(3) Heartfelt Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Deities' Manifestation Anniversary festival, Siliguri, 1 May 2019, morning, part 3
Translated from Bengali

The Deity is Lord Krishna Himself (saksad Vrajendra-nandan). The Deity speaks. The Deity gives witness. The Deity steals. You have heard about all this. I told you in the morning also about Mukunda Prabhu's son Raghunandan. Mukunda Prabhu is an associate of Mahaprabhu.

One day, Raghunandan's parents were going to the market. They told their son, who was a small boy of, perhaps, ten years, 'Raghunandan, I have already cooked and prepared everything, but we have no time to make the offering. I have to go to the market now. Offer the bhoga to the Deity.' Raghunandan did not know any mantras, he did not know anything about Deity worship. There days, when you offer bhoga, you must recite mantras, you must do many things. But Raghunandan offered bhoga without any mantras. He simply came to the Deity and said, 'Eat!' He saw that the Deity did not eat. Then, he said, 'Hey, eat! Mother gives You food every day, and You eat it, but today because You think that I am just a small boy, You are not eating it? If You do not eat, I will beat You!' He took a stick from the gong and brandished it before the Deity. The Deity said, 'Oh, no! Do not beat Me, please do not beat Me!' Then, Raghunandan saw that the Deity began to eat. 'Eat, eat! Finish everything!' The Deity finished all offering.

After some time, Raghunandan's parents came home.

'Where is our prasadam, Raghunandan?' his mother asked him.

'Oh, the Lord has eaten everything.'

'What? What are we going to eat then?'

'Mother, you must have cooked less today. The Lord has eaten everything.'

His mother did not believe him. She said, 'Do Deities eat? You must have eaten it yourself or fed somebody!'

'No, Mother, how could I eat so much? The Deity ate everything.'

She still did not believe him. She thought, 'Let me see it with my own eyes.' So, she prepared some sweets and fruit for the afternoon offering and told her son, 'Go and offer it. I want to see how your Deity eats.'

Raghunandan went to offer the bhoga to the Deity again.

'O Lord, here, eat this fruit and sweets.'

'Again?' the Deity exclaimed. 'I listened to you at noon and I ate so much! How can I eat again now? It is only four o'clock. I am not hungry.'

'No, You must! Mother does not believe me. You must eat now too. Eat, otherwise I will beat You!'

'OK, OK, I am eating!'

Hearing the voices, Raghunandan's mother thought, 'What is that boy talking to in the Deity's room??' She crept up to the door and saw the Lord Himself taking a sweet – half the sweet was in His mouth, and the other hand was in His hand. She fainted when she saw it.

That Deity is still there, in Narahari-pat, Srikhanda, and to this day they offer the Deity sweets like that: they put half of a sweet in the Deity's hand. I have been to that temple. It is near Katwa, where Mahaprabhu took sannyas.

The Lord says, 'Ami yara hate khai, tara hate khai, yara tara hate khai na (আমি যার হাতে খাই, তার হাতে খাই, যার তার হাতে খাই না). I do not take food from anyone and everyone – I eat from the hand of those whose hand I wish to eat from.'

ভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু লুটিপুটি খায় ।
অভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু উলটি নাহি চায় ॥

bhaktera jinisa prabhu lutiputi khaya
abhaktera jinisa prabhu ulti nahi chaya

‘The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it to Him, but He does not want to take anything from a non-devotee.’

(Based on Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.9.185)

Non-devotees cannot even offer anything to the Lord. How will they do it? They only think about their own food. When you feed the Lord, you must do it lovingly, affectionately. Cook nicely, do everything nicely, lovingly for the Lord. Think always about the Lord, and do always everything for Him. You must focus on pleasing Krishna's senses, on loving Krishna. What is the duty of a devotee? Their duty is to think how to make Krishna happy. Devotees always think, 'What makes Krishna happy? What makes gurudev happy?' This is how one must serve.

'What makes my gurudev happy?' If you think like this when you do service, then you yourselves will feel happy because you will feel that your guru's happiness is your happiness: 'If gurudev is happy, then I am happy; and if gurudev is not pleased, then there is no point in my being pleased.' Always remember this.

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