Service Outlet

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Tarakeshwar area, 10 February 2021 (noon), part 1

"Chhadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payechhe keba (ছাড়িয়া বৈষ্ণব-সেবা নিস্তার পায়েছে কেবা): Without service to the Vaishnav, you cannot get any relief." It is by a great fortune that you have got an opportunity to do Vaishnav-seva. You want to send a letter to the Lord, you want to get in touch with the Lord, but you do not know the Lord's mobile phone, you cannot speak to the Lord on the phone. However, there are devotees of the Lord, who are non-different from the Lord Himself. Lord Sri Krishna told Uddhav Maharaj, "Know the acharya to be non-different from Myself." Acharya is one who practises himself and preaches to others. Krishna says that we should know that such a person, such an acharya, is non-different from the Lord Himself. The Lord says, "In every age, I either come Myself or send My devotee." It is said in the scriptures:

সাক্ষাদ্ধরিত্বেন সমস্ত-শাস্ত্রৈ-
রুক্তস্তথা ভাব্যত এব সদ্ভিঃ ।
কিন্তু প্রভোর্যঃ প্রিয় এব তস্য
বন্দে গুরোঃ শ্রীচরণারবিন্দম্ ॥

saksadd-haritvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

The Guru is the Lord Himself, and at the same time he is also the dearmost associate of the Lord. Therefore, service to Vaishnavs is a great fortune—not everyone get this kind of fortune. Vaishnavs do not come to everyone's house:

মহান্ত-স্বভাব এই তারিতে পামর ।
নিজ-কার্য্য নাহি তবু যান তার ঘর ॥

mahanta-svabhava ei tarite pamara
nija karya nahi tabu yana tara ghara

"It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people's houses, although they have no personal business there."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.39)

In this way, I also go house to house—I come begging for potato for the temple, and somebody gives potato, somebody gives rice. Before, I would beg for a handful of rice, and some would give a handful of rice, dal, or ten rupees. This is how I went for collection when Gurudev was there. Why do sadhus go begging? To give spiritual benefit to such conditioned souls as ourselves. Being conditioned souls living a material family life, we cannot serve or offer bhoga to the Lord every day. Yet it is the rule that we must offer bhoga in the same way as you are cooking today for this programme.

যে দিন গৃহে ভজন দেখি ।
গৃহেতে গোলোক ভায় ॥

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi
grhete goloka bhaya

"On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there."

('Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu', Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to take initiation and offer bhoga four-five times a day. Just as people like to drink tea when they wake up, you should give (1) balya bhoga (usually some sweets) to the Lord in the morning. Then, you have (2) a morning meal, then you eat something (3) at noon; in the afternoon, you have a snakc and eat (4) some muri, fruit, etc.; finally, you return home from work in the evening and have (5) supper. You eat four-five times a day, and you should offer bhoga to the Lord in the same way. However, not everyone can do that—that is why Vaishnavs come to householders' houses and take some rice, potato, etc. from them and use it for the service of Govinda and His devotees. In this way, they give benefit to those householders.

This year, we did not have festivals, so we did not use much potato. We had to sell some potato, and we also kept some in Krishnanagar and in another storage place. Also, there are a lot of small temples in Mayapur—because they could not go for collection during the lockdown, all the temple Vaishnavs were in a difficult situation. That is why we went by car to all those temples and distributed 20 kg potato, 25 kg rice, two litres of oil, and some soya beans to each temple. We also distributed something to poor people in Nrisingha Palli and a few other places because some did not have food during the lockdown. In this way, we used all that we collected for the service of the Lord and for the service of people. At every temple, there are Vaishnav seva programmes; at every temple, there is Lord's service going on every day, but many temples were in a difficult situation and could not buy potato and other things. At this time, we went temple to temple and distributed potato and other things to every temple in Mayapur. We did not leave anyone out—we gave bhoga to all the temples we visit during Nabadwip parikrama. There are about fifty temples. In this way, we tried to do Vaishnav seva. Those of you who have come for festivals know that when Vaishnavs are taking prasad, we always give some pranami, some gifts (a shawl, tilak, a mirror, etc.), but this year there were no festivals (because of the lockdown), many could not come to programmes, so we distributed bhoga to them instead.

In this way sadhus, gurus, and Vaishnavs collect from us hard-earned property (potato, rice, dal, etc.) and use it for the service of the Lord, and through that we get some sukriti. There is jnata-sukriti and ajnata-sukriti. Sukriti means "tad vastu tandiya sevaya": using the Lord's things for the Lord's service. Many say, "I cultivate the land," but if the Lord does not give crops, if the Lord does not arrange everything, you can never do anything. We can plant a potato seed, but the owner is the Lord—He makes the seed sprout. If you ignore or forget the Lord, who gives and arranges everything, then we will inevitably have a problem.

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