Seva Opportunity

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
5 January 2020, part 2

You do your job or some other work, you take care of your family—you think (I told about it yesterday also) that your sons, brothers, etc. are your relatives but actually they are svajanakya-dasyu (স্বজনাখ্য দস্যু)—they are "dacoits in disguise of relatives." This is the title Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gives them. You think your husband, your wife, sons, brothers, etc. are your relatives, but they are not—for as long as you are alive they will be taking your blood till the last drop, and when you die they will throw you away at the cremation ghat.

I saw one devotee last year, Sripad Muni Maharaj and Sripad Paramarthik Maharaj stayed at his house. He is a retired man, but even though he gave everything to his wife, still she was not happy. She always bound her husband with a rope. I was reading today also one scripture written by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur—he says a devotee's family (his parents, son, daughter, wife, etc.) complain, "You are giving everything to the Lord, but you are not keeping anything for us! You are not even keeping anything for yourself! What are you doing?!" They live for enjoyment—those who are enjoyers do not know what is service and what our human body is meant for. They do not know anything, they have no Krishna-srti-jnan ("Maya-mugdha jivera nahi krsna-srti-jnana: charmed by maya, the conditioned soul has no knowledge or remembrance of Krishna")—because they do not have any remembrance of Krishna, maya always attacks them.

Gurudev and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur give one example. Suppose you have a job—you work and get a salary every month, for example 5000 rupees; six-seven years later you become sick and cannot work any more, but you have got that previous salary, so you can manage with that. In this life also, you do some service for two, three, four, five-six years, you get some sukriti from that, and you will get the result based on that. Therefore, you must practise properly. I am also inviting you all to our temple. I have told you—I am giving you an opportunity to serve.

There is one lady who always gives much fruit to us. You can see how strong maya is. That lady has given everything to her son, family, relatives, but what is the result? They kicked her out! I told her that she could come and stay at the temple where she could serve, get some seva opportunity—even when you are sick and stay in the room, but in the nat mandir they do kirtan, bhajans, you can listen to it from the room. Somebody told me yesterday, "Oh, if you can make a temple here, we can stay there." This is pradesi katha (provincialism)! It is like you are saying, "Oh, you can make a temple near my house and I can go there all the time"—but you do not know where you will be born after death; you may not be born in this Andhra Pradesh, you may be born in China, the Netherland, or any other place. They do not understand this. How many days will you be alive? 40 years? Gurudev says if you are alive for twenty years, it means you sleep for ten years and you spend the rest ten years working—then how many hours do you give to the Lord? Those who have some sukriti and can understand these things clearly can join. Actually, you know that it is very hard to get there—you cannot serve big things with little sukriti.

That is why I tell you—if you make a programme once a week, it is good. Sometimes you get holidays, like 26 January holidays are coming [Republic Day], then you can make additional programmes during holiday time. That will be good. Make programmes on Sunday—there are many Sundays in a year. Try to give more time to the service—increase the time you spend on service to the Deities and devotees. Do sadhu-sanga together, try to sing kirtans, read books. There are so many books here, I am very happy that you have printed books in Telugu language, it is very good—everybody can read it in their langage and practice kirtan.

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