Servitor (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"servitor" |"servitors"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Prabhupada Comments on Prahlada Maharaja Slides - August 25, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: The fighting here takes place because everyone wants to lord it over the material nature. So there is difference of interest. I want to be lord, you want to be lord: now there must be fight. But in the Vaikuṇṭha world there is one Lord and all others servitors. Therefore there is peace. So fighting was not possible in the Vaikuṇṭha world; therefore these two doorkeepers were sent to the material world by the plan of the Supreme Lord so that they could fight as Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyākṣa with the Lord.

Prabhupada Comments on Prahlada Maharaja Slides - August 25, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: The devotees will not fight. The devotees are servitors, but the atheists, the demons, they are always inimical to the Personality of Godhead. That is the nature. Demonic nature means they do not believe in God. "Oh, what nonsense, God. I am God." Although he's a dog, he thinks himself, "I am God." That is demonic nature. He is being kicked every minute by the laws of nature, and still, he is superficially thinking that "I am God."

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Our conception of God is that He is a transcendental person. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvara means Lord. The Supreme Lord is a person. As you are person, He is also person, but He is the chief person. Nityo nityānāṁ. He is the leader, and we are all led. Or He is the master; we are the servitors. That is our self-realization, to understand that "I am eternal servant of God."

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's associating with Kṛṣṇa. And unless one is confidential devotee of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa does not speak with him. But when he becomes perfect, confidential servitor, Kṛṣṇa speaks with him, "Do like this, do like that," and he'll do that. And therefore in his action, you won't find any fault.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Questions and Answers -- January 17, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: That is not our life, to become an impostor. It must be real person. By training, yaḥ śāstra-vidhiṁ siddhiḥ, by training under the teaching of a bona fide spiritual master, the śāstra, and then you'll automatically, the more you become a sincere, I mean to say, servitor of the spiritual master, the more you become qualified to become a teacher in the future. Otherwise where is your qualification? You may cheat others that you are teacher, but you are not actually teacher. You have no lesson, no education.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Here we are giving service as Hindu, as Muslim, as Christian, as Jain, as this or that. These are designation. Designation. When we become free of the designation and then serve God, that is called bhakti or devotion. Just like we have manufactured Christian religion, Hindu religion, Muslim religion, this religion, that religion. But when the religion will be without designation—I am neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Christian, but I am servitor of God—that is pure religion.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee (2): He asked if you're pleased if your disciples do things like Sharma, if they, like, go to live in trees and do artificial renunciation?

Prabhupāda: No, he's trying. That's all. But active service is more important.

Hṛdayānanda: Hm. That is your example.

Prabhupāda: But something is better than nothing. If he goes, goes away to practice somewhere else, better give him chance to practice this. He's not doing anything bad. That is good. That is... But the better service is to be active servant, servitor.

Hari-śauri: That's your mercy on us.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, personally He gives example. He could have done at His home. Why He took sannyāsa and went out of home?

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you mentioned two different types of servitors. One is seeking to steal the property of the master as soon as the master is gone, and the other is sitting waiting...

Prabhupāda: He's thief; he's not servant. He's a thief. He has taken service as a matter of means that "If I remain as a servant, I'll get the opportunity of stealing." So he's not a servant, he's a thief. Stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). (break) ...becoming a thief, if you have got some desire, you ask, "Kṛṣṇa, I am very poor. Please give me some money." That you can do. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha. Ārtaḥ, one who is distressed, he's praying. That is beginning. But when he's advanced.... Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He'll say, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam..., "Now I'm satisfied. I don't want anything." That is perfect stage. But even one goes to God and prays for something, he's called pious. Because he has approached God. And because he has approached God and he's asking God, there is some transaction in this way, by association of God, he'll be purified. One day he will say, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42), "Now, I am fully satisfied. I don't want anything. I don't trouble You. Let me serve You."

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (4): Must initiation be there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Initiation must be there. Otherwise, how you'll be guided? But it is not necessary, but if you can cent percent engagement in Kṛṣṇa, that is better. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was a minister, so he resigned and became cent percent servitor of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But if it is not possible, it does not hamper.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Nandarāṇī: Their prayers are for glorification of God.

Prabhupāda: Glorification means to recite the glorified activities. So He has got activities. Prayers describing the glorified activities. Just like our prayers also. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam (Bs. 5.29). The Lord is tending cows and He's surrounded by so many goddesses of fortune, gopīs, these things are described. Cintāmaṇi-prakara. So the Lord's activities, Lord's place, how He is surrounded by other devotees or servitors, how He is tending, these are prayers.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: We have to stop this change, and that is the mission of human life: no more cat, no more dog, no more demigod, but eternally servitor of Kṛṣṇa as cowherd boys, and gopīs, or whatever you like. As trees, as calves, as cows, as Yamunā water, as Vṛndāvana-bhūmi—everything spiritual.