Be Strict and Straight In Your Behaviour

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Evening class, Sri Nrisingha Palli
8 March 2020, part 3, translated from Bengali

You have been chanting kirtans, you have been listening about the Lord today very nicely. Do not forget to take calendars with you. I will also give some calendars. If you live in an area where there are many devotees, you should make sure everyone gets a calendar.

You are here, you have become disciples of this temple, but how many people serve sincerely, seriously? Even ladies can come to serve the temple, to serve with a good mood. Those who do not have so many problems in their family, can come and serve at the temple. I will not keep you prisoners here. You can come and stay at the temple for one-two, three-four months, you can visit your home. Many of our temples need servitors. If you can live in the temple and practise Krishna consciousness—wake up in the morning, listen to kirtans, class, etc.—you will get benefit. Those of you who cannot practise properly at home, who do not get a chance to practise properly at home, you have this opportunity to come to the temple.

When you live at home, you always have to worry, "When do I need to go shopping?", "When do I need to cook?", "What will I eat?", "Where and when will I get money?" You do not need to worry about all this when you are at the temple. If you take advantage of this opportunity and if you truly, with heart and soul, want to come to the temple, then come and serve. Yet those who want to play and pretend with the guru, see guru as a mere human—such people are offenders of the Holy Name, they can never chant the Holy Name. In this case, people take initiation but instead of taking initiation they only put on an act.

Some people see Gurudev's things as objects for their enjoyment—they do not try to serve the temple, instead of serving the temple they steal the property of the temple. They waste or steal the money of the temple. There are many people like that. Somebody enjoys with the guru, somebody renounces the guru. People steal Gurudev's things, Deities' things and use them for their own enjoyment. I have seen this many times—I have been in this temple for thirty years continuously, and I know that people see the things at the temple as some things for their own enjoyment.

Gurudev told me one thing, "If somebody gives you even one rupee pranami, you must give it to me. Later, if you need even one lakh rupees, you can take it from me." From that day I never ever took anything—whoever gave pranami to me, no matter how much or how little it was, I always gave it to Gurudev. Foreign devotees also do this. Some devotees come for preaching with me, and at the prasadam time the hosts sometimes give them twenty-fifty rupees, but the devotees give it to me. Did you know this? I am not afraid to speak the truth—there is a lack of this quality among the Bengalis. The Bengalis like to keep things for themselves. They do not understand that this is harmful for them. They think, "I have got twenty rupees, I have profited," but this is not true—if you take these twenty rupees, there is no benefit for you, rather you will be damaged by that. You take this money, but you do not know how this money will come out (will affect you) after that. Somebody becomes a demon, somebody becomes very sick, somebody's money gets stolen or lost—in one way or another, you will suffer and lose because of this. Remember this. It is said in the scriptures that if somebody steals the Lord's money, they will have to be born as Brahmaraksasi in their next birth. It is something worse than an ordinary demon (raksasi). I have read it in some book. I do not know what Brahmaraksasi exactly is—I have not been a demon, and even if I have been, I do not remember it now.

Always be careful. You put tilaks, chant the Holy Name on the beads, but be careful, make sure you do not behave in such a way that somebody can see your behaviour and say that you are doing wrong. At least, keep looking at your Guru's face—you must think, "If I do something wrong, it will tarnish my Guru's name." Always be careful with your behaviour. 'Sadhu' means 'sat', they will always live a pure (sat) live. Always try to live a clean, pure life.

Sometimes, however, those who are temple managers have to also tolerate certain things. One time, Gurudev said to one sannyasi, "Maharaj, you are pure gold, but you cannot make a piece of jewellery with pure gold. It is necessary to give some alloy. I have given you a temple, but you will not be able to manage a temple because you will not be able to keep the servitors." If you give somebody one rupee to buy green chilli and demand the receipt, is it possible to bring the receipt? Of course not. And when no receipt is brought, then a quarrel begins. That is why, we have to tolerate many things that are happening at the temple. Many think (and I have written about this in Guidance 4), "I do wrong but Gurudev is not saying anything to me. Gurudev does not know about it." Gurudev knows everything. He knows and he does not say anything to you. Why? Because you will be upset, your ego will be hurt.

If Gurudev does not say anything to you so easily, does it mean you will continue doing wrong time and time again? If you do something wrong, you must correct yourself; if you continue doing wrong, you cannot get away with that. Always remember this. Gurudev can understand everything—who is doing what, who is not doing what. I can easily say it. How somebody offers obeisance, how somebody comes to me—I can understand everything, and the Lord also can understand it. Gurudev is the Lord's representative, and he can understand everything easily. Therefore, when somebody comes to steal something from the Lord, the Lord can understand everything. You cannot cheat Him—one day you will be caught.

Those who go out for preaching must be always very careful with deceit, misappropriation, etc. in their behaviour; and the householder devotees must be even more careful because they live at home and they must turn their home into a temple.

From Guidance, Volume Four:

It is necessary to be very careful and very clean on the path of worshipping Deities. This cleanliness must be in the kitchen, in the storeroom, and in the temple. If everything in the service of the Lord is not clean, it will be an offence (aparadh). If the servitor's leg accidentally touches the offering plate, it is necessary to wash the plate immediately. Somebody may think to themselves, "Well, what to do? It often happens when one does some service." This leads to offences. There should be much respect and reverence in Deity worship. Those who commit such offences, lose their service.

You do not become a brahman just by hanging a brahman thread on your body. When this sense of reverence, sense of cleanliness comes, then you can understand that some brahmanic qualities have come to you. Otherwise if you still have the qualities of a meat-eater, what will wearing a brahman thread change? You must be careful even with the items you procure for the worship.

The Lord is happy when His devotees approach His service with care. Service is rewarded with more service—when this happens, you will no longer know any leisure. When the Lord accepts somebody's service, He gives them even more service; and when He does not accept somebody's service (when there are offences in the service), then the service goes away from them. The result of the offences committed in the course of service (seva-aparadh) is losing one's service. If the Lord does not accept somebody's service, it means He does not like the person—service to the temple goes away from such people. He does not open His mouth and say anything, but He will awake such a mood in you that it will become impossible for you to stay at the temple. This is a very important point. When you are doing something that He does not want—if He does not accept your service—then material desires will come to you, your desire to enjoy material life will be growing, you will be doing fine, your name and fame will grow, wealth will grow, or such mood will come to your mind that you will not be able to serve any more or your health will go down—you will get such a disease that will forever remove you from your service. These things are the results of offences.

On the other hand, when the Lord accepts your service, then your material desires will be weaker and weaker. When He accepts your service, you will feel humility, detachment from the material world; you will feel you are low and bereft, a beggar, a renunciate; floating in divine love, tears will always fall from your eyes, your heart will be melted—you will feel enthusiasm for your service.

Those who have got some experience of the conscious (transcendental) domain, can see all these things. However, if you commit offences when you do service, your heart will become hard—there will be unconsciousness, materialism within you. The Lord keeps away those whose mind, heart does not get excited, who does not become overwhelmed with enthusiasm doing their service. For example, if your foot touches some items used for the Lord's service and you do not give it any importance (Oh, what to do?), you do not feel any fear—this is a symptom of callousness, hardness. When your heart becomes very hard, you will not be afraid of your Gurudev or the Lord. If you become daring, you are standing on the path leading to death; even if you are born in a family of brahmans, you will become an atheist (hard-hearted). Those who have no humility, fear and sense of reverence, have no right to worship Deities.

The Lord is antaryami: He is all-knowing, He is the Supersoul. He can understand everything, He can see everything—you cannot cheat Him. Those who have the eyes can see it when Sri Gaurasundar indicates something to them secretly. If He accepts your service, you will be getting more service—after one service another service will come. He will keep you submerged forever through such service, He will keep you by His side—He will hijack you.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (3.1 Mb, 8 min)