(12/13) Service Comes From Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bandipur, 15 November 2019, evening, part 12
Translated from Bengali

Those who kill other living entities eat their own flesh because when our bodies die, the bodies of various other living entities are created from them. So, basically, when you eat meat, fish, etc. you are eating your own flesh. Snakes eat frogs, frogs eat insects – everybody lives off other living entities. Even when you cut spinach, you live off a living entity. But you must understand that everything belongs to the Lord (everything is created by the Lord and for the Lord's pleasure), so you cannot eat anything. You can only serve everything. That is why we say that it is necessary to take prasad.

If you come to take prasad but say, 'Oh, they did not give me fried eggplant!', 'Oh, they put paneer on his plate, but they did not put any paneer on my plate!' then you eat eggplant and paneer, you are not taking prasad. You must always be conscious of this. Do you understand it? Actually it takes fortune to take prasad: you must have fortune to be able to take prasad. Some eat prasad, and some take prasad. Both actions look the same, just as material activities and service look the same.

Guru Maharaj gave an example. When a cat takes a mouse in its mouth and when it takes its kitten in its mouth, both actions look the same, but they are two different things. When a cat takes its kitten in its mouth, it carries it to a better or warmer place; but when that same cat takes a mouse in its mouth, it is certainly not carrying it away out of love – it is carrying it away to eat it. So, one is service, and other is enjoyment.

If you enjoy, you will reap the result of enjoyment – you will incur a reaction. Just as when you do some material action (karma) you incur a reaction, when you enjoy something you also incur a reaction. The result of material action (karma) is bondage (karma-bandhan), and such bondage leads to suffering in hell. Therefore, we must use everything for service: we must serve everything, not use. Even when you go to a holy place of pilgrimage, you must go there to serve the place. You should not see holy places or sadhus only with your eyes – you must see holy places and sadhus with your ears (you must listen to sadhus and listen about the glories of holy places). When you come to do the parikrama of Vrindavan, you must do it with your heads, not with your legs. Keep everything on your heads. Even when you walk and make a step with your leg, you must be conscious that you are walking with your head. Always pay obeisances, always be in a worshipful mood.

Not everybody has the fortune to understand or practise this... Still, having travelled throughout these material universes we have anyhow fortunately got to receive the seed of the devotional creeper now.

ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ভ্রমিতে কোন ভাগ্যবান্ জীব ।
গুরু-কৃষ্ণ-প্রসাদে পায় ভক্তিলতা-বীজ ॥

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

‘Having travelled throughout the universe, some fortunate souls receive the seed of the devotional creeper by the mercy of Sri Guru, who is non-different from Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.19.151)

We pray to you all that you may come to do dham-parikrama. Nityananda-trayodasi is coming soon – come to the dham, do parikrama, do some service. Honour prasad (practise prasad-seva).

The most important thing is take shelter in a bona fide guru. You can find many gurus in this world – there are many ancestral gurus, family gurus, kali-yuga gurus, karmi-gurus (who teach material skills and how to attain material things), jnani-gurus (who impart material knowledge) and other kinds of gurus in this world – but there are very few genuine spiritual gurus. You cannot come to the Lord through any material activity (karma), knowledge (jnana) or mystic practices (yoga). If you want to come to the Lord, you must have devotion.

You offer some flowers and think that this is worship, but this is external. Leave it and serve with your hearts instead. Do you think that the Lord is served with a mantra? If you have no devotion in your hearts, no mantra will help. The devotion in your hearts is the main thing. All these mantras-tantras are external. Your guru comes and you offer him a garland and put some flowers at his feet – you think that this is devotion, but these are all external things. Instead of thinking about all these external things, always serve your guru internally, heart and soul. When you take shelter at the holy feet of a bona fide guru, you must practise Krishna consciousness in your lives.

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

krsna bhuli’ sei jiva—anadi bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara-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)

Because we forget the Lord, we are suffering now from the agonising threefold miseries: adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (আধিভৌতিক, আধিদৈবিক, আধ্যাত্মিক) – miseries caused by other souls, by the nature or gods and by our own bodies and minds. Because we are always tormented by these miseries, sadhus and pious souls come and approach us...

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Length: 76 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Appreciate Your Fortune
2) Fossil Hearts
3) God Is Great
4) Getting in Touch With God
5) God's Message
6) Higher Purpose in Life
7) Service Is Not Abstract
8) Choose the Right Path
9) Purity Comes From Practice
10) Embrace Eternal Life
11) Search for the Eternal
12) Service Comes From Heart
13) Educate Yourself