Should we not even aspire for the satisfaction of being with You and serving You?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on May 23, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Devotees’ questions answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Pādanamskāraṃ Swāmi! The following are some of the questions or doubts for which I seek clarifications from You. Kindly clarify my doubts Swāmiji. Please forgive me If I am asking anything wrong. Thank You so much for coming into my life Swāmiji. At Your Divine Lotus Feet, Bharath Krishna.]

This question is related to a question I had asked recently regarding having aspiration for the grace of God for which You gave an excellent answer. In my previous question, I had mentioned the following two points:

1. As I gradually learned Your knowledge, I have understood that anything that I give You is never a loss to me. You are definitely going to give back whatever I give to You, if not immediately, at least after a million births.
2. According to my understanding, Your grace means the opportunity to be with You forever and happily take part in Your service.

From my first statement it is clear that I am keeping accounts with You and I still have some expectations. In my second statement, I am trying to say that I do not have expectations. This is hypocrisy.

Now I will ask my question clearly, Swāmi. Should we also not aspire for the satisfaction we get by being in Your divine presence and by serving You?]

Swāmi replied: Your second point is correct because in it there is no aspiration for any fruit in return. But, in your first point you say that I will give you back whatever you have given to Me. This means that you have such confidence in Me and that is the reason for giving to Me. If you have such expectation from Me, you shall mention the rate of the interest for the total period I keep your donation. If I return the principal only, you will be subjected to heavy loss. Believing that I have to return whatever you give to Me (based on your confidence that I will return certainly after sometime or other), the points I want to ask you are :- 1) Do you expect the principal as it is? or 2) Do you expect some interest along with principal? 3) If you expect interest, what is the rate of interest? 4) If the interest is low, I can take more time and if the interest is high, I will take less time as early as possible. In the 2^nd point, you are giving Me without expecting back either principal or interest from Me. This 2^nd point alone is true love because it is one way traffic only. If you are interested in two way traffic, it is not real love and it is only business whatever may be the policy of principal and interest. In the 2^nd point, the omnipotent God may not give anything back or may give little or full principal or may give little or heavy interest to you on His free will. Such possibility of returning lies in the eyes of God as long as you stick to the 2^nd condition. You might have experienced the returning from God and it was done because you did not have any aspiration about returning. Based on your past experience, if you believe that God will return, you will not get anything back since belief that God will return is established in your mind since such idea should not even touch your mind. Your sacrifice or service must be based on only one factor, which is your attraction to God only. In this point, you can take the example of a mad fan of a cinema or a political hero. The fan spends everything from his pocket and the hero will not respond back even a trace to the fan. But, the fan is not affected by that because he is doing service or sacrifice simply based on his attraction to the hero and not based on any type of response from the hero. This example is the best example in this world for the Niṣkāma karmayoga explained in the Gītā. I don’t find any better example than this in this world.

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