(5/5) Love Your Lord, Love 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 5

...I began speaking about Hanuman. Hanuman always stayed with Lord Rama. One time, Sita and Rama were together when Hanuman came to them. It happened after Lanka was conquered. Hanuman did a lot of service during its conquest. Hanuman built the bridge to Lanka, and you also know what kind of service squirrels did at that time. They would bring sand from far, dip into water and keep it there. Hanuman would bring big stones and throw them into water, but squirrels found a way to do some service too. Everybody can do service according to the capacity. So, when Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after conquering Lanka, Hanuman came to Him and Sita Devi and said, 'My Lord, I want to stay with You.' Lord Rama replied, 'Sita is here, you please go outside.'

Hanuman went outside, upset. He thought, 'How can I stay with Lord Rama?'

Then, he asked Sita Devi, 'Sita, you always stay with the Lord, how do you do that?'

'I have sindoor on my head,' Sita Devi replied, 'that is why I can stay with Him.'

'Why do you wear this sindoor?' Hanuman asked.

'So that my Lord can live forever,' Sita Devi answered.

'I also want my Lord to live forever! So, you have sindoor on your head, that is why you can stay with Rama. All right, we shall see,' thought Hanuman. Then, he went store to store asking shopkeepers for sindoor. The shopkeepers gave him some sindoor, but Hanuman was not satisfied, 'No, no, give me more!' They were taken aback, 'What's with him? Why does Hanuman suddenly need sindoor?' Then, one shopkeeper gave Hanuman a sack full of sindoor. Hanuman sat in the middle of the street, opened the sack and started smearing it on his body. Then, he came to Lord Rama, saying, 'Here, I am wearing sindoor now, so I can stay with You now!' Rama said, 'You love me so much! For My service, to stay with Me, you have become crazy!'

This is what service drive is. This is what we all lack, nothing else. We have no enthusiasm and no eagerness to serve. If you think, 'I will try and I will do it!' then there will be no problem, no worry. This is what we must always think about.

This is how Hanuman served the Lord.

When Mother Yasoda was going to bind Lord Krishna, she was determined, 'Yes, I will tie Him! I will do it!' This is where the vast difference between Mathura-lila and Vraja-lila lies. When Krishna was born in Mathura, Devaki and Vasudev saw Krishna's four-armed form and immediately offered Him their obeisances. They did not think, 'He is our son! Kamsa will kill Him!' They did not become afraid; rather, they saw Him as the Supreme Lord and treated Him as such. This is aisvarya-lila (pastimes of opulence). On the other hand, when Krishna ate some soil in Vrindavan, Balaram came to Mother Yasoda and told her about it, 'Mother, Gopal has eaten soil!' Mother Yasoda became alert, 'Has he?!' and ran to Gopal.

'Gopal! Gopal! Have You eaten soil?!'

'No, I have not.'

'Balaram said You had eaten soil!'

'No, I have not!'

'Come, let me see! Open Your mouth'

When Gopal opened His mouth, Mother Yasoda saw the entire universe within His mouth, but when she saw it, she did not become distracted. She fussed, 'Gopal! Are You all right? You must be very hungry, come, come. I have made some curd for You! You must have eaten soil because You were hungry...' This is vatsalya-rasa and vatsalya-prema (divine parental devotion and love). This is how we must love the Lord. 'He is My son,' 'He is my husband' – everybody has a different transcendental mood and will see the Lord accordingly. Similarly, devotees love the Lord depending on the quality of their devotion. There is santa-rasa (neutral relationship), dasya-rasa (serving the Lord as a servant), sakhya-rasa (serving the Lord as a friend), vatsalya-rasa (serving the Lord as a parent) and madhura-rasa (serving the Lord as a beloved).

We always pray to the lotus feet of the Lord, but we do everything bypassing Him. We do not do anything for the Lord – we always pursue our own trifle interests. We have come to this world, live here and will keep coming here again and again because of our trifle interests.

The choice is yours. Will you eat soil? Or will you eat prasad?

If you leave a child alone on the street, he will eat soil. His mother then will come and take it out of his mouth. The child will cry. 'I want a car,' 'I want a house', 'I want to have money!' The Lord will give it to you, but after that you will forget the Lord because you will become proud. However, if you are sincere, the Lord will say, 'I will not give it to you! I will give you My own lotus feet and make you forget about all material things.' So, you think about this. You want all these trifle things – house, money, etc. – but once you get the Lord, there will be nothing else left to attain. Have you heard about Sudama Vipra?

Sudama Vipra never forgot the Lord. He had nothing in his house. He went begging, got some flat rice and went to Krishna with that. But when Krishna saw him, He thought, 'What can I give Sudama? I will give him that which even I do not have! I give more to those who have nothing!' We must always think about this.

Dhruva Maharaj also became shy. He had spent five years meditating in a forest to get the throne of his father, but when Krishna came and said, 'Here, take your throne,' Dhruva Maharaj said, 'My Lord, I do not need it anymore.'

Always think about this. I will not take more of your time now.

Everybody must come and do Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Every single devotee must do this parikrama.

শ্রীগৌড়মণ্ডলভূমি, যেবা জানে চিন্তামণি,
তার হয় ব্রজভূমি বাস ।

sri-gauda-mandala-bhumi yeba jane chintamani
tara haya vraja-bhume vasa

"Those who always think about Sri Nabadwip Dham reside in Sri Vrindavan."

(Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

It is very difficult to go to Vrindavan because you need to have fifteen days, there are expenses, but you can easily take a train to Nabadwip – hardly any money is required. Come to Nabadwip and do parikrama. You are right here (near Nabadwip), so you must do Nabadwip Dham parikrama. I always go on a cart and can see everyone from its top. The parikrama is made on foot, but I go by cart and stand on it. I hardly sit. And we chant kirtan all the time. As long as I am alive, I will try to do it. Come and do Nabadwip Dham parikrama. Take a holiday for four days – hang a lock on your house and leave...

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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