Devotee (1): Prayer is also accepted as devotional service.
Scheverman: As devotional service.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are nine kinds of devotional service. They are all the same. Different processes. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyam (SB 7.5.23). Vandanam, this vandanam is prayer. We are worshiping, Deity worship, and you are offering prayers in the church. So both of them we take as devotional service. We don't say that because you are offering prayer, it is less important than.... No. Because it is, prayer is offered to the Supreme Lord. So that is devotional. That is devotion.
Scheverman: Yes, so prayer then is devotion offered to the Supreme Lord.
Prabhupāda: Supreme Lord, they are accepting the Supreme Lord. Yes. Accepting the Supreme Lord.
Scheverman: It's a sign of one's acceptance.
Prabhupāda: Anyone, yes, that is also very pious. If you accept the Supreme Lord, then you become pious immediately. Catur-vidhā. Find out this, catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna.
Kern: Is the prayer communal, where all take part in the prayer, or is it individual?
Prabhupāda: But there are different classes of men. So therefore nine methods of devotional service. And the general method is hearing. Hearing about God.
Scheverman: Hearing about God. So therefore the necessity of speaking aloud in one's prayer. Yes. The father was speaking of the charismatics among Christians. That is one of their tenets, too, speaking a prayer, praise, aloud, so that it can be heard and all simultaneously join in it too.
Prabhupāda: And if factually one hears from the right source and the right words, automatically he becomes God conscious.
Scheverman: Becomes God conscious, that is a way of...
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "O best among the Bhāratas, four kind of pious men render devotional service unto Me—the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute Truth."
Prabhupāda: These are four classes. One distressed, he also seeks the help of God. And another?
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: The desirer of wealth.
Prabhupāda: Yes. In need of money, "God, I am so poor. Kindly give me some money." So he's approached God. That is his piety. Although God should not be asked. Pure devotion means God should not be bothered. Simply we shall render service. "God is great. I am His servant. So my duty is to render service without any profit." The profit is there. To be accepted as God's servant, that is the greatest profit.
Scheverman: That's what Jesus said: "Behold the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin, and yet not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things—what you shall eat, what you shall drink—shall be added to you besides." Yes.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Jijñāsu, the inquisitive, curious.
Prabhupāda: Inquisitive, one is trying to understand what is God, and he is also pious.