Exclusive Devotees Have No Complaints

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, evening programme
18 January 2020, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Practise makes perfect. If you do not practice and come to the temple, you will be told to wake up for the mangal arati, but you will not be able to do it because you are used to sleeping till late. You must wake up early and practise: "I will wake up at 4, take bath, offer arati to the Lord, then I will chant some kirtans five-six, cook and offer the bhog. Then, I will give prasad to my husband and send him to work—I will tie some prasad for him so that he does not have to eat outside food, so that he takes prasad." This is what pious, devoted ladies do. When their husbands come back home in the evening, they prohibit their husbands to sit in tea shops and listen to all sorts of news and political nonsense. Sometimes, people ask me if I have gone to the elections. I say, "Mahaprabhu's name was not there, then who will I vote for? If I could vote for Mahaprabhu, I would have gone." We must be like this. We must have one-pointed, exclusive surrender.

There is one more thing you should remember. "'Ami ta vaisnava' e buddhi haile amani na ha'ba ami ('আমি ত বৈষ্ণব' এ বুদ্ধি হইলে অমানী না হ'ব আমি). If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others." If I think, "I have become a Vaishnav," then I will not be able to give honour to others. "I have become a Vaishnav", "I am senior, and he is junior"—it does not work like this here. Such mentality can work in an office, in a political party, but not here. In spiritual life, seniority comes through service. The more one serves the Lord, the more service they receive, and if somebody tries to keep away from service (if somebody shrinks from service), service gradually runs away from them. Guru Maharaj also said that the football comes to the feet of those who play football, and if somebody hides in the room all the time, the football will always run away from them. These are Guru Maharaj's words. What promotion or result do those who do service get? As the result of their service, they will get more and more service.

I must do more and more service—there is no point in complaining, "Oh, he is not doing this," "Oh, he is not doing that." Whether somebody is doing something or not doing, the point is that I must do it. This kind of mood must come to us. When I come to some temple, you cannot imagine how may complaints I have to hear ("Oh, he has done this", "And he has done that" and so on). The Lord does not like all this, and Srila Prabhupad also never liked this. What is there to complain about? The problem is that you complain for your own sake. Nobody complains about any problems related to the Lord's service—people always complain that somebody gave them too little milk, that somebody did not give them prasad one day and so on. You do not complain that there is something wrong in the service of the Lord—no, you complain because you cannot please your own senses. Why do you do this? There should be no complaints. You must always remember this. Never forget this.

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Length: 41 min
Language: Bengali