(8/9) Enter Service Plane

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 November 2020, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

বৈষ্ণবের গুণ-গান করিলে জীবের ত্রাণ
শুনিয়াছি সাধুগুরুমুখে

vaisnavera guna-gana karile jivera trana
suniyachhi sadhu-guru-mukhe

'Singing the glories of the Vaishnavs rescues and protects the jiva soul—I heard this from the mouth of sadhus and my guru.'

(Acharya-vandana)

How many times I have told you this: you must chant the glories of Vaishnavs. But the problem is that we think that we are Vaishnavs.

'আমি ত' বৈষ্ণব', এ বুদ্ধি হইলে
অমানী না হ'ব আমি ।

"ami ta' vaisnava," e buddhi haile,
amani na ha'ba ami

'If I think, "I am a Vaishnav," then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour).'

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' I will not be able to give honour to others.

Who is capable of chanting the glories of Vaishnavs and the Lord? Who has the right to do it?

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

'Humility, compassion, giving honour to others and giving up your own prestige — become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Holy Name.'

(Gitavali, Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to have humility (dainya), to be humble. Somebody tells you something and you get angry – this is not humility. It is necessary to be humble. We are always low, and we must always remain low. There is nobody lower and more fallen than me in this world. 'I am big' – this is a wrong mentality. We must also be compassionate, merciful to others. We must treat others with compassion (daya). We must give honour and respect to everybody. And we must give up name and fame (pratistha): 'I am big', 'I am a great singer', 'I am a great speaker' and so on. 'I do not know anything', 'I do not have any power, any capacity', 'I only live relying on the mercy of my guru and Vaishnavs', 'If my guru and Vaishnavs bestow their mercy on me and tell me to say, give or do something, then I can do it. I cannot do anything by my own wish. It is not possible for me do anything on my own.'

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

'Humility, compassion, giving honour to others and giving up your own prestige — become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Holy Name.'

(Gitavali, Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must always serve our guru, Vaishnavs and the Lord with these qualities.

নাহি মাগি দেহ-সুখ, বিদ্যা, ধন, জন ॥
নাহি মাগি স্বর্গ, আর মোক্ষ নাহি মাগি ।
না করি প্রার্থনা কোন বিভূতির লাগি’ ॥

nahi magi deha-sukha, vidya, dhana, jana
nahi magi svarga ara moksa nahi magi
na kari prarthana kona vibhutira lagi

'I do not pray for bodily pleasure, learning, wealth, or followers. I do not pray for heaven, I do not pray for liberation, and I do not pray for any supernatural powers.'

নিজ কর্ম্ম-গুণ-দোষে যে যে জন্ম পাই ।
জন্মে জন্মে যেন তব নাম গুণ গাই ॥

nija-karma-guna-dose ye ye janma pai
janme janme yena taba nama guna gai

'Whatever birth I get as the result of my own actions and good and bad qualities, may I birth after birth sing Your Name and glories.'

(Gitavali, Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Whatever birth I get, I am only praying to be able to chant Your glories, O Lord!' These are very beautiful words.

তৃণাধিক হীন দীন অকিঞ্চন ছার ।
আপনে মানবি সদা ছাড়ি অহঙ্কার ॥

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara
apane manabi sada chhadi ahankara

'Give up ego and consider yourself lower than a blade of grass, poor, destitute and vile.'

বৃক্ষসম ক্ষমাগুণ করবি সাধন ।
প্রতিহিংসা ত্যজি অন্যে করবি পালন ॥

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana
pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana

'Practise tolerance like that of a tree, stop ill-treating others and nurture everyone.'

জীবন-নির্ব্বাহে আনে উদ্বেগ না দিবে ।
পর-উপকারে নিজ-সুখ পাসরিবে ॥

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe
para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

'Live without causing anxiety to others; do good unto others forsaking your own happiness.'

(Gitavali, Sri Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must give up our own happiness for the sake of others. Be merciful to other living entities.

Where will I live? Where will I sleep? What will I eat? What will I wear? We always worry about these things. We complain, 'I feel unhappy serving You, O Lord!' But this unhappiness is your happiness! When you try to do some service, you face difficulties, but these difficulties are your happiness.

তোমার সেবায় দুঃখ হয় যত,
সেও ত' পরম সুখ ।

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,
seo ta' parama sukha

'No matter how much unhappiness comes when I try to serve You, even all unhappiness is a source of great happiness for me.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'I am trying to serve You, but so many obstacles, problems and disturbances!' – this is your happiness, you must feel happy. The Lord is testing you in various ways to see how much you can tolerate and persevere. It should make you happy when difficulties come your way. 'I want to see how much you can tolerate. I want to see if you will give up My service or not. Will you leave Me or not? I will not hold on to you so easily. I want to see first if you will give Me up or not, if you will go away or not. But when I do get hold of you, you will not be able to go away. I do not hold on to anybody so easily, but once I do, I never leave them.'

Therefore, we must always keep ourselves attracted, drawn to the service of our guru and Vaishnavs. We must always feel this pull to serve them.

It reminds me of what Guru Maharaj told. 'Before, the situation at the temple was bad, so we could not buy vegetables at the market. The temple had some land, so we used whatever we grew in the garden. There were also fig trees (dumur) at the temple, and Guru Maharaj told us to climb that tree every day to collect figs. This duty was divided among all brahmacharis – every day a different brahmachari would climb a fig tree and collect figs.' Do you know who lives on fig trees? Tree ants. You can imagine what it is like – after their bites, the whole body burns... Guru Maharaj said, 'When I knew it was my day to climb it the next day, I could not sleep the whole night thinking about it. I was dreading climbing it and facing the ants and their stinging bites. But Guru Maharaj said that if we did not climb it, we would get no prasad that day.' These days, you will not even see that fig subji anywhere. I have eaten it only once in my life. They cut it into four parts, discard the seeds and cook it like potato. It comes nice. It is called dumurer rasa.

Guru Maharaj told that the life at the temple was very hard in those days. Aranya Maharaj (he left his body several years ago, his previous name was Krishna Sharan Brahmachari) would wake up early, do mangal-arati, chant kirtans, give a class, do archan and then go out for collection. He would return at noon and offer bhog. If he did not go for collection one day, the temple had no rice the next day. Such was the sad state of the temple. I heard from Gurudev that this is how they lived at the temple in his young days.

Gurudev never slept in the afternoon because there were mangos hanging low on the trees and monkeys came and ate them. He would tie a brick to a tin and hang it on the tree, and when a monkey came, it would shake the rope and Gurudev knew that there was a monkey. Gurudev could not sleep in the daytime because he had to chase those monkeys away. But now, if a brahmachari does not sleep in the day time, there will never be any peace at the temple. But they promise in front of fire: 'Diva-nidra nisedh. Om varam. No sleeping in the daytime. I accept.' Boys and girls also get married in front of a fire, they make promises not to leave each other and the fire is the witness, but who follows it these days? Two days later they get divorced. Our brahmacharis are also like that. They say in front of fire, 'I will not sleep in the daytime,' and that is it. The next day, they take prasad in the afternoon and go to sleep.

I got a phone call from one of the temples recently. Two devotees (both are saffron-clad brahmacharis) are fighting over who will go to the market. I asked them, 'How come you never fight over who will sweep the temple?' I know why. They go to the market with fifty rupees, buy some vegetables and steal five rupees from the change. So, they are fighting who will go to the market to steal five rupees. What kinds of sadhus are these?? That is why it is one thing to become a sadhu, and it is another thing to just dress as one. I told the person who called me, 'The temple manager told him to go to the market, then what is your problem? Are you worried because you are losing money?' The devotee kept quiet and said nothing. And the other brahmachari actually went to the market, brought all rotten vegetables and kept the money in his pocket. Another person said to the temple manager, 'Oh, I need to have five hundred rupees in my pocket,' but he did not know that the manager would then call and tell me about it. Such are the temple people... And they are staying in Vrindavan(!) and Govardhan(!). What kind of sadhus are they? I am very sad about it. I spend lakhs of rupees and do not even want to see it. I have no desire to count it. I get annoyed when I have to deal with money. Even when I go to the bank, I never count money. What is there to count? I know the banker. And if I have to count it, I give it to somebody else to count, I do not like counting money. I am a strict sannyasi (virakta-sannyas) – I become annoyed when dealing with material things. I have no attraction to all this. But when the Lord's things are wasted or spoilt, then I feel pain.

We must feel that the Lord is our own. We must feel a pull towards service. There must be seva-pravrtti, service mood, service drive. This is what we must be attracted and drawn to. Giving honour to somebody, or respecting somebody, means showing affection to them.

Anyway, I will make a big festival for you in Nabadwip on Gurudev's appearance day. I am giving you invitation cards, they are printed very beautifully this year. When Gurudev was there, I could not print them like that. But Gurudev can see now everything. I invited him yesterday... [His Divine Grace smiles]

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Result of Great Fortune
2) Beyond the Walls of Your Ego
3) Hanker and Try
4) Govardhan's Arrangement
5) Krishna, Stealer of Pride
6) Annakut Mahotsav
7) Who Are You? Where Are You?
8) Enter Service Plane
9) Taking the Holy Name