Lord's service

[Guest guest]

!! Sri Rama Jayam !!

 

Since ages, all the seers & saints of different sects of thought in India have

reached to a common agreement that among the navadha-bhakti (nine-fold devotion)

- Shravanam, Kirtanam, Smaranam, Archanam, Vandanam, Dasyam, Padasevanam,

Sakhyam & Atmanivedanam - the most difficult & all-challenging one is " Dasyam " .

The reason being that when one accepts " Dasyam " he/she does not have a self

desire or expression of interest. The devotee simply becomes an instrument which

gets tuned to the wavelength of the will & command of the supreme Lord. One

might find a good number of examples for all the other 8 classes of bhakti, but

for " Dasyam " there has been just one single name without objections or

assumptions - and that's Sri Hanuman, the epitome of selfless service to Lord.

 

The puranic scholars refer to Hanuman's service as " anukulyena krsnanu-silanam. "

As honey flows from a jar without obstruction, thus Hanuman served Lord Rama day

and night. We should learn how to serve from him. Do we think we want to ?

 

In the real world, it is not tough to understand the level of competition among

people sharing equal ranks reporting to the same boss. A similar competition

does exist in the spiritual path and a true devotee must take utmost care while

dealing with this. In Uttara Ramayanam, there is an interesting incident which

helps devotees to clarify such situations.

 

Sita devi, Bharata, Laksmana and Satrughna are all servants of Lord Rama. Sita

devi is Lord's consort and the others are His brothers. Once, they had a meeting

and complained to each other, " Hanuman is always serving Rama, from the

beginning of the day to the end of the day. He gives no time for us to serve. He

is fanning with a chamara, massaging, bringing food, and performing a multitude

of other services. When can we serve? We four, combined together, should take

over all of Rama's services, day and night Hanuman should have no time to even

enter the palace. " Thus they divided all Rama's services amongst themselves.

 

They decided that at night time, no one would be allowed to approach Rama, for

that was Sita devi's time to serve. In the daytime sometimes Bharata, sometimes

Laksmana, and sometimes Satrughna would serve. In this way they divided all the

tasks & services of the eight yamas (parts of the day).

 

Not a good news for Hanuman & so he began to weep, and prayed to them, " Please

don't do this to me. Please give me any insignificant service, otherwise I

cannot survive. I will die. " Can we be like Hanuman, thinking that without

service we will die? Hanuman was always meditating, always performing kirtana,

always hearing hari-katha from the gandharvas, and always offering pranama.

 

Hanuman told Sita, Laksmana, Bharata and Satrughna, " Oh! respect ones - please

give me any tiny service. It may be a third class bogus service, but I want it. "

They thought, and they discussed amongst each other, " What service can we give

him? " " Nothing, " they decided. Then Hanuman said, " I have a suggestion. Sri

Ramacandra has never yawned but it may come. I will stay outside his room, and

when He will yawn I will snap my fingers. This service should be given. " The

four discussed Hanuman's proposal and decided that, since in His whole life

Ramacandra had never yawned, there would be no harm in Hanuman taking that

service.

 

Being distant from Rama & unable to see if the Lord had yawned or not, Hanuman

remained sitting on the outside of the house & sang, " Jaya Rama, Jaya Rama, Jaya

Jaya Rama, " and snapped his fingers continuously. Lord Ramacandra then began to

yawn & only yawning throughout the entire day and night. All services by Sita,

Laksmana, Bharata and Satrughna had to be stopped. They began thinking, " What to

do now? This Hanuman is the root of all evil. " They went to Rama, and Rama

advised them, " Oh, please give him service; otherwise he will not be able to

remain alive. " Thus, Hanuman had a chance again to be near & serve his beloved

Lord for ever.

 

The message of the story is - " no service is smaller, it is the attitude which

makes a sadhaka elevated to the status of his/her Lord. " We should try to be

like Hanuman always serving, though we stay at a distance. Our small but sincere

efforts bring us closer to our Lord.

 

May Sri Guruvayurappan protect our devotion.

 

Hare Krishna

Hare Rama