Appreciate and Advance in Devotional Service [granthraj]

When Narada Muni meets Vasudeva at his house in Dwaraka, Vasudeva humbly inquires  about those duties which give pleasure to the Supreme Personality Krishna. Pleased by his inquiry Narada Muni glorifying the potency of devotional service replies in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.2.12 as follows..

shruto ‘nupathito dhyaata / aadrto vaanumoditah
sadyah punaati sad-dharmo / deva-vishva-druho ‘pi hi

"Pure devotional service rendered to the Supreme Lord is spiritually so potent that simply by hearing about such transcendental service, by chanting its glories in response, by meditating on it, by respectfully and faithfully accepting it, or by praising the devotional service of others, even persons who hate the demigods and all other living beings can be immediately purified."

The word ‘anumoditah‘ in the above verse is worth meditating. Even the act of praising the devotional service done by others has so much potency to purify us.  We are always eager to hear our own glories. Praising our own self is like nectar for us. But we find it very difficult to appreciate the genuine and wonderful service done by others. This is simply because of the quality of envy present in gross and subtle manner in our hearts.

Recently we received a very nice, thought provoking mail from HG Ramvilas Prabhu stressing the importance of appreciating others. Prabhuji had mentioned  that  "usually we get to hear the good qualities of a devotee only after he has departed from this material world, especially during the sraddhanjali ceremony. At that stage we lament for not having associated properly with that devotee. Let’s not wait till the sraddhanjali ceremony – Let’s start appreciating from today itself."

His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur would regularly carry out this exercise with his disciples whenever they quarreled. He would seat the quarreling devotees in his presence and ask them to appreciate each other. He would ask them to appreciate genuinely and not to flatter. The quality should actually be present in the devotee. Thus when the devotee would probe into the other devotee’s character, he would find that there are so many good things in that devotee and that there was no need to quarrel.

Indeed, this is a very important exercise which we need to perform every time we get thoughts of hatred/envy about others. For the benefit of our own-selves, we need to cultivate this habit. As Gurudev insists, "if we see good in others, we will also become good.  But if we keep meditating on the bad qualities, we will also soon become bad." Our crooked mind might immediately question as to what to do if some devotee really commits a mistake or hurts us? It is natural to get such testing situations from the Lord. Under such circumstances, we may politely explain our situation – but should not engage in criticising them – rather entrust them in the hands of Guru and Krishna and forget the incident as soon as possible. Relationships grows only by genuine appreciation and encouragement.  So even in times of turbulence, if we could recollect and remember the good qualities/service done by others, then we would be able to live in harmony with others.

Krishna has bestowed each and every living entity with a special quality. When we see others engaging these special qualities in Krishna’s service, we should actually feel happy about their service and humbly try to learn from them as to how we can also serve. Srimati Radharani always considers others as better devotees than Herself and is very much pleased and appreciative of other devotees even when they do small service to the Lord. It is this humble and appreciating nature which makes Her the dearmost devotee of Krishna. His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada has also mentioned that "simply by appreciating the Vaishnavas you can go back home back to Godhead."

So let us genuinely and sincerely appreciate, encourage and respect the service done by all the devotees of Lord and thereby please Him and as a result purify our existence.

Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Yahoo Groups run by the disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/granthraj/ by the devotee name mentioned above. The posting in this article, is original realizations of our Guru Maharaj and the devotee who wrote this. Any comments regarding this article would be passed on directly to the devotee. In this article, ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Gurudev’ implicitly refer to our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj.

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6. Pretentious Devotional Service [granthraj]
7. Devotional Service with Austerity [granthraj]
8. Surrender and Render Devotional Service – [granthraj]
9. How to Achieve Pure Devotional Service – Part 1 [granthraj]
10. Pure Devotional Service [granthraj]