Beware of Maya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Srila Narottam Das Thakur's disappearance day
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 4 November 2012, part 5

Today is Narottam Das Thakur's disappearance, and after some days there will come Guru Maharaj's appearance festival. It is on the day of Virachandra Prabhu's appearance. That day is coming. Srila Sridhar Maharaj's appearance day is non-different from Virachandra Prabhu's appearance day.

You know there was some disturbance in Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's mind also. When his Guru Maharaj, his Prabhupad, left, he also left the temple and went to stay in Vrindavan. He thought, "I will leave my body, I will die here." But he also got some daiva-vani (divine message), and Prabhupad sent him, threw him, to Nabadwip.

Here, in Nabadwip, he made one thatched house. Now you can see a big temple, but at first it was just one thatched house, after that this white building (next to the nat-mandir) was made. It is actually a mud house—the walls of the ground floor are made of bricks with mud (later I made some proper plastering, but inside there is still mud). At that time there was no money to buy cement. At first, Srila Sridhar Maharaj slept on some straw covered with a jute sack, and what was the pillow's name? Bricks. [A devotee laughs] No, I am not joking. He would put a brick, cover it with something soft (straw), and slept like that.

In this way Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj came here. Through whom did he preach Krishna consciousness all over the world? Through Gurudev! Srila Sridhar Maharaj spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, he gave inspiration to our Guru and sent him all over the world, door to door, corner to corner to give this real food, the proper wealth to others, to us also. We must honour his appearance day properly...

Always, at all times, be alert, be aware of Maya. Maya does not mean some girl or a woman. We always think that Maya is a woman or a girl, but there are different kinds of Maya. Maya can come any time, she can remove you from your practising life. Somebody may have no woman, somebody may have no wife, but they can be removed from practice. It is also Maya. Or somebody thinks, "Oh, I will stay in Vrindavan under a tree..."

One Gujarati boy called me yesterday. I had spoken to him in Vrindavan on Janmastami day. Some time before that, I told him to go to Nabadwip, he went there but could not adjust there. Then I told him, "Go to Bamunpara." He cannot adjust too. Then, he said, "I want to go to Vrindavan." I said, "OK, you can go to Vrindavan, do some service there." He went to Vrindavan, but he stayed in his room all the time and in the end said to me, "I cannot stay here. There is fan, there is light in the room, it is not a bhajan place. I will stay on the bank of the Yamuna!" So, the bank of the Yamuna is the real "bhajan place"... He went there—he sat all day in the temple, ate there, and in the evening went to the Yamuna to sleep there. One day a mosquito bit him and now he is in hospital... That is called "real bhajan." What kind of bhajan is that? It is following your mind! "Na la-inu sat mata asate majila chita!" (না লইনু সৎ মত অসতে মজিল চিত: I have never accepted the proper conception, my mind has been immersed in illusion.) I told him, but he did not follow. "Aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana." (ঐছন আমার মন ফিরে যেন অন্ধজন: my mind wanders like a blind man who cannot tell the right way from the wrong way.) It is true. What that boy did was not bhajan, it is phalgu vairagya (false renunciation), it is not yukta vairagya (proper renunciation)—having material desire in your heart but showing renunciation...

I saw also some sannyasi always sits in his chair and whenever people come to him, he asks them for money. He shows renunciation but asks others for money. It is false renunciation. When I see him, I remember 1992, the first day when I came here to join. I came here as a simple young boy, wearing simple trousers and panjabi, just like an ordinary simple boy. When I came here, he said to me, "Why have you come here? There is no Guru here!" At that time my Guru was preaching out of India. I was searching at that time, "Where is my Guru?" I had got some message from the above and I came here to the real place, but he said to me, "Why have you come here? There is no Guru here!" I told myself, "This is Maya Devi coming in front of me!" It was not a lady, externally it was a sannyasi, but it was Maya Devi. Maya Devi came in front of me and said, "There is no Guru here, go from here." But I did not listen to her! I avoided, I ignored Maya Devi and stayed. Do you understand? This was my position, I am giving you my example now—I am telling you how much I had to struggle in my spiritual life.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!
Narottam Das Thakur ki jay!
Tadiya tirobhav tithi-bara maha-mahotsav ki jay!

Are there any kartals and mridanga? Oh, only one kartal and one mridanga? Good! Then we can sing properly...

[His Divine Grace then chants "Ye anila prema-dhana" and "Hari haraye nama krsna"...]

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