(12/14) Spiritual Determination

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Gurudev's Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Nrisingha Palli
13 December 2019, part 12

One time, somebody asked Srila Guru Maharaj, 'Is there no way for me? If you give me your mercy, then my mother, my wife can leave me.' Srila Guru Maharaj replied, 'Do I have the power to give mercy? They will leave you, but you will not be able to leave them.' Do you remember the story about the floating blanket in Haridwar ('I left the blanket, but the blanket is not leaving me')?

Next year, I will take everybody to Haridwar at the time of aksaya-tritiya. From there, we will go to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri. I have never been to Kedarnath myself, so we will go there this time together. If it is too difficult to climb there, we can go there by plane or helicopter. People spend so much money. You know, I once spoke to a man who makes pandals. He told me, 'Maharaj, we got 160,000 rupees for installing a wedding pandal, but those people never give us any food, but when we come to make a pandal for you, you always make sure to give us prasad.' Rich people cannot serve the Lord... There was recently a grand wedding in India. They had the wedding in Dubai, so they hired fifteen(!) planes to take all the guests there. People have so much money! But if a beggar or a Vaishnav comes to them, they will not give even five rupees. When ** Maharaj distributes books, he tells people, 'Take this book. If you can give ten rupees, you can give; otherwise, take the book for free.' Some people brush him off, 'Oh, I have no time! No time!' He simply says, 'All right, can you give me ten rupees? No? All right, but take this book.' Not everybody can serve the Lord, but in any case, service to the Lord will never stop.

Srila Guru Maharaj also said: is it possible to make an old person young again? You do not practise sravan and kirtan (you do not listen about the Lord, do not chant the Lord's glories) when you are young, but when you get old, you think, 'Oh, I want to live at the temple, but I cannot do any service.' We have several elderly ladies serving at the temples. [Addressing one of such ladies in the audience] Does anybody live at your house? [The lady replies that she has given her house away.] Very good. You did good. When you are very old, you can die any time – how much time do you have?

You know, when I went to register the land in Mayapur before Gaura Purnima time, the man told me, 'Maharaj, it is very nice to see you after such a long time. You know, I registered Srila Sridhar Maharaj's and Srila Govinda Maharaj's wills, but my son does not let me see my grandchildren...' I wondered, 'Why is he suddenly saying this to me?' When I came to that man's house yesterday before going to Hapaniya, I saw his photo in the house. I asked his son, 'Where is your father?' The boy replied, 'He has died.' I told him, 'Your parents are gone now, now you have to take care of everything.' The boy had tears in his eyes. How long do people stay in this world? What is the use arguing and fighting? Husbands and wives fight all the time, but what is the use? We have to leave everything – money, wealth, cars, houses; you cannot take anything with you. Then why are you like that?

Those who practise spiritual life sincerely follow their guru's and Vaishnavs' orders without any judgement or consideration – they do it joyfully, happily. If you follow your guru's order willingly, it will bring you benefit. But if you do not want to follow it, you must still follow it, forcefully.

Service is the main goal in our life. Wherever you are – whether you live in a temple, in a house or in a forest – the only goal in life is to make the Supreme Lord happy, to make gurudev happy. We should be always ready to serve the Lord. Just like a chatak bird always waits for some rain water, we must always wait, 'When will my guru's order come? When will I get some order from my guru? That is mercy for me.' If gurudev says, 'Hey, come and sweep this place,' it means you have got mercy – you have got some service. If we can do service purely, that is very fortunate, but our hearts are dirty. When we try to do some service, all our attempts fail. At the same time, we must not think, 'Oh, the Lord is not accepting my service, so I will not do it.' No. We must never give up service. We must not think, 'Oh, gurudev has given me this service, but I cannot do it' – no, we must keep trying, 'Gurudev will make it possible.'

We must always be alert and ready to serve. For example, if we want to get a job, we must keep submitting our application again and again. We must not lose patience. 'Oh, I have been applying for this job for two years, but I have not got it. Leave it.' No. You must continue trying. You must study more and try again and again, then you will see that one day you will get lucky. It is the same here, too. We have taken initiation from gurudev, and we must always wait, 'When will gurudev tell me to do something?' This is when you will get mercy. Always remember this.

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Length: 78 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Golden Time for Golden Purpose
2) Emerging from Darkness
3) Leaving Maya's Shelter
4) Sitting on Two Chairs
5) Deep Chastity
6) Accept and Appreciate
7) Join Service Festival
8) Meaning of Chastity
9) Leave Bargaining Mentality
10) Appreciate and Care
11) Who Is Your Own?
12) Spiritual Determination
13) Spiritual Progress
14) Service, Submission and Purity