Abode of High Thinking

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
16 March 2019, translated from Bengali, part 4

Do not worry about anything—the Lord has given you a place, and He will look after you. There will be no problem. We must always think like this. Besides, what problem is there, tell me? When Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama first started, there was no Govinda Kunda building, there was no Centenary building.

I remember when we made the Centenary Seva-Kunja building in 1995, Gurudev told me to stay there. One year, so many Siliguri devotees came for the parikrama, and they all slept in the hallway in that building. I had to wake up early and make the loudspeaker announcement, but I could not come out of my room—the whole hallway was taken and was covered with mosquito nets. Somehow I had to make my way to the office downstairs though the mosquito nets, crossing the people, etc. Even in those days there were not enough rooms, but I have never thought of backing off, "I will stay in my room," "I will do this," "I will do that."

Anyhow, much has been said today, we still need to do the kirtans. There is no need to feel pain—the Lord sees how much you have to put up with. Some feel uncomfortable sleeping in the nat mandir, on the ground, or in the hallway upstairs, but wherever devotees are, we will stay there happily, this is not an austerity for us.

I saw the other day some dogs fighting. You know, after we take prasadam, we throw the plates at the side of the temple. I saw some dogs came there and started fighting—one of the dogs was chasing another dog, "This is my area! What are you doing here?!" We are also like this—we are born as humans, we wear tilaks, neck beads, etc., but we also quarrel, "This is my place! This is his place! That is his room! That is his house!" I wrote about all this in Guidance 3 very nicely. The problem is that we do not take initiation from Gurudev—we only say we have taken initiation and pretend to be initiated. This is how we become averse to the Lord, and this is how we become karmi, jnani, yogi, etc. Instead of doing service, we consider the temple made by Gurudev an object of our enjoyment. We think that this very temple that Gurudev himself made is a place for my sense enjoyment—we use it to gratify our senses, for our own happiness. "I will eat nicely," "I will wear nice clothes," "I will make a nice building," "I will kick Acharya Maharaj out and have it for myself!"—this is not initiation.

Remember one thing. We have got this place by the mercy of Nrisinghadev, and we take it as our paona (পাওনা, debt), so even if we sleep here on the bare ground, it is still our fortune. This is what we have come for. Gurudev has given us this place, always remember this, always think about this.

It is necessary to have service mood, seva-pravritti. Always engage yourself in service. When you come from the parikrama, you can sit and help clean and cut the vegetables. Look around and see if anything needs to be done, this is your place.

The Deities are installed now, the outbuilding kitchen is made now too, there is now a small bookstore at the front. We are trying to slowly arrange everything. When Gurudev wishes, when he decides that we need to return to Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Nabadwip, then by his mercy we will go there. As long as Gurudev and the Lord do not want it, no matter how much we try we will not be able to do anything. We must have faith in this. Some think of fighting, but when the Lord wishes, He will certainly arrange everything. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also left Chaitanya Math empty-handed, only wearing his clothes, and went to Vrindavan. Later, Gurudev came and made everything—and he ordered me also and then all the big buildings happened. Gurudev did everything there. You know, when we were doing the Centenary building in 1994, I had to take a loan of eight lakhs to finish the building in time. When Gurudev came back from abroad and got to know about it, he asked me, "How are you going to pay this loan? Go sell your kidney!" I told Gurudev, "Yes, Gurudev, no problem." Gurudev was testing me—he helped to pay that loan eventually. Also, what did Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad say? "You can take a loan for preaching of Mahaprabhu's conception, it is not a problem. When you take a loan, you will have to pay it, so you will have to go to people for preaching Krishna consciousness." He also said, "I will not keep even a single rupee for you! I know that if I keep even one rupee, you will fight for that one rupee—you will become lazy and not go for preaching, you will only sit and eat and not go village to village to preach Mahaprabhu's teaching." I wrote about these instructions of Srila Prabhupad in Guidance 3. These are very strong words, and you must always remember it.

Sriman Nityananda Prabhu first took Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu for the parikrama of Sri Nabadwip Dham, and later, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote Sri Nabadwip Dham Mahatmya, Sri Nabadwip Dham Bhava-taranga. We have these books here in English and Bengali in one book. Read it.

There is one kirtan written by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, I told you about it yesterday, and we will sing it today too...

[His Divine Grace then goes on to chant "Gurudev! Bada krpa kari''" and the evening kirtans.]

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