Service Aspiration

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 11 October 2020, part 6

Question: Can one go to the spiritual world by serving you, Srila Acharya Maharaj?

Serving your Guru, serving the Lord is the main thing. I have already shown you how you can go there. Look around and you can understand how far, how many more kilometres you still have to go to get to Goloka Vrindavan or Vaikuntha. You can judge this by your service.

When Pariksit Maharaj was cursed and had only seven days to live, he listened to Srimad Bhagavatam from Sri Sukadev Goswami and he got everything through that. Khatvanga Maharaj also had just forty-eight minutes of life and he also made it to the spiritual world. So, whether you get there or not does not depend upon your age or life duration—it only depends on your service, it depends on your heart.

You know, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would sometimes come to rest at the house of 'Kalovecha' Sridhar, an old brahman-seller of banana leaves and banana flowers. Sridhar was old and poor, but he got the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

So, if you can serve properly, if you can follow your Guru's advice, your Guru's instruction, then you will be able to tell through your service how many kilometres you still have to go. It is necessary to have a strongest faith. "Avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana (অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ বিশ্বাস পালন)—we must keep faith that Krishna will certainly protect us." This is saranagati, surrender. We must have faith that Krishna will protect us. Gurudev said, "If you serve the Lord without deceit, you will get a great benefit and you will come to your real home, back to God, back to home." This is what the scriptures say, and we must believe it. There must be no question about that.

Question: Is it not considered a material desire to have some aspiration for a certain result, like wanting to go back to the spiritual world by doing service?

Srila Narottam Das Thakur writes,

tandera charana sevi bhakta sane vasa
janame janame mora ei abhilasa

"I hanker to birth after birth live with the devotees who serve the holy feet of the goswamis."

We always want to stay with devotees, it is a good desire. "Vaisnava sangete mana anandita anuksana" (বৈষ্ণব সঙ্গেতে মন আনন্দিত অনুক্ষণ): "In the association of Vaishnavs, my mind is always joyful." We always aspire to be able to stay in devotees' association (bhakta-sange). Liberation (mukti), on the other hand, is another thing. When you achieve liberation, you will be not able to see any form there. We do not want any kind of liberation (sayujya, merging with Brahman; sarupya, having the same body as the Lord; salokya, residing at the same planet as the Lord; samipya, being an associate of the Lord; sarsti, having the same opulences as the Lord).

I have told you the story illustrating liberation many times. Suppose some straw is floating down the Ganges or in the ocean, at night, a drop of dew formed on the straw. Seeing the vast ocean around, the drop thought, "I am so tiny! I wish I could become as big as the ocean!" Then, the drop of dew grew heavier and heavier and it finally fell into the water. Where is that drop now? Once it appeared in the water of the ocean, the drop could no longer find itself there. Mukti (liberation) is also like that. When you attain liberation, you will have no form. Devotees never want that. Wherever they may be, devotees always want to stay in devotees' association, they always want to serve.

কীট জন্ম হউ যথা তুয়া দাস
বহির্ম্মুখ ব্রহ্মজন্মে নাহি আশ

kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa,
bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa

"I do not want to be Brahma or Indra, I do not mind being born as an insect as long as I can be your servant, Prabhu."

(Saranagati, 11)

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur writes, "Even if I get an insect's body, it is good as long as I can be a servant of the Lord." Such aspiration is good for us.

Question: You were reading today about pratistha and mentioned bhajan in the Vaishnav pratistha. How does one practise that?

Pratistha of a Vaishnav is good—if some Vaishnav becomes famous, if some Vaishnav chants the Holy Name, etc. you must not get jealous. Somebody becomes a guru, and you must not feel jealous. Suppose somebody has got a good result through their practice, somebody has become a great Vaishnav and everybody knows them, the person becomes famous, etc.—why will you not respect that? You must respect this. Do not be jealous. First of all, it is not our business to see who does what, and second even if somebody is doing good, if somebody does get famous due to their spiritual achievement, it is good.

Another thing is that when you want to be famous and you become a terrorist! For example, somebody blasted a bomb in a street in France, a hundred people died, and the person rejoices that he is now famous. Somebody thinks, "I will revolt against the government, I will go to jail and my name will be in all newspapers!" This is mundane pratistha, mundane name and fame. Somebody wants to become a political leader, somebody wants to become Mr. Trump, somebody wants to become Modi, etc.

Anyhow, I am giving my full obeisance to you all. I was very happy to see everybody, to see all my well-wishers, all my great friends all over the world, to see all my guru-varga (Srila Janardan Maharaj, Srila Ashram Maharaj), as well as the senior devotees. I am giving my full humble obeisance to you all. Please forgive my offence and I am praying to you all—please accept me as your servitor.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay

You know, Sripad Sajjan Maharaj is doing a great service here. Every day, he does mangal arati, puja, noon time bhoga arati, and then after prasadam he goes to distribute books every day. He distributes Srila Gurudev's small booklet called In Search of Original Source. I reprinted it a few months ago and he has already finished distributing 5,000 copies, within just a few months! I was surprised to hear that. So, two-three days ago I printed another 10,000 copies of this booklet.

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