How can we find the service by which we can best contribute?

Anwser Podcast

Duration: 4 mins

Transcribed by: Bhaktin Raji Nachiappan

Question:
How can we find a service by which we can best contribute?

Answer (Short):
– If we are confused about the type of service that we should be rendering, we continue doing the services that come to us by Krishna’s arrangement or services which other devotees ask of us.
– By doing those services we can observe which services we can do well, which services delight us and which services we find challenging.
– Our spiritual advancement is our responsibility and therefore we have to take the initiative to find the service that best suits us.

Answer (Long):
For different devotees, it may take different time durations to figure this out. Some of us may have an outstanding talent in one area, which we can then use in the service of the Lord.

In some cases, however, we may have talent in many fields or we may not have obvious talent in any field. In both cases, we can be confused about what to do. In that situation, we just continue doing services that come to us by Krishna’s arrangement or services which other devotees ask of us. By doing those services we can observe which services we can do well, which services delight us and which services we find challenging.

The whole point is about responsibility. Our spiritual advancement is our responsibility. Let me explain what that means. Suppose we are working in a company and there, we do the job we are told to do. At the same time, we are also looking to grow. In the material world, we are very ambitious and resourceful to find out how can we grow. We don’t think that because I’ve got a job, I’ll just do that job, maybe get a promotion and move on. While that can also happen, most people are resourceful. We make plans that maybe I’ll go from this job to this job, I’ll do this or I’ll do that. It’s not required that as devotees we jump from service to service, but that principle of resourcefulness should be there. A devotee’s mood is “How can I become a more and more resourceful servant for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna? I’m doing this service right now but how can I become a more resourceful servant?”

Also, as we keep doing services, we keep observing. We have to take that initiative. It is not ambitiousness in a mundane sense that I want to become famous and powerful. However, if I can do more and more services for Krishna, then Krishna will have an instrument and he will be able to do more for his mission through me. We need to take that initiative to find out how to grow in my spiritual life. We have to find out which services best suit us. If we have that attitude we will ourselves observe and gradually gravitate towards that service, even if doesn’t happen automatically. Even if it is not obvious for us, if we keep observing over the years then we will know that we are comfortable with one service and not so much with another service.

There is guna-karma-vibhagashaḥ (Bhagavad-gita 4.13): guna means we are comfortable doing it and karma means we are competent at doing it. If we find that service which we are comfortable doing and we are competent at, then that is the service we should be rendering. The whole essence of the varnashrama system is not dividing people into castes. Rather it is to engage people according to the way they are naturally endowed. Rigid division of society is not practical now. Therefore, to practice that principle of engaging people according to their natural endowments, we have to ourselves take the initiative and engage in services accordingly.