Devotee: How do we render perfect service to Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: By your anxiety. (laughter, "Haribol!") If you are anxious to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is the real asset. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. What service we can offer to Him? And He has got unlimited servants also. What service He requires from you and me? He's perfect in Himself. He doesn't require any service also. But if you are anxious to serve Him, then He does not refuse. That is His mercy; that is His magnanimity. So the more you increase your anxiety to serve Kṛṣṇa, the more it becomes perfect. He's unlimited. Your anxiety, you become unlimited. So there is competition. The more you serve Kṛṣṇa, the more He accepts you and the more He gives you intelligence. You see? So the spiritual world is unlimited. There is no end of service, and there is no end of accepting the service. It is not that... So eagerness. Tatra laulyam eka mūlyam. I am not manufacturing the answer, but I am giving you evidence from Rūpa Gosvāmī, our ācārya. He says, kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ krīyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate: "My dear gentlemen, my dear boys and girls, if you can purchase a..., your sense of loving Kṛṣṇa—'How I can love Kṛṣṇa more and more'—this, this much, this anxiety, if you can purchase this matiḥ,"—means intelligence; it is very nice intelligence—" 'How I shall serve Kṛṣṇa...' " Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ. Matiḥ means intelligence or status of mind, that "I'll serve Kṛṣṇa." "If you can purchase this status of mind anywhere, please immediately purchase."
Then next question will be, "All right, I shall purchase. What is the price, do you know?" "Yes, I know what is the price." "What is that price?" "Laulyam, simply your eagerness, that's all." Laulyam ekaṁ mūlyam. "Ah, that I can have." No. Na janma koṭibhis sukṛtibhir labhyate. This eagerness, how to love Kṛṣṇa, this is not available even after many, many births. So if you have a pinch of that anxiety, "How I can serve Kṛṣṇa?" you must know you are the most fortunate man. A pinch only, laulya, this anxiety, "How I can serve Kṛṣṇa?" it is very nice. Then Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence.
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam...
(BG 10.10)
"Anyone who is engaged with love and affection in My service, without any hypocrisy," then Kṛṣṇa can understand everything. He is within me, within you. Then He will give you intelligence: "My dear boy, you do like this." And by doing that, what he will achieve? Yena mām upayānti te: "He'll come back to Me." And what profit he will get by going there? Ah, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Duḥkhalayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). There are so many. Please read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. You'll get perfect knowledge, the science of God. That is the only study for human being.
So simply your eagerness is the perfection for serving Kṛṣṇa. Increase that eagerness. And eagerness means if you love Kṛṣṇa, that eagerness will increase with your increase of love: "How I shall serve Kṛṣṇa?" Because you are voluntary servant, nobody is forcing. That means unless you love Kṛṣṇa, how that eagerness will increase? So there are so many things to love Kṛṣṇa. Beginning is this śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. This śravaṇam, hearing, and chanting. Hearing, you are hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa, you are hearing Bhagavad-gītā, you are hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about Kṛṣṇa, and chanting. This is the beginning. Then, naturally,
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
(SB 7.5.23)
These nine kinds of different varieties of service to Kṛṣṇa will enlighten you, will advance you in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and your life will be successful. Any other question? Try to understand, question. It is not a thing that we are forcibly pushing. You have got intelligence. Kṛṣṇa has given you intelligence. Try to understand with your intelligence but do not try to avoid. Make your question to understand it, not making question to avoid it. There are two kinds of question. That question will not help you. If you try to avoid, then Kṛṣṇa will help you to avoid, and if you want to capture Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will help you how you can capture. Two things are going on. Whatever path you want, you can accept. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Kṛṣṇa helps according to the person's attitude.
Just like so many philosophers, they want to forget Kṛṣṇa. Just like you will find in Dr. Radhakrishnan's book, in the Ninth Chapter Kṛṣṇa said, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). The translation is all right, but he comments, "It is not to Kṛṣṇa that you have to surrender." Just see. That means his whole process of writing the book is to mislead persons how one can forget Kṛṣṇa. So if anyone wants to forget Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will give him such intelligence that he will never be able to understand Kṛṣṇa. But if anyone tries to love Kṛṣṇa, understand Kṛṣṇa, He'll give full of intelligence. You can understand. That is Kṛṣṇa. You have got full liberty. But if you forget Kṛṣṇa, then you have to serve māyā, and if you love Kṛṣṇa, then māyā will leave you.
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Seattle, October 4, 1968)
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