Keep Your Heart Close to Your Guru

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
speaking online to Colombia
18 May 2015

Question: What can I do not to lose devotion, not to lose that feeling...

You must maintain your family through Krishna consciousness. What is your regular duty? Wake up early in the morning, do arati, offer the bhog to your Guru at the altar in your room or house, take prasadam, chant the Holy Name, and as much as it is possible you can preach outside. You must follow a regular programme like this. Even if you live alone, sing the songs, chant the Holy Name, and if some Vaishnavs come to your house, give them some prasadam. Mahaprabhu told to Sanatan Goswami, "Jive daya, Name ruci, Vaisnava seva." Give benefit to the jiva souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs—these are your main things, and in this way you can maintain your spiritual life. And follow all the rules and regulations, follow Mahaprabhu's conception.

Question: Sometimes we become caught by Maya and cannot see the real sense. What can we do not to be caught by maya like this?

Actually, Maya's duty is to take our time and engage us in her service. Maya is always taking our mind, taking our heart, taking everything to keep us far from service. We must get good association, we must surrender fully to the Lord, then Maya will automatically run away.

If you do your service properly, without offence, if you chant the Holy Name without offence, do not leave your service, do not give up chanting japa, chanting the Holy Name—if you continuously keep the door shut in this way, Maya will automatically run away from you.

Sometimes your mind is fickle, your mind is disturbed. If you think, "Oh, I cannot do service any more," and leave your service, then it is maya. Through seva aparadh sometimes you may think, "I do not want to do any service," or, "I do not like doing service," and your mind goes another way, but if you leave that service, that is a big problem for you. It is not good for you. You must understand, "OK, my mind is telling me not to do it, but I have to do my service. It is my duty to do the service." You think you are doing Nama aparadh, making offence to the Holy Name, so you will not chant, but if you chant more and more, Nama aparadh will automatically be removed. You must chant and do your service continuously.

Question: Sometimes we do not do service or follow sadhana very well. Will the Guru not reduce or not continue his connection with us?

The Guru is always merciful, Krishna is always merciful. Sometimes we cannot do proper service, we cannot sometimes follow the full conception, but the Guru, Vaishnavs, and Bhagavan are always merciful, they always forgive our offences.

We make so many offences, we do so much wrong, but the Guru and Krishna are always merciful and if we are doing something wrong, they will correct me—if we have some hope and if we try our best. If you think, "I am doing offence," it is good for you. Somebody may not think that they are making offence, but we always make offence. The Guru and Krishna are always merciful, They always accept our service—even if I do it wrong, they will also accept it.

Question: A devotee here is asking you to please tell him what service he can do to receive your blessings.

What does he do?

Devotee: He is serving here in the Paipa temple, and all his family is also with him. He wants to do his best and he would like to be near you his whole life.

No problem. He is staying there and he is doing service there. To get mercy it is not necessary to be physically close to the Guru or come physically to the Guru. If your heart is with your Guru, if your heart is close to your Guru, that is sufficient. If somebody stays far but follows Gurudev's instruction, that is sufficient, that is OK. You do not have to come physically to stay with the Guru—always fulfil Gurudev's desire, that is good.

I am reminding also: I need some devotees who want to stay here permanently. There are so many centres here—Ekachakra, Siliguri, Nabadwip, etc. OK?

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