Dedication to Sadhana

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in Hungary
15 September 2013, part 3

Question: There is one question... We work in this world every day... do you have any specific order how we shall adjust our practices to our daily life?

I have told it many times how you must run your daily life. You all can make your house a temple.

You gather together for some class, some yoga class, but in addition to that you must also sometimes sing songs, wake up early in the morning, try to do some mangal arati, offer some bhog at the altar, take prasad. This is practising life. Whether you are cooking, whether you are making garlands, dancing, or doing anything else, everything is sadhana—everything is practising. For example, if you dance to please the Lord it means you dance and get some money—and you use that money for the service of the Lord. That is also sadhana.

You know that there are three things—bhog, tyag, and seva. We only follow service line, not bhog (enjoyment), and not even renunciation (tyag). None of the other two. We only do service, that is the main thing for us. I have told also the story that Gurudev told:

There was a lady who sold fish, that was also her sadhana (practising)... One day, a brahman came to the market to buy fish. He came to this lady. The lady put the fish on the scales to measure the weight but she was short of weights, so she brought her Giriraj sila (the Lord) and used Him as a weight on the scales. When the brahman saw it, he got very angry. He said, "You are lower caste! You do not know how to do puja!" He took the Giriraj sila from her and brought to the place where he was staying. He kept Giriraj with him but did not serve Him—he was using Giriraj for his own purpose. Then, Giriraj turned into God's form and came to the brahman at night in a dream, "You are sleeping, you are enjoying and not serving Me! Why have you then brought Me here? Better you take me back to the fisherwoman's house and keep Me there! I liked it there much more—I danced and swung on her scales, I was much happier there! Why have you brought Me here?!"

Then you can understand that Krishna, the Lord, always prefers a better servitor—that is why the Lord went back to His previous place.

Enjoyment means using others for your own purpose. This is not right. What we need is Krishnendriya tarpan (doing everything for the Lord), not nijendriya tarpan (doing something for my own self). This is called service.

The day before yesterday, on Radhastami, I was saying—why did Krishna leave Vrindavan? Because He wanted the service desire of Srimati Radharani and all the gopis to be more—more and more. He knew more desire would come to them to serve, that is why He left.

When Krishna took Srimati Radharani from rasa-mancha (rasa-lila), all the gopis said, "Oh, maybe Srimati Radhika pleases Krishna very much, that is why He left us for Her..." It is said very nicely in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "In this world no one is My enemy, no one is My friend, but if some devotee serves Me perfectly, trying to please Me, I become dear to them, and they become dear to Me."

The only problem is that our mind disturbs us. Mind controls everything—it is like a naughty manager controlling everything on behalf of the atma (jiva soul), "I want this, I do not want that!" If we give food, give energy to the mind, if we always listen to it, then the mind can take us away from the service and take us to some wrong, bad way. Our mind takes us to many bad places—heaven, hell, karma-yoga, etc.

That is why today we must promise, "I will not listen to my mind. I have got instruction from above, and from today I will listen to that." We must promise this—this is our oath (sapath, শপথ) and determination.

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