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If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is wanted, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give

Expressions researched:
"If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is wanted, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is wanted, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give.

Prabhupāda: . . . what kind of service we shall give? I can give you one example. I have seen it practically, that in Calcutta one neighbor, neighboring gentleman, his daughter-in-law, he (she) was beating her young son. So I inquired, "Why that daughter-in-law . . .?" Because her father-in-law was of my age, little older. "So why daughter-in-law is punishing her son? What is the fault?" Naturally, young, a small child. So the report came that the . . . one of the child, one of the boy, was suffering from typhoid, fever, and another boy stole from the kitchen some parāṭā and gave him to eat.

And when the mother came into knowledge, she was punishing that, "Why you have given this parāṭā?" Because in typhoid, no solid food is taken. So he cannot . . . but the suffering child was thinking that, "Mother is not giving me food," so he requested his younger brother, "You give me some food." So he does not know. He has given the food. But the result is that he is being punished. So without knowing how to give service, sometimes we may be punished. What kind of service we shall give? . . . (indistinct) . . . example. So there are three kinds of services: goodness, passion and ignorance. If we . . .

Lord Brockway: Goodness . . .?

Śyāmasundara: Passion.

Pradyumna: Passion.

Prabhupāda: Passion, yes.

Śyāmasundara: Ignorance.

Prabhupāda: And ignorance. If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is wanted, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give.

So real suffering of the society, human society, or any society you take, real suffering is because the living entity has forgotten God, so he is being punished in different way by the material nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So many ways. But everyone is being punished. At least, the three kind . . . why three kinds? That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, that this is also punishment, repetition of birth and death. This is also punishment.

Because we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We are spirit soul; we are eternal. So our this constant change of body, birth and death, that is also punishment. Because nobody wants to die, because he is eternal. How he'll like to die? He wants to keep his eternal position, but he, because he's criminal . . . just like one man is condemned to die, murderer, so he has to die. But he wants to protect himself, placing himself in the court, "How to save? How to save?" So that is our natural tendency, that we do not want to die. Why? Because we are eternal. We have got the prerogative.

So if . . . anyone does not want to die. Anyone does not want to take birth even. Now we have forgotten. Otherwise, in the womb of the mother, everyone knows that we are kept in such a way, in a packed, compact water bag, without any facility to move, not only for one day, two day, but ten months. Medical science knows; everyone knows. And at that time there are worms in the womb of the mother, taking the advantage, delicate skin; they also bite. And he cannot make any protest. He moves sometimes. The child moves. These are the sufferings. But we do not take care. If I have to take birth again, then I have to go, again enter into the womb of the mother, and to develop my body and in such precarious condition, the body will develop.

Page Title:If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is wanted, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-10-18, 10:39:04
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1