I was thinking about the following verse the other day:
“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.” ( SB 1.2.6)
And in some small way, I was feeling very fortunate. Over the years Srila Prabhupada has kept me engaged in devotional service to Krishna, as a wood worker building different pujari rooms for the Lords paraphernalia, construction projects, maintaining various web pages, gardening, offering food and water to the Lord, worshiping the Lord in our temple room, and washing the Lord’s plates and cups.
Sometimes I think I am just an insignificant servant of my spiritual master, but then I remember what Srila Prabhupada once said about devotional service: “If you had any idea of what you were doing, you would be fainting in ecstasy”.
I was reading from the introduction to the Bhagavad-gita As It is…
the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to revive our sanātana occupation, or sanātana-dharma, which is the eternal occupation of the living entity. We are temporarily engaged in different activities, but all of these activities can be purified when we give up all these temporary activities and take up the activities which are prescribed by the Supreme Lord. That is called our pure life.
The Lord is very kind to the living entities because they are His sons. Lord Krsna declares in Bhagavad-gita 14.4, “sarva-yonisu…aham bija-pradah pita pitā.” “I am the father of all.” Of course there are all types of living entities according to their various karmas, but here the Lord claims that He is the father of all of them. Therefore the Lord descends to reclaim all of these fallen, conditioned souls to call them back to the sanātana eternal sky so that the sanātana living entities may regain their eternal sanātana positions in eternal association with the Lord. The Lord comes Himself in different incarnations, or He sends His confidential servants as sons or His associates or ācāryas to reclaim the conditioned souls.
Therefore, sanatana-dharma does not refer to any sectarian process of religion. It is the eternal function of the eternal living entities in relationship with the eternal Supreme Lord. Sanātana-dharma refers, as stated previously, to the eternal occupation of the living entity. Rāmānujācārya has explained the word sanātana as “that which has neither beginning nor end,” so when we speak of sanātana-dharma, we must take it for granted on the authority of Sri Rāmānujācārya that it has neither beginning nor end.
So in some small way, I am feeling very fortunate.
full text and purport SB 1.2.6
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