Discussing BG 18.66

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All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!

 

Dear Prabhu,

Hare Krishna.sumeet1981 <sumeet1981 > wrote:

>Now all the processes he listed above how come they are inimical to >devotional

service of Lord ? I can understand that impersonal jnana >and any sort of

activity done keeping an eye on its fruit and >acknowledging doership is

certainly inimical to devotional service of >Lord, but other than these how are

the rest of the processes inimical >to Lord Krishna's devotional service.

They are inimical to the extent they don't have satisfaction of Krishna as the

goal. Whatever activities performed are meant for Hari tosanam(SB 1.2.13).

Hence that decides what is anukulya & what is pratikulya.

But here is where we need a spirtual master, to guide us as to what is anukulya

& what is pratikulya. When Maharaja Bharata thought on similar lines( How can I

give up someone who has taken shelter of me?) Srila Prabhupada writes that He

should have consulted a Spiritual Master when he got overtly attached to a

deer. Because he did not do that, he fell down.

Another important point is Ma Sucah- Do not fear. One should not think how I can

give up the other activities?One should not doubt Krishna's statements. A

SriVaishnava acharya cites Ravan as example here- When fighting with Lord Rama,

Ravana was totally overpowered and he could shoot no more. Yet Lord Rama was

shooting and he wondered why, as, it was not war etiquette.Then he realised

that he still had the bow & Lord Rama was thinking that he was still fighting.

As soon as he dropped his bow, Lord Rama stopped shooting.

>Also, dharmas like stri dharma, putra dharma, pati dharma etc >etc..... are

what maintains proper order in the society by telling us >what is to be done

and what is not be done. Lord Krishna also >indicated that in deciding what

should be done and what shouldn't be >done sastras are supreme authority. So if

we give up acting all these >dharmas won't there be a chaos in the world and

society ? If we >simply abandon all such dharmas then from where will we get

>information on what should be done and what shouldn't be done ?

Sastras have to be followed- Yah Sastra Visdhim Utsrjya. But which one to

follow? Vedais ca sarvair.. those which are favorable towards Krishna are to be

accepted and rest rejected.The same Sri Vasihnava acharya points out that,

Dasaratha wanted to fulfill his so called Dharma (fulfilling the boons to

kaikeyi) and gave up Lord Rama who is Dharma personified. Hence he had to

suffer miserably, though he was the father, while many others benefitted by

surrendering to Lord Rama.

Same is the case of Krishna asking Dharmaraja Yudhishtra to say

something which he thought was a lie and he wondered how he could lie (Srila

Prabhupada calls it karma mishrita Bhakthi), while dharma personified was

instructing him. Dharmam tu sakshat Bhagavat pranitam- Religious principles are

directly enunciated by the Lord.Because he was afraid of giving up his so called

Dharma, his chariot which never touched the ground touched it thereafter.

Arjuna was very intelligent, he gave up his dharmic

arguments and surrendered to Krishna.Nanda Maharaja also accepted Krishna and

gave up Indra Puja.

>How is Shuddha Bhakti or pure devotional service defined ?

One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna

favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive

activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional

service.(BG 7.16 purport)

 

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