Service Capacity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
19 March 2014

...It happened in Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's times, when Vinod Babu was the manager and Kunja Babu was the secretary (later, after Prabhupad had gone, they took sannyas and became Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj and Bhakti Prajnan Kesav Maharaj). Once, Prabhupad noticed one boy in pants and a shirt walking around the temple. He watched him walk around the temple for three days and finally asked Vinod Babu and Kunja Babu, "I saw a boy walking around the temple, wearing pants and a shirt... Who is he?"

Kunja Babu and Vinod Babu both replied, "He came from a place near Rajshahi [it is near Narottam Das Thakur's place]."

"Why are you not bringing him to me? Why are you not saying anything, not engaging him in service?"

"That boy is useless, he cannot do anything. We tried to engage him in some service, but he cannot do anything."

"OK, call that boy here."

The boy came to Prabhupad, and Prabhupad asked him, "Where are you from? Where is your house? What is your eduction?" At that time it was rare to see a graduate—at that time maybe for one district there would be one person graduate, a BA, like in the whole of Nadia district you would find only one person who was a graduate. So, it turned out that the boy was a graduate, and Prabhupad immediately used him at the printing press. That boy became Sundarananda Vidyavinod who published the Gaudiya, who could compose Prabhupad's lectures—no one can do that, only he!

At that time, there were no computers, there was not so much electricity, and when Prabhupad gave a lecture, Sundarananda Vidyavinod would write it down. If you see the Gaudiya, you can see how hard the language that Prabhupad used was; it is very hard for a simple man to understand it. This is the kind of language, and these are the kinds of things that he composed and published in the Gaudiya.

So, you cannot ignore anybody. You can use different people in different ways. Not everybody is qualified to give a lecture, not everybody is qualified to do the goshala seva, not everybody is qualified to do the gardening service or construction service, but everybody has some quality. You should test the person and depending on what quality they have you must use that quality for the service to the Lord, to Guru.

If you tell me, "Maharaj, you must do puja for one year," I cannot do that. I can do puja for one-two days, but not for a whole year. Or if you tell me, "Maharaj, you must cook for for one year," I can cook for five-six days, maximum ten, not more than that—I cannot cook for a whole year, I will burn my stomach, burn my legs, hands, etc. because I am a very fast man... Gurudev understood me, he knew what kind of service was right for me. The first service he gave me was to be a security guard, an Alsatian dog. He understood, "That boy can be an Alsatian dog." After that, when he was giving me sannyas, he said, "You must sometimes control your gear: you must sometimes cool down. Before you used to chastise, beat, etc. others, but now you are a sannyasi and you must understand what is necessary."

This is how, through love and affection, you can conquer everything...

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