20080913 || Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda - The Nāmahaṭṭa Sweeper || Malaysia #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

There's an astrologer that said that Prabhupada made a house that the whole world could live in. Sri Prabhupada was very much inspired by Bhakti Nod Thakur and he wanted us also to spread the Sankirtan movement. So to make everyone feel that this temple is their home, we should also try to be giving good association. I mean, sometimes people like to tell their problems. They like to tell some complaints they have just to the new devotees even, and then that overloads them. They need to hear something inspirational, like it's okay if you tell me or you tell, say you're a counselor, some leading devotee, what doubt you have, what complaint you have. But if you tell someone who's junior to you, they got their own problems to deal with, they need support. They need to have their doubts removed and their weaknesses strengthened so that they'll be stronger and avoid everything. So it's like temple presidents and regional secretaries. They come to me and they share whatever problems they're facing now or in the past. So this is a way that we help them. We listen to them. Emphatic listening. They call it power listening, where you listen and you try to understand the problems that the devotees are facing and try to give them some encouragement. That's what the senior devotees do hear the Lord is and that's a way we give care. So to be a counselor also means you're going to hear other people's problems. But if you share these problems with the people who are just themselves struggling with their own problems, then obviously it's going to become like an overlook. So Bhakti Ginod Thakur, he was the sweeper of the Namhadi, would hear people's problems and he would help them to solve them in a Ka conscious way. Prabhupada was doing like that, especially in Mayapur in India. He said that the Indian Asian disciples, they like to have access to their guru. So he had open door policy. Every day from 4 till 6 in the afternoon, anybody could go and see him. Subhak Swami used to regularly go. He'd never miss a day, so he'd get all the nectar. How many of you would like to be able to contact your guru and share things or hear things regularly? So that way Prabhupada made himself available so people could come and ask questions they could hear. Sometimes devotees have problems and then they say that, well, I didn't want to bother you. I didn't tell you that I was breaking the principles. I didn't want to Bother you. It's like if you're a doctor over a patient, you're a doctor so you have to see patients. You want the patient to tell you when they're having some problem or you'd rather just have them go on until they get really chronic. They should tell us when they have the problems. The earlier the better. Then we can try and confirm. Earlier the better that we can try to catch it in the bud when it already gets very serious and very chronic. And then it's harder to cure. Right? So that's why we have this support programs like counselor group. To be a counselor, like to be an Amhat Bhakti Bhiksha leader may not be quite so heavy. Simple things they can answer. If it gets a little heavier, then they refer to someone higher up. That's what Bhaktivedinod Thakur said. He said also don't have arguments. If you don't agree on something rather than fighting about it because you're not going to reach any conclusion. Take it to a higher devotee and let him be like the judge and go on like that. So he had like a circle Senapati and a district Senapati and a state Senapati and a chief Senapati. They're like Senapatis were like hamsters. So they went up and up. And finally if it got up to him, then after that there's nowhere to go. Bhaktived Thakur was final Bhakti Vir Thakur also had a GB seat. He called it a panchayat. He said 11 persons were on it and whatever they decided should be accepted like the will of Lord Nithyananda. So he started this system of managing via council. So like that Bhakti Siddhana Zarathak was set up in GBC. But then his followers disbanded it. Prabhupada 12th chapter Adi Leela said this was a big mistake. Instead they decided to make one Acharya. Instead of having the gbc, one person is the head of the institution. It's alright if he's a great Acharya but otherwise it's a big load. And if he falls down or has some deviation, then everything gets in problems. So Malaysia also in history we faced a problem like that. So but because we have a governing body, they sent me here at that time to try to solve things. So the governing body system helps us to be more safe. Prabhupada said he didn't expect a majority of the members of the governing body to all have different ideas or problems. I remember once there was one of my temple presidents and he would tell the devotees his anxiety and the devotees would get all stressed out. I said, you have to take their problems. You have a problem, don't tell them. You tell me, because I can deal with it. But if you tell them what your anxieties are, what your problems are, then they may overload. So in our family, in a home situation, different devotees can have different roles. Not that everybody has the same role, of course. Since I'm a sannyasi, I don't have any practical experience about marriage problems. I avoided that. What I know is from the Rmad Bhagavatam. But one disciple told me a few days ago, I told him, Bhagavatam says that if the wife gets very emotional and they're having an argument, better to go for a walk and let things cool down. Don't come into the tit for tat level. And he said that you gave me the best advice I've ever heard because that saved my marriage. Rather than trying to win, I just walk and let things cool down. Later on, try to find some win win situation. But I said, but I just repeated what I read in the Bhagavatam. The Prabhupada would also direct. Although he was married, he knew everything. I mean, earlier, once he was with sannyasi, he said that things should be dealt with by married counselors. Because in the marriage life there are some emotional issues, mainly emotional. And the sannyasis are supposed to come down to that level of relating with all those kind of emotional issues. So having different roles for different people. Who is the marriage counselor who is also helping our devotees? I don't know who's the coordinator here. For people that want me to get married, we have a marriage. I have a full time devotee in Mayapur working on this. They just recently got a couple engaged. And then in South India also they have a couple of websites now. So it's good if there's some kind of exchange. Even Radanath Swami says in Chopati they have also a marriage bureau. And Radanath Swami gave the permission that his disciples can marry my disciples. We're Swajatis, same caste, whatever. So some must be about 5 or more than 5. 5 or 10 are married like that. But that's also another. But that's that problem. That's before the problems start. But when there are some problems, we have to work through it. It's better to do it in the beginning, not when things get really heavy. When people come to me, I'm Only going to tell them to go to counselor, give some whatever basic practical idea. We want all these relationships to flourish. So some social report, social support rather is also needed. We're not like impersonalists, Prophet said. We're hyper personalists. We should care about all the other devotees. One devotee told me, not here, some other place, that she was going to a Namhat meeting. And then she got into a two wheeler accident and she was in the hospital. But nobody from the Nhat phoned her up. The leader of the Namah didn't ask why didn't you come? What happened? Any problem? Silence there she's in the hospital with legs, her bones broken and cast and everything. Nobody comes to see her. But the next someone came to the next bed to pray. Some Christian group or something. So can we pray? You want us to pray for you too? Like this, because of some caring attitude they are able to make some converts. So we should be caring about our devotees. Last couple years I tried to be more conscious about this. When I was in Alachua, there was a lady who had diabetes. She was ex wife of my disciple. Somehow their marriage broke up. She was like a Siksha disciple. So I went to see her and somehow she had burnt her leg and being diabetic, she didn't realize her leg was burnt. So it had become very much infected. So they were going to amputate her leg as it had becoming gangrene. That's pretty traumatic I think. Nobody likes to lose Alim. So I went to see her when there was one of my. Anyway, she was very happy, I came to see her. I went to see another two devotees in the same hospital. One had cancer and somehow she got cured for her cancer. But when I went to encourage her then also one disciple was in the hospital. Then last time when I was last year, I went twice to the hospital somewhere north of Penang. There was a doctor who got some disease. He was in the hospital. Then one other disciple was in a car accident and he had to lose some of his, I think two wheeler accident. They took me there at midnight. His wife. Normally guests aren't allowed at midnight. But for the Acharya, for whatever guru they allowed so many people, we should all be a little caring. I mean also I went to see also Ravi, Lordshanda's son a few years ago when he was also in hospital. These are just normal things. If somebody is going through difficulties, we should be there to give them support. Not like we're just so transcendental. We're living here in the Material world. We support each other through the difficulties that we face in the material life. That's what makes it feel like a home. We should also be caring and concerned. We may not be able to solve all the problems. We may not be the person to be the counselor. On some issues, at least we can be sympathetic and we can be encouraging. When I was in the hospital in Adelaide this last December, because here on the Rath Yatra tour, somehow, somewhere nearby here, I nicked my toe and it got turned in and somehow some infection entered the toe and I got cellulitis. So then when I reached Adelaide and they put me in the hospital, they told me that one doctor said he was serving in India for two years, so he knew about Indian culture, and that if I didn't go into the hospital and take care of my infection, I may have to reincarnate Australian doctors. One other doctor said, you have to stay on the medication, otherwise I'm going to amputate your leg right now. He pulled out a saw. They're allowed to use all these tactics anyway. They get the message across. But so many devotees came to see me. Sometimes I had 12 devotees in the room. But that shouldn't only be there because the guru's there. They come to see anybody. Devotee. Sometimes these are very traumatic when you're in the hospital. They didn't want to give me a private room because they said that they only give it to very severe cases. And my case wasn't so severe. But so many people were coming that they decided to put me in their private room so I don't disturb the other patients. Only supposed to have two visitors at a time. I was getting 12 and other visitors were feeling bad. Why nobody visits us? Why everybody's visiting him? So you can see how personal Bhakti Vinod Thakur was when he was going on his tour, mentioning everybody. This devotee did this, this devotee did that. So doing things together also builds our bonding. We can have closer t. I remember once I had an aspiring disciple who was. She distanced herself. And her daughter came up and told me that her mother was having that problem. So I said, let's go and see her. So then it was in Berlin, I think. So I went to the house and they had this in the door, the little window, little high. What do you call that? Peak hole. So I was on the side and daughter was in the front. Ring the bell. The mother saw us open the door. Sing the daughter. The daughter said, look who's here. And she looked, ah, Gurudev, you Didn't tell me my house is a mess. First thing she was thinking of the house was can we try to help devotees? But sometimes devotees ask me what they can do for me. They want to help me. Then I said, well, you can first of all be Ka conscious and chant and dance and practice and do your Japa and everything. So makes my job easier to help you get back to Godhead. Second was to serve the devotees and encourage the Vaishnavas, as I want to also care for the Vaishnavas. The third is to help in preaching, Namahat, bhakti, rickshaw counselors, whatever, book distribution, any kind of propagation. Prabhupada told me to expand the propagation unlimitedly. Then fourth is when I'm present, if you want to do some personal service, you can do that. We have some devotees who are cooking and serving and things like that, washing clothes and whatnot. And fifth is we can keep in contact otherwise. So I'm very grateful for all the devotees here who are doing any and all of these or all of these things, helping to encourage the other devotees. Hope that this community in Kuala Lumpur will grow and grow and become closer knit. You're all very, very dear to me, very dear to Prabhupada. So Krishna, bless all of you. Hare Ka Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare Everybody. Tokima Nihama Absab Tkai. Thank you for watching our videos. Be sure to subscribe to our channel. We publish new videos every day. And don't forget to like and share our channel.