Hampering or Hankering?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

You should use everything properly.

If an acharya does not practise with pranipatena, pariprasnena, sevaya—if he is not surrendered, does not have seva-viddhi, service mood, and has no honest enquiry—he cannot practise his acharya life like that. The same is true for everyone. We must understand the meaning of tad-viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena, sevaya, understand what the surrendered mood is:

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ॥
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord's guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me'.

ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভাব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion.

Saranagati 1, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

We sing this song every day, but we must understand its meaning and keep that meaning in our hearts.

We must understand what is favourable to devotion and what is unfavourable, and accept what is favourable and reject what is unfavourable. We can do it easily, but the problem is, as Gurudev said, that we are using our energy for another purpose. We waste our energy on other things (for example talk so much nonsense), and then we do not have energy to chant the Holy Name. Sometimes we think, "Oh, I am so tired, I cannot chant... I cannot sing..." Why are we tired? 'Tired' means we are using our time for another purpose; it means Maya is taking our time for her own purpose. So, we can understand clearly what is necessary for our spiritual life...

Gurudev told also one thing, "How many people have you brought to me and how many of them took initiation? If you bring one thousand people, maybe not even one per cent follows and practises Krishna consciousness properly." Think about it.

I asked Gurudev in his last days, "Gurudev, what is your message to the devotees all over the world?" He said, "Wherever you stay, wherever you live, whatever condition you live in, you must maintain your spiritual life properly."

What did Gurudev leave us here for? To fulfil his desire. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj left him to take care of his temple, and Gurudev also left us to take care of his temple, to spread his conception, to spread Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's conception. You have that quality, you have that facility—use it.

Once a devotee asked Gurudev, "I live alone in my country, there are no devotees here, how shall I then get association?" Gurudev answered, "You can make a devotee there and can get association from them!" You can understand what Gurudev wants from this.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that he wanted everybody to be a rich person. Who is a rich person? Is it a wealthy person who has a lot of money and cars? No. He wants everybody to be an acharya—to preach Krishna consciousness. He also said, "I am not very happy... Why? Because I want everybody to become an acharya. Until and unless everybody becomes an acharya, I will not be happy." Then, realise what Gurudev is saying and follow his conception.

You are very fortunate. Many people came here, but many people did not come. After Guru Maharaj disappeared, some of his godbrothers would not come to the temple regularly, and I asked Gurudev, "They say, 'It was Guru Maharaj's temple, but Guru Maharaj is not there now, so why will we go there?' Why do they say like this?" Gurudev told me, "They did not actually get the proper connection with Guru Maharaj, that is why they put this kind of question."

You are proud that you got initiation, got connection with Gurudev so many years ago, but actually you may not have got anything—otherwise why do you become tired? Why do you become hopeless? No! Until death—for as long as you have life in this body—you must continue your spiritual life, you must continue your practitioner's life! That is the most important thing for us in our life.

If you hear about the pastimes of the Goswamis, of Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Raghunath Das Goswami—if you hear how much austerity they have, how they follow Mahaprabhu's instruction, how much they serve Mahaprabhu and preach about Mahaprabhu, how much service they do—you can realise that we are not doing anything!

We are so proud of our service, we have so much ego, "We are doing this and that, and that," but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead—we cannot do anything for Him! We think we are doing so many things, but what are we actually doing? Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur made sixty-four temples in the sixty-four years of his life, but not at any time did he ever mention, "I have done so many things!" Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad preached all over the world, but he also thought, "I have not done anything for the Lord." And we are simple-hearted, we have such a big ego problem, and we say that we have done so many things, we are doing so many things. It is not right...

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