Param Dayal Gurudev

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Disappearance day of Srila Govinda Maharaj
Siliguri, evening class, 24 April 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

When there was much disturbance in ISKCON and many foreign devotees started coming to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, "I will not be able to mix with them so much, I will not be able to understand their behaviour and practice. Govinda Maharaj, you will take the responsibility for the western devotees." After that, I can tell you that I have seen so many respectable Vaishnavs, so many scholars came to Gurudev, serve Gurudev, and Gurudev gave love and affection to everybody. Such is his quality. His actual quality was such that he would accept everybody and take everybody on his lap through his smiling face. Gurudev gave respect even to those who were his enemies! Even Gurudev's enemies cannot forget Gurudev's affectionate behaviour. Gurudev was extremely merciful (param dayal). This is how Gurudev served his Guru Maharaj.

You know, in Gurudev's time everybody ate one-paisa worth of muri (puffed rice) in the morning, but Gurudev knew I ate more muri, so he would arrange two-paisa worth of mudi for me. He was very caring.

In the early day, the situation at the Math was not so good, it was actually was very bad. Here is an example. There was a dumur (fig) tree at the temple—they would pick that dumur fruits (figs) and cook them. Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave an order that everybody had to take turns climbing the tree every day—one day one person, another day another person, and so on. Gurudev said that when it was his day to climb it, he was very afraid because that tree was full of ants. They would make dumurer tarkari (figs subji) at the temple. Gurudev also told that before they would use a small bar of lifebuoy soap that cost three rupees, and now brahmacharis are using lux and expensive imperial leather, glycerine soap. Gurudev said that in the early days he would use mustard oil mixed with salt to brush his teeth, and instead of a toothbrush, he would take a twig from a mango tree and brush his teeth with that—he never used to use a toothbrush or toothpaste. Now brahmacharis cannot live without a toothbrush or toothpaste. And they would never sleep on a bed with a mattress—but now brahmacharis and sannyasis do not want to live in the temple unless they have a thick mattress... This is what Gurudev told.

The other day a lady came to me, she said she was inviting everybody to come to her house tomorrow. She said she would feed everyone kitchuri. If you take kitchuri in the evening, your stomach will be hot. Can she not make some rice and dal? If you make only some tok dal and rice, that is better than giving kitchuri! I like tok dal a lot (dal cooked with pieces of green mango). I like to take it every day. I took it this morning and will take again in the evening. Now that I am in Siliguri I like to eat one-two green mangos every day. Today I cut it myself and took. I take it in Kolkata sometimes too. I also like kul (jujube) when it is in season. When I go for preaching, I sometimes feel very hot and when you take green kul, it cools your head.

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