The Disciple's Mood and
the Guru's Power

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Year 2012

There was a young boy of about 7 years old named Satyakam, who lived with his mother Jabala. Once he said to his mother,

"Mother, I want to be a brahmachari. I want to go to a big bona fide Guru and stay there at his griha, house... But when I come to the Guru-griha, the Guru will ask me, 'What is your father's name? What is your gotra, caste?' What should I say to him?"

"My dear son, I work as a maid servant in many places, and somehow I got you, I do not know who your father is... Tell the truth to your Guru."

"OK, I will tell my Guru the truth."

So, Satyakam went to Acharya Gautam, "O Gurudev, O Acharyadev, please keep me. I will serve you—I will take initiation from you and will stay as a brahmachari."

"You can stay, no problem, but what is your caste, what is your father's name?"

"O Acharyadev, I do not know my father's name. My mother told me she was working in many houses, and somehow she got me, and she does not know what my gotra, caste, is, and I also do not know."

Gurudev became very pleased that he had told the truth, "You told the truth, so I will not wait—I will give you initiation right now." He gave him the initiation, the brahman initiation.

Then Satyakam asked, "Gurudev, what is my service?"

Acharya Gautam had 400 cows, so he sent him to the field to take care of the cows. That was his only service: he had to go alone to the open field and graze 400 cows.

Satyakam said, "I must do some service—without service I will not stay here," so when he got the service of 400 cows, he was very happy and promised to his Gurudev, "I will come back when the number of the cows increases to 1000."

In the end, when the cows' number reached 1000, Satyakam started his way back to his Guru. On his way back, the demigod Vayu, the Air, came in form of a cow (you know that all demigods stay within a cow) and said, "I am Vayu, the Air. I am going to give you some advice, brahma-upadesh, brahma-jnan." He gave him ekpada upadesh and said that Agni, the Fire would come and give him dupada upadesh. Next day he walked with the cows the whole day and in the evening the Fire came in the form of another cow and gave him dupada upadesh. After that, Suryadev, the Sun, came and gave him tripada upadesh.

In this way, Satyakam came back to his Gurudev's house, and when Gautam Goswami saw his disciple he saw that he had become very exalted—the number of the cows had increased and he spoke about the advice from the Sun, the Air, the Fire. Gautam Goswami asked him, "Where did you get this advice? You look so exalted, you have got so much divya jnan..." Satyakam explained, "Prabhu, maybe you sent somebody and they gave some advice to me, but I need Guru upadesh." Gautam Goswami gave him some advice and made him the acharya! Satyakam became a great Guru, and many munis, rishis came to see him. A prostitute's son, but he became a great Guru! Srila Prabhupad told this kind of story.

যেই ভজে, সেই বড়, অভক্ত—হীন, ছার ।
কৃষ্ণভজনে নাহি জাতি-কুলাদি বিচার ॥

yei bhaje sei bada, abhakta—hina, chhara
krsna-bhajane nahi jati-kuladi-vichara

"Only a nondevotee can be considered as worthless and abominable: anyone who takes to devotional service is great—there is no consideration of class, caste or any other status for those who have taken up service to Krishna."

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4:67

Satyakam spoke the truth, he was a sincere seeker, he had chastity, satitva, and strongest faith. These are necessary. And first comes asakti [detachment from the material environment], because if you are attached to the material things, Hari-katha will not enter your ears.

আসক্তিরহিত সম্বন্ধসহিত
বিষয়সমূহ সকলি মাধব

'asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'
visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Mādhav Himself.

'Vaishnav ke?' verse 12

When the Guru of the demigods, Brihaspati, cursed Indra, Indra had to get a pig's body. Brahma came to save him. Seeing Indra's attachment, he killed all his sons, but then all his attachment went to his wife, and Indra, in the form of the pig, became very angry. Brahma thought, "How can I do him good? How can I bring him benefit?" He tried again and again to give him some advice, but Indra became only angrier. Then Brahma thought, "I will have to kill his wife." Only after he had killed all Indra's asakti, attachment, did Indra begin to listen. When Hari-katha entered his ears and he got the nectar, he again got his body and went back to Indraloka, svarga [heaven]. Brahma even had to kill for that!

Do you understand? Guru wants to do good for his disciple. A real Guru is like this:

দুর্দ্দৈবে সেবক যদি যায় অন্য-স্থানে ।
সেই ঠাকুর ধন্য তারে চুলে ধরি' আনে ॥

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane
sei thakura dhanya tare cule dhari' ane

If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.47

Narottam Das Thakur was the only disciple of Lokantha Das Goswami. Lokantha Das Goswami said, "I will not make any disciples," and Narottam Das Thakur said, "Anyhow I must take Lokantha Das Goswami as my Guru." Lokantha Das Goswami used to pass stool in some place, and every day Narottam Das Thakur came to clean that place. Lokantha Das Goswami noticed it and wanted to know who was doing this service, and although he had said he would not make any disciples, he finally said, "There is no other way—I have to give initiation to him!" Then he initiated Narottam Das Thakur. And we all know about Narottam Das Thakur—Lokantha Das Goswami used him for preaching.

We can understand in this way that the Guru does everything. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj did not go to the Western countries, but he sent his dear disciple, Srila Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, to preach Mahaprabhu's words all over the world, and the whole world knows him very well. We do not know much about Lokantha Das Goswami, but we know about his only disciple Narottam Das Thakur.

So, I have told these two stories today—about Satyakam, Jabala, and how Brahma demolished Indra's attachment. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad gave very nice advice through these stories.

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