Grace and Disgrace

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Speaking online to devotees in Caracas, part 9
22 July 2012

Question: How can we help a devotee if they have false ego?

This is a problem... Ego eats everything. If somebody is proud, they become very fat—they keep blowing up like a frog and then burst.

Yudhisthir Maharaj asked once a question, "What does Krishna eat?" And the answer was, "Krishna eats ego." Only Krishna eats ego, so if such devotee surrenders to Krishna, He alone can solve their problem. Ego and pride is a very difficult problem. Do you understand it? If somebody has ego and is proud, it is easy for them to fall down. If you ask, "How do people fall down?" The answer is, "They fall down because of ego."

Your question is how you can help them... They must themselves understand, "I am nothing. I have not done anything for my Guru, for Krishna." Krishna needs so many things, but what can we do? Only a little bit, and we cannot do even that little. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the proprietor of entire universes—how much and what can we, tiny jiva souls, do for Him? Nothing. If we think we have done so much, it is our big problem.

Do you know what service Krishna did in Dvaraka? When all guests, devotees were coming over, Krishna took care of their shoes! This is the kind of service He did. So, if somebody is a temple manager, he should clean toilets, then their ego will be removed. It is very hard, is it not? Otherwise ego will not be removed.

Every year Siddhanti Maharaj came at Gaura Purnima. Every year, before Gaura Purnima, he would take some toilet cleaner and clean all outside toilets around our temple in Nabadwip. One time he came late. Three-fours days were left before the beginning of the parikrama and people starting coming, I had to finish that service, so I hired some people and they cleaned the toilets. When Siddhanti Maharaj came, he was angry very and said to me, "Who are you? Why did you take my service! I have been coming every year for twenty years and I have been doing this service, why did you do my service." I replied, "Maharaj, please, you can take the cleaner and clean again, no problem."

Question: What is the real meaning of "His Divine Grace"? Like, there is a book Sri Guru and His Grace, what is the meaning of that phrase?

Guru and his grace means Guru and his mercy. Like, His Holiness means Sripad, and His Divine Grace means Om Vishnupad (it means non-different from Krishna). We give some honour and say that the Guru is non-different from Krishna, and if we give a little less honour, we say His Holiness, it means Krishna's servitor.

Two points exist within one sloka written by Vishvanath Chakravarti,

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

In first two lines he says, "Guru is the Lord Himself," and in the next line he says, "Kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya. Guru is the Lord's dearmost associate." So, on the one hand, he says that Guru is non-different from Krishna, he is Krishna Himself, and on the other hand he says that Guru is Krishna's dearmost (Radharani). Two things are mentioned in one sloka.

— • :: • —

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

• Download (1.7 Mb)