Spiritual Chastity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Nrisingha Palli, 27 December 2020, part 4

Are there any questions from anyone?

Question: I belong to another mission, but when I preach to some devotees (my godbrothers), they seem confused about what has happened in the mission. How can I encourage them more and help them forget all these things that have happened in the mission?

Actually, Gaudiya mission is very big, and our line is the line of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj—we find all perfection, all fulfilment in this line. You all know what is Chaitanya Saraswat Math, and what is our Guru-parampara.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur chose Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to keep the flag of the Rupanuga line. In his last moments, Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur wanted to hear the kirtan Sri Rupa-manjari-pada sei mora sampada and through this kirtan he indicated the succession. He did not chose any particular de facto acharya of the mission, but we find that spiritually he chose Srila Sridhar Maharaj to keep this line. Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said about Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "I am glad that there will be at least one person left in this world who can represent and spread the conception of my preaching to others."

Although Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not travel or preach so extensively (he did preach a little in Srila Prabhupad's time, but after he made Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, he did not go out so much any more), so many devotees and so many of his godbrothers came to see him. Even the great international preacher Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad, even the leader sannyasis of Gaudiya Math (Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Maharaj and others) said, "If you want to hear Hari-katha of Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, you should go to Srila Sridhar Maharaj."

This Srila Sridhar Maharaj handed this line over to our Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, who continued carrying this flag of Sri Rupanuga-dhara, Sri Bhakti-siddhanta-dhara, Sri Bhaktivinod-dhara. Considering what Srila Madhav Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj and others said about Srila Sridhar Maharaj's Hari-katha, we can remember also that during many years Srila Gurudev published a monthly magazine Gaudiya Darshan where he would always publish lectures of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. The truth is that those lectures were actually written by Srila Gurudev, but he did not put his name—he would put Srila Sridhar Maharaj's name. So, Srila Gurudev could present Srila Sridhar Maharaj's conception that perfectly—he can represent the conception of Sri Rupanuga-dhara, Sri Bhakti-siddhanta-dhara, Sri Bhaktivinod-dhara (the conception that Srila Sridhar Maharaj was expert at) perfectly.

Gurudev also said one thing to me. When *** was going to buy the land behind our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math to build a temple, I asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, I want to buy that land to prevent them from building a temple there!" Gurudev said in reply, "Will you buy the whole Bengal? If they are making a temple behind us, what is your problem? If your pond has good food, all fish will come to eat in your pond." So, if somebody is a sincere seeker, if somebody wants real Krishna consciousness, they will come to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's ashram—they will come to Gurudev, Guru Maharaj, they will come to Srila Guru Maharaj's mission.

So, we sometimes find that devotees make so many missions, open many new branches, this, that, but the main question is where is the origin? Where is the original wealth? If you want to get that, then you must come to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's line. If you come to this line, you will get a proper benefit. There are many devotees from other missions who received sannyas from Srila Sridhar Maharaj, but they were envious of Gurudev and could not tolerate him, so they started making problems and ended up starting their own ashrams. Problems will come—they may not come immediately, but problems will come eventually. That is why, I always tell people—if you want pure things, if you want some good things, then you should come to the mission of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

You can try to explain these things to others, this is how you can help other devotees...

Question: If someone creates a webpage or a group in whatsapp that is supposed to represent the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, and that person knows that he should not add any other information or conceptions from other mission, but he still does that, should he be corrected or is it better to keep silent and not participate in that group, as many devotees do?

I spoke about it last time; if you follow what I said, it will be good. I said that if somebody criticises you, you can and you should tolerate that, but if somebody criticises your guru or guru-varga, then you can tell them in a very humble way, "Please do not do it. It is not good for your practising life." This is how you can harmonise this. Do you understand what I am saying? You should not tolerate it if they criticise your guru, it is not good. You must not listen to it. If somebody says something bad about your guru-varga, if somebody says your guru-varga is bad, etc., you can tell them humbly, "Prabhu, it is not good. You are criticising others, and it is not good for you at all."

Question: The question is specifically about someone who has a webpage where he apparently represents Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, but together with that he also gives information and shares conceptions from other missions...

You can tell them not to bring other conceptions, the conceptions of other temples to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. You can try to tell them, "Prabhu, we should be chaste to our Guru. We should try to follow what our Gurudev has told us, it is for our own good." It is not necessary to get very angry and fight—you can tell it in a very humble way. "Prabhu, do not mix with these kind of people." If you can convince them, if you can bring them to our temple, it is good, but the problem is that we are often weak, so if we mix with some bad things, we can be polluted ourselves, then it will be a problem. So, it is better if you try to avoid all this.

Question: Does Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math celebrate Gita-jayanti?

No, no. Sahajiyas do it. I went to Nabadwip today and saw that Rama Krishna Mission, Bharat Seva Ashram—all the sahajiya people—are doing Gita-jayanti festival, that is why I am saying that sahajiyas celebrate it.

Why is it necessary to celebrate Gita-jayanti? Do you know the meaning of Gita-jayanti?

Devotee: It is the day when Krishna spoke Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, so it is the day when we remember that, remember Bhagavad-gita...

The day when we remember that? But we can remember it every day! What is the problem? Why is it necessary to remember it on some particular day? We remember what Krishna told Arjuna every day. Srimad Bhagavad-gita is our primary book, and we always follow Srimad Bhagavad-gita.

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