ramendra Sundar, his father's name was Upendra Chandra Bhattacharya and his mother's name was Gauri Devi—he gave some mercy to his father and mother by appearing in their family in Hapaniya Dham in Bengal. When he grew up, he went to Kolkata to study law in a law college. There, he heard that there was a sadhu who gave good Hari-katha, Krishna-katha, who gave Krishna consciousness in Ulta Danga (Kolkata). He went there and eventually settled his mind that he would join Gaudiya Mission, Chaitanya Math. Then, he took initiation from Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and did much service in Chaitanya Math. He was in charge of establishing a temple in Madras, he preached all over Bengal and outside also. He also went to Bangladesh. He has composed many Sanskrit slokas. For example, we sing every day this kirtan:

sujanarvuda-radhita-pada-yugam

yuga-dharma-dhurandhara-patra-varam

varadabhaya-dayaka-pujya-padam

pranamami sada prabhupada-padam

"My master, Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, established the religion of the age, Krishna-sankirtan, and is the chief minister of the universal assembly of leading Vaisnavas. His lotus feet are worshipped by millions of virtuous souls and fulfil the desires of those who dispel souls' fears. Eternally I offer my obeisance to my master's worshippable feet."

He wrote this song in glorification of Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. There is another song also that we sing at the arati time,

jayare jayare jaya gaura-saraswati

bhakativinoda nvaya karuna murati

"All Glory, all Glory to Sri Gaura-Saraswati, Of the Line of Bhakti Vinod—Pure incarnate Mercy."

prakasile gaura-seva bhuvana mangala

bhakatisiddhanta suddha prajnana ujjvala

"You revealed Sri Gaura's Service—the world's greatest fortune, Brilliant as the Perfect Teaching, Perfect Truth—Devotion."

My Gurudev told me, "If you can do the service that Guru Maharaj wanted, I will be very happy." Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wanted to manifest Sri Govinda Kunda, but in his lifetime he could not make it, and Gurudev gave me an order, "If you can make a beautiful temple in Govinda Kunda, I will be very happy." He told this to me when he was in Russia, on the bank of the Baltic sea—to keep his word to Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, he told me to make a temple in Govinda Kunda and manifest Govinda Kunda properly. He said, "My Gurudev, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wanted to make and if you can make it, I will be extremely happy." You know that today Govinda Kunda is manifest. It was a desire of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said also: those who can give love and affection to Govinda Maharaj, who can serve under the guidance of Govinda Maharaj, who can help Govinda Maharaj, are my life—only those who do so will be considered my associate and can stay in my life, that is Chaitanya Saraswat Math paribar. Who will be considered a member of Chaitanya Saraswat Math? Those who will follow and serve under the guidance of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Without the mercy of Srila Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj you cannot be a disciple of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. If somebody says, "I am a disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj directly," they will not be considered my disciples because they do not follow the order of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj—only those who follow Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj can have the right to be called my disciple. This was said by our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. I do not know who can follow that, this is up to them, but this is what happened and this was said by Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj himself.

* * *

Siksastakam

25 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

We are singing the Siksastakam songs every day [in Kartik month]. Mahaprabhu is Radha-Krishna's combined form and Siksastakam is His teaching.

cheto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam

sreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam

anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam

sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam

"Sri Krishna-sankirtan cleanses the mirror of consciousness, extinguishes the raging forest fire of material existence, shines moonlight on the evening lotus of good fortune, is the life of the divine knowledge—the life of souls enlightened with paramour love for the Lord, expands the ocean of ecstasy, is the taste of full nectar at every moment, and soothes the entire self. May Sri Krishna-sankirtan be supremely victorious!"

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes:

pita-varana kali-pavana gora

gaoya-i aichhana bhava-vibhora [1]

Golden Gora, the saviour of the Age of Kali, sings as follows, overwhelmed with love.

chitta-darpana-pari marjana kari

krsna-kirtana jaya chitta-bihari [2]

All glory to Krishna-kirtan, which cleanses the mirror of consciousness and delights the soul!

Chitta-darpana: if you have a mirror in your house and you do not clean it, you will not be able to see your face in it. Your heart is also like this—your heart, your mind, everything is full of dust! What dust is it? Kanak (desire for money), kamini (desire for companions), pratistha (desire for name and fame), kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (illusion), mada (intoxication), matsarya (envy). Your mirror can become clean with good association, sadhu-sanga and sankirtan—krsna-kirtana jaya chitta-bihari, chitta-darpana-pari marjana kari.

hela-bhava-dava-nirvapana-vrtti

krsna-kirtana jaya klesa-nivrtti [3]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, which extinguishes the fire of material existence and ends all suffering!”

sreyah-kumuda-vidhu-jyotsna-prakasa

krsna-kirtana jaya bhakti-vilasa [4]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, the joy of devotion, which shines moonlight on the evening lotus of good fortune!”

visuddha-vidya-vadhu-jivana-rupa

krsna-kirtana jaya siddha-svarupa [5]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, the fulfilment of the self, the life of the souls purely enlightened with paramour love for the Lord!”

ananda-payonidhi-vardhana-kirti

krsna-kirtana jaya plavana-murti [6]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, which is renowned for swelling the milk-ocean of ecstasy and causing it to overflow!”

pade pade piyusa-svada-pradata

krsna-kirtana jaya prema-vidhata [7]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, which gives the soul the taste of nectar at every moment and grants divine love!”

bhakati-vinoda svatma-snapana-vidhana

krsna-kirtana jaya prema-nidana [8]

“All glory to Krishna-kirtan, which soothes the soul of Bhakti Vinod and is a storehouse of divine love!”

It is very nice. We must practise this song.

namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktis

tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah

etadrsi tava krpa bhagavan mamapi

durdaivam idrsam ihajani nanuragah

"O Lord, You have manifested Your many Names, put all Your power in Them, and made no rules regarding the time for remembering Them. Such is Your great mercy. My misfortune, however, is such that I have no attachment to Your Names."

tunhu daya-sagara tarayite prani

nama aneka tuya sikhaoli ani' [1]

“You are an ocean of mercy. To deliver the souls, You have brought Your many Names to this world and taught everyone to chant Them.”

sakala sakati dei' name tohara

grahane rakhali nahi kala-vichara [2]

“You have put all Your power in Your Names, and You have not made any rules regarding the time for chanting Them.”

You can chant the song at any time, you can chant the maha-mantra at any time—during prasadam time, while sleeping, sitting, walking, driving, etc. You can chant the Holy Name, the maha-mantra at any time.

sri-nama-chintamani tohari samana

visve bilaoli karuna-nidana [3]

“Your Names are wish-fulfilling jewels equal to You, and You have distributed Them throughout the world, O ocean of mercy!”

Krishna's Name, beauty, pastimes are non-different from the Lord. Sri-nama-chintamani tohari samana—Krishna's Nam and Krishna's form are fully equal, the Holy Name is Krishna Himself, it one and the same, non-different from the Lord.

tuya daya aichhana parama udara

atisaya manda natha! bhaga hamara [4]

“Such is Your extremely liberal mercy. I, however, O Lord, am extremely unfortunate.”

nahi janamala name anuraga mora

bhakti-vinoda-chitta duhkhe vibhora [5]

“I have no attachment to Your Names. The heart of Bhakti Vinod is overwhelmed with sorrow.”

trnad api sunichena

taror api sahisnuna

amanina manadena

kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

sri-krsna-kirtane yadi manasa tohara

parama yatane tanhi labha adhikara [1]

“If you aspire to chant the Name of Krishna, then, with great care, become qualified to do so.”

Who can chant the Holy Name?

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi ahankara [2]

“Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean.”

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana [3]

“Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others.”

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe [4]

“Do not trouble others for your own upkeep, and forget your own happiness in the course of helping others.”

ha-ileo sarva-gune guni mahasaya

pratisthasa chhadi kara amani hrdaya [5]

“Even if you are honourable and qualified with all qualities, give up desire for prestige and make heart your prideless.”

krsna-adhisthana sarva-jive jani sada

karabi samana sabe adare sarvada [6]

“Knowing Krishna resides eternally within every soul, always respectfully honour everyone.”

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha varjana

chari-gune guni ha-i karaha kirtana [7]

“Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.”

bhakati-vinoda kandi bale prabhu paya

hena adhikara kabe dibe he amaya [8]

“Crying at the feet of the Lord, Bhakti Vinod says, ‘O when will You give me these qualifications?’”

Bhaktivinod Thakur says: When will You give me the right to chant the Holy Name? I have no right (adhikar) to chant the Holy Name because I have no humility, I have no tolerance, I cannot give honour to others. I do not have the qualities. Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam says that you must be humble, tolerant and give honour to others, but I do not have those qualities, then how can I chant the Holy Name? When will You give me that kind of quality, when will You give me the right to chant the Holy Name? That is everything—you must be humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and give honour to others without expect any honour for yourself. If you have these qualities, you can chant the Holy Name, but I do not have any of such qualities, then how can I chant the Holy Name?

This is a very nice song—it contains important things. Gurudev always preached these things all over the world.

na dhanam na janam na sundarim

kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye

mama janmani janmanisvare

bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"O Lord of the universe! I do not desire wealth, followers, beautiful women, or learning. Birth after birth, O Lord, let me have unconditional devotion to You."

prabhu tava pada-yuge mora nivedana

nahi magi deha-sukha, vidya, dhana, jana [1]

“O Lord! This is my appeal at Your feet: I do not pray for bodily pleasure, learning, wealth, or followers.”

I am praying to you Prabhu: I do not want any body happiness, I do not want any kind of education, I do not want any wealth, property, popularity—I do not want it.

nahi magi svarga ara moksa nahi magi

na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi [2]

“I do not pray for heaven, I do not pray for liberation, and I do not pray for any supernatural powers.”

Nahi magi svarga ara moksa nahi magi: I do not want liberation, I do not want to go to heaven. Na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi: I am not praying for any of these things, I do not want to have any mystic powers (to be able to do any astonishing things).

nija-karma-guna-dose ye ye janma pai

janme janme yena taba nama guna gai [3]

“Receiving any birth as a result of my piety and sins, birth after birth, let me sing Your Name and glories.”

ei matra asa mama tomara charane

ahaituki-bhakti hrde jage anuksane [4]

“My only desire is that unconditional devotion to Your feet always arises in my heart constantly.”

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara

sei mata priti hauk charane tomara [5]

“Let me have love for Your feet like the love I have now for material things.”

vipade sampade taha thakuk samabhave

dine dine vrddhi hauk namera prabhave [6]

“In misfortune and in good fortune, let that love remain the same, and day by day, let it increase by the influence of Your Name.”

pasu paksi haye thaki' svarge va niraye

tava bhakti rahu bhakti-vinoda-hrdaye [7]

“Whether a bird or a beast, in heaven or in hell, let devotion to You remain in the heart of Bhakti Vinod.”

I can be a bird, I can be a beast next life, but please give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet—I want only that. I only want pure devotion to Your lotus feet. If I have devotion to Your lotus feet, that is sufficient for me. I want only that. I do not want anything more than that.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

* * *

Establishing Faith

26 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

I am paying my humble obeisance at the lotus feet of my beloved Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, as well as all the Vaishnav-vrinda, all the sannyasi-vrinda, all the devotees of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and other sampradayas also. I am paying my obeisance at the lotus feet of them all because without the mercy of Vaishnavs, without the mercy of Gurudev our life is nothing.

Krishna gave us this human body to serve, to come to Krishna consciousness, to chant the Holy Name of the Lord, to serve to Gurudev and to be established in our faith in our Gurudev and all the Vaishnavs. That is the main thing.

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya

krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

If you have faith, then the strongest faith is necessary. Faith is of four types—kamala sraddha, taranga sraddha, drdha sraddha, sudrdha sraddha. Kamala sraddha means you put tilak, wear Tulasi beads (kanthi-mala), you take initiation, but then outside people cannot tolerate it and say many bad things to you—you get shy and then leave everything; or maya can attack you and you can leave everything. That is kamala sraddha. Taranga sraddha means when the wind comes, a wave comes, and when the wind finishes, the wave also finishes. We come for the festival in Nabadwip Dham, for the parikrama and Gaura Purnima, or we come for some other festival, but we cannot understand how many percent of the devotees are pure devotees and how many percent of people practise Krishna consciousness properly.

sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam

archchanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam

“Hearing, practising (chanting), remembering the Lord, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, serving the Deity, offering obeisances, considering oneself a servant, thinking of the Lord as of a friend, and full surrender.”

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.5.23)

There is this nava-vidha bhakti (nine-fold devotion)—how many practitioners practise this kind of devotion? How many devotees follow Ekadasi? How many devotees follow the four rules and regulations?

We can read in Sri Prema-vivarta composed by Jagadananda Pandit:

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

We say we are devotees of Gora (Gauranga), we are devotees of Krishna, but to what extent, how many percent do we follow Krishna consciousness? How many percent do we follow Mahaprabhu's advice, Mahaprabhu's order (what Mahaprabhu told us to follow in His Siksastakam)? Who, how many percent of the people follow these kinds of things? We only tell others to chant Hare Krishna, but how many percent of us chant the Holy Name? We tell others to serve the Lord, but we ourselves do not follow it. We give advice to other people saying, "Follow Gurudev's instruction," but do we follow Gurudev's instruction? You must ask yourself—you must ask your heart. You do something—are you doing it properly? You follow something—are you following it properly? This is the main thing.

* * *

Maintaining Legacy

26 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

You must chant the Holy Name and you must engage others in chanting the Holy Name. If you do not chant Krishna Nam (the Holy Name, the maha-mantra) properly, you cannot engage others in chanting the Holy Name. If you do not do service any more, you cannot engage others in service.

We come to Krishna consciousness and we want to give something—we do not want to take anything. That is the proper Krishna consciousness. You must understand and follow this Krishna consciousness in your practising life. That is the main thing. Gurudev said one must be a sadhu, not pretend to be a sadhu.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

You put tilaks, you wear kanthi-mala and show others that you practise Krishna consciousness, but secretly you do what is not in favour of devotion, what is against devotion. It is necessary to practise proper things. There are certain things that have to be maintained and that are necessary for a practitioner's life, and you must follow these things properly. I spoke about Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam yesterday also: be humble, tolerant and give honour to others.

You heard about Sri Vasudev Vipra. Vasudev Vipra had leprosy, a skin disease. There were so many insects in his body, and they would fall out of his sores, but he thought, "My body is useless, it cannot be used for service and it will be burnt one day anyway, so if some insect is happy eating my body, it is OK, no problem." This mentality is necessary in our practitioner's life. Practising life is necessary, and actually Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur made it a little loose for us, as in the case of ekadasi for example.

When people do ekadasi, they fast the whole day and do not even take water, but Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we could fast at least from morning to noon and take some anukalpa [non-grain prasadam] at noon time. This was told by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and our temple also follows that. Sometimes, Gurudev also said that if somebody was sick (if they had acidity problem, could not fast, had to take medicine, or had diabetes, for example), then it was OK to take anukalpa in the morning also. Otherwise, for as many years you can tolerate it with your health, you must follow full ekadasi. I saw that Gurudev himself practised in this way—he followed full ekadasi. Anukalpa prasadam is allowed, but not for everybody—those who are not sick must follow proper fasting. Also, if somebody can follow niyam-seva Kartik month properly, it is all right. Gurudev said that if somebody could follow the proper rules and regulations the whole of Kartik month, it is all right. In our temple, Gurudev said that at least three days of the Kartik month had to be followed properly, and we are trying to follow that proper etiquette and do it properly.

When I first joined the temple, Gurudev asked me, "You go the crops field early in the morning and come back at two-three o'clock—what do you eat? Do not take any outside food. You can take some fruit or biscuits, that is sufficient." I tried to follow that. I went to the crops field and took a piece of bread and one banana and when I would come late at two-three o'clock, sometimes there was no food. Gurudev saw it and tried to harmonise it. I can remember one day. The prasadam hall had not been built at that time, and all prasadam was kept where we keep the groceries now (under Gurudev's Acharya Bhavan, Gurudev's bhajan-kutir, in Nabadwip). One day, Gurudev saw me coming from the gate, entering the place where they would keep prasadam (under his bhajan kutir) and coming out empty-handed. Gurudev thought, "Nobody must have kept any prasadam for him," and sent his servitor to cook something for me, "That boy has just come—he has been out since early morning. It is already two-three o'clock and there is no prasadam for him. Go arrange something for him." At that time, I would take a bus that would go half the way and then I would have to walk the other half of the way to get to the crops field, and I would return in the same way. Gurudev had only one car, a jeep, at that time. So, he sent his servitor to arrange some prasadam for me and the servitor told me, "Gurudev has sent me to cook something for you." I told him, "It is not necessary, I can take some muri, it is not a problem. Do not worry, I can manage." That was Gurudev's love and affection for me.

Another time, I remember, one of the disciples of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj who was in charge of the storekeeping and prasadam, was giving us prasadam. I was a new boy and Gurudev heard that although we had cows and milk I did not drink milk because I had never been able to digest milk from the beginning. So, that day when everybody was taking prasadam together, that brahmachari, a senior devotee, was serving us and suddenly gave me chhana (curd) while everybody else was given milk. Everybody was surprised, "We are old devotees, we have been here for so long, and we do not get chhana, how come this new boy is getting it? Why are you giving it to him and not to us?" I did not ask for anything—I did not drink milk and I did not want milk, it was sufficient for me, but I did not know that it was an order from Gurudev. The brahmachari then said to the others, "This is not my instruction. The instruction came from the head office that this chhana had to be given to the new boy."

So many things happened in Gurudev's time. I can remember how much love and affection I got from him... That is why so many obstacles, so many problems have been coming since the time I joined—since the time I joined they have wanted to remove me from the temple—but I did not think about anything. I was always happy because I had service to Gurudev. I did not think about those who were jealous, who were envious of me. That is why I am still in the service of Gurudev and I still live in the temple. That is my hope and that is my fortune—a great fortune, I can say. A simple boy came from a village, joined Chaitanya Saraswat Math, but by the mercy of Gurudev I have always wanted to be a servant of Vaishnavs. If somebody is very happy, I also become very happy. That is my view.

I see that all the worldwide devotees—Indian devotees, foreign devotees—have love and affection for me, they depend upon me so much. Gurudev is always with me and I am trying to maintain his order. Having everybody's love, everybody's good wishes, with all my friends always praying for me and helping me as much as possible, I am happy with all the devotees and I am trying to keep the Mission of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math as it was before.

* * *

Beyond Ego and Prejudice

26 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

We pray all the devotees of Chaitanya Saraswat Math will come again. I know some are a little disheartened, some want to stay alone, some live in a family as householders, but we do not look who is a householder, who is a brahmachari, who is a sannyasi.

grhi ha-uka tyagi ha-uka bhakte bheda nai

bheda kaile kumbhipaka narakete yai

"There is no difference between devotees—be they householders or renunciants. If someone makes distinctions between them, they go to the hell of boiling oil.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 17.22)

If somebody differentiates, "They are householders and we are sannyasis," or, "They are householders and we are brahmacharis," it is not right. Householder devotees also have good qualities—they actually have more good qualities than us and they have more knowledge about Krishna consciousness than us. I believe that. Whether somebody is a senior devotee or a junior devotee, it does not matter as long as they practise properly. There are people who say that Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur was a householder [implying his inferior position], but in his time all the sannyasis paid obeisance and respect to him. In Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time also, the Math secretary was Kunja Babu. Externally he was a householder, but all the sannyasis would give their obeisance and paid their respect to him. Later, he took sannyas and became known as Pujyapad Srila Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj.

In this regard, I want to tell everyone—please leave, give up your ego. I have told many times that ego like a wall—when the sun rises, if there is a wall, the light will not be able to come through it, but once you remove the wall the light will come through. Ego is like a wall. Chaitanya Saraswat Math is your Gurudev's temple, Guru Maharaj's temple, it is not anybody's personal property. Because of our ego we think, "I am the Acharya," "I am the manager," "I am the so-and-so in charge." We may say this, but this is actually not correct. In fact, we are all servants—somebody is the guardian, somebody is senior, etc. You can give respect to everyone in this way. These are the main things and we must understand these things.

We were reading this song [from Siksastakam] yesterday:

pasu paksi haye thaki' svarge va niraye

tava bhakti rahu bhakti-vinoda-hrdaye

“Whether a bird or a beast, in heaven or in hell, let devotion to You remain in the heart of Bhakti Vinod.”

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Next birth I may become a bird or a beast, it is not a problem for me—we do not want to be Brahma, we do not want to be Indra. We do not think about this. One time, Gurudev told me, "If Brahma comes to you, you must say, 'I have no time to talk to you because I am very busy—my Gurudev is going to take bath and needs water, I must bring a bucket of water for my Gurudev.'" That is the main thing.

So many things will come to you, even Indra will come: there are many ships, many boats, but you must take the boat where Gurudev is the captain—that boat will take you to the proper place. Sometimes, some buses look very nice and beautiful, but you do not know where those buses go. There are many trains at the Howrah station in Kolkata—some trains go to Benares, some trains go to Gaya, some trains go to Prayag, Allahabad, Kashi, Mathura, etc.—but if you are going to Vrindavan, you must take the train that goes to Vrindavan.

The main thing is that the highest place for us is Govardhan. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami say that the highest place is Radha Kunda, but we have no quality or qualification to stay at Radha Kunda. Our Guru-varga (who are Radharani's parsadas, associates) can stay there, but we must stay in Govardhan—from there, we will go to Radha Kunda and serve our Guru and Guru-varga. That is the main thing for us.

If we are to go to the highest place, we must want to be servants of the devotees. The highest place is not only Vrindavan—the highest place is where the sadhu is. You may think that you must stay in Vrindavan to be in the highest place, but monkeys also live in Vrindavan—and they steal your spectacles, food, etc.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said, "I have come to Vrindavan, but I have not seen any sadhus there." This was said by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Once, a devotee of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said to him, "Prabhupad, I have seen so many siddha purushes in Vrindavan!" to which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur replied, "Yes, there are so many siddhas there, it is correct—patal siddha, aloo siddha, begun siddha, etc." 'Siddha' means great (as in 'siddha purush', a great man) and 'siddha' also means 'boiled' (as in boiled potato, boiled patal, boiled eggplant). What he was saying is that there are so many boiled things, but it is very rare to find a siddha purush in Vrindavan. This is what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told.

So, you cannot recognise a sadhu if you only look at his external behaviour, his external dress or what kind of food he eats. You must go inside, then you can understand a sadhu. If you have the mercy of a sadhu, then you can understand that sadhu or Guru. Without mercy you cannot understand a sadhu, a Guru, or a Vaishnav. It is necessary to understand this. I think that if you have the strongest faith in your Guru and if you practise properly, then you will be able to recognise a sadhu, Guru, or Vaishnav. That is the main thing.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

* * *

Honest Surrender

27 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

I am paying my humble obeisance at the lotus feet of my beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, as well as all the Vaishnav-vrinda, all the Vaishnav-mandala.

I believe that all the devotees of Chaitanya Saraswat Math all over the world follow the practising rules and regulations as much as possible, that they do what is necessary for the spiritual practice, what is in favour of devotion. Following what your mind tells you to do is not good at all for a devotee. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told our Gurudev, "Do not follow your mind. Follow me." Sometimes we think that we are doing so much service, but actually we do not know what is service and what is karma. If somebody wants to do something without permission of their Guru, without an instruction of their Guru, it will be karma, not service (seva).

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane

duhkha dure gelo, o pada varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life, but all my distress has gone far away when I accepted Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says this. He says, "I got so much sadness, so much sorrow, so much unhappiness when I was independent, but it was all gone when I surrendered at the lotus feet of Gurudev, surrendered to Lord Krishna." We must have surrender. Surrender (saranagati) comes through faith, and it is the most important thing for our spiritual life. Saranagati, surrender, is not only saying by mouth that "I have surrendered." Not like this. Surrender, Gurudev said, means you are paying obeisance to your Guru, and your eyes, your head, your hands, everything is down on the ground and you are giving your Guru a sword, or a knife, and say, "You can kill me, you can do whatever you like, I am fully surrendering to you." But how do we do full surrender? Almost everyone gives their full obeisance to Gurudev, but inside they have so many of their own desires. Surrender means we should have no desire of our own, no desire for anything for ourselves. Your desire should be Gurudev's desire. You cannot defend yourself—you must surrender, not be a defender.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur writes in his books, and I saw it also in one of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's books: we have been listening to all kinds of elements—kama, krodha, etc. (lust, anger, greed, material attachment, illusion, envy, ego)—we became their servant and so many problems, so much unhappiness, so much sadness came to us then. When you surrender fully, do not take anything on your shoulder—give everything to your Guru, give everything to your Lord—then you can understand how much pleasure, how much happiness you can get. You will see how happy you will be if you do that.

Still, we cannot understand it. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says,

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara

tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in the six-fold way."

(Saranagati, 1.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Sad-anga saranagati means there are six types of saranagati:

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

“Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord’s guidance, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me’."

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

“Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion.”

(1) Dainyata, humility. (2) Atma-nivedanam, surrender. (3) Goptritve varan, Krishna is the protector, He looks after us, He will save us. (4) Avasya raksibe, we must have faith that Krishna will protect us. (5) We must accept what is favourable to devotion (bhakti-anukul). (6) We must reject what is unfavourable to devotion (bhakti-pratikul).

Gurudev would also say, "Sadhu haowa, sadhu saja na: it is necessary to be a sadhu, not pretend to be a sadhu." That is the main thing. We must be properly honest. Sadhu's character is honesty: 'sadhu' means 'sad', honest. What is the quality of a proper Vaishnav? Who is a Vaishnav?

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

Kanak, kamini, pratistha. Kanak (money, wealth, Laksmi Devi) is for Narayan. Kamini (women) are for Krishna. Pratistha (name and fame) is for Gurudev. Whatever I have got, whatever I have is coming from Gurudev and is coming for Gurudev. You must understand this. I have told it many times—we did not come to Krishna consciousness to be a great Vaishnav or to be a Vaishnav; we joined Krishna consciousness to become a servant of a Vaishnav. This quality must be there.

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If I think I am a Vaishnav, if such thoughts come to me, then I will not be able to give honour to others, I will not be able to respect others. That is the main thing in our spiritual life. If you want to be a servant of the Guru, you must serve Vaishnavs. You should not have any other desires of your own. There should be no desire of your own whatsoever. We must look at the desire of the Lord, the desire of our Guru. Such mentality must come to you.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said, "Maner kheyal khusimata bhajaner abhinayke bhajan bole na, guru-vaishnaver anugatye guru-vaishnaver seva kore tader mana santusti korar nama-i haya bhajan. If you follow your mind and practise whatever comes to your mind, that is not practice, that is not service, that is not bhajan (bhajan means service). Guru-Vaishnaver anugatye—you must do service under the guidance of the Guru and Vaishnavs and you must please your Guru and Vaishnavs." That is the main thing, and that will be service then, otherwise it will be all karma. Karma and service look the same, but they are not.

You may be doing something—some service that Gurudev told you to do—and you are not getting pleasure from that, but that is not a question, that is not your problem.

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

"All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness."

(Saranagati, 16.4)

When you do some service, some sadness, some problem can come to you, but that too should be your happiness. That is anandadayak kosta, a welcome austerity. Everything is pleasure: seo ta parama sukha.

I told also yesterday,

na dhanam na janam na sundarim

kavitam va jagadisa kamaye

mama janmani janmanisvare

bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"I do not want wealth, I do not want knowledge, I do not want beauty, I do not want to be a poet. I only want causeless devotion to Your lotus feet. Give me that kind of devotion to Your lotus feet so that I could do Your service life after life."

(Siksastakam, verse 4)

We do not want wealth, we do not want property, we do not want name and fame. This is Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam, we sing it every day during the niyam-seva month.

dhana jana ara, kavita-sundari,

baliba na chahi deha-sukha-kari

janme janme dao, ohe gaurahari!

ahaituki bhakti charane tomara

"When will I declare that I do not desire wealth, followers, erudition, beautiful women, or any other bodily pleasure? O Gaurahari! Birth after birth, please give me unconditional devotion to Your feet."

Bhaktivinod Thakur also sings the same thing here. The last line in the song to that fourth verse of Siksastakam is very nice:

pasu paksi haye thaki' svarge va niraye

tava bhakti rahu bhakti-vinoda-hrdaye

"Whether a bird or a beast, in heaven or in hell, let there be devotion to You in the heart of Bhaktivinod."

If I become a bird or I become a beast, it is not a question. I do not want to be Indra or Brahma or anything else. I can be a bird or a beast, but if I am your servant—only to be a servant of a servant, to be only your dust—that is sufficient for me. That is the main thing in our spiritual life. We must follow this.

* * *

Surrendered Soul's Stance

27 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

Bhaktivinod Thakur sings,

sarvasva tomara, charane sapiya,

padechhi tomara ghare

tumi ta' thakura, tomara kukura,

baliya janaha more

"I have offered everything at Your feet and taken shelter in Your home. You are my Master; please consider me Your dog."

(Saranagati, 19.1)

Sarvasva tomara charane sapiya: I have given everything to You and have come to You, I am surrendering to You. Tumi ta' thakura, tomara kukura, baliya janaha more: it is not necessary to be a pujari—if we can become a dog of the Deities, that is sufficient for us. Bhaktivinod Thakur says, "Please, only consider me Your dog." A dog always takes care of its proprietor, it always protects its master. Let me be like that. Bandhiya nikate: You can tie me and keep me near You, and I will not allow anybody who is against You to come close to You without Your permission. That will be my duty.

I have told it many times: what is favourable to devotion must be always accepted and what is unfavourable to devotion must be rejected. Both things cannot go together. Sometimes you follow Krishna consciousness, do what is favourable to devotion, and sometimes you also do what is unfavourable. You cannot do this. It is important to understand this. When you drink milk, it does you good (you get some vitamins and your health improves), but if you take alcohol at the same time, it will not work. The two do not go together. So, you must accept what is favourable and you must reject what is unfavourable. Always remember this. You must practise properly in this way, then your spiritual life will be glorious.

taba nija-jana prasada seviya

uchchhistha rakhibe yaha

amara bhojana parama-anande

pratidina habe taha

"Whatever remnants your devotees leave behind after honouring Your prasad, I will eat that every day in great ecstasy."

I will honour the remnants of your dearmost devotees. Sometimes there is some classification—for example, Mahaprabhu divided devotees, or Vaishnavs, into three classes (it is written in Chaitanya-charitamrita): kanistha adhikari, madhyam adhikari, uttam adhikari.

Some can only see and recognise Krishna in a Deity (murti), form. That is kanistha adhikari. Madhyam adhikari are those who can see and observe Krishna not only in Deities, but also in devotees—they can see that Krishna is present in the closest, dearmost servitors (sevaite) of the Deities. For example, Srila Rupa Goswami also says that if you respect the Deities, if pay obeisance to the Deities but do not respect the Deities' servitor, it is not correct. I have told this example many days ago:

One time, there was a programme in Jhamatpur Baharan, hosted by the brother of Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami (Jhamatpur Baharan is Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's birthplace). His brother invited a pujari, Gunarnava Misra, to do the puja, but when a servitor of Nityananda Prabhu (Ramdas Minaketan) came there, Gunarnava Misra showed him no respect—he simply continued doing his job. He did not like Nityananda Prabhu, so he ignored Nityananda Prabhu's servitor. Gunarnava Misra made such a big offence. Ramdas Minaketan told Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami, "What is your brother doing, Krishna Das?" Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami understood what had happened and he knew it was very bad. Anyhow, that day he got so much love and affection from Nityananda Prabhu, he got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu—after that day, at night, Nityananda Prabhu Himself came to him and called him, "Listen, Krishna Das! Do not stay in Jhamatpur Baharan, come to Vrindavan! Do not stay in this bad association of your brother. Leave this bad association and come to Vrindavan."

And uttam adhikari are those who always see Krishna, everywhere. They do not even see any great buildings or anything else, they only see Krishna everywhere.

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

The problem is that our eyes are full of dust…

* * *

Pure Principles

27 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

The problem is that our eyes are full of dust. We do parikrama, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said that we must not do eye exercise.

tirtha-yatra parisrama kevala manera bhrama

sarva-siddhi govinda-charana

"The trouble of visiting holy places is simply a mental delusion—all possible perfection is the feet of Govinda."

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur, "Anya-abhilasa chhadi...")

You are going to a parikrama, you are visiting holy places, but do you have the proper eyes to see the Deities, to see, to observe the Dham? This is the main thing. "Ki labha hantiya dura-desa? What is the use walking so far?"

ye tirthe vaisnava nai, se tirthete nahi yai

ki labha hantiya dura-desa

yathaya vaisnava-gana, sei sthana vrndavana

sei sthane ananda asesa

"I never go to a place of pilgrimage if there are no Vaishnavs in that place (what is the use walking so far?). Vrindavan is where Vaishnavs are, in such a place there is no end of joy."

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If you are visiting a holy place but not doing it under the guidance of your Guru or Vaishnavs, if you travel around as it pleases your mind—you may be staying in Vrindavan, you may be staying in Puri, or any other holy place—but without Gurudev's permission, without Gurudev's instruction, it is not visiting a holy place, it is not a parikrama—it is all nothing.

You may be a Guru, you may be an acharya, this is not a question, but you must understand it yourself: you must ask your heart, your chaitya-guru—have you got permission from your Guru? Have you got an inspiration from your Guru? You may become a sannyasi, but what did Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur say? Sannyas means you will be the captain, the leader; sannyas is for preaching—preaching proper Krishna consciousness. That is the main thing. Sannyas is not for getting service from others. "Oh, if I become a sannyasi, everybody will give me respect, everybody will pay dandavat to me, everybody will give me good prasadam and the highest chair"—is this what you become a sannyasi for? If so, then you will have to go to hell... If you are a sannyasi, you must serve more and more. Even after Mahaprabhu took sannyas and went to Puri, He Himself served devotees. He is the Lord Himself, but He served others and practised Krishna consciousness, and practised it strictly—He preached very strictly and followed all rules and regulations very strictly. We should learn from our Gurudev, we should learn from our Guru-varga, we should learn from what Srila Raghunath Das Goswami told, what Srila Rupa Goswami told, what Srila Jiva Goswami.

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236)

Do not listen to bad things. We can read even in some material book: "Anyaya ye kore ar anyaya ye sahya taba ghrina yena tare trnasama dohe—if somebody does wrong and you tolerate it (if somebody makes a mistake and you do not say anything), then you are both wrong." Suppose somebody is making an offence and you tolerate it, then you are also making an offence. You are both offenders. Remember this. Both who is doing wrong and who is tolerating it are offenders. If somebody cannot understand something, or somebody may not know something, you must tell them, you must explain it to them. Teach them, give them a chance. This very important for our spiritual life. If you can practise in this way, it will be good for you. Do not make Guru-ninda and do not listen to Guru-ninda. Both who say something bad about the Guru and who listen to it are offenders. Remember this.

"Gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe." Both those who talk gramya-katha and those who listen to it are offenders, both are harmed, that is why neither talk nor listen to gramya-katha. Do not listen to nonsense talks and do not talk nonsense talks yourself. Nonsense talks is not what our spiritual life is for; it is not good, it is very bad for the spiritual life. You have ears, you have to hear something—what will you listen to? Listen to good things, Krishna-katha. You have eyes and you have to look at something, but see good things, do not look at bad things. That is the main things in our spiritual life.

"Bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe, Radha-Krsna seva manase karibe." Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. This is what Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami.

You heard that when Raghunath Das Goswami got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, when Nityananda Prabhu gave him permission to go to Mahaprabhu, only then did he get service. Before that, without the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, he had come to Mahaprabhu many times, but he did not get service—Mahaprabhu did not accept him. He told him, "Go back to your home! Do not show your false renunciation. Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana: you can go to your home and show your father that you are protecting his land, his property, his visaya (material things), etc. but do it without any interest—you must be totally of disinterested nature." This is what Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami. After that, Raghunath Das Goswami came to Panihati, he got some service to make Vaishnav seva and then he got the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu: Nityananda Prabhu put His legs on his head and told him to go to Mahaprabhu. When he came to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu accepted him as a servitor of Svarup Damodar. How did he come to Mahaprabhu? He left his house in Adisaptagram here in Bengal and went to Puri—he walked for twelve days and he only drank some milk three times during those twelve days; he was always thinking about Mahaprabhu.

When you go for parikrama, I know you struggle, but if you chant the Holy Name properly, then it is not necessary to take any rickshaw, it is not necessary to take any transport—chanting Hare Krishna will take you. Otherwise, you think, "I cannot do it, I cannot go"—if you always think about yourself, you will not be able to do a proper parikrama. I am telling everybody: you must get ready for the parikrama. We are leaving on 30 October for Vrindavan, Govardhan. Two hundred devotees are going with us this year, and if we get the mercy of Srimati Radharani, the mercy of Gurudev and all the Vaishnavs, all the Vraja-basis, then we will be able to enter Sri Dham Vrindavan and Govardhan. If Giriraj Govardhan allows us, we will be able to serve Him. That is our hope.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

* * *

First Part of Sri Govardhan Parikrama

Talking to devotees in Colombia

7 November 2018, Sri Govardhan, part 1

We went today to Govinda Kunda and explained how Govinda Kunda manifested: when Indra made an offence to Lord Krishna, he made a fire sacrifice and abhisek for Lord Krishna with surabhi cows' milk, and the place where the abhisek was became Govinda Kunda. We spoke also how Madhavendra Puri was sitting on the bank of Govinda Kunda and how he got the Deity of Govardhan-dhari Gopal. This Deity was installed by Vajranabha, a great-grandson of Lord Krishna, and later was rediscovered by Sripad Madhavendra Puripad. Krishna Himself came to Madhavendra Puri, bringing some milk for him to drink. "Kabe Ama' Madhava asibe, kabe Ama' karibe sevan—when will Madhava come to Me, when will he come to serve Me?" From this pastime of Madhavendra Puri finding Gopal's Deity we can understand what loving search for the lost servant is—Krishna is waiting to take service from His devotees.

We can also understand that we want to be a servant of devotees. We have come to this mission, we have come to Krishna consciousness to serve devotees. We want to be servants of devotees, not masters of devotees. "Vaisnavi pratistha, tate koro nistha: you must firmly establish yourself in the consciousness that you are a servant of the Lord." I have told before,

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

A Vaishnav is one who leaves kanak, kamini, pratistha.

Anyway, you are preaching very nicely in Colombia. I have heard that you go to other cities for preaching and you are opening a new preaching centre. I am very happy with that. I always encourage, inspire everyone to preach Krishna consciousness more and more.

Yesterday, we also went on a parikrama. First, we went to take some water from the Manasi Ganga, it is near our Srila Sridhar Swami Seva Ashram temple in Govardhan. We spoke how once Nanda Maharaj, Mother Yasoda and other Vraja-basis wanted to go to the Ganges for bathing and Krishna brought Ganges to the holy Dham, but He did not say, "I have brought the Ganges!" You know what vatsalya-rasa is—Vraja-basis, Nanda Maharaj, Mother Yasoda thought that Krishna was their son, how can it be possible that Krishna manifested the Ganges? They would not believe it, so Krishna told them, "You want to go to such a far away place to bathe in the Ganges, but all tirthas (holy places) are present within Vrindavan, even the Ganges is there. That is why the Ganga has become present in front of you." This is how the Manasi Ganga manifested in Govardhan.

After that, we went to Haridev mandir—The Deity there is Adi-keshav, also known as Adi-gopal or Adi-haridev, was established by Vajranabha, Krishna's prapautra (great-grandson) too. When Mahaprabhu came to Vrindavan, He stayed in Haridev mandir one night. There is Brahma Kunda near the temple, Mahaprabhu bathed in it. Then, there is Santan Goswami's bhajan-kutir and Chakleshwar Mahadev on the bank of the Manasi Ganga. There are many Sivas in Vrindavan and Mathura—Bhuteshwar, Chakleshwar, Gopeshwar in Vrindavan, Asheshwar in Nandagram.

This is what we spoke about yesterday.

* * *

Govardhan's Appearance in Vrindavan

Talking to devotees in Colombia

7 November 2018, Sri Govardhan, part 2

Yesterday and today also, we were explaining how Govardhan was brought to Vrindavan by Pulastya Muni.

Govardhan was a son of Drona Parvat (Dronachal), and actually Govardhan was originally in Salmaladvipa, an island of Salmala on the west side of India. One time, Pulastya Muni, a muni from Kashi (Benares), was visiting different holy places. When he came to Govardhan, he was so stunned that he came to Dronachal and asked him if he could take Govardhan to Kashi to worship Him there. He said, "Please, give your son to me. I want to take Him to Benares—so many people come there to see Vishvanath (Mahadev, Sivji Maharaj) and it will be good if they can see Giriraj there." Dronachal did not want to give Govardhan to him, but when Pulastya Muni threatened him with a curse, he agreed but on one condition—he said, "When you go to Kashi, you cannot stop at any place—you must not keep Govardhan down at any place." Pulastya Muni agreed.

When Pulastya Muni and Govardhan were passing Vrindavan on their way, Govardhan felt that later in Dvapar-yuga Krishna will come here and manifest His pastimes and so many beautiful things will happen here. Govardhan did not want to leave Vrindavan, so He became very heavy and forced Pulastya Muni to put Him down. After that, Pulastya Muni went to the bathroom, took bath, etc. and wanted to get back to his job, but when he tried to lift Govardhan again, he could not do it because he had promised that he would not put Govardhan down on the way. Unable to move Govardhan from Vrindavan, he cursed Govardhan, "I could not bring You to Benares, so be it, but then You will be sinking every day and decreasing by the size of a sesame seed!" This is how Govardhan stayed there in Vrindavan.

Later, when Krishna appeared, He told all the Vraja-basis—His father, mother and everyone else—that instead of worshipping India, which they would always do, they had to worship Govardhan. Krishna Himself said, "I am Govardhan!" When the Vraja-basis started to do Govardhan puja, Indra became very upset and angry—he sent so much rain to Vrindavan that all the Vraja-basis surrendered to Gopal. You know that after that Krishna lifted up Govardhan with His little finger and made a wall around it with Anantadev so that the water would not come under Govardhan. This is how Krishna protected Govardhan. Since that time, Vraja-basis and all the devotees of Lord Krishna have been worshipping Govardhan.

* * *

Highest Devotion

Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela

20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Parama Karuna Nitai Gauranchandra Prabhu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

Jay Sri Rupanuga Guru-varga ki jay!

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay!

Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay!

Tadiya sakha-math-samuha ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Our Founder Acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

I am very happy to see you all after so many days. I have not seen you for a very long time and I was thinking when I would meet with you all. Fortunately, today I can have the darshan of the devotees, I can meet and see you all. My activities, my sadhana, everything is with you all. I want to give everything I have, everything I have ever done in my spiritual life after coming to Gurudev, to my Guru and to my Gurudev's devotees and associates. That is my heartfelt desire.

I did not come to the temple to be a Vaishnav, I always want to serve devotees, serve Gurudev's family. We are all members of the same Sri Chaitanya Saraswat family and I want us to be together and preach Gurudev's conception, Mahaprabhu's conception, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's conception.

When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was at Radha Kunda, he spoke about the devotion of Prahlad Maharaj. He did not even speak about Srimati Radharani because he said if he had preached about Srimati Radharani, we would become sahajiyas. He did not preach about madhura-rasa, it is a very high conception. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur preached what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave, what Nityananda Prabhu gave and preached about the conception of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

We always say that Vraja gopis are the highest devotees, that they have the highest devotion, but these Vraja gopis themselves say, "We have no devotion. We have nothing." Then we can understand that the highest devotees, the highest Vaishnavs can never say that they are a Vaishnav.

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become free from the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If somebody says that they are a Vaishnav, then the truth is that they are not a Vaishnav. We have come to this spiritual life to be a servant of Vaishnavs and if you want to continue your spiritual life you must be a servant of devotees. The main thing is how we can serve devotees, how much we can serve our Guru and Gurudev's associates. Even Vraja gopis say that they do not have any devotion that could be compared to the devotion of Prahlad Maharaj. That is why we consider Vraja gopis to be the highest devotees.

* * *

Dasya-Rasa: the Pivot of Preaching

Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela

20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

When I see this world, I see that almost everybody, 99% people do not preach or practise Krishna consciousness. There are very few devotees do. Everybody is enjoying, but Krishna said, "I am giving you twenty-four hours—this time is My time. You must use this twenty-four hours' time for My service."

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told one story, you must have heard it:

There was an English pilot called Professor Nixon. When there was a war, he fought against the Germans. One day, he was flying his plane when suddenly the aeroplane's engine got damaged and he realised that he was going to die. At that time he remembered the Lord and prayed, "O Lord, if I stay alive, I will give twenty-four hours of my time to You, I will dedicate myself to Your service." Then somehow or other—we must say accidentally, but actually it was his fortune—the plane crashed, all the soldiers died, but the captain (Prof. Nixon) survived.

He remembered his promise to the Lord, so he went to a church of Jesus and asked the priest, "Can you engage me in service twenty four hours a day?" The priest replied, "It is not necessary. You can come once a week and pray, that is sufficient." Nixon was not satisfied, he said, "No, I have promised the Lord that I would give myself to His service twenty four hours a day, but you are telling me only one hour prayer once a week is sufficient." He went to many kinds of sampradaya after that—he tried Muslim religion, he tried Buddhist religion, etc. He had been to many places, but did not find any place where they could engage him twenty fours a day in the service of the Lord. Then he came to India. He went to Benares (Kashi) and met there one Gaudiya Vaishnavi lady. He told her his story and finally she told him how he could engage himself in twenty-four-hours' service. In the end, he took initiation, became a Gaudiya Vaishnav and engaged himself in the twenty-four-hours' service of the Lord.

Only Gaudiya Vaishnavs can give you this. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explain how to engage yourself in service.

One time, an Iskcon sadhu came to Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to take sannyas, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "You have come from Iskcon—you are a servant of Krishna. Only when you become a servant of Srimati Radharani, can I give you sannyas." Iskcon always preaches that you are a servant of Krishna, but that is the main point of Gaudiya siddhanta that we must become not a servant of the Lord, but a servant of the servants of the Lord. Not a slave, but a servant. Dasya-rasa.

We do not preach so much about madhura-rasa, and Gurudev would always say that if you always preach about madhura-rasa, you will become pregnant. Mahaprabhu also told Nityananda Prabhu to always preach Krishna consciousness, but what did Nityananda Prabhu do? He always preached Gaura consciousness. He did not preach Krishna consciousness so much. And our Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj always preached about Nityananda Prabhu. He always chanted, "Nitai-pada-kamala, koti chandra-susitala, ye chhayaya jagata judaya: cooling like ten million moons, Nitai's lotus feet soothe the world with their shade." That is the main conception in our preaching.

You must be a servant of Srimati Radharani, a servant of Nityananda Prabhu. That is our conception—a servant of devotees, a servant of a servant of Gurudev. Not even directly a servant of Gurudev, but you should aspire to be a servant of Gurudev's devotees. That is the main thing. You must be a servant and you must give twenty-four hours of your time for the service of the Lord. This is what Krishna consciousness is mainly about.

* * *

Sharing the Hardships

Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela

20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

You must be always careful. Gurudev told me, "You must protect this Chaitanya Saraswat Math sampradaya," and I am trying to do that. So many problems come, especially so many problems have been coming after Gurudev left, but I have not left my service—I am always with you all and I am always thinking about you all.

You are suffering so much in your country because of the difficult economical and political condition. I want to encourage you.

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

"All the distress I face in Your service is also my greatest happiness."

(Saranagati 16.4)

It is actually a welcome austerity. You are suffering so much, but you should see it as pleasure. You cannot supply so much bhoga, you cannot give so many things to Nitai Gaurachandra—it is very difficult for you to collect bhoga, collect materials and things for the Deities and to maintain the service. I understand it and I can feel it from here. I can really understand what you are going through, but you must also understand that when Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj started the temple, his godbrother Sakhi Charan Ray Bhakti Vijay (Srila Prabhupad's disciple and a householder devotee, Gurudev would always call him Sakhi Babu) would give him ten rupees per month to maintain his temple Chaitanya Saraswat Math and this is all he would have. How difficult was it for him to manage with just ten rupees?

He did not even have a toilet—he could not even buy a sheet of plastic that cost one rupee at that time. All of his godbrothers would come to him to hear Hari-katha from him, and they would need to go to the bathroom, but there was no toilet—there was only a piece of wood lying on the ground and you would have to stand on it and pass stool. It was an open place without any cover. Everybody would get shy because people could see everything. Then, the godbrothers told Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "Maharaj, we come here and we have to go to the bathroom, please get some cover to make a wall there." At that time, a sheet of plastic cost one rupee, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj had only fifty paise, half a rupee. He tried to borrow the other half a rupee, but nobody would lend it to him. He could not even get fifty paise at that time. That was the condition of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. Gurudev told me about it.

Gurudev also told me about the dumur trees (fig trees). Every day they would climb a fig tree to collect figs for subji. The trees had so many ants that the brahmacharis had to take turns to collect the figs, and Gurudev told me that whenever his day was coming, he would be terrified—he would climb the tree quickly, get some fruit as quickly as possible and get down. He said when the ants were biting it was so painful that every time he remembered it he could still feel that pain. That kind of austerity they had to tolerate in our Gurudev's time and our Guru Maharaj's time, that kind of tolerance they had to have. I even heard that after Krishna Sharan Prabhu, later he became Aranya Maharaj, finished puja at the mangal arati and morning archan, he would go out to collect rice—he would go to ten-twelve houses, collect half a kilo or a kilo of rice and then come back to the temple with this bhog which they would then cook for Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundar. That is what Srila Sridhar Maharaj's temple was like before. He could not even give proper clothes and food to the brahmacharis.

This is how Srila Sridhar Maharaj would run the temple in the beginning. Eventually, Gurudev started doing the printing and tour businesses and he could supply some money to Srila Sridhar Maharaj through that. After that, the temple started to grow slowly. Later, as you know, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj made Gurudev the acharya of the temple and four years after that Gurudev went abroad to many countries. Many foreign devotees came, Gurudev could collect some money and this is how the temple expanded so much. I have seen it. Gurudev would give the money he collected to me and with his order and permission I made Govinda Kunda, I made a temple in Bamunpara, Ekachakra, Siliguri, I made the Sevak Bhavan, Seva Ashram buildings, Centenary building, devotees' guest house, etc. So many buildings appeared after that, but in Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time there was nothing at the temple and they would manage.

You are getting so much austerity now. Some devotees could not tolerate it and have left for many other countries because they want good food, good prasadam and they want to earn their own money. I am paying my obeisance to those of you who are still there. You are suffering and doing your service, but one day Gaura Nitai will look after you—one day Gurudev will take care of you.

I also want to tell those who have left the country—those who have gone to Spain, London, Peru, Mexico, and other countries—you have left and you are earning some money, but you must think about Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. You must send something to Them—it does not have to be a lot, you can send even twenty-fifty dollars, whatever your capacity is. I am telling to you: please supply for Venezuela, take care of the devotees there, take care of Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. If I get an opportunity, I also want to do that. This temple Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra was established in Gurudev's time and I remember how Gurudev told me that Nitai Gaurachandra would go there, how I arranged the Deities for this temple and how later Gurudev's Deity also went there. It is necessary to help them. I am telling all the devotees who have left Venezuela: you are earning money, you are enjoying your family life, but you must also take care of Venezuela's temple. Maintain Venezuela's Deities, temple, and devotees. I am requesting them to please help the devotees.

If any of you want to serve properly, you can also stay with me. You know that I am a very strict person and it is very difficult to stay with me, but if you want to stay with me and if you can tolerate me, then you can stay with me, I do not have any objection. But to stay with me you must be a sincere seeker and you must have chastity. These two qualities are main, this is my Gurudev's teachings.

I always remember Ananda Moy Prabhu. I do not know where he is today. [Ananda Moy Prabhu comes forward.] Dandavat, Prabhu. Ananda Moy Prabhu, how are you? I always remember you. You are a very strict person and you have chastity, you have love and affection for me and for Gurudev also. You stayed with me in my critical position, you helped me. I remember how I would cook and you would be helping me. I always remember you. I am praying to the Lord that your problem will be solved quickly and that you will be able to come to me again. I am praying for you. You can stay with me—come to me with just your one cloth, it is not a problem. I am always with you. You always protected me and I remember how much strength you have. One time, I saw somebody was following my car, they wanted to kill me, but as soon as I showed it to you, you chased them away. I remember it...

* * *

Hold Your Ground

Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela

20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 4

You should tell this to everybody very strongly,

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje

svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or asram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krishna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26)

Who told that? Mahaprabhu. This is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's preaching. Whatever caste, creed, ashram you live in—even brahmachari, even grihastha, even sannyasi, even vanaprastha, even brahman, even ksatriya, even vaisya, even sudra—if you do not worship the Lord, you will go to hell. Mahaprabhu told this.

Also tell them this. Who can chant the Holy Name? Dainyata, daya—only those who are kind, who are humble, who can give honour to others, who can avoid name and fame (pratistha) can chant the Holy Name, otherwise not—someone may chant the Holy Name, but if they do not have these qualities that will not be the Holy Name. Mahaprabhu also said that if a devotee or someone comes, you should give them some prasadam, and if not possible, then at least you can tell them some sweet words.

You must have some space in your heart to keep your Gurudev there. That is always my earnest request to everyone—give some space in your heart for your Guru, for the Lord. But this is Kali-yuga—in this world so many people always think about name and fame, so many people are always behind kanak (money) and kamini (women)...

Give some love and affection to others. I am always with you all. I am always at your service. You can remember me at any moment—I am always with you. You may be physically far from here, but you always stay in my heart.

It is always necessary to keep good association and always avoid bad association. When I first joined the temple, I did not know anything about Krishna consciousness. One devotee (now I understand that he is not a perfect devotee) told me, "Why did you come to the temple? You are well-educated, why did you leave your job? You can get your job back, get married and make your own house." I thought, "That man is not helping me." He told me that I was a small boy, so I should sleep in his room. I stayed with him one night and then he started telling me those things. Although I was new, I understood that I had come to serve the Guru and Vaishnavs—I came to this line and wanted to be a brahmachari, but that man told me, "Why have you come here? Brahmachari life is very difficult. Who will take care of you when you become old if you have no money, if you have no property and wealth?" He told me many things that night, but I thought, "He is not helping me. That man is saying the same thing that Maya Devi is saying. Better I not sleep with him. Better I sleep alone." I was a new person and I was afraid to stay alone in a room—it is a big temple area, nobody in the entire building, there could be some ghost, etc.—but still I did not go to him again. I would speak to him sometimes, but other than that I always kept distance. Sometimes he asked me why I was not coming to him, but I would just say, "OK, OK, no problem, I will come, I will come."

Then, you must understand that you should talk to those who speak Krishna-katha, not gramya-katha. Sometimes people cannot understand what is gramya-katha and what is Krishna-katha. If you do not not surrender to your Guru properly, you will not be able to understand your Guru. If you cannot surrender to the Lord properly, you will not be able to understand the Lord. If you do not surrender to a Vaishnav, you will not be able to understand that Vaishnav. Even Brahma said, "I cannot recognise who is a real Vaishnav.”

* * *

Staunch and Careful

Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela

20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 5

[A devotee asks a question about devotional activities and practice of a married devotee.]

You are married, but you have a chaitya-guru in your heart and you have taken initiation. I do not know whether you took initiation from Gurudev, Guru Maharaj or me, and it does not matter because I think that if you are my disciple you are also Gurudev's disciple. I do not differentiate whether someone is Guru Maharaj's disciple, Gurudev's disciple or my disciple—I think they are all my family. So, you have taken initiation from this sampradaya, Sri Rupa Saraswati Dhara, and you are a householder devotee. Mahaprabhu told what the duty of householder devotees is. Your duty is to always serve Vaishnavs (Vaishnav-seva) and do Nama-sankirtan.

Even if you work, that is also Vaishnav-seva because you can do Vaishnav-seva with that money—you are earning some money and you can use it for the service of the Lord. If you live in the temple, it is very nice, but you must never think that your wife is your servant. Your wife is a servant of Gaura Nitai, Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. If you think your wife must be your servant, it is not correct. You can be her servant, that is all right, but you must not think that she is your servant. Both of you should engage in the service of the Lord, that is sufficient. If you work, you can use that money for Vaishnav-seva, you can give that money to the temple and it will be used for the service. It is not necessary to get involved with atyahara, sanchaya, prayascha—do not think that you must earn much money, that you must keep much money in your bank account, that you must save for future, worrying what your children will eat, etc. This is not proper devotional activities and it is not good.

If someone stays at the temple and does service to the temple, it is very nice, but if some material desire comes to you, you must immediately remove it with the root. You are staying in the temple and sometimes some material desire can come (I think you understand well what I am talking about), but do not give that material desire shelter in your heart. You must always avoid it—try to avoid it through your service. That is the main thing.

For example, there are many grihasthas living in a temple, but sometimes the wife can leave her husband because she has so much desire and they cannot mix properly (you cannot live your conjugal life properly in the temple), that is why when some material desire comes in their hearts, they start searching how to satisfy it in another place and they end up leaving the temple and their service. Do you understand what I am saying? I think it is easy to understand it, Prabhu.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that everything that exists in this world is for the service of the Lord. Our duty is to serve Vaishnavs, do Vaishnav-seva. It is good for everyone to have such consciousness. We should all think that we must become feet dust of Vaishnavs. If somebody thinks they have already become the highest devotee, that is the cause of their falling down.

You must always engage yourself in sravanam and kirtanam—always attend morning mangal arati, practise morning kirtans, join all temple programmes, and at the other time you should do service.

Always be careful. Maya can take you away from your service at any time because for birth after birth we had been servants, slaves of maya and had been listening to whatever orders came to us from kama, krodha, lobha, moha, etc. (lust, anger, greed, attachment to material things, etc.). We had become their slaves—we had been doing what lust told us to do, what anger told us to do, what greed told us to do, etc. but now we have become servants of Vaishnavs. Maya can attack you at any time. Be careful. She can remove your service—she can take you away from service. Always be careful. OK?

Muchas gracias to all the devotees. I am paying my full obeisance to all the devotees, all the servants of the devotees, all the servants of Gurudev and servants of Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. I am always paying my full obeisance to all my godbrothers, godsisters, all my well-wishers. Please forgive my offence. Gracias.

* * *

Lucid Living

16 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-churamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

All the assembled devotees ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay!

Jay samagata Sri Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jay

All the sannyasi-vrinda, all the brahmachari-vrinda ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay!

All the branches of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

Our life is very short—we can leave our body at any time. What have we got this body for? What have we got this human life for? We must understand it and utilise this human body for the service of Krishna, for the service of the Guru. If you waste your time on other things such as gramya-katha, gramya-varta, listening to gossips, talking bad things about sadhus, then you will lose the time and energy that you could have used to serve Krishna and the associates of the Lord. We must use our time for the service of Krishna. We have got this body to serve Gurudev, but if we do not use this time and body for the service to Gurudev, then what have we got this human body for? What is the use having a human body?

jivana anitya janaha sara

tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara

namasraya kari' yatane tumi

thakaha apana kaje

"Understand the essence: life is temporary and filled with all sorts of dangers. Carefully take shelter of the Name and do your work."

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Life is very short. We must take shelter of the Holy Name and do some service.

You have got eyes, you have got legs, you have got hands, you have got a mouth—you have got all these things, but you cannot use these things properly for the service of the Lord in any other life—if you are born as a dog, a cat, or a cow, you cannot do it. If in this human body we can take good association—if we can take the association of the Guru through his lectures, through his Hari-katha—then we can understand what benefit we can get if we serve the Lord and the Guru.

Sometimes we forget our duty, we forget our service because of maya. Maya always takes us away from service, that is why we must be always careful with the illusory environment, maya. Illusory environment can remove you from the service of the Lord at any time.

We must listen to this sloka,

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

Tad viddhi pranipatena means we must be fully surrendered, pariprasna means we must make honest enquiry (sad jijnasa), and seva-pravritti means we must have service temper.

Actually, we have got this human body for the service of the Lord, but somehow we have forgotten to serve the Lord because of maya, but Gurudev tells us that when we surrender to the Guru, when we surrender to Vaishnavs, they will remove maya from us. Wherever there is darkness there is maya. If you get proper association of your Guru, proper association of Vaishnavs, then they will gradually remove maya from you; otherwise it is not possible—you cannot conquer, or defeat, maya unless you surrender to your Guru properly. That is the main thing.

* * *

What Is Proper Surrender?

16 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

...You cannot conquer, or defeat, maya unless you surrender to your Guru properly. We should understand what is proper surrender.

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara

tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender in the six-fold way."

(Saranagati, 1.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We know that there is sadanga saranagati, six types of surrender; we should know what they are.

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari'

svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari

"Being merciful to the souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode."

atyanta durlabha prema karibare dana

sikhaya saranagati bhakatera prana

"To distribute the most rare form of divine love, He teaches surrender, which is the life of the devotees."

The Lord teaches us,

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana

chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

“Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.”

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

These qualities (humility, kindness, giving honour to others, leaving desire for name and fame) are very important for proper surrender. The six types of surrender are these:

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

"Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord’s guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me'..."

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion ..."

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara

tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender to Him in the six-fold way."

(Saranagati, 1, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We must understand clearly what these six types of saranagati are and how we must surrender to our Gurudev, to the Lord. This is the main thing for our spiritual life. We should also know what are the bad elements in our spiritual life, what is the source of the bondage in our spiritual life, what are the main difficulties in our spiritual life. That is called chhaya-vega (six urges), chhaya dosa (six faults) and pancha-roga (five diseases). We sing every day,

chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi'

chhaya guna deha' dase

chhaya sat-sanga deha' he amare

basechhi sangera ase

"Subjugate the six urges, rectify the six defects, and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant. Grant me the six kinds of good association. I have sat at your feet, desiring that association."

It is all written and explained in the Bengali panjika (calendar). You can read it and see what is the chhaya-vega (six urges), what is chhaya-dosa (six faults), and what is the pancha-rog (five diseases). We must understand it.

The six faults are:

(1) Atyahara: eating too much, hoarding material things.

(2) Prayasa: material desires.

(3) Prajalpa: listening to nonsense or talking nonsense.

(4) Niyamagraha: being reluctant to practise favourable activities and being eager to practise unfavourable activities.

(5) Janasanga: bad association.

(6) Laulya: being fickle-minded, material attachment, greed.

The six urges (chhaya-vega) are vakya-vega, mana-vega, krodha-vega, jihva vega, uddhara-vega, and upastha-vega. We must control these urges:

(1) The urge to speak (vakya-vega): using words in a way that disturbs others.

(2) The urges of the mind (mana-vega): various types of desires.

(3) The urge of anger (krodha-vega): using harsh language, swearing.

(4) The urge of the tongue (jihva-vega): desire for any of the six tastes (sweet, sour, pungent, salty, astringent, and bitter).

(5) The urge of the belly (uddhara-vega): excessive eating.

(6) The urge of the genitals (upastha-vega): the desire for sex.

And there are also five diseases (pancha-rog)—avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits).

(1) Ignorance of one's true identity as an eternal soul and servant of Krishna (avidya).

(2) Identification with the material body and possessiveness about one's transitory body, wife, sons, and so on (asmita).

(3) Obsession with facilities for the body (raga).

(4) Revulsion to anything opposed to one's enjoyment (dves).

(5) Absorption in things favourable to oneself and incapacity to sacrifice them (abhinives).

We should read what the scriptures say about this and understand it. These are the basic things.

Gurudev said that the main thing is that you must follow the rules and regulations—accept what is favourable to devotion and reject what is not favourable to devotion. He told it many times. And there is also Mahaprabhu's teaching—be humble, tolerant and give honour to others.

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana

chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean."

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

We have so much ego. Gurudev said that the sun rises in the east, but the sun light cannot come through because there is a big wall in the middle—because of that wall you cannot focus. Ego is like a wall because of which we cannot see anything. Sometimes you cannot understand the mercy of Gurudev, you cannot understand what Gurudev says—that is because of your ego, because there are so many bad elements within you, because you are not surrendered fully.

We say, "Avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana: we must believe that Krishna will certainly protect me," but do we really believe it?

When Duhsasan started to remove Draupadi's clothes, she thought, "He cannot do anything!" because she was depending upon her husbands—she had Bhima, who was very strong, Arjuna, Yudhisthir, Nakul, Sahadev. She depended upon them, "You are my husbands, you are big fighters—they are insulting and harassing me, why are you not doing anything?" They could not do anything—Krishna gave them power and by His will He took that power back. After that, Draupadi tried to keep her clothes on herself, but she could not do that. Then she called out to Lord Krishna with one hand and she kept the other hand on her clothes, trying to protect herself. When she realised that she could not do anything, then she finally fully surrendered to the Lord, and you can see that Krishna protected her.

So, avasya raksibe Krsna: Krishna will protect us. We think that Krishna will protect us, but sometimes we depend on ourselves—we want to protect ourselves. It is impossible to do that. We cannot protect ourselves from anything. That is why when anything happens, any problem comes up, you must depend on the Lord.

I remember one story. When I just came to the temple and started my temple life, I asked Gurudev what service I could do, and Gurudev gave me a service, he said, "I know it is a difficult job for you, but I think you can do this service—you will be the night guard." He gave me a big torchlight—it must have had six-eight batteries, I cannot remember the exact number now. With that torchlight, I would go around the temple at night—I would go to the goshala and other buildings. At that time, there were not so many buildings—the centenary building construction had not started, and Govinda Kunda was dark, it was not necessary to provide security there. Anyhow, I did what Gurudev told me to do. One day, maybe after midnight, I suddenly saw someone standing in front of the samadhi mandir of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, someone who looked like Gurudev. I saw him from far and could not understand if it was really him because it was very dark. I came up quietly without disturbing him with the torchlight and asked, "Guru Maharaj?" Gurudev put his finger to his mouth and showed that I must not speak. I stood a little far and after some time Gurudev went back to his room. The next day I asked Gurudev, "Guru Maharaj, I saw you yesterday..." and Gurudev explained, "I am facing some problem, that is why I came to ask my Guru Maharaj for the solution. I was talking to Guru Maharaj at that time." I was surprised to see what a strong connection Gurudev has with Guru Maharaj and what kind of relation Gurudev and Guru Maharaj have. I could realise it at that time.

When my Gurudev went to foreign countries, he would sometimes call me, or sometimes I would call him also if there were some works going on and it was necessary to ask him something. I did not call very often because I did not want to disturb him, maybe two-three times every two months. He would also call me—he would want to know how Chaitanya Saraswat Math temple in Nabadwip was running. Sometimes, when I was doing some works, I would want to hide something from Gurudev, but he could understand it easily. He would say to me, "I know that you are doing this!" I was surprised how Gurudev could know it. At that time I could understand that Gurudev is not martya-buddi, he is not an ordinary material man of this world—he is aprakrita, transcendental. He is not an ordinary person, somebody's brother or somebody's son. It may look like this, but it is not the same. Gurudev is non-different from Krishna, non-different from the Lord. I could realise it at that time.

Now I understand very clearly what is Gurudev's mercy, and I know well what Gurudev wanted and what Gurudev wants. It is his mercy that I am preaching, that so many temples have happened, so many Deity installations have happened, so many things have happened. It all happens only because of his mercy—he is doing everything. And this happens not only here, this happens all over the world also.

* * *

Devotional Relationship

16 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

I have seen Gurudev—he was never envious of anyone or anything. He always said that he feel happy if somebody was working well, if somebody was maintaining his spiritual life properly, if somebody's family was running properly and smoothly. Gurudev was never envious of others. Someone may have been envious of him, but he was never envious of others. I saw that.

I have seen that many of his godbrothers were envious of him and they did something wrong, but I saw that Gurudev was never like that. Also, Gurudev would never interfere with other sampradayas' or acharyas' missions. This is Gurudev's example.

Actually, Gurudev was very fortunate because he was always with Srila Guru Maharaj (Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj) and whenever Srila Sridhar Maharaj's godbrothers came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, Gurudev could serve them. Srila Sridhar Maharaj told Gurudev that those Vaishnavs were his godbrothers and Gurudev happily understood it and happily served them as much as possible.

When Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad was returning to India, Param Guru Maharaj Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj thought, "Oh, Swami Maharaj is coming back from abroad, I want to give him some good nourishment. He can stay in my room." Srila Sridhar Maharaj tidied and prepared his room for Srila Swami Maharaj, but when Srila Swami Maharaj came, he did not want to stay there—he took Srila Sridhar Maharaj as his siksa-guru, so he was shy to stay with Srila Sridhar Maharaj in the same room. Instead, Swami Maharaj asked my Gurudev, "Govinda Maharaj, where is your room?" Gurudev took Srila Swami Maharaj to his room, "This here is my small room," and Swami Maharaj said, "Good. I will sleep here in your room." Gurudev agreed and said, "Yes, you can sleep here. You can sleep on my bed, and I will sleep on the floor. No problem." This is what happened. The relation between Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj and Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was very good. So many things actually happened.

When Srila Swami Maharaj Prabhupad was going to inaugurate Chandradaya Mandir in Mayapur, he invited many exalted Vaishnavs, his godbrothers and all the Gaudiya Acharyas, but only Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj and Gurudev went there. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj and Gurudev were a little surprised when they came—Gurudev asked, "Swami Maharaj, you are going to inaugurate the temple, but where is all the paraphernalia? Usually, so many things are necessary..." Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj replied, "What is the necessity? Srila Sridhar Maharaj has come to the festival to inaugurate the temple, this is sufficient—no paraphernalia, no yajna, nothing else is necessary. Srila Sridhar Maharaj has come and the inauguration has automatically happened." That day, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was a little tired or perhaps sick, so he asked Srila Govinda Maharaj to speak on his behalf. You know, Gurudev quoted one sloka in his speech and when the Vaishnavs heard it, they started clapping—they were very happy and Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj exclaimed, "Hari bol! Hari bol!" Such was Gurudev's lecture on the day Iskcon's Chandradaya Mandir started in Mayapur. Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj was very happy, all his disciples were very happy, Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj was extremely happy, and Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was also very happy.

Such was the relationship between Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj and Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj.

So, when do we have time to criticise others? Gurudev always says an idle mind is devil's workshop, an active man has no time to waste on idle works. You must engage yourself in service all the time, twenty-four hours a day. That is the main thing. Do not use your mouth, your ears, your tongue to talk nonsense or listen to nonsense things.

I want to tell everybody:

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base

nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

“My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.”

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Days are passing very quickly while we waste time on so many nonsense things, on sleeping, eating, enjoying. We do not realise that we can die all of a sudden, that we can die at any moment. We have got this human body by a great fortune, and we must use this body to serve others.

Do you want to take sannyas? But what is sannyas for? Sannyasis are the main soldiers, they must serve devotees—more and more. Look at Gurudev's example—Gurudev would cook, Gurudev would play the mridanga, he knew how to do everything. We must learn something from Gurudev.

Every time Gurudev was in Nabadwip, I would be thinking, "When will I get time to see him?" Gurudev gave me so much service and I was always busy downstairs, but I would always think, "What time does Gurudev wake up? He is resting now, what time will he wake up? When will I go to see Gurudev?" Sometimes, I would come to Gurudev four-five times a day, and every time I came to him, he would ask me something—"What is going on downstairs? What is happening?", etc. Every time I came back from Bamunpara, crops field or Hapaniya, he would always ask me, "What is the news?", "What is this?", "What is that?" He always wanted to know about his and his Guru Maharaj's mission. Gurudev's character was like that.

Then, I am telling everybody—you must understand this clearly and you must have full surrender, and surrender means not just saying it with your mouth—you must show what your surrender is. That is the main thing.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Rupanuga Guruvarga ki jay

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Sada Siva Gangadhar, Giriraj Govardhan ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

* * *

No Mercy—No Nothing

Talking to devotees in Colombia

1 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

We can practise Krishna consciousness life, we can practise the proper conception only by the mercy and will of Gurudev, our beloved Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Without the mercy of Gurudev, we cannot do anything—we cannot talk, we cannot preach about him. Only if we get his mercy, can we engage ourselves in his service. Without Gurudev's mercy it is impossible to serve Gurudev, without Gurudev's mercy it is impossible to understand the Guru. Without the mercy of the Lord, we cannot understand the Lord. Without the mercy of Gurudev we can neither practise nor do proper service—we cannot do anything, in fact. Our main goal, main mood and conception is that we must please Gurudev, must make Gurudev happy.

I have told many times that we did not come to Krishna consciousness to be the temple's president, sevaite, acharya, secretary, manager, or anything else. We did not even come to be a Vaishnav, we did not come to be a brahmachari, a grihastha or a sannyasi. That is not our conception. Actually, our duty is to be a servant of Vaishnavs. That is the main thing. If we do not serve Vaishnavs, if we do not serve devotees, then our Krishna consciousness life is not complete.

Gurudev said that first you must be a servant of Vaishnavs, then a servant of your Guru, and then a servant of the Lord, but the problem is that we follow many rules and regulations within viddhi-marga in our Krishna consciousness life, but along with that we also accept what unfavourable to devotion. That is our main problem. Kanak, kamini, pratistha must be avoided in Krishna consciousness life. You know everything, you know who kanak is for. Kanak is for Narayan, kamini is for Krishna, and pratistha is for the Guru.

Furthermore, suppose I consider myself a servant of devotees, but if devotees do not allow me to serve them, how can I consider myself their servant? To serve devotees it is also necessary to get the mercy of the devotees, the mercy of Krishna-bhaktas, Krishna's devotees. If devotees do not allow me to serve them, how can I consider myself a servant of devotees?

* * *

In Earnest

Talking to devotees in Colombia

1 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

I have told it many times that you must avoid kanak, kamini, pratistha. You can tell me, "Maharaj, but money is necessary for Krishna consciousness too—to maintain the temple, to run the Mission, etc. Money is necessary everywhere." The thing is that if you do not use money for the service to the Lord, for the service to devotees, then that money can make problems in your life.

A poor man who has no money thinks, "Oh, this rich man has some money, and I do not have any. My life is nothing." But you can ask those who have much money, high position, who have much name and fame in their life, how much pleasure they get in their spiritual life, how much pleasure they get even in their family life or any other life. What kind of pleasure do they get with their money, with their kamini and pratistha? All this is temporary. You can get some relief through that, but it is all temporary. We need proper guidance, proper association of great Vaishnavs...

'Sadhu' means 'sad', honest. You must be honest. Whatever problem comes, be honest and continue your life, maintain your life properly, honestly. Proper honesty is necessary—"honesty is the best policy," actually. That is the main thing.

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes, "Nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari: for our own happiness we are not afraid to commit sin. We have no kindness, we are always selfish, we always think about ourselves."

How much have we sacrificed? Ask your heart sincerely—how much of your life have you sacrificed for your Guru, for the Mission, for Krishna consciousness? Can you sacrifice 100% or even 50% of your life? That is the main question. You must read the description of the life of Jiva Goswami, Raghunath Das Goswami. How much did they serve their Guru? I told when we were in Vrindavan that every day Jiva Goswami Prabhu spent twenty-two and a half hours of his life on the service to his Guru and the Deities of the temple. Our life is just the opposite—we spend twenty-two and a half hours of our day on just taking our food and sleeping. How many hours do we spend on Krishna consciousness, Krishna-katha?

"Prana achhe yara, sei hetu prachara: you have life, you are alive, then you must preach." Jive daya: be kind to the jiva souls. How much kindness, how much of your life you must give to make just one devotee!

From time to time, some good devotees come to you, they preach, they talk Hari-katha; some sannyasis also come to you to preach Krishna consciousness. They are coming to you—they are giving their life to serve you all! Be alert, always be careful with your spiritual life, with your Krishna consciousness life. You must practise Krishna consciousness with caution. So many problems will come in your life, but you must have patience, you must tolerate, and you must be humble. These are the main things.

How much of their lives did Gurudev and Guru Maharaj give to serve the Mission? Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj left Chaitanya Math after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's demise. He left Mayapur and went to Vrindavan. Having stayed there for a few months, he got a message from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and after that he left Vrindavan—he left his own mind, he did not follow what his mind was telling. He understood that he had made a mistake, and he came back and stayed in a very simple way. His godbrother gave him only ten rupees a month and he maintained his life with just those ten rupees. This is how he spent his life. I heard also that there was a time when he punished his tongue. He thought, "Tongue, you always take this, this, you always want something!" and he decided to take fried neem leaves with rice for six months. He ate only neem leaves for six months!

So, when devotees come, it is necessary to help them in any way possible. Whichever way you can help the mission, it is necessary to help. You must understand what is necessary for the service to your Guru. You should have some good brain to understand how to serve the Guru and Guru-varga.

* * *

No Joyriding

Talking to devotees in Colombia

1 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 3

Do you have any questions?

Question: I would like to ask if you could give me instruction for my practice here in Colombia.

I have already told you. If you can stay with me, if you can tolerate me, then you can come here, but you must think and understand something first. I have heard that devotees are collecting money for your plane ticket. You must understand that devotees are spending their money—it is devotees' money, they are giving it from their hearts so that you could come to India to serve me—so it is necessary to serve properly, not to follow your mind, not to take bad association.

You see, you also sent **, but what service did he do here? Moreover, he told me a lie. Last time he came here, he told me he was going back to his country in October and that he had to go to Vrindavan to buy something for the Colombian mission. I told him, "OK, you can go and stay there," and gave him some instruction, but he did not follow it, he did not listen to me. On top of that, he told me a lie. It is very bad. What need is there to lie to your Guru? You must be honest. You know, when I was a brahmachari, there was a girl who was disturbing me very much—not only did she disturb me, she would write me love letters every day. Over the time, I got 80-85 letters from her. I took all those letters and gave them to my Gurudev. I did not hide anything.

[On another occasion, His Divine Grace told the end of this pastime. His Divine Grace said: "I gave those letters to Gurudev and said, 'Gurudev, this is your problem, you solve it.' Then Gurudev called that girl and told her, 'Get out! You cannot take my brahmachari, he is my property.'"]

Sometimes I made some mistake, but I told Gurudev about it honestly, "Gurudev, I did that," and Gurudev happily accepted it, he said, "OK, do not do it next time." But you always do something and try to hide it. That is the problem. You cannot be a sadhu, a good devotee in this way. You must be fully honest. Why is it necessary to lie?

Actually, I have heard that he is still in Vrindavan, but he did not tell me anything. They are spending so much money on your plane ticket, this is devotees' money—you must understand that when devotees send you to India, you should serve the Mission. I always need manpower, you know that. Now Gaura Purnima time is coming and it is necessary to preach village to village—I go preaching all year round, but even more so during the two-three months before Gaura Purnima, and it is necessary to help.

When Gurudev took me to foreign countries, he told me, "I am taking you with me, but you must help me." I thought at that time, "How can I help Gurudev? I do not cook for him, I do not massage his feet... How can I help him?" Then I understood what he meant and Gurudev was very happy with my behaviour. You know that Gurudev is alone and he is an old man, his health is also not good—he comes to give class for forty-five minutes or one hour once a day in the evening, but who will arrange this gathering first? It is necessary to do kirtan, to speak Hari-katha, then people will gather. Gurudev would hear that his conference hall was full, he would come, give one hour lecture and go back to his room. What was my duty? I would wake up in the morning, join the mangal arati, the parikrama, give the morning class, I would help with everything and I would always invite everyone, "Come in the evening, you can hear a very good and proper conception from my Gurudev." That was my preaching—I was like an advertiser of my Guru. This is how I helped my Gurudev.

You should understand how you can help. You must be intelligent. I have told this one example of service to the Guru. Once, one foolish man was going with his Gurudev in a horse cart. The road was bad and the horse cart would jump all the time. After one of such heavy jolts, both of them fell off the cart along with their luggage. Gurudev was an old man, very sick, and he could not get up, so he asked his disciple, "Please help me! Please pick me up!" What did the servitor do? Before this, his Guru had told him, "Take care of my things! Make a list of all my things and make sure that nothing is lost on the way." The servitor wrote down everything—the Guru's shoes, umbrella, clothes, etc. So, when they both fell off the cart, he took out the list and started picking up all the things from the list ("Gurudev told me to take care of his things!"). He worried about the things, but he did not worry about his Guru—he was thinking where the clothes had gone, where this thing, that thing had gone, but he did not think about his Guru, he did not think that his Guru was more important than his Guru's clothes. Gurudev tells you, "Take care of my things," but when both of them fall down and Gurudev is shouting, "Please, pick me up, I feel so much pain!" you take out the list to check what things he had. Do you understand what I am saying? It is necessary to have proper intelligence.

This is my message to the leader, or manager, in Colombia.

Actually, everybody is a servitor, so you must consider yourself a servitor. Those who do more and more service become guardians of devotion. Ultimately, Gurudev is the guardian of devotion. In material family life, the father and the mother are the guardians, and here Gurudev is the guardian of devotional life. That is why we must follow what Gurudev tells us. Even if Brahma calls us or Indra calls us, we must forget it—what Gurudev told us is sufficient. If Gurudev gives you a certificate saying, "You are a good boy," that is sufficient. For example, I do not consider myself a good boy, I think that I am the worst boy, the worst man, but Gurudev gave me a certificate saying, "He is a perfect man." Gurudev can say it, but I do not think that I am perfect. And because Gurudev said it, devotees follow it.

Anyhow, as I was saying, the main problem is association. Always avoid bad association. You must think yourself—you are talking to somebody, but is it Krishna-katha, Hari-katha or gramya-katha? Always avoid gramya-katha, nonsense talks. That is the main thing. You are wasting your time instead of serving the Lord.

Have you got your answer?

Devotee: Yes, I understand.

If you understand, it is good.

Be serious in your life—be serious in your Krishna consciousness life, and in any other life, actually. If you start doing something or start a job, you must be serious about the job otherwise you will lose it. So, when you come to serve your Guru, when you come to Krishna consciousness, you must be serious: "I will follow Krishna consciousness properly." That is the main thing. Be serious about your spiritual life.

* * *

Nurture Service Life

Talking to devotees in Colombia

1 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 4

Question: Last year there was a festival where people made something like chariots and went with those chariots to the centre of the city. A lot of people come to this festival. Devotees arranged to have a place for preaching—they made a chariot in the form of an elephant and did Harinam sankirtan among the people who came to the festival. We want to ask you for your blessing so that we may do this service well for your satisfaction.

Yes, very nice. You can distribute Hari-katha, distribute prasad there. It is service, you can preach in this way. Wherever there is a Krishna consciousness preaching programme, you must participate in it, I will be very happy. I am very happy to see you all, you are all doing a very nice service.

If anyone wants to come, come soon and help me, there is service here, and get a longer visa. I am making a new big temple in Mayapur and need a manager to serve there. I am making 250 rooms and a big restaurant, so a good manager is necessary there. If you have any problem there in Colombia, you can come and stay with me—there are many temples here, you can serve and preach here. But you must send a proper person—someone who really wants to serve.

Gurudev told me that actually an empty goshala is better than naughty cows. Sometimes we also have to tolerate. As Gurudev said, we have five fingers on our hand and these five fingers are not the same, so not all our godbrothers and disciples have the same qualities, but we should try to adjust with that.

It is necessary to have a strongest desire to serve. We should try, and we must be serious in our spiritual life. That is the main thing. The problem is the ego. Ego always eats everything—it eats all good qualities. There is a saying also, "Pride comes before a fall." You can fall down at any time. You may be rich, but because of your ego you can actually be poor. You may have some good quality, but because of your ego, everything can be ruined. You must understand this. We do not come to Krishna consciousness for money, wealth, property, name and fame. We come to be a servant of devotees. I tell it all the time. This is the main thing in our spiritual life.

Do you have any other questions?

Question: How can we please your devotees? How can we serve you?

There are many ways you can serve, Prabhu. I feel very happy when I hear that you maintain your spiritual life properly. If you want to have a skype programme sometimes, you can get in touch with us here and it can be arranged. Also, try to come to India sometimes, serve here. Otherwise, you can preach there also; when new people come, make them devotees. My only request is that our family should grow more and more. Try, and I will be very happy.

The main thing is that you must have chastity for your Guru and you must be sincere about your service. We see that for money, for name and fame, for their own interest people go here and there, tasting everything like prostitutes—men like to taste many women, and women like to taste different men (to go through many husbands). Krishna consciousness life is not like that. You must be chaste to your Guru. That is the main thing.

I also want to tell all the devotees in Colombia, mainly the younger generation: you are studying now, you must learn some English. If you know English, you can visit many places, you can come to India and understand the language well, it will be good. Try and learn English. We have so many books in English, you will be able to read them. I am telling it to you personally: learn English, it will be good for you.

Question: I would like to ask you for your blessings to continue my humble service...

Actually, blessings means kripa, and kripa means you must engage yourself in the service of your Guru and Vaishnavs. It is good that you have arranged this programme, that you are serving the devotees. I am happy with that.

I am always with you. I am always at your service. If you need any spiritual help, I will give my life so that you can maintain your spiritual life.

Question: How can we please you with our service?

I have already told you—practise properly, maintain your spiritual life and preach properly, always keep connection with me. That is my happiness. Serve my Guru and Gurudev's mission in whichever way you can—that is my happiness. We should all together follow the instruction that Gurudev gave everybody and maintain our spiritual life. That is the main thing in our spiritual life.

Jay Gurudev.

* * *

The Tenth Offence

Translated from Bengali

2 December 2018, Basirhat, part 1

We have not been able to come here every year for various reasons. I first came and started preaching here in Barishat area in 2005-2006 when I was preaching and collecting house to house. Much time has passed since then. Guru Maharaj told me one thing, "At the time of Nabadwip Dham parikrama, you bring so many people—so many people have taken initiation from me—but can you say how many of them actually practise Krishna consciousness properly?"

When we go to primary school, there are many students studying with us, we do not even know how many of us there are, but when we go to high school, there are two times fewer people. When we go to college, there are even fewer people. Finally, out of one-two hundred people who we studied with at the beginning, there are only one-two people who actually enter university. So, how many people actually follow Krishna consciousness properly?

Guru Maharaj told me with sadness, "You bring so many people at Gaura Purnima and at my birthday, but out of all those people who you have brought to me to take initiation, how many actually serve the Lord?"

karitechchha upakara yate para upakara

labhe jiva sri-krsna-sevaya

"You are giving great benefit by helping other souls get service of Lord Krishna."

The very first thing required is surrender. It is very difficult to find a surrendered Vaishnav.

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

“Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord’s guidance, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me’."

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

“Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion.”

Humility, offering yourself, having faith that Krishna is the maintainer, having faith that Krishna must protect us, etc. This kind of saranagati is first and foremost.

Listen to what I am saying carefully. Those who are cooking should also listen. It is necessary to listen carefully. If we do not listen to Hari-katha, Bhagavata-katha, then we will never get the supreme benefit. You must take Hari-katha into your heart, you must accept it within your heart.

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya

tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati

sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

"In the beginning there is faith, then good association, then practising life. After that, the offences gradually go away, faith becomes stronger, taste comes, then attachment, then there arises affection and love. This is how love to God comes to those who practise Krsna consciousness."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.4.15-16)

First it is necessary to hear about saranagati because if we cannot surrender, we will get no result.

There are ten offences of the Holy Name. The last offence is that if you chant the Holy Name but do not remove the egotistic mentality (the feeling that I belong to myself, i.e. if you do not realise that you belong to the Lord), if such mood does not come to you, then your chanting can never be the Holy Name. This is the tenth offence, it was kept for the last. If you chant the Holy Name but this mood of "I" and "mine" does not go away, then you must understand that your chanting is not the Holy Name, it has all been Nama-aparadh (offence to the Holy Name). Unless the mood of "I" and "mine" goes away, your chanting can never be the Holy Name.

If you are making a house to serve the Lord, if you use your house for the service to the Guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord, then there is sense in making a house. Otherwise there is no use. A house is meant for eternal service of the Lord and to maintain this eternal service some servitor is necessary, so you must think, "I will stay in this house to be that servitor." If you make a house, you must make it with this kind of mood. Someone thinks, "Oh, my wife will stay there," "My children will stay there," "My parents will stay there," but then it means that your egotistic mood of "I" and "mine" is not removed.

If a house is not used for the service to the Guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord, it can even be a temple, a Math, an ashram, or a mandir, but if it is not used for the service of the Lord and the devotees, then it can never be called a temple or a Math. A Math is a place where Vaishnavs stay and where they serve the Lord. We must always understand this. All of us should be like this.

* * *

"O Vaishnav Thakur!"

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 1

Always chant the Holy Name.

kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara

nama haite haya sarva-jagat-nistara

"In the Kali-yuga, Krishna appears in the form of the Name. The entire world is delivered through that Name."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 17.22)

In Kali-yuga, the Lord has appeared in the form of the Name. There is no difference between the Lord and the Lord's Name—the Lord's Name, qualities, pastimes, associates, features are non-different from the Lord Himself, and no one except the Lord Himself or His associates can distribute this.

eka-bara krishna-name yata papa hare

patakira sadhya nahi tata papa kare

"A sinner cannot commit more sin than once chanting Krishna's Name can remove."

Always chant the Holy Name. If we chant the real Holy Name, then we can get shelter, we can get a place at the lotus feet of the Lord. The Lord is our real friend—He is our real friend, our real father, mother, everything.

krsna mata, krsna pita, krsna prana dhana

"Krishna is your mother, Krishna is your father, Krishna is your very life and wealth."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 1.343)

We must always chant the Holy Name of Krishna, always engage in Harinam sankirtan. This is the duty of every soul. We have got this very rare human birth, and you know why it is said that it is rare. Listen carefully—you can listen for one hour and can start living in Goloka Vrindavan after that. Listen carefully and you will get supreme benefit.

Chant the Holy Name, chant the glories of the Lord. As I was saying yesterday, not so many people come when there is chanting of the Holy Name, but everyone comes when it is time to take prasad. If someone thinks, "I will come to take prasad," the problem is that they do not think about their spiritual benefit. You saw yesterday also—there were few people in the evening, but at night time, when it was prasadam time, there was a big crowd—people crowded all the way down the street. If, however, they take prasadam and their tongue becomes purified, then the Holy Name of Krishna will dance on that tongue. The Holy Name of Krishna is conscious.

prasada-seva karite haya,

sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

If you always take prasad, then one day the Holy Name can come to your tongue.

Always think about Nitai Gaura, always think about the Lord. You live in a very good place here in Tarakeshwar—you live near Sivji Maharaj. Sivji Maharaj sings the glories of Krishna with his five mouths. There are millions of Sivas in Siva-loka, and they always roam around singing the glories of Lord Krishna. Siva is a devotee of Krishna, he is Vaishnav Thakur. Vaisnavanam yatha Sambhuh: it means that Lord Siva is the highest Vaishnav. We chant the kirtan for Lord Siva ("Ohe Vaisnava Thakur dayara sagara e dase karuna kara") in our Nabadwip Math, Mednipore Math, in the temple in Bardhaman. Here in Tarakeshwar, Sivji Maharaj is present as Taraknath. He himself says that you must chant the Holy Name of Krishna—he himself says that we must chant the pure Name in the association of pure devotees. Suppose you want to plant potato. If you get seeds from a bad place, the result will be not good, you will not like that potato. You must buy the seeds from a good place. In the same way, you must take initiation from a bona fide Guru. There are many Gurus in this world who run independently and do what they please.

I have told the other day that we live in this world at the expense of so many thousands of living entities. We breathe every day, we eat rice, we drink water, we cut vegetables, outside people eat fish and meat, and every time we cut a cauliflower, marrow, spinach, etc. we kill living entities. This is how we live. If you can turn your family into Krishna's family—if you live for Krishna, if you cook for Krishna, if you do marketing for Krishna, if you work for Krishna—then whatever sin you contract will be nullified as you will be doing it for Krishna.

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'

krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

One is karma and one is seva. A cat carries a mouse in its mouth, and that same cat carries its kitten in the same mouth. It looks the same, but what does it carry a mouse for? To give it affection? No. It carries a near dead mouse for its own pleasure, for its food, but when it carries its kitten, it does not carry it to eat it, it carries it for the service to the kitten.

Whatever we do in this world is karma if we do it for our own selves, but if we do everything for the Lord—just as in this house devotees offer bhog to the Lord every day, take prasad, etc.—then it becomes seva. I have told you before also—you eat every day, you sleep every day, you go to bathroom every day, you take bath every day, in the same way Krishna is there—He is our father, He is our Master; you must serve Him every day. In many houses you have old people, they are senior, the heads of the family. In the same way, the head of the family is Krishna, Radha-Krishna, Gopal, Mahaprabhu (whatever picture or Deity you have at your house). They are the masters of the house and it is necessary to feed Them first when you cook. After They eat and leave Their prasad, you can take Their remnants. The Lord will not keep you starving, He takes what you offer and leaves His remnants for His devotees.

Always remember this. Sadhus come to your houses again and again to teach you how you must live, how you must chant the Holy Name, how you must associate with the devotees.

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara

nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

Sadhus go house to house to save such fallen souls as ourselves—to save the fallen sinners like us from this world of maya and give us entrance into the family of Krishna, engage us in the service of Krishna.

You must listen carefully and understand why we come to this world, why we have got this human birth.

hari hari! viphale janama gonainu

manusya-janama paiya radha-krsna na bhajiya

janiya suniya visa khainu

“O Lord! My life has passed uselessly. I attained a human birth, but I did not serve Radha and Krishna. Knowingly I drank poison.”

('Hari Hari viphale' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

If you consciously take poison, you will be committing suicide—if you take poison, you will die. We know about it, we hear about it, but still we take poison... We do not worship Radha-Krishna, we continue taking poison. I pray to you—do not take poison, practise Krishna consciousness, you will get supreme benefit.

The Lord approaches you for one reason—we have all come to this world of maya forgetting our own Father, but we have found a bona fide Guru, and he tells us where Krishna's house is, he shows us the way to our home. And it is to show you that way that I have come to you today. If you do not know the path well, you will not get there. Just as today we went to the temple of Lord Siva—I had not gone there for a long time and did not remember the way so well, so I told one of the devotees to go ahead of us and show us the way, and we got there easily.

When we came to the temple, the pandas (servants) of the temple allowed us to give our obeisance to Sivji Maharaj. We cannot have the darshan of Lord Siva with these eyes. Are we able to have his darshan? Do we have the eyes? We have the eyes for maya—we always see great buildings, we see the things of illusory world, parents, friends, etc. Our eyes must become clean—we must wipe the dust... You cannot see anything when you have a cataract in your eye, but once the cataract is removed, you can see well. Our eyes are blind.

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

When our eyes are blinded by the dust of material things (visaya), how can we have the darshan of Lord Siva, Taraknath? Do we have the eyes?

We must pray to Lord Siva, "Prabhu, I have come to you, please forgive my offences. You are the Lord's own, the Lord will listen to you. I have come to you, please ask the Lord to give me some devotion to Him, please give me an opportunity to be able to serve Him. O Vaishnav Thakur! O Taraknath! O Sivji Maharaj! Please give me such a boon that I may see the way how to get the darshan of the Lord (your Lord, my Lord, the Lord of everyone). Please show me the way to the Lord."

aparadha sunye haye laha krsna-nama

achirat tumi pabe krsna-prema-dhana

"Chant the Holy Name of Krishna without offence and you will quickly get the treasure of divine love to Krishna."

We must become absolved from our offences, we must become free of offences, therefore we should pray to Vaishnav Thakur, "Prabhu, I make so many offences consciously and unconsciously, please absolve me from these offences. Give me the taste for the Name of Krishna. May I be allowed to have the taste for the Holy Name and engage in Krishna's service. Please give me the quality and qualification for that!"

This is what we must pray for. What do outside people, material people pray for? You must have seen during the Sravan month crowds of people walking all the way from the Ganga—they bring the Ganges water for Baba Taraknath, but they come with their material desires. Some have debts, some are in some trouble, some want to get their daughter married, some want a good job for their son, some are sick and want to get healthy, so they pray to Lord Siva. They have all these desires, but the devotees of the Lord do not want all this. Devotees pray to Lord Siva for forgiveness of their offences. "O Vaishnav Thakur! If I have committed any offence at your feet, please forgive me." If you ask him for forgiveness, he is very merciful, he can remove your offences. If you make an offence to the Lord, the Lord cannot remove that offence, but Vaishnav Thakur can…

* * *

What Is Vaishnav Seva?

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 2

There are many kinds of offences—offences to the Holy Name, to the holy Dham, to service, to Vaishnavs. You can read about it at the back of the Bengali calendar. When you take initiation, you are also given a book about the offences to the Holy Name. Besides that, there are thirty-two seva-aparadhas, there are ten Dhama aparadhas, there are various Vaishnav aparadhas. You should read about it and understand what kind of offences we make, be conscious of it. Even unknowingly we also make many offences, unknowingly we think so many bad things about Vaishnavs...

We must serve Govinda with firm, strongest faith. Only if we can become servants of His devotees, if we can serve pure Vaishnavs, can we participate in the service to the Lord. First it is necessary to serve pure devotees. Unless you serve pure devotees, you cannot get the Lord. That is why we did not come here to become Vaishnavs—we must become servants of the servants of Vaishnavs. We must not think how we can please ourselves—we must think how we can please the Lord, how we can please our Gurudev.

Service to Vaishnavs is our main path. If we serve Vaishnavs, they will arrange everything for us. "Chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba: without service to the Vaishnav, you can never get any relief." It is necessary to serve to the Lord, to serve Gurudev.

Many of you think, "Oh, we want to do Vaishnav seva!" and you rush to wash my feet, to drink the water from my feet, etc. but I do not allow this. Do you know why? Because I do not consider myself a Vaishnav.

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,

amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

That is why we do not let others touch our feet when they give obeisance to us. Many get upset, "Oh, Maharaj does not let us touch his feet..." but I consider that you are purer than me! You chant the Holy Name, you serve the Lord, and you are purer than me—you cook for Govinda, you serve Govinda with your pure hand, why will you touch the feet of a fallen soul like myself with this hand?

Mahaprabhu also did not allow it, but you know that there is one devotee who He did allow it. His name is Kalidas. When Kalidas touched Mahaprabhu's feet, other devotees cried, "Hey! Do not touch Mahaprabhu's feet!" but Mahaprabhu stopped them, "Do not prohibit him." Can you imagine what a big Vaishnav he was that Mahaprabhu gave him this right? Kalidas was a poor devotee, he had nothing and lived by begging, but what did he have? He had Vaishnav-dhan (wealth of devotion), Krishna-prema (love for Krishna). Do you know what he did? He was not like you or me.

tava nija-jana, prasada seviya,

uchchhista rakhibe yaha

amara bhojana, parama-anande,

prati-dina habe taha

"Whatever remnants Your devotees leave behind after honouring Your prasad I will eat every day with great joy."

(Saranagati, 19.3)

When we come to Vaishnav seva, we run to sit quickly in the line to take prasadam—we do not care whether Vaishnavs have taken prasadam or not, we do not care if others have taken or not, we worry whether we will get nice prasadam; and if somebody sits last and does not get something, they get upset and go away. What did this Vaishnav Thakur Kalidas do? He did not even sit with everyone to take prasadam—he hid in some place and waited when everybody had taken prasadam, then he came to the place where they had thrown their plates and took the prasadam left on those plates. Can any of you do this, tell me? Even if you take someone else's plate, you will worry if you will get sick if you eat from it. You do not understand what a fortune it is to do Vaishnav seva. We do not have that kind of devotion or faith to take others' plates and take from it, but Kalidas did. He was invited to that gathering, but he did not sit with everyone in the line. He thought he was nothing close to a Vaishnav, so he did not want to sit near them, he thought, "When they throw their plates, I will take from there to my full."

Mahaprabhu knew about it, that is why He said, "Do not stop him." Imagine how great his qualification was. He was qualified to touch Mahaprabhu's feet! Everybody does not have this right. So, we must understand it—why will I go to touch Gurudev's feet? I am a fallen soul, I am impure, why will I contaminate him by touching his feet?

Yet we hanker for Vaishnavs' feet dust, we touch their dust, we put it on our heads. "Tan-sabara pada-renu mora pancha-grasa: Their foot dust is my five forms of sustenance." You have heard it in the "Hari haraye namah" kirtan that we sing every day. What does it mean? We must take the dust from the Vaishnav's feet, we must touch it, take it, put it on our heads, etc. We must not only say, "Oh, their feet dust is the means of my subsistence." We must have faith.

People say, "I am a devotee of Lord Siva!" and because Lord Siva takes ganja people start taking ganja imitating him. Lord Siva may take ganja, but he also takes poison (that is why one of his names is Nilakantha) and holds it within his throat—can you do that? Krishna has many gopis and sahajiyas start keeping many wives, but this is not what the scriptures prescribe, it is irreligious. We think, "Krishna did this, and we will do this too," "Nityananda Prabhu did that and we will do that too." We must always remember that we must not imitate (anukaran) the Lord, we must follow (anusaran) the Lord. Lord Siva also wears a snake on his neck, can you do that? Try and see if it does not bite you. Lord Siva is a devotee of the Lord. He chants the glories of the Lord with his five mouths and he instructs everyone to chant the Name of Krishna. We wish we could chant the Holy Name with just this one mouth, but he chants the Holy Name with his five mouths.

* * *

Devious Distractor

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 3

[His Divine Graces notices a devotee snoozing at the class:]

You are sleeping during the class! You should leave this habit. You sleep during the day in the temple, so now when you are not getting this time to rest, you start sleeping during the class. You must avoid this habit. It is a matter of habit—if you do something all the time, it will be your habit. If you are used to sleeping in the day time, then you will be drowsy during the class. Many think that if you do not sleep you will not manage, so when they come to the class they sleep, but you can see my example—I am not like this, I run everywhere the whole day and do not want to sleep, I only get some sleep at 12 at night.

Do not sleep during the class. If you feel drowsy, chant Hare Krishna. I understand that you are sleepy—you worked all day from morning till night yesterday, you slept late and it was cold, now the sun is out and you feel sleepy. When you feel sleepy during the class it means Maya Devi is disturbing you—you start feeling drowsy, your mind starts wandering to other places, somebody talks to you, etc. This is all Maya Devi's game, it means she is attacking you. Remember this.

Just as when your health is weak, when your blood pressure or haemoglobin is low, different diseases can attack you, if you become weak in your spiritual practice, different diseases can attack you—nikatastha maya tare japatiya dhare, Maya is always near and she can seize you. If you are weak in your spiritual practice then drowsiness will come, your mind will start roaming to different places, you will become fickle, you will not want to do service. Look at me—I can speak the whole day. Even if you tell me to come for seven-ten days, I can carry on the whole day every day without sleep. Sometimes of course I will need to go to the bathroom and sometimes you will need to feed me, that is all—I will go to the bathroom and come back, I will go eat and come back, sleep is not necessary.

Ahara, nidra, bhay, maithuna (eating, sleeping, defending, mating)—the more you increase these things, the more you will be doing them. When I just came to the Math I would eat twenty-five rotis in the evening, now I cannot eat even one roti, I take only a half.

Ahara and nidra is eating and sleeping.

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base

nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

“My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me.”

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Nidra—how much we sleep. Bhay—how much we fear... But now there is no fear—whatever the Lord wants, if the Lord keeps me alive for his service, then I will live. "Marabi rakhabi yo ichchha tohara": if He wants to kill, He will kill, if He wants to protect, He will protect. And you understand what maithuna (copulation) is—the more you increase it, the more you will do it.

Talking about nidra (sleeping), Maya Devi comes as three sisters—one is Ghum-parani (fast asleep and snoring), Jhim-parani (fast asleep and drooping) and Dol-dolani (fast asleep and rocking or jerking). These three sisters attack you. What is the remedy? If you see somebody is sleeping next to you, pinch them, then their drowsiness will go away. Chant Hare Krishna and Maya Devi will go away, but she will stand nearby—as soon as you get weak again, she will attack. She is always roaming everywhere waiting to seize you, and once she seizes you she will not let you go.

* * *

Sadhus' Blessing

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 4

kama-krodhera dasa hana tara lathi khaya

bhramite bhramite yadi sadhu-vaidya paya

tanra upadesa-mantre pisachi palaya

krsna-bhakti paya, tabe krsna-nikata yaya

"The conditioned soul becomes a servant of its masters, Lust and Anger, and always gets beaten by these two. But as the soul keeps wandering throughout the universe, it may by chance get connection with the doctor: a devotee, whose instructions and mantras can chase this witch (Maya) away. When they get devotion to Krishna, Krishna becomes closer to them."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.14-15)

By the mercy of sadhus, we can cut the net of Maya and get the Lord. You can all attain the Lord if you listen carefully—if you get sadhu-sanga, if you chant the Holy Name of the Lord, you can get supreme benefit. If you do not get the Lord in this life, you will have to come back again. You had travelled throughout 8,400,000 species before you got this human birth, and nobody knows how soon you will get a human birth again.

People come to me, pay obeisance and ask me, "Maharaj, put your hand on my head, give me your blessing (asirvad)." They ask me for asirvad. Do you know what kind of blessing we give? May you have a good husband, may you have a good wife, may you have a good job, etc.—we do not wish for this. When we give asirvad, it is asi-lakha-yena-vad-yaya (we pray that you do not have to go through the eight million species again). We wish that you do not have to go through trees, plants, animals, insects, aquatic life forms, etc. again. There are so many trees and plants in this world, so many species that live in water. There are 8,400,000 species in total, 400,000 of which are human species.

jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati

krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam

trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah

"There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmoving living entities, such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and there are 1,000,000 species of birds. As far as quadrupeds are concerned, there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000 human species."

(Parma Purana)

There are so many people in so many different countries, so many people of so many different religions. There are even places on this earth where it is forbidden to go—in such places people kill other people. Just recently a foreigner went to see such a place in the Andaman islands. He paid somebody, got a boat and went to one of the forbidden islands despite the law. The natives came and killed him. Police still cannot find his body—the natives must have eaten it. That is the kind of people that live there.

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara

janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

"One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of his birth and bring benefit to all other people."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 9.41)

You have got birth in this land of Bharata (India), and you must help others. There are many big sampradays that help people by giving them medicine, clothes, warm blankets in winter, etc. They help with temporary difficulties. Always remember that this is only temporary happiness. Gaudiya Vaishnavs of Brahma Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya give such things to people by which people have no further need for such trifle things as medicine, money, wealth, etc. Vaishnavs go house to house stretching their hand to everyone, distributing such wealth to them by which all the things of this world seem insignificant.

Here in Bardhaman district, there is a town called Mankar. There lived one brahman, a devotee of Lord Siva in this town. His name was Jivan Chakravarti. He worshipped Lord Siva with so much sincerity that Lord Siva became very pleased with his service. One night, when Jivan Chakravarti finished his service and went to bed, Lord Siva came to him:

"Jivan, wake up, I have come to you," Lord Siva said.

Jivan Chakravarti opened his eyes and saw Lord Siva standing in front of him.

"Jivan, I am very pleased with your service. What boon would you like to get from me?"

"Prabhu, what can I want? I am a very poor brahman, I have no wealth, no money, I am worshipping you with just bael leaves, and you are pleased with that." (Lord Siva is pleased with even little things—he does not want much.) "My daughter has grown up and it is time for her to get married. If you can arrange for some money for her wedding, I will be able to get her married."

Sivji Maharaj said, "Where will I get wealth? I do not have money. Go to Vrindavan, you will get wealth from Sanatan Goswami who lives there."

In those days, there were no trains, buses, or planes—Jivan Chakravarti started walking to Vrindavan. He came to Sanatan Goswami and asked,

"Prabhu, is your name Sanatan Goswami?"

"Yes, it is me," answered Sanatan Goswami.

"So... you are Sanatan Goswami?" he hesitated.

"Why? Do you not believe? What has happened? Why have you come?"

"Prabhu, Siva Thakur has sent me to you."

"What for?"

"For money."

"Where will I get money?"

"Yes, I am thinking that too... At my home, I have some aluminium cookware, but you do not have even that—you only have some earthen pot, and even that has holes..."

"What will I do with a pot? If I had a pot for water, it would break one day or someone would take it. I live on madhukari—Vraja-basis give me some roti or something, so I do not cook. I take some prasad once a day. I go to collect madhukari, get ten rotis, and it lasts me five days..."

"Yes, you are right. Where will you get money? I will go then."

After Jivan Chakravarti left, Sanatan Goswami suddenly called him back,

"Jivan, wait! Listen!"

"Prabhu, you called me?"

"Yes, I have just remembered—I went once to bathe in the Yamuna and found a touchstone there. I did not bring it with me, I threw it into the sand. Go to the bank of the Yamuna, you will find it there."

Jivan went to the Yamuna and searched for the touchstone, but the bank is quite large and he could not find it. Sanatan Goswami went there himself and pointed him at a place, Jivan Chakravarti looked there and found the touchstone. He asked Sanatan Goswami, "How do we know it is a touchstone?" Sanatan Goswami said, "You have an iron kavach on your arm, touch the stone to it." As soon as he touched the touchstone to the kavach, it became gold.

Sanatan Goswami said, "Take it and go back to your home. You can make as much gold with it as you want. You will have a good house, you can get your daughter married, you will have no problem."

Jivan Chakravarti left, but as he was walking back he thought, "This sadhu had found such a valuable thing, but he threw it into the sand at the Yamuna! He must have something more than that!" He came back.

"Baba, you are here again? Have you not left?"

"I have, but I just have one question. What sort of wealth do you have that you do not consider a touchstone valuable? I am placing your feet on my head and praying for that wealth."

"Will you take it, Jivan?"

"Yes, I will."

"Then throw this touchstone."

Jivan Chakravarti went back to the Yamuna and threw the touchstone into the river. You must have heard that when Aurangzeb heard this story of the touchstone, he tried to find it—when he put a chain with an anchor into the water it actually became gold—but he did not find the touchstone.

Sanatan Goswami gave Jivan Chakravarti chanting beads saying, "This is that wealth. I am giving you the wealth that I have got from my Guru."

After that, Jivan Chakravarti stayed under a tree in Vrindavan and served the Lord. He did not think about his home again. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter were waiting for him, but eventually they found a good husband for the girl, with a big house, etc. Everything turned out well for them. Jivan Chakravarti did not have to bring a touchstone home for that—if you chant the Holy Name of the Lord, the Lord looks after you.

We too must think about it. You run behind these small things—behind money, lust, greed, anger. Srila Guru Maharaj said, "I have been a servant of so much lust, so much anger, so much greed! I have been following their false orders. Now that I have come to senses and can understand it, I will not follow their orders any more!"

kamadinam kati na katidha palita durnidesa,

tesam jata mayi na karuna na trapa nopasantih

utsrjyaitan atha yadu-pate! sampratam labdha-buddhis

tvam ayatah saranam-abhayam mam niyunksvatma-dasye

"O Lord! How many kinds of wicked orders from lust and others I followed! They had no mercy on me, nor were they ever satisfied! O Krishna! Suddenly, I managed to leave their side and got some good intelligence—I have surrendered at Your fearless lotus feet, please engage me now as Your servant."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.16)

When happens when you follow anger's order? People kill each other—they shoot each other, they beat each other, etc. It means you are a slave of anger. When anger passes, you understand that you should not have beaten or killed the person. If people are overcome by lust, they kill their husbands, or the husband gets another woman and decides to kill his wife when she finds out about it. Slaves of lust. Many people kill for money—people start fighting for even ten rupees. There was a story in the news that some thief died just for one-two rupees. People die because of greed for money.

kama-krodha-adi chaya batapare deya bhaya

avasana haila asi bela

“I am attacked by the six highway robbers lead by kama and krodha, and my life is coming to its end…"

("Anadi karama-phale" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

* * *

Wait No More

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 5

kama-krodha-adi chaya batapare deya bhaya

avasana haila asi bela

“I am attacked by the six highway robbers lead by kama and krodha, and my life is coming to its end…"

("Anadi karama-phale" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

The sun is setting, the days are finishing, passing! When will our day come? Khatvanga Maharaj got forty-eight minutes, Pariksit Maharaj got seven days, but we do not have that kind of devotion and fortune that we will get a notice in advance. Once the notice comes from the Lord, we will have no more time left, we will have to leave everything at once. This house, wife, children, friends, relatives, family, this body—we will have to leave everything and go to the burning ghat. What did the Lord send you here for? He gave you eyes so that you can have the darshan of His Deity; He gave you hands so that you could do His service; He gave you mouth so that you could speak about Him—but we have forgotten all this.

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha

ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

"Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through all kinds of material suffering."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117)

We have forgotten the Lord and as a result we are burning from the three-fold miseries, wandering throughout the universe, being slaves to kama and krodha. But you have found a bona fide Guru—there is no need to wait any longer!

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane

duhkha dure gelo o pada-varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life. All my distress has gone away by embracing Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

Take shelter of the lotus feet of Gurudev and all these miseries will be over. The Lord says, "Acharya mam vijaniyam: you must know that an acharya is I Myself." We sing in the kirtan also,

saksad-dharitvena 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)

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado

yasyaprasadat na gatih kuto 'pi

dhyayam stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyam

vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, praising and meditating upon his glory at the three junctions of the day. By his grace, one gains the Lord's grace. Without his grace, one has no shelter anywhere."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 8)

We have no other way except for prasad—guru-prasad, bhakta-prasad. Prasad means not just food remnants—prasad means Hari-katha. If we can accept this prasad, we will get supreme benefit. Those who are unfortunate keep coming and going again and again in this world. But if having got this rare human birth we can listen to the katha of sadhus and the Guru, if we can practise properly, then we will get supreme benefit.

You do not have to leave your house, family, your job. "Grhe thako, vane thako, sada 'Hari' bole dako, whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name." You can practise Krishna consciousness even if you stay in a forest or when you are working—if you do everything for Govinda, if you work for Him, if you run business for Him, then you will make your life worthwhile. We can get supreme benefit—if we serve the Lord, the Guru, and the Vaishnavs, we can get a place at the lotus feet of the Lord.

This is our earnest prayer to you all—always chant the Holy Name. Promise to me that you will not forget the Lord, that you will not forget Krishna. He is the One who has brought us to this world. People say that we come to this world because of our mother and father, but who keeps us alive, who gives us birth, who arranges everything for us? Scientifically, you say that it is your father and mother because if they had not given you birth you would not have been able to come to this world. We accept certain parents to come to this world, and we never tell anyone to neglect them, but we can see that even these big learned, educated people of this world forget their parents and do whatever their wives or friends tell them, they forget their parents and run their life in a wrong way. We pray to you that you do not go down this path. We pray to you that you serve the Lord. Have faith.

When I am born, my mother tells me, "This is your father," and from childhood she teaches me to call that person father, but how do I know who my real father is? We believe what our mother says—she knows who the real father is. So, when we read the scriptures, if we do not believe what is written there, what is written in Bhagavatam, then we are making the greatest offence. Sivji Maharaj said, "Aham vetti, Suka vetti, Vyasa vetti na vetti va. I know Bhagavatam, Sukadev knows it, but Vyasadev may or may not know it." He who composed Bhagavatam may not know its meaning, but his son and disciple knows it. In other words, the Lord Himself is saying that He may not know Himself, but His devotee knows Him.

* * *

Our Identity

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 6

The Lord Himself says that He may not know Himself, but His devotee knows Him. Who did Mahaprabhu hear Krishna-katha from? Not from some brahman—He heard it from Ramananda Ray. If you read Chaitanya-charitamrita, you will find their conversation there.

Mahaprabhu asked Ramananda Ray, "Pada sloka sadhyera nirnaya: please recite verses about the ultimate goal of life." First, Ramananda Ray said that you can practise devotion to Krishna by following your prescribed duties (the duties of grihastha, brahmacharya, sannyas, etc.). Mahaprabhu said, "Leave this, go further." Then, Ramananda Ray quoted a verse from Gita, "Yyat karosi yad asnasi, yaj juhosi dadasi yat: whatever meditation you practise, whatever sacrifice you make, whatever you do, whatever worship you perform, do it for Me, then you will get Me." This is karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits). Mahaprabhu did not accept it. After that, Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with knowledge pursuits). Again, it was not accepted. Finally, when Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-sunya bhakti (devotion devoid of knowledge pursuits), then Mahaprabhu said, "Yes!" Mahaprabhu had told to leave all the other conceptions—karma-misra bhakti, jnana-misra bhakti—and when Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-sunya bhakti, then only Mahaprabhu accepted it, "Yes, if you follow this, you can get the Lord." Jnana-sunya bhakti means you feel, "I do not know anything, I do not understand anything, I have no quality and qualification." Look at Prahlad Maharaj—how does one get the Lord in santa-rasa (Prahlad Maharaj is a santa-rasa devotee)? He was thrown into fire, he was thrown into water tied to a rock, he was thrown off a hill, he was thrown under the feet of an elephant, he was given snake's venom, but did anything happened to him? He was only five years old, but he always thought about the Lord.

ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham

mama vartmanuvartante, manusyah partha sarvasah

"Howsoever people surrender to Me, I accordingly reward them. Being the ultimate goal of all paths, I am the objective to be attained by all. O Partha, all men follow My various paths."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.11)

Santa-, dasya-, sakhya-, vatsalya-, madhura-rasa. We always try to serve in dasya-rasa, remember this.

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela

ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

We have forgotten that we are eternal servants (das) of Krishna, and Maya has tied us by our necks—this is how the jiva souls become incessantly bound to this material world and repeatedly enter this world, repeatedly change their bodies. I am wearing these clothes today, but tomorrow I am going to wear other clothes—we do not wear the same clothes that we wear the day before, we change them. So, just as we always keep changing our clothes, we always keep changing our body.

As you sow so you reap—if I cannot chant the Holy Name in this life, I will have to come back next life, and nobody knows what kind of life I will get. It is said that there are 37 000 jiva souls standing in the queue at every moment, and only one of them gets a human birth. What happens to the rest of the 36 999 souls? They get all kinds of other births—they are born as insects, birds and beast, trees and plants, mosquitoes, potatoes, spinach, etc. All these species have souls, and their souls are the same as ours. Even such a huge animal as an elephant has the same soul as we do. It is said in the scriptures that the soul is so small that you cannot see it with your eye. If you divide the tip of a hair 10 000 times, this is the size of the soul—this is "I".

Sanatan Goswami asked Mahaprabhu five questions: "(1) Who am I (ke ami)? (2) Why am I suffering (kene amaya jare tapa-traya)? (3) How can I get relief from this suffering and austerity? How can I get benefit? (kise hita haya)? (4) What is the eternal goal (sadhya vastu ki)? (5) How can I attain this main goal (sadhya vastu ki korle paowa yaya)?" When somebody asks you, "Who are you?" You say, "So-and-so Chakravarti," "So-and-so Banerjee", "So-and-so Das", "So-and-so Ray", "So-and-so Patra," etc. This is not our real identity—this is the identity of the body. When I am in this body, somebody calls me by a certain name, but when I leave this body, nobody will call me by that name any more. You live in a certain house and people call you "Uncle", "Father", "Mother", etc. but if you leave this house and go to the cremation ghat, nobody will call you that name anymore—you will get a body in another place…

* * *

Religion of the Soul

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 7

When Sanatan Goswami was coming to Puri, he went along the coast and because of the scorching sand he got blisters on his feet that gradually spread on all his body. Because all his body had become covered with the blisters, he thought, "This time I will throw myself under the wheels of the chariot!" Such a foolish thought came to his mind.

We too sometimes think like this. When things are not going well in our life, we think, "I will jump under a train," "I will take poison", "I will hang myself from the ceiling fan", "I will pour kerosine on myself and set myself on fire." How painful! These are all foolish thoughts. Every soul has its allotted time within the body, but any time I fancy I decide to take poison and leave the body. This is foolish.

So, when Sanatan Goswami got that bad idea, Mahaprabhu told him, "Sanatan, do you think the soul can reach the Lord by giving up the body?" Every moment so many souls give up their body, but it does not mean they reach the Lord. We live for seventy-eighty years, but mosquitos live for fifteen days (well, some live less—remember how we killed some mosquito here yesterday?), and during these fifteen days, they grow up, get married, get children, grandchildren, etc. They get attached to their family, wife, friends, sons, etc.

You know that Indra was the king of heaven, but even he had to be born as a pig—he lived in a heap of stool mixed with mud, and would dig his face in this mix and enjoy himself.

Before that, Indra had many apsaras in heaven who served him (just as there is no lack of demigods in this world, so is there no lack of demigoddesses also, they all live in heaven). One day, when Indra was enjoying with his apsaras, he forgot his own guru. The guru of the demigods is Brihaspati. When Brihaspati visited Indra, he asked him, "How are you, Indra? How are you doing?" but Indra had forgotten all about him. Brihaspati was insulted, "I am standing in front of him, but he is enjoying and not even looking at me. I am going to curse him! You will be born as a pig!" When Indra heard it, he became horrified and Brahma, who was present there, said to him, "Do not cry, I will come and save you."

Then, Indra was born as a pig. After a while, Brahma came searching for him, "Which of them is Indra?" To us, all pigs look the same, but Brahma is the creator (he is the one who creates Indra on the order of the Lord), so he could recognise him. So, when Brahma came to Indra, he found that the very king who was enjoying with so many demigoddesses, drinking nectar, had become a fat pig and was enjoying his other "nectar."

You had paneer rasa, paramanna, chutney today, you liked it a lot, but if you bring a pig and serve it this prasad on a golden plate, will it eat it? It will not. But if you bring it a bucket of stool, the pig will be so happy. The Lord creates this world and arranges food for everyone according to their tastes. The Lord knows what certain species like, and He provides that.

So, Brahma came looking for Indra, "Where did my Indra go?" and when he saw him, he was astonished, "My God, how fat he has become! He digs in the food with his face!" He started calling him, "Hey Indra! Hey Indra!" Why would he listen to him? He had no idea he was Indra before. Brahma hit him, "Hey, listen to me!" But Indra got annoyed and said, "Leave me alone, I am busy! I am eating!"

You can see in Kolkata also—as soon as people get off a train in Howrah, what a rush begins! Some people rush to the buses, some people run somewhere, sometimes there are accidents also—people run after money like crazy. If you come to them and say, "Please, Sir, hold on, stop, I want to give you a good book. Read it please." They have no time! "No, no, I have no time for that!" If you give them some good news, they say they have no time, they have no time to read! Even if you give them some prasad, they also have no time for that!

So, the same is here—just as Indra was so engrossed in his stool as a pig, we also come to this material world and become engrossed in pursuit of all kinds of unwanted things (anartha)... It took Brahma not just one or two years to convince Indra, it took him twelve years—he had tried in many ways to talk to Indra. In the meantime, Indra had got so many children (pigs get a dozen piglets at a time). To make Indra listen to him, Brahma started killing his piglets one after another, but Indra only got angry seeing his piglets leave. Brahma tried to bring him to senses, "You are Indra!" He did not listen.

When all Indra's children were gone, he only had his wife left. Indra pleaded with Brahma, "All my children are gone, only my wife remains, please spare her!" but Brahma finished her too—he is the creator, so he made her get sick and she died. Indra became overwhelmed with sadness, "Oh no, how unfortunate I am! I am all alone now! But that man has been telling me all the time, 'Indra, Indra, Indra'—why does keep on saying it?" Then Brahma spoke to him again,

"Have you remembered now that you were Indra before?"

"Well, tell me, I want to hear it. What does Indra mean? What does he look like?"

"You were Indra! By the curse of your Guru you had to become a pig!"

"Really? I was Indra? How did I look when I was Indra? Will I be able to eat if I become Indra?"

"Yes, of course. I created you and I gave you a mouth also!"

Then Brahma took his kumandal out, chanted "Om Vishnu, Om Vishnu," dropped some water and then the ghost of Indra came out of the pig. Indra looked at himself and was amazed, "I am so beautiful!"

"Listen to me carefully!" said Brahma. "I have come to you in the form of your Guru to teach you something."

Then, Indra listened to Brahma and his pig's birth was finished—he came back to heaven as Indra.

Learn the proper conception. I have two books here, Sri Upadesh (First and Second Volume), you can read it. I have distributed leaflets also about vegetarianism—if you cannot give up meat and fish completely, you should read it carefully. It is important no matter what religion you belong to—whether you follow Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism. Actually, we do not preach any religion—we are not Hindus, we are not Muslims, we are not Christians, we are not Buddhists. We are eternal servants of Krishna. Neither do we belong to any caste—we are not sannyasis, we are not brahmans:

naham vipro na cha nara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro

naham varni na cha grha-patir no vanastho yatir va

kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramananda-purnamrtabdher

gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah

"I am not a brahman, I am not a ksatriya, I am not a vaisya or a sudra. Nor am I a brahmachari, a householder, a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, the maintainer of the gopis. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 13.80)

We are not ksatriya, vaisya or sudra—we are eternal servants of Krishna. This is what we have forgotten, and this is what Gurus come to this world to remind us about. What religion do we preach? We preach jaiva-dharma—religion of the soul. I, you, we all have one religion—this religion is service to the Lord, chanting the Name of the Lord. This is the religion we preach about to everyone. We do not preach Hindu dharma—we do not preach this 'seedless' religion. We think about all souls—be it birds, beasts, plants, trees, insects, etc. Some souls are born as a mango tree or a guava tree—if you offer their fruit to Govinda, then when the tree dies one day, it will get a chance to serve Govinda next life. It can actually get a human birth jumping over many births.

Many souls have to cross 8 000 000 species first before getting a human birth, but even if one is born as a human, it does not mean that they will be born as a human again—many will have to go back and get other births. If you practise Krishna consciousness in this life, then you will not get a bad birth, you may get a human birth again, become a devotee and continue your service. As Bhaktivinod Thakur says, "Kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa, bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa: I do not want to be Brahma or Indra, I do not mind being born as an insect as long as I can be your servant, Prabhu."

What do the Vraja gopis say? "We do not want to be gopis next life! We want to be born as some shrub (gulma-lata)! Then devotees may sit near us some time, chant Your glories and Names. And if we are born as some grass, then devotees will walk upon us and their feet dust will fall on our heads. This is our aspiration." That is why when you go to Vrindavan, you must walk there very carefully—all the trees, plants, grass there were gopis. Taking birth as all those bushes, trees, grass, etc. they listen to Krishna katha... Uddhav Maharaj also said, "I do not wish to be born as Brahma. Seeing the gopis cry, hearing the gopis speak, I want to be born as a tree here and hear the gopis—hear them glorify Krishna, hear them speak about Krishna and His pastimes!"

We must always engage ourselves in the service of Guru and Vaishnavs, then we can reach the Lord…

* * *

The Wanted and The Unwanted

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 8

In devotional practice, many unwanted things, kutinati (insincerity, deceit), many bad qualities come. We must be always alert and careful with that. We sing every day in the kirtan:

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Accepting what is favourable to devotion and rejecting what is not favourable to devotion."

(Saranagati, 1)

Prabhupad told one story. When you cultivate rice, some weeds grow along with the rice plant that look just like the rice plant. You should be able to tell them apart well because when you weed the rice paddy, you must pluck the right plant out. In the same way, in our practising life there are many weeds, kutinati (insincerity, deceit), anarthas (unwanted things), rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (desire to enjoy pleasant forms, tastes, smells, sounds, textures), kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy), kanak, kamini, pratistha (money, women, fame). Always remember this. I always tell this to everyone—to Vaishnavs, to those who have just come to the Math, to the sannyasis, to the brahmacharis, to everyone.

Always be careful of these three—kanak, kamini, pratistha. Kanak means money. Kamini means desire for a man or a woman's company. If you have a wife, do not think about any other women. Even if you only think about another woman, it is also bad. And pratistha means you think, "I have become a big Vaishnav", "I have become a big Maharaj", "I have become a big brahmachari", "I have become a big servitor", "I have become a great speaker", "I have become a great kirtaniya." Such thoughts must not come to us.

We must always think that we are very small, insignificant, we are poor and needy, we have no quality and qualification. "Yogyata vichare kichhu nahi pai—tomara koruna-sara! If you judge my qualifications, you will find I have no qualification, your mercy is everything." We must know the meaning of what we sing, then you will see how much you will progress in your practice.

Many of you cannot sing kirtans because you do not practise. I have told it to you before also—do not give me any pranami, I will be happy if you take that money and buy a kirtan guide book instead. It costs twenty rupees [Bengali kirtan guide]. Take it home and do not just keep it there—just as it is not enough to only water Tulasi tree. Take the book and study it. Chant one song for Guru vandana, one song for Vaishnav vandana, then Pancha-tattva vandana, Nityananda vandana, Gauranga vandana, and Radha-Govinda vandana. The larger kirtan guide costs more, it has all kirtans, but all the kirtans that we chant in the morning and evening are there in the small kirtan guide.

These days, with all the mobile phones, TV, etc., people have forgotten how to read books, they have lost this habit... We are always busy thinking when we will see a movie or some series on TV, what time the news is on on TV—we are wasting our time on all this and do not think about the Lord at all. We say that we do not have time. We do not have time to chant the Holy Name, but we have time to talk and gossip with others. This is a waste of time. We pray to you—days are passing; practise Krishna consciousness. Set some time aside to practise Krishna consciousness. We can leave this body at any time. Give some time to the service of your Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan.

We must try to chant the Holy Name and bring ourselves to this path that can bring us to the Lord. If you keep listening to Hari-katha, if you always chant the Holy Name, then the dirt in your heart will be removed. By hearing Hari-katha, by keeping the association of sadhus, our hearts can become pure.

Bhakti Devi does not come to a dirty place. For example, you have made this place so nice today and I can sit here nicely, but if there were sacks with dal, rice, etc., then I would not be able to sit here. If you have a lot of rubbish and unwanted things in your heart—if you always keep kanak, kamini, pratistha, kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya in your heart—where will you give place for the Lord to sit? You must give the Lord some space in your heart. You must make a temple in your heart. Do not only say, "I will keep you in my heart and never let you go." [A line from a popular song] You must really, truly keep the Lord in your heart.

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

“You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!”

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6-7)

This is Mahaprabhu's teaching. Always remember it.

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Do not only say it with your mouth. You must always serve Govinda with your mind, with your heart. Always serve the Lord with your heart and you will attain the greatest fortune…

* * *

Pitfalls of Vaishnav Seva

Translated from Bengali

9 December 2018, Tarakeshwar, part 9

When someone gives me a garland, sometimes I think it is so heavy—but as soon as I take shelter of Gurudev, "Gurudev, I am offering this garland at your lotus feet," I feel light again. Then there is no pratistha. If someone gives you a garland, remember Gurudev. "O Gurudev, I am offering this garland at your lotus feet." If you indulge your ego and run behind pratistha, then you will become very heavy and your boat will sink. People easily become proud of their money, education, knowledge, beauty, house, etc. Watch out—do not indulge your ego and become heavy.

If someone comes to your house to chant kirtan or speak Hari-katha, be careful that you do not become proud, "Oh, I have brought Gurudev to this house!", "Oh, I have served Gurudev!" Always think about the Lord, always think, "O Lord, I have not been able to do any service to Gurudev! I have not been able to do any service to the Vaishnavs!" Such mood must come to you. "Oh, I have neglected those who are in this house. Can I serve devotees? How do I know how to serve Vaishnavs? How do I know how to serve Gurudev? How do I know how to serve Krishna? O Lord, I must have done some wrong, please be merciful, forgive me." It is necessary to have such humility, such mood.

If you bring Vaishnavs to your house to give people chance to hear Hari-katha, then you will get good result—you will eventually reach the Lord, but if you become proud of yourself or some pratistha comes to you, then you will be in danger. "Danger" means the service of the Lord will go away from you. Always remember this. Always be careful that such things do not come to your heart.

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana

chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

“Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.”

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

Dainya: we must be humble. Jive daya (kindness to the souls) means we spend months going place to place, meeting people, inviting them to festivals and parikramas, giving them chance to hear kirtan and Hari-katha. If some devotees come to you and you can serve them—if you can take care of them making sure they do not experience any difficulty—that will be your Vaishnav seva.

You have probably heard how Sanatan Goswami arranged Vaishnav seva. One day, he told Rupa Goswami, "Rupa, I am going to arrange some prasadam for everyone. Please invite all Vaishnavs who stay here in Govardhan and make sure you invite every single Vaishnav and that no one is left out." Then, Rupa Goswami walked all around Govardhan and approached every single Vaishnav with the invitation.

On the day of the Vaishnav seva, when everyone was taking prasad, Sanatan Goswami asked Rupa Goswami, "Look carefully and tell me whether everyone who you have invited has come. Look carefully and see if there is anyone who is left out." Having looked around, Rupa Goswami said, "Prabhu, there is a Vaishnav who stays at Govinda Kunda, he has a little different gait—he fell down once and has been walking in a little crooked way since then. This Vaishnav has not come." Sanatan Goswami was very upset, "Oh, surely I must have committed some offence at his holy feet. He must have got angry and did not come... I must go see him."

When all the Vaishnavs had taken prasad and had been given pranami (donation), Sanatan Goswami went with Rupa Goswami to the kutir of the Vaishnav who had not come. Sanatan Goswami paid dandavat to him and asked,

"Prabhu, Rupa Goswami invited you, but you have not come today. I must have made some offence at your holy feet. Please forgive my offence. I must have made some offence—"

"Yes, you have!"

"If I have, please forgive me... Can I tell me what offence I have made? I do not understand when I could make an offence to you."

"Do you remember last rasa purnima day? You were doing Govardhan parikrama early in the morning. I went to Govinda Kunda that day, and when you were coming to Govinda Kunda to pay obeisance here, I was going back to my kutir. When you saw me limping past, you burst out laughing! Do you remember that rasa purnima day?"

"Yes, I do... I remember I was walking here that day and started to laugh so much, but Prabhu, I was not laughing because I had seen you. I was doing the parikrama of Govardhan, chanting Radha-Krishna's Name, and when I looked up, I suddenly got the darshan of Radha-Krishna's antaranga-lila (internal pastimes). Seeing the pastimes of Krishna and Radharani, I laughed myself to tears!"

"Oh, so you were not laughing at me... You saw the pastimes of Radha-Krishna at that time? God, I have made a mistake!"

"Prabhu, it is OK, you thought I was laughing at you. Please come with me. I have actually come here to bring you to my place. Come with me, I want to feed you."

They went to Sanatan Goswami's place where Sanatan Goswami fed him and gave him pranami. Then, he said, "Prabhu, please forgive my offence," but the Vaishnav said, "No, Prabhu, I have made a mistake. You please forgive me."

This is Vaishnav seva.

You have also probably heard how Draupadi offended one cobbler when she was doing Vaishnav seva. She had cooked very nice preparations, but when the cobbler came to take prasad, he mixed everything together and took it. Seeing it, Draupadi thought, "I have cooked everything so nicely, but he did not even bother to taste anything—he mixed everything and ate it like that!" She felt proud of her cooking, but the truth is that you do not cook anything—Radharani cooks. When you cook for the Lord, you must think, "I am not cooking, Radharani cooks for Govinda"—Radharani cooks with your hands. And if you think, "I am cooking," then Krishna may not eat it. You may have heard the popular phrase, "Ami yar hate khai, tar hate khai, yar tar hate khai na." Krishna says that He does not take food from anyone and everyone—He eats from the hand of those whose hand He wishes to eat from. So, if you get proud, "I am cooking! Krishna eats my cooking!" this is ego, this is pratistha.

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

Pratistha is like a tigress (baghini). Who can become a Vaishnav? Those who can give up money, who can give up women (men), and those who can give up name and fame. At the same time, we must remember that "Vaisnavi pratistha, tate koro nistha: you must firmly establish yourself as a servant of the Lord." This kind of 'Vaishnav pratistha' must be there.

When we go down the street, a thousands of people crowd and walk behind us, everyone pays obeisance to us, they chant kirtan with us, etc. Someone can see it and become jealous, but this is an offence. Vaishnavs actually do not wish for all this. Their disciples give them 'jay', chant kirtan for them, garland them, but it is necessary to be firm (nista) amidst all this. You can say, "Oh, this sadhu says we must not think about money, but he has a big expensive car! He goes by plane, he drives his car everywhere!" but we actually do not have anything—all this is the Lord's property. He has given this for His service, and we only use it for His service. Even when we get into the car, when we start the car, we offer obeisance to Gurudev. We use the car for Gurudev's service. We do not claim anything—we do not buy anything for ourselves, everything is for the Lord. When devotees give something for service, we use it for the service of the devotees.

* * *

Strong Heart

December 2018, part 1

[Addressing a leader devotee:]

I am telling you—you must be strong. Sometimes, it is necessary to have a strong mind, a strong heart.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said in one of his books, maybe Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had told it, "Even if your boat is sinking, you must keep rowing." Even if you are going to die—your boat is sinking and there is so much water in it—you must keep rowing, you cannot abandon the boat. That is the main thing. I too was very happy before Gurudev gave me this service: so many problems have come to me after this position came, but I have not run away from preaching, I have not run away from the Mission—I am still preaching, still going on, still making festivals, still making temples. That is the mercy of Gurudev.

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

"All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness."

(Saranagati 16.4)

"In the course of service to You so much sadness will come, so many problems will come—so many problems with health, body and mind, will come—but this is all not a problem, it is happiness." You must understand this.

You must think also: we have been following so many false orders of lust, anger, greed, etc.—we have been following so many false orders maya, but:

bado duhkha paiyachhi svatantra jivane

duhkha dure gelo o pada-varane

"I experienced only great distress in my independent life. All my distress has gone away by embracing Your feet."

(Saranagati, 21.5)

"When I was independent, I got so much sadness, but when I surrendered to You, all kinds of sadness went away." Mainly, surrender is necessary. That is the main thing.

Your health may not allow you much, but you must come and give class, you must keep in touch with the devotees. That will make me happy. If you sit in one place and keep thinking that your health is not good, then you will become weaker and sicker. If you stay with the devotees, you will get strength, but if you sit in one place and think about so many nonsense things, your mind will get polluted and there will be a big problem.

When our health is weak, so many diseases come. Here it is the same—when we are weak in our practice of Krishna consciousness, when we do not practise Krishna consciousness properly, then all kinds of maya will be attacking us. "Nikatastha maya tare japatiya dhare: [When souls become averse to Krishna and desire enjoyment,] nearby Maya seizes them." (Pv, 6.2)

[Addressing another leading devotee:]

When Gurudev first time went to your country, you arranged everything and Gurudev recognised you as a good soul, a good devotee, a senior devotee in your country, but you become unhappy because sometimes you do not get proper honour from the junior devotees. It is not necessary to be unhappy. It is not necessary to think that someone does not give you respect—Gurudev gave you respect, Gurudev gave you honour, that is sufficient for you. Why will you think about it? You know, when I go preaching, not in every place there is much devotion, proper culture or respect, but you see how much I am digesting. I tolerate so much galagal (criticism) from them. How much I tolerate... Such tolerance must come to you too, in this way you can continue your practising life. Your health is good and you can go preaching from time to time, otherwise after your daughter gets married, you can come to me, stay with me and take sannyas…

* * *

Seed of Devotion

December 2018, part 2

You have been practising Krishna consciousness for one year already, you have got good association—you are a very fortunate soul because you are already engaging yourself in the service of Guru and Gauranga, as well as their devotees.

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

You have already joined Krishna's family, you are serving Krishna's devotees, and now you are going to take the holy seed of devotion, bhakti-lata-bij. If you take proper care of that seed, it will one day grow into a tree and you will get the fruit—you will get taste through that chanting. It is necessary to chant the Holy Name for that. When you are cooking, when you are cutting vegetables, always chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

This maha-mantra has come through a Guru parampara: from Krishna to Brahma, from Brahma to Narad, from Narad to Vyasadev, from Vyasadev to Madhva Acharya, and in this way down to Madhavendra Puri. Then, it came from Madhavendra Puri to Ishwar Puri, from Ishwar Puri to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu Himself took initiation from Ishwar Puri—He Himself accepted a Guru. You know that if you want to learn something, you need a teacher—if you want to cook, you need a good teacher. In this way, through this Guru parampara, this Hare Krishna maha-mantra came to Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, he had got a special permission from Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Nityananda Prabhu. In his lifetime, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj chose our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj as his successor sevaite. Finally, Srila Gurudev appointed his Godbrothers and also gave me this kind of position to initiate those who promise to follow the rules and regulations properly, who can chant properly, with heart and soul, and who will serve properly. Actually, this Holy Name is for service—when service comes to you, you have to accept it.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

Take the beads now and hold the sumeru bead.

sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta-vrinda

This is Pancha-tattva's name. First chant their name and ask them for mercy because they have brought the Holy Name to this abode and without their mercy we cannot chant. Then, you can see that there are big beads and small beads on both sides, start chanting from the big beads:

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Next bead:

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

In this way, chant on the beads one by one, from the big beads to the small beads, then when you finish the small beads, without crossing the sumeru bead, start chanting again from the small beads to the big beads. In this way, chant from the big beads to the small beads, from the small beads to the big beads, and from the big beads to the small beads, from the small beads to the big beads. Chant in this way sixteen rounds or more every day, that is good for you. Sixteen rounds. If you are busy with service (not with gossiping) any day, then you can chant four rounds. You must chant not less than four rounds every day. Talking is only for Krishna-katha, not any other katha.

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Gossiping is gramya-katha. So, chant sixteen rounds or more but if any day you are busy with service, then not less than four rounds. Do not make your beads fast. If you make your beads fast any day, then you must also fast that day.

There is also the ten offences book. Read that whole book, it is good for you. You can learn something from this book, especially the ten offences of the Holy Name—read what those offences are and chant without offence, then you will get the result quickly and very nicely. Chant this Holy Name, it will be very good for you—Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart and you will succeed in your spiritual life.

Now chant four rounds minimum, do not talk to anybody.

* * *

Look after the Seed

5 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

Rupanuga Guruvarga ki jay

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jya

All the assembled devotees ki jay

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Samagata Gaura Bhakta Vrinda ki jay!

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay

Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

—Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-varenya Astottara-sata-sri Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay. Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay. Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

By the mercy of Gurudev, past few days we have been busy with preaching in many places in Bengal, and after a few days we are going for several-day preaching again. We always preach all over Bengal at this time before Gaura Purnima, before Gurudev's Vyasa Puja and I mostly give Bengali class for the Indian people. I have not been able to get time to give a class in English, I am very sorry and sad about that. I know devotees are waiting to hear something, but they cannot understand Bengali. What can I do? There are so many Bengali devotees here who also want to hear something, that is why I speak to them in Bengali. I have been busy today with some collection for Gurudev's appearance day festival, and there is also another programme tomorrow, but anyhow I have got some time now to say something in English.

Actually, devotees are always enthusiastic to hear something about Gurudev, about Krishna-katha, about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, about how we should maintain our spiritual life. These are the main things.

I tell in Bengali all the time that when you take initiation from Gurudev, from your Guru, this is the first time you leave your illusory family (Maya's family) and enter a spiritual family, join your original family. You join Krishna's samsar (family), but it is impossible to stay in this family unless you serve Lord Krishna, serve His devotees, serve Gurudev. That is why I always tell devotees the minimum rules and regulations, the very minimum that is necessary for devotional life.

Gurudev told you everything—he told you to chant the Holy Name properly. We also tell devotees to chant the Holy Name properly and engage yourself in the service of the Lord. We are passing all our time day by day becoming busy with our own maintenance, with our own enjoyment—we become very busy with this world, but in the meantime we must set some time aside for chanting of the Holy Name, for the service of the Lord, for the service of our Gurudev. These are the main things for our spiritual life.

When your heart becomes clean—when your land becomes fertile—in good association of good devotees, Gurudev puts a devotional seed in your heart, but you must look after that seed. The scriptures also tell about this, you can read in Chaitanya-charitamrita,

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

Gurudev gives a bhakti-lata-bij and we think this is sufficient for us, but this is a mistake, it is wrong. If we do not practise properly every day, we will not get any result. Nitya seva, eternal service is necessary. We are eternal servitors of the Lord, eternal servitors of Gurudev, so you must serve every day with sincerity and chastity. You must maintain your service every day through Nama-sankirtan, through Bhagavat-sravan. Listen to Hari-katha, get association. You must give time for these things, you must listen to Krishna-katha and Hari-katha. And you know that:

mali hana kare sei bija aropana

sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

"As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practising: hearing and chanting."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.152)

Sravan (listening) and kirtan (chanting) is the water. Listen to Hari-katha and sing devotional songs from our song books. Chant the Holy Name and sing minimum five songs in the morning and five songs in the evening: Guru vandana, Vaishnav vandana, Pancha-tattva vandana, Nityananda vandana, and Mahaprabhu vandana. This is minimum. Set some time aside for singing these songs and you will get energy, you will get practice.

I have seen that many devotees in foreign countries and even here in India cannot sing a single song. Some devotees sing songs well, but I have seen also that many devotees do not even know what the mangala arati songs are, what the bhoga arati and noon arati songs are, what the evening arati songs are. We do not know even such simple things and cannot sing a single song because we do not practise every day, we do not give proper attention to that, that is why we cannot understand these things. Singing these songs gives energy.

Why do the books tell us that we must sing Namamisvaram sach-chid-ananda rupa, Radhe Jaya Jaya Madhava Dayite for one whole month during the kartik month (niyam seva month)? Why does it say we must sing all the Siksastakam songs every evening during the kartik month? It is necessary. I also tell everybody that if you sing five songs in the morning and five songs in the evening with the songbook for one month, you will be able to sing them from memory. I never had time to read the songbook to learn all the songs—when we sat in the nat mandir in the evening, senior devotees would sing some songs and we would follow them every day for one hour; after that we could easily remember everything and sing from memory, without any books.

Practise Krishna consciousness properly. You know that

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

These are the main practices. Among them, the best (srestha) is sravanam and kirtanam, Nama-sankirtan. We must practise it, then your devotional seed will be watered. Sing the songs every day, chant the Holy Name, listen to Hari-katha from the website, or wherever you see good Krishna-katha in the internet, then you can understand what is necessary for your spiritual life. These are the main things. We must practise…

* * *

Do Not Forget Gurudev

5 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

We live in this world and as long as we are alive in this world we every day kill millions of millions, lakhs and lakhs of jiva souls through breathing, drinking water, taking food, etc. That is why I always tell devotees: avoid outside food, try to get prasad. This is nitya seva: you must offer what you cook or your wife cooks to the Lord and take that prasadam. On the ekadasi days we sing,

prasada-seva karite haya,

sakala prapancha-jaya

"By honouring the Lord's prasad I conquer all worldly illusions."

(Saranagati, 31.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

By taking prasad you can conquer illusion and get relief from the five kinds of diseases that we have in our heart, mind, everywhere (avidya, ignorance; asmita, false identification; raga, misdirected love; dvesa, aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment; and abhinivesa, being unable to give up unfavourable habits). So many diseases attack us—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy), rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (desire to enjoy pleasant forms, tastes, smells, sounds, textures), as well as the five diseases.

For so many births, so many years and so many times we have been following wrong orders of lust, anger, greed, etc. We follow their orders and suffer so much. But now you can understand it because you are not independent anymore—you have surrendered to your Guru, then you must gradually get relief. That is why you must also chant the Holy Name, you must sing the songs. This is very special and very important for your spiritual life, it is necessary to do it.

Do prasad-seva—take prasad. Take Krishna-prasad, Guru-prasad—take what you offer. If you do not try, you will not be able to do it, but you must try and try and you will be successful. You must try to maintain your spiritual life in this way. That is what Gurudev told—this is what he advised about how to maintain your spiritual life. I know that sometimes in some countries it is not possible to wear the Tulasi neck-beads or tilaks, but in the countries where it is not a problem to wear the kanthi-mala (Tulasi neck-beads), tilaks and brahmin thread if you have second initiation, you must wear it.

Gurudev told me personally when I was taking second initiation that if you recite the gayatri mantras three times, with heart and soul, every day, then you can realise, you get proper connection with your Guru—you can realise it in your heart if you practise properly. That is what I want to tell you. I do not want to say anything more today.

I am praying to you! Please do not forget our Gurudev. You have taken initiation from him—you must try to understand what he told, how much time he gave to the foreign devotees—to you!—how much attention he gave to you! You must try to understand him, try to realise his mercy, how much love and affection he has for you all. You must realise this properly. Do not forget him. Always remember him. Always remember his advice, always remember his guidance. You can understand easily what Gurudev wanted, what Gurudev told you all. Remember all this properly, then you will be successful in your spiritual life.

Please forgive my offence. I am always your servant, I am always at your service. Please engage me to serve you all, that is my request to you all.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

Rupanuga Guruvarga ki jay

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Sada Siva Gangadhar Giriraj Govardhan ki jay

Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

—Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-varenya Astottara-sata-sri Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay. Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay. Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

* * *

Our Divine Master

Srila Govinda Maharaj's Sri Vyasa Puja adhivas day

4 December 2017, part 1

Actually, up until Saturday [2 December 2017] we had not quite decided where the big programme on Gurudev's appearance day would be held. We tried to go to Nabadwip on Saturday—all the devotees from Bengal were also ready to come to Nabadwip for this festival—but anyhow, by the will of Gurudev, by the will of Krishna, by the will of Mahaprabhu, it did not happen, that is why we decided yesterday that we will make the festival here in Dum Dum Park in front of Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Madan Mohan jiu. We called and informed many of the Bengali devotees yesterday and they will come tomorrow. They were actually ready to go to Nabadwip, but when they learned the programme there was called off, they did not manage to come here today, and also the accommodation here is not very large. That is why many did not come today, but all the Bengali devotees are coming tomorrow in the morning.

We think that we have decided something, but actually everything is in the hands of Gurudev, in the hands of Lord Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Nothing is in our hands. We cannot do anything ourselves. What Gurudev wishes, that will happen, and we mainly need to have some patience and tolerance. We may expect or wish for something, but it may not happen—everything depends on Gurudev's mercy.

Gurudev came to this world and many times went on worldwide tours—he travelled all over the world distributing his mercy, distributing the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and it is by his mercy that we are still here. We are actually only instruments—he does everything, everything is in his hands.

Gurudev always told, "Wait and see," and we must try to follow this. We must listen to his words, listen to what he had told us. This is how we are running Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Krishnanusilana Sangha, by his mercy.

Sometimes some problem comes in our spiritual life, but we should not be disheartened because of that. We must continue practising our spiritual life. Gurudev said, "Wherever you stay, whatever place you stay, do not forget Krishna consciousness, do not forget your practising life—wherever you live you must continue your practising life." We must follow this.

Always remember Gurudev. There are so many friends and well-wishers of Gurudev all over the world, and when we see them we think that Gurudev is always with us. There are many acharyas of this Mission all over the world who preach in many ways, who talk about Gurudev's mercy as much as they know, and I am happy with their preaching. We must try to follow Gurudev's words—wherever Gurudev is present, we should meet with the devotees there and practise there together.

Sukha-duhkha sama-bhave: if you think that you are happy or that you are unhappy—we must think that it does not matter, it is the same for us. How we see this Krishna consciousness, how much we can proceed in our spiritual life depends upon your practice, your service, your service mood, as well as the mercy of Gurudev, the mercy of the Guru-varga.

We are very fortunate that we have got this kind of a bona fide Guru who was appointed by a big personality, our Param Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. He gave him his mercy and sent him all over the world to distribute the message of his Guru. Gurudev did not preach about himself—he preached about his Guru. This is an example for our spiritual life. Gurudev never thought about himself, he always thought about the devotees, about his Guru and how much he could preach about his Guru. He always tried to preach up until his disappearance. We must learn from his example, from his teaching. It is a lesson for us.

We could not understand before how much love and affection Gurudev gave us, how much he tolerated me and others, how great his patience was, only later, after his disappearance, did we understand it. Nonetheless, we are still alive, we have life in our body, then we must continue our practising life. Wherever we live, we should not listen so many gossips—gramya-katha na bolibe, gramya-katha na sunibe (do not speak gossips, do not listen to gossips). This is what Mahaprabhu taught. He also always,

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya

kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

If you ask Krishna for some enjoyment, if you have your own interest, Krishna will give it to you, but He will take devotion away from you.

We must continue our service, our practise wherever we are, then we can reach the Lord…

* * *

Gurudev's Teaching and Pastimes

Srila Govinda Maharaj's Sri Vyasa Puja adhivas day

4 December 2017, part 2

Gurudev always preached Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam all over the world: be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur also wrote,

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi ahankara

“Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean.”

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana

“Practise tolerance like a tree. Stop ill-treating others, instead nurture them.”

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe

para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

“Do not trouble others for your own upkeep, and forget your own happiness in the course of helping others.”

Trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara: you must be humble like grass. Vraja gopis left everything for Krishna—even their honour, their shame, everything. They did not think about themselves, they always thought about Krishna, how to make Krishna happy. Our Gurudev also always thought how to make his Gurudev happy.

There was a period when Gurudev lived in Kolkata while Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj lived in Nabadwip—Gurudev would sometimes come to Nabadwip to see him. One time, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told everybody, "If Govinda Maharaj gives me medicine, I will take it, otherwise I will not take any medicine." Another time, when Gurudev left Nabadwip for Kolkata (at that time the direct road through the bridge was not there, so he would take another road), Srila Sridhar Maharaj sent one devotee to stop Gurudev's car. He said, "Stop him, I have pain in my heart." The devotees quickly took his bicycle and stopped Gurudev's car. Gurudev came back to the temple and said, "Maharaj, I left just five minutes ago and you were fine. What has happened?" Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "After you left, I felt some pain in my heart, but now that you are here I feel OK. You must stay here today. Stay for one-two days." Gurudev laughed remembering it, he would say, "Anyhow, by hook or by crook, he did not want me to go to Kolkata. He always wanted to stop me." That kind of love and affection Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave to Gurudev.

The day when Gurudev joined the Mission in 1947, was Nrisingha Chaturdasi day and everyone was fasting from morning to evening on that day. Gurudev was a young boy and he did not know what was called fasting (he did not know how to fast), so he was very hungry. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj was chanting at his veranda downstairs, in front of his room, and asked Gurudev,

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes, I am," answered Gurudev.

"What can I give you today?"

"I saw one ripe papaya on the tree," said Gurudev.

"Can you climb the papaya tree?"

"Yes, I can, it is not a problem."

"OK, climb it and bring the papaya."

Then Gurudev brought that papaya to Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Now you can take it." Such was Srila Sridhar Maharaj's love and affection to him.

Even when Srila Sridhar Maharaj was at first living on the bank of the Ganges in a thatched house, many of his godbrothers would come to see him. He would often keep some two-three-day-old prasadam (some sandesh, for example) and when his godbrothers would come, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told Gurudev, "Give it to them." Gurudev got to serve Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Vichar Jajavar Maharaj and others. He considered it his great fortune that he had got that opportunity to serve all those godbrothers, all those great personalities.

Gurudev also told this story. In summer season, the devotee who was in charge of storekeeping (bhandari) asked Gurudev to pick mangoes from the mango trees every day. He would use Gurudev to climb the trees because Gurudev was young and actually liked climbing trees, but that storekeeper would take good mangoes for Guru Maharaj and also keep some in the kitchen for the Deities, and he would always all the rotten mangoes to Gurudev. One day Gurudev thought of a plan, "OK, he is giving me only rotten mangoes, I will teach him a lesson!" What did he do? He took a plastic bag, climbed a tree and put some good mangoes in that bag leaving it to hang on a branch. After he had given some mangoes to the storekeeper, he climbed the tree again and ate those mangoes. The storekeeper saw it and, when Gurudev got down, he hit him. Gurudev screamed and the manager brought him to Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

"What has happened?" asked Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

The manager replied, "This young boy is stealing mangoes from the tree!"

"OK, you go, I will take care of it." After the storekeeper left, he turned to Gurudev and asked him, "Is it true? Did you eat stolen mangoes?"

Gurudev explained, "I did, because every day I work so hard to bring him mangoes, but he gives me only bad mangoes."

"It is not good because when some fruit grows on a tree you must first give it to the Deities, then you can take it. This is the rule."

"OK," said Gurudev, "I will not take it again..."

"Do not worry, if you need anything, come to me. If you are hungry and you want some mango, I will give it to you."

Then Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave some good mangoes to Gurudev and Gurudev ate them very happily. He went outside and showed it to the manager who had beaten him, "You see? You are giving me a slap, you are chastising me, but my Guru Maharaj has given me good mangoes!"

This is how Srila Sridhar Maharaj showed so much love to Gurudev. He always depended on him in everything. So many sannyasis, so many great scholars came to him, but he finally chose our Gurudev as the acharya, as his successor. We can see then how much love and affection he had for him. Even Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad said, "I have only one son." Srila Swami Maharaj had sons, but he said, "I have only one son, that is Gaurendu Brahmachari." When Srila Swami Maharaj Prabhupad was coming back from his first preaching in the West, he wanted to give the news to his siksa-guru Srila Sridhar Maharaj, so when he was coming back, Srila Sridhar Maharaj had actually cleaned and prepared his own bed for him…

* * *

A Perfect Disciple

Srila Govinda Maharaj's Sri Vyasa Puja adhivas day

4 December 2017, part 3

Srila Sridhar Maharaj bestowed all his mercy upon Gurudev and he depended on Gurudev. When Gurudev joined the temple, within only seven days Srila Sridhar Maharaj had chosen Gurudev to be his successor. Some brahmacharis (Srila Sridhar Maharaj's godbrothers) staying at the temple at that time had their own desire—they knew that the according to Srila Sridhar Mahraj's horoscope he would be alive for only fifty-five years, so they thought they would be the Guru in this mission after that, but when our Gurudev came, within seven days Srila Sridhar Maharaj, seeing Gurudev's chastity and strong common sense, said that he would train him to be the next acharya (successor of this Mission).

You know also that Srila Sridhar Maharaj wanted Gurudev to take this singhasan for many years—Gurudev said that he had been trying to give him his chair for thirty years, but Gurudev did not agree, he would keep saying, "Please wait, please wait. I will see later." He was avoiding this chair. Finally, Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "If you do not take this chair, I will commit suicide and you, as my disciple, will be held responsible for that! If you do not take charge of this temple, I will break it and give the Deities to my godbrothers!" When Srila Sridhar Maharaj spoke such strong words to our Gurudev, he finally took sannyas in 1985 and took all charge. Nayananda Das Babaji (Satish Prabhu) told that at last Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Today I can sleep well because Govinda Maharaj has taken all my responsibility. Now I am free and can sleep properly."

It is those who can take Gurudev's responsibility that can be a Guru, can be a successor. Those who can take all pain from their Guru are the real disciples. Who is called a disciple? Only taking a mantra does not make one a disciple—one who can take their Gurudev's responsibility, who can take away pain from their Gurudev, is called a perfect disciple.

Gurudev fulfilled his Guru's desire. Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote in his pranam-mantra:

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam

chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam

govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram

vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

“I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev’s associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.”

"Gurvvabhista": Gurudev is abhista, he fulfilled all desires of his Guru Maharaj. "Chintyachintya-samasta-veda": he possesses all the conceivable and inconceivable knowledge. Sometimes, Srila Sridhar Maharaj would say, "I can see that in some matters, in some things, Govinda Maharaj knows much more than me."

Once, a disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj asked Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "Maharaj, every day we fry potato for the Deities in oil, but when Govinda Maharaj came today why did you tell to fry potato in ghee for him?" Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied, "You will understand it later." Srila Sridhar Maharaj spoke many things in praise of Gurudev. There are also many articles in the Gaudiya Darshan that are said to have been written by Srila Sridhar Maharaj, but actually Gurudev said that he had written many of those articles—but he would give his Guru Maharaj's name.

Then we can understand how much love and affection Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave to Gurudev... Gurudev also said, "It was my bad luck that at some point I fell down into a well and, like a dog who cannot climb out of a hole, I would just sit there and bark—I would not take anybody's help to get out of that well—but my Guru Maharaj took my hand and rescued me from that kind of position." Gurudev told it himself many times. He received so much mercy from his Guru Maharaj.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

New Year Message

31 December 2018, Dum Dum Park, Kolkata

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Vishva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa-kula-chudamani Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay

Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay!

All the worldwide devotees ki jay

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

All the assembled devotees of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay

Samagata Sri Gaura Bhakta Vrinda ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay

Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay

Suddha-bhakti-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay

Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

Today is the last day of 2018 and tomorrow is the first of January of 2019. We are going to start a new year and I am praying to Gurudev, I am praying to everybody that next year everyone will continue their life and days for the service of Gurudev, for service of Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. These are the main things in our spiritual life, and in any other life also.

If somebody follows mundane life, they should understand that they must follow Krishna consciousness, that they must join Krishna's family for their own benefit, and Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math gives that opportunity. This is the message that we want to give to everybody. Those who are still not following Krishna consciousness, who are not following Mahaprabhu's conception, should take up this process for the real benefit in their life.

This life is not only a hundred years or so in this human body—it is ananta-kal, it lasts eternally and will never finish. How much is a hundred years of this life? It is nothing, it is only a little bit. Just as we change our clothes every day, in the same way we change our body every birth. We always think about our body and material things, but we must think about ourselves, about our spiritual benefit—we must think what will bring benefit to our soul (atma-kalyan). That is the main thing that you must understand.

As for the devotees who follow Krishna consciousness, they should understand how they will realise next year. From tomorrow we must promise that we will not waste our time.

Param vijayate Sri Krsna sankirtanam: may the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Lord Krishna be ever victorious. We must think about what Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told: what have we got this human body for if we do not use it for the service of the Lord? We will not stay in this world for a long time: we must leave our body with Hari-kirtan, Krishna-kirtan, chanting the Holy Name, chanting and chanting. That is the real benefit for our spiritual life. Why do we chant the Holy Name? To get service, real service to Gurudev, to Guru Maharaj. That is the main thing. Service is necessary.

If we waste our time, it is very bad for us. If we think that somebody is protecting us, that is good for us, that is surrender, but as soon as we think that we have no protector, so many enemies will come and attack us that very moment. Hearing Hari-katha from a real sadhu is our protector—sravanam, kirtanam is our protector in spiritual life.

As soon as you become Krishna-vismrita—forget your Lord, forget your service—Maya will come to attack you that same very moment and she will use you for herself. Maya gets her power from the Lord, so you must understand how to overcome her. If you feel Maya is attacking you, you must surrender to Krishna, remember Krishna and chant the Holy Name—then, seeing that this jiva soul is chanting the Holy Name, remembering service, remembering Gurudev, Maya will get out from there. That is our message.

Another thing is that we always search others' fault, it is very bad for our spiritual life. We do not think that we are guilty, we always search for fault in others. Why? Because we cannot purify our mind. We must avoid criticising others. This is Vaishnav-ninda, a Nama-aparadh (offence to the Holy Name). Avoid it and it will give real benefit to your spiritual life.

Sometimes your mind may disturb you, your mind can give you so many problems. When you feel that some problem or anartha (something inauspicious, unwanted) is coming, you must chant the Holy Name loudly at that time and that anartha will be removed. Always think about Krishna, always chant Krishna's Name, do everything for Krishna, do everything for the service of Gurudev.

We think that we do everything and we use everything for our own selves, but actually we are enjoying Krishna's things—we are making a mistake and doing wrong. Everything in this world exists for the Lord, for His service, but because of our ego we are using and enjoying with everything for ourselves—we enjoy the things that belong to Krishna. Everything should be offered to Krishna, after that you can enjoy with Krishna's prasad, it is not a problem. The main thing that we should understand is that whatever things Krishna gives us in this world, we must use them for His service, for the service of Gurudev.

I am telling to all members of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math: Chaitanya Saraswat Math is not only some building in Nabadwip Dham. Chaitanya Saraswat Math is Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's heart, Gurudev's heart! Some bricks, some building is not what Chaitanya Saraswat Math is. Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we must preach Krishna consciousness—we are not builders, we are not construction contractors. We have not come to this world to make buildings. We have come to this world to distribute the message that Sriman Mahaprabhu, Guru Maharaj, Gurudev have given us—like peons (messenger, postman) we must go door to door and distribute this message to every jiva soul's heart.

Srila Prabhupad told his disciples: I will not keep a single coin for you! You can take out a loan to preach Krishna consciousness—to preach Mahaprabhu's message, Gurudev's message—and when you take out a loan you will have to pay it back. How will you do it? You will have to go door to door and send the message of Krishna consciousness to everybody. Otherwise, if I give you money, you will become lazy and your mind will be disturbed. This is what Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told. So, we do not come to this world for any buildings or houses, this is not our main thing—we come to preach Krishna consciousness to everybody, to everybody's heart. This is our main thing.

I am telling all the devotees: in this world, we are not honest workers (karmi), or even bad workers, we are not educated scholars (jnani), our only identity is that we are servants of those who worship the Lord, worship Gurudev, who serve Gurudev—even if it is a one-year brahmachari or sannyasi, or a (pure) grihastha devotee (Gurudev actually said that if someone's heart always thinks about Gurudev, about service, they are not a grihastha, they are a sannyasi). So, if we can be a servant, a particle of dust at the feet of those who chant the Holy Name, who glorify Gurudev, who glorify our Guru Maharaj, that is sufficient for us. We have not come to be a big acharya, a big Vaishnav, we do not need that.

This is the message I want to send to everybody all over the world. These are the main things for our spiritual life.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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