Service: Labour of Love

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, morning class
Sri Varaha Dvadasi, 6 February 2020, part 6
Translated from Bengali

You must go out, door to door. You are happy to be staying in a big temple, in a big building, sleeping in a big house. This is not Krishna consciousness. You stay at the temple, do some odd services here and there, and live the rest of the time at leisure...

নিদ্রালস্য-হত সুকার্য্যে বিরত
অকার্য্যে উদ্যোগী আমি

nidralasya hata sukarye virata
akarye udyogi ami

"I am subdued by laziness and sleep, averse to performing good deeds, and eager to perform sinful deeds."

If you spend your days in laziness and sleep, this is not Krishna consciousness. You must always think about this. Yet we understand things in a wrong way—we do not want to live amidst austerity. Those who are truly Gaudiya Vaishnavs, they want austerity. "O Lord, whatever austerity You give me amidst Your service, give it! Whatever misery You give me, give it! I will bear all sadness happily. I do not mind any unhappiness as long as You are happy." This is the conception and meditation of Gaudiya Vaishnavs. They never want to live at leisure, with comfort, in some hotel room, etc. No, they think, "Whatever pain comes, let it come—I will accept it and carry it happily on my head!" We must always think about it. You must also learn to be like this. The more austerity you get, the more mercy you get. Whatever pain you are getting, that is your mercy.

I remember now something that Guru Maharaj said. There was one lady devotee, a disciple of Gurudev, who would do collections. She stayed in Kolkata and would go out to big houses of Marwaris. One Marwari gave her 25-30 kg dal for Gaura Purnima festival. After some time, that man sent his dal in a ship to sell it abroad, but his ship sank. He did service to the Lord, but his ship sank. The man told that girl next time he saw her, "Never come here again. After I gave you donation, my ship sank!" At that time, Gurudev said, "That man does not understand that he has got mercy." When he became helpless, he remembered the Lord: when that man was very proud of his money, he could not remember the Lord, but when he was made helpless—when all his business's money was gone—then he called out to the Lord.

This is what Gurudev always told, and you must always remember this. You must not do anything thinking, "Oh, if I do this, I will get the Lord, I will get something in return." On the contrary, you must think, "My Lord, give me as much austerity and pain as You can." You will be tested to see how much you can tolerate. This earth, Prithivi Devi, is a place of examination for devotees. If you can pass the test, then nobody will be able to stop you. You are here in this world, and this is a test. If you pass the test, you will get the lotus feet of the Lord—you will get the lotus feet of Sri Guru, Vaishnavs, and the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda Prabhu.

I have told you many times: when I came here to Ekachakra to buy the land, I took prasadam at the ISKCON temple on the first day and then went to Tarapith, bought some tripal (tarpaulin, plastic). I slept that night under a bakul tree right there outside the temple. I had got some things, I had told the workers to come, and the land had been registered that day (one part was purchased from the beginning, and the other half was purchased later). So, I could not come back from here. I came here (with just a few devotees) on 1 January, in winter, and you can imagine how cold it was. I bought some bamboo and made a tent with the tarpaulin and the bamboo and spent the night in the tent. It was so cold that I could not sleep the whole night—sometimes, I went to the car, sometimes I returned to the tent. This is how I spent the night. Mosquitos disturbed also... This was Nityananda Prabhu's mercy.

After that, I had a tin shed constructed for the workers. I brought workers from Mayapur, Nabadwip—they built the four-storey guesthouse here... After that first night, I rented two-three rooms in the village for fifty rupees a day. I cleaned the room and then brought rice, dal, soya, potato from Tarapith. We had Deities' photograph with us, and I told devotees, "We will not eat outside today." You know, in the evening, it began to rain—this is dangerous, a rain in winter! So, we went into the room, kept the Deities' photograph on an altar—we did the arati, cooked some rice and soya chunks with potato, offered the bhog, and took prasadam. Pauresh Prabhu from Hapaniya (now he has taken sannyas, his name is Sripad Bhakti Purna Srauti Maharaj) was with me at that time; we took prasadam together. I do not like to take any prasad or food outside—when your own family cooks and offers it to the Lord, then it gives much joy, and the food tastes also very good. In this way, we stayed in that house for a year. I myself did not stay here—I went back to Nabadwip and was mostly in Nabadwip. When I came to supervise the construction works, then I would stay there. I would come for one-two days, see the construction progress, give money and instruction to the workers, bring or buy some materials (sand, cement, etc.), and then I would leave. In this way, this big temple appeared by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. This is the first Gaudiya Math branch of Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur here in Ekachakra Dham. So many Vaishnavs, so many devotees come here, and it is my joy that sadhus come and stay here the whole year.

I told you last year that because so many devotees come and cannot get a room to stay in, I was going to make more rooms upstairs, above the nat mandir. This year, we are already giving rooms there. If a party of 20-25 people come, they can stay in two-three or four rooms easily. I have also made the outbuilding kitchen. There was no outbuilding kitchen before, and we used to make a pandal, but over the past year I have made a proper kitchen here and in Nrisingha Palli. I know that devotees come by bus from far away—when you come to do Gaura Mandal parikrama, you must come to Ekachakra; the buses do not come right to the temple (the road is very narrow), so they have to walk all the way from the bus stop. With all this in mind, I have made arrangements for everyone to stay comfortably and cook comfortably here...

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