Staunch and Careful

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela
20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 5

[A devotee asks a question about devotional activities and practice of a married devotee.]

You are married, but you have a chaitya-guru in your heart and you have taken initiation. I do not know whether you took initiation from Gurudev, Guru Maharaj or me, and it does not matter because I think that if you are my disciple you are also Gurudev's disciple. I do not differentiate whether someone is Guru Maharaj's disciple, Gurudev's disciple or my disciple—I think they are all my family. So, you have taken initiation from this sampradaya, Sri Rupa Saraswati Dhara, and you are a householder devotee. Mahaprabhu told what the duty of householder devotees is. Your duty is to always serve Vaishnavs (Vaishnav-seva) and do Nama-sankirtan.

Even if you work, that is also Vaishnav-seva because you can do Vaishnav-seva with that money—you are earning some money and you can use it for the service of the Lord. If you live in the temple, it is very nice, but you must never think that your wife is your servant. Your wife is a servant of Gaura Nitai, Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. If you think your wife must be your servant, it is not correct. You can be her servant, that is all right, but you must not think that she is your servant. Both of you should engage in the service of the Lord, that is sufficient. If you work, you can use that money for Vaishnav-seva, you can give that money to the temple and it will be used for the service. It is not necessary to get involved with atyahara, sanchaya, prayascha—do not think that you must earn much money, that you must keep much money in your bank account, that you must save for future, worrying what your children will eat, etc. This is not proper devotional activities and it is not good.

If someone stays at the temple and does service to the temple, it is very nice, but if some material desire comes to you, you must immediately remove it with the root. You are staying in the temple and sometimes some material desire can come (I think you understand well what I am talking about), but do not give that material desire shelter in your heart. You must always avoid it—try to avoid it through your service. That is the main thing.

For example, there are many grihasthas living in a temple, but sometimes the wife can leave her husband because she has so much desire and they cannot mix properly (you cannot live your conjugal life properly in the temple), that is why when some material desire comes in their hearts, they start searching how to satisfy it in another place and they end up leaving the temple and their service. Do you understand what I am saying? I think it is easy to understand it, Prabhu.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that everything that exists in this world is for the service of the Lord. Our duty is to serve Vaishnavs, do Vaishnav-seva. It is good for everyone to have such consciousness. We should all think that we must become feet dust of Vaishnavs. If somebody thinks they have already become the highest devotee, that is the cause of their falling down.

You must always engage yourself in sravanam and kirtanam—always attend morning mangal arati, practise morning kirtans, join all temple programmes, and at the other time you should do service.

Always be careful. Maya can take you away from your service at any time because for birth after birth we had been servants, slaves of maya and had been listening to whatever orders came to us from kama, krodha, lobha, moha, etc. (lust, anger, greed, attachment to material things, etc.). We had become their slaves—we had been doing what lust told us to do, what anger told us to do, what greed told us to do, etc. but now we have become servants of Vaishnavs. Maya can attack you at any time. Be careful. She can remove your service—she can take you away from service. Always be careful. OK?

Muchas gracias to all the devotees. I am paying my full obeisance to all the devotees, all the servants of the devotees, all the servants of Gurudev and servants of Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra. I am always paying my full obeisance to all my godbrothers, godsisters, all my well-wishers. Please forgive my offence. Gracias.

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