So that means he is following Kṛṣṇa's direction. That's all. He doesn't mind that "I am going to be enemy of Kṛṣṇa." The principle is that he's following. If Kṛṣṇa says that "You become My enemy," I can become His enemy. That is bhakti-yoga. Yes. I want to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Just like a master is asking servant that "You knock me here." So he's knocking like this. So that is service. The others may see, "Oh, he's knocking and he's thinking, 'I am serving'? What is this? He's knocking." But master wants that "You knock me." That is service. Service means that you obey the order of the master. It doesn't matter what it is. There is very nice example in Lord Caitanya's life, that He had His personal servitor Govinda. So after Lord Caitanya would take prasādam, then Govinda would take. So one day, Lord Caitanya, after taking prasādam, He laid down Himself on the threshold. What is called? Threshold? Door? Doorway. So Govinda crossed Him. Govinda used to massage His legs after, when He was taking rest. So Govinda crossed Lord Caitanya and massaged His legs. Then Lord Caitanya was sleeping, and, say, after half and hour, when He got, He saw, "Govinda, you have not taken your prasādam as yet?" "No, sir." "Why?" "I cannot cross You. You are lying down here." "Then how you came?" "I came across." "How you first of all came across, why not again crossing?" "That I came to serve You. And now I cannot cross You to take my prasādam. That is not my duty. That is for myself. And it is for You." So for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure you can become His enemy, you can become His friend, you can become anything. That is bhakti-yoga. Because your aim is how to please Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as the point comes, to please your senses, then you come to material world, immediately.
Service means
Expressions researched:
"Service means whatever"
|"Service means you must take order"
|"Service. Service means"
|"That is service. Service means"
|"You see. Service means"
|"always remember that service means"
|"material world, service means"
|"so-called service is to serve my lust"
|"you serve Him. Service means"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Therefore service means, at the present moment, service means kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ. Our so-called service is to serve my lust. Kāmādīnām. Kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya. We have got all these things. So somebody is serving lust, somebody is serving his anger, somebody his greediness. In this way we are serving the senses. Not the particular person. When you go to the office, we serve. But you do not serve the office, but we serve the money. Because he is paying me, as soon as he says, "Now tomorrow I cannot pay, " then, "namaskāra." Therefore he is serving the money. And why money? "Because money will help me in satisfying my senses. Therefore I am serving my senses." Nobody is serving anyone. Everyone is serving his senses. This is the position. This is dharmasya glānir bhavati. As soon as we are engaged in serving our senses, that is dharmasya glāniḥ. And as soon as we agree to serve the senses of Kṛṣṇa, that is dharma.
That is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. When Arjuna was talking with Kṛṣṇa, in the beginning he was trying to serve his senses. "My dear Kṛṣṇa, if I kill my relatives I'll be entangled in this way of sinful activities. I'll go to hell. If I kill my grandfather, the other side, Droṇācārya, the other side... No, no." In this way he concluded, "No, no. I shall not fight." This kind of service is to satisfy Arjuna's own senses. He thought, "By killing the other party, I'll not be satisfied. I'll be very much sorry." That means serving my own, senses. Kṛṣṇa, also was giving him instruction that "You are a kṣatriya. It is your duty. There is no consideration of your relatives or your grandfather or your ācārya. When there is opponent you must fight." That... In this way they were talking. The talking was that Kṛṣṇa wanted to satisfy His senses and Arjuna wanted to satisfy his senses. This was going on. Talking. But Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, He is īśvara. His senses should be satisfied. Then it is service. That is the whole subject matter of Bhagavad-gītā.
Unless you accept God there is no question of bhakti-yoga. So Christian religion is also Vaiṣṇavism because they accept God. Maybe in the, some stage different from this. There are different stages of God realization also. The Christian religion says "God is great." Accept! That is very good. But just how great God is, that you can understand from Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But there is acceptance that God is great. That is therefore that is beginning of bhakti. You can apply that bhakti. Even the Mohammedan religion. That is also bhakti-yoga. Any religion where God is the target, that is applied in bhakti. But when there is no God or impersonalism, there is no question of bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga means bhaja jayukti bhaja-sevayā(?). Service. Service means three things: the servitor, the served, and service. One must be present who will accept service. And one must be present to render service. And in the via media, the process of service. So bhakti-yoga means service. If there is nobody to accept the service, then where is the bhakti-yoga? So any philosophy or religious principle where there is no acceptance of God, the Supreme, there is no application of bhakti.
Hari-śauri: Sometimes there's some discrepancy, two parties, they may both want to serve but they have different ways, different ideas how to execute the same order, so there may be some argument.
Prabhupāda: Service means you must take order from the master. That is service. Otherwise it is mental concoction. Actually, the servant requests, "How can I serve you?" So when the master orders, "You serve me like this," then you do that, that is service. And if you manufacture your service, that is not service. That is your sense gratification. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. You have to see how he is pleased. Now if he wants a glass of water and if you bring a nice glass of milk, you can say milk is better than water, you take it. That is not service. He wants water, you give him water. Don't manufacture better thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa wanted Arjuna to fight, and he became a nonviolent saint, "No, Kṛṣṇa, I'll not fight." That is disobedience. Kṛṣṇa says fight, you must fight. Don't bring philosophy of nonviolence. That is nonsense. What He says, do it. That is service. That he did later on. Sometimes they misunderstand Bhagavad-gītā, that Arjuna is not willing to fight and Kṛṣṇa is inducing him to fight. They misunderstand that Arjuna is better than Kṛṣṇa. But that's not the fact. What Kṛṣṇa says, we have to execute that. We should not manufacture our own ideas. That is not service.
Devotee: Why is it sometimes if we are sincerely trying to serve Kṛṣṇa we still make mistakes? We make in our service some mistakes.
Prabhupāda: You must always remember that service means by the order of the master. So if you should always be ready to take order from the master, there will be no mistake.
Devotee: Does that mean that our mistakes come from the false ego?
Prabhupāda: Yes. When you disobey the order of master, that is mistake.
Devotee: Sometimes in our practical dealings we have to make a decision and there is no possibility to refer to our authority. Shall we then try to understand what Kṛṣṇa wants us to do?
Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa will give you, that is intuition. If you are actually sincere, the correct intuition will come. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti, if it is for Kṛṣṇa's purpose, then He'll give you intelligence, "Do like this."
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
One who has seen the Absolute Truth, or one who has known the Absolute Truth, go there and take knowledge by surrendering. Praṇipātena. Praṇipāta means surrendering. Paripraśnena. Don't make question, waste his time. After you surrender, after you render service, then make question. Otherwise, there is no need of question. Don't waste your time, don't waste his time. An outsider has no right to put any question because he is not surrendered. And a spiritual master is not obliged to answer anyone except to his disciple. This is the Vedic way. Don't waste time for unnecessary questions and answers. But we have to do something sometimes. But that is not the way, unless one surrenders fully, praṇipātena, and renders service. Service means whatever the spiritual master wants, "You do this," you must do it, just like a menial servant.
Jñāna has been especially mentioned because the jñānīs, they are contaminated by the desire of merging into the existence of God. Therefore one should give up this desire. Karmīs, they are for sense gratification; jñānīs, for merging into the existence. Jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Ānukūlyena. Anukūla means favorable. What Kṛṣṇa wants, you serve Him. Service means that. Service does not mean, "I want something and you give me something." No, that is not service. Service means, "What I want, you must give me. That is service. If I say, "Please give me a glass of water," and if you bring a glass of milk, you can say, "Sir, milk is better than water." No. That is not service. I want water now. You must give me water. That is service.
Enhance your love for Kṛṣṇa without any condition. That is required. So these worship of different demigods are recommended in the scripture, not to mislead him, but to lead him gradually to the higher stage, to lead him to the higher stage. Because the demigods are considered different limbs of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- ye 'py anya-devatā-bhaktā
- yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
- te 'pi mām eva kaunteya
- yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam
Just like if you want to serve me... There is a routine work how to serve superior. Now, if you touch my hair, you are touching me, but that is not the service. You see. Service means there is routine work. You should touch my feet. Similarly, anywhere you go, it is Kṛṣṇa, because without Kṛṣṇa there is no other existence. So to worship the demigod, indirectly worshiping Kṛṣṇa, but avidhi-pūrvakam, without regulative principles. Yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam. The same example: if you want to touch me, so the regulative principle is that you have to touch the lotus feet of your spiritual master, not that you touch his head and do like that. You can say, "I am touching you." Oh, that's not the way. You have to touch according to the regulative principles. Similarly, those who are nonsense: "All right, you touch the hair of your spiritual master. If you cannot touch the lotus feet, then you touch..." Giving a chance to come in touch.
Here in this material world, service means neither master or servant. Service means to the senses. That's all. We are servant of our senses. We give service to the master—not to the master. I give service to the money—he pays me—not to the master. I have no love for the master. Here anyone goes to the office or goes to service, he does not... He has no business to give service to a certain man, but because he will pay, that means he gives to the, service to the money. And why he gives service to the money? Because it is required for my sense gratification. Therefore ultimately I give service to my senses. The so-called service to the society, friendship, love, country, nation—all bogus. I do service to my senses, sense gratification. That's all. Therefore here service means service to my sensuous kāma, lust. Kāmādīnām, kāma. First of all I am lusty; therefore anyone who is not, who does not require money, he does not go to give service. So because I am lusty—I require some money to fulfill my lusty desires—I go to serve.
Yogeśvara: Serve God. What it means to serve Him.
Prabhupāda: You do not know the meaning of serving?
Jyotirmayī: So, he said, yeah I know what it means service. Service means that I must do something good...
Prabhupāda: Yes!
Jyotirmayī: ...to someone. But what does that mean to serve God? If you are not able to do it, what exactly, why do we have to do it?
Prabhupāda: No, you can do it. As you are serving your country, your family, or your friend. You are serving already. It is not that you are not serving. Similarly, you can serve God. Just like, we find from Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna. Arjuna served God, Kṛṣṇa. He was a military man. So he was engaged in fighting. Kṛṣṇa wanted him to fight for His interest, so he fought. That is service to God. Every position, as you are serving your country, your family, your friend, you can serve God also. (break) ...show you the example in every center, what we are doing. We are glorifying the Lord. We are preaching God's glory. We are publishing book for understanding God. We are cooking for feeding God. So many, all our activities are meant for serving the Lord, that's all.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all I am describing the service, what is service. Service means a servant, a master. And the transaction between the master and the servant is called service. Try to understand what is service. So we have created so many masters. The wife master, the family master, the country master, the legislative master, this master, that master. You see? And you are giving service. "Oh, it is my duty. I am giving service." But ask anybody if you are satisfied? He'll say, "What you have done?"
Guest (1): He won't be satisfied.
Prabhupāda: No. They'll never be satisfied. Kāmādi... But this service is service to my kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya. I am giving service to my wife because she satisfies me by sense gratification. Therefore I'm not giving service to my wife, but I'm giving service to my senses. So ultimately, we are servant of the senses. We are nobody's servants. This is our material position. Yes. Ultimately, we are servant of our senses.
| Page Title: | Service means |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Kanupriya |
| Created: | 15 of Dec, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=10, Con=1, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 11 |