(5/10) Disciple Lives in Guru's Shelter

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Midnapore, 24 April 2019, evening, part 5
Translated from Bengali

'Devotees dedicated to the Lord's service are eternal servants of Sri Guru and eternal servants of Lord Sri Krishna. Devotees eternally serve Sri Krishna following their guru with faith and in strict adherence.' They do whatever their guru tells them to do – they do not cross over their guru's word.

'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 engages 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.' All these practices are useless without submission to the guru – whatever they practise like that is just self-gratification.

'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.' People think, 'I will be great', 'I will become a guru', 'I will earn a lot of money', 'I will have any woman I want', 'I will become famous and respected by everyone' – those who are busy with such desires do not think about the Lord; they may externally appear to be doing some service, but actually they do not. Such people cheat both themselves 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.'

This is the quote of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur that I wrote in our recently reprinted Gaudiya Gitanjali books. We have also recently printed Sri Puri Dham Mahatmya-mukta-mala that contains the glories of all the places that we visit during the parikrama of Sri Puri Dham. You will find there where we go, what we speak about and what the glories of those places are. And one more book that has recently come out is the third volume of Guidance. At the end of this book, there are many questions and answers – you will find there 108 questions and answers. You can find the answers to all your questions there. For example, 'What is the result of serving the Lord?' You will find the answer to this question in this book if you read it.

I was telling you earlier today about the five diseases. The last, fifth, disease is abhinivesa. It means that you are attached to and love that which is unfavourable to spiritual life. You must not have attachment or love for such things. Love and attachment should be for the Lord.

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

'May I have the same love and attraction to Your holy feet that I now have for material things.'

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 37 Mb
Length: 77 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Prodigal's Favourite, Miser's Pensioner
2) Material Diseases
3) Master's Property
4) 'I Am My Gurudev's'
5) Disciple Lives in Guru's Shelter
6) Day for Service, Life for Service
7) Foundation of Knowledge
8) Pitfalls and Benefits
9) Temple Life
10) Keep Well