Please Give Me Your Stool

June 23, 2003

From the Life of Srila Gour Kishor Das Babaji Maharaja

Girish Babu, the owner of a dharmasala in Nabadwip, once came with his wife to see Srila Gour Kishor Das Babaji Maharaja. Girish Babu's wife asked Babaji Maharaja, "Please instruct us how we can construct a small cottage for your bhajan. We feel pained to see you suffering throughout the rainy season and the hot season with very little shelter."

Srila Gour Kishor replied, "I have no anxiety residing in my small hut. I have only one trouble. Many persons come to me and very deceptively ask again and again, 'Krpa koro! Krpa koro! Please give us your mercy!' They are not interested in their own genuine benefit, and as a result of their coming my bhajan is disturbed. If both of you could just give me some of your stool at this place where I perform my bhajan, that would be favorable. Then I would be able to chant 'Hare Krsna' day and night. If you deposit your stool, people won't like to come here. If you can't do this then many people will come and waste my time and thus, this human form of life."

Girish Babu's wife replied, "Babaji Maharaja, we should certainly take your instruction to heart, but if we pass stool and offer it to you where you perform your bhajan, won't that result in unlimited sinful reactions for us?"

Srila Gour Kishor Das Babaji said, "I am not a Vaisnava. Those owners of large temples who wear long matted hair are actually Vaisnavas. I have not gotten any result in the performance of my bhajan. Therefore, the place where I reside is fit to receive your stool. Both of you please offer me your stool, otherwise I have nothing to say to either of you."

Girish Babu and his wife said, "Even though you won't stay there, still, if we build a second hut, then your servants can stay in one of them." Following this, Girish Babu and his wife constructed another small room with the help of a carpenter. Gour Kishor Das Babaji never entered the room Girish Babu had built, because for him the smell of false prestige and the desire for women and wealth were more obnoxious than the smell of ordinary stool. Srila Gour Kishor Das Babaji resided for six months in the area where persons that lived at the dharmasala passed stool.

— Translated by Vyenkata Das Brahmachari from Amara Prabhura-katha, a collection of articles written by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada.

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