(9/9) Do Not Serve Misconception

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's Vyasa Puja Adhivas
Nrisingha Palli, 31 December 2020, morning, part 9

Foreign devotees ask, 'What is the difference between the soul and the mind?' I have written many questions and answers in Guidance, Volume 3. Many people say that we must 'serve poor Narayan'. This is a lie and big heresy. It is a misconception. Narayan can never be poor, and a poor man can never be Narayan. How can Narayan, who is the husband of Laksmi Devi, ever be poor? You tell me. But people say, 'Serve poor Narayan.' If you read Guidance 3, you will see that I wrote about it there.

People give money to the poor and say, 'I have served poor Narayan'! What is this! This is wrong, this is heresy to call poor people Narayan or to call Narayan poor. Can a jiva ever become God? We are part and parcels (amsa-visesa) of the Lord. You can compare it to a powerhouse and a tube light. If you call a tube light a powerhouse, will anybody believe you? A powerhouse is the place where a tube light comes from. You can see the light here – where does it come from? From the sun. But you cannot say that the sun is here. The sun gives light to all planet. Suppose you have a dark room. If you make a hole in its ceiling, a ray of sunlight will come through it and the room will get light. So, we are like sunrays, and the Lord is like the sun. Brahmans also say this...

Our Param Guru Maharaj gave a very fine explanation of the gayatri-mantra (Om bhuvar svah). You will not find any explanation of the gayatri-mantra anywhere in the Gaudiya line, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave it. The meaning of the gayatri-mantra is 'Gayatri muralista-kirtana-dhanam Radha-padam dhimahi (গায়ত্রী-মুরলীষ্ট-কীর্ত্তনধনং রাধাপদং ধীমহি): Krishna's flute does not make any other tune except the glorification of Srimati Radharani, and that is the real meaning and gist of the Gayatri mantra.' Those who receive Brahma-gayatri (brahmans and householders) receive this mantra three times a day [it is given only to male devotees]. The meaning of the gayatri-mantra is that we pray to have attachment and love for the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani. That is why everybody must recite gayatri as many times as they can. We generally tell everyone to recite it ten times, but you can recite it as many times as you want, there is no problem with that. When Param Guru Maharaj was a small boy, he would recite the gayatri-mantra 420 times. And when his mother cooked and fed him, she would cry. Why did she cry? Do you know what the child ate? He would boil some neem leaves [neem is unbearably bitter] and take those boiled neem leaves (neem-rasa) with rice because he thought, 'My tongue, you have been eating chewed, sucked, licked and drunk items for such a long time, but I am going to punish you now!' His mother would shed tears, 'I am cooking so many nice things, but my son is eating like this...' Such was our Param Guru Maharaj.

Our Param Guru Maharaj wrote that the meaning of the gayatri-mantra (Gayatri muralista-kirtana-dhanam Radha-padam dhimahi) is that we pray to have loving attachment to the holy feet of Srimati Radharani. Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said:

মাতল হরিজন কীর্ত্তন-রঙ্গে ।
পূজল রাগপথ গৌরব-ভঙ্গে ॥

matala hari-jana kirtana-range
pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange

'From afar we shall worship the raga-patha, the path of spontaneous affectionate service, while we ourselves shall live within the Vedic guideline.'

(Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad)

We will practise Krishna consciousness (serve the Supreme Lord) and keep Radha-Krishna's holy feet in our hearts. We will keep raga-path (the path of spontaneous loving devotion) in our hearts, we will not show it to anybody. Before I came to Ganga Sagar, they kept a Yugala Murti of Radha-Krishna (Krishna and Sri Radha embracing each other). Now I established proper worship there. In our temples, you will see that Krishna is separate and Radharani is separate, and we can put a dress on Them, decorate Them. We do not keep Yugala Murti to show off in front of others. You will see such Deities kept in the external world (among those who are not following the right conception). We keep Yugala Murti in our hearts, we do not show it to others.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

I have taken much time already. It is already nine o'clock. [A devotee comes from the kitchen and tells His Divine Grace that the cooks need devotees to help them at the kitchen.]

I am addressing all the motherly lady devotees. This is your home, please do some service here. Somebody can sweep and clean, somebody can wash the dishes, and somebody can cut the vegetables. All right? I know that ladies like to cut vegetables. There are cooks, but they are always busy cooking, they need help with cutting vegetables; otherwise, you will all have to struggle. To cook or to make rotis in the evening, it is necessary to be initiated, but everybody can cut vegetables, it is not necessary for you to be initiated. Everybody can help. So, if you are initiated, you can help with cooking, and if you are not initiated, you can cut vegetables. There will be prasad at noon and in the evening. Please always keep yourself engaged in service. Are you going to only sleep in your room the whole day here? No. Try to do service. Help the cooks to prepare vegetables for cooking and when it is time for kirtan and class, come here and sit with us. There will be a great festival tomorrow, so it is necessary to cut vegetables in the evening. You can take prasad at noon and then come in the afternoon to cut some vegetables for the evening.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Surrender Yourself
2) Be Genuine
3) Deity Is Not a Doll
4) Prasad-Seva
5) Nimai's Mercy to Devotees
6) Remember Lord's Mercy
7) What Are We At?
8) Imperishable Truths
9) Do Not Serve Misconception