How can we encourage a devotee to do service with someone they don’t like?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, if somebody says, I don’t want to do this service, because I don’t like that person, then I am doing the service. You can tell them, you are going to get the credit of doing two services. How? Because doing that service and being with that person is also service.
Yeah. So, he said that some people bring happiness wherever they go. And then? Some people bring happiness wherever they go.
Some people working with them is austerity. Some people working with them is a joy. So, we have to see that.
Naturally, we all will want to work with people with whom it’s a joy to work. So, and if we can get that, that’s good. But at the same time, the nature of life is we have to interact with different kinds of people.
See, sometimes the service requires that kind of interaction. We should see that it’s also an opportunity for purification. It’s also an opportunity for growth.
Krishna is in the hearts of everyone. Krishna sees what we are going through. And Krishna appreciates that.
Krishna helps us to grow. When Krishna brought one parija flower for Rukmini, and then Satyamaha demanded an entire tree. And then, when Krishna came back to Rukmini, he was thinking that Rukmini will demand something more.
But she did not demand anything. And Krishna was very pleased by that. Krishna acknowledged that.
So, Krishna knows what the devotee is going through. So, if some devotee is, if we find it difficult to deal with some devotee, then Krishna also knows that. So, if still we do that service, then that indicates that we are ready to tolerate inconvenience for Krishna’s sake.
And that will please Krishna. So, that’s why I said, serving, doing that particular service is a service, but serving with that person is also a service. And we will make spiritual advancement not just by doing that service, but also by being with that person and doing that service.
Having said that, this is from the individual’s perspective. They should be willing to do a service and they can be appropriately inspired. At the same time, from the community leader’s perspective, we also have to know that we want people to be happily engaged in Bhakti.
So, that means, it’s not that, you know, we give people services which make them miserable and tell them you are meant to be happy in Bhakti. It’s not like that. It’s our responsibility also.
Bhakti is Susukham, but it’s also the responsibility of those who are sharing Bhakti, to make the experience of Bhakti Susukham. So, we try to engage people in a way that they can work harmoniously with each other as much as possible. And we don’t demand too much from people.
So, at the very least, what should happen is that if somebody has to work with someone who is unpleasant or working with some people just takes away their energy. You know, it’s like when we are working with them, it’s like we are walking through a landmine. Now, what will cause what explosion? We don’t know.
So, we just have to be so tense all the time, so alert. Then working with some people takes energy. And if that is happening, then we also need some people by being with whom we get energy.
So, if all the kind of people whom we are with are just people who take away their energy, then we become exhausted, we’ll become depressed, we’ll become irritated, we’ll not be able to function. So, we need to have some people at least whose association we live with. So, if somebody is like that, say if that devotee is inspired by us, but we tell them to serve with this person, then they may do that, but then we also have to make time to spend with them, so they feel valued, they will get strength through that association.
So, we need to be willing to extend our capacity by tolerating inconveniences as individuals. By the same time, because we are finite living beings, so our capacity to tolerate inconveniences also is finite, and if that capacity has exceeded, then we just overreact. Therefore, it has to be with a mature discussion between both the devotee offering the service, and the devotee entering the service, and then they can be engaged in a way that is both serving the purpose of the community as well as serving the purpose of the individual.
Sometimes it may have to go more this way, where the community needs to take priority and the individual sacrifices, but sometimes it may go that way, the individual does what they want to do, and the communities are adjusted. Overall, we strive for harmony. Is that the question?