Essential Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in the Philippines
22 August 2011, part 3

One time, Brahma heard that Krishna, his Lord and Master, appeared in his universe. When he came to see Him, he saw that Krishna was playing with cowherd boys—he saw one of Krishna's friends bite half of a fruit and give the other half to Krishna. Brahma thought, "No, He is not Krishna. It is somebody pretending to be Krishna!" Then, Brahma hid all the cows that Krishna and his friends were herding, in a cave. Krishna searched for the cows everywhere but could not find them. In the meantime, Brahma also created some illusory environment and hid all the boys as well. Krishna thought, "Who is doing this?" Then He understood it was Brahma, "Oh, it is Brahma testing Me!"

A year passed and when Brahma returned he saw that everything was running properly as before. Then he understood he was wrong. At that time, he could not understand that Krishna is the Lord Himself and that He came in the form of human being, in a human body.

We are also like this. We cannot know, we do not know when the Lord Himself comes in a human body—Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also came in a human body, the Guru also comes in a human body. We cannot realise it, we do not have that kind of eyes to see it. That is why we have to pay obeisance to our Divine Master Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

Krishna Himself comes in the form of the Guru, and if we do not understand the Guru, then we cannot understand anything. This is our platform, our foundation. If our foundation is weak, then our spiritual life will not be strong because faith is the basis. It is necessary to have the strongest faith in the Guru.

You must practise properly in this way. We must follow Gurudev's order—it is not necessary to come close to Gurudev. Some think, "Oh, we are not close," "Oh, I am so far from my Guru!" No, it is not so. If you follow your Guru, if you follow your Guru's instruction from far away, that is a more essential service. If, on the other hand, a disciple is staying together with the Guru and does not follow his order, this is not sadhu-sanga.

Sadhu-sanga means following the sadhu's order, the sadhu's instruction. This is what is necessary. Sadhu-sanga does not mean eating with the sadhu, sleeping with the sadhu, drinking with the sadhu, etc. This is not sadhu-sanga. For example, a mosquito also sleeps with the sadhu, but it is only disturbing the sadhu. Sadhu-sanga means that your Gurudev may be far away and you may be also far away, but if you follow his instruction, that is sadhu-sanga, that is sadhu-seva, Guru-seva. If you follow the instruction of the Guru, that is called Guru's service, and this is how you should engage yourself.

Follow the instruction that your Gurudev gives you, then it will be sadhu-sanga, Guru-sanga, and then you will be more powerful. All of our godbrothers, all of our Guru-varga always follow Gurudev's instruction.

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