Sincere Service Mood

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (Nama-hatta)
4 January 2020, part 4

When Sriman Mahaprabhu saw His guru, Sri Iswar Puri, He said,

সংসার-সমুদ্র হৈতে উদ্ধারহ মোরে ।
এই আমি দেহ সমর্পিলাঙ তোমারে ॥

"samsara-samudra haite uddharaha more
ei ami deha samarpilana tomare"

"Please rescue Me from this ocean of material existence! I am surrendering Myself to you."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Adi-khanda, 17.54)

He is the Lord Himself, but He shows that He is not the Lord but a servant of a servant of the Lord. Yet we do not become proper disciples, we do not become proper devotees. How can we serve devotees? If you are not a proper devotee yourself, you cannot serve devotees. Those who are not devotee always come to the Lord and ask, "Give me this," "This," "This," "This," "Dhanam dehi (give me money)," "Vidyam dehi (give me knowledge)," "Rupam dehi (make me beautiful)," "Bharyam dehi (give me a good wife)"—they always come to the Lord and tell Him about their own problems.

ভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু লুটিপুটি খায়
অভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু উলটি নাহি খায়

bhakter jinish prabhu lutiputi khay
abhakter jinish prabhu ulti nahi khay

"The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it, but He does not take anything from a non-devotee."

Krishna Himself says, "I do not take anything from a non-devotee's hand. I take from those who serve Me—if someone gives Me something with devotion, that is sufficient for Me." Krishna Himself took flat rice from Sudama Vipra, He took banana skin from Vidura's wife, etc., but Krishna never took raj-bhog (opulent preparations) from Duryodhan. The main thing is to give with heart and soul—if you give your heart for the service, that is sufficient. At the same time, you can be doing something external, but it may not be service—you must serve with heart. That is the main thing.

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

It is necessary to have full surrender (tad viddhi pranipatena), to make honest enquiry (sat-jijnasa) and to have service temper (seva-pravritti). We have come to this world in this human body only for the service of the Lord. Try to understand and remember this.

শুদ্ধ ভকত-চরণ-রেণু
ভজন-অনুকূল ।
ভকত-সেবা পরম-সিদ্ধি
প্রেমলতিকার মূল ॥

suddha-bhakata-charana-renu
bhajana-anukula
bhakata-seva parama-siddhi
prema-latikara mula

"The dust of pure devotees' feet is favourable to devotion. Serving the devotees is the supreme fulfilment and the root of the creeper of divine love."

We put tilaks, wear a mala and say that we have become great devotees, but this is not good—this is ego, and this ego will bring you down, it will bring you problem.

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

We are eternal servants of the Lord, but we forget it, that is why maya attacks us. People always think they are enjoying, that they become great, etc., but they cannot understand what is what.

It is very nice when we do service, kirtan, sankirtan-yajna all together. Even Hari-katha is also kirtan—giving a lecture is also Hari-kirtan. Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur says that even taking prasadam is also service (seva); but when somebody is distributing prasadam and you think, "Oh, he is giving dosa to him, but he did not give it to me"—then you are not taking prasadam, you are taking dosa.

Sometimes, in the temple life also somebody thinks, "Oh, I do not want to go for collection, I do not want to go begging door to door. Somebody will throw me out, somebody will swear me. I do not want to do this service, I want to do that service." This is not right. What Gurudev told you, that is your service.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also says that sometimes somebody thinks, "Oh, I give such good lectures! I go to so many places! I have been living in the temple for so many years, but Prabhupad is not giving me sannyas! I want to take sannyas!" Srila Prabhupad says that when somebody takes sannyas from their guru forcefully, their sannyas danda eventually becomes a stick (danda) for fighting...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay

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