Daily routine in our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
In Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math of Guru Maharaj, Srila Guru Maharaj established the daily program: a program, where we start in the morning with devotional activities in the form of, first of all, cleansing ourselves, bathing, putting on clean cloth, chanting Gayatri (if one is initiated into Gayatri), chanting japa (if one is initiated into maha-mantra). And then, early in the morning, coming for the Mangala-arati, worship of the Lord, worship of Mahaprabhu, Radha and Kṛṣna. And in particular then by this process then we are waking up, we are putting Kṛṣna in the center from the very beginning of our day. And then, after the formal worship, the parikrama of the Temples (four times parikrama of the Temples), and then four times parikrama of Tulsi-devi, and all of this is accompanied by kirtan, accompanied by the chanting of the Holy Names. Then, reading from the Scripture: Sri Chaitanya Bhagavata in the morning and in the evening it was Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita. The evening program, which is very similar to the morning program, but which would begin at dusk, when the sun is going down. So, early morning, then this is the program, and for one and a half or two hours each morning that program takes place.
And then – good news! Some breakfast. But a simple, light breakfast. In India it is muri, which is basically puffed rise, rise crispies, whatever, I don`t know the name in the West by different companies who make it commercially, but it is very simple puffed rice with no sugar or anything added. It is very light and in Bengal it is very cheap. Bengal is the land of rice and breakfast of muri – it is light, it gives us some energy in a sense of we are taking it with, usually, banana, melasses, which is simply boiled down sugarcane. By the way, those who know, they say it maintains its minerals by being complete the whole melasses which is there.
So we take a very simple breakfast, and then it is a day of Service for the westerners. And we would also have an additional program at 9 a.m. on the front of Srila Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj`s Temple, this is in the time of Gurudev, Govinda Maharaj – he established this. And in this way we would have program specifically for the westerners in English, Spanish, Russian, whatever language may be prominent, and translators would be sitting with the groups of their own-language persons, giving a simultaneous translation.
Then the day would be engaged in Service. In Nabadvip there was so much service to do, there was never-shortage of things to do. And, actually, in the world wherever we are. If we can change our vision to Kṛṣna Consciousness, then we will see that the world, everything is meant for service. So just as in general, the population, they are engaged in serving themselves, their family, their village, their business – whatever it is.
Selfishness are extended selfishness. Forgetting the Lord or remembering Him to make some prayer, “Please, give me this, give me that” – that is the general tendency of prayer. But in service, service means seva, to serve Kṛṣna, and to serve Kṛṣna through His devotees. As we can use everything for exploitation, we can use everything for service also. Learning how to serve comes naturally, when we are living in the Temple, where we are shown how to do so many things in order to please the Lord rather than pleasing ourselves. All kinds of departments of service: from cleaning to building, to publications, to driving, to marketing, to cooking – all kinds of services is taking place. But the central theme of the service is we will satisfy Guru, vaisnava and Kṛṣna. Vaisnava is a servant of the Lord.
Then, by the time, lunchtime comes, we are usually ready for lunch, because we had a light breakfast, doing many things. Lunchtime comes, and then again, at lunchtime there is the short arati, there is not to reading at lunchtime. There is simply the arati with “Jaśomatī-nandana braja-baro nāgara” and one other song too, and also the song, which usually the pujari sings, which is “Bhaja bakata-vatsala”, while the Deities are honoring the bhoga. Then, lunchtime is an informal worship, arati is taking place there and many devotees are still doing service, all the bathing and getting ready, but then everybody comes and takes prasadam together after that arati. So, everyone takes prasadam together. And in Nabadvip, also, we are told, that there is a hierarchy, that we all will be sitting on the floor and you could start with the senior devotees going to the newest devotees and the guests etc. And as you looking long the line, left-to-right, but it could be right-to-left, depending on which wall is someone is against and who which direction are serving. But the senior devotees accept first.
After lunch, especially in a hot climate, a little visram, little rest. Little rest and let the prasadam digest to some degree. But the little rest, and not sleep, but rest – this is the idea. A little rest after lunch so we again can start our service after 30-45 minutes. And then again, the afternoon full of service, going through to evening, bathing, putting our cloth, tilak, Gayatri, then evening arati, the evening program, like in the morning. So, in the morning one and a half to two hours program, in the evening – little less, one and a half, sometimes more, sometimes two hours also. It really does depend on who is there, but you can think a standard guideline is a couple of hours in the morning and the couple of hours in the evening, and the day full of service.
When we start our day in this way, start our day chanting the Names of the Lord, start our day clean, start our day by singing, singing and dancing – that is the wonderful way for anyone to start the day. And end the day in the same way. And we may think, in the general world, “Oh, two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening – it is not possible, how could we do this in our home”. It is true. Not everywhere, in fact in most places and even most Temples and ashrams around the world, actually, can`t follow the full program. It maybe gives us an ideal example by Guru Maharaj and Gurudev. But it is good to know the example.