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Saturday, June 06, 2009

The Heart of A Servant


A depiction of a wife being a faithful, submissive servant of her husband- or even the words "servant" or "service"- gives difficulty to the materialistic mind that would rather be served and enjoy sense gratification. Yet, the taste for the service rendered the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so nice, we actually begin to pray for it constantly, which is the essential meaning of the Hare Krishna mantra and the result of chanting it. And the more we realize this mood of service to be our real position as a spirit soul, the happier and more content we become. And the more of us who realize this conjointly, the better off relationships will be, the better off an entire society will be

EVERYONE IS SERVANT
First of all, whether one realizes it or not, everyone of us, without exception, is a servant. It is our constitutional nature. In his Bhagavad gita introduction, Srila Prabhupada wrote, "When Sanätana Gosvämi asked Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu about the svarüpa of every living being, the Lord replied that the svarüpa, or constitutional position, of the living being is the rendering of service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we analyze this statement of Lord Caitanya's, we can easily see that every living being is constantly engaged in rendering service to another living being. A living being serves other living beings in various capacities. By doing so, the living entity enjoys life. The lower animals serve human beings as servants serve their master. A serves B master, B serves C master, and C serves D master and so on. Under these circumstances, we can see that one friend serves another friend, the mother serves the son, the wife serves the husband, the husband serves the wife and so on. If we go on searching in this spirit, it will be seen that there is no exception in the society of living beings to the activity of service. The politician presents his manifesto for the public to convince them of his capacity for service. The voters therefore give the politician their valuable votes, thinking that he will render valuable service to society. The shopkeeper serves the customer, and the artisan serves the capitalist. The capitalist serves the family, and the family serves the state in the terms of the eternal capacity of the eternal living being. In this way we can see that no living being is exempt from rendering service to other living beings, and therefore we can safely conclude that service is the constant companion of the living being and that the rendering of service is the eternal religion of the living being."

The material disease of the conditioned soul is when this understanding gets mixed up, thinking we are a master in manipulating the material energy to satisfy our desires, when in reality we are always in a position of servitude.

"So when one is wise, he sees that 'I am actually not master. I am serving others, but I am thinking I am master. Just like in my family. I am thinking that I am the head of the family, I am the master of the family, but actually, to satisfy my family members, I have to work hard day and night. So I have become their servant, but I am thinking I am master.' This is called illusion." Bg lecture Hyderabad 11/27/72

Actually, it is more like slavery when referring to the material energy rather than Krishna's service. The material nature is a hard taskmaster.

JIVA'S CHOICE
As jiva or the marginal energy of the Lord, we are granted a choice. That choice involves whether to serve our material senses or the transcendental senses of Lord Krishna, the owner of the senses. The result of serving our material senses is misery (Bg 18.38). Knowing this, a devotee's superior happiness is based on the satisfaction of Krishna via His devotional service.

"The personalist knows rightly his position as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he engages himself in the activities of Krishna consciousness. Because everything is done for Krishna, he enjoys only transcendental happiness in the discharge of this service. Those who are engaged in this process are known to be without desire for personal sense gratification. The sense of eternal servitorship to Krishna makes one immune to all sorts of reactionary elements of work." Bg4.18p

“A living being, naturally being the part and parcel of the supreme whole purusam pürnam, has as his natural function to serve the Supreme Being, just as the parts and parcels of the body, or the limbs of the body, are naturally meant to serve the complete body. Desireless means, therefore, not to be inert like the stone, but to be conscious of one’s actual position and thus desire satisfaction only from the Supreme Lord. Srila Jiva Gosvämi has explained this desirelessness as bhajaniya-parama-purusa-sukha-mätra-sva-sukhatvam in his Sandarbha. This means that one should feel happy only by experiencing the happiness of the Supreme Lord.“ --SB 2.3.10 purport

"This is the difference between material life and spiritual life. When one works for his own sense gratification, that is material life. And when works for Krishna’s satisfaction, that is spiritual life. That is spiritual life. It is very easy to understand. We are working, we are servant of somebody. All these people who have gathered here, nobody can claim that I am not servant. Everyone is servant, servant of the society, servant of the family, servant of the country, servant of dog, servant of cat. Everyone is servant. That is misplacement. But actually he is servant of Krishna. When he forgets that he is servant of Krishna, he becomes servant of so many masters. But when he understands that I am servant of Krishna, and, becoming servant of Krishna, I can become servant of others also, that is called Krishna consciousness. This is the movement of Krishna consciousness." --lecture Bg. 7.5, 2/20/74, Bombay

SPIRITUAL HEALTH
In other words,voluntary, eager engagement in Krishna's service is our spiritually healthy condition.

“All living entities are by constitution eternal servant. That is their healthy position. So long they remain servant of the Supreme, that is healthy.” Bg 1.37-39 lecture

A devotee, therefore, relishes the position of being a servant of the servant of the Lord. Due to its relation to Krishna, such service is ever fresh and ever increasing:

"The service attitude of the devotee gradually increases and never becomes slackened. Generally, in old age a person is allowed retirement from mundane service. But in the transcendental service of the Lord there is no retirement at all; on the contrary, the service attitude increases more and more with the progress of age. In the transcendental service there is no satiation, and therefore there is no retirement. Materially, when a man becomes tired by rendering service in his physical body, he is allowed retirement, but in the transcendental service there is no feeling of fatigue because it is spiritual service and is not on the bodily plane. Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the spirit is never old, and therefore on the spiritual plane the service is never tiresome." SB 3.2.3 purport

KRISHNA'S PERFECT ARRANGEMENT
Ideally, both men and women are trained from an early age in a service mood. A wife may serve her father and mother, while a man serves his parents, but especially he is trained from the very beginning of his childhood to serve the spiritual master. So, it's not just women who get the opportunity when we ordinarily think of her serving a husband. No, both men and women are given this very important opportunity in this human form of life to cultivate and relish the servant mood, often in very similar ways. Just as a wife is expected to follow her husband and serve him to his full satisfaction (SB 7.7.30-31p), often rendering him menial services, the man is also, but to his guru. Compare the following:

"Brahmacarya has many rules and regulations. For example, however rich one's father may be, the brahmacäri surrenders himself to be trained under the guidance of a spiritual master and works in the ashram of the spiritual master just like a menial servant...We are getting actual experience that very nice boys coming from very respectable families do not hesitate to do any kind of work here. They are washing dishes, cleansing floors—everything." -TTP3

"Närada Muni said: A student should practice completely controlling his senses. He should be submissive and should have an attitude of firm friendship for the spiritual master. With a great vow, the brahmacäri should live at the guru-kula, only for the benefit of the guru." SB 7.12.1

Also compare the following verses. First, for a woman:
"Actually, the first duty of a chaste woman is to carry out the order of her husband.' Antya 7.107

And then for a man:
"In any case, the order of the father or the order of the spiritual master must be carried out without hesitation, with an immediate yes. There should be no argument...As a man cannot separate his life from his body, a disciple cannot separate the order of the spiritual master from his life." SB 3.24.13p

Another similarity is that the service relationship continues his whole life long. A chaste wife follows the instructions of her husband, while a good grhastha also seeks the guidance of his spiritual master in all areas of life:

"It is sometimes misunderstood that a grhastha, a householder, is permitted to indulge in sex at any time. This is a wrong conception of grhastha life. In spiritual life, whether one is a grhastha, vänaprastha, sannyäsi or brahmacäri, everyone is under the control of the spiritual master. For brahmacäris and sannyäsis there are strong restrictions on sexual indulgence. Similarly, there are strong restrictions for grhasthas...The grhastha must obtain permission from the spiritual master to observe the ritualistic ceremony of garbhädhäna-samskära. Then he may approach his wife to beget children, otherwise not...This is not spiritual life. In spiritual life, one must conduct one's whole life under the guidance of the guru. " SB7.12.11p

In these ways, both men and women learn to live for the pleasure of Krishna, via His representatives. And because this loving service mood is continuously expanding, it naturally overflows to include all living beings:

SERVANT OF THE SERVANT
One nice example is Ratna mataji: “Ratna very much like serving the devotees, even in very small, seemingly insignificant ways. For example, she always kept good stocks of soap, toothpaste, shaving foam, razor blades, band-aids, antiseptic cream, needles and thread..anything she could think of that may at some time be needed...like a real caring mother.” (excerpt from "Simple for the Simple" by Bhakti Balabha Puri Goswami)

Serving the Lord's servant is appreciated by the Lord more than direct service. Ädi Puräna says: “One who claims to be My devotee is not so. Only a person who claims to be the devotee of My devotee is actually My devotee.”

"Therefore, through charitable gifts and attention, as well as through friendly behavior and by viewing all to be alike, one should propitiate Me, who abide in all creatures as their very Self."--SB 3.29.27

Furthermore, understanding the great importance of cultivating a servant's heart in this lifetime, a Vaisnava humbly accepts the service of his subordinates- disciple, wife, child- as part of his service to Krsna. Otherwise, to unduly accept service from another or without relation to the Lord's service is maya: The Vaisnava Etiquette Handbook warns: “If you engage your god brothers or godsisters as your servants you will fall down”, so we need to consider who it is we are engaging and why.

This service attitude is so essential that Prabhupada states:  "If one simply continues to think that he is an eternal servant of Krishna, even without performing any other process of devotional service, he can attain full success, for simply by this feeling one can perform all nine processes of devotional service."

And “You cannot understand God or Krsna without being a faithful servant. This is the secret”. CC Adi 1-05 lecture

A CHANGE OF HEART
This transition from sense enjoyer to servant of Krishna is only possible by the bhakti yoga process of devotional service. “The whole process of spiritual culture is aimed at changing the heart of the living being in the matter of his eternal relation with the Supreme Lord as subordinate servant, which is his eternal constitutional position. So with the progress of devotional service, the reaction of change in the heart is exhibited by gradual detachment from the sense of material enjoyment by a false sense of lording it over the world and an increase in the attitude of rendering loving service to the Lord.”--SB 2.3.24

By devotional service one obtains the blessings of advanced devotees.
“This service attitude will induce the great souls to be more favorable in bestowing their mercy, which injects the neophyte with all the transcendental qualities of the pure devotees.”-SB 1.5.34

And when the Lord is satisfied by the service mood of a devotee, He reveals Himself to that devotee.
"This humbleness of the pure devotee, who is one hundred percent engaged in His service, puts the devotee of the Lord in a trance by which to realize everything, because to the sincere devotee of the Lord, the Lord reveals Himself, as stated in the Bhagavad-gitä (10.10). The Lord, being the Lord of intelligence in everyone (even in the nondevotee), favors His devotee with proper intelligence so that automatically the pure devotee is enlightened with the factual truth about the Lord and His different energies. the Lord is revealed not by one's speculative power or by one's verbal jugglery over the Absolute Truth. Rather, He reveals Himself to a devotee when He is fully satisfied by the devotee's service attitude...That is the way of knowing the Lord."--SB 2.4.22p

“By self-realization, one is qualified to become a devotee, and the devotee, by service mood (bhaktyä) only, can gradually know the personality of Godhead." SB2.6.35p

ENTRANCE TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
By this service mood, fueled by love for Krishna, we gain entrance to the kingdom of God, where everyone is a servant: "Only by attainment of a service attitude in the transcendental position can one enter into the kingdom of Godhead." 2.5.40-41 purport

Imagine a world where everyone has this loving service attitude towards Krishna. That is the nature of the spiritual world, which is possible to manifest to some degree at various times here on earth, as well as for every individual serious about their Krishna consciousness (Bg 2.72p).

"Of course, we cannot expect that everyone will accept this philosophy, but we are trying. If some percentage of the population takes (the information presented by) this movement seriously, the face of the world will be changed." ---lecture in Boston, 1969, by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami