(2/14) Be Truthful, Pious, and Sincere

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance, evening class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 25 February 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

You must be simple-hearted. Do not resort to lying – do not ‘take shelter’ in lying. You must never ever lie to your guru – you cannot think, ‘I will tell him this, but I will not tell him that.’ The Lord does not like this. Lying means you have lust (kama-sakti). All diseases take shelter in lying (in other words, a lie contains all diseases). Never lie. Always stick to the path of the truth. Always speak the truth. No matter what happens, even if you are beaten, you must speak the truth. This is how we must serve our guru and Vaishnavs…

If you wear tilaks and Tulasi neckbeads externally but internally do wrong, one day, sooner or later, your true character will be exposed. You will not get anywhere by trying to hide something from the Lord. You cannot hide anything from gurudev. What you do at your home or do not do – gurudev can understand everything.

Therefore, always speak the truth. You must always tell the truth to gurudev. If you take shelter in lies in the relationship with your guru, the Lord can never like this because gurudev wants to keep everyone engaged in the service of the Lord. You always say, ‘Gurudev, give me mercy!’ ‘Gurudev, give me mercy!’ You offer flowers to gurudev’s photograph, you offer gurudev a garland, you say, ‘Give me mercy’, but mercy means service. We must do service despite any unhappiness, ‘Tomara sevaya yata haya duhkha, seo ta’ parama sukha (তোমার সেবায়, দুঃখ হয় যত, সেও ত’ পরম সুখ). Even any unhappiness that may come in Your service is my greatest happiness’ (Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur).

If you see my example, you should feel hope. One year, I was giving a class here, in Ekachakra, and the police came and took me to jail. You all know about it. But all those lies did not last – everything became exposed – and, in the end, those who had arranged that came to me and apologised. Now, too, when we went for the parikrama, my feet hurt a lot and I had a headache. I had to struggle, but I did the parikrama. I never used to be like that. I used to go to forty houses a day without any difficulty. When you come to practise Krishna consciousness and do something wrong (if there is some fault inside you), all that fault falls on the body of your guru. Your guru has to suffer for your wrongdoings.

One time, I asked Gurudev, ‘Gurudev, is your health all right?’ Gurudev replied, ‘Today, my health is good. You know why? Because I did not give initiations today.’ In other words, when people come to take initiation, they place the burden of all their sins and actions on their gurudev’s shoulders. Gurudev has to suffer for the result of all their actions.

Our bodies are made of flesh and blood, and many anarthas and problems are always with us – our bodies are wrecked by five diseases (vardhakye ekhana, pancha-roge hata; বার্দ্ধক্যে এখন, পঞ্চরোগে হত). But you must be careful. Always think, ‘How can I serve my gurudev?’ Even those who have no money can serve – they can serve with their minds, hearts and souls.

How can you help gurudev? When Gurudev told me one day, ‘Maharaj, come with me abroad for preaching, you can help me,’ I thought, ‘Gurudev is taking me for preaching, but I do not cook for Gurudev, I do not massage his body with mustard oil, I do not take care of his prasad, then what service can I do there? What does Gurudev want me to do?’ I thought deeply about it and realised that when Gurudev was abroad, he preached only once a day, for forty-five to sixty minutes in the evening. So, what did I do? I would wake up early every morning, lead the morning arati, give a class, and in the evening, I would come to the arati again, or go to the hall where the programme was held and start kirtan there. When it was time for Gurudev’s lecture, Gurudev would call me and ask, ‘Have the people gathered?’ I would say, ‘Yes, the hall is full.’ And Gurudev would come and deliver a lecture. Their halls are very big, accommodating, perhaps, a thousand or two thousand people, with a large stage, chairs and microphones. Foreigners listen to lectures sitting on chairs. They listen to Hari-katha and come to this line, and when they come, they start to put on tilaks, chant on their beads and sit on the floor like us. Nobody comes to this line very easily. But how the people from those countries are serving now! They serve heart and soul. Our country’s people cannot understand it…

What does gurudev want? What does gurudev like? We do not know it. We do not understand it. What makes gurudev happy? I have written about disciple’s relationship with the guru in the fourth volume of Guidance. Read it and try to understand what is necessary to genuinely serve the guru.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Free Yourself From Deceit
2) Be Truthful, Pious, and Sincere
3) Chastity In Preaching
4) Cry, Pray, and Serve
5) Service: Labour of Love
6) Service: Adherence and Attachment
7) Forging Fortune
8) Concentrate Your Mind on Nityananda Prabhu's Service
9) Direct Your Mind to Bhagavatam
10) Keep Yourself On Track
11) Are You Getting Off?
12) Gentle Clean Hearts
13) Do Not Give Up
14) False Attachments