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Pure devotion means to pray to the Lord, begging some service: "My Lord, kindly engage me in Your service." That is the perfection of life, when one is engaged in the service of the Lord in love

Expressions researched:
"My Lord, kindly engage me in Your service" |"Pure devotion means to pray to the Lord, begging some service" |"That is the perfection of life, when one is engaged in the service of the Lord in love"

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Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Pure devotion means to pray to the Lord, begging some service: "My Lord, kindly engage me in Your service." That is the perfection of life, when one is engaged in the service of the Lord in love. You can become a very great saint and live in a secluded place and become puffed-up, that you have become very great personality, and people may come to see him, that "He's not to be seen; he's engaged in chanting."


Lecture on SB 1.7.19 -- Vrndavana, September 16, 1976:

Hare Kṛṣṇa means the Supreme Lord and His spiritual potency. So we address: Hare, "O the energy, spiritual energy of the Lord," and Kṛṣṇa, "O the Supreme Lord." Hare Rāma, the same thing. Paraṁ Brahman. Rāma means Paraṁ Brahman, Kṛṣṇa means Paraṁ Brahman and... So what is the meaning of addressing, "He Kṛṣṇa, he Rādhe, he Rāma, he..." Why? There should be some... Why you are asking? That "Just engage me in Your service." That is taught by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.:

ayi nanda-tanuja kiṅkaraṁ
patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau
kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-
sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya
(CC Antya 20.32, Śikṣāṣṭaka 5)

This is our prayer. It is not our prayer that "O Kṛṣṇa, O Rāma, give me some money, give me some woman." No. This is not the prayer. Of course, in the neophyte stage they can pray like that, but that is not, I mean to say, śuddha-bhakti, pure devotion.

Pure devotion means to pray to the Lord, begging some service: "My Lord, kindly engage me in Your service." That is the perfection of life, when one is engaged in the service of the Lord in love. You can become a very great saint and live in a secluded place and become puffed-up, that you have become very great personality, and people may come to see him, that "He's not to be seen; he's engaged in chanting." My Guru Mahārāja has condemned this. He says, mana tumi kisera vaiṣṇava. "My dear mind, your mental concoction, you are thinking that you have become a very big Vaiṣṇava. You do not do anything, and sit down in a secluded place and imitating Haridāsa Ṭhākura, chanting. So you are a nonsense." Mana tumi kisera vaiṣṇava. Why? Nirjanera ghare, pratiṣṭhāra tare: to get some cheap adoration as a great chanter. Because if one is actually chanting, why he should be attracted by woman and bīḍī? If he is actually in such position like Haridāsa Ṭhākura, then why he should be attracted by material things? That is a false show only. That is not possible for ordinary person.

Therefore ordinary person must be physically engaged. That is not physical; that is also transcendental. Always busy in some business of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is wanted. Not that "Oh, I have become a great scholar, and I have now learned how to become a great Vaiṣṇava. I chant sixty-four rounds, and think of my wife somewhere, and then good-bye to Govindajī and leave Vṛndāvana." These rascaldom do not follow. Govindajī drives such rascals away from Vṛndāvana. So Vṛndāvana, one who is living in Vṛndāvana, he must be very anxious how to spread the glories of Vṛndāvana-candra all over the world. That is wanted. Not that "Vṛndāvana-candra is my private property, and I sit down in a place and lick up." No, that is not wanted. That is not wanted. That is condemned by my Guru Mahārāja.