Dasya-Rasa: the Pivot of Preaching

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to devotees in Caracas, Venezuela
20 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

When I see this world, I see that almost everybody, 99% people do not preach or practise Krishna consciousness. There are very few devotees do. Everybody is enjoying, but Krishna said, "I am giving you twenty-four hours—this time is My time. You must use this twenty-four hours' time for My service."

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told one story, you must have heard it:

There was an English pilot called Professor Nixon. When there was a war, he fought against the Germans. One day, he was flying his plane when suddenly the aeroplane's engine got damaged and he realised that he was going to die. At that time he remembered the Lord and prayed, "O Lord, if I stay alive, I will give twenty-four hours of my time to You, I will dedicate myself to Your service." Then somehow or other—we must say accidentally, but actually it was his fortune—the plane crashed, all the soldiers died, but the captain (Prof. Nixon) survived.

He remembered his promise to the Lord, so he went to a church of Jesus and asked the priest, "Can you engage me in service twenty four hours a day?" The priest replied, "It is not necessary. You can come once a week and pray, that is sufficient." Nixon was not satisfied, he said, "No, I have promised the Lord that I would give myself to His service twenty four hours a day, but you are telling me only one hour prayer once a week is sufficient." He went to many kinds of sampradaya after that—he tried Muslim religion, he tried Buddhist religion, etc. He had been to many places, but did not find any place where they could engage him twenty fours a day in the service of the Lord. Then he came to India. He went to Benares (Kashi) and met there one Gaudiya Vaishnavi lady. He told her his story and finally she told him how he could engage himself in twenty-four-hours' service. In the end, he took initiation, became a Gaudiya Vaishnav and engaged himself in the twenty-four-hours' service of the Lord.

Only Gaudiya Vaishnavs can give you this. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explain how to engage yourself in service.

One time, an Iskcon sadhu came to Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to take sannyas, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "You have come from Iskcon—you are a servant of Krishna. Only when you become a servant of Srimati Radharani, can I give you sannyas." Iskcon always preaches that you are a servant of Krishna, but that is the main point of Gaudiya siddhanta that we must become not a servant of the Lord, but a servant of the servants of the Lord. Not a slave, but a servant. Dasya-rasa.

We do not preach so much about madhura-rasa, and Gurudev would always say that if you always preach about madhura-rasa, you will become pregnant. Mahaprabhu also told Nityananda Prabhu to always preach Krishna consciousness, but what did Nityananda Prabhu do? He always preached Gaura consciousness. He did not preach Krishna consciousness so much. And our Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj always preached about Nityananda Prabhu. He always chanted, "Nitai-pada-kamala, koti chandra-susitala, ye chhayaya jagata judaya (নিতাই-পদকমল কোটীচন্দ্র-সুশীতল যে ছায়ায় জগত জুড়ায়): cooling like ten million moons, Nitai's lotus feet soothe the world with their shade." That is the main conception in our preaching.

You must be a servant of Srimati Radharani, a servant of Nityananda Prabhu. That is our conception—a servant of devotees, a servant of a servant of Gurudev. Not even directly a servant of Gurudev, but you should aspire to be a servant of Gurudev's devotees. That is the main thing. You must be a servant and you must give twenty-four hours of your time for the service of the Lord. This is what Krishna consciousness is mainly about.

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