He Illustrates a Proper Mood in Service

When I had darśan of Gurudeva for the first time, he inquired about me and told me to stay in the temple and serve. Two years later, Gurudeva came to Agartala without a sevāk, so I was given the service of cooking for him. Once Gurudeva asked me for some salt for mouthwash. I  urgently gave him some salt on a piece of paper. He then brought my attention to the fact that  there was kṛṣṇa-nāma written on the piece of paper. He explained that it was not proper to use it like that as kṛṣṇa-nāma and Kṛṣṇa Himself are non-different. I said, "Yes, Gurudeva. I understand."

Gurudeva used to take roṭī at night and I prepared them in a way that was very soft.  Gurudeva asked me whether I kneaded the dough with warm water and I said no.  Then he asked his sevāk Anantarām (Amarendra Prabhu) to learn from me about how to make such soft roṭī.  

Gurudeva has three godbrothers in Goalpara: Śacīnandana Prabhu, Deenasharan Prabhu, and Patitapāvana Prabhu. Whenever Gurudeva came here, he would give me money and ask me to get three sets of dhotī and banians for giving to his three godbrothers. He would ask me to get them secretly without telling anyone. Then I did not know I should not take money from Gurudeva.

Gurudeva gave me two thousand rupees in Puri once and asked me to return back to Goalpara and get the premises and the washrooms nicely cleaned for the upcoming festival; a lot of devotees from Punjab and a from abroad were expected to arrive. Agartala Prabhu saw this and asked me to return the money back to Gurudeva; he offered that amount for the sevā.    

Once I was in Vṛndāvana during parikramā with Amarendra Prabhu. Śrī Bhakti Prasād Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja called for me and asked me to go back to Goalpara for some urgent sevā, forgoing the parikramā. Anantarām Prabhu took me to Gurudeva and told him that I have come for the first time for parikramā. Gurudeva then asked me to stay on and gave me the sevā of following the parikramā party, gathering all the pilgrims, and making sure no one was left behind.  Gurudeva said only on seeing my flag he would get up and begin parikramā to the next place. Gurudeva would reach first and after all the kathā and kirtan were over I would reach last. Like this, I participated in the parikramā for one month.

Once Gurudeva came from Kolkata to stay in the guesthouse in Goalpara. He would ask me to prepare lucī, purī, and halavā and would give money for prasād distribution. One day at Gurudeva's janmasthāna (appearance place) when Gurudeva began kathā, he asked me to come and sit right in front of him. Gurudeva spoke Ambarish Mahārāja's kathā and in the end, he asked me if I understood the kathā he spoke. I said, “Yes, Gurudeva” and he replied, "If you have understood, then do not leave the maṭha and go anywhere else." He said this in[transcendental] anger and in loud voice in front of everybody. He repeated again and again, “Never leave the maṭh and go anywhere else!” That was the first time I saw this angry mood.  

Another time at the guest house in Goalpara it had become like a forest with wild trees and grass. Gurudev went there suddenly and seeing that it was not clean and well maintained, he got angry because the donated property was not maintained nicely and should be utilized for sevā.

—Patitapāvana Das 

translated from Hindi to English

Source: Youtube, Gokul India, 12.5.2020