Secrets of Service

"A pure devotee is more concerned about rendering devotional service than experiencing the ecstasies of it. In our neophyte stage, we are certainly more interested in ecstasy, as it supplants material attractions and fills our heart with love for Krsna. When the cup of the heart is filled up, then there is no more room. This being so, the neophytes are much interested in achieving ecstasy very quickly. Hence our prayer to Lord Nityananda to keep us happy all the time. But on the very advanced stage of prema - bhakti, even ecstasy is not as important as the service. It is service that is all important, because it pleases Krsna. Of course, ecstasy naturally follows service, but if it interferes with a devotee's service, then he is not interested in it."

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami

This book has been redacted from the lectures Jayapataka Swami Maharaja delivered worldwide. It contains four chapters.

In the first chapter, Jayapataka Swami discusses the right and wrong way to render devotional service with his usual enthusiasm to get the message across to countless conditioned souls like us. In the second chapter, he tells the eager learner how best to shine in service through surrender. He draws our attention the alluring pitfalls that will summarily arrest our surrendering process if we are incautious and Ian in adhering to the principles of steadfast surrender. He illustrates this point by giving us philosophical insights and telling us an absorbing and instructive story from Padma Purana.

By the end of the second chapter Jayapataka Swami successfully gets the readers hooked to the idea of wanting to serve Krsna the right way first and better next by surrendering. When the practitioner of devotional service is engaged in devotional service in the right way, and by surrendering, naturally, he begins realizing being closer to Kona and often experiences the pure joy of devotional service. Exactly at this juncture, the devotee wants to finish off material life and quickly go back to Godhead. But the second chapter ends at this point and chapter three takes over.

In this third chapter, Jayapataka Swami discusses a still higher level of service, which is service to Krsna in separation. Externally, serving Kona in separation seems to be an anticlimax, after all the effort we put into coming closer to Krsna and wanting to go back to Him and reside with Him in the spiritual world. But Jayapataka Swami is quick to explain that service in separation is indeed on the greater echelon of the ladder of devotional service because its ability to have or experience devotion at a deeper and more fulfilling level.

Now, finally, in the fourth chapter, Jayapataka Swami gives us the most deeply satisfying aspect of devotional service, which is the description of interactions between the devotees and the Supreme Lord, enshrined within the hallowed pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. Thus, even though living in this world, away from the spiritual world and in separation from Krsna, we can experience being back with the Lord by serving Krsna in separation and hewing about the pastimes of Krsna and His devotees described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, the mature, ripened fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures.

Last but not least, we gladly invite you to treat yourself to the instructive insights sacredly held within the pages of this book and become the recipient of transcendental knowledge and bliss. Hare Krsna!