(9) Our Sole Concern

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class
17 February 2019, part 9

Always chant the glories of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu. Soon, Gaura Purnima festival is coming – please come for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Do not worry about anything, just come wherever I am at that time. You can see that thousands and thousands of people came here and took prasad – there was no problem, the day went peacefully. So, everybody can come and stay. You may or may not have got all conveniences, but the day went all right, so you can always come for one–two or four days, it is not a problem. Wherever we are, however we stay, we rely on the Lord's arrangement and will. Without taking shelter in Mahaprabhu, we cannot do any service. We did not come to this world for the sake of big buildings. I have told you many times that some people stay at the temple pretending to serve their guru, but what they actually do is guru-bhogi (they use their guru) and math-bhogi (they use and destroy the temple) – such people take what belongs to the temple and to the Lord and use it for their own pleasure. How can such people be sadhus? They enjoy with that which belongs to the Lord. I have told you just now that gross materialists think that the Lord's things are meant for their own pleasure, so whenever they get some money, they use it to run their families (to serve their wives and children). There are such fake sadhus in the temple also. You all know it. I feel very sorry for them, and I feel very bad because of them. They come to the temple to practise Krishna consciousness, but instead of serving their guru, they enjoy their lives and use their guru – they think that the guru is something that exists for their pleasure, and they use paraphernalia and facilities that exist for the Lord's service for their own pleasure and enjoyment. I have never been like that in my whole life. I have never thought, 'Oh, I must keep something for myself.' I never think like that. If devotees are all right, if devotees get prasad, then I feel at peace and happy. Always remember this. Guru Maharaj also liked this, and I like it, too.

Guru Maharaj would say sometimes, 'If somebody has a good life – if they have money and buy good food and clothes, what is it to me? I must not be envious. Their fortune is such that they have money, house, etc. – why must I be jealous of them?' But there are jealous people in this world. The Lord does not give any place for such mood. Sadhus must always be free from envy. If somebody becomes a temple manager or a guru, we must not feel any jealousy.

We must always hanker for this kind of clean mood to come to us. We must always pray at the holy feet of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and the Lord so that we can have attachment and attraction to Their service, to the service of our guru. We must always live following their instructions with chaste adherence. I have written Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words on the first page of our new Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali books, always read what is written there. Always read and remember it:

Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vani

'Devotees dedicated to the Lord's service are eternal servants of Sri Guru and eternal servants of Sri Krishna. Devotees eternally serve Sri Krishna following their guru with faith and in strict adherence. If someone tries to practise Krishna consciousness without faithfully following their guru and Vaishnavs, this is not service to the Lord – it is service to maya. If someone does not faithfully follow their guru but, following their own ideas, behaves virtuously, visits holy places, performs the sixty-four practices of devotion to the Lord, practises renunciation, austerities, Nama-sankirtan, japa, meditation or engage in any other devotional(?) practices, they do not do even a little service to the Lord thereby; rather, they are simply fulfilling their desire to gratify their own senses.

'When service to the Lord appears to be sense gratification in disguise, many people are often cheated by such disguised enjoyment. A deceitful show of service to the Lord motivated by the desire for fame, wealth and women is not "service to the Lord" – it is simply hypocritical cheating of oneself and others.

'Service to the Lord is based on following your guru and Vaishnavs with chaste submission. Pretending to serve the Lord without faithfully following your guru is a nonsensical idea compared to "jumping over the goda to eat grass". In the conditioned state, one cannot gain entrance into the Lord's service without faithfully adhering to their guru and Vaishnavs, and even in the liberated state, when one serves the Lord in the spiritual body, constant adherence to one's gurudev continues. If one does not faithfully follow Sri Gurudev – the eternal embodiment of the Lord's shelter (asraya-vigraha) – and his followers, then one, in essence, only commits the offence of worshipping one's own self.'

These are Srila Prabhupad's words. You must always remember what practising Krishna consciousness actually means. It is not possible to practise Krishna consciousness in any way without chaste, submissive adherence to the guru. Do not follow your minds – live the way your guru tells you to live. There must be no dispute, no 'buts'. Gurudev has told me to do this, and I put it on my head and try my best to do it. That is it. Because I have been doing it, Gurudev has kept this fallen, lowly soul to finish whatever work was left to be done. I am only trying to do that, and I do not know how much I will be able to do. I am engaging the whole world in preaching Gurudev's conception in this world.

When I give initiations, it does not mean that I am making disciples out of people – no, I serve those people. I can see the Lord and my Gurudev within them, so I try to help them to guide them on this path. I am trying to serve them. When anybody pays their obeisances to me, I fold my palms and say, 'I am your servant.' I offer my prostrate obeisances to them. I cannot do it physically (there are thousands of people here!), that is why I just fold my palms and offer obeisances mentally. Srila Prabhupad did that, Gurudev did that, and I am also doing it and tell you all about it. And I am praying to Sriman Nityananda Prabhu for you all...

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