Laws of Spiritual Kingdom

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bengali/English lecture on Sri Vyasa Puja Day
29 September 2019, Tarakeswar, part 7

What does 'service to the Guru' mean? It means listening to what the Guru says and living your life by following his instruction.

Suppose you come to Gurudev, pay him sastanga dandavat, and he tells you, "Sit here," but you want to sit somewhere else, so you get up and go roaming around. You do not like to sit where Gurudev tells you to sit. This is not what is called following the Guru's instruction.

Some also say, "I will go to Vrindavan," but you cannot go to Vrindavan unless you get a ticket from your Guru! Gurudev tells you, "I will give you the ticket," but you say, "No, I will get it myself"—but your 'ticket' and the ticket that the Guru gives you is not the same thing. You think, "I have money, why must I worry Gurudev? I can get the ticket at Howrah station myself!" Srila Sridhar Maharaj also said, "You may have the passport, but do you have the visa?" If you want to go to America, do you think you can go there only with your passport? You cannot, you need a visa. You can travel around India with your passport, but unless you have a particular visa you cannot travel abroad. So, when you aspire to enter Radharani's kingdom, Krishna's kingdom or Vrindavan's kingdom, you must apply for the visa at Radharani's lotus feet—She gives the visa to that domain. We want to have Her stamp—when you get Her stamp of approval, then you can get the darshan of Vrindavan; and Radharani is Gurudev himself, so when you get his seal, then you can enter that domain.

Living in Mathura is not pretending to be living in Mathura, the same as living in Vrindavan or Nabadwip and putting on a show of living in Vrindavan or Nabadwip is not the same thing. You can place your body in Vrindavan, but you will never enter Vrindavan in this way. If you cannot enter the service world of Gurudev, all your unwanted habits and inauspicious elements (anarthas) will never go away. You know what anarthas are—lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy, desire to enjoy with your eyes, tongue, ears, nose, skin, desire for money, companions and fame.

How many men, women, children chant the Holy Name for so many years, but their anarthas do not go away. Then, it is those who sincerely want to serve their Guru that the temples are established for. A temple gives people an opportunity to serve the Guru. Many serve with heart and soul there—you can see many have come here and are cutting vegetables, yesterday also many also came, they were washing the dishes, utensils, cooking, making garlands, cleaning the rooms, etc. You must try to join such service. When a practitioner of devotion gives himself fully to the service of his Guru, all obstacles, all problems are removed from his life. Srila Prabhupad says: many people who are covered with anartha come to me, and I engage them in such service, but they cannot take it—they cannot serve their Guru. They object or make various excuses—"Oh, I could not come", "Oh, when I get old, then I will serve the Lord", "When I get old, then I will take initiation," and so on.

People come in their old age when they face death, but when they used to spend ten-twenty hours a day on their family, they did not come then. Now they want to chant the Holy Name for one hour and when they make garlands for one hour they sit out of breath and cannot do it. They come to serve the Guru in their old age, but how will they serve?

Sri Rupa Goswami Prabhu said that those who can enter the service of the Guru, get the supreme benefit—their anarthas are removed very quickly, and not only that—they get all perfections by serving their Guru.

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