Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagad Guru told that –“People have ignorance, we must help them to cut off their ignorance, this is our duty as a Gauḍīya Māthā devotee.” If we are not following this duty, we have no right to speak hari-kathā, we have no right to go for preaching. This is the sole responsibility of Gauḍīya Maṭha to guide the whole world. If we are not going to discharge our absolute duty as a sādhu and instead of that if we are going to add some fuel to the fire of their material desire, then that can be called as severe jiva–hiṁsā in true sense. To misguide people in the direction of collecting labha–pūjā–pratiṣṭhā is a heavy offense and this way one can surely get punishment by Bhagavan. A very few people can understand this absolute siddhanta vichar, but we are less interested about popularity so it is our absolute duty to seek the absolute satisfaction of the Supreme Lord– saṅkīrtan-pīṭhā Śrīman Mahāprabhu. That is our sevā. Our speaking of hari-kathā is the topmost servitor ship of Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga. In this sevā cannot have any smell of labha–pūjā–pratiṣṭhā. So, by now we can have the absolute conception of the duty of those Gauḍīya Māthā devotees, who are always ready to spend gallons of blood for the emancipation of common bonded souls, to help them cut their Ignorance. What you mean by ignorance? The exact answer to this question we can find in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta written by Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Dās Kavirāja Gosvāmī.
ajñāna-tamera nāma kahiye ‘kaitava’
dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa-vāñchā ādi saba
tāra madhye mokṣa-vāñchā kaitava-pradhāna
ĵāhā hôite kṛṣṇa-bhakti haya antardhāna
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādī-līlā 1.90, 92)
The superlative degree of ignorance (ajñāna-tama) is called kaitava, and it refers to activities performed to attain dharma (religiosity), artha (wealth), kāma (sense gratification) and mokṣa (liberation). Amongst these, the desire for mokṣa is foremost, because it results in the disappearance of kṛṣṇa-bhakti.
It is the common factor usually found in those common people, who always seeking for their material benefit. Those who are fully dedicated Gauḍīya Māthā devotees, they are running with the mission of seeking the absolute benefit for the whole world by the causeless mercy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu with the resolution of avoiding material labha–pūjā–pratiṣṭhā, so naturally different kind of aversive situation they are supposed to meet with, still they don’t care it. Because we know from the following verse written by Śrīla Saccidānanda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura—
tomara sevāya, duhkha hoya jato, se-o to’ parama sukha
sevā-sukha-duhkha, parama sampada, nasaye avidya-duhkha
Troubles encountered in Your service shall be the cause of great happiness, for in Your devotional service joy and sorrow are equally great riches. Both destroy the misery of ignorance.
In this regard I want to tell one nice pastime given by Śrīla Prabhupada. Śrīla Prabhupada told that— “Amar was a village boy who had been suffering so much from a boil on his back that he attempted suicide. His mother and close relatives were all trying to alleviate his pain by using hand-fans or even by orally blowing on the swelling boil. One of his neighbors advised that the boy should be given some anesthetic drug to save him from such unbearable physical agony. Still another person recommended that it was better to relieve him eternally from such a painful experience. His argument was that the boy has been suffering terribly because he was alive, so, if he were dead, he wouldn’t be in pain anymore. The result would be complete solace to both the disease and patient. Unnerved by such advice, the wise father of the boy immediately sent for an experienced physician, disregarding his son’s so-called well-wishers. When the physician advised that a minor surgery be formed on the boy, the relative including the boy’s mother, grandmother and others started weeping all in a row. The ignorant boy also started abusing the physician in the most vulgar words, saying, “You have come to kill me. Leave me alone right now, or I must send for the police to arrest you! Why don’t you strike the knife on your own body? Would you go and lynch your own son? I would rather take a dose of poison before I surrender myself to your hands for certain death.” Turning a deaf ear to the boy’s delirious outburst, the physician held him tightly while he pressed and executed the surgical operation on the boil. After a while, the boy was completely relieved of all agony and gradually became well within a few days.”
Just like a real physician, quite often the real spiritual masters and saintly persons also dissect some of the knots in the obstinate mind of living entities by way of apparently distasteful injunctions and instructions varying on the degrees of entanglement. But the suffering entity is hardly inclined to agree with such injunctions and instead, misapply a lot of harsh words to those saintly persons blaspheming them as their enemies and extremely merciless executioners. So-called relatives and friends of such suffering entities strongly advocate against such a surgical operation to avoid the apparent pain and uneasiness. Some such pseudo-friends even in the name of impersonalism advise one to commit suicide to get rid of the rut. In fact, none of these ways can be fruitfully undertaken for eternal welfare of an entity. The constitutional position of a living entity is only realized after disentanglement from all unworthy mundane attachments with the help of saintly injunctions sincerely followed. This enables one to enter into the province of devotional service which is the only way to eternal bliss and peace of mind.
Gaura Hari Hari Bol