Eternal Servants—Eternal Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to the devotees in London
7 August, 2011, part 3

Do you have any questions?

Question: If a pure devotee sees the Lord everywhere, how is it that they feel separated from Him?

Krishna is everywhere, it is so, but it is necessary to have good, clean eyes to see that. As for the second part of your question,

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

I am not Krishna, you are not Krishna—we are all servants of the servants, we are Krishna's eternal servants. It is like light and power house, like sun (surya) and sun ray (surya-rasmi, সূর্য-রশ্মি). A bulb can have 100 Watt power, 60 Watt power, 15 Watt power, but it is nothing compared to the Lord who has full power. He is sarvesvar (the owner of everything). We are coming from the Lord, but not our material body which is pancha-bhautik (made of five material elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether). It is necessary to know this.

When somebody asks you a question like this, you can ask them, "Who am I?" We are not the Lord (Bhagavan), we are not Krishna—we are servants of the servant of the servant, we are eternal servants. We (our atma, or jiva soul) comes from the Lord, but not our body. We change bodies just as we change our clothes.

Are there any more questions?

Question: How do we know our service is pleasing to you?

It is easy to know. If you are getting more and more energy to serve, then you can understand that the Lord, Gurudev are pleased; and when you are not getting energy through your service, then you can think that it is not pleasing to them...

When you feel energy coming through your service, you will understand it, but also remember that emotion and devotion is not the same. If somebody does some service emotionally, it will not last long, it will finish later after some time. Also, if somebody is doing something for the Lord and in lieu of that asking for something, such service will also not last a long time—it can only work for a short time. Devotional service lasts.

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