Developing service attitude

Developing service attitude 1 – Service attitude transforms knowledge into realization

Service attitude transforms knowlege into realization from Chaitanya Charan

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed_video&v=497765044058390

Developing service attitude 2 – How to see reciprocation in our service

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed_video&v=164182241197318

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Bhakti Vedanta. Swami Iti Namine. Namaste Saraswati Devi.

Gauravani Pracharine. Nirvishesha Shunyavadi. Pashyatya Deshatarine.

Vancha Kalpataru Vyascha. Kripa Sindhupya Evacha. Patitanam Pavanebhyo.

Vaishnavibhyo Namo Namaha. Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Prabhu Nityananda.

Sri Advaita Gadadhara. Sri Vasati Gauravakta Vrinda. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama Hare Rama. Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. So I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today.

And I will be speaking on the topic of service attitude. The Bhagavad Gita describes in its 6th chapter that Gyaana Vigyaana Truptaatma It describes that it is only through knowledge and realisation that one becomes satisfied. This is 6th chapter, 8th verse of the Bhagavad Gita.

So, it's been displayed over there, the powerpoint. Service attitude transforms knowledge into realisation. All of us are searching for happiness.

And when we search for happiness, essentially what are we looking for? We are actually looking for a fulfilling object to love and to serve. We may want wealth, we may want good looks, we may want prestige, we may want possessions, we may want positions. But through all of these what we want is that someone should love us.

So we want to love and be loved. And if we look back at our lives, the times when we feel the most contented is not just when we achieve something. It is rather when that achievement leads to a deeper connection with others.

Maybe a loved one appreciates us. For students, if they get good marks in their exams, that's wonderful. But if their parents or mentors appreciate them after that, that brings a greater sense of fulfilment.

For top athletes who have their own coaches, they win the tournaments, that's wonderful. But when their coaches are pleased and proud of you, that is when they feel deeply contented. So we are all looking for a fulfilling object of love and love is expressed through service.

When we love someone, we want to please them. And pleasing them means doing some service for them. So essentially the search for happiness is a search for a satisfying object to love and serve.

Unfortunately, if we do not find a proper object to love and serve, then the service attitude becomes misdirected. Some people say, I'm not going to serve anyone. But such people who say they don't serve anyone, they actually serve their mind and senses.

In fact, people who defy God say, I don't believe in God. I don't care for God. If we don't serve the almighty, our mind and senses become almighty.

They start pulling us here, there and everywhere. And I'll talk about the role of the almighty here. But the point I'm making here is that we live today in an age of everybody seeking freedom.

There is no value that captivates the human mind in today's times as much as does the idea of freedom. I want to be free. I want to be free.

I want to be free. Any particular thing which you want to take, if we add freedom to it, people start accepting that. So, in the 1920s, when the cigarette companies were advertising smoking, at that time, they found that their sales had reached a plateau.

Because all the men who had enough money to smoke, to buy cigarettes and smoke, they were more or less already smoking. So then one of them got a brain wave. He said, actually, 50% of our market is untapped.

How? How is 50% untapped? Yeah, women don't smoke. And then they got a specially designed cigar for females. And then in 1929, this is what happened in America, in the Independence Day parade march on the Broadway in America, they got some of the most popular female icons of America at the most visible locations where all cameras were there to flip out the cigarette and smoke it.

And they got them to smoke it. It created a sensation. And they were told, they were all paid, of course.

And they were paid and asked, what are you doing? We are lighting the torches of freedom. We are lighting the torches of freedom. And what happened? How does lighting a cigar lead to freedom? Actually, the result of that at that time was suppressed about how harmful smoking can be.

Smoking in general is harmful. Smoking for women is especially harmful. Smoking for women, especially when they are pregnant, is even more harmful.

But by the time all these findings came about, it led to so many people being hooked to smoking, unable to give it up. As a British thinker, Oscar Wilde, he said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a hundred times.

That means I gave up smoking, but smoking didn't give me up. Why are we talking about smoking over here? The point is that if we do not have a satisfying object to serve, we will create some object and start serving that. Basically, the irony of our times is that we have more physical freedom than ever before.

But then we have more psychological bondage than ever before. Psychological bondage means that people are bound by their desires. When somebody is having an addiction, what does it mean? It's a bondage.

The person may go from one country to another country. You say, I'm free. But they may go from one country to another country.

But in that country, as soon as they board, as soon as they disembark, if somebody is hooked to smoking, somebody is hooked to drinking, somebody is hooked to drugs, first thing they will ask is, get there. Okay, where can I indulge? They are physically free, but they are mentally bound. And this mental bondage can actually be more damaging than physical bondage.

Because it's not visible that we are bound. And we are dragged here and there. Now, of course, addiction can have many different specific causes.

But overall, actually addiction is a result of a lack of connection. Psychologists have observed and studied addiction. They say that the cure for addiction is not sobriety.

It is connection. By addiction means we have become slaves of a particular habit. Just not able to break free.

So today the ethos is, why should I serve anyone? Why should I have a service attitude? I want to be free and do what I want to do. But actually, when we try to be free and do whatever we want to do, we end up losing our freedom. We become attached, we become addicted.

And once we are addicted, we are lost. So the researchers did some experiments on drugs. Drug addiction is a huge problem in the western world.

Increasingly in India also, from where I have come. But generally it is thought that if you take a drug once, you take drugs twice, you take drugs three times, four times, then the drug is an addictive substance and you will get addicted to it. But actually, if we consider, when we take morphine, or when we take pain medication, if we do a surgery, at that time, the pain killers that we take, they contain a lot of drugs.

And often they contain such a large quantity of drugs, but we don't get addicted at that time. Most people, they do a surgery, at that time they take some pain medication, but they go into the hospital, a sober person, they come out addicted to drugs. It doesn't happen like that.

So it's not just the consumption of the drugs that causes the addiction. It is the psychology of the person. If the person is connected with others, the person is lonely and isolated, then they succumb to such addictions.

So there was an experiment done by psychologists, wherein they had, well-known experiment was that, if you put a mouse, mice are favoured objects of experiment for most many scientists. You put a mice in a cage with a pot of water, which is spiked with drugs. Although that drug doesn't taste all that great, although the drug is, the mouse can do other things, the mouse keeps drinking the water and gets it drugged.

Now that's how, if we indulge in it, we get addicted to it. But then there was another experiment, where they put not one mice in a mouse cage, but in a large mouse cage, and they put many mice over there. And even when, so in the previous experiment, they had this good water and drugged water.

And the mice would keep drinking drugged water and get addicted to it. But in this case, when they kept good water and drugged water, and they kept a whole community of mice over there, practically no mice started to drink the drugged water. They drank the normal water and went on with their lives.

So the point here is that we need connection. And connection happens only when we have a service attitude. We cannot connect sustainably with others, if we do not have a service attitude.

If our connection is based on the idea that, you do whatever I tell you to do. Some people have this idea, my way or the highway. You do what I say.

Some people say, you are absolutely free to speak your mind. As long as you agree with me. What is the freedom there? So the whole idea is that whenever we have any relationship with anyone, at that time, that person may sometimes, oftentimes in fact, not act the way we want them to act.

And that is when, for the relationship to be sustained, a service attitude will be required. If the other person is simply doing what we want them to do, then we don't need any service attitude, because we are like the masters. But in every relationship, people sometimes act the way we may want them to.

Many times they do not act that way. So if the relationship is not to be ruptured by that, then we need a service attitude. I spoke, I was just in San Francisco, and there I spoke to a yoga community on the topic of loneliness.

So one point about this is that service supplies structure to our life. The lesser the structure in our life, the greater the rupture the mind causes in our life. That means if somebody has no relationships, no commitments, no connections, then they may sit down on their computer and start surfing.

Okay, they look at one video, then read one website, and they look at this picture and that and that. And sometimes people spend hours and hours and hours. There's one boy in Thailand, who kept surfing on the net for 72 hours continuously.

And not only that, he forgot to eat, he forgot to drink also. And finally he got a stroke and he fainted. And then his neighbour came and, what happened to you? Unfortunately, he was taken to a hospital and he survived.

But when there is no structure in our life, then what happens? There's no commitment, there's no obligations. Then our mind can take us on a ride anywhere and everywhere. So basically, this is what is happening when I look at this side, I look at that side, I look at that side, I look at that, I look at that.

Hours and hours and hours can go like that. So all this is essentially, when we do not have a service attitude where we serve others, then we end up serving our mind. The mind says, look at this, look at that, look at that, look at that.

And today with technology providing us almost unlimited distractions, we can get endlessly trapped by it. A social critic has said that, today's youth especially, their condition is that, they are distracted from distraction by distraction. They are distracted from distraction by distraction.

So now, this is generally a service attitude, which we all need to have. To the extent we have service attitude, to the extent we come out of ourselves. Otherwise, the self can become like a black hole in which we sink and we get self-obsessed and we lose track of everything else.

Some people study medical science and there is a branch of medical science called as ophthalmology, where people become eye specialists. Actually, today's culture makes everyone an eye specialist. Not an eye specialist, but an eye specialist.

Eye specialist. So people are narcissistic, self-obsessed. And we need to come out of ourselves.

So service attitude is what brings us out of ourselves. Now this is generally about service attitude. But broadly speaking, why do we need to serve Krishna? Krishna is supreme.

Lot of people say, I have to serve my boss, I have to serve my family members, I have to serve those people with whom I am working with, living with. But why do we serve Krishna? Many reasons. Kulashekhar Maharaj in a verse in the Mukunda Mala Sutra explains this.

That he says, he compares the material master and the supreme spiritual master, that is Krishna. So now, when we serve Krishna, He is all pure. He is supremely pure.

And because He is supremely pure, when we serve Him, we become purified. We all have lower desires. We may have too much anger, too much greed, too much negativity.

All these impurities that are there, they decrease when we serve Krishna. Not only is He all pure, He is also all attractive. When we serve Krishna, then that service to Him gives us a higher satisfaction.

So Kulashekhar Maharaj says that, I don't know any happiness that is as great as the happiness of remembering Krishna, of absorption in Krishna. So when we serve Krishna, at that time our consciousness becomes attached to Krishna. And by that attachment to Krishna, we get supreme satisfaction.

All of us, when we look for pleasure, we look for pleasure in the world, and the world offers us at best drops of pleasure. But Krishna is like an ocean of pleasure. We can dive in Him and delight in Him eternally.

And Krishna is all loving. He fulfils our longing for love perfectly. Krishna is always there in our hearts for us.

Even if we neglect Him, even if we reject Him, He doesn't go away. He stays with us always, waiting for us to turn towards Him. And our very deep longing for love that is there, it is fulfilled when it is directed towards Krishna.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, in the fourth canto is the Leela of Dhruva Maharaj. When Dhruva was insulted by his stepmother and neglected by his father, at that time he ran to his mother. And his mother was helpless.

She says, I can't help you. I need help. He says, then go to Vishnu.

She told him that Vishnu can offer you more love than what millions of mothers like me can offer. It's a very profound statement. That means that his mother is not saying, I don't love you.

Her love for her child is real. But her love is like a drop. Millions of drops, they come together, they make an ocean.

So we can think in our life, who is the person who loves us the most? Maybe in the present, maybe in the past, somebody has loved us. Whoever person from whom we have experienced the greatest love, whatever love we have experienced from them, millions of times more love we can experience from Krishna. Then why don't we experience that love right now? Because we are disconnected from Him.

Krishna is like the sun. He gives light to everyone. But if our eyes are closed, then we can't see the sun.

We can't bask in the presence of the sun. So like that, Krishna is here, we are here. But our face is turned away from Krishna.

Bahirmukha jiva. Because we are turned away from Krishna, so we can't perceive Krishna's love right now. The process of Bhakti Yoga, which is centred on sevabhaav, service attitude, is the process by which we turn towards Krishna.

Atahashrikrishtanamadhi nabhaved grahyam indriyai sevonmukhe jivadau svayamevas puratyadaha In the Puranas it is said that sevonmukhe, by seva, we who are vimukha from Krishna, we will become unmukha. And when we become unmukha, when we turn towards Krishna, then what happens? svayamevas puratyadaha Krishna reveals Himself. Krishna manifests Himself.

And when He manifests, then, because He is so loving, our heart's longing for love is completely fulfilled. And Krishna is all secure, He is all safe, He is all powerful. When we, when our heart becomes attracted to Krishna, then we become absorbed in Him, we become attached to Him, and He becomes a pacifying, satisfying object of thought for us.

When we serve Him and we think about Him, we all are always thinking about something or the other. But most of the time, our thinking works against us. Our thinking only makes us agitated more and more.

Psychologists have found that many people have mental health problems, but when do they have the maximum mental health problems? When they are doing some work, they are busy in their work. But when people relax, so during our leisure time, our mind works overtime. Our mind works overtime, and it makes us agitated.

So, when we become attached to Krishna, as soon as we have any leisure time, our mind goes towards Krishna. When it goes towards Krishna, bhajore mana, shrinanda nandana, abhaya charanarvindare. Abhaya.

When we fix the mind on Krishna, we become free from fear. Because we understand, Krishna is one unchanging reality. Generally, it is change that causes fear.

If the economy suddenly goes down, if the government suddenly changes, if our relationship seems to be becoming unstable, if our health seems to be going down, any change causes fear. But when we understand Krishna is unchanging, Krishna is always supreme, and Krishna is always present in my heart with me, then we become peaceful. So now, the reasons we serve Krishna.

Because Krishna is all-attractive. When I said that Krishna purifies us, He transforms us. So how does He do that? When we serve Krishna, there are many different ways in which we can serve Him.

And how do we decide which service to do for Krishna? So, how is always a function of why. How should I go somewhere? Say for example, if you have to travel from here to Vancouver. Now, how should you go? You go by your own car, you take a flight, you take a cab, some people walk across the country also.

So, should we go for a walk? So, how we will go will depend on why we want to go. If we are going for a particular meeting which is very urgent, we may go by the fastest way. If we are going for sightseeing, we may decide, okay, I may take my car with me, then I can travel around easily.

So, how is always a function of why. So, similarly, when we have to decide, there are so many services to do to Krishna, how do I decide what service to do? So, for that we have to understand, why am I doing the service? The services to Krishna can be in many forms. They are broadly classified by Prahlad Maharaj into nine categories.

So, he says that hearing about Krishna, speaking about Krishna, remembering Krishna, worshipping the deities of Krishna, offering prayers to Krishna, rendering practical services to Krishna, offering our entire life to Krishna, becoming a servant of Krishna ourselves. These are all various ways in which we can serve Krishna. So, now when we serve, practically speaking in our life, we may come to the temple, we may do some cooking here, we may do some book distribution, even giving classes is also service to Krishna.

Worshipping the deities is a service to Krishna. There are many different ways in which we can serve Krishna. So, which service we do, or how practically we serve Krishna, that depends on why.

Why are we serving Krishna? The first and most important purpose is, that we want to develop humility, we want to cultivate humility. To the extent we develop humility, to that extent we grow closer to Krishna. Humility is not out of a sense of inferiority.

Humility simply means, that we focus on Krishna and not on worldly things. Sometimes you may say, Oh, I am better than this person, so I feel superior. That person is better than me, I feel inferior.

And people just go through these emotions of grandeur and depression. Sometimes I feel so good, because I am better than others, that's grandeur. Sometimes everybody is better than me.

I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't do that. Get into depression. But in bhakti, we change our point of reference.

We don't look whether I am better than others or lesser than others. We shift our vision to Krishna. He is so great, I am so small in front of him.

I want to serve him. So, a primary purpose of doing service is to cultivate humility. And when we express our humility, Krishna becomes extremely pleased by such humility.

In the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, there is a story of a great king named Pratap Rudra. He wanted to get the mercy of the lord who had descended as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he was trying again and again to meet lord Chaitanya.

But lord Chaitanya said, I am a sannyasi, why should I mix with materialistic people like a king? I don't want to associate with him. He was begging for an audience, but he was just not getting it. And then, Jagannath Rathyatra was there.

Lord Jagannath came out in Rathyatra, and before Rathyatra started, Maharaj Pratap Rudra, who is the king of the whole kingdom, he picked up a broom and started cleaning the path in front of lord Jagannath. And this way, through his, not just his external action, which was done for show, but through his inner disposition, he demonstrated that I, although I may be king of the world, in front of the lord, I am the servant. So by that menial act of service, he demonstrated that he didn't care.

How can a king clean? Indian society at that time was quite, the caste system, which is originally by quality, had by that time become stratified. And it was by birth. And some people, because of some misconceptions, would think that certain work is low class.

So, the work of cleaning the streets was considered low class work by some people. And for a king to do that, would be shocking. How can a king demean himself like that? But Pratap Rudra showed by his example that he didn't, his consciousness is not at the material level.

Trying to prove, I am your king, all of you need to respect me. I am superior to you. His reference was not the world.

His reference was Krishna. Yes, in this society, in this situation, I may be at a higher position than others. But this is temporary.

Today, one in the Bhagavatam, in the fifth canto, another section comes where a sage tells a king, today you are a king and I am a mendicant. Tomorrow, I may become a king and you may become a mendicant. Things change in this world.

So, his focus was on Krishna. And when he did that service, that menial service of cleaning the street in front of Lord Jagannath, Lord Chaitanya was so pleased with him. And then Lord Chaitanya profusely blessed him with his mercy.

Now, we also serve not just for cultivating humility. We all have been given certain abilities. And we want to use those abilities in the service of Krishna.

What we are is Krishna's gift to us. And what we become is our gift to Krishna. So, whatever ability we have, when we use it, we develop that ability.

So, if we can sing, we can speak, we can decorate, we can cook, we can play musical instruments, we can manage and coordinate. Whatever it is that we can do, we use it in a mood of service to Krishna. And by that we do a constructive service, we also develop our ability.

For longevity in our service, if we find out something which we like to do, something which we are good at, then we will be able to do it naturally. We will be able to do it joyfully. But then, we also want to serve society.

We want to benefit others. There are different ways of benefiting people. If we give a hungry person food, that's serving them.

If we give them prasad, we are serving not just their body, we are serving their soul. If we give them spiritual knowledge, we are connecting them with the Lord who can benefit them forever. So Srila Prabhupada could have served Krishna in India itself.

He could have chanted Hare Krishna and written books in India. But he wanted to reach out to more and more people. So at the age of 70, all alone, he came to the western world just so that he could serve people more and more.

Help people to come closer and closer to Krishna. So when we say go out and distribute books, when we invite people for spiritual programmes, when we help in organising programmes, we are serving society. We are actually helping them benefit.

And from our perspective, the most important benefit of serving is that our desire to serve increases. The result of service is the greater desire for service. अध्यित्तम् समाधातुम् नशक्नो सिमईस्थिरम् अभ्यास्योगेन ततो माम इच्छाप्तुम् दन अञ्जया By practise of bhakti yoga, what will happen? माम इच्छाप्तुम् The desire to serve will increase.

The desire to serve will increase. Strengthen the desire to serve. Now how does this happen? The title was that service attitude transforms knowledge into realisation.

So basically, when we hear spiritual knowledge, at that time the knowledge enters through the ears. But when we contemplate it, we analyse it, then it enters into the head. Otherwise, it enters into the ears.

For some people, it's like there is just a straight path from one ear to the other ear. It comes in through the ear, goes out through the other ear. It doesn't go in at all.

But when we contemplate on it, then that contemplation can also be done in the mood of service to Krishna. This is Krishna's message. Whatever intelligence I have, let me use this intelligence to serve Krishna by trying to understand this message.

In fact, Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita in 18.70 says, अधिष्यते चययिमं धर्म्यं सम्वादमावयो ज्ञान यज्ञेन तेनापं इष्टस्यामितिमेमति It says, those who study this sacred conversation of ours, they are worshipping me with their intelligence. Like we do aarti of the Lord, we take a diya and do the aarti. But Krishna is saying, when we study the Bhagavad Gita, our intelligence is becoming like our lamp.

And with the intelligence we are worshipping Krishna, we are doing the aarti of Krishna. So we study Krishna's message also with the mood of service to Krishna. And that way the knowledge enters into our head.

And then we apply that knowledge, we do practical service to Krishna. Then that knowledge enters into our heart. And it enters into our heart, that is when it transforms into realisation.

That is when it gives us the supreme satisfaction. That is when we start getting energy spiritually. Spiritual energy, how does it mean? When we feel tired, we take food.

And by that food we get energy. However, sometimes if there is some problem with our digestion, we may eat, but all that we eat is just consumed by some germs in the body. And people eat a lot, but still they feel weak.

So our energy depends not on how much we eat, but on how much we digest. Similarly, our spiritual energy depends not on how much we know, but on how much we apply. How much are we trying to live what we have learnt.

And that living means doing practical service to Krishna. So through this service to Krishna, actually we grow in spiritual energy. And what do we mean by spiritual energy? Actually, all of us will face difficulties, problems, reversals in life.

When we face reversals, at that time, say if we are driving a cycle, pedalling a cycle. And as we are pedalling, say there is a tree, there has been a storm and a tree has fallen along the way. And what happens? We are driving, we come and we break.

If we don't break, our car cycle will hit the tree, it will fall down. On the other hand, if you are driving a huge truck, and the truck has been moving fast for a long time, then if there is a fallen tree along the way and the truck hits, what will happen? The tree will be pushed aside and the truck will move on. So for all of us in our life, when problems come, they are like the tree that falls in the path of our life.

If our energy level is low, we will stop and just quit. I can't do it. But if our spiritual energy is strong, if we have heard about Krishna, we have understood it, we have served Krishna, then we will understand that yes, problems will come in my life.

But Krishna is always with me. And then we will be able to move forwards in spite of whatever problems we may have had. We see this, this principle of service attitude most dramatically in the life of Narada Muni.

Narada Muni is a great sage who is a teacher of great saintly people like Prahlad and Dhruva and others. This Narada Muni in his previous life was a maid servant's son. He was just an ordinary boy and who was his father was also not known.

And he just had some cultural understanding that we should serve saintly people. So when some saintly people came near where his mother was staying, he started serving them with his mother. And just by that service, gradually he started developing taste.

He would serve them and they would speak about Krishna, he would hear about them. He served them, he heard about Krishna and he became spiritually enlivened. He started getting so much taste in hearing about Krishna and speaking about Krishna.

And that's what he started living for. And then he was just a 4-5 year old boy. The Bhagavatam seems to have many characters who are about 5 years old.

Who are the other prominent characters in the Bhagavatam who are 5 years old? Who? Dhruva Maharaj, Prahlad Maharaj. There are many people who are small characters, relatively small. So Narada was a small boy and he had no father.

And then his mother was bitten by a snake and she died. This is just a catastrophe. For a child to lose the only person who is there for them.

It's extremely difficult. I was at a mental health care centre where there were mental health care providers who cared for children who were from orphaned or divorced families. And these care providers, they would tell so many sob stories.

So many tragic, heartbreaking stories of how the kids were suffering. Because there is no one to love them, no one to care for them. It is not just providing food, clothing, shelter.

It is they need somebody to love them. They don't have that. They don't grow up psychologically.

They grow up stunted, they grow up distorted. So for Narada, at least we could say, today in the western world, at least if the parents pass away, there is a child protection service which will take care of the child physically. Maybe place them in a foster home.

Narada was living in a small village. His mother was not a part of any community, major community. He passed away and he was completely alone.

And yet, he was not alone. Because he had served the great devotees. Because he had heard about Krishna from them.

He understood that I may be alone, but I am not lonely. Alone is a physical condition. Lonely is a mental condition.

We may be alone physically, but if we are busy in doing something, if we are absorbed in something purposeful, we don't feel loneliness. Lonely is a psychological condition. Where we want some connection, but there is no connection available.

For Narada, the only connection he had was taken away from him. Just a 5 year old boy. But because he had heard about Krishna, because he had served Krishna, the result was, at that time, he immediately understood.

This is a time for me to devote myself to Krishna. From an external perspective, a big tree had fallen on the path of Narada's life. And he was just a small boy.

People would have thought, what can this boy do now? He is like a tiny cycle. But because he had devoted himself to Krishna, although he seemed externally small, internally he had great energy. He was like a truck.

Although that big obstacle of becoming an orphan came to him, he did not feel like an orphan. Materially, we might be anath, but spiritually we are always sanath. Anath means having no protector, but sanath means having a protector.

Kadaahamai kaanthi nitya kinkaraha praharshishyami sanatha jeevitam Shri Yamunacharya, in his Totra Ratna, composes a beautiful prayer. And he says, bhavantamevanu charan nirantaraha prashantani sheshya manonathantaraha He says, my dear Lord, my mind has been wandering here, there and everywhere, looking for some pleasure, for some shelter. But I have never got it.

Now at last, after lifetimes of searching, I have got you, Lord. Bhavantamevanu charan nirantaraha nirantara I will continuously absorb myself in you, Lord. And what happened by that? Prashantani sheshya, the mind which is always filled with desire and fear, it calms down.

And now what do I want to do? Kadaahamai kaanthi ka nitya kinkaraha Now I understand I am your eternal servant. And what do I want to do as your eternal servant? Praharshishyami sanatha jeevitam That you are my naath. And eternally I am going to live with you as my master, my protector, my Lord.

I feel relieved, I feel comforted, I feel protected because you are there with me, O Lord. Sanatha jeevitam So when we do service to Krishna, we get the spiritual energy to overcome obstacles in our life and keep moving forwards because we understand Krishna is with us. And the connection with Krishna gives us energy.

Even materially, we don't seem to have much energy. The question may come, how much should we serve? I know people say that, oh, I already have so many things to do in my life. You say, I have this responsibility, that thing to do, that thing to do, that thing to do.

I don't have time to do service. Yes, all of us are busy, no doubt about it. But if we understand it is important to serve Krishna, then we will make time for it.

And when we are serving Krishna, seriousness is seen by our willingness to put our mind aside. Why should, what do I mean by put our mind aside? Suppose, say, we are working in office, working for a boss. And how often do we tell the boss? The boss tells us, you have to do this project.

I don't feel like doing it, so I won't do it. I don't feel like doing it. How often will you say that to the boss? Practically never, isn't it? So, if we are serious about our work, then seriousness means we put our mind aside.

Mind feels like it, we can't neglect it completely, but we can't let ourselves get carried away by the mind. Similarly, if we are serious about our bhakti, then we should learn to put our mind aside. Whether I feel like it or I don't feel like it, I will do it.

Because I want to serve Krishna. I am serious about my relationship with Krishna. Those who say that when I feel like doing something, I will do it, then they are actually not serious about their relationship.

It's like, which other relationship we do like that? If a mother says, whenever a baby starts crying, the mother has to attend to the baby. The mother says, no, I don't feel love for the baby, so I won't take care of it. How will that work? We cannot, any serious responsibility, we don't leave it to our feelings.

So, if we are ready to put our feelings aside for serving our boss, serving our family members, then similarly we should be ready to put our feelings aside for serving Krishna. Why should Krishna get less from us than what our boss gets? So, Krishna is our ultimate Lord and He can give us something far greater than what any boss can give us. The boss can give us some money which can help us for some time, but Krishna can give us eternal life and eternal joy.

So, therefore, we should serve as much as we can. Generally, to serve means to sacrifice and to sacrifice means to stretch ourselves. Stretch ourselves means, if somebody wants to do weight training and they can lift 10 kg weight, then if they go to the gym and everyday they lift 1 kg weight, they will not do any weight training.

If they can lift 10 kg, then they need to lift at least 10 kg, maybe 10.5 kg, maybe 11 kg, and that's how their muscles will grow. Similarly for us, actually, we need to stretch ourselves a little bit. That's how we grow towards Krishna.

By stretching, our devotion increases. And now, as there are many services, which service should we do? Ultimately, while doing service, we want to get the Kripa, the mercy of Krishna. And mercy depends on the necessity.

Wherever there is a greatest necessity, there is a greatest need, that is where the greatest mercy is available. That means, if somebody asks for a glass of water, and we give it, that's service attitude. But if somebody is a soldier fighting on a war field, and the enemy is attacking, soldier is busy fighting, soldier is parched, dying of thirst practically.

And that time the soldier asks, give me water someone. And somebody goes there to the war field and gives a glass of water. The action is the same, but the situation is dramatically different.

And that same action, in that situation, has enormous value. The act is very simple, giving water. But where there is a great need for water, giving water over there brings enormous mercy.

So if we are living in a community, whatever services are needed the most, if we do those services, then we will get great mercy of Krishna. Because Krishna will see that we are taking responsibility. We are wanting to help, and we are helping in a way that counts.

So generally speaking, there are some, just like in material life, some activities get glamorised. Say for example, everybody wants their children to become engineers or doctors. These become glamorised professions.

And everybody wants to get those. And other arts and other fields, people don't want to go there much. Now, it's good to go into engineering and medicine also, but we have to see whether that is our nature.

That is where we can best contribute. So just as some professions can get glamorised in our material life, similarly, certain services get glamorised in the devotional community also. Say for example, services like where we are visible to everyone.

So I was at a community, and one of the temple leaders was telling me that actually, we have to do deity worship. On festival days, everybody wants to do deity worship. On normal day, nobody wants to do deity worship.

Now Krishna is the same. Why people want to come on festival day? And he says that we have, on janmashtami, the aarti we have to do, actually, I have a headache. Everybody says, I want to do that aarti.

Why? Because everybody will see me doing the aarti. So now, actually, when we do service, more important than whether the world sees us doing the service is whether Krishna sees us doing the service. Because we may get some appreciation or admiration from the world, but we will get advancement from Krishna only.

So more important than the world seeing us doing service is Krishna seeing us doing service. So some services may get glamorised in the devotee community, and everybody may want to do those services. It's good if we get those opportunities, but we shouldn't think that we make more advancement by doing those glamorised services.

Actually, when I started giving classes, my spiritual master told me that you should remember that speaking is also a service to Krishna. He said it may well happen that if you are speaking and the audience is hearing, it can happen that the audience makes more advancement by hearing about Krishna than you make by speaking about Krishna. Why? Because if somebody is speaking and they think I am so clever, let's see how I am impressing everyone.

Then I am not conscious of Krishna, but the audience is thinking that oh, I am learning about Krishna, this is the lord I want to love. So from the external perspective, somebody sitting on a high asana and speaking, that seems much more glamorous than just being one among 100-200 people sitting in the audience and hearing. But if our purpose is to go closer to Krishna, which service we are doing doesn't matter as much as the attitude with which we are doing the service.

So certain services may be glamorised, but the services that are needed the most, in one sense, all services can give us the opportunity to advance. But the services that are needed the most, Krishna becomes most pleased when we do those services. And we make advancement by that.

And this is where we take responsibility for Krishna. Responsibility is what actually brings us to maturity. It reflects our maturity.

Responsibility means I have taken this up and I will do it. So when we take up responsibility for Krishna, we endure ourselves to Krishna. Because responsibility… Okay, if I feel like doing it, I will do it.

Sometimes people say that, okay, I will come to the temple and I will do this service. I will come to the temple and serve prasad. And then everybody is there waiting for prasad and there is nobody to serve.

What happened? I didn't feel like coming to the temple, so I didn't come. Now, that means what is happening? We are not fixing the mind on Krishna. We fix the mind on Krishna, we take up responsibility.

Whether I feel like it or don't feel like it, I will do it. And responsibility can help us advance dramatically. Because that indicates again, as I said, our seriousness to serve Krishna.

Prabhupada gave a very simple definition of what is Krishna consciousness. He said, if we come in front of the deities and we feel that Krishna is asking us, what are you doing for me? What are you doing for me? If we feel like that Krishna is asking me, then we are Krishna conscious. Most people come to the temple and ask Krishna, what are you doing for me? I have this problem, I have this issue, I have made this thing, that thing is not working, what are you doing for me? So, the service attitude inwards the relationship.

Instead of we asking from Krishna, what are you doing for me? We feel that Krishna is asking us, what are you doing for me? And regarding, last point I will conclude with now, that actually, when we have developed service attitude, we get absorption in Krishna. And what is the result of absorption? The less time we have for our problems, the less problems we have. What do you mean? I have problems, the problem is always there.

But actually speaking, there is a fundamental difference between problems, which trouble us at the mental level and physical issues. Say for example, if we have to push a trolley, heavy trolley, then we have to apply physical energy. And the more energy we apply, the farther the trolley will go.

There is a linear proportion between how much energy we apply and how much work gets done. But with respect to mental problems, it's not like that. If we start thinking about a problem, if we act impulsively, it's a problem.

But if we think about a problem, then the more we think, the clearer things become. So, there is initially a linear proportion. But after some time, it becomes, we hit a plateau.

We keep thinking more, but nothing seems to be. Why did this person do like this? Why did this happen? We keep thinking, thinking, thinking. Our mind goes into auto-repeat mode.

Like sometimes, if you are watching some video on YouTube, it just, there is auto-rippling. So, mind keeps rippling, going round and round and round. If there is a fan, and the fan moves round and round and round, actually if the fan were the wheel of a car, the car would move a long distance.

The fan moves round and round and round, but gets nowhere. Similarly, our mind also keeps moving round and round and round. We keep thinking, thinking, thinking, it moves nowhere.

At least with respect to the fan, when it moves round and round and round, it cools the atmosphere. But when the mind moves round and round and round, it heats us up. We just get agitated.

So, after some time, the more we think about it, actually the less we are able to deal with the problem. Because we feel frustrated, we feel exhausted, we feel irritated. That's why, in that sense, the more time we give to our problems, the problems will become worse.

And the less time we have for our problems, less time doesn't mean we neglect the problems. But we give them due time, and then we move on and do other things. The less time we have for our problems, the less problems we will have.

Life determines our problems, we determine the size of those problems. Krishna says, If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. Krishna will help us.

We all have many problems. And sometimes bhakti might seem like another problem. One more thing I have to take care of.

But when we take shelter of Krishna, Krishna strengthens us from within. And He strengthens us from within, our capacity, not only to deal with the particular problems we are facing, but our capacity to deal with whatever life sends our way, that increases. So service to Krishna will not drain us.

Rather, service to Krishna will strengthen us internally. And by that strength, we will be able to overcome whatever difficulties we have. The more we become absorbed in Krishna, the more we will be satisfied.

The more we will be able to contribute, doing constructive things in our life. And thus, service attitude will help us to gain satisfaction internally and to make contributions externally. I will summarise what I spoke today.

I spoke on the topic of service attitude transforms knowledge into realisation. We are all looking for happiness and our search for happiness is essentially a search for a satisfying object to love and serve. We may want wealth, power, positions, positions, all this to get somebody to love us.

But unfortunately, when we neglect the principle of service because our age says, I want to be free, then we end up serving our mind and senses. People are more physically free than in the past. There is no slavery largely in today's world.

But people are psychologically bound by addiction. And addiction is where the primary cause of addiction is not just indulgence in a particular thing. It is isolation from others.

I talked about the experiment with mice. So when we are disconnected from others, alienated from others, then whatever thing provokes pleasure, we get hooked to that. The opposite of addiction is not just sobriety or self-control.

It is connection. And to connect with others sustainably, we need service attitude. If we just have an enjoying attitude, and when the other person stops giving enjoyment, we give up the connection.

But service attitude helps us to steadily connect with others. And then we connect with others in our family or profession. Why should we connect with Krishna? Because he is all-pure and will purify us.

He is all-attractive and will give us higher satisfaction. He is all-powerful and will give us inner peace. And he is all-loving and will fill our heart with love.

And when we serve Krishna, by serving him, what happens? First of all, we develop humility. That is the primary purpose. Pratap Rudra got mercy of the Lord because he served humbly.

Humility doesn't mean that we feel inferior to others. Rather, humility means we focus not on our relative superiority and inferiority to others, but we focus on Krishna. And we also develop whatever abilities we have when we serve Krishna.

We also please the devotees and we deepen our connection with Krishna. And most importantly, by serving, our desire to serve Krishna increases more and more. And when we serve Krishna, there are many different services we can do and all of them can help us to advance.

But the service that is most needed, if we do that service, that there will get the greatest mercy. Sometimes some services are glamorised. If we get to do those, that's good.

That's a blessing. But we won't make advancement based on how many people are seeing us do the service. We make advancement by how Krishna sees us doing the service.

What attitude with which we are doing the service. When we are doing service, how much to serve? We need to stretch ourselves. Why should Krishna get less than what our boss gets from us? And when we serve Krishna in this way, we'll find that actually our mind which gets agitated with so many problems.

Serving Krishna will give us spiritual energy. Our problems will be like a tree falling in our way. Without service to Krishna, our energy is low.

So we are like a small cycle. But when we are serving Krishna, the knowledge enters from our ears to the head to the heart. We get the conviction that Krishna is with me and then we become like a truck.

We can push the problems aside and move on. The less time we have for our problems, the less problems we have. So when we take up responsibility for Krishna, we feel Krishna is asking me, what are you doing for me? Then we connect with Krishna in a serious and sustained way.

The less time we have for our problems, the problems don't trouble us so much. And thus we move forward both in gaining inner satisfaction and outer contribution. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.