U.S.A.

Unstinting Service Attitude

"It's an attitude!" So say my five-year-old twin granddaughters, Maya and Michaela, putting one hand on their waist and thrusting their hip out at a sharp, awkward angle. Picked it up from some TV show or the other...

Cute! But not as impressive as the service attitude of some of the devotees that we have met here. Like Premasindhu Prabhu and his family — Mathurabasani Devi Dasi, Lokanath Prabhu, Mukunda Prabhu, Yogendra Prabhu, Kanchana Devi Dasi and Bhakta Shaun — who built and maintain this beautiful Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Ashram here in Lenasia, for the pleasure of Srila Gurudeva.

Or Gopinath Prabhu and his family — Rama Mohini Devi Dasi, Damodara Nandan Prabhu, Braja Mohini Devi Dasi, and the cute little Madhavi Devi Dasi — who are always eager to do some service. (Damodara Nandan Prabhu has the makings of a good photographer.) Gopinath Prabhu, who lives in Durban, left his struggling auto repair business to come up here to Johannesburg to serve Goswami Maharaj and me on the first half of the tour, and now on the second half of the tour he is here to serve Paramahamsa Maharaj me.

At first I tried to protest: "You are my older godbrother, Prabhu; how can I accept service from you?" Gopinath Prabhu has been around for at least seven years longer than me, but you would never think so when you see his humility: waiting on us during and after our meals, washing our cloth... what can I say?

What is most impressive about these devotees' attitude — is that they don't have an attitude.