On Guard

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in London
28 July 2018, part 8

Everybody must preach, everybody must come to the class.

Actually, there are some who are spreading so many rumours, this is another type of devotees... One time, when I was in Brazil with Srila Ashram Maharaj and Srila Janardan Maharaj, Sripad Tapasvi Maharaj wanted to take sannyas. His health was not good at that time and I was consulting with the senior sannyasis (Srila Janardan Maharaj and Srila Ashram Maharaj), I asked them, "Sripad Tapasvi Maharaj was a sannyasi previously... What should I do now?" Both Srila Ashram Maharaj and Srila Janardan Maharaj accepted it and told me to give him sannyas, and they chose the name also. As soon as I gave him sannyas, somebody wrote in facebook—do you know what they wrote? "Oh, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj made Srila Acharyadev his successor, and now Srila Acharyadev has also made Sripad Tapasvi Maharaj his successor." Do you see? Do you see what kind of things they are doing? Actually, "an idle brain is devil's workshop," "an active man has no time to waste"...

Devotee: Maharaj, Saraswati Didi [the London Temple manager] is working day and night, maintaining the temple, seeing that everything is going on nicely, and she is doing a beautiful job.

Yes, I know she is doing a beautiful job. She is running, but somebody is taking her sari and holding her back, "Do not go!" [His Divine Grace laughs.] This world is like that. Gurudev says that when somebody is working, many people will criticise them behind their back, and those who are doing nothing have no problem.

Saraswati Didi: Maharaj, we have a very good team of devotees here.

Yes, I understand it. They are doing so much service, but everybody should not be proud because of their service. OK? "I am doing this! I doing that! I am doing so many things!" Do not become proud. Do you understand? Gurudev is still there, Gurudev is in front of the Deities, Gurudev is with the Deities, Gurudev's photo is there, everything is there, and if somebody says, "I am doing this, I am doing this, I am doing this," they become proud.

You know, Raghunath Das Goswami used to give Vaishnav seva with his father's money, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not like it—He said later that it was not good because pratistha could come.

Actually, we cannot do any service. We cannot do anything! We are tiny jiva souls, like ants, like mosquitos and even worse than that, and Gurudev is very powerful, Krishna is very powerful—how much we can do for them? We cannot do anything. This kind of feeling should come.

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)

"I am doing some service and some kind of unhappiness is coming to me, but this is not unhappiness—it is the greatest happiness! It is the purest happiness!"

Some unhappiness can come, but do not express it—it is the greatest happiness.

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)

When some sadness is coming, it is not so—it is happiness. Some obstacles can come in your service, it is true because maya is always attacking you, maya is always obstructing your service. So, every time you think that something bad is happening in your spiritual life, you must understand that this is created by Maya, created by Kali Maharaj.

Devotee: Maharaj, I wanted to say also about Lavanya Moyi Didi. She is working day and night in the temple, four days a week, and then she goes for collection at the weekend. She sometimes carries on for sixteen hours a day. She has unbelievable energy and service mood, it is so inspiring.

Of course. They are getting mercy from Gurudev, they are getting mercy from Vaishnavs, and they can do all the time. Why only sixteen hours? They can do service twenty-four hours! I am not astonished by sixteen hours—when Gurudev's mercy comes, she can do service for twenty-four hours. I believe that.

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