(2/2) Unconditional Servitude

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
16 October 2019, Kolkata, part 2
Translated from Bengali

We should know what is necessary for service. We must not do service putting forward any conditions. If you have conditions, this is a trade, not service. 'I will stay only if you do this', 'I will do this, and I will not do that.' This is conditional service. 'If you give me ten rupees, I will give you one hundred grams of mustard oil.' This is a shopkeeper's mentality. You must not be like that with your guru.

Somebody told me once, 'Oh, if you do not follow niyom-seva rules, I will not cook at the temple.' Who prohibits you to observe niyom-seva month? You must cook for the Lord and offer bhog to the Lord – if you do not want to take something, do not take it. Nobody forces you to take anything. You must cook everything nicely for the Lord, and if you do not take something, it is your matter. He understood it then.

Srila Guru Maharaj and Srila Prabhupad said that the niyom-seva month rules are actually for those who live without following any rules (aniyom). Some people want to stay in Vrindavan at this time. You will see there so many things sold on the streets – will you be able to control yourself or will you go and eat muri and singara?

The main thing is that we must always practise sravan and kirtan. Even when we go for the parikrama, we go with sravan and kirtan. This time, we are going in buses, there are one–two hundred people coming with us for the parikrama, if I were to feed them with only atop rice and boiled potato, will anybody go then? We must do everything carefully. If you can stay without eating, then do that – if anybody wants to observe all the rules of the niyom-seva, they can do it. I will never prohibit it. If you can do it, do it, but even if you do it, it is necessary to do service. The niyom-seva month must be observed with service. You must go for the parikrama, chant kirtans.

At the temple, there must be three classes a day. Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata is read in the morning, Srimad Bhagavatam is read in the afternoon, and Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is read in the evening. A class is given three times a day.

The niyom-seva month also means that you must not sleep – you must chant kirtan the whole night. Can you do that? Can you stay without sleeping for a whole month? If you can, then do it. I do not have any objection. In general, it is prohibited for brahmacharis to sleep in the daytime (diva-nidra nisedha) – when they take the brahman initiation, they make this promise in front of the fire. When people get married, they stand in front of the a fire and make their promises; and here, when brahmans are given their brahman threads, they stand in front of the fire and also promise, among other things, 'I will not sleep in the daytime.' Do you know this? Actually, if you do service, you will not feel sleepy.

People boast, 'I chant so many rounds!' but our Guru Maharaj said, 'Oh, but I sweat so much to chant only four rounds!' We do not actually get time to chant so much on our beads. When we chant four rounds, we start to sweat so much, but others boast that they chant 100,000 Names, 200,000 Names! We do not have time for this – we are always busy with so many services.

All right, much has been said. Let us chant the kirtans now.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Service Is Above Rules
2) Unconditional Servitude