(7/9) Loving Search

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja Day, Tarakeswar, evening class
29 September 2019, part 7
Translated from Bengali

There is a beautiful expression: 'loving search for the lost servant'. The Lord is a great enjoyer – He wants to enjoy many things, in many ways. Wanting to enjoy something means wanting to take service. Therefore, the Lord is waiting to take service from us all. He is the enjoyer of all enjoyment, and He can enjoy in an unlimited way. Yet He waits and cries for us, 'When will this soul, My very own, come back to Me and serve Me? This soul left Me so long ago, so many lives have passed – when will it come back to Me and serve Me?' If we keep serving and practising, we can return to the holy abode of the Lord – just as we are hankering for this, so is the Lord also waiting and hankering for this. This is loving search for the lord servant.

Gopal lived in the jungle, tolerating so much heat and rain – He was waiting all that time for Madhavendra Puri, 'When will My Madhav come to serve Me? (Kabe ama' madhava asibe, kabe ama' karibe sevana; কবে আমা' মাধব আসিবে, কবে আমা' করিবে সেবান)' In Mayapur also, Sri Gaurasundar waited, 'When will Bhaktivinod Thakur come? When will My divine service become again manifest in this world?' Here in Tarakeswar also, Sri Sri Radha-Madan-mohan also waited, 'When will Our service become manifest here?' Before, there used to be a forest in this place, and people would come here to pass stool. When I first came to see the land, the place was full of snakes. The local people told me, 'Do not go there, there are snakes!' I did not mind it. But you can see today how many devotees come here, how many devotees can sit here and come to do service. Sri Sri Radha-Madan-mohan had been waiting, 'When will Our service start here? When will Our Deities become installed here?' They were waiting for it...

You must always remember that everything happens by the will of the Lord. This here is not some idol worship or doll play. 'Pratima naha tumi, saksat Vrajendra-nandana (প্রতিমা নহ তুমি, সাক্ষাৎ ব্রজেন্দ্রনন্দন). You are not a doll, You are Vrajendra-nandan Krishna Himself!' (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.5.96) It is necessary to serve Deities, to serve the Lord with faith. Even when you clean the temple, you must do it with faith. Always remember and keep this in your minds and hearts. If you do not remember this, you will not be able to do anything. I am always telling you these things, and you must always be alert and conscious of these things.

May we never slack in our service. May deceit never enter our service. 'This is yours', 'This is mine', 'This is not my duty, this is his duty' – may we never try to enjoy anything or compartmentalise like this in our spiritual lives. The more service you do, the better it is for you! If you do some service, as a reward for your service you will get more service. Even if nobody tells you to do anything, you can take on more service yourselves – you should step forward and look for service. Do not be slothful.

নিদ্রালস্য-হত, সুকার্য্যে বিরত,
অকার্য্যে উদ্যোগী আমি ।

nidralasya hata, sukarye virata,
akarye udyogi ami

‘Ruined by laziness and sleep, I am averse to doing anything good and eager to do wrong things.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'Ruined by laziness and sleep' means you think, 'Oh, I will go and sleep some more', 'Oh, let me go and sit over there, I want to relax,' and as soon as you feel a little sleepy, you go to bed and sleep more. If you are like this, you can never come to the Lord or become a devotee. In this external, material world, you can easily cheat people, but you cannot cheat your guru or the Lord. If somebody tries to cheat, they will reap the result – if you try to pour water into a glass with holes, all water will pour out. In the same way, if we have faults and bad habits, all our attempts to practise or serve will go out through those 'holes'. Always remember this.

The Lord is the object of service, and giving pleasure to Him is the very heartbeat of devotional life. Those who worship the Lord always live striving to please the Lord, to make the Lord happy. In other words, who is called a Vaishnav? If somebody never tries to please Sri Sri Radha-Govinda, how can that be a Vaishnav?

যেই ভজে, সেই বড়, অভক্ত—হীন, ছার ।
কৃষ্ণভজনে নাহি জাতি-কুলাদি বিচার ॥

yei bhaje sei bada, abhakta—hina, chhara
krsna-bhajane nahi jati-kuladi-vichara

'Only a nondevotee can be considered as worthless and abominable: anyone who takes to devotional service is great – there is no consideration of class, caste or any other status for those who have taken up service to Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.67)

In a devotee's life, service is the vow (vrata), service is the very life (prana), service is the strict rule (niyom). Many people keep various vows, fasting during many days, but the vow of doing service is much higher than that. I often hear from temple servitors, 'Oh, I cannot stay with this temple manager because I have to wear torn clothes, he does not give me medicine, and he does not give me proper food.' People come up with all kinds of complaints like that. Practitioners of devotion, including temple managers and temple servitors, should not have this kind of mood.

Service is never without problems. So, when we try to serve the Lord, we will have to serve Him amidst many problems. We must be ready to suffer all problems ourselves. 'I will suffer myself, but I will not cause any problem to gurudev and Vaishnavs' – this mood is the ideal of practising devotees. Service means not giving any anxiety to your gurudev and Vaishnavs. 'In the course of service, whatever problem comes, let it come, I will continue trying to please my master amidst it all.' If you can be like this, one day or another you must get the result of such service.

...In Sri Gaya Dham, bhoga is offered to Lord Vishnu at His lotus feet. There, He takes the offering with His feet. Every single limb of the Lord can do everything – He can not only hear with His ears, He can also eat, see and do everything else with His ears; He can not only see with His eyes, He can also eat and hear with His eyes. In this way, all parts of His body can carry out all functions. I told you about this yesterday.

You must remember these things, and you must always listen to these thing with your hearts. You must not listen only with your ears – you must listen with your hearts.

When you put food inside your body, your body receives nourishment. You can see on ekadasi days: when you fast, your weight goes down by one kg, and when you eat again on the dvadasi day, you gain that kg back. So, rice, wheat, vegetables are food for the body. But what is the soul's food? If you do not feed your souls, they will become weak and then Maya will attack you. The soul's food is sravan (listening about the Lord) and kirtan (chanting the Lord's glories, practising spiritual life), or sadhu-sanga (associating with pure saints). The soul gets nourishment when it always lives within devotional practice. If you do not feed your soul, it will become weak and Maya will grasp it.

— : • : —

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

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 21 Mb
Length: 43 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Relentless Pursuit
2) Master's Ego vs Servant's Ego
3) Servitor's Ambition
4) Do Not Waste Time
5) 'I Am Sold to You'
6) Kirtan: Devotees' Heartbeat
7) Loving Search
8) Esoteric Sacrality of Sannyas
9) No Shortcuts