Life of Loving Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class
5 February 2020, part 7
Translated from Bengali

So, I was saying, there are three kinds of people who worship the Lord. It is expressed in Sri Yamunacharya's sloka, you can find it in Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamritam (3.18):

সকৃত্ত্বদাকারবিলোকনাশয়া
তৃণীকৃতানুত্তমভুক্তিমুক্তিভিঃ ।
মহাত্মভির্মামবলোক্যতাং নয়
ক্ষণেঽপি তে যদ্বিরহোঽতি দুঃসহঃ

sakrt tvad akara vilokanasaya
trni-krtan-uttama-bhukti-muktibhih
mahatmabhir mam avalokyatam naya
ksane 'pi te yad viraho 'ti duhsahah

"O my Lord, please lead me into the glance of those great devotees who, in their heart's aspiration to only once behold Your divine form, consider sense enjoyment and liberation to be like straw, and whose separation is unbearable for even You."

"I aspire for the association of such devotees, and I cannot tolerate separation from them!"

This desire is love, divine love for the Lord and His devotees. However, those who worship the Lord in our country do it for three reasons. (1) Somebody worships the Lord out of fear, thinking, "God is the master of the entire creation, and if I do not worship Him, He will make me suffer." (2) Other people worship the Lord hoping to get some result, "I will serve Krishna, and He will give me something in return." (3) And the third type of worshippers are those who worship the Lord out of sense of duty, "We are jivatma, jiva souls, and Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is the master of the universe, Paramatma, so I must serve Him."

You must remember one thing. There is no relationship between our bodies and the Lord. It is our soul, what we call 'I', that has a relationship with the Lord, and the soul (atma) knows perfectly well what Paramatma wants, what Paramatma needs. The body does not and cannot know this. Therefore, we must do that which is beneficial for the soul—to please the soul.

That is why we must never identify ourselves with our bodies. If you identify yourself with the body (if you think you are this body), then you will not get the Lord. We always think in terms of body, we always identify ourselves with the body. We must forget this.

Many people in this world worship the Lord out of sense of duty, but this is not so for Gaudiya Vaishnavs, for our guru-varga, our acharyas of Sri Rupanuga sampradaya—they worship and serve the Lord out of love. "I will very happily, with much enthusiasm cook for the Lord, I will eagerly make garlands for the Lord, I will eagerly clean His house." Before you clean your room, you must clean the room of the Lordships.

I will live in the house and always clean the Lord's room—I always think about the Lord, I will not worry about myself. I will love the Lord, I will adore the Lord. When there is a small child in our house, we always think, "When will the child eat? What will the child eat?" Just as you look after your child with much love and affection, you must look after the Lord with that kind of love and affection. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur said,

বিষয়ে যে প্রীতি এবে আছয়ে আমার ।
সেই মত প্রীতি হউক চরণে তোমার ॥

visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara
sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

"May I have the same affection and attraction to your feet that I now have for material things."

(Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Devotee: At the same time, if we do not take care of our body, how will we serve the Lord?

[His Divine Grace chuckles.] Take care of the body...? We will not even think of it—the Lord will take care of my body. What will I think about my body for? The Lord will take care of my body. If the Lord diverts some danger in your life, then it does not matter what you do or do not do—He will divert it. The Lord will protect me. If you worry about your body, you can remember Vasudev Vipra. He actually would pick up worms falling from his sores and put them back into the sores. If he worried about his body, he would never do that.

Devotee: No, I mean taking medicine, etc.

No, you are taking medicine, etc. by the wish of the Lord—you do everything as the Lord wants. If I go crazy, it will not bring me any benefit. It is necessary to use your brain. You must not behave crazy. The Lord has given you intelligence, and you must use it to judge what should be done and what should not be done.

If we do not run our lives in this way, we will not get the supreme result.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Download (2.2 Mb, 6 min)