So you cannot be free from service. That's a fact. Either you serve the society or serve your family, serve your country or somebody, somebody, somebody, cats, dogs—you have to serve. That is your position. But this service is confusing, frustrating. Just like take for example in your country President Kennedy. He was serving his country—you elected him president—but somebody did not like: shot—he's dead. In our country also, Mahatma Gandhi, he was recognized servant of the . . . father of the nation, but somebody shot him.
So the idea is that in this material world, however perfectly you give your service, the service-taker and the service-giver, nobody will be satisfied. Nobody, at any time. It is illusion. Therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means you are doing something only for nothing. That is called māyā. Māyā means nothing: which has no existence, phantasmagoria; which has no existence, but we accept something.
So premāñjana-cchurita. Therefore our happiness, our real position, is to convert or transfer this service to Kṛṣṇa, or God. That is our business. And when you transfer your service to Kṛṣṇa, or God, you are serving. But you are being frustrated. In this material service, the person to whom you are rendering service, he is never satisfied, neither you are satisfied. That is the position. Try to understand. Nobody.
So the real service is . . . that is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the heart that, "I am serving throughout my whole life my country or my family, but they are not satisfied, and I am also not satisfied." Then what is the remedy? The remedy is that service spirit is your constitutional position. You have to serve. But because you have placed your service spirit in a wrong place, you are frustrated. You have to put it into the right place, and that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
We are trying to push on this movement, change the consciousness. Now our consciousness is polluted, muddy. Somebody is thinking, "I am Indian," somebody is thinking, "I am American," and they are fighting one another. Just like Russia, America, Vietnam: everyone is thinking, "I am Vietnamese," "I am Russian," "I am American." So the interest crossing one another, overlapping—the circle of activity, the center being missed. Just like if there is center, from the center if you draw a circle, then no circle will overlap. But if you miss the center, any circle you make, it will overlap with other.
So we are missing the center. The center is God, or Kṛṣṇa. With God center, if we expand our activities—either country's service or society's service or family's service, or any service—you expand, but you keep the center, then it will be very nice. It will never overlap. But if you miss the point, Kṛṣṇa . . .
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- (BG 10.8)
Kṛṣṇa says: "I am the center of all activities."