Serve with Heart and Soul

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, evening programme
18 January 2020, part 6
Translated from Bengali

You are very fortunate that a temple is going to be opened here in Uluberia, near the Ganges. Please come to this temple, listen to Hari-katha and chant Hari-kirtan. You think, "Oh, the temple is so far, how will I go there? I have Deities in my house, I can serve the Lord here." This is not the same! Such thinking is a symptom of provincialism. Srila Prabhupad said that provincial mood is very bad.

Suppose a devotee from Uluberia becomes the manager of the temple in Nabadwip, and when some devotees come from Uluberia, he will give them nice rooms, and if somebody comes from Hooghly, he will not give them nice rooms. This is called provincialism. Always be careful about it. Do not think, "Oh, he is coming from our area, so I will give him a good room, and he is coming from far, I will not give him a good room." You must not have such a mood. You must treat everyone equally. You must learn to love others. If love for others do not come, you will not get any result. You must love and be attached to the Lord's service, you must serve with your heart and soul, and when something goes wrong, you must lament, "I have not been able to serve the Lord!" Such feeling must come. It is very rare to see such love for service.

I went for preaching the other day. Two devotees from one of the temples had a fight and phoned me, but I did not hear the call because I was busy giving a class. When I came back to that temple that day, it was very late at night (about 10 p.m.). I saw one of the devotees lying down, and I asked him, "Why are you sleeping here? What has happened?" Then, he told me that the other devotee had beaten him. I asked him, "Have you offered the bhog to the Deities?" and he said, "No, I am in a bad mood today. I gave some muri and sweets only." I thought to myself, "What is this?! This is not a servant!" This is not service mood. Somebody beats you, and you feel bad and complain to me about it, but when the service to the Lord is not done, you do not feel any pain! I told that devotee, "You have made an offence to service. Cry to the Lord and ask Him for forgiveness!"

Always remember this. You must serve Deities with faith. Deities will come here, and you must always serve Them with faith. You must always think, "What do my Guru and Vaishnavs like?" You must always think about what the Lord likes. You must not think, "Oh, I will offer to the Deities only what I like. I am diabetic and do not eat potato, so I will not offer potato!" If you cannot take potato, does it mean that nobody else in the temple should take potato? Does it mean that you will not buy potato because you cannot eat potato? Do you think the Deities have diabetes?? Is this service mood?

I know these are harsh words, and you may feel upset to hear this, but I always speak straight and I have always spoken straight all my life. There is nothing for you to feel upset about. What I am saying is for your own good. You cannot live like that. You must serve the Deities with faith.

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Size: 17.2 Mb
Length: 41 min
Language: Bengali