Our activities can be made a fried seed by the fire of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So there will be no reaction. Pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2). Susukham, very pleasant. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23).
This devotional service is not very unpleasant; it is very pleasant. You very melodiously sing with instruments, and somebody will participate in hearing, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. Of course, it must be in relationship with the Supreme Lord, not ordinary music. We take the advantage of musical science, but we don't sing any ordinary song. We glorify the Supreme Lord. But we enjoy; therefore it is happy.
Then again, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam. Now, what you are hearing from Bhagavad-gītā, if you remember it at home that, "Swāmījī was spok . . . speaking like this, and how does it apply in my life?" . . . we should remember this. We should not forget just after leaving this place. And if there is any question, any doubt, we should place before this assembly. I am inquiring. I am inviting you for any question, because we are trying to understand a very nice and great science. So it should be understood with all critical study. We don't request you to take it or accept it blindly.
So śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam. And pāda-sevanam. Pāda-sevanam means to rise early in the morning, open the door of temple and wipe it out, all the dust, and give some light. The pāda-sevanam. Arcanaṁ vandanam: Then there is foodstuff offered. It is cooked for Kṛṣṇa, and decorate with flower. So many things there are, arcana-vidhi. The Deity will look very nice, and you'll be pleased to see it. We, we want to see very beautiful things. When you see the beautiful Deity, the forms of Lord Kṛṣṇa, you'll forget to see anymore any other beauty. You see?
These are the process, very nice, susukham. There is no trouble. Decorate with flower, with dress, with ornaments, and see and hear and eat very . . . you offer very nice foodstuff to Kṛṣṇa and then partake it. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanam. Vandanam means prayer. Of course, if you do not like, if you think, "This is Hindu system. We won't accept. We are Christian," all right, you go to church, sing there. You have got also songs of Bible. You can sing very nicely. So smaraṇaṁ vandanam.
So there is no difference between this process or that process. Simply we are teaching that, "Become God conscious." God is neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Christian. He's God. And we are also not Hindu and Muslim or Christian. This is our bodily designations. We are all pure, part and parcel of the Supreme. As God is pure, so we are also pure.
So we have fallen in this turmoil of this material ocean, and there is tossing of the waves. So we are suffering. We don't identify with the tossing of the waves, because I have nothing to do with this tossing. I simply pray, "Kṛṣṇa, please pick me up from these tossing waves. Some way or other, I am fallen here."
- ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ
- māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau
- kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-
- sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya
- (CC Antya 20.32, Śikṣāṣṭaka 5)
"O my dear Kṛṣṇa, somehow or other, I forgot You, and I am fallen in this . . ." As soon as I forget Kṛṣṇa, this māyā, or illusion, ocean of illusion, is there. It at once captures me. That is my position. So anyway, Kṛṣṇa has prescribed this devotional service, very nice. You can very happily perform. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2).
Śravaṇādike apaśyamāne tasmin sa tad-viṣaye puruṣottamaḥ, aham ādir bhavāmi.