Duty, Serve, Service, Servant

 

One very frequently used term is Duty. What is Duty?

According to dictionaries, duty is "A moral or legal obligation; a responsibility". Duty is also synonymous with Service. This is quite frequently used words in our society. You meet a Software Engineer or an army or labor and ask his profession, he will say "Service".

Now comes, a bit difficult to swallow word, "The Servant". According to dictionaries, a servant is "A person who performs duties for others".

But let me, with your permission, modify this definition. "A person who has been allotted any duty is a servant". What I mean to say will be clear by this example, let's say you have hired a person. You have allotted some responsibilities to him. Since you have allotted some duties (service - to serve you) he is your servant. Even if he is idle and chooses not to fulfill his duties, he will still be a servant, a lazy/idle servant. Therefore, a person who has been allotted any duty is a servant.

If we ask anyone, "Are you a servant?"

The majority answer would be,

"No, I have a job",

"No, I have a business",

"How dare you ask me this question, do you know who I am?"

But, in reality, each one of us are a servant. How?

With our birth, we have untold duties towards our parents, family, relatives, society, country. Hence we are a servant. We may, shut our brain, eyes, ears and choose not to deliver our duties, but it doesn't matter, we would still be a servant, an idle servant.

Just small observations, all the big aristocratic individuals, the politicians, the union leaders are nothing but "a public servant". Even they admit it, at least during an election campaign. Individuals employed in the service of a government ‘a government servant’, a member of the civil service is 'a civil servant', Judge, Teachers, Software Engineers, Farmers, Maids, Businessman, anyone and everyone is a servant.

How about a husband-wife? Are they not each other's servants? If they have a kid, are they not their kid's servant?

If you happen to see a man (however rich he might be or let him be the king of the world) walking his dog in the morning, please ask this question to yourself (not to that person), "Isn't he a servant of his dog??"

Actually, slavery is nothing foreign to our nature.

The svarupa, or actual identity of the living entity, is described by Lord Caitanya.

Jīvera 'svarupa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa': the real identity of the living entity is that he is eternally a servitor of the Supreme Lord..
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 20.108)

 

Service in Material World vs Spiritual World

 

But there is a difference between a servant in the material world vs a servant in the spiritual world.

Service in the material world is centered around self-satisfaction.

The person we serve, his goal is to be happy himself (by our service). Our goal is to be happy ourselves (by the salary or reward we receive). This is why in corporate sectors employees frequently switch companies, choosing on the basis of salary increment. This selfish, self-centered mentality worsens even more in Kaliyug.

[In Kali Yuga] Servants will abandon a master who has lost his wealth, even if that master is a saintly person of exemplary character. Masters will abandon an incapacitated servant, even if that servant has been in the family for generations. Cows will be abandoned or killed when they stop giving milk.
[Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.36]

[In Kali Yuga] Men will no longer protect their elderly parents, their children or their respectable wives. Thoroughly degraded, they will care only to satisfy their own bellies and genitals.
[Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.42]

 

[At times there is a need to flip through the pages of scriptures just to understand how self-centered and fallen we are, and, what we think/is taught as practicality is nothing but inhumanity. 🙍]

Why be sarcastic and blame others. We ourselves can not imagine serving the "human" who is working at our home - maid. Can we wash his / her feet and welcome them to our home? No right? 😥 But Krishna did!!! He washed the feet of Sudama. Sudama even though a devotee and friend of Krishna, he is still a jiva-atma, spirit-soul, while Krishna is The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is The Only Purusha, The Only Enjoyer, The Master of all Demi-Gods and Spirit Souls, The Ruler of entire manifestation - Jagannath! Yogis do austerities birth after birth just to get a little glimpse of his lotus feet and here is Krishna, washing the feet of his Devotee!! It's like a VVIP like the president of a nation serving an ordinary citizen by washing his feet. 😯

This is the spiritual world!!

 

The world where Krishna enjoys being at the service of his servants (devotees) and His devotees enjoy being at service of Krishna.

Where else can we find The Emperor carrying the shoes of his servant on his head like Krishna did for Nand Maharaj?

Or can a King become a driver for his servants like Krishna did for Arjuna?

Every pastime that Krishna did with his devotees is nothing but a short promo /ad/trailer of the Mega Movie running eternally at Goloka Vrindavan.

It is very difficult for an ordinary brain to conceive or understand the amount of pleasure Krishna gets by serving His dear devotees and vice versa.

Therefore being a servant, here in the material world, is very different from the spiritual world.

The Material world is the world of Exploitation. The spiritual world is a world of pure service.
[HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj.]

Now we understand we all are servants (even if we desire or ignorantly assume our self to be the boss) and serving in Material World can never give happiness (since it is always centered around exploitation), unlike Spiritual World where to-serve is more blissful than to-be-served. Hence intelligent souls opt to serve in spiritual platforms more than in material platforms. 

 

How to serve in the platform of the spiritual life?

To chant the holy name and dance in ecstasy is so easy and sublime that one can achieve all the benefits of spiritual life simply by following this process. .... The Sankirtana movement we have started offers the best process for becoming purified of all sinful reactions and coming immediately to the platform of spiritual life. .
[Srimad Bhagavatam 6.2.11]

Simply by associating with a pure devotee, one becomes wonderfully advanced in Krishna Consciousness. Sadhu-sanga, or association with a devotee, means always engaging in Krishna Consciousness by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra but he whose heart is contaminated sees things differently. Therefore by sat-sanga, or association with devotees, one becomes perfectly pure in heart. .
[His Devine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.]

In the devotional service of the Lord, the only qualification required is surrender. Surrendering oneself is in one’s hand. If one likes, he can surrender immediately, without delay and that begins his spiritual life.
[His Devine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.]

One must seek the association of persons who are Krishna Conscious and who engage in devotional service. Without such association one cannot make advancement..
[His Devine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.]

Thus in a summary, if we want to feel a glimpse of the spiritual world, we need to do the following:

Surrender ourselves to Krishna, understanding the fact we are His mere servants.

Chant the holy name -

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

 

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