(5/14) Dasya-Abhiman, not Prapya-Abhiman

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Ishwarpur, 19 January 2019, part 5
Translated from Bengali

How do such devotees serve? For example, when Mother Yasoda feeds Krishna with her breastmilk, does she do this for her own pleasure or for Krishna's pleasure? For Krishna's – to fill His stomach. That is vatsalya-rasa. She can also get angry and pull Krishna by the ear because Krishna would spoil curd and butter ('I have made all this for You, but You are giving it all to monkeys!'). She can bind Krishna with a rope. This is parental love. In servitude (serving the Lord as a servant), there is dasya-abhiman (ego of a servant). This is how we strive to serve the Lord:

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

'The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

Actually, before we become devotees, there is one thing we must understand: 'Who am I?' I and this body are not one and the same thing. It is necessary to understand what I am and what this body is. We always make a big deal of our parents and relatives, but parents only give us our bodies. If you examine my blood and my parents' blood, you can see that it is the same blood, so my father has given me this body, but I am talking now, I am moving my legs and arms – what is doing all this? There is something inside this body that makes it animate, and this something is jivatma, the soul. This jivatma was not given to me by my parents. Remember this (this is what you all forget). Our parents give us our bodies, but they do not give us our souls – we got our souls from God. God has given us a soul, but we forget Him. We only think about the bodies that we got from our parents, but these bodies are perishable. I am talking now, but if my soul leaves this body, then the body will not be able to speak or move. We forget where our soul comes from (who has given us our souls). To remind us about that, sadhus go to house to house and tell us about it. Do you understand now that you and your body are not one and the same thing?

Even scientists can understand this. Suppose you say that you and your body are the same. Science says that whatever you eat becomes absorbed by the body – for example, it was ekadasi yesterday, and you can see that when you fast on ekadasi, you lose one kg of weight because you do not eat rice, etc. Whatever vegetables, rice, etc. you eat, it all goes into the body. So, if you think that you and your body are the same, it means that when you eat potato, you become potato (you are not human anymore). It does not make sense.

Srila Prabhupad also said that Columbus discovered America, but it does not mean that America did not exist before that. I can see the sun today, but it does not mean that the sun did not exist yesterday. Even if you stay indoors and do not come out (do not see the sun), it does not mean that the sun is not there. We also determine the time according to the sun, but the sun does not determine time (neither time determines the sun). The sun exists according to its own laws, it is not controlled by time. In this way Srila Prabhupad explained whether there is God or not. You must explain this to people in this way.

Srila Prabhupad also said another very nice thing. People worship Kali, Laksmi, Ganesh or Krishna, but Srila Prabhupad says that when we come to worship the Lord, we must not turn the Lord into our menial servant. We come to worship the Lord and we ask for something, 'Give me this'; it means that we expect the Lord to please and serve us. We must not turn the Lord into our menial servant – we must serve the Lord. When you ask the Lord for something, you turn Him into your servant. When outside people worship their gods, this mood is there even more. People worship Durga, Kali, Ganesh and other gods. Worshipping 'God' means coming to a worshippable Deity. You know, when you want to get some government job (for example, at a school), you must often bribe some government official or political leader. What do you call such an official? A bribe-taker. So, when you come to Kali, Durga or Ganesh with some rice, bananas and money and say, 'O Lord, please give my son a good job', 'O Lord, please arrange my daughter's marriage.' It means you turn your God into a bribe-taker. Instead of worshipping and serving Gods, we turn them into bribe-takers. This is our situation. Service and worship must be done sincerely, without deceit (niskapata), and selflessly, without desires (niskama). It is not necessary to want anything from the Lord – you will get whatever is written in your destiny. No matter how much you strive, no matter how hard you work, you will only get as much as it is written in your destiny. Never forget what service to the Lord is. Always remember this.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Dearth of Hari-katha
2) Follow without Imitation
3) Higher Conceptions
4) Pursuit-Free Devotion
5) Dasya-Abhiman, not Prapya-Abhiman
6) Servant's Stance
7) Internal and External Mood of Servants
8) Highest Vaishnavs and Pseudo Vaishnavs
9) Example of Vaishnav Quality
10) Action and Reaction
11) In Search of Reality
12) Cutting Illusory Bondage
13) Love for Lord, Love for Yourself
14) Come to Serve Devotees