(11/13) Guided and Misguided

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, 13 January 2021, part 11
Translated from Bengali

There was an old lady who worked as a servant at the house of Srivas Pandit. Although she was a menial servant, there is nobody like her in this world. Her name was Duhkhi (lit. ‘unhappy’). One day, before Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit’s house, Srivas Pandit told her, ‘Duhkhi, fetch some water from the pond – Prabhu is coming today, and He will need water to take a bath.’ Duhkhi thought, ‘Gosh, I bring water every day, but today the Lord is coming, and I will be bringing water for His bathing! How wonderful!’ Duhkhi went to fetch water, and as she was carrying it to the house, tears flowed from her eyes. Mahaprabhu saw her, and when she paid her obeisances to Him with tears flowing from her eyes, Mahaprabhu asked her, ‘What is your name? Why are you so unhappy?’ She said, ‘My name is Duhkhi…’ But Mahaprabhu said, ‘From today, your name is Sukhi (lit. “happy”)!’ What service did she do? She did not go to school, she did not know anything, but she did service. What service was that? She brought some water. She only brought some water for the Lord, but through her service she got the Lord.

So, if you want to get some service to the Lord (it can be any service), you must always be alert and think, ‘What do the guru and Vaishnavs need? When do they need it? What pleases gurudev? What does my Lord love?’ Gurudev is the Lord’s close associate. If you write a letter to the Lord, you will not get any reply, but if you send your letter to your gurudev, then he will deliver it to the Lord and tell you the news about the Lord – he will tell you where the Lord is staying, what the Lord is eating, what the Lord is doing, and so on. If you surrender to gurudev, you will learn everything about the Lord from your gurudev. You must go to the person from whom you can hear about the Lord.

Suppose you are walking or driving down the street. You ask somebody on the street how to get to the place where you are going, but the person does not know where it is and tells you to go in a wrong direction. You do not believe the person for some reason and decide to ask another person; the other person says, ‘No, go in this direction’, and points in the opposite direction. (There are such people in the world – they do not know the way themselves, but they will still give you advice.) Meanwhile, if you ask a boy from the Lord’s house where the Lord stays, what the Lord eats, how the Lord lives, he will tell you everything. So, it is necessary to go to a bona fide person.

We need to always have good association.

‘সাধুসঙ্গ’, ‘সাধুসঙ্গ’—সর্ব্বশাস্ত্রে কয় ।
লবমাত্র সাধুসঙ্গে সর্ব্বসিদ্ধি হয় ॥

‘sadhu-sanga’ ‘sadhu-sanga’—sarva sastre kaya
lava-matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya

‘All scriptures keep saying: “Good association”, “Good association.” You can attain all perfection even just by a drop of good, saintly association.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.54)

You must listen to what sadhus say. To eat from the same plate with a sadhu or to sleep on the same bed with a sadhu is not sadhu-sanga. Even mosquitos sleep next to a sadhu, but do you think that they come for his association? No, they only come to bite and disturb. There are also people who, like mosquitos, do not do anything and only come to disturb sadhus. Those who truly take good association live following the instruction and advice of the sadhus – they listen to what gurudev says and practise it. It is impossible to practise Krishna consciousness without strict adherence and submission (anugatya) to your guru. Sincere practitioners always live in strict adherence to their guru. Otherwise, without anugatya, no matter what you do, you will not get a good result.

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

‘If a devotee aspires for enjoyment or liberation, Krishna hides the knowledge about pure devotion and dismisses them, giving them enjoyment or liberation.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.18)

If you want money, a house, a car or anything else from the Lord instead of devotion, the Lord will give all this to you and take devotion away from you – He will hide it from you.

Remember everything I have told you today and practise Krishna consciousness in this way.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 54 Mb
Length: 112 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) An Auspicious Evening
2) An Auspicious Birth
3) Turning Back Home
4) Beyond Perverted Comfort Zone
5) What Are Your Plans?
6) Life In Lord's Family
7) Not So Fast, Not So Cheap
8) Mano-dharma vs. Bhagavat-dharma
9) Eternal Values
10) Ultimate Word of Scripture
11) Guided and Misguided
12) Exclusive Zone
13) Insurmountable Devotion