Niskapata Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Caracas, Venezuela
18 September 2009

You should be a sincere seeker—chastity and sincerity are necessary. I will tell you what kind of sincerity you should have, then you can understand it easily.

One day, Mahaprabhu danced and chanted so much that He became very tired. He lived at that time in Gambhira, Puri, and His room was very small and had only one door. Mahaprabhu had a servitor whose name was Govinda, and every day when Mahaprabhu was going to bed, Govinda massages His feet. That was his service.

That day, when Mahaprabhu came to His room, He was so tired that He lay down across the entrance, and because the room was very small, Govinda could not come in to massage his feet. He said,

"Prabhu, please move. I want to serve You, I want to massage You... Please move."

"Oh, I am too tired today, I cannot move! What can you do?..."

"But I want to serve you..."

"That is as you wish. Whether you do it or not, it is up to you, I do not know anything."

Govinda thought, "I do this service every day, shall I not do it today? No, it is not good! ...If I cross Him, some offence will come, but it is not a problem." He put his uttariya (a piece of clothes) on Mahaprabhu's body and came in crossing Him.

He gave Mahaprabhu a good massage, and sat inside. At midnight, Mahaprabhu woke up and, seeing Govinda was still there, asked him,

"O Govinda, why did you not go to take prasadam??"

"Prabhu, how shall I go crossing You?"

"How did you come in?"

"It was for service. I can cross You for service to You, but I cannot cross You for my stomach, for my own self..."

So, for the service to the Lord you can do anything. You also know what happened another time.

Once, Narad Goswami visited Krishna in Dvaraka. Suddenly, Krishna got so much headache, He was suffering so much, and He asked Narad Goswami, "Give me some foot dust of the devotees! Put it on My head!" Rukmini, Satyabhama and others were there, but they could not do anything. They thought, "If we give our foot dust, we will be great sinners, a big offence will come..."

Narad Goswami also could not give it, Siva could not give it, Brahma could not give it, so in the end Krishna sent Narad Goswami to Vrindavan.

When all the gopis heard about it, they became very excited. They were ready to give it, so mixing their feet dust with some water and mud, they sent it to Krishna with Narad Goswami. They thought, "Our legs can be burnt, they can rot, it is not a problem as long as Krishna is ok. If Krishna dies, what is the use then of having legs?"

This is what is called seva, service—niskapata seva (নিষ্কপট সেবা, without deceit, or hypocrisy). It is causeless. You do not need to ask Him for anything, only serve Him.

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