(2/6) Cannot Have Foot in Both Camps

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Evening class, Tarakeshwar, 7 November 2020, part 2
Translated from Bengali

Worship of the Lord, or practising Krishna consciousness, means service to the Lord. Service to the Lord is not following the whims of your mind. It is necessary to serve with submission (anugatya) to Sri Gurupadpadma, serving following his desire. Mostly, it is necessary to serve according to your right, or qualification. Everybody has some capacity, so everybody must serve according to their qualification. If you do not have the qualification to do some service, you must not try to do it. Always remember this.

Now, during the niyom-seva month, the main thing is the vow (vrata). Why it is called a vow (vrata)? Do you know what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said? For devotees, service (seva) is the vow (vrata), service is the rule (niyom). Devotees follow rules and regulations every day. If you follow the rules only during this month, what will you do the rest of the months? I may be an ordinary soul, a small man, but I cannot deny what my Gurupadpadma has given me or what I have got by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. And I am trying to give those things to you now. This is all you must think.

Suppose, you do not have your own house, so you are staying in a rented place. You stay in one house for six months, then some problem happens, and you have to look for another house to rent. You stay in the new place for two months. Then, some problem happens (for example, you do not like the environment there), and you again look for another place to stay. Will you be happy living like that? One day, you will think, 'If only I could buy some small place, even it is just some mud house, it is better than living like this!' The place where we have come is a temporary place. We must search for that which is eternal! Where is our source? Where and who did we come from? Search for the original source. We must search for that which is very beautiful, search for that having got which we can get to our real home. That original source can come to us from the Lord through the medium of Sri Guru. All we must do is shelter at the holy feet of Sri Guru and practise Krishna consciousness properly.

When people come to practise spiritual life, many do not have patience. It is necessary to have patience, tolerance. Some of you have been to South India with me. There lived a brahman called Vasudev Vipra who had leprosy. Insects would live in his sores and eat his flesh, but when some insects fell out of his sores, he would pick them up and put them back into the sores on his body, thinking, 'If these insects are happy to eat my body, then let them eat it.' How much pain he tolerated! Take Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Sanatan Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu – how much they suffered for us, to teach us how to practise Krishna consciousness! We have no shortage of anything – we do not lack any money, food, clothes – by the mercy of the Lord, we have everything, but even then, we do not want to practise Krishna consciousness.

We have come to a battlefield. What must you do when you come to a battlefield? What do soldiers do when they come to a battlefield? India's enemies are now Pakistan and China. If you surrender to the enemy party, they will arrest you and take you away to prison. So, who do we surrender to? Will we surrender to the Lord (our Guru) or to Maya? If we surrender to Gurudev, then Gurudev will engage us in the service of the Lord as surrendered devotees. But if we surrender to Maya, she will keep us as her prisoners. It is said in the scriptures:

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

'The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul's neck.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

As soon as we forget that we are eternal servants, Maya catches us.

One person stopped chanting the Holy Name. I asked him, 'Did you take initiation only for ten years? So, are you a servant of Krishna for ten years only? Are you an eternal servant or are you a servant for ten years only? Which?' We are eternal servants! We are not servants of Krishna for five, ten or twenty years only. Then why will we leave Krishna consciousness? Why do we go to surrender to Maya? Those who go to Maya are very unfortunate. Those who have no fortune, who are extremely unfortunate end up like that. Always remember this.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Damodar's Pastimes
2) Cannot Have Foot in Both Camps
3) Our Highest Treasure
4) Two Books for Preaching
5) Clear Message
6) Srila Prabhupad's Appeal