(7/10) Keep Internal Purity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ganga Sagar, morning class,
Deity Manifestation Anniversary day
12 January 2019, part 7
Translated from Bengali

When our Gurupadpadma, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, was a brahmachari, he used to stay with Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj during some time at the house of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, who was a grihastha at the time. When Srila Swami Maharaj wanted to leave his family, he came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj and asked him for sannyas, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, 'You are my godbrother, and I used to stay at your house. It will not look right if you take sannyas from me. But I have given the sannyas-mantra to Sripad Keshav Maharaj – it will be better if you take sannyas from him.'

In 1973, on the day when the Chandradaya Mandir, the main temple of ISKCON in Mayapur, was being opened, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj came with our Gurupadpadma to the inauguration ceremony. When they came to the temple, Srila Guru Maharaj asked Srila Swami Maharaj, 'Maharaj, you are going to open a temple, but where is the fire sacrifice?' Srila Swami Maharaj replied, 'Srila Sridhar Maharaj has come, so my temple is inaugurated. When a Vaishnav has come, what is the necessity to have any fire sacrifice?' Later that day, when Srila Sridhar Maharaj was requested to speak, he said, 'I am not feeling well today, so Srila Govinda Maharaj will speak on my behalf.'

কম্প্রতি কথয়িতুমীশে সম্প্রতি কো বা প্রতীতিমায়াতু ।
গোপতি-তনয়াকুঞ্জে গোপবধূটী-বিঢং ব্রহ্ম ॥

kam prati kathayitum ise samprati ko va pratitim ayatu
go-pati-tanaya-kunje gopa-vadhuti-vidam brahma

'To whom can I speak? Who will believe me when I say that Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is hunting gopis in the bushes by the banks of the Yamuna? In this way the Lord demonstrates His pastimes.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.98)

Srila Guru Maharaj said, 'Who will understand it that the milkmaids from Vraja are running behind the Supreme Lord, who shows Himself as a simple cowherd boy tending cows on the banks of the Yamuna? In the same way, who will be able to understand it that Abhay Babu, who is known to many as a simple householder from Kolkata, has travelled around the world preaching about the Lord and brought here so many people from all over the world?' After Srila Guru Maharaj spoke like that, Srila Swami Maharaj remarked, 'Govinda Maharaj is my real son.'

It is our great fortune to have come to all these gurus and to have taken shelter in them. It is impossible to come to Gauranga bypassing the guru. We always say, 'Sri Sri Guru Gauranga jayatah. All glory to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga.' We always first remember gurudev. 'Guru bade Gauranga bhaje, sei papi raurave pade majhe: the sinner who worships Gauranga without the guru will fall into a terrible hell.' We must always think about this. If we cannot live holding this within our minds, we will not be able to attain anything.

Remember these main things. How many of you can actually come to this line? I told you yesterday during the class what Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said: if you take a hundred people, 100% of them will not come to this line. We turn the Lord into a bribe-taker. How so? When we worship Durga or Kali, we do it because we want to get something in return. Some people think, 'If I pay obeisance to the Lord or offer some fruit or rice, the Lord will be merciful to me.' They give something to the Lord expecting the Lord to do something for them in return. This is bribery. Sometimes, when you want to get a job in a government place, you give a bribe to a minister to get it, so the minister becomes a bribe-taker. In the same way, we turn God into a bribe-taker. This is what Srila Prabhupad said. Do you know what else he said? He said that we turn God into our menial servant. We pray to God, 'O Lord, give me this.' We expect God to serve us. We do not come to God to serve Him, but we come to God to take service from Him. All our religious activities are done with the expectation that God will serve us. This is not worship. Worshipping God means praying, 'O Lord, I am serving You to please You, not to get anything for myself.'

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vanchha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

'The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (divine love).'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.4.165)

We must worship God not for our pleasure and happiness but for the pleasure and happiness of God.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 25 Mb
Length: 50 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Power of Mindful Service
2) Service Is All About Mood
3) Help Yourself and Others
4) Beyond Body and Bondage
5) Do Not Cheat Yourself
6) Your Life, Your Escape
7) Keep Internal Purity
8) Embrace Devotion to Lord Krishna
9) Know Where You Belong
10) Result of Sadhu-Sanga