An Actual Sevāk Feels No Difficulty in Service

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I will narrate an incident I heard from Gurudev's mouth. When the maṭh was in Rasbihari Avenue, (before Kalighat) one brahmacārī who was a mṛdaṅga player would pester another sevāk in the maṭh saying, "Why do you do so much sevā? What is the need? Come let us roam in the city." 

The maṭh sevāk replied,  "I like to perform sevā; I feel good by serving."

But the mṛdaṅga player would persist, saying, "You are simply engaging in useless sevā, what is the necessity of so much sevā, do you have your children here?"

One day the aggrieved sevāk informed our Gurudev that the brahmacārī bothers him repeatedly telling him not to do sevā and says, "See me, I play mṛdaṅga and then I am free to wander in the city and you slog like a fool whole day."

Gurudev got angry and said, "He will enter into material life, how dare this wicked fellow hinder you from service?"

There cannot be any dosh (mistake) in the words of a saint, such as Gurudeva. Soon the mṛdaṅga player entered family life, married, and had some children. The wife then fell ill and he spent a lot of money on doctor's fees and treatment, but she became bedridden. The poor man had to look after the sick wife, cook, and care for the children, wash their clothes, and go outside and earn money. The whole family's responsibility fell on his head, and he was perplexed. 

In the maṭh, he did not want to serve Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava, and now serving the family day and night, Is this good? Serving Hari Guru and Vaiṣṇava in the maṭh brings eternal welfare to living beings and it liberates them from the material world. Lord gave him such good punishment. How much could we give him? Lord's punishment is very severe and horrible (bhayanak). His son had come to the maṭh and narrated their difficulties.

Why does he feel distressed to serve in the maṭh and is happy to serve in the world? It is because his relation with Guru, Vaiṣṇava, and Bhagavān has not arisen, so he was not inspired to serve.

The basic foundation for sevā is sambandha. The stronger the relationship, the more inclination for sevā; he will not feel difficulty in sevā. No fire brigade can extinguish the forest fire of material life. The person burns in a forest fire.

Param Gurudev is called "volcanic energy" because he never feared sevā. Many instances to illustrate this are there. Once when he just returned from an outside assignment, he kept his luggage down went to offer praṇāms to Prabhupād. He had not taken bath or eaten or drank yet when Prabhupād told him, "You have to go to Madras." He did not say anything in reply such as I just came now, I will take some rest and food; nothing like that. He followed Gurudev's orders and immediately left for the Railway Station. 

Later Prabhupād arranged for preparing and delivering prasādam through a sevāk to the Railway Station. Prabhupād said to the sevāk, "Hand over prasād to Hayagrīva Brahmacārī, he did not eat anything." Param Gurudev never took a step back from sevā. We react by saying just now I finished one sevā, you are giving me yet another, is there no one else to do it? This is because we have no relation, so we feel unhappy and find sevā difficult. But for an actual sevāk, he will not feel unhappy nor feel difficulty in serving. Why? He feels I am the servant of the Lord who is the proprietor of infinite brahmāṇḍas.

—Śrila Bhakti Kuśala Padmanābha Mahārāj

10.2.2021, Bangalore

translation from Hindi to English












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