On Chastity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
12 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

Gurudev told that no one could become a Guru without their Gurudev's permission. In this age of Kali, there are so many Gurus because, as Gurudev said many times, 'Guru business' is a very good business—it is very easy to cheat foolish people. That is why in this age of Kali, there are so many Gurus here, there, everywhere, but Gurudev said it many times that you can never initiate people without the permission of your Guru. We must understand this; it is very important.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had many qualified scholarly pandit disciples, but he chose Gurudev. You can read many scriptures many times, you may know many things, but the Guru can understand who can follow his conception, who has chastity for him. That is the main thing.

I want to tell now about chastity. Gurudev always explained the meaning of chastity. If your Guru tells you that the sun rises in the west today, you must believe it. Suppose, you are walking with Gurudev and see a snake—you say, "O Gurudev, there is a snake over there! Please be careful," but if Gurudev tells you that it is not a snake but a piece of rope, you must believe it. That is called chastity. There is another example also. One time, Gurudev was in Nabadwip, and I was in the downstairs office in the Centenary building. Suddenly, I heard Gurudev's car coming. I immediately came out of my office and paid dandavat, without even locking my office. Gurudev stopped his car in front of me and asked me, "Will you come with me?" I was foolish and asked him, "Where?" Gurudev's mood became strange: he showed a little angry mood. I immediately closed the office and went with him—it turned out that he was going to the place where they were making some Deities and some other place. It was 2004 or 2005. In the car, he told me, "You are a very foolish boy—your Guru asks you, 'Will you come with me?' and you ask, 'Where?' This is not 100% chastity. If your Guru goes to hell, you must go with him. What is the problem? It is not necessary to ask any questions." Then I understood what chastity is.

Gurudev also taught me what it means to give honour to others. One time (I was a brahmachari then), I gave a class on Chaitanya-charitamrita, and after reading Chaitanya-charitamrita I came to serve everyone prasadam. At that time, there was no prasadam hall in Nabadwip, the new prasadam hall construction had not even started, and everybody would take prasadam in front of the kitchen and in front of the temple. So, I was serving prasadam to everybody, and I gave a little more subji to one of the brahmacharis. He got very angry—he took the spoon from my hand and hit my finger with it. My finger began to bleed, but I did not say anything—I wrapped it with some cloth and continued serving prasadam. Gurudev was not in Nabadwip on that day, but when he returned a few days later, he heard what had happened and asked me, "Why did you not hit him back when he hit you?" I did not know so much about the scriptures that time, so I quoted a Bengali saying which means something like, "If a dog bites a man, the man will not bite the dog." Gurudev became somewhat grave and said, "What you are saying is not correct. It is wrong because you are giving disrespect to a Vaishnav. You are calling him a dog, and that is also Vaishnav aparadh." This is what Gurudev told me.

So, without Gurudev's order, Gurudev's mercy, one can never become a Guru; it is not possible.

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