(7) Irresistible Service Drive

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, noon, part 7

The Lord is so merciful. When we go to Gokul, Mahavan, I always tell you about this pastime. Krishna was three or six days old when a demoness called Putana came to kill Him. She not only came to kill a person – she actually came to kill a small baby. This is such a great crime. Killing a person is a crime, but killing a baby is an even worse crime. Although she came to kill Lord Krishna, the Lord bestowed His mercy on her. Hearing about this pastime, people like to say that the Lord has so much power, but this is not the main thing – this pastime is not about power, it is about mercy. Whenever you get any pain in your life, you must understand that it is the mercy of the Lord. When you suffer, you must realise, 'I am getting mercy. I want struggles! I want to suffer more! I want more problems!' Those who do not want problems in their life go to meditate and practise yoga in a jungle in Haridwar, thinking, 'I do not want all these problems. I will leave and stay alone in silence.' But Vraja gopis left all socially accepted rules of conduct (arya-patha) – they left all fear, shame and shyness of this world and ran after Krishna! Uddhav Maharaj was a great minister – whoever saw him gave him much honour; he was also a great devotee, but he said, 'These gopis love Krishna so much. If only I could place the dust from their lotus feet on my head, my life would be fulfilled. I wish to become some plain grass, then their footdust will fall on my head!' It is necessary to have a very strong desire to serve.

Do you want to hear about service? You have probably read about it in Ramayana. (You should read and understand Ramayana.) Lord Ramachandra's biggest devotee was Hanuman. One time, Rama and Sita were together, and Hanuman said, 'Prabhu, I will stay with You.' Rama said, 'We are going to sleep now, why will you sit here? Go outside, will you?' Hanuman thought, 'My Lord has sent me to stay outside...' The next day, he said to Sita Devi, 'How is it that you can always stay with Rama? How come you can stay with Him, but He did not allow me to stay?' Sita Devi replied, 'Why can I stay with Him? Because I have sindoor on my head.' Hanuman was nonplussed, 'Because you have sindoor on your head? What does it do?' Sita Devi explained, 'I put it on my head so that my Prabhu will live forever.' Hanuman became excited, 'Yes, I want my Lord to live forever too!' He ran to the market – he went store to store and asked all shopkeepers for sindoor. Everyone laughed, 'Has he gone mad? What will he do with sindoor?' They gave him some sindoor, but Hanuman was not satisfied, 'No! Give me more! Give me a whole bag!' He took a sack of sindoor and started throwing it on his head and whole body! In this state, he came to Ramachandra, saying, 'Prabhu, now that I have sindoor on, will You allow me to stay with You?' Lord Rama was charmed, 'Dear Hanuman, you are so dear to Me. You are always thinking of staying with Me. I have not see another devotee like you in My life. You have come here like a ghost wearing all this sindoor!' [Devotees laugh]

Do you want to hear more about service drive?

Hanuman always did everything without being told to. When Laksman was wounded, he brought medicine from the mountains. He did so many things. One time, Sita, Bharata, Satrughan and Laksman had a meeting. They thought, 'Hanuman does everything, there is nothing left for us! We cannot do anything for the Lord.' So, they made a list of all the services to the Lord that there were and divided all services among each other. They marked all the names next to the service, but they did not write Hanuman's name. They were jealous of him, so they ignored him. Then, they gave that list to Lord Rama. Ramachandra saw everyone's names in the list except for Hanuman's. There is a sloka in Srimad Bhagavad-gita where Krishna says to Arjuna that when somebody shows much eagerness to serve the Lord, the Lord gives them intelligence [how to get service].

তেষাং সততযুক্তানাং ভজতাং প্রীতিপূর্ব্বকম্ ।
দদামি বুদ্ধিযোগং তং যেন মামুপযান্তি তে ॥

tesam satata-yuktanam, bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam, yena mam upayanti te

To those devotees who are always lovingly engaged in My service, I give the divine inspiration by which they can come to Me.

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 10.10)

'To those who serve Me with love, I give divine intelligence.'

Lord Rama saw the list and agreed. After that, whenever Hanuman tried to do something, somebody would come and say, 'No, no, this is my service. Here is the list, Ramachandra has approved it.' Hanuman wondered, 'Oh, so, there is nothing for me to do now, is there?...' He kept thinking about Ramachandra and then got an idea, 'When everybody gets tired and starts yawning, I will come and snap my fingers in front of them!' Then, the evening came and everyone went to bed, including Lord Rama and Sita Devi, and Hanuman stayed outside in the garden, thinking, 'How can I stay with the Lord?...' The Lord is antaryami, omniscient, He knows everything, so He knew that His devotee was sitting in the garden. At midnight, He woke up and sitting on the bed began to yawn, but as He opened His mouth wide to yawn, He could not close it! Sita Devi woke up and got worried, 'What has happened? Why cannot You yawn?' She cried and called everyone, but nobody could make Rama finish his yawn. Then everyone understood that Lord Rama's yawn did not finish because of Hanuman. He remembered Hanuman and could not finish His yawn. But as soon as Hanuman came to the Lord, the Lord finished the yawn. This is what service drive is.

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Length: 80 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Examine Yourself
2) Be Honest and Sincere
3) Assimilate the Substance
4) Getting Older but None Wiser
5) Senses vs. Soul
6) Desires and Forgetfulness
7) Irresistible Service Drive
8) Devotees Are Devoted
9) Lord Is Always Merciful