Despite becoming the highest executive in the land, one has to give service to the people. If that service is not given, one is likely to be usurped, fired, or killed. In the material world, service is very dangerous. If there is a little discrepancy in one's service, one is immediately fired.

Made to Serve

Serve the senses or serve the master of the senses

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does not pray for wealth, followers, or beautiful women, because these are material requests. Usually, people want to be very great leaders within this material world. Someone tries to become a very rich man like Ford or Rockefeller, or someone else tries to become president or some great leader that many thousands of people will follow. These are all material demands: "Give me money. Give me followers. Give me a nice wife." Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu refuses to make such materialistic requests. He frankly says, "I don't want any of these things." He even says, mama janmani janmanishvare [Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya-lila 20.29, Shikshashtaka 4]. That is, He's not even asking for liberation. Just as the materialists have their demands, the yogis demand liberation. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does not want anything of this nature. Then why is He a devotee? Why is He worshiping Krishna? "I simply want to engage in Your service birth after birth." He does not even pray for an end to birth, old age, disease, and death. There are no demands whatsoever, for this is the highest platform, the stage of bhakti-yoga.

Chanting Hare Krishna is also asking the Lord, "Please engage me in Your service." This is the mantra taught by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. Hare refers to the energy of the Lord, and Krishna and Rama are names for the Lord Himself. When we chant Hare Krishna, we are asking Krishna to please engage us in His service. This is because our entire material disease is due to our having forgotten to serve God. In illusion, we are thinking, "I am God. What is the other God that I have to serve? I myself am God." Ultimately, that is the only disease, the last snare of illusion. First of all, a person tries to be prime minister, president, Rockefeller, Ford, this and that, and when one fails or attains such a post and is still unhappy, he wants to become God. That is like becoming an even higher president. When I understand that the presidency does not afford me eternal bliss and knowledge, I demand the highest presidency. I demand to become God. In any case, the demand is there, and this demand is our disease. In illusion, we are demanding to be the highest, but the process of bhakti-yoga is just the opposite. We want to become servants, servants of the servants of the Lord. There is no question of demanding to become the Lord; we just want to serve. That's all.

Our original nature is rooted in service, and wanting to serve is the crucial test for the devotee. We may not realize it, but in this material world we are also serving. If we want to become president, we have to make so many promises to the voters. In other words, the president has to say, "I'll give the people my service." Unless he promises to serve his country, there is no question of his becoming president. So even if one is the most exalted leader, his position is to render service. This is very difficult for people to understand. Despite becoming the highest executive in the land, one has to give service to the people. If that service is not given, one is likely to be usurped, fired, or killed. In the material world, service is very dangerous. If there is a little discrepancy in one's service, one is immediately fired. When the people did not like the service that President Nixon was rendering, they forced him to resign. Some people disagreed with President Kennedy, and he was killed. Similarly, in India, Gandhi was also killed because some people did not like the way he was rendering service. This is always the position in the material world; therefore one should be intelligent enough to decide to cease rendering service for material motives. We must render service to the Supreme Lord, and that rendering of service is our perfection.

We have formed this International Society for Krishna Consciousness in order to teach people what they have forgotten. In this material world, we have forgotten the service of Radha-Krishna; therefore we have become servants of maya, the senses. Therefore, in this Society we are saying, "You are serving your senses. Now just turn your service to Radha and Krishna, and you will be happy. You have to render service—either to maya [illusion], the senses, or to Sri Sri Radha-Krishna."

In this world, everyone is serving the senses, but people are not satisfied. No one can be satisfied, because the senses are always demanding more gratification, and this means that we are constantly having to serve the senses. In any case, our position as servant remains the same. It is a question of whether we want to be happy in our service. It is the verdict of Bhagavad-gita and the other Vedic scriptures that we will never be happy trying to serve our senses, for they are only sources of misery. Therefore Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prays to be situated in Krishna's service.