(11/11) Imitation of Spontaneous Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Siliguri, 30 April 2019, evening, part 11
Translated from Bengali

I will not take more of your time today. I know that you all need to go and do your services to the Lord.

You all know that we are having a festival tomorrow, so please come tomorrow. Last time I came here in winter, after a trip to Nepal, and if I have time, I will come again this year, but you must come and join us on the parikramas every time. Come to Nabadwip. It may be a little austere, but many of you still came and stayed nicely. What austerity was there actually? You all stayed together, everything was all right. When Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not have a proper temple, foreign devotees would come and stay in tents. Later, our Gurudev expanded the temple and made it grand. He did many things for the temple, and he did many things through my hands as well. We are only instruments – Gurudev does everything, he manages and utilises everything.

Always engage yourselves in service, always stay in the association of sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs. Always stay busy with service to the Lord. And do not harbour any bad thoughts, envy, malice or animosity. If others do that, what is it to you? Guru Maharaj said that if you eat wood, you will pass coal as stool – so, if somebody commits vaishnav-aparadha, they will reap the result. It is not your business.

When I was recently giving a class in Uluberia, I spoke lovingly and at the end asked everybody if they had questions. Nobody had questions. Then, I asked one person, 'Do you know who you are? If you do not know it, then say so.' The man replied, 'No, I do not know it.' So, I explained to everybody who we are. After that, a lady, who is a surrendered disciple, asked me, 'There is a man who always comes to our village and criticises everybody. What should we do?' I told her, 'What is it to you?' If somebody says something about me, I say that I am much worse than whatever anybody can say about me. What is the problem? How much does anyone know about my bad side? I know it much better – they do not even know how bad I actually am. So, no matter what they may say, I am much worse than that.

We must always remember this.

[To the pujari] Have you not offered the bhoga yet? Give Deities food on time! Do you think that you are only offering something and that is it? No. It must be done from the heart. Service must come from the heart. Not mechanically or haphazardly. You must serve Deities with faith – with love and affection (sraddhaya sri-murti sevana).

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

‘Associate with sadhus, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, listen to Srimad Bhagavatam, reside in Mathura and worship holy Deities with faith.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.124)

I saw you making an offering and then coming out quickly – you do not give Deities time to eat, to take what you offer. When you eat, you eat slowly, enjoying your meal for half an hour. But when you offer something to the Deities, you expect Them to finish in five minutes. I saw it. I saw you offering the bhoga, and today you did not even sing 'Bhaja bhakata vatsala', did you?

Pujari: I was busy today.

Busy? Take karatals and sing the arati yourself. What is the problem? Take time to sing it nicely. Do not make excuses. I do not like excuses! Who did you learn to do puja from?

Pujari: From Gurudev.

What? Gurudev taught you to do puja?? You are lying. I saw that when the arati was going on you removed the bhoga. Why? You are saying that you learned from Gurudev, so did Gurudev tell you to do this?? Why are you doing this? Is this our rules? When you offer the bhoga at noon, you must leave the offering and come to chant the arati. You must chant 'Bhoga Arati'.

Pujari: With the bhoga inside?

Yes! But you offer the bhoga and immediately remove it right before the arati. Why do you do this? Even if anybody sees the bhoga, what is the problem? I know that you learned to do puja abroad. I have never seen you do puja in Gurudev's time. How could Gurudev teach you to do puja? Did you take initiation from Gurudev? I have never seen Gurudev teaching you how to offer bhoga!

Pujari: The way I try to see it is that all teachings come from Gurudev.

Did Gurudev tell to do like that?

Pujari: No, but I try to see it like that.

You cannot do that! If you come to dacoits, does what they say also come from Gurudev? Do you really think that everything is coming from Gurudev?? If you are doing wrong things, is it also coming from Gurudev?? What is this?!! If you steal or rob, is that also coming from Gurudev?? No!! You must learn from what I am telling you. You must learn. For example, if you want to play the mridanga, you should learn to play it from those who can play it. For example, ** Maharaj here knows how to do puja, that is why I want others to learn from him. When he does fire sacrifices, I also watch what he does and how he does it. Another Maharaj (** Maharaj) knows how to do archan, learn from him. You are doing something that your mind tells you to do and you are saying that it is coming from Gurudev. It is not like that! What do our minds do? We see a beautiful lady and all sorts of things come to our minds – is that coming from our guru???

When you offer bhoga, give Deities time to take it. The songs are there for that.

One time somebody asked me, 'You sing, "Tambula rasala ane tambula masala. Krishna-chandra is given some juicy and spicy betels" – so, you offer tambul, then why do you not eat it?' What is the answer to this?

Pujari: I heard from Gurudev that it is because Gaudiya Math does not do this...

Where does he say this? Show me. But that is not my point. My point is that Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote this song and he is the initial founder of Gaudiya Math, so why does it say that we offer tambul but we do not take it? The explanation is this. We can offer tambul, but we have no right to take it. One must have right to take things. And in our temples, we do not offer tambul at all, that is another question.

When you make an offering, it is also necessary to do achaman. Do you know about it? In the middle of the arati, when they sing, 'Hasta mukha praksaliya yata sakha-gane. The Lord and all the devotees then wash their hands and mouths,' at this time you should go inside and offer achaman. Give Deities time to take the offering. Give offering with respect. Deities are not dolls. Deities are the Lord Himself! You have to understand this. Worshipping Deities is a very difficult job because there is always offence coming. You must realise, 'I do not know anything, please remove my offence.' It is necessary to have this kind of humility.

Go and start the arati.

Hare Krishna, Hari bol. Jay Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 48 Mb
Length: 99 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Immerse Yourself Into Service
2) South Indian Tour
3) Serve With Care
4) Obnoxious Oblivion
5) Become Free
6) Core of Spiritual Life
7) Common (Lack of) Sense
8) Clear Answers
9) See Deeper
10) Grow Spiritually
11) Imitation of Spontaneous Service