(2/6) Live for Guru

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, 1 January 2020, part 2
Translated from Bengali

Whether you are eating, lying down or breathing, you incur so much debt. For example, when we drink water or breathe in and out, we consume so many living entities living in water or in the air. As we live, we kill countless living souls. When you eat rice, you destroy so many rice paddies. When you cut cabbage, cauliflower, you also kill the living entity living in the plant. Just as those who eat fish, meat, etc. kill animals, even devotees also kill other entities when they take vegetables. What is the way out of this? We keep on committing sins every day – we live killing millions of living entities, every single day. Even when we walk down the street, so many insects, etc. get crushed beneath our feet. There is a way out though. We must live a Krishna-centred life. Live for Krishna. For example, if you are walking somewhere but walking for Krishna, or if you are cooking (boiling rice, potato, cutting vegetables, and so on) but cooking for Krishna, then there will be no offence for you. Whatever sin you make during your daily life, if you can do everything for Krishna (if you can use everything for the service to Krishna), then there will be no offence for you.

Vraja gopis even gave their foot dust for Krishna! But Laksmi Devi never dared do that because she thought about herself, 'I will be committing a sin!' Sivji Maharaj also thought, 'I will be committing a sin!' Brahma also thought, 'I will be committing a sin!' Everybody said that. 'I worship Krishna, how can I give my foot dust to Krishna! No way! I will be committing a sin!' But Vraja gopis did not like that – they love Krishna more than themselves, they do not understand anything except Krishna, that is why they did not mind giving their foot dust for Krishna, they did not grudge it. They quickly collected their foot dust and gave it to Narad, saying, 'Go quickly! Take it to Krishna!' What does Krishna show by that? He showed through that pastime who devotees are. Laksmi, Narad, Sivji – they are all devotees, but there is difference between devotees. There are the highest-level devotees (uttam-bhakta), middle-level devotees (madhyam-bhakta) and lower-level devotees (kanistha-bhakta). Krishna showed that Vraja gopis are the highest devotees – they are higher than everybody else because they love Krishna more than themselves.

We love ourselves more than anybody else – we do not even know what it is like to love others. People talk about love, but all the love in this world is just lust. Love is only the love between Radha and Krishna. Whatever you can see in this world is not love – it is full of lust. The real love is the love of Vraja gopis, Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaj – they shed tears of divine love for Krishna. It is necessary for disciples to have this kind of love for their guru.

I know that somebody has come to take initiation today, but what I want to tell you is this. You do not become a disciple just by taking the mantra. If you want to become a disciple, you must be able to digest disciplining (you must be able to mould yourself according to your guru's disciplining). What does 'disciplining' mean? Beating? Hitting? No! It means you must understand what is in gurudev's heart, what gurudev wants within his heart. 'What does gurudev want? What makes gurudev happy? What can I do to make gurudev happy?' This is what we must think about. Those who can hear what their gurudev says and place his disciplining on their heads (follow his words with full respect and reverence) are called disciples. Genuine disciples are those who can take in disciplining, who can follow the order of their guru, placing it on their heads. It is said that you can find many gurus in this world, but the number of disciples is very small. There is a dire shortage of genuine disciples.

Therefore, we must always think, 'How can I please my gurudev? How can I serve gurudev?' While eating, sleeping, sitting, whatever you are doing, you must always think about gurudev, always remember gurudev, and you must follow to the letter whatever you have heard from gurudev. 'Oh, gurudev is in Nabadwip (Kolkata, Vrindavan or any other place), so he cannot see what I am doing here.' Gurudev is antaryami (omniscient)! He can understand everything. If you think your guru cannot understand it, it means you consider your guru a mere mortal – this is an offence to the Holy Name. You think, 'Gurudev eats like me', 'Gurudev goes to the bathroom like me', 'Gurudev sleeps like me', 'Gurudev takes a shower like me', 'He does everything like me' – if you see the guru like that (if you consider him an ordinary man, guru martya-buddhi), then it is an offence to the Holy Name. Always remember this.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Krishna-Centred Renunciation
2) Live for Guru
3) His World, His Will
4) Escaping Foreign Land
5) Non-Sectarian and Non-Liberal
6) Adjust Your Faith and Priority