Chaste Service Consciousness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 7 June 2020, part 4

Are there any other questions?

Question: What advice can Your Divine Grace give to those who want to take shelter at your lotus feet and take initiation from you?

If somebody wants to take initiation, they must follow Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math's line, they must have a humble mood—they must be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others; and they must follow the rules and regulation—they must give up their bad habits if they have it. You know what these rules and regulations are, I always tell about them to everyone, and Gurudev also told. It is dyuta, pana, striya, suna (gambling, drinking alcohol, smoking, illegal sex, and not to eat fish, meat, onion, garlic, etc.). They must always take prasadam, always chant the Holy Name, and engage in service.

You must think that you are a servitor of devotees, you must be humble. You are not a servant of Krishna—you must be a servant of devotees. That is the main conception of our line. If you are ready to become a servant of devotees, then you can take shelter of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

Always avoid para-ninda, para-charcha, criticising others, gossiping about others. Devotees must chant the Holy Name all their time—they must not criticise others or always think bad about others, it is very bad for our spiritual life. Para-ninda, para-charcha (gossiping, criticising) is not good. So, if somebody follows these things, if somebody can chant the Holy Name and serve devotees, then they can take shelter at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

Question: We live in Costa-Rica, how can we serve Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and how can we take initiation here?

You can take initiation through skype now. As for what service you can do, you can follow my instruction, that is good. I always think about devotees' benefit. That is always my point of view.

Are there any other questions from anybody?

Question: I have a friend who has been given small Radha-Krishna Deities, but she does not feel she is qualified to serve Them. What should she do?

Is she initiated?

Devotee: No.

She must take shelter—she must first take initiation, and after that if her guru gives her the right to serve Radharani and Govinda, then she can do that.

Actually, only the guru can give you the right to do some service. Only your guru can give you the position to do some service—your guru will decide whether you have any quality or qualification. If you think, "I am not qualified for a certain service," but your Gurudev thinks that you are qualified, then you must accept it and follow Gurudev's order. Sometimes we also think, "I cannot do this service," but if Gurudev has given you this service, then you are not doing it—Gurudev is doing it. Then, why will you think that you cannot do it?

So, first she should take shelter of a guru, and after that Gurudev will give her the right to serve Deities.

Question: When we live in the association of many devotees, how can we make progress in our spiritual life without making offences? Will the offences we commit not affect our spiritual journey?

Here in this world, we must give respect to others. If somebody worships Mother Kali or somebody worships Lord Ganesh, we do not have any problem with them, we must give respect to them, but we will explain to them who is Lord Ganesh and who is Lord Chaitanya. We will tell them the proof from what Srimad Bhagavatam says, what Srimad Bhagavad-gita says, we will refer to what authoritative scriptures say. What offence will come if we do that? Why will any offence come? If we chant the Holy Name properly, if we do service, then offence will not come—all offences will be removed through service. There are different offences—Nama-aparadh, seva-aparadh, dhama-aparadh, etc. Sometimes we do dham-aparadh, sometimes we do some service and we make seva-aparadh, or we do Nama-aparadh, but seva-aparadh can be moved through seva, Nama-aparadh can be removed through chanting of the Holy Name. Do you understand? This is how all kinds of offences can be removed. It is not necessary to worry about this so much, otherwise you will not be able to do any service—you will be thinking, "Oh, if I do service, some offence will come!" If you think like this and if you are always afraid, then you will not be able to do any service. We should go forward. Do not think what will happen—be a simple Vaishnav, do nirmal seva (pure service), be simple-hearted. "Saralata-i vaishnavata"—being a Vaishnav means simplicity.

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