(5/5) Power of Association

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme, Vijay Ekadasi
Translated into English from Bengali
19 February 2020, part 5

It is necessary to have chastity (satitva, সতীত্ব) and sincerity (nistha, নিষ্ঠা) towards Sri Guru. You must be sincere in your service (do your service religiously, every single day without fail). You must also always have attachment to your Gurudev: 'I am following what Gurudev has told me to a T.' Gurudev may have disappeared, but he is always with us, and he is watching at every moment what we are doing and what we are not doing. Although we say that Gurudev is in his samadhi now, he is always near us, and he can see whether we do something wrong or right. He can see everything; he is watching us. However, if we create some disturbance, Gurudev will leave us. If we make an offence at the lotus feet of our Guru, even the Lord will not save us: we will lose our service in one way or another – we will be cheated and removed from service. Always remember this.

Do not cheat, do not waste your time – leaving everything else, always be attached and attracted to the service of your Guru. This is the main thing for us. Apart from that, we must always keep holy association (stay in sadhu-sanga) because by the influence of holy association, all our faults can be removed and good qualities can come. Remember this.

Last night, I was writing until very late. It was one o'clock at night, and I got a phone call from one of the temples. I have not been to that temple for a long time. An ISKCON disciple had come to stay there. The devotees told me, 'He is an ISKCON disciple, we do not want to keep him here.' I replied, 'He is a disciple of Sri Jayapataka Swami, who is my guru-varga, so what is the problem if his disciple stays at the temple? Let him stay.' However, a few days later, that disciple showed his true colours: he refused to read our Math's books (Param Guru Maharaj's books), he would only read his mission's books during the class. I told him, 'If you want to stay at our temple, you must follow the rules of our temple.' He also behaved differently during aratis, doing what was practised in his mission. For example, he would bring out the flowers offered to the Deities and give them to everyone to sniff, he would sprinkle water on everyone to 'give them mercy' and many other things. He was a strong boy, and in the end, he hit one of the elder servants at the temple. I told him, 'Your offences have grown too much. I have heard what offences you have been making, and I have been tolerating it, but when you raise your hand on devotees, it will be better if you leave.' He left: some woman who was staying nearby gave him shelter (you can understand why – she had some desire for enjoyment). He listened to all kinds of bad things there, and what happened in the end? Last night, he broke the temple's lock and stole the Deities' chamar and other paraphernalia. He wanted to stop the Deities' worship. As he was running away, the pujari of the temple caught him. So, they called me at night and said they wanted to report that boy to the police. I was sitting on my bed, it was one o'clock at night, and they called me, 'Do you know what has happened at the temple?!' That was the story.

This is the result of bad association. He was actually doing puja at the temple, he had everything, but by the influence of some association, his intelligence became spoilt. He stole the Deities' things and fled. He could steal anything, but he stole Deities' paraphernalia so that the worship would stop, but the Lord does not tolerate it, so he got caught. The Lord has arranged it.

Therefore, we must always be wise with our association. We must understand the power of the influence of association. If somebody takes initiation, but such bad thoughts later come to their mind, it means that they have not actually taken initiation. They only pretend they have taken initiation: they say they are initiated, but it is only a show. This is how we become guru-bhogi and guru-tyagi. Guru-bhogi means we come to our Guru because we want to enjoy and get something from our Guru; we can also behave in such a way that our Guru leaves us: we become guru-tyagi. The problem is that we cannot become guru-sevi (servants of our Gurudev). We must always be alert about this when we practise Krishna consciousness.

I would like to finish here. I will not disturb you any further.

বাঞ্ছাকল্পতরুভ্যশ্চ কৃপাসিন্ধুভ্য এব চ ।
পতিতানাং পাবনেভ্যো বৈষ্ণবেভ্যো নমো নমঃ ॥

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha
patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

'Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees.'

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Nature of Niskinchan Vaishnavs
2) Purifying Engagement
3) Be on Guard
4) Serve Attentively
5) Power of Association