Forum

There is a nice story, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura in his temple where he was staying in Calcutta in 1930, sannyasis and brahmacaris were going out everyday and collecting alms, they were collecting food, grains, not cooked food but grains, kacha, or whatever you call it, bhoga, wheat and flour, oil, ghee, also money and he noticed that in the temple many of the brahmacaris and sannyasis collectors, they were all begging, they were supposed to become humble, but he noticed that a lot of them were actually becoming proud. And many of them started developing the mentality that – ‘Our guru-maharaja depends on us. Because he is very old…’ 

Well, he was somewhat old, he was not very old actually, born in 1874, it was 1930, more like 57-58 not very old. They are like 20-22. So they are thinking, “Oh, our guru-maharaja depends on us, he needs us. He does the writing, preaching, but we are maintaining this temple, we are collecting for this temple, we are bringing the food and the money to pay the bills,” and they became proud and feeling that - they actually get the idea that their guru-maharaja is depending on them. And guru-maharaja, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he detected this mentality. So he wanted to teach his disciples a lesson.

So one day he called Ista gosti and just gave some preaching about isavasya idham sarvam ethkinchit jagathyaam jagat - that Krsna is the Supreme Controller, He owns everything, He provides everything, He gives everyone their quota, we are not the doers, we are not the karta. In a general way, and no one really caught exactly why or really what, thought it was just philosophy, Krsna consciousness, Krsna tattva. 

And then he told the disciples, he said, “From tomorrow no one collect, no one go out and collect anything, don’t collect any food, any oil, ghee, grains, fruits, vegetables. Don’t even collect any money. Just stay in the temple and do bhajana, do kirtanas, Bengali bhajanas, Vaisnava bhajanas, do the puja seva, puja sthali, aratika etc, but don’t go out at all. Just stay. That is my guru-ajna, my order.” 
So everyone said, aright. They stayed in the temple, complying with the guru’s order - chanting, bhajana, doing temple service etc. Then one day went by, 2 days went by, 3 days went by, and most of the food that they had in store was depleted. They were no more reserves.

And there was no money to pay the bills, electric bills etc. printing press bills and what not, paper bills. And the devotees were thinking, “Oh, we’d rather go out and collect.” Then all of a sudden, one by one and one after another different men started coming to the temple. 

One man came up and they weren’t known people. They weren’t life members or congregation or disciples, grhastha disciples… they were unknown to the matha members and unknown to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. One man came up and said, “Oh you brahmacaris, you are doing such nice seva here, very austere life, so here is 500 kilos of flour.” Another man gave 50 kilos of ghee. Another man gave spices, oil, fruits….

Day after day more and more supplies were sprouting up. Then they noticed in the hundi box that every couple of days of days there were huge donations going in the box. Usually there is nothing practically. Money was piling up in the hundi box, hundi box means donation box in the temple. And then they would take that money out to the treasurer and they would bring their collection to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and say, “Maharaja, guru-maharaja, today we collected 1000 rupees! And in the last 5 years we haven’t collected 500 rupees! In 5 years we haven’t collected 500 rupees and since we have been just staying here, in one day we have collected 1000 rupees! This is astounding.” 

And guru-maharaja was quite, he said, “Yes, this is Krsna’s mercy.” And then after about a week, or 2 weeks there was so much stock in the temple store, they had enough food for 3-4 years. Oil, ghee, flour, vegetables, fruits, so much dry goods and wheat and everything,  chick peas and fabulous amounts of money.
And then Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura called another Ista gosti. He said, “So some people, some disciples in the temple, they think they are the doers. Can you see now who is doing everything? Do you think the guru depends on you? Guru doesn’t depend on you! He doesn’t depend on your collection or your money, your seva, anything. He only depends on Krsna. Everything is coming from Krsna. Everything is arranged by Krsna. We, you and I, we are all dasanu dasanu dasa. There is only one ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya, there is only one controller. Only one supreme and we all are His servants, I am His servant and you are His servant. So let us continue from now on and always maintain this mentality that we are all serving together. I am serving you, you are serving me, we are serving Krsna together and He is doing everything, He is managing everything, He is controlling everything, He is providing everything. Not you, not me - everything is coming from Him. So let’s give up all this ego, let’s give up all this false ego and sense of controlling and doing and simply, humbly carry out our duty in life and always remember to the Lord.”

So needless to say, his disciples learnt a very powerful lesson there and humility and simply understanding who is the actual doer. And they never thought again from that day forward that the guru depends on them. Actually the disciple depends on guru. Whatever he can do, whatever he has done or whatever he will do, whatever he is doing, is all the blessings and mercy of his guru, nothing more, nothing less.