Scale Your Service:
Disease or Devotion?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to the devotees in San Jose
18 August 2013

Gurudev says that the Deities, Krishna, always want a better servitor. Once Gurudev told one story to the devotees. I was there too, and I can remember it very well:

Once, a high caste brahmin went to the market to buy some fish. When he came to the market, he saw a lady selling fish and asked her to weigh a big fish for him. At that time, there were no electronic scales and people used hand scales (you can still see it in India). The counterweight on the scales was not enough, so the fisherwoman took a Salagram sila, Narayan, from her shop and used it as a weight. When the brahmin saw it, he became very angry, "Hey, what are you doing?! You are touching the fish with a Salagram sila! It is Narayan! You are doing wrong, it is a sin!" Then he said to her, "You cannot serve a Narayan sila properly, give your Narayan sila to me, I will serve it properly." The woman became scared and gave the sila to him.

The brahmin came back to his house and kept the sila on his altar properly. In the evening, he took some food and happily went to bed. When he was sleeping, that Narayan sila, Giriraj sila, came to him in a dream and said, "Hey, brahmin, what do you think you are doing? You are sleeping after eating nicely, but you are not giving any food to me. You took me away from the fisherwoman, but it was very nice there. She would keep me on her scales and I would swing on it so nicely, I was very happy there! Go and take me back!"

What is the meaning of this? Gurudev explained that the brahmin was using Narayan sila for his own purpose—he went begging, collecting and he would show that Narayan sila to others, "Look, I am serving this Narayan sila, give me some money." He used the sila to get money from others. It is bhog (enjoyment). Srila Guru Maharaj says using others for your own purpose is a heart disease (hrd-rogam). You can use even the Lord for the Lord's purpose, that is not a problem, but if you use the Lord, use your Guru for your own purpose, that is bhog (enjoyment). That lady, the fisherwoman, on the other hand, did not eat fish—she sold the fish and bought fruit, sweets with the profit and then offered it to Giriraj. That is why the Lord wanted to stay with her—the Lord always stays in the heart of His devotee.

So, we must understand what the main thing for us is and what our problem is. I saw sometimes devotees slacken their service, thinking, "I took initiation many years ago, but I cannot reach my destination properly..." They do not get enthusiasm to do their service, so their reduce, neglect their service. It is not good. It is necessary to have enthusiasm—slackening your service is a kind of a disease: "ছয় বেগ দমি' ছয় দোষ শোধি', chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi', subjugate the six urges, rectify the six defects..." Sing this song (Ohe Vaisnava Thakura) and find out what the chhaya dosa (six faults) are, what the chhaya veg (six urges) are, then you can easily understand what is necessary for your service. These are the main things.

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