(8/8) Guru-Varga's Hidden Treasure

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 17 December 2020, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Do you know that Mahaprabhu once beat Advaita Prabhu? Do you know why? Sita Devi told, 'Do not beat him! Do not beat him!' Advaita Prabhu wanted to test Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu preached advaitavad – the Lord is one (advaita), and everyone else is His servant (ekala isvara Krsna ara saba bhrtya; একল ঈশ্বর কৃষ্ণ আর সব ভৃত্য). But Advaita Prabhu started preaching dvaitavad, the impersonal conception (mayavad). Mahaprabhu became angry, 'How can you preach this?! You consider Me your guru, but you are preaching such things?!' and He hit Advaita Prabhu! Then, Advaita Prabhu said, 'Having been beaten by You, I am very happy now! I wanted to test You and see how expert You are!'

তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট পদজলরেণু
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥

tomara uchchhista pada-jala-renu
sada niskapate bhaji

'I will always earnestly worship the remnants of Your food, Your foot dust and the water that has washed Your feet.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must practise Krishna consciousness (serve the Lord) earnestly (without duplicity; niskapate). In our country, people always practise spiritual life to show off in front of others. Sometimes, you come to somebody's house, they wipe your feet with their hair and forcefully wash your feet. We do not allow people to do this. When people show that they worship your footdust or the water that has washed your feet, they do this artificially, only to impress others. Do you think you can put a drop of water in your mouth and get everything by that? Showing off in front of others, people take your footdust and drink water that has washed your feet, but they do not understand anything, do not learn anything: if you ask them for a glass of water, they do not care, but they care about washing your feet.

[A devotee comes in front of His Divine Grace and tells some family news.] Who has died? Your wife? Your wife is there, lying in the room. How can the soul die? In this world, nobody dies and nobody is killed. We do not die, we are not killed – we only change our bodies. Just as I am wearing these clothes now and will wear other clothes tomorrow, in the same way, we change our bodies. I get a human body today, a goat's body tomorrow, a cat's or a dog's body the day after tomorrow, and so on. We never die. Do you understand it?

Listen to this. How beautiful these words are:

তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট পদজলরেণু
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥

tomara uchchhista pada-jala-renu
sada niskapate bhaji [3]

'I will always earnestly worship the remnants of Your food, Your foot dust and the water that has washed Your feet.'

নিজে শ্রেষ্ঠ জানি' উচ্ছিষ্টাদি দানে
হবে অভিমান-ভার ।

nije srestha jani' uchchhistadi dane
habe abhimana-bhara

'If I believe, "I am the greatest", I will start giving others my food remnants and other things and become burdened with ego.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We think that we are better than others, so we say, 'Here, take my prasad!' People also often come to me and say, 'Give me your prasad!' If you want to take gurudev's prasad, you must wait when gurudev finishes taking prasad and gives his plate for washing – then you can take something from there and put it on your tongue, that is sufficient. 'I must get some prasad after gurudev eats, so I will put more on his plate!' This is not right. It only displeases gurudev. If you want to take his prasad, you must do it secretly, without him knowing about it. We must not give our remnants to anybody; otherwise, if you give your food remnants to others, you will become proud. We must never become gurus – we must always remain disciples.

তাই শিষ্য তব থাকিয়া সর্ব্বদা
না লইব পূজা কা'র ॥

tai sisya tava thakiya sarvada
na laiba puja ka'ra [4]

'Therefore, I pray to always remain Your disciple and not take worship from anyone.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

I always pray that I may remain a disciple. I do not need to become a guru. I will always be a disciple, and I will not take worship from anybody. When people give me obeisances, I always say, 'I do not take anybody's obeisances. I always send all obeisances to my gurudev's holy feet and the Lord's holy feet.' If you take obeisances from others, you will become too heavy and your boat will sink – you will go to Rasatal (one of the hellish planets) then. Therefore, do not take anybody's obeisances.

I have told you many times that you can find many pranam-taking (obeisance-taking) and pranami-taking (donation taking) gurus in this world. Many people open temples, thinking, 'Everybody will come to me and give me obeisances and donations!' No. You must go door to door, distribute the Holy Name and beg people to chant the Holy Name, spread Mahaprabhu's message! Srila Sridhar Maharaj called Srimad Bhagavad-gita 'the hidden treasure of the Sweet Absolute'. Srila Swami Maharaj often said, and we also say the same thing, that we have come to this world to distribute the hidden treasure of India. If it had been not for him, how could all these boys and girls be sitting here now? There is only one Bengali person staying with me (he drives the car and sometimes cooks) – all others are foreigners. We do not come to take anybody's dollars, pounds or euros – we come to give you Indian wealth. What is that hidden treasure of India? It is the main source, the origin of life where we all come from. This is what Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote about in his edition of Gita, this is the hidden treasure of Gita. Many people read Gita, but they do not understand its meaning...

[Clamour] How long are you going to talk? You are only worrying about your bags! Please keep quiet. Do not speak during the class. You are making the Lord unhappy. 'They are talking about Me, but this person is disturbing!' You can understand that it is an offence to service (seva-aparadha).

অমানী মানদ হইলে কীর্ত্তনে
অধিকার দিবে তুমি ।

amani manada haile kirtane
adhikara dibe tumi

'When I become free from the desire for honour and learn to give honour to others, you will give me the right to chant Your kirtan.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Sometimes when we go for a programme, somebody says, 'Can I chant kirtan?' They think, 'I can sing better than Maharaj, my voice is better, so I will sing for people.' 'Kirtana kariba pratistha magiba: I will chant kirtan and beg for prestige.' Do you chant kirtan or do you ask for prestige? Srila Prabhupad wrote:

কীর্ত্তন ছাড়িব, প্রতিষ্ঠা মাগিব,
কি কাজ ঢুঁড়িয়া তাদৃশ গৌরব ।

kirtana chhadiba, pratistha magiba,
ki kaja dhundiya tadrsa gaurava

'I will give up kirtan and instead beg for prestige. But what is the use seeking this glory?'

(Vaishnav ke?, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad)

You get people who say, 'Let me chant kirtan!' There are always such people. Even in Mahaprabhu's time there were such people. Even in Srila Sridhar Maharaj's time, when Srila Prabhupad was going to leave his body, he asked him to chant the kirtan 'Sri Rupa-manjari-pada', but another person thought, 'Sridhar Maharaj cannot sing! He only sings like reciting poetry, he has no voice.' Kunja Babu asked to call another devotee to sing that kirtan. When that devotee started singing, Srila Prabhupad said, 'Did I ask to hear the tune? I do not want to hear the tune! I want to hear the kirtan.' Then Srila Sridhar Maharaj started chanting 'Sri Rupa-manjari-pada'. Srila Prabhupad smiled, closed his eyes and saying, 'Ha! [O!]' and his soul left. Srila Prabhupad was happy, 'After me, there will be one person left behind who can continue my preaching.'

অমানী মানদ হইলে কীর্ত্তনে
অধিকার দিবে তুমি ।
তোমার চরণে নিষ্কপটে আমি
কাঁদিয়া লুটিব ভূমি ॥৫॥

amani manada haile kirtane
adhikara dibe tumi
tomara charane niskapate ami
kandiya lutiba bhumi [5]

'When I become free from the desire for honour and learn to give honour to others, you will give me the right to chant Your kirtan. Rolling on the ground, I will earnestly cry at Your holy feet.'

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

doyal vaisnava thakur
doyal vaisnava thakur
doyal vaisnava thakur
doyal vaisnava thakur

How beautifully Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote...

[His Divine Grace then chants 'Nitai-pada-kamala', 'Avatara-sara', 'Yasomati-nandana', 'Jaya Sachinandana', 'Jaya Radhe Jaya Krsna', 'Hari Haraye Nama Krsna' and the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.]

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Size: 31 Mb
Length: 74 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Gurudev's Great Mercy
2) Thwarted At the End
3) Unfavourable Urges and Thorns
4) Five Diseases
5) Live as Servant
6) Pure and Foul Ego
7) Worshipping Prasad
8) Guru-Varga's Hidden Treasure