A Temple Manager's Qualities

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 8 March 2015

It is not necessary to know so many volumes of scriptures, not necessary to read so many books, not necessary to become a bona fide guru, nor is it necessary to become a great Vaishnav. Gurudev told one thing: to run a temple, you do not have to be a big guru, do not have to read volumes of books. You may not know so many scriptures, but if you are gentle, if you have some quality—humility, tolerance, and you can give respect to others, you have sympathy, love, and affection for others—you can be a proper manager of a temple. It is a simple matter, it is not some big Vaishnavism.

Sometimes, as a manager, you will have to chastise others, but not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to tolerate chastisement. Only a rare person can tolerate Gurudev's chastisement:

When Mahaprabhu heavily chastised Jagadananda Prabhu and praised Sanatan Goswami, Sanatan Goswami began to cry. He said, "I am such a bad person! It is my bad fortune that Mahaprabhu is giving bitter to me and giving sweet to him (Jagadananda Pandit)."

So, only a very fortunate soul can digest Gurudev's chastisement, that is why some tolerance is necessary for a manager.

Just now I have also told: who can chant the Holy Name, who has the right to chant the Holy Name? Only those who have these qualities—who can tolerate, who can be humble, who can give respect, honour to others—can chant the Holy Name...

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

• Download (1 MB)