(3/9) Answering the Call

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
19 March 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

We went to Ritudwip today and visited Chapahati, or Champahatti, where the temple of Gaura-Gadadhar Deities, installed by Dvija Vaninath, is. As I told you today, there was a brahman in that area in Dvapar-yuga who always served Radha-Krishna with champak flowers. From his example, you can see what result service brings.

[Somebody's phone rings.] Whose phone is ringing? Those who take SP [Superintendent of Police] and DM [District Magistrate] posts are very busy and have to take many phone calls. I get phone calls day and night and keep three phones, but even I have not used them for the past several days – I turned them off. I only used them when I needed to make a call to ask where your prasad was kept, whether prasad was coming timely or not, to check if anything had been forgotten or not. I chant kirtan the whole day and I do not stop it for any calls. Mostly, I tell some devotees to call the devotees and get the news about prasad, etc. I have three phones and get four–six hundred phone calls every day! Sometimes, when I am talking to somebody on one phone, another phone rings, so I answer it and talk on two phones at the same time. What can I do? Even when I go to rest and miss some calls, I call everyone back later – but I do it when it is time for it, not during Hari-katha. When I am here, I go to bed at twelve or one o'clock at night and after a few hours I again wake up and go with you all for parikrama.

So, it was disappearance festival (tirobhav utsav) of Srila Madhavendra Puri. Mahaprabhu asked Srila Ramananda Ray, 'Of all possible unhappiness, what unhappiness is the worst?' What did Srila Ramananda Ray reply? When your child dies? When your father dies? When your mother dies? The worst sorrow is separation from a Vaishnav, from a devotee. Srila Ramananda Ray said, 'I do not see any other sorrow except for separation from a Vaishnav, a devotee.' When a devotee leaves, it gives pain. But we are just the opposite...

I left my previous family thirty-five years ago and after a while came to the temple. Fourteen or fifteen years later, my mother passed away. I did not even tell Gurudev about it. I myself got the news about it only a month later. When Gurudev heard about it (the news actually came to him), he asked me, 'Why did you not tell me?' I replied, 'What is there to tell? I did not think it mattered.' We left all that – we have had so many fathers and mothers in the past and will have fathers and mothers so many more times in the future... You get a father and a mother in every birth, but it is not in every birth that you get a guru. Do goats have gurus? Do pigs have gurus? Only outside people (who are averse to the Lord) think that they get parents only once...

When we were in Chapahati, there was a big crowd, so a traffic jam built up – I heard people swearing. Annoyed, they called out, 'Hey Hare Krisha!' and told us to go away... They have a problem, not I. I do not have any problem. Those who have a problem start swearing and scolding. I tolerate it, I do not say anything.

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

'One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

We must be humbler than grass, more tolerant than trees, and we must give honour to others. These are the qualities of a Vaishnav.

I take you for a parikrama (arrange everything for you to make this parikrama) – you go for the parikrama, and I take care of all your needs and facilities, but you cannot follow one simple order. What is called Gurudev's sadhu-sanga? Gurudev's and sadhus' order is to do service. This is what is called sadhu-sanga.

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Size: 29.4 Mb
Length: 58 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Main Guru of Our Line
2) Madhavendra Puri Meets Gopal
3) Answering the Call
4) Remembering Chapahati
5) Modadrumdwip's Ardent Brahman
6) Esoteric Glory of Modadrumdwip
7) Madhavendra Puri's Pastimes in Odisha
8) Be Unwandering and Unwavering
9) Build Good Habits