A Man Who Wants to Serve the Greatest | Story by Srila Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja

19 Apr 2025 · 4 min

Watch on YouTube

3:43

The video narrates a devotional fable about an uneducated villager who is determined to serve the greatest person in the world. Believing the local district magistrate to be the greatest, he becomes his servant, only to discover that the magistrate reports to a higher authority. This realization leads him to successive masters—a viceroy, a king, a saint—each of whom bows to someone above them. Each step reveals a higher level of authority, culminating in the saint’s identification as a representative of Lord Vishnu. The villager finally seeks to serve Lord Vishnu directly, but finds the temple doors closed on a cold night. He sleeps at the temple entrance, and by morning discovers a sacred cloth (chadar) wrapped around him, signifying his transformation into a great devotee of Vishnu. The story concludes that the ultimate greatest being to serve is not a mortal but God, emphasizing humility, devotion (bhakti), and the spiritual journey from worldly service to divine surrender.

This is a story of a man who wants to serve the greatest person in the world, so he sets out on a journey to find him.
There was an uneducated man in a village, but in his heart he always had the desire that I must serve the greatest, the biggest, the most important man. So this man wanted to be a servant of the greatest, but he didn't know who the greatest was. He was a simple villager. So he went to the village and he found out that the local district magistrate, everyone said, "Oh, Saib, Saib, Saib, Saib, Saib, he's the greatest." So he went to him and said, "Can I become your servant?" He said, "Yes, you can." So he became his servant because he thought he was the greatest man. A little later he realized That new boss that he's serving, who he thought was the greatest, is also reporting to somebody. Little later he saw that this man who is the chief of the village, he is also not the greatest. He has somebody above him that he reports to. Somebody was coming in a horse carriage regularly, and when he would come, his new boss would bow down to him. So he'd think, oh, This man also must be having somebody greater than him. So he asked him, can I become a servant of this man that who came in a carriage and he bowed down to him? Who was that man? He said, oh, he's the agent of a king. I report to the king, so the king sends his viceroy to me from time to time. Can I become a servant of that viceroy? Then he became a servant of the viceroy. But then he realized that the viceroy also bowed down to somebody else. He asked the voice, 'I thought that you were the greatest, but now I see that even you go and bow down to somebody.' So he said, 'Yes, I'm a servant of the king.' He said, 'Can I become a servant of the king?' Then he became a servant of the king. There was a saintly man who came to the palace of the king. So when he was serving the king, he saw that the king also bowed down to somebody. Touched his feet, washed his feet. So the man was surprised. He said, "Oh, I thought this king was the greatest, but now I see he bowing down to somebody." So he went to the king and he found that from the king that that saintly person was a representative of Lord Vishnu. So then he said, "Can I become a servant of that man?" Then he became a servant of that Lord. When he saw that that sadhu, He was also bowing down to someone. He used to go to the temple and bow down to the temple of Lord Vishnu. So he said, "Oh!" He asked the sadhu, "Can I become a servant of Lord Vishnu?" He said, "Yes." So he went to the temple of Lord Vishnu. But the temple doors were closed. It was a very cold night. He went to sleep in the night in front of the temple door. But in the morning when he got up, He found that the chadar was wrapped around his body and he became a great devotee of Lord Vishnu.
In the end, he realized the greatest one to serve was not a man, but God himself.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Lama, lama, laya, laya.