Letter 57 - Real service is giving one’s love,...

Real service is giving one’s love • You do not need wealth to chant harināma; you need patience, enthusiasm, faith, determination, and devotion • Practical instructions on education • The drawback of European instruments • Duties in the month of Kārtika

श्री श्री गुरु-गौराङ्गौ जयतः

śrī śrī guru-gaurāṅgau jayataḥ

Śrī Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha P.O.—Navadvīpa (Nadia), W. B. 8/1/1980

Snehāspadeṣu—

You wrote: “How much longer will I have to suffer?” True and proper service to Hari is accomplished by giving the love you have inside, and guru and Vaiṣṇavas are always exceedingly satisfied with that. Those who have wealth serve by that means, and those who do not have wealth will serve with their lives, intelligence, and words. This has been delineated in scripture.

If you do not have books and whatnot, I will provide you with them. You do not need wealth to chant harināma and hear hari-kathā. What is needed for that is patience, enthusiasm, faith, determination, and devotion. That way one can properly associate with sādhus and engage in nāma-kīrtana and the other five predominant limbs [of bhakti].

I am happy to know you are now studying in twelfth grade. In the future, ultimate well-being (kalyāṇa) will be yours. Your studies and classes will prove very beneficial when you have to deal with the pressures of further studies and employment. This is because “no one gets happiness in this world without suffering, do they?” And “You will only find Keṣṭa (Kṛṣṇa) if you undergo a bit of kaṣṭa (suffering).”

Only that which is earned through struggle endures forever.

सङ्गीत-चर्चा-द्वारा प्रभु आनन्द-विधान-पूर्वक कार्तिक-मास जापन करिबे

Saṅgīta-carcā-dvārā prabhu ānanda-vidhāna-pūrvaka kārtika-māsa jāpana karibe

“One should spend the month of Kārtika delighting the Lord with musical recitations.” 

This statement instructs us to dance, sing, and play instruments before Śrī Bhagavān during this time. That, without a doubt, constitutes service to Him, and it is by such activity that one avoids rebirth. It is taught that mṛdaṅga drums, mañjirā and karatāla cymbals, conchshells, bells, gongs, etc. are to be used by Vaiṣṇavas. Foreign instruments have rājasika and tāmasika qualities that make them tauryatrika^[1]. They have an intoxicating quality, and that is part of pleasure and sport. 

Distributing mahā-prasāda and accepting it certainly effects the welfare of the soul and conquers the senses. 

महा-प्रसाद सेवा करिते हय, सकल प्रपञ्च जय

Mahā-prasāda sevā karite haya, sakala prapañca jaya^[2]

“When one serves mahā-prasāda, all this bondage of material existence is vanquished.”

Only those who are able will donate rice and they can donate ghee and camphor for offering lamps. If the living entity does not hear hari-kathā and take darśana of Vaiṣṇavas, he meets with the opposite of well-being. That is what is conveyed in Kārtika-mahātmya. One must take birth in animal species if one does not perform bhajana of Hari. It has been determined that during the month of Kārtika, one should observe go-grāsa, which means putting one’s meal on the dirt or cement and eating it from there. This directive is especially for renunciates. … Iti—

Your eternal well-wisher,
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Vāmana

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Tauryatrika^– tūrya (musical instrument) + trika (three)–refers to the “musical triad” of song, dance, and instrumental music. Manu- smṛti (7.50) lists tauryatrikaalong with hunting, gambling, sleeping during the day, engaging in criticism, illicit sex, intoxication, and listless wandering as activities born of lust or a craving for pleasure (kāmaja). Kīrtanathat is not performed exclusively for the pleasure of Śrī Bhagavān, but for one’s own sense gratification, culminating in a partying mood, falls in this category.

[2]:

Śaraṇāgati^, Śuddhā^- bhakata (5) by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura