Internal Purity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata, 6 December 2020, part 4

Question: How can we become first class devotees? How can we improve our situation?

We can try. It is necessary to try. Mercy is always necessary, and we must always try to be good. We must listen properly from our Guru, we must give ourselves to the service of our Gurudev without any second thoughts ("What will happen?"). Gurudev always says that you must have a good character, you must always tell the truth, and follow his instruction, you must not follow your mind. Gurudev told many things.

I would also like to tell one thing to all my well-wishers and all my disciples. Sometimes, we say something to our disciples and they start arguing with us. This is not a good behaviour with your Gurudev. We never behave like that. We never do that with our Guru. Personally, I have never done this—whatever Gurudev says, I always try to follow his instruction. In Gurudev's time, others would sometimes criticise me, but I did not care about anything because Gurudev gave me a certain service and I did what I was told to do. Even if I am not qualified for some service, but Gurudev gave me this service, I will try to do it. This has always been my mood and my great desire. I always think how to make Gurudev happy.

I remember one time Gurudev sent me to attend a festival in Mayapur. It happened just a month after I had come and joined the temple. When Gurudev sent me there, he told me, "I am not sending you there only to take prasadam. You must go there and tell me who from our temple went to that festival." I told Gurudev that I did not know everybody's name, somebody from outside could also join, but Gurudev said, "You are a very intelligent boy, your brain is very sharp, so I am sure you can go there and you can remember the names." Gurudev understood my character during that one month, and he sent me to that festival. So, I came to that festival before the lectures started, some sannyasis gave lectures, I recognised them and saw who came from our temple. After that, I came back to our temple and went to see Gurudev at his veranda. Gurudev was taking rest at that time, so I decided I would come later when Gurudev woke up. When everybody went to Gurudev after the evening arati to pay obeisance to him, I came too. I offered Gurudev obeisance and gave him eleven rupees. Gurudev asked me, "What is this money for? Is it yours?" I said, "No, Gurudev, this was given to me by that temple where I went, they gave some pranami." Gurudev replied, "Oh, I hear so many devotees went there from our temple, but they gave pranami only to you, and to nobody else?" I understood what Gurudev wanted to see. Then, downstairs, others who did not give pranami to Gurudev said to me, "Oh, you are showing how honest you are! Why did you have to give that money to Gurudev?" They told me so many nonsense things, but I ignored it. I did what I thought was right. This is not my money—they invited the temple to the festival and I went there on behalf of the temple, so this money is not mine, it is the property of the temple, so this money can only go either to the Deities or to Gurudev. I understood it that time, and there have been so many other things. There are so many ways you can act or behave good.

Gurudev also always said, "If somebody could do this service, it would be very good," and when I heard it, I always tried to do it. I try to fulfil his desire. In this way everybody can try to be good...

Another thing you must remember is that Gurudev always wants clean service. We can always make some mistake, and Gurudev takes our offences, there is no doubt about it, but if we know we do wrong and we again and again, again and again continue doing wrong, then one day we will lose our service. We must correct ourselves. We must be honest in our service. Gurudev always wants clean service from us—if you do wrong again and again all the time, it is not good. If you make a mistake today, you must try to correct yourself and not do it again. Suppose you are making chapatis for the Deities—if you burn the chapatis today, it does not mean that you will burn and offer burnt chapatis every day. Even if you burn the chapatis today, tomorrow you will try to make it nicely. You think, "Oh, Gurudev took burnt chapatis today, so it is not a problem, I can do it every day." Gurudev will tolerate it, but he will not tolerate it every day—one day he will tell you and another day he will not take it, and you will lose your service. That is why, we must try to always offer fresh, clean, good service. We will not do dirty things all the time. You must try to understand this. We must try, always try and try, and it will be possible. If you fail one exam, you must study harder and take the exam again—if you study more properly, you will surely pass the exam. So, if you fail one time, do not think, "Oh, I will go for any exams again!" This is not good. You must study more, you must study scriptures more, and one day you will become a very pure devotee.

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