Give Yourself to Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Puri Dham, first evening class
20 June 2017, translated from Bengali, part 5

"Sevaya karma, sevaya dharma, sevaya chatur-vargera phala pabe: through service you will get the result of any effort, of any religion, and whatever result of following the fourfold social division." But our mind is very naughty—day after day our mind is always engaged in bad thoughts, in talking nonsense... We must always use ourselves in the service of the Lord. Always remember this. Always keep yourself engaged in the service of the Lord.

"Dusta man tumi kisera vaishnav: when your mind is naughty, what kind of Vaishnav are you?"

'আমি ত' বৈষ্ণব', এ বুদ্ধি হইলে
অমানী না হ'ব আমি ।

"ami ta' vaisnava," e-buddhi ha-ile,
amani na ha'ba ami

"If I think, 'I am a Vaishnav,' then I will never stop expecting honour from others (I will never become void of the desire for honour)."

(Kalyan-kalpataru, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We sing in the kirtan, "Ami sakti-buddhi-hina, ami ati dina, koro more atmasatha! O Gurudev, please hijack me!" We ask our Gurudev to hijack us, to take us. Take us where? Take us away from this family of maya and bring us to the family of Krishna. Maya is always surrounding us, and to get relief from that we must become and live as members of Krishna's family. It is due to our misfortune that we always try to leave Krishna's family and enter maya's family. By a great fortune we have got this opportunity to become a part of Krishna's family—do not waste this chance! You must enter Krishna's family.

Bhajan means service. Bhaj datu sevaya. Srila Prabhupad writes very beautifully that you may practise all sixty-four devotional practices but if you do not have devotion to your Guru, if you do not follow your Guru—you may go all over the world, follow so many rites, do everything, but if you do not have that staunch adherence to your Guru, you will not get any result. While you are alive, give yourself to the service of your Guru. One day you must die and leave, nobody can say whether we can stay in this body whole life or not. Everybody has to change their body. If you want to get the Lord in this life, you must make all possible effort to preach the message of the Lord.

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

When Sanatan Goswami came here [to Puri], he contracted a very bad skin disease because had walked on scorching sand and got bad blisters. He thought, "This body is useless, I will commit suicide." (As I said, "Dusta mana tumi kisera Vaishnava.") Mahaprabhu told him, "Have you no shame? How can you want to destroy somebody else's property? Is this your body?!

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

"When you took initiation, you gave your body to Me. So, I will use it, you cannot do what you want."

"Following the whims of your mind on pretext of service is not service; following the order of the Guru, serving the Vaishnavs and satisfying them is called service." "Anera mana rakhite giya apanake dibe phanki: if you go to satisfy the minds of others, you will only cheat yourself." (Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.4) You must give your mind to Krishna, but we instead keep it in all sorts of other places. Who are you cheating? Gora knows everything. Jagadananda Pandit writes this in his Sri Sri Prema-vivarta. Do not try to cheat Gora.

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