Fending Maya Off:
Nourish Others, Protect Yourself

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja day, speaking online to London,
28 September 2011

Sometimes you should call the devotees who do not come, who are not so much connected. It is our duty because if some devotee stays away, maya can attack them. Call them and bring them to the temple, help them keep connection. It is necessary. You know what illusory environment is like—it can attack you at any time and you can fall down at any time. That is why it is necessary to call devotees from time to time.

Even if somebody is creating disturbance for us, or for me personally, you can give them some nourishment, you can give love and affection to them. Their character may be disturbing me, but why should I change my character? I will give love and affection. Even if somebody is against you, somebody stays far and does not come, somebody does not like you, this is not a problem! If somebody does not like me, it is not a problem—I am a bad person, it is not necessary to love me, but please love Gurudev, love Gurudev's mission, love Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundar. If I did anything wrong to them, I can apologise to them and ask them to please forgive my offence. Call them, they can all come—they are Gurudev's devotees. This is loving search for the lost servant.

You know that mercy is always there, but you must be able to keep it, you must be a good receiver. Somebody can say, "Oh, he is a young boy, what can he do?" This is not the question. How old were Sukadev and Jiva Goswami? When Jiva Goswami took the service of Rupa Goswami, he was a young child, a baby, but he took that position. Take care of yourself and always be careful of the illusory environment—problems can come at any time. Always keep chastity and sincerity, be a sincere seeker—you must learn these things. This applies to everybody.

Give nourishment, help the devotees. Take good qualities of the devotees and reject their bad side. We all are sometimes guilty, we all sometimes have some bad qualification, but we must reject devotees' bad qualification and take their good qualification. Do not criticise anybody. You can use everybody in service of the Lord—everybody can do some service. Everybody does not have the same qualification—everybody's qualification is different—we must take their good qualification and engage them in service. If you can do this, you will become great.

Actually, maya is very powerful, but when devotees are with devotees, maya always runs away. Do you understand it? Our movement is mainly preaching movement—we should not worry about the building and bricks so much, it is not necessary. We must look for quality, not quantity. We must worry about our quality. We can be small, but our line should be perfect—the channel we go through must be perfect and proper. It is not necessary to have a big apartment, a big or a small house—the temple is always in the devotee's heart.

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