Guru aur Gauranga ki seva

Guru aur Gauranga ki seva

Krishna tells in Bhagwad geeta that tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya updekshyanti te gyanam gyani na tattva darshina. From the very beginning of my life, I was eager for self realization and when I came across this statement that sevaya of Guru then I was wondering what does the sevaya to Guru meant. For me, initially  the word seva meant service to poor and needy because of my upbringing in Punjab where common connotation of word seva is service to needy and poor people. But, here hearing the word seva created conflict in my mind that what does seva means. I joined a spiritual group and found that seva in that context meant to support activities of that group was termed as seva to Guru. However, I could not realize out of my immaturity that I am also the part of the group and services related to my personal maintenance is also considered by Guru, an important service to him. Sri Sanatana Goswami once got a skin disease and boils with puss spread all around his body. He wanted to stay away from his Guru Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because he didn't wanted him to make him uncomfortable with his smelling body, so one day he decided to end up his life. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rebuked him severly telling that your body is my own body and how can you take some one else's body, you are a thief. This means taking care of his own body was not his personal work but also service to his Guru.

Seva means to do some act which pleases the person. Seva doesn't just mean cleaning the floor, feeding the prasad, treating the sick etc. That is also a form of seva but the substance of seva is to please the object of seva. Seva is successful when the object of seva is pleased. Suppose I may give prasadam to poor but if I don't give it with proper respect and if he feels insulted by my behavior then even though I rendered seva but that seva instead of pleasing created displeasure in him then that action no longer remained seva. Seva to Guru will be what pleases him the most. Guru who is coming in the line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will get pleased most by anything which pleases Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the most. What pleases Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu most is chanting of the holyname. Mahaprabhu showed it with his interaction with Haridas Thakur that how much Haridas Thakur pleased Mahaprabhu and what pleased Mahaprabhu was his dedication and love for the holyname. Similarly, when Rupa Goswami wrote the verse that when I hear the holyname , I wish I may have thousands of tongues and millions of ears, Mahaprabhu became ecstatic with that dedication of Rupa Goswami. Since Mahaprabhu has come to give the love of Godhead through chanting of the holyname therefore recieving the gift of Mahaprabhu will please Mahaprabhu the most. and therefore improving one's dedication to the holyname will please Guru the most and that is the seva of the Guru which pleases him most. He is not in need of anything personal. He is well taken care by Krishna personally  Guru is amanina Mana dena , he doesn't expect respect also from anyone, what to say of material resources in form of money and man hours.

I suffered a lot when I didn't understand what the seva means. I felt tormented by managers in spiritual centers who demanded physical services in form of man hours as well as money and put it in the forefront of all the things even the chanting of the holyname. There is a twist done by some kapati philosphers in the  the movement of Mahaprabhu that goal of chanting is to get enthusiasm to do physical services in form of manhours and money. It is a blunder and has made me suffer so much and many of my friends so much. Goal of chanting is kirtaniya sada harih. To always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna. Physical services and money do please the Lord but Lord has time and again emphasized in the scriptures that he is most pleased by the chanting of the holynames over yagya, daan, teertha yatra etc. Goal of chanting the holyname is to have more urge for chanting of the holyname. Once when I was in the beginning of my training in one of the spiritual centers, I didn't feel inclined to do cleaning the floor or washing the utensils as I had never done that in my home and male members never used to do that in our family systems but I felt inclined to attend morning aratis, chanting , hearing Bhagwatam . One senior member of that center came up to me and said that your aspirations for going to Vaikunta are meaningless because you are not inclined for services and in Vaikunta people are always doing services. He out of his immaturity belittled my interest for hearing and chanting and pushed me to take interest in other physical services. I had emotional breakdown, tears came in my eyes but I suppressed them and cried in my heart. I felt I have no space in this center and it is not for me. Morning and evening classes would be on the importance of holyname and hearing and in dealings importance will be given to physical services and donations. Aspiration of a devotee is to become puppet in the hand of the Lord but here the managers were trying to make Lord the puppet in their hands. Natural result of chanting of the holyname is to have more interest in the chanting of the holyname and hearing of Lord's pastimes but the managers try to suppress that interest and telling that physical services are more important than chanting of the holyname and that is seva of Guru and without service of Guru one can't get Krishna. What a sorry situation. When one is getting Krishna in form of interest in holyname then one is being stopped from getting Krishna and is told that you can't get Krishna unless you please Guru. How did that person got interest in Krishna if Guru wasn't pleased. These managers not only try to make Lord as puppets in thier hand but also Guru as puppet in their hand. Such managers have clear material agendas of becoming a SENIOR devotee and an influential person in the eyes of organisation and such persons should never be entertained by sadhakas. It is neither good for sadhakas and not even good for such managers. 

Real service to Guru is to fulfill his mission of delievering you love of Godhead and the way to get Love of Godhead is to chant the holyname of the Lord following the footsteps of the Haridas Thakur, Rupa Goswami etc.  Meaning of Hare Krishna Mahamantra is also that O Radha rani please engage me in service of Sri Krishna. Here, the service again doesn't necessarily mean the practical service of cleaning the floor, washing the utensils etc but it is the attitude of pleasing Krishna. It is the action of body, mind and words for pleasing Krishna and to take out our absorption from adharmic sense enjoyment born out of bodily concept of life and engage our mind completely in pleasing Krsna. To develop that hankering for pleasing Krishna.