Shri Vallabh has advised the Vaishnavas that -"We must serve Shriji with the wealth that is achieved without much effort or attachment" (Praptam sevet nirmamah).

It is a well known fact that we get results if we have faith.The Chatak bird drinks water in a specific Nakshatra (a term in Indian astrology) only.He has faith that it shall surely rain in this Nakshatra.it is said that this thing does happen,rain does come in this Nakshatra without fail.

The opposite of faith is not to have faith.It is the biggest hurdle in achieveing results.This can be shown with an example from the Ramayana.The Asuras of Lanka had tied Shri Hanumanji with the help of the Brahmastra.But they did not have enough faith on the Brahmastra and wanted to bind Shri Hanumanji in a better way.So they tied Shri Hanumanji with heavy chains and Shri Hanumanji escaped.This shows that if you don't have faith on anything or anybody then you cannot achieve your goals.

The sentence Praptam Sevet nirmamah is the test of our faith in Shriji.The meaning of the sentence "Whatever is achieved with the grace of God" is that our efforts should not be towards achieveing material goals but sewa must have greater importance in our lives.We must have faith that Shriji will do whatever is best for us.Also,we must not have the feeling that "all these things are mine",but should always remember that we are mere trustees of whatever we have in this world,in fact all the things we possess belong to Shriji and he has given them to us which is his kripa (grace).

Faith has another aspect also and that is our feeling that Shriji will accept all our offerings.Shriji always accepts whatever we offer to him if the offering has been achieved without much effort.The only condition attached to it is that we must be fully dedicated in whatever we do in our sewa.What else,barring our full dedication,can we offer to Shriji who is the Lord of the whole world!!

Shri Gadadhardas Purohit used to do sewa and live on the offerings that his Yajmans gave to him.He never used to go out in search of anything.One day as no one came to his house he offered only water in all the bhogs to Shri Madanmohanji.Here we see the example of both the types of confidence that we have discussed.Faith on the Lord and confidence on his Anugraha (grace).Here Shri Gadadhardas could have done sewa by borrowing from someone but in such a case the sewa would not have by him but by whoever he had borrowed from.How could Shri Madanmohanji accept the offerings of any other being?!!

Shriji only wants full dedication on our part.That is why the principle is that we must do sewa with whatever we achieve without much effort.

A vaishnav asks us -"Sewa is done regularly in our family from two-three generations.Even I do it since I was a little child, that is from about 40 years.My wife and children also support me in doing sewa.I do not have any sort of worries in life.But alongwith all these there is a constant thought that I haven't achieved anything of real substance in life.Materially I am very happy.But my sewa has merely become a daily routine, when I skip it I feel unsatisfied, that's all ! I do sewa regularly for about an hour and half daily but after which I cannot do smaran of Shriji, even if I try to do it I cannot concentrate !!Why does this happen ?Even after so many years of sewa why does this happen ?"

Love is a feeling that does not require any special effort, it happens effortlessly.Yes, to protect this feeling you need to do some effort.We must make an effort to see that this feeling is not resticted to the one-two hours that we do sewa but extends beyond it too.We have set a frame of thought that those who are not pushtimargiya vaishnavas or those who do not do sewa are Bahirmukhas (those who are not infront of Shriji) and those who do sewa can never be Bahirmukha, but this is only a wrong notion.Even after many years of sewa if one has a felling that "I haven't achieved anything of real substance !" then that man is also a Bahirmukha because he does not realise that sewa in itself is the real substance, what more can we hope to get in this form? We might be able to concentrate while we are in sewa but we must be able to carry these thoughts even after our sewa is over, during anavsar (the time when we are not in the sewa of Shriji).There are four things which make a vaishnava a Bahirmukha :

Anyashray.(worshipping or believing in beliefs which are opposed to Pushtimarg)

Asamarpit.(Consuming things which are not dedicated to Shriji)

Asadaalap.(Excess conversation)

Asatsang.(Company of those who polute our mind)

If even one of these four is present in our lives then we shall become Bahirmukhas and we shall continuously go away from our real goal in life.We do not get mukti by merely getting the diksha in Pushtimarg (brahmasambandh).We have to do our duty - of performing sewa - whilst living in this world itself, this is the real test of our lives i.e. what is more important to us - our prabhu (lord Krishna) or our wordly possessions!!!When our material and spiritual worlds become one or prabhu becomes most important to us then sewa of one second shall be enough to please prabhu,we shall not get the chance o saying -"Even after 40 years of sewa I haven't achieved anything of real substance in life!".

Love requires sacrifice.People sacrifice their home and family for getting the love of some person.We must constantly think about the wordly sacrifices we have made for our prabhu.If we think that we can get the love from prabhu while continuing our material life then it's impossible.Shri Vallabh has taught in the shodash granthas that we must never consider our prabhu to be wordly, if we are lost in this world then he shall never come to our heart.Only when our world shall be attached to prabhu and we shall start believing that "I am a servant of prabhu","All that I have belongs to prabhu" then alone will prabhu come to us, not earlier.

In Pushtimarg Shriji (Lord Krishna) accepts each and everything by the prayer of shri Vallabh and Shri Vitthal (Shri Gusainji) only(we are mere followers of the path shown by them), so if we believe that "I do sewa with a lot of love" then we are bolstering our ego only,not our bhav.

We must always keep all these things in mind and remember the last message of Shri Vallabh which translates as such -"Only if you leave the feet of prabhu can the Kalilkal affect you !!"