Perfect Adherence

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, morning programme
1 January 2021, part 3, translated from Bengali

Within seven days after Guru Maharaj’s coming to the temple, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told him, ‘Do not follow what your mind tells you – you must do only what I tell you. Never do what your mind tells you to do.’

Remember this. I also tell everyone the same thing: never do what your mind tells you to do; you must do what I tell you to do. The mind has two features, sankalpa (determination, or desire, to do something) and vikalpa (hesitation, doubts). When sankalpa comes, we think, ‘I will do this’, but then vikalpa comes, and we do not do it. That is why Srila Sridhar Maharaj told our Guru Maharaj, ‘Mind is very naughty, you must not listen to it. Never do what your mind tells you. Do what I tell you to do.’ This is how Gurudev started to live his life at the temple.

At the beginning, the situation at the Math was different. I remember when I was young, I would go to the Math’s crops fields, and before leaving the temple, I would take some plain dry rice kept from the day before (korkora bhat, কড়কড়া ভাত) with fried red chilli [and salt]. I like it very much, and if you mix some potato with it, it is even better! So, when Gurudev came to the temple, it was the rule that no prasad was to be wasted – now they give all leftovers to cows, but before if anything was left in the evening, they would keep it overnight, and all the brahmacharis would take it the next day. One day, there was some dal and mixed vegetable curry (labra) left, and somehow ants got into the dal. When they distributed the leftovers the next day, it happened so that the ants from the dal were put on Gurudev’s plate. Gurudev took the ants out and took the dal. Srila Sridhar Maharaj noticed this and said to Gurudev, ‘When you finish taking prasad, come to see me. I want to talk to you.’ Gurudev finished taking prasad and came to Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s room.

‘Did you want to see me?’ he asked.

‘Yes, come, sit down. I saw they had given you dal with insects, why did you eat it?’

‘I did not want to take it – my mind said, “I will not take it!” but then I remembered that you had told me not to listen to my mind, so I ate it.’

After that incident, Srila Sridhar Maharaj thought, ‘This boy will be the next acharya in the future.’ After that, so much water passed under the bridge. Many say, ‘Oh, Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj brought one grihastha, gave him sannyas and made him the acharya’, but they must remember one thing. There were many brahmacharis and sannyasis at the Math – why did Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj not choose them but instead ‘brought one grihastha and gave him sannyas’? Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had waited for thirty(!) years to give his chair to him, but Gurudev had been refusing to take it.

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