Amidst 'Dal' and 'Gal'

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance, noon class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 25 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

People come to Vrindavan before getting the Guru's mercy and sit there, doing bhajan at Radha Kunda or in some cave. Have you heard the story of Gita Family?

One time, a man thought, "Gurudev told me to read Bhagavad-gita, but it is very hard to read it among all these people. Better I go somewhere to read Gita on my own." Thinking this way, he left the temple and went to Risikesh to read Gita. He found a cave in a mountain and settled there, but how will he read Gita? His mind is not right.

When he read Gita, he felt drowsy and fell asleep. One day, a mouse came and started eating the book. When he woke up, he saw that half the book had been finished. He got annoyed, "What is this? I am reading Gita and this mouse is disturbing me! I must do away with it!" What did he do? His bad desires had not left him—he still had desire and envy. So, thinking how to get rid of the mouse, he started thinking of getting a cat. He went looking around for a cat and when he found one, he brought it to his cave, thinking, "Now I can read Gita peacefully." A few days later, the cat started meowing in the cave. The cat had to eat something. Then he thought, "Ugh, I must get some milk for the cat. I should find a cow." He found a cow and got milk, but then the cow started to cry, and he thought, "Who will take care of the cow? When will I look after the cow and when will I read Gita? I should get somebody to take care of the cow!" Then, he found a girl. He brought the girl to the cave, and eventually they had children. He ended up having a big family.

In the meantime, the Guru of that man wondered how his disciple was getting on, "He said he was going to Risikesh to read Gita. Let me go and see how he is." When he came there, he saw a big family in a cave squabbling with each other. One child is crying, "Daddy, give me a motocycle!"; another child is crying, "Daddy, I have seen a new girl, arrange my marriage with her!" The Guru asked the man, "Are you reading Gita?!" "Gita? I do not even know where it is!" This is Gita Family for you.

Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told this story. You can find it in his book (Bengali) called Upakhyane Upadesh. One time, when Srila Prabhupad was in some preaching programme, he was informed that the cooking had not been completed and the cooks were running late, and the person was concerned that people were hungry. Srila Prabhupad replied, "Do not worry about it. Delay the cooking for another hour. I will tell devotees such things that they will forget all about hunger. They will not feel hunger anymore." Such were Srila Prabhupad's stories. I have told you many stories from that book (Upakhyane Upadesh).

People want gawa ghee (গাওয়া ঘি) and balam chal (বালাম চাল)—very good quality ghee and good quality of rice. They say, "Oh, I do not want to live at the temple! I would rather stay at home and eat nice ghee and nice rice!" Yet when you stay at the temple, you will have to take dal (ডাল) and you will have to take abuse or chastisement (gal, গাল). You can see that everyone here has come with a return ticket. They are thinking about their house, but if you tell them to stay here for ten days, for four-six months (Gurudev has built so many temples for your shelter), first, they will say, "I will stay at the temple when I retire." Then, they say, "I must have my grandchildren married." After that, you ask what happened and it turns out that before the grandchildren could get married, the person went to 'collect patol' [a Bengali euphemism for 'died']. Such is life,

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ-ভার ।
নামাশ্রয় করি' যতনে তুমি
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari' yatane tumi
thakaha apana kaje

"Know that the main thing is that life is temporary and filled with all sorts of danger. Carefully take shelter of the Name and do your work."

(Gitavali, Arunadaya kirtan, 1.3, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Our life is not eternal: we will have to leave one day; but we are all eternal servants of Krishna, and not for two-three or four days only. No. We are eternal servants. Yet we forget it,

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'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)

You must not forget this. We are eternal servants of Lord Krishna.

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