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His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 7 February 2021, part 8

Question: I want to take your shelter and ask you for instruction...

My instruction is jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava-seva. Preach in your country, in this way you can practise jive daya; chant the Holy Name, Name ruchi; and Vaishnav-seva—serve Vaishnavs, serve devotees. These are the main things. If you can follow this, it will be good.

I want to say to the devotees that it is necessary to make a centre in Spain so that everybody could join the programmes. Everybody together should try to make a centre there, if you can do it, it will be good, because so many devotees left Venezuela and went to other countries. More than 50% went to Spain, so try to make a centre there. You can start from renting a house. Start preaching there. I am telling this to everybody—try to stay together. It is not necessary to think who will be the president, who will be the secretary, etc. These things are not necessary—it is only necessary to establish and maintain Gurudev's mission.

[A devotee makes a complaint.] ...Those who do not harmonise, are doing a sin, but if you are telling about it, you are doing an even bigger sin. It is not necessary to tell about these things. OK? Those who do wrong will reap the result, but why must you bring the reaction for their actions into your own life? Always remember—ku-dekhibo na, ku-bolibo na, ku-sunibo na: we must not hear bad things, we must not say bad things, we must not see bad things. Close your eyes and only see the Deities—see your Guru, see the devotees, do not see any other things. It is very important. "Aparadha-phale mama chitta bhela vajra-sama, tuya name na labhe vikara (অপরাধ-ফলে মম চিত্ত ভেল বজ্রসম তুয়া নামে না লভে বিকার): as a result of offences, my heart has become as hard as a thunderbolt, and when I chant Your Name, it does not produce any transformation in me." Our offences are so strong that our heart has become very hard, like a stone—when we chant, tears do not come to our eyes. It is not necessary to say what others are doing—we are offenders ourselves, we do not see others' offences. We must consider ourselves the worst offenders, the most fallen souls. Who am I to talk about others' faults?!

Question: My diksa-guru has abandoned his vows, and as I have been very attracted to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, to the devotees there and to Your Divine Grace, I would like to ask you to please grant me shelter and engage me in some service to your disciples...

Yes, no problem. If your diksa-guru has made some offence to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, you can come and join Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math—you can come and serve here, it is not a problem. You have already joined Krishna consciousness, and if you take shelter under the guidance of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math anywhere all over the world, it will be your great fortune. If you serve Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, if you serve this mission of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, I will be even happier.

I am finishing for today, we will make another programme next Sunday. I will be here on Sunday—I have a programme at noon and will come back in the evening to attend this zoom programme. After that, I will again go for preaching on Monday or Tuesday, and then to Ekachakra... Please forgive my offence, I am telling some hard things, but it is necessary to know the proper teachings. Devotees must understand the proper teachings. Be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others—this is the main thing for us. Srila Gurudev also always told about it.

You can see how much Gurudev tolerated, and you can see also my example—how much I am tolerating also... Gurudev always said: I am teaching so many things, I am teaching Mahaprabhu's conception, but what have they understood? Like, somebody has been reading Ramayan the whole year, and after having finished the whole Ramayan, they ask, "Whose father was Sita Devi?" So, Gurudev said, "I have been teaching them Mahaprabhu's conception (be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others), and one year later they are asking such questions..." They beat devotees, they throw devotees out of the temple—it is a very big problem. Both beating and kicking devotees out is wrong. Who gave them permission to beat them? Who gave them permission to throw them out? Both are not right. It is necessary to tolerate and tolerate—somebody does something wrong, first see, see, and see. Anybody can make a mistake, it is necessary to tolerate, tolerate, and tolerate. You cannot take the law into your hands. Sometimes we have to digest so many things. Gurudev tolerates us so much—he does not tell us to get out. Only when it becomes too much, then he can tell to get out.

I can remember also one example that Gurudev told me. Once, ants made a nest in a tree, and some outsider people broke their nest and used the ants' eggs as fishing bait (they used to fish in Govinda Kunda when Govinda Kunda had not manifested so much). Somebody came and complained to Srila Sridhar Maharaj about it. Then, Srila Sridhar Maharaj called those men and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why are you giving so much austerity to these ants? They did not go to your home—they took shelter here at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, then why do you come to disturb them?" I heard this from Gurudev.

So, Gurudev always said: if somebody offends me, I can tolerate it, but I cannot tolerate those who offend my Guru Maharaj. I also cannot tolerate those who offend our Gurudev. It is sometimes a problem for me. On the other hand, if somebody offends me, I do not have any problem with that—they can swear me, they can say so many bad things, I do not mind it, I am happy to digest that. That is why, I always pray to Gurudev, "Please give me some power! I have no strength, no intelligence (ami sakti-buddhi-hina), please give me some mercy so that I can tolerate everything!" That is sufficient for me...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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