(5/13) Meaning of Discipleship

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

নিজে শ্রষ্ঠ জানি’, উচ্ছিষ্টাদি দানে,
হবে অভিমান-ভার ।
তাই শিষ্য তব, থাকিয়া সর্ব্বদা,
না লইব পূজা কা’র ॥

nije srestha jani’, uchchhistadi dane,
habe abhimana-bhara
tai sisya tava, thakiya sarvada,
na laiba puja ka’ra

‘If I believe, “I am the greatest”, I will start giving others my food remnants and other things, getting weighed down by ego. So, I pray to always remain your disciple and not accept worship from anyone.’

(Sri Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

There are many gurus in this world. There are gramya-gurus, sahajiya-gurus; there are also those who are called ‘kula-gurus’ (ancestral gurus). What do they do? They put a lot of food on their plates and then, not being able to eat it all, tell everyone to eat it up after them. This is how ego comes. If you think that you are great and give everyone your remnants, you will become heavy with the burden of ego. ‘I am the greatest, and everyone is lower’ – this mood breeds ego. That is why our sampradaya does not teach us to behave like that. You must take only as much as you can eat. Be satisfied with whatever is placed on your plate; do not take more than that. If you take more than you can eat, it means that you will leave your remnants for others – this is how your ego will grow. Do not do this. We never behave like this in our line; this is what others do. You have probably heard that Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj even ate his banana-leaf plate once. He had already eaten full stomach, but the host still forced him to take more and put more and more on his plate thinking that Babaji Maharaj would leave something on the plate and they would get his prasad, but Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj understood what was going on and ate everything, along with the banana-leaf plate! And he was very old at that time, over 130 years old.

It is ekadasi today. Yesterday I drank some milk. I never drink milk (my doctors prohibit it), but yesterday I felt very hungry and took some milk with biscuits. After I did that, I could not sleep the whole night. Today also I could not sleep. I am not feeling well now, but I still had to come downstairs for the class. I have made my healthy body sick. I thought it was ekadasi the next day and I would be fasting, so I decided to take some milk with biscuits. As the result, I had so much acid and gas in the stomach that I could not sleep and could not even take medicine. I used to eat everything, but after I had an operation sixteen years ago (I had a stone in my gall bladder), I started to control my diet. Now I do not eat anything – I can take only some aloo-siddho and rice, and, perhaps, some tok dal; that is enough for me. I do not need anything else. I do not need any vegetables, spicy subjis, and so on.

It is said in the kirtan, ‘Tai sisya tava thakiya sarvada. I will always remain your disciple.’ Guru Maharaj also said that if you want to become a guru, you must first become a disciple. If you have not become a disciple, tell me, how will you become a guru then? First you must become a disciple, then only can you become a guru. What is the meaning of being a disciple? Disciples are those who always follow the disciplining of their guru (who can tolerate their guru’s chastisement and can change their lives according to their guru’s disciplining). You must have heard how Sriman Nityananda Prabhu kicked Sri Sivananda Sen. These days, if you speak to somebody harshly, they will say, ‘I do not need a guru like you! There are many other gurus like you in this world!’ But Nityananda Prabhu kicked Sivananda Sen! How did that happen?

Nityananda was very hungry. He was kept waiting, and when Sivananda Sen finally came, he paid his obeisance to Nityananda Prabhu and said, ‘Prabhu, it is all my fault! Please forgive me.’ How did Nityananda Prabhu forgive him? He kicked his head! That was His forgiveness. When this happened, Sivananda Sen got up and started dancing! He thought, ‘I have been serving the Lord for so long, and today I have got the result of all that service!’ But these days, if you beat anyone, they will beat you back. Such are the disciples these days… It is impossible to say anything to disciples. If you get angry and say something by mistake, they start chastising you. They cannot tolerate it. There are only one or two people who can tolerate it.

My Gurudev also chastised me, he also beat me. Srila Sridhar Maharaj also beat Gurudev. When Gurudev did something wrong and Srila Sridhar Maharaj beat him, Gurudev did not run away – instead, he only came closer to Srila Guru Maharaj. Srila Guru Maharaj asked him, ‘What is this? I am beating you, but you are not running away?’ Gurudev answered, ‘You do not know how to beat, that is why I am coming closer, so that you can beat me better.’ Such was the relationship between them. Gurudev chastised me too, and I did not mind it – I did wrong, so I got chastised justly. When I was making the four-storey building at the Nabadwip temple, I borrowed half a lakh rupees, and Gurudev chastised me when he found out about it. I was chastised rightly – I had borrowed money, that is why Gurudev was unhappy. He told me to get out. Half an hour later, Gurudev again called me to his room and gave me the money to pay off the debt.

I never ran away. Gurudev told me to go away, but I always came back again. When Gurudev asked me why, I said, ‘You told me to go away, but you did not say that I could not come again.’ Gurudev said, ‘Oh, I see you have learnt well!’ Gurudev told me to go away, and I did go away, but he did not prohibit me to come again, so I came again. Such was my relationship with Gurudev. But now, if you tell one word to disciples, they get angry. They live as they please. Srila Prabhupad said, ‘Satisfying the whims of your mind is not Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness means following the guru, the Vaishnavs, serving the guru, the Vaishnavs, and satisfying them.’ We think that we sing a song and this is it, we have practised Krishna consciousness. No. Krishna consciousness means following what your gurudev says and serving your guru and Vaishnavs. It means to please them.

‘Tai sisya tava thakiya sarvada, na laiba puja ka’ra. I will always remain Your disciple, and I will not take worship from anyone.’ There are many gurus who will tell you, ‘Do an arati for me every day! You must offer flowers at my feet every day!’ You cannot do this with me. I do not need any arati, I do not need any worship from you. I am your servant. Why will you worship me? Our mood must be like this.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 65 Mb
Length: 135 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) This Is Not a Playground
2) Wrong Worries
3) Pure Identity
4) Worshipful Devotion
5) Meaning of Discipleship
6) Free Mercy, Exclusive Rights
7) Path of Devotion
8) Krishna Conscious Life
9) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (1)
10) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (2)
11) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (3)
12) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (4)
13) Clean Mood