(9/15) Avoid Offences to Holy Dham (Part 2)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, Sri Jagannath Misra Anandotsav
22 March 2019, morning class, part 9
Translated from Bengali

I have also employed police here in Nrisingha Palli. One time, somebody came and stole the Deities' offering plate. I called the police – they came, investigated and said that the neighbours would not do it, that somebody who stayed at the temple had done it. But who would do it? There are only three devotees and a few foreigners staying here. Who will steal here? Then, some devotees came here from Siliguri before Gaura Purnima. Somebody stole some money from them. And another thing was when before going to Vrindavan I had bought chadars (shawls) for the Deities in Vrindavan. Then, I see that the chadars were missing. I asked the cook where the chadars were, he said he did not know. (In this area, nobody gives prasad to people – some places can give some sweet rice, but nobody gives a proper meal. So, I arranged for the temple to give prasad to anyone who wants to take it.) Then, one of the rooms was robbed (some money was stolen). One time, when I came back to the temple, he opened my room and came downstairs. Then, another boy spoke to me. Everybody said that the boy was crazy, but he was not actually crazy – he was clever. He told me, 'Guru Maharaj, there is a bag with some things on the ground floor. We do not know what it is.' I told them to bring the bag and when we opened it, we found inside it the brass plate, buckets, Deities' jewellery and chadars that had been stolen. Then I thought, 'But there was also money stolen – where is it?' Others did not have the courage to look through the bag, so I did it myself, and as I was emptying the bag, I noticed that the boy kept looking away, and then I understood where the money was hidden. The money was inside a pillow that he kept in a bag under his bed. Later, when I spoke to the SP police officer, a good detective who investigated the case, he asked me, 'How did you know where the money was?!' I said, 'By Gurudev's mercy.' The cook also complained, 'That young boy you keep here in charge of the temple is a rascal!' I asked him what he had done, and the cook explained, 'When we leave and go home, he checks all our bags one by one! And he took away some spices and a few other things.' I told him, 'It is not right to take Deities' spices and things home.' One time, I noticed that cook searching for something in the ground (in the soil). I wondered, 'What is he looking for there?' When I went there later to check, I saw that there was pumpkin hidden! A pumpkin! How much is a pumpkin worth? This is what the cook was like... Anyhow, in that pillow, we found twenty-two thousand rupees! You can imagine how many devotees he had robbed. I gave that money back to the people who were robbed. Then, I gave one-month salary to the boy and told him to leave. I did not hand him in to the police because then it would be printed in the newspapers that a sadhu from the temple was robbing people here. I heard yesterday that one Maharaj from whom I was going to buy some land and who had been given shelter at that land was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. I did not know that his character was like that. Some small child used to come to the temple and stay there. Everybody wondered about that child. Then, the man was sentenced under the POCSO law (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences). Somebody came to me and asked me to vouch for him to help him avoid prison, but why will I do that? I said, 'He is a maharaj, a sadhu, but he has done that kind of thing?! Those who do wrong must be punished for their crimes.' I refused to help him. Because he was a sadhu, they gave him only four years; for others, it is ten years. So, all sadhus look the same, but not all sadhus are actual sadhus. And this is not sadhu-ninda; this is a warning for everybody. Suppose there was a car accident – a car crushed into a tree, and the tree fell down on the road; you go to remove that tree off the road, but you end up breaking your arm. So, if you think that everybody is a sadhu, you will end up with a broken arm. Everybody must be careful.

Read my book, Guidance 3: I wrote there about the qualities a sadhu must have. I wrote it in high language because I wrote about some very high things in it. Common people will not be able to understad it, but if they try to read it slowly, they will understand it. And if you do not understand something, you can always ask questions.

So, try to understand that if somebody wear tilaks and neckbeads, it does not mean that the person is a sadhu.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।
গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

'Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.'

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।
গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

'You put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you, thief (hypocrite)!'

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6–7)

Instead of handing that boy over to the police, I got a written statement from him saying, 'I am such-and-such brahmachari, a disciple of such-and-such person, I wrongfully stole things at the temple, but Maharaj forgave me and did not hand me over to the police, so I am leaving the temple by my own wish. I have no claims towards the temple.' We needed that statement because he could later say that he worked at the temple, but the temple did not give him salary, did not do this, that, etc.

So, this is the fifth offence to the holy place: living in a holy place but in the name of worshipping Deities looking for ways how to earn money.

The sixth offence is to materially compare a holy place to a mundane place or a place of demigod worship. You all have many relatives – sometimes, you visit your parents-in-law, your sons-in-law and other relatives; if you think that you coming to the temple for seven days and staying at the house of your guru is the same as paying a visit to some relative, that is an offence. Some relatives can also accuse you, 'Oh, you go and stay at the temple for seven days, but you cannot come and visit me for two days!' That is an offence. So, comparing a holy place to any mundane place is an offence.

The seventh offence is to sin relying on the purifying potency of the dham. It means living in a holy place and sinning.

The eighth offence is to discriminate between Sri Nabadwip Dham and Sri Vrindavan Dham. Sri Nabadwip Dham is non-different from Sri Vrindavan Dham.

The ninth offence is to criticise scriptures describing the glories of the holy place.

And the tenth offence is to have no faith in the dham's glories, to consider them imaginary. Before Gaura Purnima, we always arrange Dham Pracharani Sobha. This time, somebody asked me, 'Bhagavatam was written by some person, and the glories of holy places were also written by some person, so it all may or may not be true.' I told the person straight, 'You are an offender, I will not speak to you. If you want to hear Hari-katha, then sit and listen. I will be here for seven days, you can come and listen.' So, if somebody hears about the glories of a holy place but has no faith in those glories (thinking that it is all imagined), such a person is an offender to the holy place.

These are the ten offences to a holy place.

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Length: 108 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Take Prasad
2) Stay Focused
3) Remember Your Service
4) Help Yourself and Others
5) Avoid Offences to Service
6) Avoid Offences to Holy Name
7) Avoid Offences to Vaishnavs
8) Avoid Offences to Holy Dham (Part 1)
9) Avoid Offences to Holy Dham (Part 2)
10) Avoid Kali's Places
11) Devotional Strictures
12) Devotional Strictures
13) Rejoice!
14) Outstanding Happening
15) Wholesome Vision