BHAGAVAD-GITA 7:16

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 7:16

 

catur-vidha bhajante mam

janah sukrtino 'rjuna

arto jijnasur artharthi

jnani ca bharatarsabha

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

catuh-vidhah--four kinds of; bhajante--render services; mam--unto Me;

janah--persons; su-krtinah--those who are pious; arjuna--O Arjuna;

artah--the distressed; jijnasuh--the inquisitive; artha-arthi--one who

desires material gain; jnani--one who knows things as they are;

ca--also; bharata-rsabha--O great one amongst the descendants of

Bharata.

 

TRANSLATION

 

O best among the Bharatas, four kinds of pious men begin to render

devotional service unto Me--the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the

inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.

 

PURPORT

 

Unlike the miscreants, these are adherents of the regulative

principles of the scriptures, and they are called sukrtinah, or those

who obey the rules and regulations of scriptures, the moral and social

laws, and are, more or less, devoted to the Supreme Lord. Out of these

there are four classes of men--those who are sometimes distressed,

those who are in need of money, those who are sometimes inquisitive,

and those who are sometimes searching after knowledge of the Absolute

Truth. These persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service

under different conditions. These are not pure devotees, because they

have some aspiration to fulfill in exchange for devotional service.

Pure devotional service is without aspiration and without desire for

material profit. The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.1.11) defines pure

devotion thus:

 

anyabhilasita-sunyam

jnana-karmady-anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanu-

silanam bhaktir uttama

 

"One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krsna

favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through

fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure

devotional service."

 

When these four kinds of persons come to the Supreme Lord for

devotional service and are completely purified by the association of a

pure devotee, they also become pure devotees. As far as the miscreants

are concerned, for them devotional service is very difficult because

their lives are selfish, irregular and without spiritual goals. But

even some of them, by chance, when they come in contact with a pure

devotee, also become pure devotees.

 

Those who are always busy with fruitive activities come to the Lord in

material distress and at that time associate with pure devotees and

become, in their distress, devotees of the Lord. Those who are simply

frustrated also come sometimes to associate with the pure devotees and

become inquisitive to know about God. Similarly, when the dry

philosophers are frustrated in every field of knowledge, they

sometimes want to learn of God, and they come to the Supreme Lord to

render devotional service and thus transcend knowledge of the

impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramatma and come to the

personal conception of Godhead by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His

pure devotee. On the whole, when the distressed, the inquisitive, the

seekers of knowledge, and those who are in need of money are free from

all material desires, and when they fully understand that material

remuneration has nothing to do with spiritual improvement, they become

pure devotees. As long as such a purified stage is not attained,

devotees in transcendental service to the Lord are tainted with

fruitive activities, the search for mundane knowledge, etc. So one has

to transcend all this before one can come to the stage of pure

devotional service.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.