Service Pastimes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 12 March 2017, part 3

I have no problem with any disciple of any sannyasi. If somebody is a disciple of another sannyasi, I do not have any problem with them, they can happily come and stay here, and as much as possible I will try and I am trying to serve them.

The other day I was thinking that some western devotees may not be able to go to take prasadam in the prasadam hall because it is too much austerity for them with all the thousands and thousands of Indians, so we arranged prasadam for the western devotees in another building.

You can see also that after Srila Gurudev's appearance festival, despite my poor health, I went door to door preaching for the Gaura Purnima for three months. I preached outside for seven days, then came here for one day or one night, managed the goshala, deer, some court cases, etc. and after that again went door to door for another seven days. This is how I arranged this Gaura Purnima parikrama. Before, Santosh Prabhu did this and I had some relief because it was not necessary to worry about prasadam, but this time I had to look after everything myself (prasadam, arranging the rooms, collecting, etc.)—this time I did myself whatever was necessary to arrange for the devotees. How is it possible? I know Gurudev is giving me strength, this is how I am doing it. Also, I know all the devotees have some love and affection for me, and so many letters are coming from them—due to this I am becoming mentally strong. My health is not strong, but mentally I am becoming very strong, and I am very happy with that.

You can see this house (Govinda Dham) here in the Museum, there is so much remembrance (smriti) connected with this house. When I came from Kolkata, Guru Maharaj gave me a room there, and when we were making the museum I wanted to keep the house, but one of his godbrothers wanted to break it. I did not do it. Also, at the time of Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, everybody would write "Acharya Abhinandan", but when I began to print the invitation letters, I wrote "Vyasa Puja Mahotsav". One time, I made a banner saying "All Glory to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga, today is Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's appearance day," but one of his godbrothers did not like it and broke it. When I made Acharya Bhavan, Gurudev's room, I used whitewash, but somebody went to Gurudev and complained that I was spending too much money. Gurudev said to me in front of that devotee, "Why do you not paint my house black?"

In Gurudev's time, about two hundred people came to join Gaura Purnima, but after I joined the temple permanently, you can see that two-three hundred only foreign devotees have come and thousands and thousands of Bengali devotees have come to celebrate Gaura Purnima this year. Gurudev's mercy is the main thing.

After Gurudev's disappearance, when Gurudev's vigraha (Deity) was finished, I had some problem and could not not come to Nabadwip for the inauguration of the samadhi mandir. At that time, I told Srila Goswami Maharaj to please make and preside at Gurudev's Deity installation programme in lieu of me. He did that, but one of my Indian godbrothers said to me,

"Why are you going to make Gurudev's samadhi?"

"Why not?" I asked him.

"First let the problems get solved, then we can make Gurudev's samadhi."

"And if the problems are not solved for a hundred years, does it mean we will not make Gurudev's samadhi?!"

He did not answer anything to me. In his life Gurudev could not finish some things (he could not finish the job in Ekachakra and in Siliguri), and it is all finished now by the mercy of Gurudev. This Gaura Purnima too is finished successfully. They were trying to delay the programme in many ways, but by the mercy of the Lord, by the mercy of Krishna, by the mercy of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and by the mercy of Gurudev and all the Vaishnavs, the parikrama finished successfully, and today also I hope that Gaura Purnima will finish properly.

— : ○ : —

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

• Download (1.7 Mb)