Internal Inspiration

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Speaking online to the devotees in Caracas
5 December 2012

Question: Is there any reason why, if Gurudev gives an instruction to a devotee, the devotee will not want to follow it?

What reason is there? What can you do? If everybody followed, then everybody would go to Gurudev, and who will stay here? Whom will Gurudev then preach to? If everyone follows the instruction from the first time, the Guru will be lazy and it will not be necessary to give any instruction.

In Mahaprabhu's time, in Srila Guru Maharaj's time, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Srila Prabhupad's time, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time, all devotees also did not follow their Guru. You heard that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave sannyas to a devotee, and when he went to Kedar, Badri without permission, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur took his sannyas clothes and danda back—only for that one reason.

Question: How can we detect the instruction of the chaitya guru?

It is a good question. When you get a bona fide Guru, that is the chaitya guru's instruction; otherwise without the chaitya guru's instruction you cannot get a bona fide Guru. Chaitya guru's instruction is not open: it comes from the heart. You get some feeling and come to a bona fide Guru.

You can also say that it is some kind of sukriti, an inspiration that comes to you. For example, when I came to the temple with my toothbrush, my chaitya guru told me, "Do not go from here, your Guru is coming." This is the feeling I got, somebody else will get another feeling. Different people get different kind of feeling—those who are more powerful, who have got more sukriti before, can easily get the inspiration from the chaitya guru and come to the mahanta guru.

As I told one devotee, "When I was fourteen, at your age, I was a naughty school boy, but you have got the saffron clothes, you are going to preach Krishna consciousness, you sing kirtans. You have got more previous sukriti than me, that is why at your young age you have got that kind of benefit. I did not have that kind of sukriti—I could not join at such a young age."

When I joined Krishna consciousness, I was about 26-28 years old, but I remember from eight years old I used to secretly read Srimad Bhagavad-gita. My father always chastised me and prohibited me to read it, and he spoiled or threw away my book many times, but when he was out of the house, I would still secretly collect the Gita and read it. Even though I could not understand it properly, I would still read it...

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