anartha nivrtti

[Guest guest]

Dear Vraja Kumara Prabhu,

 

Namas te.

 

> In an initiation lecture given in 1968, Srila Prabhupada explained, "So by

> following the regulative principles one becomes freed from all these

> sinful activities.

....

> Obviously what Srila Prabhupada has said is final.

 

It's not obvious to me why it's obvious to you though.

 

> What I was wondering

> is that if one is said to be on the nistha platform under the

> qualification as described above (ie. he follows the four regs.),

 

This is not what Srila Prabhupada said here. Let's read that part again:

 

> When one is free from these

> four kinds of sinful activities, then he becomes fixed up. Nistha, fixed

> up,

 

He says *becomes* fixed up, not *is* fixed up. When one is freed from the

basic anarthas on becomes *eligible* to proceed to the next stage, nistha,

but it doesn't mean one immediately *is*. It may take many more years (or

lives) of devotional practice.

 

Then you said:

 

> then

> what can we say about one in that position who may still be afflicted with

> lust, anger, greed, madness, envy, pride etc.? I find it hard to see that

> one may be manifesting those qualities (me, for instance) and be

> considered to have nistha, ruci or even asakti, the preliminary stage of

> bhava.

 

If you are indeed afflicted with these things your devotional service is not

steady, and you are not on the nistha platform. And if you are only

externally or artificially following the regulative principles, as many of

the sadhakas are doing, you are not even on the platform of anartha-nivrtti.

Anartha-nivrtti is actually a very high stage.

 

Why Srila Prabhupada equated following the four regulative principles with

the stage of anartha-nivrtti? You answered it yourself:

 

> In an initiation lecture given in 1968, Srila Prabhupada explained

 

Initiation lecture means encouraging the future disciples to follow the

process, beginning with the four regulative principles. And since this is an

early lecture (1968) it's not surprising that Srila Prabhupada is not

speaking about anarthas like pratistha, puja, jiva-himsa, nisadacara,

bhuti-vanca, asat-trsna, matsarya, labha, kutinati etc.

 

For preaching one sometimes has to simplify things. There's nothing wrong

with that. Indeed, it's a glorious thing.

 

I hope this answer helps you somewhat.

 

Your servant,

bhakta Ivar.