Pure Preacher's Position

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, evening class
1 January 2021, part 4, translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace notices a devotee dozing off.] You are falling asleep! You went to the gate to meet with me and greet me, but I told you all yesterday—I am neither a pranam-taking guru, nor a pranami-taking guru. I am not expecting anyone to give me their pranam (obeisances) or their pranami (donation). I was talking with somebody and after that went to rest, and you came to my door and started knocking, did you not? I heard the noise. I know it, I could hear your voice. It is not right. Gurudev told this—if you hear what Gurudev said, you will be amazed. Gurudev said: devotees come from abroad, and there are three kinds of devotees among them. There are these three kinds of devotees among you too, even more so. Shall I tell you what these three kinds of devotees are? If I say it, you will be upset. Gurudev said: you can see foreign devotees, there are three kinds of devotees among them. Coming from abroad, they get off the plane and bring many things they have bought for me, sometimes they bring thirty gifts, a bag full of gifts!

You can see me also—I am wearing this jacket, etc.. One time, one of my disciples looked up the price of my shoes in the internet. The shoes I wear cost 5,000-7,000 rupees. They sent them for me from abroad. My room had been robbed at that time and everything was stolen, including even my soap. So, foreign devotees sent things for me; for them such a price is not a problem. I myself do not buy anything for myself—I do not even buy soap for myself. I have never even bought a toothbrush for myself with the Lord's money. I never did it before, when I was a brahmachari, and I have still never done it to this day. Somebody can give me ten rupees, for example, but I have never ever bought tooth paste or a toothbrush for myself with that money.

My only expense is petrol because I have to go for preaching. Whether people give money or not, I must go for preaching, and if somebody pays for petrol, they can do that, and if not, I take money from my pocket and spend Gurudev's money to go for preaching. I also spend money on printing books. Sometimes, when I go to somebody's house for preaching, they give money for petrol—if they give, they give, and if they do not give, I do not mind it, I pay myself. Gurudev told me to spend money for preaching. Moreover, Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said that for preaching, you can even borrow money. If you borrow money, then you will have to go out for collection to pay that money back because the person you borrow from will keep coming to you, asking you for that money. This is the rule, this is how you must preach.

For preaching, we also print books. This time, I printed 500,000 books. How many people buy it? Sometimes, we give books for free also—if you cannot pay the printing price, you can take it for free. Take it, read it, and follow it, then you will get some benefit. This is how we preach. So, when it comes to petrol, I always buy it. Every month, I spend 100,000 rupees on petrol for the car because I must go for preaching to various places, and I also must go to different temples to preach Hari-katha. I am doing that.

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