Crooked Service (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
4 January 2019, part 5

Mahaprabhu told very nicely,

চেতোদর্পণমার্জ্জনং ভবমহাদাবাগ্নিনির্ব্বাপণং
শ্রেয়ঃকৈরবচন্দ্রিকাবিতরণং বিদ্যাবধূজীবনম্ ।
আনন্দাম্বুধিবর্দ্ধনং প্রতিপদং পূর্ণামৃতাস্বাদনং
সর্ব্বাত্মস্নপনং পরং বিজয়তে শ্রীকৃষ্ণসঙ্কীর্ত্তনম্ ॥

chetodarpanamarjanam bhavamahadava nirvapanam
sreyah kairava chandrikavitaranam vidyavadhujivanam
anandambudh ivardhanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatmasnapanam param vijayate srikrsnasankirtanam

"The Holy Name of Krishna cleanses the mirror of the heart and extinguishes the fire of misery in the forest of birth and death. As the evening lotus blooms in the moon's cooling rays, the heart begins to blossom in the nectar of the Name. And at last the soul awakens to its real inner treasure a life of love with Krishna. Again and again tasting nectar, the soul dives and surfaces in the everincreasing ocean of ecstatic joy. All phases of the self of which we may conceive are fully satisfied and purified, and at last conquered by the all-auspicious influence of the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 20.12)

Chetana-darpan: suppose you have a mirror in your house; if you do not use the mirror for a long time, it will become covered with dust and you will not be able to see your picture in it because of that; you must first clean the mirror, then you will see your picture.

Srila Narottam Das Thakur says also, "Krishna se tomar, Krishna dite paro, tomara sakati achhe: Krishna is yours, you have the power and you can give Krishna." Who can give Krishna to you? Only a great Vaishnav can because Krishna lives in their heart. Krishna never lives in a non-devotee's heart because non-devotees always ask Krishna to fulfil their own desire. "Atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama' ( আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম')—the desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust)." They always keep asking for different things, and Krishna becomes very tired and runs away from such non-devotees.

We are all sons and daughters of Lord Krishna, but we are searching for Krishna because we have lost our parents. Krishna mata, Krishna pita: Krishna is our mother, Krishna is our father. We have lost our real parents, and Krishna also has lost us. We all come from Krishna, but we have been wandering through so many samsaras (family lives) for so many years, so many births and deaths, births and deaths. Krishna is also searching for us—He sends a real devotee to us to tell us how we can go to our father, how we can go to our parents, and He shows us the real path by which we can reach our real home and our real parents.

Sometimes we worship some demigod or even Krishna, but Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told, "Are you worshipping Krishna or are you making Him your servant?" If someone always asks Krishna, "Please give me this," "Please give me this", then Krishna becomes your servant. This is not the real way to worship the Lord. You must not use Krishna for your own purpose. Do not use Krishna, do not use any worshippable God or demigod. Such is real devotion—that is Vraja bhakti, that is Vrindavan bhakti, the devotion of the gopis. They do not want their own happiness—they want Krishna's happiness. They do not think that they will go to hell. You can see that even Laksmi, even Sivji Maharaj, even Narad, even Brahma could not give their feet dust to Krishna, but the Vraja gopis are always ready to give it and they gave their feet dust to Krishna. That is why Krishna showed, "You see, Uddhav Maharaj? How very dear the Vraja gopis are to Me!"

You can understand this from the example of family life also. Suppose somebody has three-five sons—one son is asking his parents for this, another son is asking his parents for that, and so on. Everyone is asking for something unnecessary, and the parents become tired. But if there is a son who does not ask for anything, but always takes care of his mother and father, always asks, "How are you?", "How is your health?", etc., then the father and the mother become pleased with that son. This is an example of mundane service, but you can understand that we all—all over the world—are sons and daughters of the Lord, and we always serve or want to serve the Lord, but do we want to serve to fulfil our own desire or to fulfil Krishna's desire?

— : • : —

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