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 by 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 of us make a show of taking initiation, but the result of such an 'initiation' is that we will not be able to genuinely serve our Guru. Gurudev said that there are three kinds of devotees: guru-sevi, guru-bhogi, and guru-tyagi. Somebody serves their Guru; somebody enjoys with Gurudev's things; and the third kind of devotees are those who do not listen to what Gurudev says and eventually renounce him. Almost 100% people hanker for kanak (money), kamini (women), and pratistha (name and fame), and they see Gurudev's temple as a facility for their enjoyment. Some people use temples to make money—they open temples and sit in their 'shop', waiting for some 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 turn the Lord into our menial servant. How? When people come to worship Kali, Durga, Laksmi or Ganesh, they give some bribe to the Deity (some rice, bananas, and money) and in exchange ask them, "Dhanam dehi, vidyam dehi, rupam dehi, varyam dehi, kavitam dehi, sundarim dehi (give me wealth, give me knowledge, make me beautiful, give me a good wife, make me a poet, give me a beautiful girlfriend), etc." We make the Lord our menial servant in exchange for some pranami (donation), rice, bananas, flowers, etc. 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 knowldge), 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, and I will get something in return." This is a shopkeeper–customer relationship. You go to a store, pay some money and get some butter or oil. 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 him some money. Some make it a rule, "When you come to offer obeisances, you must give me a donation." Such rules are made by material 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 some presentation; when you come to a guru, you must give 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 about yourself if this is so or not, and if you do not agree, you can say 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 this book is this. Gurudev is the only shelter for a disciple. When one becomes a disciple, they must live in strict adherence to their Guru. If somebody thinks, "I will live as I please," then they cannot be called a disciple. A disciple is a person who can tolerate 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, 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 you must serve very intensely). You must always be alert about what makes 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. It is for Gurudev's happiness that one must serve. 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 it is said that if you follow this ekadasi, you will get this 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. *** knows it." He did not speak about this. We do not do service in the hope of getting something. Always remember this. Serve the temple here, and you will get benefit...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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