(3/11) Give Gurudev Place In Your Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Adhivas of Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's tirobhav
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 12 August 2018, morning, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Who was able to understand Param Guru Maharaj? Gurudev could. That is why, not listening to anybody's advice and opinion, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj chose Gurudev as his successor. His godbrothers told him many things, they told him, 'You are making a mistake.' Those who said this had external vision, but you cannot see gurudev and Vaishnavs with your external vision and if you do not distinguish between the body and the soul. If you cannot see and understand gurudev within your heart, you cannot understand who gurudev is. Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not listen to anybody and made Gurudev sit in his chair as the future acharya of the Math. Today is the adhivas (eve) of the disappearance day of this Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

There are so many things that can be told about Param Guru Maharaj. You have seen his kirtan in the Gaudiya Gitanjali book. Also, when devotees do arati, they sing 'Jayare jayare jaya Gaura Saraswati' at every house:

প্রকাশিলে গৌরসেবা ভূবনমঙ্গল ।
ভখতিসিদ্ধান্ত শুদ্ধ প্রজ্ঞান উজ্জ্বল ॥

prakasile gaura-seva bhuvana mangala
bhakatisiddhanta suddha prajnana ujjvala

'Revealing service to Sri Gaura, which spreads auspiciousness in this world, you presented devotional teachings (bhakti-siddhanta) that radiate self-effulgent pure transcendental knowledge'.

This arati song was written by Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Here, it is written that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur revealed and preached the service to Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu (Gaura-seva) in this world. It is necessary to make gurudev happy by knowing who he is, by understanding him and by serving him. We must serve our gurudev trying to please him.

I have told you before also during lectures that one time, a husband and a wife came to take initiation from Srila Prabhupad.

'We want to take initiation,' they said.

'Yes, I heard about that. But why do you want to take initiation?' Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur asked them.

They replied that they wanted to get some good result.

There is such thing is as karma-misra bhakti, but this is not the karma-misra bhakti that we see in this world. When Mahaprabhu was talking with Ramananda Ray, He asked him, 'Prabhu, pada sloka sadhyera nirnaya. Please recite verses concerning the ultimate goal of life and cite the evidence from the scriptures.' What did Ramananda Ray say in reply? He said, 'Sva-dharmacharane visnu-bhakti haya. Doing your prescribed duties can arouse devotion to the Lord.' In other words, whether you are staying in a house as a grihastha, whether you are following the duties of a brahmachari, vanaprastha or a sannyasi, you can serve the Lord in any of these ashrams and practise Krishna-bhakti in this way. Mahaprabhu said, 'Leave that, go further. Go further!' Then, Ramananda Ray said, 'Krishne karmarpana—sarva-sadhya-sara. The essence of one's perfection is to offer the results of one's work to Krishna.' It means whatever you do, you must do it for Krishna, you must offer everything to the Lord. The verses from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Srimad Bhagavatam may seem hard, but Srimad Bhagavad Gita says it simply (9.27):

যৎ করোষি ষদশ্নাসি যজ্জুহোষি দদাসি যৎ ।
যত্তপস্যসি কৌন্তেয় তৎ কুরুষ্ব মদর্পণম্ ॥

yat karosi yad asnasi, yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kurusva mad-arpanam

'O Kaunteya, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever vow you may keep-do everything as an offering unto Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.27)

Krishna says, 'Whatever you do, whatever meditation you practise, whatever yoga or sacrifice you practise, do it for Me.' This is the true karma-misra-bhakti, but people understand it in a different way—they think, 'O Lord, I have put some pranami into the pranami box, I have come to pay obeisance to You, and in lieu of that give my son a good job, let my health be good, let my daughter be married well.' But this must not be your prayer! This can never be a devotee's prayer! A devotee's prayer is

যৎ করোষি ষদশ্নাসি যজ্জুহোষি দদাসি যৎ ।
যত্তপস্যসি কৌন্তেয় তৎ কুরুষ্ব মদর্পণম্ ॥

yat karosi yad asnasi, yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kurusva mad-arpanam

'O Kaunteya, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever vow you may keep-do everything as an offering unto Me.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.27)

That is what 'Krishne karmarpana' is. Anyhow, when Ramananda Ray mentioned this, Mahaprabhu said, 'This is external, go further.' Then, Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-misra bhakti, quoting various verses from Bhagavatam and other scriptures. This kind of devotion means that people can cultivate knowledge to attain the Lord. But in this world, people pray, 'O God, give me power', 'Give me liberation', 'Give me knowledge,' etc. That is the vast difference. These are high things, actually; it is not easy to understand this. If you hear Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita from Vaishnavs, then only can you understand it. If you read and read scriptures, you will get knowledge. After that, Ramananda Ray spoke about jnana-sunya-bhakti, and then Mahaprabhu said, 'Yes, this is right.' Then, Ramananda Ray explained many things about Krishna-tattva, rasa-tattva, lila-tattva and many other things. We must know and understand these things.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur asked Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to sing 'Sri Rupa Manjari-pada, ei mora kirtana, ei mora bhajana pujana' – through this kirtan, he let everyone understand that the one who will preach Sri Rupa-Raghunath's line later is Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj...

So, I was going to tell you about Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. One time, two new people came to Prabhupad saying, 'Prabhupad, we want to take initiation from you.'

Prabhupad asked them, 'Why do you want to take initiation?'

'We want our family to run smoothly.'

Prabhupad said, 'I cannot give this kind of initiation to anyone, so I cannot give you initiation.'

The couple got upset, and Prabhupad said then, 'Do not be upset. I will tell you what you must do—I will give you a room, stay here for a few days, go to arati, parikrama and when I give class in the morning and evening, come and listen about the Lord.'

Then, during seven days they went to the aratis, sang the kirtans... Sometimes people come to the temple and stay in their room without coming out for the arati or parikrama of the Lord, but this is not a hotel—this is a place of kirtan of the Lord's Name and a place of Lord's service. This place is not for enjoyment, you come here to serve... So, they stayed here, went to the aratis, parikrama, listened to Prabhupad's Hari-katha. Prabhupad is 'kripaya Hari-kirtana murti dhara.' Do you understand the meaning of these words? His kirtan was through Hari-katha. He did not chant so many kirtans with mridanga, kartals. He was Hari-kirtana murti dharam (the very embodiment of the Lord's kirtan) through his Hari-katha. So, the couple listened to his Hari-kirtan for seven days, and after that Prabhupad asked them,

'You have listened to some lectures, what do you think about what you have heard?'

'Prabhupad, we like it very much. Now we have understood the meaning of initiation, we have understood everything. Please give us initiation.' All their misconception was destroyed.

'If you are to take initiation, I want something from you.'

'We are poor people, we cannot give so much money or anything .'

'I do not want your money and wealth.'

'Then what do you want, Prabhupad?'

'You must give me a room in your house. Let me stay there and feed me three-four times every day.'

The people were surprised, they thought, 'How is it possible? We have a small mud house and Prabhupad is staying in such a grand house, how can we give him a place at our house? How will we arrange food for him?'

They hesitated a lot and in the meantime, a sannyasi (Prabhupad's disciple) saw them and asked, 'Why are you so upset? You have stayed here for seven days, is Prabhupad not giving you initiation?' The couple explained, 'Prabhupad says he wants a place to stay and we must give him food four times a day. How will we be able to do this?' The sannyasi said, 'Fools, you do not understand Prabhupad. Make a small room in your house, make an altar there and keep a picture of the Lord and Prabhupad on it. Offer bhog to Prabhupad, take his prasad. If you do this, then it will mean Prabhupad is staying at your house.' The couple got excited, 'Yes, true, we did not understand it! Then there is no problem. We will buy a small altar and keep Prabhupad's and the Lord's picture on it, we will offer flowers, etc. bhog to him. Prabhupad spoke about this at his lectures, and we did not think of it!'

Then, they came quickly to Prabhupad, prostrated in obeisance and said, 'Yes, Prabhupad, we will give you a place to stay and feed you, we will do everything.'

Prabhupad replied, 'So, do you agree?'

'Yes, we agree.'

'Good, come tomorrow in the morning, I will give you initiation.'

Prabhupad showed that it is necessary to give the guru and Vaishnavs a place in your heart.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 46.6 Mb
Length: 97 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Genuine Relation with Sri Guru
2) Pleasing Gurudev
3) Giving Gurudev Place In Your Heart
4) Gurudev's Transcendental Care
5) Live In the World of Faith
6) Value Your Service Life
7) Power of Genuine Devotion
8) Give Wholesale Attention
9) Harmonising Wisely
10) Seva-Sprha
11) My Humble Prayer to You