How Can I Serve You? | Wisdom Munches -2 | Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. Bhaktanath Thakur ki Jai.
How can I serve you? Prabhupada said this was the only question that I asked my Guru Maharaj. Now this question how can I serve you has a lot in the background going on. That means it is implied that you know, you are my well wisher, you know what is good for me and therefore I want to serve you.
So a devotee’s heart is open. Krishna, Prabhupada said Make me dance, make me dance O Lord, however you want, make me dance. That’s what Prabhupada said in the song Margine Bhagwan Dharma.
So that means Krishna has a plan, Krishna has a purpose. So rather than asking why is Krishna not doing this we ask, okay what do you want me to do Krishna? So Krishna, I had this plan I thought this is the way things are going to work but my plan has got disrupted now. Instead of asking Krishna why are you disrupting my plan? We can ask instead, Krishna what is your plan? Krishna how do you want me to serve you? So how can I serve you? This is not just a simple question.
Actually the question comes from a very deep faith in Krishna that how can I serve you means even if my plan is not working, my plan is gone, your plan isn’t. Krishna’s plan is always working. So what do you want me to do in your plan? Now it may take some time for us to figure it out.
Krishna will give us that guidance gradually but that will take time. So if our heart is open then in any situation we will start perceiving Krishna’s love and it is in one sense the whole practice of bhakti is for this journey from having a locked heart to having an open heart. So open heart means, okay Krishna I am not attached to anything, not even my plans to serve you.
I am attached only to you. That is an open heart. And Prabhupada made many plans to serve Krishna.
Prabhupada in fact 40 years you could say in India he was making various plans to serve Krishna. They were not working. So sometimes we make a plan to serve Krishna and then we become so attached to the plan that because the plan is not working and we are trying to make the plan work, all that agitation fills our consciousness and Krishna goes out of our consciousness.
So that is unhealthy. Even our attachment should be to open heart means our attachment we can never be unattached. Mayi asakta manaha.
Our attachment is to Krishna and that means to serve Krishna. Krishna I want to serve you. When Prabhupada went to America, Prabhupada was not thinking of that he will go to the hippies and the counterculture and preach over there.
Prabhupada wanted to preach to influential people over there. That’s what his Guru Maharaj had told his disciples to do in London and that’s why they had gone and met various lords and various elite people in London. And that’s what Prabhupada tried to do in New York.
That’s what the yoga crowd was in Dr. Mishra’s studio. Prabhupada thought they were not interested but some of these people from the counterculture were interested. And Prabhupada moved to Lower East Side and that’s where the preaching expanded.
So it is our attachment to Krishna. It is not to our plan to serve Krishna. When we have this understanding, then as we practice bhakti, as we everyday chant Hare Krishna and we pray Krishna please engage me in your service.
That means Krishna, whatever is your plan for me today, whatever are the events that are going to happen in my life today, give me the vision by which I can see through these events how can I serve you. When we have that attitude then we will see that Krishna is present all around us. Ito Narasimha Parato Narasimha Yato Yato Yami Tato Narasimha That Krishna is everywhere around us.
Krishna is guiding us. Krishna is protecting us and Krishna is drawing us closer to him. That vision ultimately is the vision of the highest realisation.
For us, spiritual realisation it can mean many things. It means to at a basic level God exists, at another level soul exists. But the highest level of spiritual realisation is that everything is meant to inspire our love for Krishna.
To inspire us to love Krishna. Everything that is happening in this world Mayadhyakshena Prakruti So, when we come to that level, then a devotee becomes unflappable. At this stage, Yamlap Duhachaparam Labham Manyatena Adhikam Tatah.
Having gained that there is nothing more to gain. Yasmin Sittona Dukhena Gurunapi Vicharyate. Even the greatest of adversity, the person is not distressed.
That is the state of spiritual realisation. So, realising the existence of soul, realising the existence of God, even realising the potency of Bhakti, all these are good spiritual realisations. But this is what we aspire for.
That Krishna is drawing me to him through everything that happens. This person may have spoken this and that person may have done that and even I may have done that stupid thing. But through it all, Krishna is drawing me toward him.
And that is the realisation that we all can pray for, aspire for. And that will help us see how we are always situated in Krishna’s love.