What Is Service?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
21 August 2011, part 1

It is Janmastami tomorrow, and just now I have called to the Vrindavan temple, spoke to the manager there. I keep in touch with every place, always give instruction. It is all will of Krishna.

Actually, devotees do not know what is service and what is not service. Somebody thinks, "This is service," "That is service," but they do not think properly. I realised this in Gurudev's time. And that is why some of the devotees cannot reach their own goal—they do not know what is service.

I am also remembering now there are so many devotees who were Gurudev's personal servitors, they did so much service for Gurudev, and I did not do so much personal service, I was not Gurudev's personal servitor, but I followed whatever Gurudev told me.

Somebody asks Gurudev, "Oh, Gurudev, can I massage your feet?" Gurudev says, "No, you can stand over there." The devotee is thinking, "Oh, why did Gurudev tell me to stand here? There is no service here!" But we do not know—if Gurudev tells me to stand up there, he knows what my service is. That is why, if Gurudev tells us to do something and we think, "Oh, this is not service," then we do not actually understand what is service; and if somebody thinks, "This is service," then they are following their mind. You cannot fulfil Gurudev's desire in this way. You can understand easily what I want to say that.

The problem is that they do not understand what is service and what is not service. If you follow what Gurudev tells you, that is service. You can think, "There is no work here," but if Gurudev tells you to stand there, it may be no work, but Gurudev thinks it is service, then it is service. We cannot think that it is not service. Then, we must realise what Gurudev wanted to tell me and what Gurudev wanted to tell everyone.

This line actually depends upon surrender, that is why Gurudev always told that there are 10% devotees, 20% devotees, 30% devotees, 50% devotees, and so on. Why did he say this? I understand it now.

You know that I did not always stay close to Gurudev, I was not his personal servitor, I did not even spend a long time with him, rather I always stayed far—he would send me far, to many places; but he ordered me from wherever he was staying and I tried to fulfil his desire—whatever he told me, I followed his order. That is why he chose me as his successor. Sometimes I think why Gurudev has chosen me—I have not done so much, there are so many personal servitors, they did so many things for Gurudev, and they were near him, but why did Gurudev choose me? I am thinking about it now.

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