(14/14) Service, Submission and Purity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Gurudev's Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Nrisingha Palli
13 December 2019, part 14

Even taking prasad is service, but if you think, 'Oh, they did not give me fried eggplant!' then it is not prasad-seva (serving, or honouring, prasad) – it is eating eggplant.

Those who chant the glories of the Lord's Names, beauty, pastimes are the highest Vaishnavs, and they are the ones who can preach about the Lord's Names, beauty, pastimes. We often think about kirtans' rhythm and tunes, about pleasing the audience with our singing, and if somebody does not sing very melodiously, they are not allowed to sing. If you worry about the tune, then what you are doing is singing songs – it is not chanting kirtan.

Arati is service to the Lord, too, and it must be given attention. Chanting kirtan, circumambulating the temple – these are all devotional practices. I have seen today that when we were doing the temple parikrama, some people remained seated in the nat-mandir. They do not know, they do not understand it. Vaishnav Thakur is doing parikrama, but many just remain sitting. They do not know that they must get up and do the parikrama. Because they do not do the parikrama at home, they are not used to doing it. 'Oh, I will get out of breath if I walk four times around the house. And what is there in that walking anyway?' – thinking in this way, people do not do Tulasi parikrama or dham-parikrama. Many people also plant Tulasi at home, but they do not keep any place to circumambulate her – they think that if they just offer incense and some water, that is all there is to it. But if you do Tulasi parikrama, it brings the same result as circumambulating Vrindavan; it liberates you from the material world and gives you devotion. We always recite:

বৃন্দায়ৈ তুলসীদেব্যৈ প্রিয়ায়ৈ কেশবস্য চ ।
কৃষ্ণভক্তিপ্রদে দেবি সত্যবত্যৈ নমো নমঃ ॥

vrndayai tulasi-devyai priyayai kesavasya cha
krsna-bhakti-prade devi satyavatyai namo namah

'Again and again I offer obeisances to Vrinda Devi (Tulasi Devi), who is very dear to Lord Kesava, who bestows devotion to Krishna and is known as Satyavati.'

Tulasi can give devotion. That is why we pray, 'O Tulasi Devi, Bhakti Devi, please give me devotion to Lord Krishna.'

The problem is that we do not care to do Tulasi parikrama. We do not have this habit of doing Tulasi parikrama, temple parikrama. We are always busy, we do not have time to do it, so we lose everything out of our own negligence. When your heart becomes very hard because of your offences, you will not be afraid of your Gurudev or the Lord – your foot touches the Deity's plate, the Deity's service is obstructed, but you do not feel anything because your heart is very hard. When your offences grow and become serious, your heart becomes as hard as stone.

Srimati Radhika is the highest worshipper; She has given everything to the service of Sri Govinda – Her body, soul, beauty, youth, etc. She served with all Her senses. Self-submission ('atma-samarpan') means you must give everything – if you give everything but do not give your body, that is not self-submission. Some think, 'Oh, I can give money, why must I sweep or serve the cows? I will just stay at the temple, sleep and eat.' This is not service to the Lord.

The very soul of practising life is to make the object of your service happy. It means that you must focus on the happiness of the object of your service and always pay attention to what makes this object happy. In a devotee's life, service is the vow, service is the life force, service is the duty. This is the only prescribed rule; there are not other rules. The main duty of a devotee is to do service, and if it is necessary to eat to be able to do service, then you must eat. If you fast but lose the ability to do service, then it is not service. For example, I cannot fast because if I fast, I get acid and gas in my stomach and I cannot do anything then. That is why I eat something and carry on with my service. So, if you cannot fast until midday on ekadasi, you can take some milk, some fruit, etc. Our main rule and vow is service. There are no other rules. As for various mantras, there are no mantras; when you give the Lord something to eat, you can just say, 'I do not know anything' – that is your mantra. 'O Lord, I do not know anything, I do not know how to serve You. I have cooked this for You, please take it.'

Cooking is one of the main services. When you cook, you must do it with heart and soul, very attentively. 'I will offer bhog to the Lord with heart and soul', 'I will serve the Lord with heart and soul', 'I am going to cook something nice and offer it to the Lord.' Always remember this.

Eating nice food, wearing nice clothes, staying in a nice house – this is all sense-gratification. The desire to enjoy is called a craving (bubhuksa). Those who have all these desires to enjoy engage in fruitive work. Cravings have a very close relationship with fruitive work. To satisfy your own senses, to satiate your thirst for pleasure, you must work, run some business or do farming. All such sense-gratification is unfavourable to devotion. Remember this.

What makes Gaurasundar happy? Sankirtan of pure devotees. If you are a pure devotee, you do not need anything external to chant sankirtan – you do not need to worry about the tune, about the kartals or anything else. You can just sing clapping your hands, and the Lord will be happy.

Gurudev is a member of Krishna's family. Krishna's thirst for enjoyment is unlimited, that is why He wants to enjoy together with everyone. He is a terrible enjoyer. How much can you enjoy? How much is your capacity to enjoy? Although Krishna can enjoy in an unlimited way through His senses, you cannot offer Him dirty things. It is necessary to remove shortcomings, otherwise one cannot enter Vaikuntha and be used for service. Krishna resides with His family in Vaikuntha (a world without limitation), and you reside in Sakuntha (a limited world). But the Lord resorts to an amazing trick, or deception, for you – that trick is gurudev. The Lord sends gurudev from Vaikuntha into the material world, and through him He creates His own family within the mortal plane. In this way, gurudev or a great soul starts Krishna's family in this material world and recruits others into this family. The Lord does not tell His devotees, 'Go and make your own family' – no, He says, 'Go there and start My family there.' Therefore, gurudev makes the family of Krishna – by the desire of Krishna, on His order. Krishna is his eternal master, therefore he pours in all sorts of offerings onto Krishna and makes Him happy in this way. When somebody takes shelter in gurudev, gurudev enrols themselves in Krishna's family. Therefore, gurudev says, 'We are making Krishna’s family and collecting fuel for His enjoyment. Come in, join us!' Only a great guru can create a family of Krishna. Bhajananandi gurus practise Krishna consciousness on their own (they go to Vrindavan and chant, 'Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna' on the bank of Govinda Kunda). Bhajananandi gurus want to go to Vaikuntha alone, but gosthanandi gurus want to go to the Lord together with everybody else. 'Gosthi' means herding cows, being together.

I would like to finish here for today. I will speak more tomorrow in the morning. Always remember the things I have told you today.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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Length: 78 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Golden Time for Golden Purpose
2) Emerging from Darkness
3) Leaving Maya's Shelter
4) Sitting on Two Chairs
5) Deep Chastity
6) Accept and Appreciate
7) Join Service Festival
8) Meaning of Chastity
9) Leave Bargaining Mentality
10) Appreciate and Care
11) Who Is Your Own?
12) Spiritual Determination
13) Spiritual Progress
14) Service, Submission and Purity