Protect Your Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
28 July 2013

Krishna is merciful, He always allows us to serve and engages us in service. Gurudev said, "Those who have no service, have no mercy."

Question: How can we become fixed in our service?

We must follow the rules and regulations. Jagadananda Pandit said (Pv, 17.22) that there is no difference in the devotion of a grihastha and a sannyasi if they practise properly. That is why we must practise properly.

Always avoid what is not in favour of devotion, like atyahara—eating too much, gossiping too much, sleeping too much, and so on. It is also necessary to have enthusiasm. We think we took initiation so many years ago but we are not getting anything, so we start neglecting our service, we do not attend to our service properly. That is why we do not have proper attachment to the service.

We must be careful—there are so many obstacles in our spiritual life. Sometimes sadness and unhappiness will come through service, but we must tolerate it. Through service you will get an interest, keep that wealth—that wealth will destroy all kinds of illusory environment.

We must maintain our spiritual life properly, and to maintain means you should go for the morning mangal arati, then do bhajans, and then go to work. We must also try to avoid all food that has not been offered to the Lord. It is necessary to reject what is unfavourable to devotion and accept what is favourable to devotion, and we must do it.

Always think about your service, think, "How can I make the Guru, Vaishnav, Bhagavan happy through my service?" We will not think about our own interest, we will always think, "How shall I make him happy?" You heard how Mahaprabhu gave Gadadhar Pandit service in Puri, but Gadadhar Pandit wanted to stay with Mahaprabhu, and when he was going to forcefully go with Him, Mahaprabhu asked him, "Do you care for My interest, or do you care for your own interest? Do you want My happiness, or do you want your own happiness?" Devotees want their own happiness and do not think about their Gurudev's happiness. That is the problem.

Also, we cannot follow our mind because the mind is very naughty. Every morning we sing,

ঐছন আমার মন ফিরে যেন অন্ধজন
সুপথ বিপথ নাহি জানে

aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana
supatha vipatha nahi jane

"My mind wanders like a blind man who cannot tell the right way from the wrong way."

'Thakura Vaishnava-gana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

Our mind takes us away—it may be right way or wrong way, we do not know it. Only Gurudev can control the mind, so we should think, "My mind is naughty, I must follow my Gurudev's instruction." We always give food to the mind, we listen to our mind, but that is why we cannot do proper service. That is also a problem. Mind is our enemy.

Wherever we stay, we must maintain our spiritual life. You must understand what is necessary in your spiritual life and proceed with the proper practice, then, as Gurudev said, you can stay anywhere and you will be able to maintain your spiritual life perfectly.

Another problem is ego. Even Radharani had some ego. Once She asked Krishna to take Her to the forest, but soon She said, "I cannot walk any further, can You carry Me?" When She said it, Krishna disappeared. Radharani had an ego because She thought She was the strestha, the main among all Vraja gopis. She thought, "Krishna has left all Vraja gopis and serves only Me." This kind of ego came to Her and because of that even She one time lost Krishna...

We are tiny, we are small persons, and we must be careful about these things. We must remember that ego can take us out. We may think we are doing so much service, or we have done so much service, but if this kind of ego comes to us, it can any time remove us from the service. Be careful. Ego takes one out of service.

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