Absorbed in Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 23 August 2020, part 4

Dandavat, Srila Janardan Maharaj, what is happening today? I want to know the news from you.

Srila Janardan Maharaj: Dandavat. The fire is still in one place, it is not moving so much now. The fire is not full force and it sometimes stops. I think it is about eight-seven miles away from us. You said yesterday you did not think the fire would reach here, and I do not think so, too.

Yes, because fire is afraid of Giriraj Govardhan.

Srila Janardan Maharaj: Some devotees have run away though because they were afraid. That is why I could not come to the conference yesterday—there was some chaos here. We had no pujari, we had no cook, we had nothing, but now some devotees are coming back.... And they ran away at night time—they got into a car and ran away. I had told them not to leave now, I had told them, "We will see tomorrow morning and decide what needs to be done. Do not do anything at night time." But they ran away. I am not very happy about that because I need to have devotees worshipping the Deities...

Yes, Maharaj, that is necessary. Why will devotees leave their service? They must do their service until death! But such is human nature, what can you do?... Gurudev said that Soquel temple was Govardhan, and neither Indra, nor fire (Agnidev) can do anything. When fire comes, we can worship Agni, it is not a problem. We can recite some mantras in worship of Agni. When we do sraddha ceremony, we also worship Agni, fire. Maybe, fire wants some puja, that is why it is coming—if fire comes, we can offer him some worship, no problem.

Srila Janardan Maharaj: I am thinking why will I go anywhere else? If I go somewhere else, I will get many problems, but I have no problems here.

Yes, Maharaj, yes. It is not necessary to go anywhere. Everything will be OK, fire cannot disturb our temple compound.

[Update, on 26 August, Srila Janardan Maharaj gave the happy news that the fire was backing off and not spreading towards the temple anymore.]

Question: Could you please tell us the pastime when Krishna visited Vidura?

When Krishna came to Vidura's house, Vidura was not at home. Krishna called out, "Vidur! Vidura!"—Vidura's wife was in the bathroom at that time, and as soon as she heard Krishna's calling, as soon as she understood that Krishna had come—what will she do? She does not know anything, she was so overwhelmed and excited that she came out of the bathroom without any clothes! When Krishna saw her coming in such a state, He closed His eyes and threw His uttariya to her. Then, Vidura's wife realised that she was naked and she became very shy. She quickly went back to her room and got dressed properly. By the time, Krishna sat down and waited. Soon, Vidura came home, and Krishna talked with Vidura. Vidura's wife was so excited, she did not know what she had to do. Vidura told her, "My friend has come! Give some food to Him! Give what you have in the house." She wanted to give Him some bananas, but instead of giving Him bananas, she peeled the skin and gave the banana skin to Krishna throwing away the banana! Vidura said to her, "What are you doing? Are you making fun of my friend?! You are giving Him banana skin!?" Then she saw what she was doing, "Oh, what am I doing!" She was not conscious of what she was doing, she was so overwhelmed to see Krishna, and she got very shy when she saw what she was doing.

This is what happened when Krishna came to Vidura's house. There is more history there, Srimad Bhagavatam describes it extensively, there are many big slokas, but I am telling you the gist.

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