Enthusiasm for Service:
Jar, Stool, Banana Skin

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia
Caracas Deity installation anniversary,
23 June 2013

You are making the festival and worshipping the Deities today, but you must understand that the Deity is nondifferent from the Lord Himself, and this kind of attachment should come to you: every day Nitai Gaura personally take service from you all and how fortunate you are! Gaura Nitai appeared in Bengal, in Mayapur and Ekachakra, but They came there to take service from you.

That is why I said that utsaha, enthusiasm is necessary: "How will I serve? How will I do this? How can I make the Deities happy? How can I make my Guru happy?" This kind of enthusiasm is necessary, but sometimes I see some brahmachari serves his Guru, serves and serves, but always thinks, "When will I run away? When will I run away from the service?"

One brahmachari always thought, "I am so tired. When will I be able to run away from the service?" Every day he would wait and look for a chance to run away. One day his Guru told him, "Take this jar and bring some water."

(In India some people keep water in clay pots—the water kept in a clay pot stays cool and there is not need for a fridge. These beautiful jars, or pitchers, are called kolshi.)

So, Gurudev sent his servant to bring water, and the brahmachari thought, "This is my chance! I will leave with the jar, keep it somewhere and run away!" As he started walking, the jar suddenly began to talk—the Guru himself appeared within the jar—"Hey! Where are you going? Are you trying to run away? You think you are getting so much austerity through the service to your Guru, Gurudev always tells you, 'Do this, do this, do this, do this,' and you are very tired and want to run away, but wait, first listen to my story.

"Before, I was a small piece of soil, everybody passed urine and stool on me, but all of a sudden I got lucky and some man picked me up. He brought me to his house and... began to beat me so much! He beat me into dust, then mixed with some water and on a machine turned me into good clay. Oh, how tired I was! What austerity I got at that time! After he turned me into clay he put me on another machine and shaped me into a jar, but still he was not satisfied! He then put me in the scorching sun! I lay there in the sun for three-four days, suffering and drying, but even that was not enough for him. After that, he put me into fire and baked me!

"After all this, I become a proper jar and the man took me to the market. There, people asked how much I cost and somebody wanted to pay for me Rs.30, somebody Rs.40, and somebody even Rs.50!

"Do you see? I was just a piece of mud, but now I am a valuable person—I have become a valuable thing! You too are getting some austerity, but try and have patience and you too one day will become a great valuable thing. Do not run away."

Why do we not get energy? Why do we not get happiness through our service? Because we have some material desire inside—desire for something else.

Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur gave an analogy. Imagine you are travelling by car or by bus and suddenly you have to go to the toilet to pass stool, but there is no bathroom anywhere close by. You feel so much pain and discomfort and all you can think of is, "When will I go to the bathroom?" When you finally find some secluded place and pass stool, you immediately get relief and happiness, "Ohhhh..." Then you relax.

If you renounce material desires, you will get the same happiness that you get when you go to the toilet after many hours of waiting. Your material desire is like stool, discard it and you will get happiness.

Speaking of enthusiasm, Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told that when Krishna came to Vidura's house, Vidura's wife was in the bathroom. As soon as she heard Krishna's voice, she came to meet him, but she was so excited thinking about Krishna that she did not realise she had no clothes on! She came to Krishna naked! When Krishna saw her, He quickly threw his uttariya to her, "Cover yourself!" That kinds of thing can happen through enthusiasm—she was completely unconscious of the state she came out in, she had no feeling, no thoughts of that. Later, she wanted to serve bananas to Krishna, but instead of bananas she served Him banana skin—she gave the skin and threw away the bananas. She lost all sense when she saw Krishna!

Do you have any questions?

—When we get your darshan, we feel we also get some relief...

Actually relief is necessary. If somebody has some material desire, they get no happiness through their service...

You want to be happy, and Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, "I cannot give you anything, but I can only do one thing—I can only show you how to get Krishna." When you walk to some place, you can see milestones along the road and understand how much farther you have to walk to reach your destination. You know what a milestone is—it is usually a pillar that says how many kilometres it is to some place. Also, on the aeroplane they have some pictures on a TV that show how much longer it is to the destination. When you proceed in your spiritual life properly you will see these kinds of milestones or pictures and you will understand you are going the right way...

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