Purity Of Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 October 2015

People pray, "Vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, bharyam dehi, kavitam, sundarim dehi: give me knowledge, give me a nice body, give me a nice wife, make me a poet, make me beautiful." They worship their Guru for their own pleasure and gain—but when devotees worship the Lord out of love that is another thing.

Sadhus, Guru, Vaishnavs worship the Lord daily—it is an eternal service. Devotees think, "The Lord is the master of my house—I am a member of His family. I have got everything for Him. Everything in this world exists for Him." The pretenders, on the other hand, do puja for a few days, and after that go back to their lives—end of puja. They show something externally but then give it up. This is not what sadhus, Guru and Vaishnavs do. These pretenders use the Lord, asking Him for wealth, money, a house, a car, and do their puja to get it, but Srimad Bhagavad-gita says,

যৎ করোষি ষদশ্নাসি যজ্জুহোষি দদাসি যৎ ।
যত্তপস্যসি কৌন্তেয় তৎ কুরুষ্ব মদর্পণম্ ॥

yat karosi yad asnasi, yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kurusva mad-arpanam

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.27)

"Whatever you do—whether you meditate, do puja, yoga, or anything else—do everything for Me." Also, "Patram puspam phalam toyam (Bg, 9.26): whether you offer a leaf, a flower, or a fruit—do it for Me."

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me only. You will have no sin—I will take all your sins."

একলা ঈশ্বর কৃষ্ণ, আর সব ভৃত্য ।
যারে যৈছে নাচায়, সে তৈছে করে নৃত্য ॥

ekala isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya
yare yaiche nachaya, se taichhe kare nrtya

"Krishna is the only Lord, all others are His servants. As He makes others dance, so they dance."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.142)

"Krishna is the Supreme Controller, the Lord, and all the demigods and demigoddesses, all people are His servants."

Everything happens by His wish and desire. By His will the wind blows; by His will the sun shines; by His will there is the moon; by His will there is water; by His will the rain comes—everything comes by His will. By His will one goes to heaven and becomes a demigod; by His own will the Lord appears in the world and destroys the demons... Conditioned souls, however, fallen into maya, forget that everything they get—a wife, a son, a daughter, money, property, and so on—is given by the Lord, and the Lord can take it all away too (as He desires).

I saw yesterday an article in the paper about two Kharagpur students who decided to go to the beach during the puja time holiday and who were carried away by the ocean waves—their parents had hoped so much that their children would become great engineers, but nothing happens without the Lord's wish.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি' সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

"Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through all kinds of material suffering.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117)

Forgetting the Lord we have fallen into these three-fold miseries...

দিন যায় মিছা কাজে নিশা নিদ্রাবশে ।
নাহি ভাবি মরণ নিকটে আছে বসে ॥

dina yaya michha kaje nisa nidra-base
nahi bhavi marana nikate achhe base

"My days are passed in useless work and nights are wasted on sleeping. It never occurs to me that there is death sitting next to me."

('Durlabha manava janma labhiya' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

One after another the days pass in work and sleep, but any time we can die...

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