(14/14) Service or Offence?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 11 January 2021, part 14
Translated from Bengali

For as long as we are alive according to the wish of the Lord, we must preach about the Lord. Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur also preached in this way, and he instructed everyone to chant the Holy Name all together, in each other’s association. If we cannot chant Krishna-kirtan, if we cannot practise Krishna consciousness, then this life will pass in vain. I wrote some very beautiful words in Guidance 4. I will tell you some things from there.

Many among us make a show of taking initiation, but the result of such an ‘initiation’ is that people are not able to genuinely serve their guru. Gurudev said that there are three kinds of devotees: guru-sevi, guru-bhogi and guru-tyagi – somebody serves their guru, somebody enjoys with their gurudev’s things, and the third kind of devotees are those who do not listen to what their gurudev says and eventually renounce him. Almost 100% people hanker for kanak (money), kamini (women) and pratistha (name and fame), and they see their gurudev’s temple as a facility for their enjoyment. There are also people who use temples to make money – opening temples, they sit in their ‘shops’ and wait for devotees to come and give them money. This is wrong. It is wrong to see a temple as an object of your enjoyment.

Instead of serving the Lord, we often turn the Lord into our menial servant. How so? When people come to worship Kali, Durga, Laksmi or Ganesh, they give some bribe to the Deity (some rice, bananas and money) and ask them in exchange, ‘Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, bharyam dehi, kavitam dehi, sundarim dehi. Make me rich, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a good wife, make me a poet, give me a beautiful girlfriend, and so on.’ We make the Lord our menial servant in exchange for some pranami (donation), rice, bananas or flowers. We turn the Lord into a bribe-taker. You must come to the Lord to serve Him – do not ask the Lord for anything. Do you understand? You must not ask the Lord for anything.

Serving the Lord and wanting something in return is karma-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with material pursuits). There is also jnana-misra bhakti (devotion mixed with pursuits of knowledge), jnana-sunya bhakti (devotion devoid of pursuits of knowledge), and jnana-sunya suddha-bhakti (pure, spontaneous, unmotivated devotion). Karma-misra bhakti means ‘I will give something to Him and get something in return.’ This is a shopkeeper–customer relationship. For example, you come to a store, pay some money and get some butter or oil in exchange. In the same way, there are temples where you must pay to see or offer obeisances to the Deities. There are places where, when you come to a guru, you must give some money. Some make it a rule, ‘When you come to offer obeisances, you must give me a donation.’ Such rules are made by materialist enjoyers. In which scripture is it written that you must give a donation when you come to offer obeisances? When you come to a king, you must give him some presentation, so when you come to a guru, you must also give him some presentation – this is what (mostly village) people say. I do not like this at all.

We turn the Lord into our menial servant – we turn the object of our worship into a bribe-taker! Think for yourselves if this is so or not, and if you do not agree, you can say it.

So, if you have no chaste devotion to your guru, you can never practise Krishna consciousness – whatever you do will be only an offence.

Another thing I want to tell you from Sri Gaudiya Kantha-hara is this. Gurudev is the only shelter for a disciple. When you become a disciple, you must live in strict adherence to your guru. If you think, ‘I will live as I please’, you cannot be called a disciple. A disciple is a person who can tolerate their gurudev’s chastisement and who can mould themselves according to their gurudev’s chastisement. If you take initiation, you enter gurudev’s family, or lineage. Gurudev’s wealth is not temples, buildings, houses or money – his wealth is faith, devotion and love. This is what we must aspire for – not buildings, houses or money. If anyone serves their guru with the hope to get his temple, this is not service.

After you take initiation, you must practise sravan, kirtan, archan, you must serve gurudev with love and affection, extracting loving devotion from your very heart (it means that you must serve very intensely). You must always be alert about what makes your gurudev happy. Disciples must always be alert and attentive to how they can make their gurudev happy, how they can please their gurudev; and for their guru’s happiness, they must give up everything.

When you serve, you must serve for the Lord’s happiness and for your gurudev’s happiness. For example, when you fast on ekadasi, you get some result, and we are told also that if we follow this or that ekadasi, we will get this or that result, but this is not why we fast! If we fast on ekadasi, Mahaprabhu becomes pleased, gurudev becomes pleased, the Lord becomes pleased – this is why we fast. Gurudev told me once, ‘Do not ask about the result of ekadasi.’ One time, somebody asked Gurudev, ‘Can you tell about the glory of this ekadasi?’ and Gurudev said, ‘I do not know it. ** [a scholarly devotee] knows it.’ He did not speak about this.

We do not do service in hope of getting something. Always remember this. It is my request to you all that you may serve the temple here, you will get benefit…

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) What Is Surrender?
2) Proper Recipient for Proper Taste
3) Highest Stance
4) Cry and Pray
5) Seeking Respite
6) Greatest Choice
7) Nityananda Prabhu's Mercy
8) Mahaprabhu's Mercy
9) His Things, For His Service
10) Faith Is Not Idle
11) Devotion or Display?
12) Example to Follow
13) Shelter of Sri Guru's Mercy
14) Service or Offence?