Effective Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, India
5 March 2016

"Satisfying the whims of your mind is not bhajan." If your mind wants to go somewhere or to do something, it is not service. Srila Sridhar Maharaj told Gurudev, "Do not follow your mind. What I am telling you, that will be service." If I tell you to read Bhagavatam, then that is service.

I have told also many times how once Srila Goswami Maharaj, Srila Madhav Maharaj, Srila Jajavar Maharaj and others gathered at the same place. Madhav Maharaj was reading a newspaper, and Goswami Maharaj asked Jajavar Maharaj, "Maharaj can you pass me the newspaper?" Jajavar Maharaj was chanting on his beads, so he took the newspaper in his left hand and gave it to Goswami Maharaj, crossing his left hand with the newspaper in it over his right hand with japa mala. Goswami Maharaj chastised him, "What Vaishnav tells you, that is service. You cannot do both things. You must stop chanting on your beads and give the newspaper. What you did is not proper etiquette."

Somebody asked me last year why the fountain in front of the samadhi-mandirs and the brahmachari asham does not run. I gave them the answer: there is no mercy from Gurudev because I made that fountain without his permission. I repaired the whole (one-storey) brahmachari building, and Gurudev was happy because it was very old at that time and snakes lived there, but Gurudev said he did not like that I made a fountain there. I had tried to run the fountain many times, but it did not work—somebody would steal the whole motor, or the motor would break, or somebody would steal the fountain piece... Finally I understood that Gurudev was not happy with it, so there was no mercy of Gurudev and it would not work. After that—no more trying. It is important to understand this.

We must always try to engage ourselves in service. Through service you will also get good association.

One time, Nityananda Prabhu told Krishna Das Kaviraj Das Goswami in a dream, "Do not stay at this house with your brother. Do not be afraid, come to Vrindavan." Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother made an offence to the lotus feet of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu. He was a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but he had no faith in Nityananda Prabhu. Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother and Gunarnava Mishra arranged a big festival, but when Nityananda Prabhu's servitor, a brahmin called Ramdas Minaketan, came there, they did not give him proper respect.

If you are doing puja, arati, worshipping Deities, and at that time your Guru or some great personality, a Vaishnav comes, you must stop your puja and pay obeisance to him, give him respect; after that you can continue the puja. That is what is said in the scriptures. When Gunarnava Mishra was doing puja and Ramdas Minaketan came there, he did not even say anything to him. He thought, "I am a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and he is a follower of Nityananda Prabhu, why should I give him respect?" Ramdas Minaketan went to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami and, with his hair standing on end, told him what had happened. Later, when Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami chastised his brother, he said his behaviour was ardha-kukkuti nyaya (half hen logic). That same day Nityananda Prabhu appeared in front of him at night.

Ardha-kukkuti nyaya means a hen gives eggs from one side, and from the other side it only eats; you like the backside because you can get something from it (eggs), so you cut the hen into two parts, take the backside and throw away the head, thinking it is useless. But when you cut the back side of the hen, the whole hen will be dead—will you get any eggs the next day? No. Nityananda Prabhu and Gaurachandra are one whole, two limbs of the same body. You cannot accept one side and not the other.

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