SB 6.1.15 – The Power and Purity of Bhakti

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One, “The History of Life of Ajamila,” 

TEXT 15

kecit kevalayā bhaktyā
vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ
aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena
nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ

TRANSLATION

Only a rare person who has adopted complete, unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can uproot the weeds of sinful actions with no possibility that they will revive. He can do this simply by discharging devotional service, just as the sun can immediately dissipate fog by its rays.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the previous verse Śukadeva Gosvāmī gave the example that the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree may be completely burnt to ashes by a fire, although the creepers may sprout again because the root is still in the ground. Similarly, because the root of sinful desire is not destroyed in the heart of a person who is cultivating knowledge but who has no taste for devotional service, there is a possibility that his sinful desires will reappear. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.4):

śreyaḥ-sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho
kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye

Speculators who undergo great labor to gain a meticulous understanding of the material world by distinguishing between sinful and pious activities, but who are not situated in devotional service, are prone to material activities. They may fall down and become implicated in fruitive activities. If one becomes attached to devotional service, however, his desires for material enjoyment are automatically vanquished without separate endeavor. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca: if one is advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, material activities, both sinful and pious, automatically become distasteful to him. That is the test of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Both pious and impious activities are actually due to ignorance because a living entity, as an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, has no need to act for his personal sense gratification. Therefore as soon as one is reclaimed to the platform of devotional service, he relinquishes his attachment for pious and impious activities and is interested only in what will satisfy Kṛṣṇa. This process of bhakti, devotional service to Kṛṣṇa (vāsudeva-parāyaṇa), relieves one from the reactions of all activities.

Since Mahārāja Parīkṣit was a great devotee. the answers of his guru, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, concerning karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa could not satisfy him. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī, knowing very well the heart of his disciple, explained the transcendental bliss of devotional service. The word kecit, which is used in this verse, means. “a few people but not all.” Not everyone can become Kṛṣṇa conscious. As Kṛṣṇa explains in Bhagavad-gītā (7.3):

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

“Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.” Practically no one understands Kṛṣṇa as He is, for Kṛṣṇa cannot be understood through pious activities or attainment of the most elevated speculative knowledge. Actually the highest knowledge consists of understanding Kṛṣṇa. Unintelligent men who do not understand Kṛṣṇa are grossly puffed up, thinking that they are liberated or have themselves become Kṛṣṇa or Nārāyaṇa. This is ignorance.

To indicate the purity of bhakti, devotional service, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.11):

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.” Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī further explains that bhakti is kleśaghnī śubhadā, which means if one takes to devotional service, all kinds of unnecessary labor and material distress cease entirely and one achieves all good fortune. Bhakti is so powerful that it is also said to be mokṣa-laghutākṛt; in other words, it minimizes the importance of liberation.

Nondevotees must undergo material hardships because they are prone to commit sinful fruitive activities. The desire to commit sinful actions continues in their hearts due to ignorance. These sinful actions are divided into three categories — pātaka, mahā-pātaka and atipātaka — and also into two divisions; prārabdha and aprārabdha. Prārabdha refers to sinful reactions from which one is suffering at the present, and aprārabdha refers to sources of potential suffering. When the seeds (bīja) of sinful reactions have not yet fructified, the reactions are called aprārabdha. These seeds of sinful action are unseen, but they are unlimited, and no one can trace when they were first planted. Because of prārabdha, sinful reactions that have already fructified, one is seen to have taken birth in a low family or to be suffering from other miseries.

When one takes to devotional service, however, all phases of sinful life, including prārabdha, aprārabdha and bīja, are vanquished. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.14.19) Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava:

yathāgniḥ susamṛddhārciḥ
karoty edhāṁsi bhasmasāt
tathā mad-viṣayā bhaktir
uddhavaināṁsi kṛtsnaśaḥ

“My dear Uddhava, devotional service in relationship with Me is like a blazing fire that can burn to ashes all the fuel of sinful activities supplied to it.” How devotional service vanquishes the reactions of sinful life is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.33.6) in a verse spoken during Lord Kapiladeva’s instructions to His mother, Devahūti. Devahūti said:

yan-nāmadheya-śravaṇānukīrtanād
yat-prahvaṇād yat-smaraṇād api kvacit
śvādo ‘pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate
kutaḥ punas te bhagavan nu darśanāt

“My dear Lord, if even a person born in a family of dog-eaters hears and repeats the chanting of Your glories, offers respects to You and remembers You, he is immediately greater than a brāhmaṇa and is therefore eligible to perform sacrifices. Therefore, what is to be said of one who has seen You directly?”

COMMENT

So, the verse says kecit kevalayā bhaktyā, that some people, not all, definitely not all, just very few who execute kevala-bhakti, means unalloyed devotional service or pure devotional service, they can become free from sinful activities and sinful desires. What is the definition of kevala-bhakti? Kevala-bhakti is explained by Rupa Gosvami in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, one should have no other desire except to please Krishna; jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, and one devotional service should not be covered by pious activities, by mental speculation, by artificial austerity, or anything. It must be pure, unalloyed. An alloy, just like alloyed steel, means that the pure steel is mixed with inferior metals, and thus the pure steel becomes alloyed steel. Similarly, unalloyed bhakti means that bhakti is not mixed with any inferior processes like karma or jnana or yoga or tapasya or anything. If one engages in pure devotional service, then he can become free from sinful desires. But if we engage in mixed devotional service, then the sinful desires will continue because any desire besides the desire to serve Krishna is sinful. So even if we engage in karma-kāṇḍa or jñāna-kāṇḍa, we are engaging in activities that are sinful in the sense that they are not meant for Krishna’s pleasure, and any desire other than the desire for Krishna’s pleasure is sinful.

Now, if one engages in pure devotional service, what is the result? One result is described. kleśa-ghnī, one becomes freed from all miseries, miseries in the form of unnecessary labor for either spiritual or material achievements, and kleśa in the sense of sinful reaction or suffering that we get for past sins. And śubhadā means that pure devotional service bestows all good fortune, and mokṣa-laghutākṛt means that it minimizes the value of liberation. A pure devotee has no material desires, means he has no desire for sense gratification. He has no desire for liberation also, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. He only desires Krishna’s pleasure. Now, what is the root cause of sin? The root cause of sin is ignorance. Because of ignorance of the fact that I am the eternal servant of Krishna, I’m not the body, we engage in sinful activities, and because of sinful activities, we have to suffer. Now, if one engages in pure devotional service, bhakti will act like a fire and burn to ashes all of the fuel of sinful activity, but it should be a blazing fire. If we put water on the fire, the fire will not blaze. So if we have other motives for personal happiness, then the fire of devotional service will not blaze, and the sinful reactions will not be consumed. That means we’ll have to stay in the material world and suffer.

Now, how one can be freed from sinful reaction even in the present life is explained by Kapiladeva to Devahuti. He says that even if a person born in a family of dog eaters, hears and repeats the chanting of the holy name of Krishna, he immediately becomes greater than a brahman and becomes eligible to perform sacrifices. So why is someone born in a higher family, and why is someone born in a lower family? The one who has performed pious activities is born in a higher family, say a brahman family, and if he is performed sinful activities, he is born in a lower family, like a family of dog eaters. But even if someone born in a family of dog eaters engages in devotional service, he becomes eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices, to act as a brahman, which means that the effect of his past sinful activities that led to his low birth are nullified. So in the same life, one can become freed from the effects of past sins.

PURPORT (continued)

In the Padma Purāṇa there is a statement that persons whose hearts are always attached to the devotional service of Lord Viṣṇu are immediately released from all the reactions of sinful life. These reactions generally exist in four phases. Some of them are ready to produce results immediately, some are in the form of seeds, some are unmanifested, and some are current. All such reactions are immediately nullified by devotional service. When devotional service is present in one’s heart, desires to perform sinful activities have no place there. Sinful life is due to ignorance, which means forgetfulness of one’s constitutional position as an eternal servant of God, but when one is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious he realizes that he is God’s eternal servant.

COMMENT

So there are four stages of development of sin: aprārabdha means immature or not manifest. Then kuṭa means just beginning. Bīja means seed; it has come to the stage of seed, and prārabdha or phalar-mukha means bearing fruit. So, all of the different stages of sin, all of them are eradicated by pure devotional service successively, one after the other. First, aprārabdha, then kuṭa, then bīja, and finally prārabdha. All are eradicated by pure devotional service. In this regard, Srila Rupa Gosvami comments that bhakti may be divided into two divisions: one, sun to top, devotional service that continues incessantly with faith and love, and two, that devotional service that does not continue incessantly but is sometimes awakened. Incessantly flowing devotional service, sun to top, may also be divided into two categories: one, service performed with slight attachment, and two, spontaneous devotional service.

PURPORT (continued)

In this regard, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī comments that bhakti may be divided into two divisions: (1) santatā, devotional service that continues incessantly with faith and love, and (2) kādācitkī, devotional service that does not continue incessantly but is sometimes awakened. Incessantly flowing devotional service (santatā) may also be divided into two categories: (1) service performed with slight attachment and (2) spontaneous devotional service. Intermittent devotional service (kādācitkī) may be divided into three categories: (1) rāgābhāsamayī, devotional service in which one is almost attached, (2) rāgābhāsa-śūnya-svarūpa-bhūtā, devotional service in which there is no spontaneous love but one likes the constitutional position of serving, and (3) ābhāsa-rūpā, a slight glimpse of devotional service. As for atonement, if one has caught even a slight glimpse of devotional service, all needs to undergo prāyaścitta, atonement, are superseded. Therefore atonement is certainly unnecessary when one has achieved spontaneous love and, above that, attachment with love, which are signs of increasing advancement in kādācitkī. Even in the stage of ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti, all the reactions of sinful life are uprooted and vanquished. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī expresses the opinion that the word kārtsnyena means that even if one has a desire to commit sinful actions, the roots of that desire are vanquished merely by ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti. The example of bhāskara, the sun, is most appropriate. The ābhāsa feature of bhakti is compared to dawn, and the accumulation of one’s sinful activities is compared to fog. Since fog does not spread throughout the sky, the sun need do no more than merely manifest its first rays, and the fog immediately disappears. Similarly, if one has even a slight relationship with devotional service, all the fog of his sinful life is immediately vanquished.

COMMENT

Caitanya-caritāmṛta has also explained that just by chanting in nāma-ābhāsa, one becomes freed from all sinful reactions, and ābhāsa means a slight glimpse. The example is given that before the sun comes over the horizon, there is still light. And by the appearance of light, even before the sun peeps over the horizon, all ghosts, thieves, hobgoblins, they go away. Similarly, just by the first glimpse of pure chanting, which is called nāma-ābhāsa, all sinful reactions go away, and with sinful reactions are included in bīja, meaning sinful desires. They are all dissipated even by nāma-ābhāsa or ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti.

So, are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:27:05]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, but the welfare of the entire community, what is the welfare? Yes, spreading Krishna consciousness. Veda means knowledge, and anta means the end. In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, the purpose of the Vedas is to know Krishna. So, Vedanta, that is the conclusion of Vedic knowledge: to know Krishna. And one can know Krishna only by devotional service. So, Vedānta means the conclusion of Vedanta should be to engage in devotional service. So, there is no difference. Bhaktivedanta.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:29:30]

Giriraj Swami: No, bhakti is the means and the end. It is not the means to something else because pure devotional service is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, one should have no other desire besides bhakti. So, if we had some other desire, some other goal that we wanted to achieve through bhakti, then it would not be anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. There is no achievement higher than bhakti. Bhakti is higher than mukti. Therefore, mokṣa-laghutākṛt. If someone has bhakti, he has no interest in mukti because he has something which is greater than mukti. So, he doesn’t perform bhakti for the sake of gaining anything else. He only wants more bhakti or better bhakti. He engages in sādhana-bhakti so he can get bhāva-bhakti, but both are bhakti. So, bhakti is the means and the ends. Sādhana-bhakti, you could say is the means and bhāva-bhakti is the end, but both have bhakti. Both are the same things.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:31:30]

Giriraj Swami: But you cannot attain God by knowledge; bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, you can only attain God by bhakti. Vedanta means bhakti, not dry knowledge. Vedanta culminate in bhakti; bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate, after many lifetimes of accumulating jnana, when one actually becomes jnanavan, or wise, he surrenders to Krishna. So, when one actually has knowledge, he surrenders to Krishna and engages in devotional service. So, the conclusion of Vedanta is the same.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:33:03]

Question: He says, what is the definition of ignorance? Because someone may have knowledge, but he still may engage in sinful activities.

Giriraj Swami: Like Ajamila, who was born in a good brahman family. When he saw the prostitute, it is mentioned here in the Bhāgavatam, when he saw the prostitute, he tried to remember the instructions that he had received, and he tried to control his mind and senses, but he was not able to do so, because the desire for sin was not removed from the heart, although he had knowledge. But because he did not have bhakti, he fell down into sinful activities. So, real knowledge means to know that I’m the eternal servant of Krishna and to engage in Krishna’s service. If one just knows that this is sin, this is not sin, and if I sin, I will be punished; if I perform pious activities, I will be elevated, that is not full knowledge. And that is why earlier in the purport, Srila Prabhupada mentioned, we read the day before yesterday, that speculators, speculators mean jnanis or non-devotees, speculators who undergo great labor to gain a meticulous understanding of the material world by distinguishing between sinful and pious activities but who are not situated in devotional service are prone to material activities. They may fall down and become implicated in fruitive activity.

So, they have some knowledge of what is pāpa, what is puṇya, and what are the results of both, but they don’t really have perfect knowledge or complete knowledge to surrender to Krishna and engage in devotional service. Therefore, they fall down in spite of some knowledge.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:36:55]

Giriraj Swami: That is tomorrow’s verse. Prāna means life, so we have to offer our life to Krishna. The keys you.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!