(1/4) Service Outlet

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, 10 February 2021 (noon), part 1

ছাড়িয়া বৈষ্ণব-সেবা নিস্তার পায়েছে কেবা

chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba

‘You cannot get relief without service to Vaishnavs.’

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

It is your great fortune that you have got an opportunity to do vaishnav-seva. You want to send a letter to the Lord, you want to get in touch with the Lord, but you do not know the Lord’s mobile phone number, you cannot speak to the Lord on the phone. But there are devotees of the Lord near you who are non-different from the Lord Himself. Lord Sri Krishna told Uddhav Maharaj, ‘Know the acharya to be non-different from Myself.’ Acharya is one who practises himself and preaches to others. Krishna says that we should know that an acharya is non-different from the Lord Himself. The Lord says, ‘In every age, I either come Myself or send My devotee.’ It is said in the scriptures:

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

‘I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all scriptures to be, no doubt, the Supreme Lord Himself and considered to be such by pious souls but who is also, no doubt, the Lord’s dear associate.’

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur)

On the one hand, the guru is the Lord Himself; on the other hand, he is also a dearmost associate of the Lord. Therefore, service to Vaishnavs is great fortune – not everyone gets this kind of fortune because Vaishnavs do not come to everyone’s house:

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

‘It is the innate nature of great souls to deliver vile fallen souls. Great souls never come to their homes for any personal purpose.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.8.39)

I also go house to house – I go door to door begging for the temple, and somebody gives us potato, somebody gives us rice. Before, I would go begging for a handful of rice, and some would give a handful of rice, dal or ten rupees. This is how I collected in Gurudev’s time. Why do sadhus go begging? To give spiritual benefit to the conditioned souls like ourselves. Being conditioned souls living a material family life, we cannot serve or offer bhoga to the Lord every day, but it is a rule that we must offer bhoga in the same way as you are cooking today for this programme.

যে দিন গৃহে, ভজন দেখি’,
গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায় ।

ye dina grhe, bhajana dekhi’,
grhete goloka bhaya

‘Any day there is devotional service at home, I see Goloka manifest itself in it.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to take initiation and offer bhoga four–five times a day. Just as people like to (1) drink tea when they wake up, you should also give balya-bhoga (usually some sweets) to the Lord early in the morning. Then, you have (2) breakfast in the morning, (3) you eat something for lunch at noon; in the afternoon, you (4) have a snack and eat some muri and fruit; finally, you return home from work in the evening and (5) have supper. Just as you are used to eating four–five times a day, you should offer bhoga to the Lord in the same way. Not everyone can do that, that is why Vaishnavs come to householders’ houses, take some rice, potato and other bhoga from them and use it for the service of Lord Govinda and His devotees. In this way, they give benefit to householders.

This year, we did not arrange big festivals because of the pandemic restrictions, so we did not use much potato. We had to sell part of the potato, and we kept some potato in Krishnanagar and another storage place. Also, there are a lot of small temples in Mayapur – because they could not go for collection during the lockdown, all the temple Vaishnavs were in a difficult situation, so we went by car to all the temples and gave 20 kg potato, 25 kg rice, two litres of oil, and some soya chunks to each temple. We also distributed something to poor people in Nrisingha Palli and a few other places because some people did not have food during the lockdown. In this way we used everything that we have collected for the service of the Lord and for the service of people. At every temple there are vaishnav-seva programmes, at every temple there is Lord’s service going on every day, but many temples were in a difficult situation and could not buy potato and other things. At this time, we went temple to temple and distributed potato and other things to every temple in Mayapur. We did not leave anyone out – we gave bhoga to all temples that we visit during Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. There are about fifty temples. We tried to do vaishnav-seva in this way. Those of you who have come for festivals know that when Vaishnavs are taking prasad, we always give some pranami and gifts (for example, a shawl, tilak clay or a mirror), but this year there were no large festivals because of the lockdown and many could not come to programmes, so we distributed bhoga to Vaishnavs instead.

In this way sadhus, gurus and Vaishnavs collect the hard-earned property (potato, rice, dal, etc.) from us and use it for the service of the Lord, and through that we get some sukriti. There is jnata-sukriti and ajnata-sukriti. Sukriti means ‘tad vastu tadiya sevaya’ (তদ বস্তু তদীয় সেবায়): using the Lord’s things for the Lord’s service. Many say, ‘I cultivate the land,’ but if the Lord does not give you crops, if the Lord does not arrange everything, you can never do anything. We can plant a potato seed, but the owner is the Lord – He makes the seed sprout. If we ignore or forget the Lord, who gives and arranges everything, we will inevitably end up in trouble.

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Length: 20 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Service Outlet
2) Do Not Waste This Human Life
3) Do Not Waste This Human Life
4) Happy Life