(9/13) Live in Seva-Kunja

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 21 June 2020, part 9

Question: How can we develop true affection in our hearts for our spiritual master?

By practising service. You must always practise service. This affection comes through service. I like it when devotees serve devotees and not fight with each other, not quarrel with each other. I like such service.

How many days are we going to be alive in this world? We are wasting so much of our time. Our life is for service. Those who come to Krishna consciousness at a young age are very fortunate because they can do 100% service in this life.

গ্রাম্যকথা না শুনিবে, গ্রাম্যবার্ত্তা না কহিবে ।
ভাল না খাইবে আর ভাল না পরিবে ॥

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe
bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

'Do not listen to village talks, do not speak about village news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.236)

Do not gossip, do not speak or listen to gramya-katha. Do you understand what I am saying? Also, do not criticise others. Give respect to others. These are the main principles. Give respect to others.

Always live in seva-kunja (service grove). The twenty-four hours that you have is for service – the twenty-four-hours' time is not for yourself, it is for the Lord. Even when you go to the toilet or bathroom, you must think about the Lord; you must think, 'When I finish here in the toilet, I must go to do my service!' Do you understand? You must think in this way. It is necessary to always have seva asakti, service attachment. This attachment must come.

Question: You have told not to judge others, but at the same time, we are told to judge what association to keep and what association to avoid. How can we avoid bad association without judging another person?

This is a big question. [His Divine Grace chuckles.] Not judging another person means not seeing their faults. But if you are talking about bad association, it is not necessary for you to judge about it – you can ask your Guru what is bad association and what is good association, and he will tell you clearly, 'You should not associate with this person and that person.' I personally got this advice from my Guru. Gurudev told me, 'Do not associate with them; associate with them.' I asked him, and Gurudev told me directly who not to associate with and who to associate with.

We must not judge about this; Gurudev will make this judgement. We have no quality or qualification to judge who we are not to associate with. Gurudev told me that there was some person, some sannyasi, who disrespected Srila Sridhar Maharaj, his Guru, so he told me not to go to that temple and not to associate with those people. I listened to that. Our judgement is not necessary. You can ask Gurudev, and Gurudev will tell you how you should behave. Sometimes, we will also see others' activities and we can judge what the person is doing. We can see it with our own eyes, and if we have any doubt, we can ask our Guru about it, and he will tell us what we should do.

From Guidance 4:

'The person who stays in the association of devotees will progress down the path of devotion very quickly. When you associate with somebody, it is certainly necessary to judge, "How does this person whose association I am going to take, practise? Does the conception of this person go in line with the conception of my guru or not?" If the conception of the person does not correspond with the conception of your guru, then this person is not a member of your own kin. Even if the person is a Vaishnav, if my spiritual objective does not correspond with theirs, I will never aspire for their intimate and close association. Association of such persons can cause a problem for your tender, newly-sprouted devotional mood.'

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Without Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur Our Line Is Nothing
2) Mandakini Dhara
3) Spiritual Safety
4) Ignore and Avoid Misconception
5) Practise and Keep Faith
6) Family Consciousness
7) Uncover Yourself
8) Opportunity to Serve
9) Live in Seva-Kunja
10) On Astrology
11) Be Sharp
12) Sincere, Keen and Humble
13) Observing Gundicha Marjan