Developing service attitude 2 – How to see reciprocation in our service
Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today evening and yesterday I spoke on the topic of service attitude.
So, was any specific topic announced for today's class? Vaishnava etiquette. So I'll continue that topic of service attitude in terms of interaction with devotees. So now the theme I will speak on is that when we are, when we do a service, what kind of reciprocal, how do we know whether we are getting any reciprocation from devotees, from Krishna? And if we want some reciprocation, need some reciprocation, how do we, how do we seek it? How do we ask for it? What is the proper way within a spiritual culture to get it? We are all by our very nature relational creatures.
We cannot live without relationships and the essence of every relationship is reciprocation. Reciprocation means that in a relationship we do something for someone and another person does something for us. And in every relationship each person is meant to make some contribution and then when we make a contribution there is an expectation from the other person that they should reciprocate in something.
So from our perspective we do something, say for example, we come and come to the temple and do some seva. Then we are coming and that's a contribution we are making. We may be cleaning the temple, we may be serving prasad or whatever.
And then what is the reciprocation that we may expect? We may expect that somebody just really appreciate us and tell us something that maybe we could do some service in a better way. But at least acknowledge that we have done the service. That's a basic way of expecting some kind of reciprocation.
In every relationship whether it's a husband-wife relationship, the parent-child relationship, there is a contribution. The parents say they work hard and take care of the child and then they expect the child to be respectful, be responsible, do the studies properly. Now in any relationship if the expectation is not fulfilled then that is when the relationship starts becoming strained.
If we feel that we are giving in a lot of contribution and we are not getting reciprocation as we expected, then we start feeling why am I doing this? Should I do this? Why should I do this at all? Now this expectation reciprocation, this is not just especially when it is in close relationships, say among family members or among devotees who want to come close to each other and ultimately between us and Krishna. Then this reciprocation is not meant to be simply transactional. It is meant to be transformational.
What do we mean by transactional reciprocation? It's simply a give and take. We go, we get into a cab and the cab driver takes us from one place to another. They do something for us and we give them money.
So that's transactional. In close relationships also transactions are there. In spiritual relationships also transactions are there.
But spiritual relationships are not meant to be just transactional. If we have a very transactional attitude, you do this and I do this, then we will not be able to even perceive the value of spirituality. Because say nowadays we evaluate everything, people evaluate everything in monetary terms.
Say somebody says, you know, buy one hour worth. I can earn $50, I can earn $100, I can earn $500. People can have different measures.
I can earn this much money in one hour. And then I spend hours maybe going to a temple, doing some service. What am I getting out of it? So then if our view is only transactional, where we are evaluating things only in terms of give and take, and that too at a very external material level, then spiritual life itself doesn't make any sense.
In fact, when people have a very transactional attitude, then practically no relationship makes sense. So even when people come together to form a family, then if there is only the physical gratification that people are seeking, they say, why do I need to have a family for that? That's why we see that when the give and take is only at a transactional level, then what to speak of spirituality, even material relationships cannot be sustained. So even for sustaining material relationships, it's when two people come together, there is of course both of them want to work together, they do many things together, but it's meant to be transformational.
It's both of them, they address their loneliness, they come together, and then they have children. So the miracle of say a married relationship is not that the parents make children, but that the children make parents. What that means is, when the child is born, the parents also have to become much more responsible.
They have to grow up. They know another life is dependent on me. So every relationship, there are different parameters by which we can assess the give and take.
The give and take is always there. But the give and take can be simply out of a business motive, transaction, or the give and take is an expression of reciprocation, which deepens the connection between people. So when we serve Krishna, what is the transformation that we are seeking? The transformation is that we want to increase our devotion to Krishna.
We want to feel increasingly His love for us. And thus we become bonded more and more in bhakti with Him. Krishna says that if you practise bhakti yoga, by that your desire for Him will increase.
So in bhakti, there is a transactional aspect. Okay, we come to the temple, somebody tells us do this service, do that service, do that service. That's transactional.
The transformational aspect is that we become transformed in the sense that our heart becomes more attached to Krishna. And when we are doing any service, naturally, it's a human need that if we do some service, we would like somebody to appreciate that service. We would like others to feel that, not just appreciate in an egoistic sense, but appreciate in a human sense, at least acknowledge that you did the service.
And sometimes if even the basic acknowledgement or appreciation are not there, you start thinking, why am I doing this? So if you look at scripture, say we look at the example of Prahlad Maharaj. He had devoted his life to Vishnu. And there was absolutely no one to appreciate him.
He was in a community of demons. And all of them were not only apathetic, they were actively opposed to him. Now at that point, even his own guru Narada Muni was bowing down to Hiranyakashipu.
It is not that Narada Muni had lost his faith in Vishnu, not that Narada Muni was thinking that, oh Hiranyakashipu is a powerful, such a powerful demon. If I don't bow down to him, he'll kill me. And he was not thinking Vishnu can protect me or not protect me.
The point in each pastime in the Bhagavatam is that, when a particular character is to be glorified, then all other characters play the role necessary by which that character will be glorified. So it is when Shukadeva Goswami is to be glorified was speaking the Shiva Bhagavatam, at that time, now his guru Vyasadeva and his guru Narada Muni, both of them are also present. But they willingly take the role of hearing from him.
So it's not that they are lesser devotees, but each particular pastime is intended to illuminate a particular facet of devotion. And accordingly, it is the particular devotees who are highlighting that facet of devotion, they are glorified. So Prahalad, where was he getting his reciprocation from? Sometimes you may say that if we have some problems and then the Lord protects us.
So for Prahalad, where was his reciprocation? Actually the reciprocation he got was in the absorption. He was so absorbed in Krishna and that absorption, it still gave so much satisfaction that he just did not feel the externals as very important. For him, that he was being criticised by his teachers, he was being criticised by his father, he was seen almost like a paraya, untouchable by everyone.
What is this? He is living in the kingdom of demons and he is betraying our Lord Hiranyakashipu by worshipping the enemy of Hiranyakashipu. If you think from the perspective of demons, the demons, Hiranyakashipu being their leader and Hiranyakashipu had been killed by Vishnu in his form as Varaha. So now he was worshipping the one who had killed their leader.
So there is a lot of suspicion and antagonism towards him among everyone. Of course the children were innocent and when he spoke sweetly to them, they were won over by him. But his reciprocation primarily came because he was not looking at the world.
He was looking at Krishna and Krishna for him was so attractive that he was absorbed in Krishna. Now we may say this absorption sounds very nice but actually Krishna is reciprocated. When Hiranyakashipu had great danger, when Hiranyakashipu tried to kill Prahlad, Hiranyakashipu, the Lord miraculously intervened and protected him.
So that was also reciprocation. But if we see, the Bhagavatam does not describe any special elation on the part of Prahlad when he was protected. Oh, just see my devotion.
You tried to kill me, nothing happened to me. Prahlad's reaction on being protected is not talked about much. There is no prayer saying to Prahlad.
In fact, there are almost 40 verses which Prahlad speaks glorifying Narasimha Deva appears. And there is not even one prayer where Prahlad thanks Vishnu. Oh, Hiranyakashipu subjected to so many atrocities and you protected me.
It's not that he is not thankful. It's just that that was never prominent in his consciousness. It's that for him, he was simply absorbed in Vishnu.
And in fact, Acharya has described that when Prahlad saw, Hiranyakashipu saw snakes coming towards him. At that time, Hiranyakashipu saw the snake and he said, oh, this is Sheshmag, the carrier of my Lord Vishnu. And he just became absorbed in remembrance of Vishnu and he did not even notice the snake.
But whatever danger came to him, he simply saw it in terms of the glory of the Lord. When he was given poison, he saw, oh, my Lord Krishna, he took poison from Buddha, nothing happened to him. Whatever stimulus was given to him, whatever dangerous situation he was in, he just remembered Krishna and was absorbed in Krishna.
So he, for him, that he was protected from danger, that was not the reciprocation. Of course, the Lord reciprocated and protected him. The miracle of Prahlad's devotion as described in the narrative of the Bhagavatam is not the miraculous intervention of the Lord.
That is definitely miraculous. But what is special as stressed in the Bhagavatam is a miraculous absorption of Prahlad himself. So the protection came as a result of the absorption.
If we start thinking that, oh, when I face danger, the Lord should intervene and protect me like he protected Prahlad. And if we don't get that, then we feel, where is the Lord? Where is he protecting me? The Bhagavatam's stress is not on how Vishnu intervened and protected Prahlad. The Bhagavatam's stress is on how Prahlad absorbed himself in Vishnu.
Similarly, we see Parikshit Maharaj himself. He was cursed to die in seven days and eventually he died. We say, what is the protection? What is the reciprocation? The Bhagavatam's theme is the reciprocation is the absorption.
If we can get taste in Krishna, by which you can become absorbed in him, that is the greatest reciprocation of Krishna. So whatever service we do, there is an external result of the service and there is an internal result of the service. Shrila Bhaktasiddhanta Singh Thakur and before that Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and of course, Shrila Prabhupada, they would all quote that the service can be known by its results.
If we go to a place where we see some strange trees, we are not able to identify which tree it is. But then if we see the fruit, by seeing the fruit we can identify the tree. Similarly, he said that a devotion of a person can be known by the fruits.
But what is the fruit? The fruit is not just the external fruit. Shrila Prabhupada himself shared bhakti in India for almost 40 years. And from the external perspective, there is no fruit.
Did that mean his devotion, all his service was in vain? No. His service was still pleasing to Krishna. And because his service was so pleasing to Krishna, Prabhupada was contented.
Prabhupada still had a desire to do lots of things for his spiritual master and for Krishna. But it was not that he was dissatisfied and agitated and bitter. People who met Shrila Prabhupada when he came to America, when he was just an unknown Swami walking on the streets of New York, they noticed that he was so contented, he was so cheerful, he was so happy.
If you look from the material perspective, there is little for Prabhupada to be happy. He had tried very vigorously to establish a business, it had failed. He had tried to start an organisation, it had collapsed.
He had tried to write, he had tried to start a magazine, it had not worked out. If you look at Prabhupada's life at an external level, not just in material professional life, but even in his devotional life, there were no results. And still he was contented.
So what was the contentment he was getting? That was actually because of absorption in Krishna. So through this service he was absorbed in Krishna. Prabhupada was satisfied speaking about Krishna.
If people came to meet him, he spoke about Krishna to them. If nobody came to meet him, he spoke about Krishna to people who would come in future to meet him. By writing his books, by recording his dictaphone so that it would later be used.
Now Prabhupada didn't even know at that time whether anyone would read his books. But he was contented in glorifying Krishna. So there is an external result of our service which is manifested externally.
Say we do some service and people appreciate us, things improve externally. Not just people appreciate us, things improve externally. Internal result is that our own heart becomes more attached to Krishna.
We become more attracted to glorifying Krishna. And if this internal result is happening, that is what is going to take us to Krishna. At the end of our lives, how many books we have distributed, how many aartis we have done, how many classes we have given.
All these are valuable. But all these are valuable to the extent they help us become attracted to Krishna. They help us develop absorption in Krishna.
It is the absorption in Krishna that will take us to Krishna. And the achievement for Krishna, that is also important. But the achievement for Krishna should not become such an obsession for us that in the search for achievement for Krishna, we give up absorption in Krishna.
Say for example, some people, they may give up class. But suppose somebody is in a leading authority position in a particular place and then they give a class and then while giving the class, their only focus is who has not come for my class. And then, how dare you don't come for my class.
I will show you what I can do. So now, people have their own priorities. Everybody is a volunteer in our movement.
Yes, certainly we would like people to come and be benefited by Krishna Gatha. But that is not the purpose. That we force people to show their respect to us.
Any service that we do. Sometimes we may come to a temple and while coming to a temple, the mind can be so egoistic. The mind doesn't say, oh, there is Krishna and I have to offer obeisances to Krishna.
Mind says, who all are offering obeisances to me? And who is not offering obeisances to me? On Janmashtami time, we have a temple in India in Juhu, which is right in the heart of where many Bollywood stars stay. So many of these Bollywood stars, they come to the temple on Janmashtami. Some of them may be devoted and they may come for taking Darshan of the Lord.
But for many of them, these are good photo opportunities. And they come and they click the photos and then they put it on their Facebook and their Instagram. And whether they are coming to take Darshan or they are coming to give Darshan.
No one knows. We can give them the benefit of doubt. But the point which I am making is that in every activity, with respect to taking Darshan and giving Darshan is very graphic.
Or am I noticing who all is here looking at me or am I looking at the Lord? There it is very easy and graphic to see. But many of our other services, if we focus only on the external result and not on the internal result, then we can become very negative towards our service and towards others involved in the service. Say, if we are trying to get some service done and people are not cooperating, then we can become hypercritical towards them.
We can become even abusive towards them. We can become excessively demanding towards them. And we may end up alienating people from Krishna.
So, we have to, of course, if we have to get a service done, we need cooperation from people and we have to make practically whatever adjustments are required. But if we obsess about that too much, if the external result is all that we see in the service, then we can become very aggressive and abrasive. Aggressive means you just come down heavily on others and abrasive means we attack others.
We just speak very harshly. I was talking with one devotee and he was telling me about another senior devotee with whom he had worked for a long time. And there he was saying, he is a wonderful devotee to admire from a distance.
Now what that means is, actually you go close to that devotee, you find that he is too demanding. Now that may be this particular person's perception. We don't know what the reality is.
But the point which I am making is, if somebody is too demanding, then even then we get things done. The point of practising bhakti is not just to get things done. The point of bhakti is to get ourselves attached to Krishna.
To get ourselves absorbed in Krishna. And when we come, when we do any service, certainly we need external reciprocation. And in a proper Vaishnav community, in a proper bhakti community, devotees will appreciate each other.
Even small services that are done, some basic human courtesy, basic appreciation of service should be there. And we will find in the broad devotee community, there will be some people who will appreciate, some who will not appreciate. So sometimes we just spend too much energy trying to gain appreciation from someone.
And it just doesn't work. As people, some people give appreciation, like say, a rainfall in, in say some place like, where there is a lot of rainfall. Say if you go to Britain, Britain it rains constantly almost.
For some people, they are appreciating like rains in a country like Britain. For some people, they give appreciation like rainfall in the Sahara desert. They practically never appreciate.
Now both extremes are not good. If somebody appreciates too much, then people start, this person is flattering me, this person prefers him. If somebody never appreciates, then people feel discouraged.
So in our life, if we are doing some service, and we naturally feel a need for appreciation, so we have to make sure that we connect with like-minded people. Sometimes some devotees may just never give appreciation. And some devotees will understand.
Some devotees just unthinkingly appreciate. But some devotees make a thoughtful appreciation and some thoughtful suggestions also. So we need to find the right devotees with whom we can get reciprocation.
And then we move forwards. So at an internal level, we want absorption in Krishna. But at external level, we cannot be attached to getting reciprocation on our terms.
Whatever reciprocation we get from wherever, we take it and move on. And it's our responsibility. If we want some kind of feedback, positive, negative, whatever, then we have to find out in the devotee community who is ready to give us that.
And then we focus on connecting more with them. We don't have to think that okay, I have to get this from this person only. And this person is not giving it to me, then what is the use? We cannot let our bhakti become limited like that.
And when we are practising bhakti, at that time, when we have this understanding, I am doing this for pleasing Krishna, and if my attraction to Krishna is increasing, if my desire to serve Krishna, to speak about Krishna, to share about Krishna is increasing, then that is the success of my service. Even if the world doesn't recognise it. Of course, we would like the world to recognise, not for our sake, but for Krishna's sake.
We want to glorify Krishna. So we try to do what we can to make our service more effective. But we don't make it demanding.
We don't make it a demand. So Prabhupada says, a devotee always desires to have the darshan of Krishna. But a devotee doesn't demand the darshan of Krishna.
If we don't desire, where is our bhakti? But if we demand, then where is our seva bhava? Where is our service attitude? So a devotee's mood is desiring, but not demanding. So if we organise a programme, we naturally desire that many, many people come for the programme. But if we make it a demand, many people don't come for the programme, I won't do the service.
Then where is our service attitude? So we desire, but we don't demand. And when we have this attitude, then that desiring, but non-demanding attitude is very conducive for the growth of devotion. And if we keep practising bhakti, we will find that gradually our absorption in Krishna will increase.
Our taste for serving Krishna and glorifying Krishna will increase. If we can find even one service that we can do, irrespective of whether somebody is telling us to do that service or not, whether we are getting some reciprocation significantly from that service or not, if we can find even one service like that, we can go on lifelong. If somebody likes deity worship, whether people are going to appreciate the beauty of the deity worship or not, it doesn't matter.
If you like to cook for Krishna, if you like to distribute books, whatever is the service, if you get a taste for that service, that taste itself is the great success. So, the test of success in service is taste for service. The test of success in service.
What is the test? It is not that so many people appreciate. That's external. If you get it, that's good.
But the test of success in service is taste for service. If we get that taste for service, we'll march ahead towards Krishna. I'll speak a couple of examples and I'll conclude this talk.
Once, one of our senior leaders, he went to a university for a programme in America. And when he went for that programme, the devotees there had advertised big and they were expecting almost, they had a big auditorium, 500-1000 students for the programme. And when they came for that programme, they came there, there was absolutely no one there.
And not only was no one there, the auditorium itself was locked. He says, what happened? And they looked around and they noticed the posters were there everywhere. But the date on the poster had been printed wrong.
So, it was supposed to be 1, but it had become 11. And the devotee who had organised the programme, he felt so embarrassed. They may have checked everything, but somehow that programme date had been oversighted.
And he started apologising, this is so sorry, this is so embarrassing. And then at that time, they were standing outside the college and a professor came out. And he looked at this swami and he says, who are you? He says, we had come for this programme.
He says, so you are talking about God? He said, yeah. He says, I am an atheist. Only unscientific, stupid people believe in God.
And he started blasting. And his devotee was there and he said, this was the worst thing that could happen. And this Maharaj was trying to talk with him.
But this professor was like on a rampage. He was releasing a tirade. And this professor said, come with me to my office.
He was telling Maharaj, let's go, in order to spend time. Maharaj said, no, let's go. And they went to the office and he sat down.
And as he was sitting down, this professor was supposed to meet a student. He was a Ph.D. guide for a student. And this student was sitting there and told the student, wait.
He started talking with him. He started giving all kinds of accusations and this and that. And Maharaj was just gently, politely hearing, logically answering.
And this went on for quite some time. This professor was just going on and on and on. And finally, this professor said that, you are just playing.
He just didn't accept what Maharaj was saying. And he just ended the discussion. But this student who was there, he heard.
And he was very impressed, not only by the answers that Maharaj was giving, but more importantly, by how calm and composed he stayed throughout. And this boy, this student, he went on to become a wonderful devotee. And he made almost over 100 devotees to that college.
And then he organised several programmes in that same auditorium for Maharaj, where many, many times he came. So, sometimes Krishna may reciprocate, but from an entirely different dimension. So, if they expect, oh, this is so stupid.
How did you not see the date? So, if you had just focused only on that date and the programme didn't work out, it's a complete disaster. But bhakti means that we have openness for service. Okay, I can't do the service of speaking to 500 people.
I'll speak to this one professor. And even that professor was not convergent. Sometimes in our life, what happens? We do 100 things for one cause, and we're doing very little for other cause, we get result.
So, faith also means openness to possibility. Okay, this is not working, maybe this is where it will work. So, for us, Krishna can reciprocate in amazing ways.
And if we get too attached, we'll get discouraged if results don't come. If results come, we'll become proud. Just see how much I have done.
If somebody is a preacher, they will say, I brought so many people to Krishna. I was talking recently with a senior preacher, and he was telling me that, we often may brag, I brought so many people to Krishna. He says, but how many of us count? How many people did not come to Krishna because of us? We all have behaved inappropriately at times.
We all have been maybe too proud, too pushy, too argumentative, whatever. And so many people may have stopped from coming to Krishna. So, there, if you look at that, there's no reason for us to be proud, even if we have done something wonderful.
The important thing is to see if, we just serve Krishna, keep glorifying Krishna, and he will reciprocate in his own way. When we start serving Krishna, at that time, we have a certain plan, certain expectation of how we should serve. But, it may work that Krishna may reciprocate in an entirely different way.
So, when I became a brahmachari about 20-25 years ago, my main focus was on, devotees told me I should speak and I should write. So, I was travelling in India and speaking extensively in colleges and other places. In 2011, I was in the Juhu temple, and I was doing a japa and somebody had spilled some water over there.
So, I just accidentally slipped on it. And, because my leg was weak, a small fall, it caused a big fracture. And, practically, my thigh bone came out of the socket.
So, then, I was rushed to a hospital and I already had polio in the leg, but it became worse. The doctor told me now, you should not travel. So, at that time, I was in the hospital once and I was giving a class on Skype to some students in Bangalore.
And then, I was recording, I was conversing with Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And, I was speaking because the internet was not very good. So, we turned off the video.
It was only audio class. The audio class was going on. I just closed my eyes and became absorbed in speaking.
And then, I spoke for almost 15 minutes. And then, I opened my eyes. I just glanced at my phone.
And, I found almost 25 missed calls. And then, I looked up. It was all from the students who I was giving class to.
I looked at Skype. The Skype was open, but there was no connection. It was almost as soon as I closed my eyes, the connection went off.
I was so annoyed with myself. I said, 15 minutes I was speaking, I wasted my time. It's wasted.
But then, after that, when I was thinking about it, I was writing in my journal at that time. It just struck me that while those 15 minutes I was speaking, I was absorbed in Krishna. I was happy.
So, from that I got the realisation that for speaking about Krishna, I don't need an audience. Even without an audience, I can speak about Krishna. And that's how I started my whole online outreach.
At that time, not many devotees were doing online outreach. So, I did the whole Bhakti Shastri course online. There were 152 classes on all the four books of Bhakti Shastri.
I started answering questions online. And a whole universe of online outreach opened for me. Because I realised that I don't necessarily need an audience in front of me to speak.
So, of course, by Krishna's mercy, my health recovered and now I am going to travel. But when we seem to be not getting any result, it is not that we are not getting any result. If you are open to Krishna, Krishna will reveal.
If you are doing service faithfully, at least one result is guaranteed. Our attraction to Krishna will increase. Our absorption to Krishna will increase.
And externally also, Krishna, according to His plan, will manifest wonderful results in due course of time. So, when we understand this multiple level of reciprocation, sometimes even if we do service and we don't seem to get any reciprocation, we won't get discouraged. We will still be secure in the knowledge that we are serving Krishna and Krishna will reward us with taste in His service.
And secondly, we will be able to do whatever adjustments are required. We are open to possibility. If this is not working, I can do this.
And by that, we will find out ways in which we can move forward in our service to Krishna. So, service attitude means we are fixed in intention and we are flexible in execution. Fixed in intention that I am going to serve Krishna no matter what happens.
Because this will help me to go towards Krishna. And as far as execution, if this doesn't work, I will do this. If this doesn't work, I will do this.
We are flexible in execution. In that way, we can move forward towards Krishna through whatever service we are doing. Even if the service produces the external result or not, service will produce the internal result of taking us towards Krishna.
I will summarise. I spoke today about how to understand Krishna's reciprocation when we serve Him. And in that, I spoke on the theme of how there is in every relationship, there is a give and a take.
There is a contribution, there is an expectation of reciprocation. When the expectation is not fulfilled, then the relationship becomes strained and we feel like giving up the relationship also. Now, give and take is there everywhere.
But where there is no emotion involved much, then it is just a transaction. Like we hire a taxi. But when we want to develop a relationship, when we have a close relationship, then the reciprocation is meant not to be simply transactional.
It is not meant to be transactional. It means to be transformational. If we focus on a transactional level, what to speak of our bhakti, bhakti will feel, what am I getting by spending so many hours doing some seva? There is no materially tangible thing you may see.
What to speak of our bhakti, even our material relationships we are not able to sustain. We feel this is too much to do. But when we look at the transformational aspect, every relationship, if we do it in a responsible way, it helps us grow.
Parents by having children, they themselves grow in maturity. Similarly, when we are practising bhakti, what is the transformation that we want? It is our attraction to Krishna and the mantras. Prahlad, at one level, was getting no reciprocation for all the extraordinary devotion he was doing.
People were reviling him. People were threatening him. People were trying to assassinate him.
The reciprocation that kept him going was that he got more and more attraction to Krishna Vishnu and absorption of Krishna Vishnu. The miracle in the Prahlad story is not that Hiranyakashipu protected Prahlad through all the dangers. The miracle is that Prahlad was always absorbed in Krishna.
And similarly, Shri Prabhupada, from a material point of view and from a spiritual point of view, his lifetime of service seemed to have produced very little result. But he never became bitter or disheartened because he was getting the internal result of absorption in Krishna. So our service has an external result that we look for, but the internal result is absorption in Krishna.
Sometimes if we don't get the external result, either people don't appreciate the service that we are doing or whatever service that doesn't produce the result that we seek, then at that time, we need to look inwards or look upwards towards Krishna. And if we have that understanding that the primary purpose of service is to increase my devotion to Krishna, the test of success in service is taste for service. Then we can perceive here being fixed in intention and we are flexible in execution.
Flexible in execution doesn't mean we just give up the service and move to some other service, but rather we are open to how Krishna opens doors for reciprocation, doors for us to move forward. I talk about these two stories, about this Maharaj who programmed with a fiasco, but through an incidental interaction, he inspired someone who enabled wonderful outreach to happen thereafter. And myself, when I couldn't, the phone got disconnected, but I was able to realise that I can do outreach even if there is no students directly, nobody hearing directly.
So for all of us, if we learn to serve Krishna diligently, not reducing Krishna's reciprocation to our set of expectations, but being open then Krishna will reciprocate his own wonderful way, giving us absorption internally and giving us results externally in terms of his own plan. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So are there any questions or comments? Thank you very much. How to always stay enthused in service? Broadly speaking, enthusiasm can come from three sources. One is intelligence.
Just if you understand what is the importance of what I am doing, that itself can generate some enthusiasm. If we are doing a service, it is important for us to remind ourselves of why this service is important. So if we are doing a service regularly, it is also good to read about that service.
If we are doing mediatorship regularly, if we are doing distribution regularly, whatever service we are doing on a regular basis, it is good to read specifically about that service, hear about that service, or ask us to contemplate on the importance of the service and keep that somewhere written down so that when our enthusiasm goes down, we can read it and we can energise our intelligence and thereby have some enthusiasm. The second is that we need to see that there have to be some like-minded association. So even if there is one or two devotees who also are doing a similar service or who also have a similar way of understanding and practising bhakti, then that connection, that reciprocation will help us to move on.
Sometimes it may be that we may not get that reciprocation from one particular devotee, but we look for wherever we get that reciprocation and we get that encouragement. So we need some association of enthusiastic devotees. Just by being in the presence of someone who has enthusiasm, we get enthusiasm.
And that's why seeking association of enthusiastic devotees, we can see that also as our responsibility. It's also part of our, not just becoming an association, but seeking enthusiastic association that will enthuse us. And the third is that when we are trying to do any service, whenever we experience some reciprocation, say if we do deity worship on a regular basis, then on some days when we behold the deities, we feel that they are so beautiful.
We feel ourselves so absorbed, so touched. We feel a deep devotional sweetness permeating us. Or sometimes when we are distributing books, when we are sharing Krishna Bhakti with others, some people come and tell their stories of how they were benefited or how somebody is so eager for getting Krishna Bhakti.
And then, so there are in our lives times when we also see external results of our service. They may not always be there, but those moments come. So we need to treasure those moments.
Maybe write them down or in some other way, preserve those moments. Our mind naturally preserves memories of sensual pleasures. So if you have tasted some nice food maybe 10 years ago, still the mind may remember it.
When can I get that food again? So it's just the way the mind is. It will treasure worldly memories very naturally. We all have had some devotional experiences.
But we need to conscientiously treasure them. When we, if we had some interactions with some wonderful devotees, then it's not just a visual memory, it can also be a verbal memory. We write it down somewhere.
We speak our words or just do something by which that memory is preserved. And then, when we revisit that memory, we say, yes, I have also experienced this Krishna Bhakti. I have also experienced that Krishna, this Krishna Bhakti does work.
It's a simple thing to complete this metaphor that say if you are going on a long journey, how will we be enthusiastic to go on the journey? First is with our intelligence. Why am I going on this journey? With our intelligence we understand, okay, this is a very safe place, very beautiful place. I'm going there.
Second is a long journey. We also, are there other people going along the journey? Oh, there's so many people going. Let me also go.
And third is, when we are going along the journey, if it's a long, long, long road, then we may not even notice any landmarks here. Am I actually moving or am I still stationary? If you are in a plane, and you sit right next to the wing of the plane, then if you look out, the plane doesn't appear to be moving also. Almost like it's going on an afternoon stroll.
It is going at a leisurely pace. But if we have some landmarks, then we understand how this has gone so far. So when we remember these devotional experiences that we have had, that means, yeah, we are moving forwards.
We are moving forwards. We can also look back at where we were in the past. At how our life has been positively transformed.
So if we look back and see how far we have come, then we will see that this process is working. So I want to do it. The process of bhakti is evolutionary.
It's slow, incremental changes. But the result is revolutionary. The result is dramatic.
In terms of how our heart will become attached to Krishna. But that takes time. So we have to ourselves create some landmarks that we can look at.
Yeah, I have crossed this landmark. I have crossed this landmark. I have crossed this landmark.
That means I am moving onwards. Then we can maintain our enthusiasm. So thank you very much.
Shri Radha Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhakta Vendaki Sai Gaur Prema Nande Jai Krishna.