Service Formula

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Four
Evening class, 27 March 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

In Mahaprabhu's time, nobody came to disturb Mahaprabhu. Many devotees would cook, gather some fruit and bring it for Mahaprabhu. And there was once a peculiar pastime. Mahaprabhu had a servitor named Govinda. Govinda was actually Mahaprabhu's godbrother (he was also Ishwar Puri's disciple), but he served Mahaprabhu.

Those who are sitting here near me always call me 'Gurudev' but none of them are my disciples. They are all my Gurudev's disciples. Many of you can see that when they give garlands, they first give garlands to my disciples—some do not understand that they are all my godbrothers. I have given sannyas to some of them, but they are my godbrothers. Kamalendu Prabhu, Balaram Prabhu, Sripad Sadhu Maharaj, and many others are all my godbrothers. For you, they are your god-uncles. You must give them respect in this way. "Sakale samman karite sakati deha natha yatha-yatha (সকলে সম্মান করিতে শকতি দেহ' নাথ ! যথাযথ): Please give me the ability to give honour to everybody properly." You must understand it and give honour to all godbrothers. When I was sick and could not even put my clothes on, they did everything for me—they even helped me to bathe when I could not move my hand. This is how they have served...

This is what we all must do—we come to serve our Gurudev, not to disturb him. In Mahaprabhu's time everyone brought many things for Him... Sometimes, they also come to my door and start disturbing—they know I am resting but they are crowding outside my door. I come here, I sit here, you can give pranami, etc. here. It is not necessary to come to my room. I know and remember you all. I know some of you are sad, "I have come but could not meet with Gurudev. It would be nice to speak to him when I am leaving," but there are a thousand people here—how can they all come to me one by one? If I cannot even come out of my room to take prasadam because there is a crowd of people in front of my room, what is my position then? I saw yesterday that there are a hundred people who wanted to take initiation, and I will have to chant on all beads. Sometimes, I want to go to the bathroom, to have my head shaved, etc. but my door is blocked. When the Deities are resting, do you block Their door? The same is here—you cannot block Gurudev's door.

Service to Gurudev means you must think how to keep your Guru happy. Suppose Gurudev is thirsty—if you give him a glass of water, that is service; you cannot give him a rasagulla instead. You can see also that before we start chanting kirtans, they go to bring some hot water. They supply whatever is necessary. They know I cannot eat certain things, and they cook certain things for me (some potato and rice, for example). What is called service? There is one sloka in Srimad Bhagavatam, when Gurudev was explaining its meaning he said, "If I say, 'I am hungry!' you must give me food at once. That is called service."

I started telling about Govinda at the beginning. Govinda took charge of Mahaprabhu's service. When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip and came to Puri, Govinda became Mahaprabhu's personal servitor. All the devotees would come and bring all kinds of preparations and foods for Mahaprabhu, and later they all asked Govinda, "Did the Lord eat what I have brought? Did He like it?" Govinda lied, "Yes, He ate, He liked it a lot." One day, Govinda came to Mahaprabhu and said, "Prabhu, how many more people do I have to lie to? I keep all the things in Your room, the whole room is full, but You are not taking anything, and I have to tell everyone lies that You have taken it and liked it." Mahaprabhu replied, "Oh, you have to lie to them.... All right, then I will sit and take everything!" He sat on an asan and started eating one thing after another until the room had became empty. Mahaprabhu ate whatever everyone brought, and there were thousands of devotees who came. Mahaprabhu ate everything, and asked for more, "Hey, why are you not bringing more? Why are you dawdling? Govinda, you told Me that there were so many things and I do not eat anything, where are those things? Bring them!" Govinda said, "Prabhu, everything has finished. There are only Raghav's bags left." Mahaprabhu always ate the preparations from Raghav's bags during the whole year—He would eat little by little and remember Radhav Pandit.

So, if you think that you must come directly to Gurudev and give something directly to his hand, it is not so. The main thing is that Gurudev gives you service. Whether you give a hundred rupees, fifty rupees or one rupee, you can always give it to any of my servitors—when you give it to them, your money is already used for the Lord's service. My servitors get annoyed because they worry about me, they tell me, "They disturb you, you cannot take rest." I was lying down, resting and reading, suddenly the electricity went out. I had to send someone to fix it. Then, there was no diesel in the generator, I had to send someone to get it.

Listen to what I am telling you. It is not necessary to know too many things or to say too many things. What I am telling you is enough. I do not want to hear who did what, who said what, what somebody heard, etc. and you do not need to know it either. Listen to what Gurudev says. If you really practise Krishna consciousness, where do you get time to hear all these other things? We have no time to hear all these things.

There are only twenty-four hours in a day. Where do we find time for other things? Those who practise Krishna consciousness chant the Holy Name, arrange for the things for the Deities—cooking, offering, worshipping, etc. They have so many things to do. Where is there time for prajalpa (idle talks and gossiping)?

When you bring something, I want you to bring people—go preaching and bring new people. "Bend the bamboo while it is green—if you try to bend it when it matures, it will crack (কাঁচায় না নোয়ালে বাঁশ, পাকলে করে ঠাস ঠাস, equivalent to English 'strike the iron while it is hot"). Always think about your own spiritual life—think how you are practising Krishna consciousness. If you talk too much, you will waste too much time.

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