Stay On Board

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 5 March 2015

Without mercy of Gauranga there is nothing.

One time, I remember a very educated man, three times post-graduate in three different subjects, came to Gurudev and said, "Maharaj, I want to make Chaitanya-charitamrita. I am a triple M.A., and I have studied Chaitanya-charitamrita as one of my subjects, I know it." Gurudev answered, "You may pass post-graduate a hundred times, but without mercy from Chaitanya you cannot compose Chaitanya-charitamrita." I heard this directly from Gurudev's mouth.

So, without mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu you cannot understand that, but the Guru can.

Before, I did not read so many scriptures, and I did not really read Chaitanya-charitamrita so much. When I told Gurudev that it was hard to understand what is written in Chaitanya-charitamrita (before, every evening there was a Chaitanya-charitamrita class in the nat mandir), Gurudev said, "Still, you read it—read and read, read and read." Even Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur himself said, "I have read Chaitanya-charitamrita from cover to cover sixty times, but I cannot understand it fully."

Many years ago, in my brahmachari days, I once asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, can you explain the meaning of 'atmaramas cha munayo' sloka?" Do you know what answer Gurudev gave me? Gurudev said, "You are not fit now to hear the meaning of this sloka." He told me this straight.

Gurudev taught us so many things in this way, but he also had to tolerate a lot. So many things have happened, but by the mercy of Guru Maharaj, by the mercy of Gurudev and Gauranga we are still here and we can continue our preaching programme all over the world, whether in India or outside India, it does not matter to us because we all are members of one family—the family of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. We do not expect it, but sometimes some problems will come. It happened in Mahaprabhu's time, it happened in Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time, it happened in Guru Maharaj's time, and it happened in Gurudev's time too. It is not a problem actually, although for us it is a problem, but Gurudev left us to help, serve, and protect his mission—that is our main goal, and if we can do it together, it will be good for our own self and good for others.

We are all in one family, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, that is Chaitanya Saraswata paribar, and if we can go on smoothly, if we can go on truly, we will get a good result.

Actually, we do not worry about the result so much—we do not want to make a show for others and cannot say, "Oh, we can do this, and we can reach this"; but we can show some way, guide, "If you walk in this way, you will see how far you are from reaching your goal." Gurudev is the captain of the ship, and if we can stay in this ship, we can get to the place where the ship is heading. So, for us the main thing is to stay in the ship. If we live following what Gurudev said and tell others about it, we can easily continue our spiritual life, and that will be our true success. This is our main goal.

Also, we should not discriminate, "This is my disciple, this is not my disciple." Do you remember Gunarnava Mishra? He always worshipped Mahaprabhu only, but when Minaketan Ramdas, Nityananda Prabhu servant, came there, Gunarnava Mishra did not give proper respect to him. Minaketan Ramdas called him a son of Romaharsana [an offensive brahman who did not respect Lord Baladev and was slain by Him on the spot].

We are not separate, we are together. You think, "He is my Guru," and another person thinks, "He is my Guru," but actually we are all godbrothers, coming from the same Gurudev. Somebody may be giving initiations, that is not a problem. We are the same family, and we should serve our mission together.

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