(11/12) Service Life—Joyful Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bhanjipur, 1 December 2019, evening, part 11
Translated from Bengali

This world is such that whenever you step outside there is no guarantee that you will come back. I saw the news from London yesterday – people went out for a walk in the afternoon, and somebody came and started shooting. Two people died. And this is London, a foreign city. Such is this world... People are overcome with jealousy. We cannot see others doing well in life. If you eat well and live a comfortable life (the Lord has given you good facilities), your neighbours will envy you.

I pray for everybody. May the Lord awaken good intelligence in everybody so that they can live serving and remembering the Lord. I have no enemies, and I have no friends. My only friend is the Lord. May the Lord keep everybody well and give them good intelligence. Do not envy anybody – do not think that you want to outdo anybody or that you want to get rid of anybody. Even if somebody treats you bad, do not treat them bad in return. This should be our mood.

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror iva sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

‘One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and who gives honour to others without desiring it for themselves is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

We must always remember this.

Take care. I will come here again tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be a lot of people here. People only crowd when it is time for prasad. As soon as the clock strikes twelve, people start flocking in, and then you also lose your concentration and cannot listen to Hari-katha anymore. Anyway, it is good too – at least people can come and take some prasad. Honouring prasad is also service, but if you take prasad thinking, 'Oh, they did not give me paneer rasa!', 'Oh, they did not give me fried eggplant!' – then it is eating paneer rasa and eggplant, not honouring prasad. Do you now see it yourselves? When prasad is distributed, everybody looks at others' plates and checks what others are given. You cannot take prasad with this kind of mentality – you will be eating paneer and eggplant, not taking prasad then. These are Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words. I always only repeat our guru-varga's words. I only come and tell what our guru-varga say. I heard something directly from their mouths and I have also read their books, and I tell others about what I have heard or read. What I say is not something that I invented. What I come to tell are the words of scriptures.

So, remember these things. Take care of yourselves. Come tomorrow again to listen to Hari-katha. Come to listen about the Lord. This opportunity to listen about the Lord and to talk about the Lord does not come all the time. I have told you earlier that the whole day you only work and work, you always spend your days working hard for yourselves, and it does not occur to you that it is necessary to speak about the Lord. You do not think about it. Whenever I get time, I try to use it to serve the Lord. For example, yesterday I went to Nabadwip in the morning, and I returned the same day in the evening. Today also I went out early in the morning and returned only after three o'clock in the afternoon. I took some prasad and at three-fifty I went out again. If we can spend our days like this, we will know no end of joy. We always want to live speaking about the Lord and doing what is related to the Lord. We do not want to talk about other things, we do not want to do any other works.

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Length: 69 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) A Life of Imperfection
2) Open Your Door to Mercy
3) Eternal Focus
4) Harinam: Devotees' Heartbeat
5) Humans' Advantage
6) Call Out to Gaura-Nitai
7) Repent and Revolt
8) Gift of Sankirtan
9) Seat Sankirtan In Your Hearts
10) Survive and Thrive
11) Service Life—Joyful Life
12) All Walk, No Talk