What is devotional service?

Devotional service means trying to please the Lord. It is meant to give Krsna happiness, not to give hapiness to ourselves. Devotional service is the soul’s eternal constitutional propensity, the living entity’s natural characteristic. The soul has no other constitutional duty than to offer service to the Lord. Temporary material propensities are not the original characteristic of the spirit soul but only the characteristic of the materially conditioned living entity. Material propensities are changeable because they are temporary, but devotional service destroys lamentation, illusion, and fear, all of which come from absorption in matter. Absorption in anything other than Krsna and His devotees is called material absorption. Devotional service is absolute and meant only for the Lord’s pleasure. Practicing devotional service helps us develop Krsna consciousness.