Remembering His Teachings Inspires Our Good Conduct

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I witnessed an incident in Chandigarh when Guruji began singing Jai Dau, Jai Dau in nagar-sankīrtan. It was severely hot at 3:30 in the afternoon and a devotee offered an umbrella to Guruji. Within fifteen minutes clouds gathered, winds started blowing, and it rained heavily. The rain stopped, having cooled the path on which Guruji would be walking; even demigods served Guruji.

My request to all of you is that you pray to Guruji like this: "Please purify my mind, please bestow me a drop of your humility and let my conduct become sweet like yours. May I spread the glories of your name wherever I go" First, we have to change our nature and for this, we have to bring Guruji's instructions into our life. By this, we will have humility and compassion which can influence persons whom we speak to and inspire them also to engage in the service of the Lord and Guruji.

Once in a provision store, some youngsters made fun of me and my chanting and tilak, and I kept quiet as I was chanting on my beads. Later the shopkeeper asked me why I did not give them a proper reply. I told him that I was a very bad-mouthed person, I used to speak bad words to people and would become angry and appear as a mad man. I prayed to Guruji that you give me medicine so that my bad habits go. Guruji gave me this mala and asked me to chant sixteen rounds of hāriṇam on this. When you do this, your urge to speak bad words will stop and the humility and the sweetness that is lacking in your words will appear. After following his advice my bad habits have changed and you are seeing the proof of it.  Lastly, I told him, "I do not know God, but I know my Gurudeva." Hearing my words, the boys sweated and bowed down to me and asked forgiveness, inquiring of me, "Who is your Guruji? If you are speaking so wonderfully, then how will your Guruji be?"

I told them, "I did not argue with you because of my Gurudev's grace on me and spoke about Gurudev." Now whenever I go to the store, the owner makes me sit and hears some words from me. So I want to say that by our behavior and conduct we can place him in a high position and glorify him. Conversely, our bad behavior reflects poorly and it will not be guru-seva. Guru-seva does not mean just serving in a temple. We need to bring his teachings into our lives and change our conduct; our behavior is also guru-seva. Without this change we will not find satisfaction in our bhajan, we will not attain love of God, our goal of life. One may become a good speaker, a good singer of kirtans, or a good mrdanga player, but by that alone one cannot attain love for Krishna that Mahaprabhu, Guru Parampara and Gurudev came to give us.  

When Guruji gave me hāriṇam initiation and japamala he told me, "Whenever hari-kathā and hāriṇam-sankīrtan are taking place, you should not chant on your mala. When there are no other sādhana, then you chant." But when I saw others chanting on their beads during hari-kathā, a doubt arose in me. So I again asked Guruji about this. Then he said, "It amounts to offense to the person who is speaking hari-kathā." So, one should not chant on beads during hari-kathā and nagar-sankīrtan. Do it later when you have free time. By our conduct, we have to enhance his glories, not ours. Eating well, dressing well, will attract us to the opulence of the Lord and we will be deprived of love for Krishna like the queens of Dwaraka. Bhajan happens in detachment, as long as an attachment to material things remains in our heart we cannot contemplate the teachings of Guruji and bring them into our life.  

By his conduct, Sanatana Gosvami us how he gave up all attachments to the world and came to the shelter of Mahaprabhu. Chandrashekar could not recognize him as a Vaishnava seeing his outer appearance. But when he was brought in front of Mahaprabhu, the Lord got up from his seat and ran towards him, embracing him and spoke that today his human life became successful having met a Vaishnava. By Mahaprabhu's mercy, his attachment to worldly objects in the form of a blanket also was destroyed. Guruji says in his kathā that when questions like who am I, where am I from, and where am I going do not arise, then bhajan has not started at all. Another important teaching he used to repeat often is that do not blame others for your own faults. Your suffering is the result of your past actions.   

May we follow Guruji's teachings in our lives and enhancing his esteem, become eligible to call ourselves his disciples. If there are any faults, mistakes in my words, please forgive me and bless me that my mind engages in bhajan and on Guruji's words.  

—Amritananda Das (Ashokji, Delhi)

Excerpted from a translation from Hindi by Rasabihari Prabhu (Jammu)

source: GOKUL India call on 9.4.2020




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