service / servant

Without revelation by the spiritual energy, one is unable to offer prayers glorifying the Lord. Any amount of philosophical speculation or poetic expression by mundane persons is still considered to be the action and reaction of the material energy. When one is actually enlivened by the spiritual energy, all his senses become purified, and he engages only in the service of the Lord. At that time his hands, legs, ear, tongue, mind, genitals-everything-engage in the service of the Lord. Such an enlightened devotee no longer has any material activities, nor has he any interest in being materially engaged. This process of purifying the senses and engaging them in the service of the Lord is known as bhakti, or devotional service. In the beginning, the senses are engaged by the direction of the spiritual master and sastra, and after realization, when the same senses are purified, the engagement continues. The difference is that in the beginning the senses are engaged in a mechanical way, but after realization they are engaged in spiritual understanding. (More...)

The factual position of both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity is qualitatively one. The Supreme Lord is the Supreme Spirit, the Supersoul, and the living entity is the individual spiritual soul. Even though both of them are original spiritual identities, the living entity forgets his identity when he comes in contact with material nature and becomes conditioned. At such a time he identifies himself as a product of the material nature. Because of the material body, he forgets that he is the eternal (sanatana) part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in this way: mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah. The word sanatana is found in several places in Bhagavad-gita. Both the Lord and the living entity are sanatana (eternal), and there is also a place known as sanatana, beyond this material nature. The real residence of both the living entity and God is the domain of sanatana, not this material world. The material world is the temporary, external energy of the Lord, and the living entity is placed in this material world because he wanted to imitate the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this material world he tries to enjoy his senses to his best capacity. All the activities of the conditioned soul within this material world are perpetually taking place in different types of bodies, but when the living entity acquires developed consciousness, he should try to rectify his situation and again become a member of the spiritual world. The process by which one can return home, back to Godhead, is bhakti-yoga, sometimes called sanatana-dharma. Instead of accepting a temporary occupational duty based on the material body, one should take to the process of sanatana-dharma, or bhakti-yoga, so that he can put an end to this perpetual bondage in material bodies and once again return home, back to Godhead. As long as human society works on the basis of false material identification, all the so-called advancements of science and philosophy are simply useless. They only serve to mislead human society. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanah. In the material world, the blind simply lead the blind. (More...)

In the material world, a servant is provided for by the master but is always planning how to capture the master's post. There have been many instances of this in history. Especially in India during the Mohammedan rule, many servants, by plans and devices, took over the posts of their masters. It is learned from Caitanya literature that one big Zamindar, Subuddhi Raya, kept a Mohammedan boy as a servant. Of course, he treated the boy as his own child, and sometimes, when the boy would steal something, the master would chastise him by striking him with a cane. There was a mark on the boy's back from this chastisement. Later, after that boy had by crooked means become Hussain Shah, Nawab of Bengal, one day his wife saw the mark on his back and inquired about it. The Nawab replied that in his childhood he had been a servant of Subuddhi Raya, who had punished him because of some mischievous activities. Upon hearing this, the Nawab's wife immediately became agitated and requested her husband to kill Subuddhi Raya. Nawab Hussain Shah, of course, was very grateful to Subuddhi Raya and therefore refused to kill him, but when his wife requested him to turn Subuddhi Raya into a Mohammedan, the Nawab agreed. Taking some water from his waterpot, he sprinkled it upon Subuddhi Raya and declared that Subuddhi Raya had now become a Mohammedan. The point is that this Nawab had been an ordinary menial servant of Subuddhi Raya but was somehow or other able to occupy the supreme post of Nawab of Bengal. This is the material world. Everyone is trying to become master through various devices, although everyone is servant of his senses. Following this system, a living entity, although servant of his senses, tries to become master of the whole universe. Hiranyakasipu was a typical example of this, and Brahma was informed by the demigods of his intentions. (More...)

Here the words priya-janan anusevatam nah indicate that the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is very favorable to devotees who act according to the instructions of His own pure devotee. In other words, one must become the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. If one wants to become the servant of the Lord directly, this is not as fruitful as engaging in the service of the Lord's servant. This is the direction of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who shows us the way to become gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah. One should not be proud of becoming directly the servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rather, one must seek a pure devotee, a servant of the Lord, and engage oneself in the service of such a servant. The more one becomes the servant of the servant, the more one becomes perfect in devotional service. This is also the injunction of Bhagavad-gita: evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh. One can understand the science of the Supreme Personality of Godhead simply by the parampara system. In this regard, Srila Narottama dasa Thakura says, taṅdera carana sevi bhakta-sane vasa: "Let me serve the lotus feet of the devotees of the Lord, and let me live with devotees." Janame janame haya, ei abhilasa. Following Narottama dasa Thakura, one should aspire to be a servant of the Lord's servant, life after life. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also sings, tumi ta' thakura, tomara kukura, baliya janaha more: "O my Lord, O Vaisnava, please consider me your dog." One must become the dog of a Vaisnava, a pure devotee, for a pure devotee can deliver Krsna without difficulty. Krsna se tomara, krsna dite para. Krsna is the property of His pure devotee, and if we take shelter of a pure devotee, he can deliver Krsna very easily. Prahlada wants to engage in the service of a devotee, and therefore he prays to Krsna, "My dear Lord, kindly give me the shelter of Your very dear devotee so that I may engage in his service and You may then be pleased." Mad-bhakta-pujabhyadhika. The Lord says, "Engaging in the service of My devotee is better than trying to engage in My devotional service." (More...)

"My dear Lord, I therefore pray that I may simply be engaged in rendering transcendental loving service unto Your lotus feet, which is the ambition of the pure devotees who are freed from all kinds of material contamination. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and You can offer me anything I want, including liberation. But who is such a foolish person that after pleasing You he would ask from You something which might be the cause of entanglement in this material world? I do not think any sane man would ask such a benediction from You. I therefore surrender unto You because You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the Supersoul living in everyone's heart, and You are the impersonal Brahman effulgence. Moreover, You are also this material world, because this material world is only the manifestation of Your external energy. Therefore, from any angle of vision, You are the supreme shelter for everyone. Everyone, either in the material plane or in the spiritual plane, must take shelter under Your lotus feet. I therefore submit unto You, my Lord. For many, many births I have been suffering from the threefold miseries of this material existence, and I am now tired of it. I have simply been impelled by my senses, and I was never satisfied. I therefore take shelter of Your lotus feet, which are the source of all peaceful conditions of life and which can eradicate all kinds of lamentation caused by material contamination. My dear Lord, You are the Supersoul of everyone, and You can understand everything. Now I am free from all contamination of material desire. I do not wish to enjoy this material world, nor do I wish to take advantage of merging into Your spiritual effulgence, nor do I wish to meditate upon Your localized aspect of Paramatma, for I know that simply by taking shelter of You, I shall become completely peaceful and undisturbed." (More...)

You have served your senses so many lives, life after life, 8,400,000's of species of life. The birds, they are also under senses. The beasts, they are also under senses. The men, human being, and everyone, the demigods, everyone within this material world, they are after senses, serving the senses. But Krsna says that "You just surrender unto Me. Just agree to serve Me. Then I take charge of you." That's all. Aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah. (More...)

Therefore guru, guru is servant of Krsna, but he is accepted as Krsna. Saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastraih. This is the verdict of all sastra. Guru never says that "I am Krsna. I am God. I am Bhagavan." No. He never says. He is not guru then. He will say, "I am the most humble servant of the servant of the servant of God," not direct servant-servant, servant, servant, servant, hundred times down. Gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasa-dasa-dasanudasah [Cc Madhya 13.80]. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's words. Gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasa-dasa-dasanudasah. The more you become servant, servant, you are perfect servant. Don't try to become direct servant. That is not possible. You cannot become direct servant. You first of all become servant of the servant. The guru is the servant of Krsna, and you become his servant. Then you..., you are bona fide servant. That is our real position. (More...)

So service we have to... That is our natural..., natural instinct. We are giving service. But being contaminated, that consciousness, citta, being contaminated by these material elements, we are trying to give service in different way. Somebody is interested in giving service to the family, to the community, to the society, to the nation, to the humanity, to the more and more, but all these services, they are contaminated. But when you begin your service in Krsna consciousness, that is perfect service; that is perfect life. So the Krsna consciousness movement is trying to raise the human society to the perfect platform of rendering service. (More...)

The real question is how can we remain unpolluted by material contamination while in the material world. It was Rupa Gosvami who explained that we can remain uncontaminated while in the world if we simply make it our ambition to serve Krsna. One may then justifiably ask, "How can I serve?" Obviously this is not simply a matter of meditation, which is just an activity of the mind, but of practical work. Love of Krsna's service can only be attained by working for Krsna. In such work, we should leave no resource unused. Whatever is there, whatever we have, should be used for Krsna. We can use everything: typewriters, automobiles, airplanes, missiles-anything. If we simply speak to people about Krsna consciousness, we are also rendering service. If our minds, senses, speech, money and energies are thus engaged in the service of Krsna, we cannot be considered to be existing in material nature. By virtue of spiritual consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, we transcend the platform of material nature. It is a fact that Krsna, His expansions and His devotees-that is, those who work for Him-are not in material nature, although people with a poor fund of knowledge think that they are. (More...)

Bhakti means devotional service. Every service has some attractive feature which drives the servitor progressively on and on.

Bhakti means devotional service. Every service has some attractive feature which drives the servitor progressively on and on. Every one of us within this world is perpetually engaged in some sort of service, and the impetus for such service is the pleasure we derive from it. Driven by affection for his wife and children, a family man works day and night. A philanthropist works in the same way for love of the greater family, and a nationalist for the cause of his country and countrymen. That force which drives the philanthropist, the householder and the nationalist is called rasa, or a kind of mellow (relationship) whose taste is very sweet. Bhakti-rasa is a mellow different from the ordinary rasa enjoyed by mundane workers. Mundane workers labor very hard day and night in order to relish a certain kind of rasa which is understood as sense gratification. The relish or taste of the mundane rasa does not long endure, and therefore mundane workers are always apt to change their position of enjoyment. A businessman is not satisfied by working the whole week; therefore, wanting a change for the weekend, he goes to a place where he tries to forget his business activities. Then, after the weekend is spent in forgetfulness, he again changes his position and resumes his actual business activities. Material engagment means accepting a particular status for some time and then changing it. This position of changing back and forth is technically known as bhoga-tyaga, which means a position of alternating sense enjoyment and renunciation. A living entity cannot steadily remain either in sense enjoyment or in renunciation. Change is going on perpetually, and we cannot be happy in either state because of our eternal constitutional position. Sense gratification does not endure for long, and it is therefore called capala-sukha, or flickering happiness. For example, an ordinary family man who works very hard day and night and is successful in giving comforts to the members of his family thereby relishes a kind of mellow, but his whole advancement of material happiness immediately terminates along with his body as soon as his life is over. Death is therefore taken as the representative of God for the atheistic class of men. The devotee realizes the presence of God by devotional service, whereas the atheist realizes the presence of God in the shape of death. At death everything is finished, and one has to begin a new chapter of life in a new situation, perhaps higher or lower than the last one. In any field of activity, political, social, national or international, the result of our actions will be finished with the end of life. That is sure. (More...)

Bhakti-rasa, however, the mellow relished in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, does not finish with the end of life. It continues perpetually and is therefore called amrta, that which does not die but exists eternally. This is confirmed in all Vedic literatures. The Bhagavad-gita says that a little advancement in bhakti-rasa can save the devotee from the greatest danger, that of missing the opportunity for human life. The rasas derived from our feelings in social life, in family life, or in the greater family life of altruism, philanthropism, nationalism, socialism, communism, etc., do not guarantee that one's next life will be as a human being. We prepare our next life by our actual activities in the present life. A living entity is offered a particular type of body as a result of his action in the present body. These activities are taken into account by a superior authority known as daiva, or the authority of God. This daiva is explained in the Bhagavad-gita as the prime cause of everything, and in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that a man takes his next body by daiva-netrena, which means by the supervision of the authority of the Supreme. In an ordinary sense daiva is explained as destiny. Daiva supervision gives us a body selected from 8,400,000 forms; the choice does not depend on our selection, but is awarded to us according to our destiny. If our body at present is engaged in the activities of Krsna consciousness, then it is guaranteed that we will have at least a human body in our next life. A human being engaged in Krsna consciousness, even if unable to complete the course of bhakti-yoga, is allowed to take birth in the higher division of human society so that he can automatically further his advancement in Krsna consciousness. Therefore, all bona fide activities in Krsna consciousness are amrta, or permanent. This is the subject matter of The Nectar of Devotion. (More...)

This eternal engagement in bhakti-rasa can be understood by a serious student upon studying The Nectar of Devotion. Adoption of bhakti-rasa or Krsna consciousness will immediately bring one to an auspicious life free from anxieties and will bless one with transcendental existence, thus minimizing the value of liberation. Bhakti-rasa itself is sufficient to produce a feeling of liberation because it attracts the attention of the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Generally, neophyte devotees are anxious to see Krsna or God, but God cannot be seen or known by our present materially blunt senses. The process of devotional service as it is recommended in The Nectar of Devotion will gradually elevate one from the material condition of life to the spiritual status, wherein the devotee becomes purified of all designations. The senses can then become uncontaminated, being constantly in touch with bhakti-rasa. When the purified senses are employed in the service of the Lord, one becomes situated in bhakti-rasa life, and any action performed for the satisfaction of Krsna in this transcendental bhakti-rasa stage of life can be relished perpetually. When one is thus engaged in devotional service, all varieties of rasas or mellows turn into eternity. In the beginning one is trained according to the principles of regulation under the guidance of the acarya or spiritual master, and gradually, when one is elevated, devotional service becomes automatic and spontaneous eagerness to serve Krsna. There are twelve kinds of rasas, as will be explained in this book, and by renovating our relationship with Krsna in five primary rasas we can live eternally in full knowledge and bliss. (More...)

When devotional service is performed with our present senses, it is called practical devotional service.

The Lord then explained to Sanatan Goswami about the various types and symptoms of practical devotional service. When devotional service becomes practical-to be performed with our present senses-at that time it is called practical devotional service. Actually, devotional service is the eternal life of the living entity, and is lying dormant in everyone's heart. The practice which invokes that dormant devotional service is called practical devotional service. The purport is that a living entity is constitutionally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. The Lord is compared to the Sun, and the living entities are compared to the molecules of sunshine. Under the spell of illusory energy, that spiritual spark is almost extinct. But, by practical devotional service, one is again revived to his natural constitutional position. When one is practicing such devotional service, it means that he is going back to his original normal position of liberation. Such devotional service can be practiced with one's senses, under the direction of a bona fide Spiritual Master. (More...)