So we are the part and parcel of God and the centre is God, not us. It is an identity crisis, existential identity as an atma. This atma is a particle of consciousness and that particle of consciousness is meant to serve the supreme consciousness. Just like if you have a machine, it has so many screws and bolts, holding that machine together and one screw may fall out, right? Srila Prabhupada uses this analogy. So it is on the floor, thinking, “Oh I am independent, I don’t need the machine.” But the machine is going along, even without that one screw. It is somehow functioning.
But the screw is useless; it is just lying on the floor. It has no function, no usefulness. He is disconnected from the machine. But then he screws back in and he is right where he belongs. He is connected to his right position.
God is the centre. He wants to remove kaam, krodh, lobh, anger, greed and envy, because these are deleterious qualities, they diminish one’s functional ability, they debilitate the mind, they make one disturbed, they are not good for health. It is not good to be angry and envious, you can’t sleep at night, if you can’t sleep properly, you can’t digest your food, you secrete too much acid and get acid stomach, with too much envy and anger.
So these qualities are not good for the individual’s mental or physical health, what to speak of the peaceful functioning in a group or society, or in the workplace… if one is greedy and impatient and intolerant…
So they pray to remove all these bad qualities and they pray for, “Oh God, remove these bad qualities and God give me good qualities.” For what? For my happiness, for my pleasure. God serve me, “Oh God serve me, be good to me, help me be happy”
So that is saying I am the centre and God is my servant. But actually the actual fact is that God is the centre and we are God’s servant! We are meant to serve God.
So ego-based or need-based prayers are not really bhakti. You are just praying, you may pray to Krsna or Siva or anyone but the aim is the same, the aim is me, my happiness… engage Siva in my happiness, engage Krsna in my happiness, in serving me, engage any demigod in serving me.
But Krsna bhakti is a whole different concept. It is based on the idea that I am the servant and God is the master. God is the centre and I am the part. I am dependant, He is independent. My role is to serve God and the chanting of the maha-mantra is different than praying because the maha-mantra is a prayer to be engaged in service. “Oh Radha and Krsna please engage me in service because I am your servant. I want to serve You.”
And then You will do the rest, as I said earlier,
ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (Bg, 9.22)
Tranlation by Srila Prabhupada:
But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form--to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.
Whatever I need, You will take care of. If I need peace, You will give me peace, if I need happiness You will give me happiness… whatever I need.
A sold-out servant of a master he doesn’t worry. He gets hired by a master to work in the house. The master will make sure he has clothes. He won't have a naked servant. He will make sure he has food and he will give him place to live. You see in GK, Warner Place like that they make a whole servants’ quarters.
In Friends Colony, my friend, he has a big bungalow and at the end of his drive-way, where the cars are, there is another little bungalow. Pretty big, 3-4 stories, so I said, “What is that?” “Oh, that is the servants’ quarters” I said, “What is that?” I didn’t know, I had never heard such a thing. “Oh that is where the servants live” I said, “Oh, you mean they have apartments there?” “Ya, apartments, little small but they live there and work for me.” I said, “Oh!”
So, if they get sick, he will give them some medicine, if they don’t have enough money to pay.
So if we work for God, then God will take care of everything, whatever we need. We are the servants. God is the Supreme Master and we are His servants. So we serve Him. Our duty is to serve, His duty is to take care of us. We are the servants. We are doing what we are supposed to do, we are serving the Master.
“Master, I am hungry, I need some food.” “Ah, forget it, just serve.”
That’s not the way it works!
God gives everything. So why independently… it's like piecemeal… it is like watering the leaves of the tree to make the tree grow, you go out with a tea kettle or something full of water, a bartan, a pitcher, a jug full of water and start watering each leaf.
And someone says, “What are you doing man?” He says, “I am watering this tree.” “That’s not how you do it! Just put water at one place on the roots and through the roots, the tree will carry water to every single leaf.”
So the root of existence is God. And the way to water the root is to chant His name. That is the one and only way.
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha
Anyatha, there is no other way. Harer nama harer nama… this is kali-yuga, this is nama yuga, this is the yuga of nama, this is the age of nama. Chant the name and get perfection. Easy, simple, fast, direct.
Everyone wants that. “Hey, what is the fast way? Direct? Superfast, express!” Jet delivery, this that, whatever.
So it is simple, fast, easy, direct – the name. So when you chant the name of Krsna it pleases Krsna the most, and it is the direct way to please Krsna and this is service of the Lord. And then by doing this, we engage ourselves in service, then we become enlisted as His servant. And God becomes our master, rather than our servant. And then when He is our master, He automatically knows what we need.
He knows we need food, He knows we need shelter, He knows we need clothing, He knows we need medicine, He knows we need happiness, He arranges it all…!
Instead of us saying, “Oh God, now I am angry, please take away my anger, now I am not happy, please make me happy.” This is the one prayer that solves everything, does everything. So why waste time praying, this that, chant Hare Krsna and get everything
akama sarvakamova
moksha kama udaradih
tivrena bhakti yogena
yajesa purusham param
So whether you have no desire, akama or sarvakama, so many desires, or whether you are, whatever you want you can get by just doing bhakti.
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