(5/14) Service: Labour of Love

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Lord Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance, evening class
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 25 February 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Before you light a big lamp (pradip), you must light a small lamp and keep it always burning. Why? Because if you do not keep a lamp burning, then, when the big lamp’s light goes off, everything will become dark. This is the truth…

Gurudev explained everything and made this fallen, lowly soul sit in his chair. I never wanted to sit on a throne! Gurudev said, ‘I am sitting on a very hard throne.’ When Gurudev said this, I did not understand the meaning of his words, but now I understand it. Making temples and buildings is not a big matter, but it is important to maintain them.

You can see that we have been here for many days already, but only two fans are working. Can you see it? There are so many fans in the nat-mandir, but they do not work. So many people gather in the nat-mandir. Somebody could call me and let me know, ‘Gurudev, the fans are not working,’ and I would get them fixed. So many people come for kirtan, and it is difficult to chant. ‘Kirtaniyera parisrama jane Gaura Raya. Gaura Ray knows the struggle of those who chant kirtan’ [Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 14.1.38: ‘Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu understood the labour of all the kirtan singers; therefore, He was very eager to feed them sumptuously.’] Nobody understands how hard it is to chant kirtan… I have made an outbuilding kitchen here, and I still have to see what adjustments are necessary to make. How many things must one person see to? What is good, what is necessary to make – those who are staying here must look after such things. How much time do I spend here? I mostly come here in the winter, when nobody turns the fans on because it is cold, and I usually come in the morning, offer my obeisance to the Lordships and leave in the afternoon. How am I to know that the fans do not work? Those who stay here must know it and must check whether everything works properly or not. I have to think whether there are buckets in the bathrooms and whether the bathrooms are clean. Actually, when I was coming, I brought more buckets just in case there were not enough. But how am I to know that the fans do not work?…

This is the problem.

It is necessary to have service mood.

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

‘You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.’

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

You must ask honest questions. Honest questions are ‘Who am I?’, ‘Why am I suffering?’, ‘What is good for me?’

There lived once a sadhu who stayed in a small room and served the Lord on his own. He cooked something, offered bhoga to his Deities and took prasad. The sadhu had only one broken chair. One day, a big mayavadi came to him and sat on that chair, swinging his leg impatiently. He said, ‘Listen, sadhu, everybody comes to you for knowledge. Give some knowledge to me, too!’ The sadhu thought, ‘Oh, so, he has come to me for knowledge! All right, I will teach him a lesson…’ Whenever somebody came, the sadhu would always give the visitor some sherbet (sweet, flavoured water). This time, too, he put a glass of sherbet on the table, but then, he started pouring more water into it! The water overflowed and started running first onto the table and then onto the chair and finally onto the mayavadi. The man jumped up, ‘Is this how you are giving knowledge to me?! You are a fool! You have wetted my pants and shirt! Can you not see that there is water in the glass?! Why are you pouring more water into it when there is water in the glass?!’

‘Sir’, the sadhu answered, ‘I did that specially for you.’

‘How so?’ the man asked angrily.

‘You see, you have come to take knowledge from me, but your head is already full of knowledge. If I put more knowledge there, it will all overflow and fall.’

There was recently a debate with a mayavadi during preaching, and I told the man the same thing. Finally, I said, ‘I do not want to see the face of a mayavadi!’ He was asking me the same question, over and over again, and when I answered it, he kept challenging me, ‘What is the proof? Who wrote Bhagavatam?’ Srila Prabhupad wanted to keep himself a hundred feet away from such people. Such people do not even accept the existence of God. That man was trying to say there was no God, that there was only Brahman! I stopped him, but he still did not leave. So, I said, ‘Sorry, I am very busy. I have to go now…’ and left.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 50 Mb
Length: 104 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Free Yourself From Deceit
2) Be Truthful, Pious, and Sincere
3) Chastity In Preaching
4) Cry, Pray, and Serve
5) Service: Labour of Love
6) Service: Adherence and Attachment
7) Forging Fortune
8) Concentrate Your Mind on Nityananda Prabhu's Service
9) Direct Your Mind to Bhagavatam
10) Keep Yourself On Track
11) Are You Getting Off?
12) Gentle Clean Hearts
13) Do Not Give Up
14) False Attachments