Keep Good Connection

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
23 June 2001

You all know that when one day Srila Sanatan Goswamipad came to Mahaprabhu and asked, "Please, Prabhu, give me Your permission, I want to leave this body..." Mahaprabhu answered, "Why are you saying this? When you surrender to Me, since that day your body is actually not your body anymore—your body becomes Mine." So, when we take initiation from our Guru Maharaj, when we surrender to him, we should all follow his direction and his advice.

As you know, Guru Maharaj always says that we are all in one ship, or boat, we must all come under one umbrella. He is our captain. Not all of us are clean, everybody has some fault, but we will not see others' faults. Vaishnav is actually adosa-darasi: Vaishnav will not see others' faults, he always thinks, "I am guilty."

In Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's times, among those who lived in the temple, among his disciples, there were some godbrothers who fought among each other. When a disciple once complained to Srila Prabhupad about his godbrother, "He is fighting and quarrelling with me! He is saying bad words to me!" Prabhupad said, "Do not say such things. You must glorify him for half an hour." Do you understand what it means? If we do not look at each other's faults, then I think, and Guru Maharaj also says it, there will not come so many problems.

Everybody should try to keep connection with Gurudev. Gurudev means his Mission, Gurudev means his lectures, his scriptures, books—we should always try to keep connection with this. You know (and the scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavad-gita, always say it) that if you serve Vaishnavs, if you are a servant of the servant of the servant, it will be good—Krishna will be very happy, and therefore Gurudev will be happy too. No seva—no mercy, no mercy—no seva. Prabhupad also says it, Srila Guru Maharaj also says it. Try to get some service, try to anyhow do some service to Krishna or the temple. It is not necessary to have a direct seva to Gurudev—if you become a servant of the servant, it will be better for you.

When our Guru Maharaj was seventeen years old, when he just joined the temple, he told me that he used to always cut grass in the garden and feed it to the cows. He always did so much service, always went house to house, collecting half kg, one kg of rice, etc. He has been doing this kind of service since his childhood when he joined the temple. Because of our ego we want to be a master (prabhu), we do not want to be a servant, we think we know everything, but this is not good—it is pride, and it is bad. We must actually be a servant, we do not want to be a master.

Always keep connection—serve the temple, send letters to Gurudev to India, and also you can serve Gurudev through the service to the temple here locally, through the service to those who are in charge of the Mission here.

Everybody should be always careful. You know that illusion is not so far, illusion is always near us and it always wants to attack us. We are jiva souls—we are tiny, small things and we have no power, that is why illusion will always attack us. If we keep good association through Vaishnavs, by always reading the scriptures, seeing the Deities, coming to the temple, always keep good connection, then illusion will not be able to attack to us. We should from time to time come to the temple, see the Deities, chant kirtan, take prasadam, etc. Most important, it is necessary to do service. I have told it many times, what do we do sravan and kirtan for? What do we read scriptures for? It is necessary to do it, and it is all for service. If we get service, then it is not necessary to do anything else—you will get everything through service.

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