Passage 8

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In plain words

Every day I Myself walk to where you are sitting; I do not command you to come to Me. So I am your servant, am I not! To give at once whatever the devotee asks, God stands at the very door of the devotee's shrine room. To fulfil the devotee's wish, God is ever with him: at home with him, at his heels, at his side. God always longs to serve; He incarnates precisely to serve. “See, I am doing it. You too, do as I do”: teaching you so, and making you do service, is God's purpose. In the same way, when Kṛṣṇa asked Dharmaja to give Him some service, he asked, “What service do You want, Kṛṣṇa!” Kṛṣṇa said, “Dharmaja! Give Me the service of clearing away the used leaves after everyone has eaten and risen.”

The Senses Must Be Offered to God in Tender Youth Itself

In youth man's body is like a tender plantain leaf. On it he has served the five dishes and sweet rice called the five senses. But instead of offering them first to God, he offers them to the demons called lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride and envy. He puts the ‘leftovers’ that remain after those demons have eaten on a spoiled ‘leaf’, and offers them to God. This is precisely the great mistake. Man must offer his senses to God in tender youth itself. Where is that God? He is within oneself. That is why, when you recite the mantra “Brahmārpaṇaṃ…” before you eat,

“Becoming Vaiśvānara, I dwell in the bodies of living beings; joined with prāṇa and apāna, I digest the four kinds of food,”

so God answers. That is, He says, “Silly fellow! I am in you yourself, in the form of Vaiśvānara.” But you do not listen to this answer.

The Unseen God Is in the Seen Jīva

Prema has only a name; it has no form. Gold has no form of its own. We melt it and have it made into a ring or a chain. That is to say, it is we who give it a form.