The wonderful temples, the mosques and the cathedrals of past centuries were built up to give them the real food and were not built up by blind or unquestioning faith. The were built up on full faith and reasoning which were based on the deductive process. The Vedas, the Bible or the Koran would ask the human being to make proper use of his conserved energy in the transcendental service of God and unsophisticated men in the old days would follow such instruction unhesitatingly for realizing the Absolute Truth. Such temples, mosques were therefore centres of high culture to provide real food to human consciousness.
Service to God (Letters)
Expressions researched:
"God's service"
|"serv* God"
|"service of God"
|"service to God"
|"serving God"
|"servant God"
|"servant-God"
|"serve God"
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
I am sure Krishna will help you more and more because you are sincere servant of Krishna. He blessed in your endeavor and everything will be all right gradually, and it will be a great enlightenment for you how God helps those who help themselves, especially in the service of God.
Read Srimad-Bhagavatam and chant Hare Krishna and all other things will be adjusted automatically.
Regarding your question about Yogananda, you write to say that you "received the impression from his autobiography that he was a genuine saint who dedicated his life to serving God." But the thing is that you do not actually know what is a genuine saint, and what can you understand about saintly life from reading his autobiography. I may inform you that just recently I visited his so-called asrama retreat, and it was simply a hodge-podge of all nonsense. There was a Buddha statue, a Christ statue, a Gandhi's memorium labeled as "World Peace Memorium"—and what world peace he has brought? None. And what does Gandhi have to do with spiritual realization anyway? Gandhi was simply interested to get the Britishers out of India—what has this to do with self-realization, the prime goal of life?
1969 Correspondence
MY INITIATED STUDENTS ARE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO INDULGE in the following principles of degradation: (1) All forms of intoxication, including coffee, tea, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, etc. (2) The eating of animal foods, such as meat, fish, and eggs. Rather, their diet consists of Prasadam, especially offered foodstuffs (vegetarian), (3) Unmarried sex indulgence, (4) Gambling, or idle sports of any sort. Their lives are dedicated to serving God, and as such, they have no time to squander on unbeneficial activities or non-Godly activities
My first thanks are due to Sriman Oliver who has drawn this Visnu picture, and I like it very much. Our service to God is always transcendental. It does not depend on anything material. So there was no reason to accept this picture as a very good drawing by Sriman Oliver. Krishna accepts the spirit of the offering, and anyone who offers Him some service in good devotional service, that is immediately accepted by Krishna.
Sannyasa means to sacrifice everything for the Supreme, and if we link up our activities in such way as is enunciated by the Lord, then all the diversities become unified in Krishna Consciousness. Krishna Consciousness is itself Brahma platform, so all our students who are engaged in the service of God, they are not on the material platform. They are already liberated
1970 Correspondence
We always represent ourselves as servant of God and you are preaching contrary. The Spiritual Master should be given respect of God but that doesn't mean he is God. That is Mayavadi. You should always remember that the Spiritual Master is the representative of God and should be given the respect of God but that doesn't mean that he is God Himself! You can speak of the Spiritual Master as "servant God" whereas Krishna is "master God".
1972 Correspondence
Now by the grace of Krishna I have many thousands of disciples, young American and European boys and girls. Many of them have come to me bewildered, rebellious, and addicted to all sorts of sinful activities. Like so many of the young people today, they were lost and confused. Now they are all leading a disciplined and regulated life. They follow strict principles of spiritual life, with no desire for intoxication of any kind, or illicit sex life. They are always engaged in meaningful work, serving God and their fellow man. They have become the flower of your country and all over the world they are being treated with the highest respect.
1976 Correspondence
The murti of the Spiritual Master should be treated as good as the Deity. Saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair, uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih/kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya **, The guru should be treated as good as God. This is stated in all the sastras. The difference is that God is master-God and guru is servant-God. So the installation ceremony for such a murti should be similar to that done for other Deities. All Temples can have this Deity if they like. But Temples which have only Panca-tattva painting worship should not be given this Deity.
The murti of the Spiritual Master should be treated as good as the Deity. Saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair, uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih/kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya **, The guru should be treated as good as God. This is stated in all the sastras. The difference is that God is master-God and guru is servant-God. So the installation ceremony for such a murti should be similar to that done for other Deities. All Temples can have this Deity if they like. But Temples which have only Panca-tattva painting worship should not be given this Deity.
Supreme Being must be one. Nobody can be equal to Him, and nobody can be greater than Him, otherwise there is no meaning of God. At the present moment it has become a fashion to become God very cheaply, therefore, such system being very cheap and not authorized, there are so many religious systems. Otherwise, God is one, all living entities are His eternal servants, and therefore, the real religious system is to learn how to serve God.
Page Title: | Service to God (Letters) |
Compiler: | Mayapur, ParthsarathyM |
Created: | 04 of Oct, 2011 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=11 |
No. of Quotes: | 11 |