Dog Stories:
Fortune and Perseverance

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Jagannath Mishra Ananda-mahotsav
24 March 2016

For the Ratha-yatra last year, I bought only two hundred train tickets to Puri for the devotees, but soon after that I got some news from the devotees, "We want to go," "We want to go," so I bought fifty more tickets. Soon the news came to me again that more people wanted to go, so I bought a hundred more tickets.

When I went to the Howrah railway station, I had 350 tickets with me, but when I got there, I saw 400 devotees had come to go to Puri, so I went and bought fifty general tickets. Then, five minutes before the train's departure, three more people came up to me, but I told them I had not time to go buy the tickets because the train was leaving—I told them they could go with me without the tickets. They were educated people and did not want to go without a ticket, so they left the Howrah station.

When I entered the train station to get on the train, however, I saw some police officers beating two dogs. I asked them why they were beating them, they said the dogs had not ticket. I told them I would buy the ticket for the dogs. So, I gave them some bribe and they did not beat them, they allowed them in. This is how those two dogs went to Puri with us.

So, those who have fortune, who have faith, can do the parikrama with the devotees—even those who have no money can do the parikrama with the devotees.

I can also give another example. Once two dogs wanted to go for Nabadwip parikrama from Dharmatala (Kolkata). They wanted to go by bus, but the bus driver kicked them out of the bus. The dogs thought, "OK, we will walk then."

They started walking, thinking, "How many days will it take us? It may take us seven days to reach Nabadwip..." They started from Dharmatala and by the evening came to Barasat. Tired, they could not walk any more, "Oh, we have been walking the whole day today, we need to take rest." They came to a local barber shop, but there were so many dogs there that started barking, "Why have you come here? This is my place! Get out of here!" They thought, "Oh, we are getting disturbance... We better walk on." They continued walking and by midnight came to Ranaghat. There, they saw a sweetshop, and there were no buses, no people around, so they thought, "This is a quiet, peaceful place, we can happily sleep here." As they lay in front of that sweetshop to rest, the local dogs again came barking, "Why have you come here? This is our place! Get out of here!" They said, "OK, we will continue walking..."

The next day, when the morning came, they suddenly found themselves in Nabadwip. They said to each other, "You see? We thought seven days would be necessary, but so many disturbances came and we have reached Nabadwip in one day! Now, we can happily stay in the Dham, we can see the Deities for six days more."

So we can understand from this story that if some problem comes, if some disturbance comes, it can help us proceed in our spiritual life. You can think that when some problem comes, some bondage comes in your spiritual life, it is good for your spiritual life.

Whatever problem comes, we will not leave our Guru, we will not leave our temple, we will not leave our seva.

তোমার সেবায় দুঃখ হয় যত,
সেও ত' পরম সুখ ।

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,
seo ta' parama sukha

"All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness."

(Saranagati 16.4)

"Some unhappiness can come, but it is my happiness."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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