(1/5) Gurudev's Early Days at the Temple

His Divine Grace
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 1 April 2010, part 1

Actually, day by day our time is going... Gurudev has left his body here... He told us many things about his pastimes and his vision...

You know that many things happened when Gurudev joined this mission. Gurudev spoke about it many times. When he joined this mission in 1947, there were many of his godbrothers and the godbrothers of Param Guru Maharaj (Bhutavit Prabhu, Nrisinghananda Prabhu and others) who thought, 'According to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's horoscope, his lifetime is fifty-five years, so after he leaves, we will be the acharyas of the temple!' But when Gurudev came to the temple and they saw that Param Guru Maharaj (Srila Sridhar Maharaj) had very much love and affection for him, they slowly began to think, 'Oh, that boy might become the next acharya.' One day, they complained to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, 'We have done something for this mission and temple, so we want 14,000 rupees for our service.' At that time, the temple was not very rich, so there was not much money, but anyhow Param Guru Maharaj gave them 14,000 rupees and they left the temple.

So many things happened...

When Gurudev had just come to the temple, his mother came with Gurudev's two brothers. She cried so much, 'He is my only son who is an earning member for the family, but he has left my house! How will I manage my family now?' At that time, Gurudev had already left this world. Param Guru Maharaj asked her, 'How much salary was he getting?' She said, 'Twenty rupees per month.' Then, Param Guru Maharaj said, 'All right, it is not a problem. I will send twenty rupees for your family.' Even then, Gurudev's mother did not listen – she tried to pull Gurudev to forcefully take him with her, but Gurudev grabbed some iron window grill and did not let her do it. His mother was pulling him by the one hand, and with the other hand he was holding onto the grill – she was not a very strong lady, so she could not do anything. Gurudev wanted to stay at the temple.

I have also heard that people had come a few times to kidnap Gurudev. One time, Gurudev was going to the market by bicycle, and when he was at Haritala, some people grabbed him and wanted to put him into a car that was standing, ready to take him away. Gurudev began to shout, 'What are you doing?!' Some village people came and asked the men, 'Why are you taking this boy away?' The kidnappers replied, 'He is a boy from our village, that is why we are taking him back.' The local people explained, 'No, you cannot do it like that. He may be a boy from your village, but he is now staying at the temple, so you must first ask his guru for permission.' Then, the men who came to kidnap Gurudev came to the temple and spoke to Param Guru Maharaj. They explained to him something about the family and other things, and Param Guru Maharaj told them, 'All right. Stay here for three days, and if you can defeat me during this time, you can take your boy.' They stayed at the temple for three days (there were seven or eight of them), but they could not defeat Param Guru Maharaj, so they left and let Gurudev stay at the temple.

So many things happened. You can understand how much affection Param Guru Maharaj had for Gurudev. One time, there was a story with the temple storekeeper (bhandari, ভান্ডারী). There are many mango trees growing around the temple, and during the mango season, the storekeeper used Gurudev: he told Gurudev to climb many mango trees and pick mangoes for Guru Maharaj and for the Deities' kitchen. Although Gurudev picked many mangoes every day, devotees did not give good mangoes to Gurudev, who was a very young boy at that time. Eventually, Gurudev thought, 'I am picking so many mangoes every day, but they are giving me only rotten mangoes! I will show them!' The next day, when he was told to climb a tree to pick mangoes, Gurudev climbed a tree, picked some mangoes and left some mangoes in the tree. Later, he climbed back on that tree and ate the mangoes. The storekeeper saw Gurudev eating mangoes in the tree and became very angry. Some devotees beat Gurudev and then took him to Param Guru Maharaj to complain. The storekeeper said, 'Guru Maharaj, this small boy is very naughty! He is taking mangoes from the trees and eating them!' Param Guru Maharaj told him, 'All right, you can go. I will see to it.' When the storekeeper left, he asked Gurudev, 'What happened? If you pick mangoes but do not give it to the Deities, it is not good.' Gurudev explained, 'Guru Maharaj, I pick mangoes every day, but they are not giving me good mangoes. That is why I stole some...' (Gurudev always spoke the truth.) Param Guru Maharaj said, 'I see. It is not necessary to pick mangoes and eat them like that. Check under my bed, there are many mangoes kept there – you can take mangoes from there.' Param Guru Maharaj gave mangoes to Gurudev, and Gurudev ate them, showing to everybody, 'You see? I am eating mangoes! My Guru Maharaj has given them to me!'

That was Param Guru Maharaj's love and affection to Gurudev. He told many things about his Guru Maharaj, about his pastimes. I have also heard many things from him...

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 18 Mb
Length: 40 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Gurudev's Early Days at the Temple
2) Gurudev's Love for the Temple
3) Gurudev's Love and Affection
4) Our Desperate Hope
5) Our Hopeful Determination