Ask Your Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, noon programme, 28 February 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

One time, somebody asked Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur: Is there difference between service to Krishna, service to Krishna's devotee, and Nama-sankirtan? Srila Prabhupad replied: although they are different, their purpose is one.

You can see many times that you ask somebody to cook, but they say, "No, no! I am doing mala now [chanting on my beads]!" They make an offence. The Lord needs service. It is necessary to cook and offer bhog to the Lord, it is necessary to feed the Lord, but if I sit the whole day and chant on the beads, then who will cook? Who will clean the vegetables? Who will do the dishes? That is why, the purpose is one. If you cook for the Lord, you are doing Nama-sankirtan through that. If you serve devotees, you automatically serve Krishna. What does Krishna Himself say? He says, "If you serve My devotee, you will be automatically serving Me." If you read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, you can find it there. I am not reciting the particular verse now because you will not understand the Sanskrit, but the gist of the Gita is "If you serve My devotee, you will automatically serve Me." There is no problem with that. You must remember this. If you serve devotees today, you automatically serve Krishna.

There are many good questions and answers in Guidance 3. If we do not read them and do not understand them nicely, then we will not be able to do anything. Therefore, Guru Maharaj said: there is quality, and there is quantity. It is necessary to practise Krishna consciousness yourself, properly, genuinely. Even then, Srila Prabhupad said: among ten million of such karmis, you can get one jnani; among ten thousand jnanis, you will get one liberated person; and among ten million liberated souls, you will get only one devotee of Krishna—yet even if there is only one devotee of Krishna in the entire universe, that one single devotee of Krishna can rescue the entire universe (Visva-brahmanda). However, our heart is not attracted to that—our mind does not go to that, our entire being is not attracted to Krishna consciousness, to devotion.

How many times we have come to this world?!

জলজা নবলক্ষাণি স্থাবরা লক্ষবিংশতি
কৃময়োরুদ্রসঙ্খকাঃ পক্ষিণাং দশলক্ষনম্
ত্রিংশললক্ষাণি পশবঃ চতুরলক্ষাণি মানুষাঃ

jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati
krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah

"There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmoving living entities, such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and there are 1,000,000 species of birds. As far as quadrupeds are concerned, there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000 human species."

(Padma Purana)

You have heard this, I have told you this so many times! We have been born in water 900,000 times (as fish, crocodile, shark, etc.); we have been born as trees, plants, mountains, etc. 2,000,000 times; we have been born as worms, insects, spiders, etc. 1,100,000 times; we have been born as birds, flying in the sky, 1,000,000 times; we have been born as animals (cows, goats, sheep, cats) 3,000,000 time; and we have been born as humans 400,000 times. But:

ভারত-ভূমিতে হৈল মনুষ্য-জন্ম যার ।
জন্ম সার্থক করি' কর পর-উপকার ॥

bharata-bhumite haila manusya janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara

"One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India should take advantage of his birth and bring benefit to all other people."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 9.41)

What is benefit to others? This is what we do not understand. We say, "Love all souls." Are souls only humans? We do not understand what it means to show compassion, love for the soul. Mahaprabhu told Srila Sanatan Goswami,

জীবে দয়া, নামে রুচি, বৈষ্ণব সেবা ।
ইহা বহি সনাতন নাহি আর ধর্ম্ম ॥

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva
iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

You must be kind to the jiva souls, you must have taste for chanting the Holy Name, and you must serve Vaishnavs. There is no other religion beyond that. It is necessary to bring the souls who have turned away from Krishna, to this path. This is how we must practise Krishna consciousness...

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