Service Relation

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in Salt Lake City, USA
10 October 2019, part 2

The relation between a Guru and a disciple is not like the relation between a shopkeeper and a customer. The customer pays and and the shopkeeper gives something in return—not like this.

We need employment, and actually, there is so much employment available. Gurudev and Guru Maharaj have opened a big factory (Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math is a big factory), there are so many employees necessary at this factory. If we can join this factory as an employee, it will be good for us. This is the main thing in our spiritual life.

It is necessary to understand the relation between Gurudev and a disciple. In devotional life or transcendental life, this relation does not depend on who is senior, who is junior, who is whose disciple—these things are not a question. Sometimes people clarify, "We are disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj," "We are disciples of Srila Sridhar Maharaj." Some disciples think, "We are disciples of Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj." In this mundane world, you can judge who is senior and who is junior by the number of years one has been in this world, but actually it does not matter—in spiritual life, it is those who have proper and pure devotion that can get the real things—you can get to the home where Gurudev is staying only through devotion. Spiritual life does not depend on material qualification—somebody is a good speaker, somebody is a good singer, somebody has many disciples or many temples, somebody is a sannyasi, somebody is a brahmachari; this is not a question in the spiritual life. The more you can serve Gurudev, the happier you can make Gurudev, the more of a disciple of Gurudev you are.

We think that since we have taken the diksa mantra or Harinam mantra we have become a disciple or we have become a devotee, but no, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur says it is not correct. It is necessary to take initiation (diksa), but it is more important under whose guidance you are doing service after having received the mantra—it more important that you do service under the guidance of Gurudev and Guru Maharaj after that.

Gurudev has already given you a ticket to Vrindavan, but you must not misuse that ticket. You are going to Vrindavan, but you get off the train halfway to your destination. Gurudev gives you a train ticket or an airplane ticket to Vrindavan, but if you get off your train or plane when it stops somewhere in the middle of the way, then you will not be able to reach Vrindavan. That is the main thing.

I am telling these things to everybody. For service benefit, it is not necessary to be a sannyasi, it is not necessary to be a brahmachari, it is not necessary a householder—whatever your condition is, whatever your situation is, you can get a real benefit even as a householder, even as a brahmachari, even as a sannyasi, as long as you have devotion and proper faith in Gurudev.

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