Essence of devotional service

The material affairs of life for someone who is situated in self realization is like night time. There is a spiritual reality to life. We are engaged, we are embodied. We have a body- gross and subtle. And we are engaging ourselves in service to Krsna using our body and our mind. That’s external. It’s devotional service but it is not the essence of devotional service. Just like the nice example.. this is a conversation between Ramanand Roy and Caitanya Mahaprabhu..it’s very very deep..very very deep..I mean some of our most favorite verses, Lord Caitanya says it is external! yat karosi yad asnasi yaj juhosi dadasi yat, sarva-dharman parityajya mam eka saranam vraja, brahma-bhuta prasannatma na socati…external it’s external it’s external.It doesn’t mean that Krsna’s words in Bhagvad Gita; He is just talking something external. It means that there is an essence of those verses and one needs to capture the essence of those verses.What’s the essence of devotional service? Here the question is what’s the goal of life? The goal of life is not behavior modification. We are not the international society for behavior modification incorporated. We are International Society for Krsna Consciousness. And the essence of Krsna Consciousness is this absorption in transcendental realization of our relationship with Krsna. And devotional service is an exhibition of that and there is sadhana where we practice it and the purpose of that sadhana is to awaken the deeper Krsna Consciousness!As Prabhupada writes in Bhagvad Geeta 2.41 purport…very nicely expressed in this. It is describing the Vyavasayatmika capacity of one who is fixed in their purpose, in their devotional service is fixed because their purpose is one. And when their purpose is one; Prabhupada explains-one need not strive for good results! Doesn’t mean like because we are devotees we do not care if the Aarti is on time or the offering is burnt. We are concerned out of devotion for the outcome of our activities but the essence is the devotion and not simply the outcome of our activities. It is the difference between external and internal….