His Blessing Bestows Successful Service

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Guruji had such humility that he never complained about the arrangements where he was staying. At one place I remember there was only one general toilet and bathroom downstairs. Guruji had to walk a long way every time to reach there, but he never complained about improper arrangements. At the same time, he was offering two lectures per day in the morning and evening. After the morning session, he would take breakfast then devotees would surround him for two hours, up to twelve o clock he would speak harikatha. He was never tired of speaking harikatha.


He never complained about arrangements in Jammu or other places. On many occasions, he was traveling by train in sleeper class from Kolkata to Jammu and back with his kirtan party. There was so much discomfort in the sleeper class. In those days (1979) the conditions were far worse than today, very filthy.


Another experience I had was that whatever seva was assigned to us, however difficult it may be, only by his grace the work was always done. Guru Maharaj was engaging our energy that way. I remember once Guruji had to go back to Kolkata, and fourteen seats were reserved manually on the waiting list. The organizer of the program asked me to go and find out the status of the tickets because Guruji would travel the next day. When I reached the station, I found none of the tickets are confirmed, then I asked what should I do?


By the grace of Guruji, I went to the railway station and came across my friend who was the bank manager there, telling him the whole story. He offered to go with me and see what can be done. As soon as we reached the station, the railway contractor came and asked, “What are you here for?" Then my friend (the manager) said, “This Sharmaji is here, his Gurudeva has come, and they have to travel tomorrow, but there are no tickets confirmed for any of the passengers. At least some tickets need to be reserved.” The contractor said it would be no problem, he’ll see what needs to be done. Within ten minutes, he came back and said all fourteen tickets are confirmed! Thus, I could understand it was Guruji engaging our energy for service. All the things were already done.


—Sri Sudarshan Das, Jammu


excerpted from Vyasa puja offerings, 25th April 2021 in Honor of the 97th appearance day of Srila Gurudev






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