(4/5) Cherish Your Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District, evening
Translated into English from Bengali
22 February 2020, part 4

It is necessary to have service drive. Yesterday, I told you about two stories about service enthusiasm, explaining what it is. It is necessary to listen to these things carefully.

You have all heard about the pastimes of Lord Rama and how Hanuman served Sita-Rama. Hanuman always wants to stay near Lord Rama because he is always waiting, 'When will Lord Rama give order to do some service?'

I told you also before that we must be like chatak birds. Chatak birds always look at the sky, waiting for some raindrops to come. Just like such chatak birds, we must always be waiting, 'When will Gurudev give his order to me?' This order is what mercy is. If Gurudev says, 'Do this job,' that is mercy. Mercy is service, nothing else. Guru Maharaj also told that those who have no service have no mercy, and those who have service have mercy. We must not merely repeat what we have learnt by heart, 'Gurudev, please give me your mercy,' 'Gurudev, please give me your mercy.' You must understand the meaning of what you are saying! Asking Gurudev for mercy means asking Gurudev for service. This is what mercy is. Do you understand it? And it can be any service – it can be making garlands, cooking, looking after the cows, worshipping the Deities. Whatever service it is, it is mercy. So, only repeating, 'Gurudev, give me mercy' is not devotion. Devotion is something different.

I go to many houses, and I often see that many people are ringing the bell, offering incense, blowing the conch, etc. in the evenings. You cannot get the Lord through this kind of 'devotion'. Ringing the bell and offering incense shows that they have some faith in the Lord, but people do not understand anything apart from ringing the bell and offering incense. They do it for five minutes and after that forget everything. You know, some ponds are covered with kochuripana (কচুরিপানা, water hyacinth). If a boat goes through it, the plants will move apart, but once the boat passes, the plant will again cover the water.

How do materialists live? They work all day, roaming around, come home and sleep until ten o'clock in the morning. Then, they wake up and take a shower. But devotees wake up early in the morning, come to mangal-arati, offer worship to the Lord, take the darshan of the Deities. Even when they go to rest, they always remember the Lord – they chant the Lord's Name, chant kirtan, read books about the Lord and listen about the Lord. You will not become a great devotee just by ringing the bell or offering flowers. You can get the Lord through devotion, but what kind of devotion should that be?

People worship God for three reasons. Somebody loves God out of fear; somebody serves God hoping to get something material in return; and some people worship God out of duty. Does a mother loves her son and takes care of her son out of fear, out of sense of duty or in hope of getting something? She does it because she loves her son. Similarly, Gaudiya devotees love the Lord sincerely, with transcendental love (prema), and they serve the Lord with love. A mother thinks, 'He is my son, I must feed him,' 'I must dress him well' and so on.

Somebody serves God because they want to get something, because they are afraid or because they feel it is their duty to do so, but when somebody worships the Lord and Gurudev out of love, this is another matter. It is necessary to serve with love – it is necessary to offer bhoga to Gurudev with love and affection. Always remember this.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 12.8 Mb
Length: 29 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Worship Is Not Doll Play
2) Believe and Surrender
3) Intoxicated with Animal Life
4) Cherish Your Service
5) Love Your Lord, Love Your Service