(7) Service Is Not a Play

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 29 January 2020, part 7
Translated from Bengali

So, I have told you about entering a spiritual temple life and about the distinction between the mind and the soul. The mind always judges the external world, but what is the function of the soul? The mind can accept gross matter from the outer world, but the soul, being an eternal part and parcel of the Supreme Controller, can bring a message about the Lord. Only the soul knows what the Lord wants, what He likes, therefore the religion of the soul is service to the eternal Paramatma (Supreme Soul).

[Devotees start producing hula-huli, the ulu-dhvani] You still have not stopped doing it. I tell you to chant kirtan out loud, but you are doing ulu-dhvani. I have told you many times—if you call your son with ulu-dhvani, will he come? Suppose you want to call your son to come and eat—if you do it with ulu-dhvani, do you think he will come? If you want him to come, you must call him by his name. Is that not so? So, if you utter the Name of Krishna, Krishna will come—do you think Krishna will appear in front of you if you call Him with ulu-dhvani? If you call Krishna by His Name, then He will come, that is why you must chant, "Hare Krishna", "Hare Krishna".

I went to one house yesterday. They have a deity of Lord Siva, but I saw they were not worshipping the deity. I asked them why (Sivji Maharaj is a Vaishnav, why will they not worship him?), and they said that there appeared some crack or chip and local brahmans said the deity was not to be worshipped anymore. I told them, "What?! So, if you son breaks his leg, will you throw your son away too? Why do you not fix the deity? Why does this not even come to your mind?"

So, I was speaking about the soul's function. Only the soul knows what the Lord wants, what He likes, therefore the religion of the soul is service to the eternal Paramatma (Supreme Soul). But the soul cannot show itself because of the influence of Maya—spreading her net, Maya covers the soul. If one gets the mercy of sadhus and the Guru, this illusory net can be removed:

মায়ারে করিয়া জয় ছাড়ান না যায় ।
সাধু-গুরু কৃপা বিনা না দেখি উপায় ॥

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya
sadhu-guru krpa vina na dekhi upaya

"You cannot conquer illusory environment and become released from it. I see no other way to get relief except by the mercy of saints and Guru."

(Prarthana, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

You cannot conquer Maya on your own. People like to say, "I have conquered the world!" but have you managed to conquer yourself? You have lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness (ego) within you; you criticise others. Somebody says they have built a five-storey house, and you say that they must have built it using some dishonest ways. You disrespect others without knowing anything. Somebody has got their daughter married in a good family, and you slight her, saying, "She is a qualified teacher, but she is just sitting at home and doing some tutoring!" It is necessary to forget our own happiness and have others' happiness and interest at heart. Even the scriptures say that we are not afraid to commit a sin for our own pleasure—but when we try to serve the Lord, we always worry whether we are making a sin: "How can I serve the Lord? What if I commit a sin?" You know what people say about ekadasi; when somebody dies, they also stop serving the Deity, they do not water Tulasi because they think it will a sin. Why do they not think instead that Tulasi tree will die? They only think that they will be committing a sin (that they will be harmed). If your children cry, "Oh, I cannot stay without rice for ten days! Cook some rice for me!" you cook and give them rice. But you do not see that the Lord is crying. That the Lord is crying is something that you must realise with your heart. You are not giving rice to the Lord! It is not right!

There is one bogus tradition here in Basirhat also. They sing, "Bhaja bhakata vatsala Sri Gaura Hari" for one–hours, and they sing it very humbly, in a very melodious way.

sukta-sakadi bhaji nalita kusmanda
dali dalna dugdha-tumbi dadhi mocha-ghanta

"[Come, Gopal! Sit down and eat!] Sukta, sak, fried vegetables, jute-leaf salad, pumpkin, baskets of fruit, dal patties, gourd cooked in milk, yoghurt, banana flower..."

But do they cook all this? They do not. So, when they are singing this, it means they are lying! They chant so much kirtan, but do they cook all this? It means they are lying. They sing other things also, I do not remember it now—when we go for the chida-dahi mahotsav in Panihati, it gets drummed into our heads because we hear it from the pandal the whole time. All right, what if your wife puts a plate with food in front of you and says, "Hey, do not eat now! I will sing first, then you can eat." You are hungry, but she says, "Let me sing to you first!" There is a sloka also, I cannot remember it now, but it says that if you have not finished cooking, you must take whatever is ready and make the offering. It is necessary to offer bhog on time. Imagine the husband comes home from work, and his wife says, "Oh, I am going to cook so many vegetables for you. Wait, I will finish, then you can eat." The husband will get mad—he will flip the pots and leave! The Lord is also like that—He becomes hungry at a certain time. And if the Lord wants a singara (samosa), you must give Him a singara, it is not necessary to give anything else—it is not necessary to give any sweets or yoghurt instead.

So, if anyone asks you, you must say that the mind and the soul is not one and the same. The soul wants to serve Paramatma—the soul knows what the Lord wants. It is not the soul's nature to want fish, meat, eggs, onion. The soul is part of the Lord, and the soul knows what the Lord wants. The Lord never wants any fish or meat—it is only our minds and greedy tongues that want this. There are six material urges within us: mana-veg (urge of mind), krodha-veg (urge of anger), jihva-veg (urge of tongue), udar-vega (urge of stomach), upastha-veg (urge of genitals), vakya-veg (urge of speech). We sing also, "Chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi' (ছয় বেগ দমি' ছয় দোষ শোধি')—please subjugate my six urges, rectify my six defects..." I have written about all this in the calendars. You must read it.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Serve with Love
2) Deep Renunciation
3) Perverted Taste
4) Life of Awakened Consciousness
5) Genuine Spiritual Life
6) Service Through Self-Abnegation?
7) Service Is Not a Play
8) Brahmans' Position
9) Hari-Katha or Self-Deception?
10) "I Have Come to Help You"
11) Do Not Be Duped
12) Penniless Life
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