Worshipful Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

তোমার কিঙ্কর আপনে জানিব
'গুরু'-অভিমান ত্যজি' ।
তোমার উচ্ছিষ্ট পদজলরেণু
সদা নিষ্কপটে ভজি ॥

tomara kinkara apane janiba
'guru'-abhimana tyaji'
tomara uchchhista pada-jala-renu
sada niskapate bhaji

"I will consider myself Your servant and give up the ego of a guru. I will always earnestly worship Your remnants, Your foot dust, the water that has washed Your feet."

"I am your servant (kinkar), slave (das)." Srila Prabhupad also told, "Daso' smi. I am your servant." So, "I will consider myself your slave, and I will leave all ego of guru." When people think, "I am a guru, I am an acharya [i.e. I can teach others]," this ego is very bad. It is necessary to give up the ego that you are a guru. You must not think, "I have become a guru," or "I will become a guru." You think, "I can give a nice class," "I can sing kirtans well"—if you have such an ego, it will not take you anywhere.

"Tomara uchchhista pada-jala-renu sada niskapate bhaji" means that when Vaishnavs take prasadam, I will take the remnants of their prasadam. "Pada-jala-renu" means the water that has been used to wash Vaishnavs' feet and the feet dust of Vaishnavs. You can notice that when people pay obeisance, they always want to touch your feet, but do you know why Vaishnavs do not let others touch their feet? Because they consider themselves very low and vile. Do you know the reason why I do not let you all touch my feet? Guru must always think towards others, "I am your servant." I do not allow you to touch my feet because you use your pure hands to make garlands for the Lord, cook for the Lord, serve the Lord, why will you touch the feet of this low and fallen soul with your pure hand? This is why I always prohibit everyone to touch my feet.

At the same time, "Ye jana Krsna bhaje sei bada chatur (যে জন কৃষ্ণ ভজে সেই বড় চতুর): those who worship Krishna are very clever." At the time of Gundicha-marjan, Mahaprabhu Himself cleaned the temple of Gundicha Devi, where Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra would come. There was one Gaudiya Vaishnav who was very clever and managed to drink some water that had been used to wash Mahaprabhu's feet. You know that during Gundicha-marjan, everyone brings pots with water to the temple, and that Vaishnav took a pot and dropped some water on Mahaprabhu's feet. When the water started flowing down from Mahaprabhu's feet, the Vaishnav put his hand under the water and drank it. Mahaprabhu was pleased internally, but externally He showed that He was angry. He said, "Hey Svarup Damodar! Just look at your Gaudiya ['your Gaudiya' means he was also from Bangladesh, as Svarup Damodar]! He is throwing water at My feet in the temple and drinks that water to impress others!" Mahaprabhu told him to go away, although internally He was pleased with that Vaishnav. In this way Mahaprabhu showed that we must not allow others to touch our feet, and that is why in particular, we also never allow others to wash our feet.

Another time, Mahaprabhu went inside Jagannath temple. You know that there is a faucet at the entrance where you can wash your feet before entering the temple. Many people come to the temple bare feet, they come with dirty feet, and not to enter the temple like that, they wash their feet at the entrance. So, one time, when Mahaprabhu was washing His feet there, one devotee named Kalidas came there and tried to touch Mahaprabhu's feet. All the devotees rushed to stop him, "Do not touch! Do not touch!" but Mahaprabhu said, "Do not stop him. He ate the food remnants of Vaishnavs in Bengal and became 'jhanu vaishnav' ['a seasoned, or expert, Vaishnav']!" Kalidas was such a Vaishnav that he never sat together with Vaishnavs to take prasadam. Sometimes, everyone would be invited to some place for prasadam; and he would come and sit afar quietly in some forest or stand somewhere afar—he observed where everyone threw their plates (in those days, everybody ate from banana leaves, there were no plastic plates), and after everyone finished taking prasadam, he would go there and take the remnants from those plates. Such was his quality. He also brought once a mango to the house of Jhadu Thakur—when Jhadu Thakur ate the mango and his wife sucked the stone and threw it away in some bush, Kalidas went there and started sucking the stone, dancing for joy! Such was Kalidas's character. How beautiful this is. Such are Nityananda Prabhu's associates.

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