(7/7) Best Turn In Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 10 January 2021, part 7

[A devotee mentions that they intend to arrange some online cooking classes and ask His Divine Grace for some general guidance.]

All the devotees know how to cook, what is there to it? When Nityananda Prabhu is in Ekachakra, He likes roasted and mashed eggplant (begun pora), and when Nityananda Prabhu comes to Venezuela or Colombia, He takes arepa. What is the problem? Nityananda Prabhu’s taste is different, so He can take different things from everybody and from everywhere, as long as you cook it with heart. The main thing is to serve with heart. Do not do anything artificially. When you do any service or cook anything, you must do it with heart, then it will be good for everybody, and then Mahaprabhu, Krishna or Nityananda Prabhu will be happy: They will enjoy, and gurudev will also enjoy. This is the main advice how to do everything. It is necessary for us to understand this.

[Addressing one of the devotees looking uncomfortably cold.] Oh, is it too cold there? Then come here!

Devotee: But it is not possible to get the visa to India now…

Oh… You are talking about the material visa, but the transcendental visa is not necessary – you have already got your transcendental visa from gurudev, that is sufficient. You can start walking then. Why not? Six months, and you will come here. What is the problem? [His Divine Grace laughs.]

In one–two months, there will be election here in Bengal, and many politicians are gathering so many meetings and events without any restrictions. So, our festival will not be stopped this year. Our Gaura Purnima will take place, and the parikrama will be five days starting from this year.

I have not heard from ** for many days, but I received a message that he had left home. It is not a problem. If he wants to live a brahmachari life, what is the problem? [Addressing the mother of the boy.] That is why you are a little sad, are you not? You know, when I joined Krishna consciousness, my family also said, ‘Oh, that boy has lost his mind! He is crazy!’ They did not even want to see my face. I heard recently that my mother’s sister had died (last time I saw that lady was thirty-five years ago). When I was going to Ekachakra yesterday, I decided to find her house. I had actually forgotten the address, but anyhow I managed to find a shopkeeper who told me the address (that family are big landlords, very rich people, so it is not difficult to find them). When I came there yesterday, I saw that lady had six sons and two daughters, and they were doing the last rites for her. They have a very big family now – there are maybe more than a hundred people in it. I saw them and said, ‘What to do? Krishna will take everybody one day.’ Before, they used to say I had become crazy, but now they understand that I had not made a mistake. I left my family and came to help Gurudev – I made no mistake.

Before, ** wore saffron-colour clothes, he was a brahmachari, and I wanted to make him the leader of the London Temple, but now he has gone to family life. He is still serving as much as he can, but he cannot serve full-time – he can serve maybe 30–50%. Those who become brahmacharis and sannyasis can give their whole lives forever, until death, for service, and their parents should be proud of them – their son has become a sannyasi! Gurudev also said that when a son becomes a sannyasi, twenty-one generations become liberated from all illusory bondage and go to Vaikuntha. Your son is now sixteen years old, maybe going on seventeen – for now you can tie him with a rope, but once he turns eighteen, you cannot tie him anymore, he will be free. I am praying to Gurudev that this boy will be the next leader of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in London. I will be very happy with that. Try to understand that.

When I meet with devotees, I know that they live family lives and have daughters and sons. I come to beg from them, but I do not beg them just for some money – sometimes I beg them, ‘You have more than one child, can you give me one of them forever for service?’ When mothers hear it, they become afraid, ‘If I give him my son, what if he never gives him back to me?’ Some may even curse me, ‘If Maharaj dies, I can get my son back!’ And there is another problem also. Once, I asked **, ‘You have six sons, can you give one son to me?’ She did – she gave me a good boy, but then somebody stole my son… When one brahmachari left like that too (got married), Gurudev also said, ‘My son has been stolen.’

One time, when I was in Russia, I met one of the main devotees there (that was then, I do not know what she is doing now). That devotee had many children, I think she had just had her third child at that time, and there was not much of an age gap between the children – one year difference, I think. She was very disturbed by them and struggled to manage them. I was quite foolish and naive at that time, so I asked her, ‘Why are you making so many babies?’ She replied, ‘Oh, I am making brahmacharis for you!’ After that, I have not got any news from her, I do not know where she has gone. That was in 2000, so twenty-one years have passed, all the babies have grown up and must be twenty-one, twenty-two years old now. If saw her, I would ask her, ‘You promised that you were making brahmacharis, so where are my brahmacharis??’

It is necessary for some devotees to leave their families and join full-time; it is necessary for the future of Srila Guru Maharaj’s Mission, Srila Gurudev’s Mission. If Srila Sridhar Maharaj had not got Gurudev, how would he have made this Mission? How would Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s Mission have been maintained, expanded and continued? After that, Gurudev also eventually got me – no doubt, I am a fallen soul, but Gurudev got me as his servant, and I am also trying to find somebody who will come to carry on this Mission. Unfortunately, not every mother will agree to give her son for the service of the Lord. Such is the Indian culture here. They can give their houses, they can give their lands, but they will not give their children for service. It is very unfortunate.

Now ** and ** must be afraid thinking when I will ask for their son for service. You must understand that this boy will be the next generation in our Mission, and I am very, very happy with his mood. I am very, very happy with his humility, tolerance, and giving honour to others. It is a very happy mood. **’s sons are also good, but I see their mood now and I understand that they want to be householders. When I see devotees, I can understand their mood, and I can detect where their mood is going. ** was a very simple-hearted boy, the other boy, too, but now I see that the way their mood is going they are thinking, ‘If I become a sannyasi or a brahmachari, who will take care of me? Who will massage my feet when I become old? I want my wife to massage my feet.’ They are thinking like that…

These are very heavy words. Not everybody can digest them…

When I heard that ** wanted to get married, he told me, ‘Maharaj, if I get married, I can serve you together with my wife. What is the problem?’ Yes, it is not a problem, you can come and join and serve the Mission together. I have no problem with that, but the problem is that now they are doing some cake business in their country instead. Why is it necessary to make cakes? For their baby…

It takes great fortune and great sukriti to be able to join full-time and forever. Otherwise, without special fortune, who could have thought that I myself would become a sannyasi? When I was a school boy, I was very naughty. If I saw some person with a shaved head putting on tilaks, I used to throw stones at their heads! Even all the village people from my birthplace were astonished, ‘This boy has become a sadhu?! The boy who used to fight for a piece of food in this childhood?!’ Who would have known it?

All right, I am finishing the programme for today. We will try to make a programme next Sunday from wherever we are, it will be good.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay.
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay.
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay.
All the assembled devotees ki jay.
Srila Bhakti Pavan Janardan Maharaj ki jay.
Srila Bhakti Kusum Ashram Maharaj ki jay.
Sripad Bhakti Bandhav Puri Maharaj ki jay.
Sripad Bhakti Nandan Sadhu Maharaj ki jay.
All the assembled devotees ki jay.
All the worldwide devotees ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol.

Please forgive my offence. I want to see you all again next Sunday.

Jay Srila Gurudev. Dandavat.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 20 Mb
Length: 40 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Good Mind, Good Heart
2) Uninterrupted Service Life
3) Accommodating Heart
4) Material Affection
5) Coming Before Deities
6) Sri Uddharan Datta Thakur and Sri Vakreshwar Pandit
7) Best Turn In Life