Niskam Bhakti: With Heart and Soul

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
6 August 2011

Pure service is niskam bhakti, not sakam bhakti. If you are doing some service and in lieu of that asking something from your Guru, from the Lord, that is sakam bhakti (devotion motivated by selfish desires). Niskam bhakti is when you are serving and thinking, "It is my duty, it is my service. I promised to the Lord when I was in my mother's womb to serve Him."

Use yourself and everybody else in service to the Lord. Other species like cats, dogs, cannot serve properly, but you have a human body—you can use yourself and others in the service to the Lord. You have also got a bona fide Guru in this life—through his advice, under his guidance you can easily serve the Lord. It is easy: as Gurudev said, if Krishna wants a laddu, give Him a laddu. Why will you give Him something else? We will give Krishna what Krishna wants—we will give the Guru what the Guru wants. It is necessary to be like this. Sanatan Goswami, Ray Ramananda and others also show this mood.

When Raghunath Das Goswami was a young boy, he ran away from eleven guards and came to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu said to him, "Go home! Why did you leave your house? Do not show false renunciation, devotion must be in the heart." Love with heart and soul—serve heart and soul. If you show you are doing some service, but in your mind you are asking for something else from the Lord, from your Guru, it is not niskam bhakti, it is sakam bhakti.

In all of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Gurudev show us what is called niskam bhakti, showing us what our real benefit is. Until his very death Gurudev served his mission, gave love and affection to the devotees. He is an example for us.

You are born one day, and one day you have to die, but what do we take birth and death for? Why do we have to keep coming and going? What did we come in this world for? You must know it. You are using your time, doing so many things, talking, gossiping, and so on, but we must think about the real, proper things. From early in the morning when you wake up and until the time you go to bed, how much time do we spend on our own self and on the Lord? We must analyse it.

You have come with some deposit, but if you do not use it properly, then one day you will lose it and your business will be finished. We must understand it, we must think about it seriously.

In this life, the Kali-yuga people always do many bad things, and they will not listen to us, but anyhow we must use them in proper service through chanting, through the Holy Name. We must spread Krishna consciousness line everywhere...

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