Live Exemplary Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's disappearance
Nrisingha Palli, morning, 3 January 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

স্থানে স্থানে কত মঠ স্থাপিয়াছ নিষ্কপট
প্রেমসেবা শিখাইতে জীবে ।

sthane sthane kata matha sthapiyachha niskapata
prema-seva sikhaite jive

"Sincerely, you established so many temples to teach the souls loving service to the Lord."

(Acharya Vandana)

What is a temple opened for? So that others can practise, and when one practises at the temple, they should then go out to preach. For example, I go to many householder houses to preach. Preaching is not about telling stories, eating fancy food, drinking sherbet, etc.—it is not about eating nice food and sleeping on a nice bed. "I go to teach others how to practise, so I will wake up early in the morning for mangal arati"—if I do not wake up, then the hosts will also not wake up. It is not right! There must be no laziness, no procrastination at the temple. People cannot wake up early in the morning, but the Lord cannot be satisfied with this. I have seen in many temples that only the pujari wakes up, rings the bell for the arati, but everybody continues sleeping. Do you know what Srila Sridhar Maharaj told? He said that if somebody does not come for mangal arati, they must not be fed. Later, Gurudev said, "If you sleep through the mangal arati, please do not come to eat." He did not prohibit them to eat, but he asked them please not to come themselves.

When I came to the temple, I would come to the arati and after parikrama, when Gurudev was not at the temple, I would run to catch the bus and get to the field. I looked after the workers—made sure they had food, etc. I even had to buy bidi for them because they had to have them to work. I stayed in the fields until two o'clock in the afternoon and then come back to the temple by three o'clock. By three, prasadam had finished, and one time Gurudev notice this. He called one man and said, "What is the matter? He goes to the fields early in the morning, stays there the whole day, and there is no prasadam for him when he returns? Go make something for him!" That person came to me and said that Gurudev had asked him to make something for me, but I refused, I said it was not necessary, I would have muri (puffed rice). After that Gurudev chastised some devotee, "What is this? Vinod Prabhu goes to work in the fields, but you all cannot even keep some food for him?!"

Another time, everybody sat to eat. I was a new boy at the temple, and they knew I did not drink milk. Everybody was served prasad, and suddenly the person who was serving prasad put curd on my plate! Everybody saw it and started grumbling, "We came to the temple five years ago, but he came only one-two months ago, how come he got curd?" The person who gave it to me said, "I do not know anything. This is the head office's order." Everybody was taking milk, and I suddenly got curd—everybody stared at me, puzzled, "We have been here for five years and we do not get curd, but he is a new boy and he gets curd!" I did not want anything—Gurudev gave this. I later actually stopped taking curd [for health reasons and out of personal disinterest—ed.], and I do not drink milk now, did not drink it before too. Now doctors tell me not to eat rice three times a day, so I sometimes take rotis. If I eat rice three times, my blood sugar goes up, but when I take rotis, my stomach becomes upset (gas). Which direction will I go in?...

Anyhow, it is said here that sadhus and Vaishnavs are always spreading Hari-katha:

স্থানে স্থানে কত মঠ স্থাপিয়াছ নিষ্কপট
প্রেমসেবা শিখাইতে জীবে ।
মঠের বৈষ্ণবগণ করে সদা বিতরণ
হরিগুণ-কথামৃত ভবে ॥

sthane sthane kata matha sthapiyachha niskapata
prema-seva sikhaite jive
mathera vaisnava-gana kare sada vitarana
hari-guna-kathamrta bhave

"Sincerely, you established so many temples to teach the souls loving service to the Lord. The Vaishnava residents of these temples incessantly spread the nectar of the glories of the Lord."

(Acharya Vandana)

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