(7) Love for Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's tirobhav
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 11 August 2018, morning, part 7
Translated from Bengali

We must try and try to serve more. And this is not about money. When I was serving Gurudev, I kept a lot of money in my room, but I slept on the floor without even a pillow. Now I use two pillows, otherwise I cannot sleep – I have got used to it; but when I first came to the temple, I slept without a pillow. I was given a room without a bathroom and lived there during many years. Later, I built a common bathroom on the floor because when we woke up for the mangal-arati and went to take a shower, there would be a long line and we would get late. That is why I made a bathroom at the end of the veranda in the Bengali building. Do you know what kind of mattresses we used in those days? It was a very thin mattress stuffed with coconut fibre, and the fibre was so rough that it hurt your back. It was very hard. I thought, 'Oh, I had a nice mattress in my house, maybe I should bring it here,' but then I remembered what Gurudev had told me,

বিষয়ীর অন্ন খাইলে মলিন হয় মন ।
মলিন মন হৈলে, নহে কৃষ্ণ-নাম গ্রহণ ॥

visayira anna khaile malina haya mana
malina mana haile, nahe krsna-nama grahana

‘If you eat food that comes from materialistic people, it will contaminate your mind. And if your mind becomes contaminated, you will not be able to chant the Name of Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.278)

I had also heard about Srila Raghunath Das Goswami and how he rejected all outside things. At first, he used the money he received from his father to arrange vaishnav-seva festivals, but Mahaprabhu did not like it because pratistha was coming to him through that and he could get proud, 'I am doing vaishnav-seva! I am using my father's money to serve Vaishnavs!' When Srila Raghunath Das Goswami realised it, he returned his father's money. Everybody wondered, 'When is Raghunath going to make next festival? We can get there nice things – umbrellas, blankets, etc.' He used to spend something like six hundred rupees on those festivals, which is around four million rupees today – you can imagine what big festivals you can make with that money. But Srila Raghunath Das Goswami gave it all up and you know how he lived after that. He would eat rotten rice! Even I would not be able to eat it... He would spend twenty-two and a half hours on service and spend only one and a half hours on sleeping, bathing, etc. And what do we do? We sleep and eat for twenty-two and a half hours and do some service for one and a half hours a day.

We must understand these things.

Guru Maharaj often said that if you play football – if you like playing it and play well – the ball will always be coming to your feet. If you love service, service will never leave you – it will always stay with you. Service is a transcendental matter (chinamaya-vastu). If you love service, then service will stay with you. It is necessary to love service. This is not some government job or some worker's duty. If you have a job, you know, 'I come to work at eight and I will get back home at four,' and when the time comes to leave, you do not want to stay even one minute longer – you stop your work, gather your things and go home. Those who love their companies stay and work overtime, but those who love money think, 'They pay me a salary for this number of hours – I do not want to stay here even one minute overtime. Rather, if I can somehow get off work earlier, it would be nice!' It is like this when it comes to gurudev's service, too. Some try to cheat, but those who cheat always get caught – your cheating, your sins will be exposed. If you try to cheat in your service life, it will not take you anywhere.

I am telling all these nice things and I have also written about it in our books so that you could know it and take part in the Lord's service. It is not like everybody has to stay at the temple to serve the Lord. You can serve the Lord and your guru, you can worship the Lord even while living at your home. You can serve your guru! Always remember these things. If you forget these things, you will be lost.

কৃষ্ণ ভুলি’ সেই জীব অনাদি-বহির্ম্মুখ ।
অতএব মায়া তারে দেয় সংসারাদি-দুঃখ ॥

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsaradi-duhkha

‘Forgetting Krishna, the soul turned towards the external illusory world in primeval times. As the result, illusion (Maya) gives such a soul various material miseries.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.117)

It is because we forgot the Lord that we are suffering in this agony of the threefold miseries.

You must have attachment to your service. You must always think, 'How can I make the Lord happy? How can I serve the Lord?'

I have spoken long enough. We should chant some kirtan now. We cannot skip morning kirtans. Always remember about Sri Gurupadpadma and his words.

[His Divine Grace chants kirtans: 'Samsara-davanala', 'Jaya jaya gurudevera arati ujjavala', 'Jaya guru-maharaja yati-rajesvara', 'Sujanarvuda-radhita-pada-yugam', 'Ye anila prema-dhana', 'Sri rupa-manjari-pada', 'Nitai-pada-kamala', 'Emana durmati', 'Hari haraye nama krsna'.]

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