DIGNITY Of THE DIVINE SERVITOR

Part Three:
Jewels

More gems from correspondence
by Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaj

When all over the world the devotees are chanting and dancing with the Holy Name of Sri Krishna and receiving transcendental inspiration with their service-mood, then, by participating in that congregational chanting, we can feel real joyfulness and happiness. Once we have seen the goal of our life we must reach there through serving without stopping and without offence.

Krishna is the game-maker and our real position is that we are the eternal transcendental players in His game—His lila—and that life is fully joyful. If once we can have a glimpse of that reality then we will become most determined to become a good player. The good player automatically will always be given opportunities to play. From all directions service comes to him and he is always aiming to the goal.

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This is the Age of Kali and the influence of demons is very strong. They are trying to enjoy with Krishna’s property and that is an absolutely wrong and hellish mood. But within any environment the devotee always will try to serve his Divine Master as well as the Supreme Lord. That is the nature of the devotee.

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In this Age of Kali it is Mahaprabhu’s mercy that everybody has a chance to practise bhakti-yoga simply by chanting the Holy Names of Lord Krishna. If we can chant without offence then we must have hope of reaching our happy destination of an eternal service position to the Lord. We are fallen souls but if we can be good students, then our Divine Master can cleverly take us over the ocean of Maya. After so many births we have received this very auspicious and fortunate human form and we must try to utilise this sincerely and properly which means we must try to serve Guru with our full surrender.

Our beloved Divine Master, Srila Guru Maharaj, only knew service to Krishna. He had no other duty. Now with the help of his affectionate servitors from all over the world I am trying heart and soul to continue his Mission here nicely.

Then you can try to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra without offence, read the sastras, particularly Srila Guru Maharaj’s books, and try to do some service for this the Mother Math. I know Krishna will see it, and you will be benefitted.

— — —

Krishna is our all-powerful, fully independent Lord and in this way we cannot say in what ways He will choose to purify His beloved servitors. It is rare for a conditioned soul from this mundane world to want to come out and serve his beloved Lord. But Krishna Himself is also very eager to meet with such conditioned souls. Sometimes circumstances can be difficult but what else can we do? We had the great fortune of receiving the mercy of our dearmost Srila Guru Maharaj and by his grace we have hope of progressing to our happy spiritual destination. Some stalwarts may fall away but we must courageously continue to practise Krishna consciousness whatever the circumstances.

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By sending me problems in my service, Krishna is taking my blood! And if I do not give my blood, how shall I get that service? We shall proceed happily with problems. If problems do not come, then we should think that it is not possible to receive mercy in a relaxed mood. With a relaxed mood, it is not possible.

Throughout my whole life there have been problems; but I am very satisfied that I did not give any problems to Guru Maharaj. All the problems that happened downstairs, whether brahmacharis fighting with one another, or women fighting with each other, or whatever, I always solved the problem downstairs. I did not throw them upstairs to cause Srila Guru Maharaj disturbance.

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Transcendental knowledge is not so easy to attain or receive. It is only possible by the grace of Sri Gurudev and full surrender to his lotus feet, otherwise the illusory environment of Maya, one of Krishna’s potencies, will take the jivas to the world of imitation, making them sahajiya and thus causing them to completely lose their fortune.

We are servitors of Srila Guru Maharaj who manifested himself as a superior paramahamsa [the nature of a paramahamsa is to be able to separate service from the unwanted things of the mundane world as a swan takes only the milk from a mixture of milk and water], and who gave his directives in a practical way. Therefore we shall try to separate the milk from the water for his service. The world situation now everywhere is in a very difficult position and the mentality of the general mass is going in the way of atheism but we cannot interrupt our own transcendental service to Sri Guru and Gauranga.

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By the mercy of our Gurudev, practically we are reading and practising within the same class as Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, Lord Narada, Lord Sukadeva, etc. But when any disturbance of destruction comes like chaos in our practising life, then we must steadily try to get a good, merciful, Vaishnav’s association, and try to follow the guidelines of Srila Guru Maharaj.

— — —

Sankirtan means that all together we are chanting the Holy Names and offering service whole-heartedly to our Divine Master and our Lord. Krishna only looks at this qualification and no other. Here our beloved Srila Guru Maharaj began the great sankirtan fire sacrifice and up to date I am seeing that sankirtan fire, day by day, spreading all over the world through his devotees. All the devotees are trying whole-heartedly to fuel that fire. Each one is like an auspicious stick of wood fully dedicating himself for the exaltation of Srila Guru Maharaj by entering into the sankirtan fire sacrifice. These sticks are burning happily because they do not receive pain, only purification. I feel myself to be fully satisfied that I have offered myself for my Divine Master’s desire and that you are all also always trying to fulfil the desire of his Divine Grace.

It is my only prayer to you all that you must look to this central Math where there is continuous service to the Deities and Srila Guru Maharaj as well as the living sankirtan fire sacrifice which is always continuing here.

*****

Contents


Editorial

Part One:
• Chapter One:
Vaishnava Thakur
• Chapter Two:
The Original Current
• Chapter Three:
Divine Desire and Directives

Part Two:
• First Discourse:
Descent of Knowledge
• Second Discourse:
Lessons in Giving
• Third Discourse:
Protected Journey
• Fourth Discourse:
Adjusting to His Account
• Fifth Discourse:
Present Position, Brightest Prospect
• Sixth Discourse:
Fortunate Indeed

Part Three:
• The Written Word
(Answers through Letters)
• Jewels
• Appendix:
The Ten Offences to the Holy Name

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