(3/7) Watch Your Activities

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Nrisingha Palli, 26 December 2020, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Gurudev's festival is coming very soon, and I have bought everything for it enthusiastically. It would take you days to buy the bhoga, but I did everything on my own within one day. I started off at ten in the morning and returned at seven in the evening. I went around Kolkata buying everything.

If I need to do something, I want to do it all at once. If I were to go to the market in Krishna Nagar three times, buying things part by part, I will waste time. It is necessary to always have eagerness to do service...

This time, I brought cows' food from Kolkata, then I saw that there was no fruit, so I went to a fruit shop. Then, I came back and saw that there was not enough rice – when outside people come to take prasad, they all like to eat rice (people even sell wheat just to buy rice), so it is necessary to buy good rice (everybody likes to eat sona masoori rice) and sufficient quantity of rice for them. I got that, too. If I send somebody to do the shopping, it will take them seven days to get everything. Do I have seven days? I do not.

Also, if I went to do the shopping three times, I would need to buy more petrol for the car, but if I do everything in one day, it takes less petrol. Some people go to the petrol station and buy a little petrol at a time. I do not do it like that. I always keep the tank full because if I buy little by little, it will take much time to go to the petrol station all the time. So, I buy full tank one time. I have been doing this all my life. It is necessary to always use intelligence and to be clever. When I used to cultivate the land (it was about 40 bighas, or 24.8 acres), I would hire fifty workers cheaply and sow everything within three days. Before me, they would do it within fifteen days. I also did it a little earlier because later the price goes up and it is hard to find workers (many people complained that they could not do the sowing, that there were no workers – I did not have such problems, I was clever and did it earlier). There is now construction going on here, in Uluberia, Bankura and Haridwar. We are making three- or four-storey buildings, and if I could stay there myself, everything would be done in one month. I bought the land here in June, but the construction is still going on... This is a waste of time. It is necessary to be eager to do service.

I have made so many temples – you will all be the owners. I do not have any wife, sons, daughters or friends, so I did not make these temples so that they could enjoy. These temples' wealth and property is yours, so if you do not take care of it and do not look after it nicely, whose loss will it be? Look after everything with care and affection, keep the temple clean. When I was in Kolkata, I thought that the painter was here in Nrisingha Palli, so I could tell him to paint the nat mandir. It got done. When I went to Ganga Sagar last time, I saw that all paint was coming off – I thought, 'Oh no, the whole temple has to be painted!' So, I sent a worker and paint, and it is completed now – I did not even have to go there. If we look after the temple, the Lord and the Deities are happy. I went to see the cows here today and saw what state they are in. I bought some tripal (tarpaulin, plastic) and had it tied around the goshala (to give the cows shelter from wind) so that they do not feel cold. If we feel cold today, tomorrow we go and buy a blanket. Do you think cows do not feel cold? They are not human – they cannot say, 'I am cold.' I saw their hairs standing on end, that is how I understood that they were cold, what state they were in. This is not cow service, but we must always do service.

What service did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself give? Gurudev's sannyasis are captains or commanders and brahmacharis are soldiers. When you have an army, there must be one person in charge to command. Who does this army fight against? Against an enemy. In Krishna consciousness, those who join this movement must fight against illusion, Maya. Just as an ant will always look for a hole to enter, Maya Devi is also always waiting: she is always waiting to attack you as soon as you move away from service or become a little separated from service. I keep telling this to everyone. If you do not do service, then other things come to your mind. For example, you want to spend time browsing your mobile phone, looking at photos, listening to songs or some bad thoughts come to your mind – when you do service, such desires and thoughts do not come to you. There is a saying, 'An idle mind is devil's workshop, an active man has no time to waste on idle works.' Those who are always busy, who are hard-working, have no time to waste on devil's work. People gossip, talk about all kinds of things and waste time. This goes against devotion. We sing every morning:

ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

'Engage only in what is favourable to devotion and reject what is unfavourable to devotion.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Prajalpa (wasting time on nonsense talks) is unfavourable to devotion. You must not follow the whims of your mind. For example, I am actually tired today because I have been out in the car the whole day, but I still came here and did many things after that...

What is material family life like? You think, 'What will I eat tomorrow?', so you must earn and put aside some money for that. If I had not saved some money, how could I be spending thousands of rupees then? I have been saving and putting aside, that is why you can spend that money now. I have bought so much land, spending very much money. Sripad Niriha Maharaj here [present among the devotees] knows everything about it. I have bought all that land for the temple, for the Lord, but I do not think about it all because what we must do is practise Krishna consciousness.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 22 Mb
Length: 49 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Serve and Study
2) Eagerness to Study
3) Watch Your Activities
4) Serve with Love
5) Exemplary Service Mood
6) Deep Faith and Service
7) Service Acumen