[Nectar] Devotee and the Divinity

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The following essay was written by Srila Prabhupada before coming to

the west in 1967:

 

A pure devotee is just like the Desire-Tree from whom we can have on

request everything desireable. This is no myth or bluff but it is

actual fact. The devotee can deliver to us the mercy of God and what

is not obtainable by one who has got the mercy of God? Therefore the

devotees are the most magnanimous in their charitable disposition of

mind. They are also the deliverer of the fallen souls and we need to

offer our obeisances unto their lotus feet so that we can invoke their

blessings in our all attempts.

 

The highest authority for benediction is God Himself and the Devotees

are His custodians. If a devotee desires to bestow upon us the mercy

of God, he is quite competent to do it in all respects. Such devotees

are called Mahatmas i.e. those who have surpassed all narrowness of

the mind because supramentally they depend upon God & God alone they

enchant(?) His glories and discuss about His wonderful acts. All these

make the devotee just qualified to accept everyones' obeisances and

the devotee as respectfull as the Personality of Godhead Himself.

There is no difference between them qualitatively.

 

I must think always myself as the most fallen soul as I am so by dint

of my mundane attachment and if I surrender unto the devotee, surely

he will protect me in all respects: I am a needy man, constantly

suffering from the pangs of insufficiency and the devotee is as above

mentioned, the desire tree from whom I can have everything that I may

desire. The devotee is not a miser like the mundane people and had he

not been so, I could not have satisfied all my needs from him only.

The Divinity has empowered the devotees to deliver the fallen souls

like me and by nature they are not only kind but also liberal and

munificent. They are not poor either in knowledge or in opulence.

Therefore, if we at all want to satisfy our all (?) needs, we must

approach the devotee only; otherwise if we approach any other person,

not only not our desires will be satisfied in full but also we shall

imperceptibly accumulate a range of inauspicious things which will

baffle our desire to become complete and self-sufficient.

 

If we have to approach therefore a devotee of the nature described

above, we must have at last the preliminary knowledge for

discriminating a pure devotee from the nondevotee. Let us first of all

understand what are the other (?) that co-exist along with the pure

devotee. The devotee is relatively known with the existence of the

Divinity or the Personality of Godhead who is the Fountain head of

everything that be. (?) along with the existence of a devotee and the

Personality of Godhead, there is another set of living being who are

detached from direct relations of Godhead and therefore known as the

nondevotee. In other words men who are eternally attached to the

transcendental loving service of Godhead, is called the devotees and

men who are wrongly detached from the transcendental service of

Godhead but have the latent potency to become so engaged (in the

service) of Godhead, are called the non-devotees. In Sanskrit language

the devotee is called 'Vaisnava' the divinity is called 'Visnu' and

the nondevotee is called 'Avaisnava' Thus we can conclude that there

are these three categories eternally co-existent in this world.

 

The 'Avaisnavas' or the non-devotees are those who are constantly

engaged in topics and matters not concerned with the Divinity or

Visnu. Such non-devotees have made up their own plan of living,

dictated by the illusory energy of Godhead and they think it their

duty of life to eat drink be merry and enjoy the senses. The whole

plan of material civilization is based on the foundation of such non-

devotional plan of sensuous activities.

 

Therefore if we want to be devotee or 'Vaisnava' we must make it a

point of our life, that we shall not talk or hear of anything which is

unconcerned with the Divinity. What we eat, what we give, what we

meditate upon, and all such other things must be related with the

Divinity. It is our duty to eat the remnant of food stuff first

offered to the Divinity, it is our duty to talk about Him and to

preach about Him. We must always allow ourselves to be under the

guidance of a pure devotee and if we neglect to become so and so in

relation with the Divinity, then it is sure and certain that we become

identified with those who are in the categories of nondevotee.

 

Materially advanced people may ask what is our loss by remaining a

nondevotee? What is there if somebody remains nondevotee by his

natural tendency unlike One who becomes a devotee by his inclination.

To answer this question it may be said that if we want to remain a

nondevotee, threefold miseries inflicted bv the laws of Nature will

surely disturb us. The miseries are, one related with our gross body

and subtle mind, two in relation with other living being and three in

relation with the troubles inflicted upon us by the controlling

deities namely the sun, the moon, the planets, and others. And such

troubles are generated only in our state of forgetfulness of our

eternal relation with Godhead. In the Bhagwat Geeta it is said that

the laws of Nature are insurmountable by the attempt of conditioned

souls. Those who surrender unto the Supreme will of Godhead, can only

get rid of such threefold miseries of the laws of Nature. It must be

understood that the laws of Nature is so made that they make a

presance(?) by force to revoke the lost relation of living being with

Godhead. In extreme difficulty i.e. when a man fails to make solution

of his difficult problems, he automatically and unconsciously makes a

surrender unto God. It is clear therefore that the natural law is

something like police action of Mother Nature to reinstate a living

being unto the transcendental loving service of Godhead. It being so,

if we want to get real relief from the stringent laws of Nature it is

our duty to become devotee. We gain everything by becoming a devotee

and we spoil everything by remaining a nondevotee. The human form of

life offered by Mother nature is a chance for the living entity to

revert to his original position of a devotee.

 

The material Nature of Godhead is called illusory (Maya) because it

keeps us in darkness of ignorance when we misuse our human

independence by animal proclivities. The material Nature is

personified in the divinity of Godess 'Kali' whose grim feature is

devastating and she dark all over the body although she appears

Herself in the attractive feature of a young girl. Her thankless task

is to keep the conditioned soul in the darkness of ignorance as long

as misuses his human independence and keep him always aloof from the

transcendental service of Godhead. In that state of ignorance, the

conditioned soul, instead of rendering service unto Godhead, thinks

himself wrongly as the one who may be served by Godhead. In such a

state of ignorance, he thinks that the beauty of material nature is

made by Godhead for his exploitation and enjoyment. In that state of

ignorance he wants to lord it over the laws of nature and meets

thereby devastation and nothing else. That is the picture, real

picture of Godess 'Kali'. The conditioned soul wants to pacify the

devastating feature of material Nature by his own manufactured plans

and techniques without knowing it well, that the material Nature

cannot be brought into service of the conditioned soul and that she

cannot be conquered except by the method of complete surrender unto

the lotus feet of the Absolute Personality of Godhead Sree Krishna.

 

By the misuse of the infinitesemal independence given to the living

being, he poses himself to be able to accept the prayers of other

individual souls by becoming a false God himself and does not put

himself for the prayers of Godhead. With such vain purpose, the

conditioned soul is trying to become a designer of a peaceful world

situation(?) Such imperfect wishful desires in the minds of the

conditioned souls, make them oblige to become the leaders of other

innocent men, just like a blind man desires to direct the activities

of other fellow blind men. And all these misconducts become possible

when we are overshadowed upon the pure knowledge of our own self. In

such state of things only we think ourselves only as the supreme

designer, master, enjoyer, seer and doer of everything. But when we

enter into the association of devotees for guidance we can know that

we are neither, the designer, nor the master, nor the enjoyer and

everything is done by the will of God through His different agencies

and therefore He is only the object of our adoration and worship.

 

It is however very difficult to rise up to such standard of pure

devotional activities in this world. Most people are inclined to work

under the laws of 'Karma'or to work for one's own fruitive enjoyment.

No body works for any other else except for his ownself. Under the law

of 'Karma' the narrow minded conditioned soul does labour for his own

benefit under illusion He works for his own benefit, for his family's

benefit, for his society's benefit, for communities benefit, for his

country's benefit or for his party's benefit, but no body works for

Gods' benefit. That is the life of a nondevotee.

Beneficient activities for ones' self-interest or for the matter of

extended self-interest are done under the laws of 'Karma' and the

labourer under such laws of 'Karma' are called 'Kripana' or misers

distinguished from the 'Brahmanas' or the broad minded liberals. Such

narrow minded leaders may be very popular by their philanthropic

activities, but the devotees let us know that such leaders under the

laws of 'Karma are bound up hands and legs and cannot deliver us the

real thing. They can give us temporary relief and illusory happiness

subject to the laws of Nature and as such beneficial activities are

sure to be lost in the wilderness of eternity at the cost of immense

loss of human energy. The devotees let us know that our only duty is

to workout the plan of Godhead by rendering transcendental loving

service for him. Such service is possible to be done by every one and

all because God is for all living beings. Sectarian service for

Material Nature keeps aloof the lower grade of living entities from

direct service but transcendental loving service of Godhead is

possible to be done by all creatures of God never mind what they are

either the gods, the men the beasts, the birds, (? ) , and all other

living entities. Non-devotees are inclined to think that human being

is meant for enjoying life. The human life is different from the

animal life by the angle of vision of the nondevotee in as much as

varieties of enjoyment can be undertaken by the human being. Such non-

devotees distinguish the life of human being from the life of lower

animals by qualitative and quantitative distinction of the grades of

sense gratification.

 

The conditioned soul therefore is afraid of mixing with the

association of devotees thinking that by such association he may be

drifted from his sensual enjoyment. In such ignorance only, the

nondevotee tries to turn the table upon the devotee by emphasizing on

the point that the devotees are not liberal because they do not

encourage their indomitable desires for material hankerings neither do

they support others wild (?) for extravagancy conditioned by the laws

of Nature. To the non-devotees the cultural and progressive life of a

devotee is a sort of monotory and obstruction to unrestricted flow of

material enjoyment. The nondevotee will be able to make a perfection

of his life when he will be able to see the Personality of Godhead

besides his ownself and try to serve Him instead of falsely serving

himself either in concentrated or extended mode. On that auspicious

day of his life, the nondevotee will get relief from such troubling

conceptions as the atomic theory of the cosmic world(? ) or the

conceptions of false nationalism, philanthropic and other mundane (?)

one ideologies. The nondevotee will from that date engage his ears for

aural reception of the science of transcendental loving service of

Godhead from those who are engaged hundred per cent in such

transcendental loving service of Godhead.

 

But if the nondevotee without associating with the pure devotee

continues his material worship he will do so at the risk spoiling his

human energy by serving the material Nature atom by atom for millions

and millions of different grades of life.

By the association of the devotee, the nondevotee will come to his

senses that by serving the Divinity only all other objects will be

served. By watering the root of a tree the leaves and branches are

simultaneously watered and by supplying food in the stomach all the

senses are automatically served and nourished. The secret of this

science can be revealed only by the association of pure devotees.

 

Such pure devotee is peaceful and non-aggressive. He is never

attracted by any object of material happiness. Neither in this life or

in the life after, a pure devotee has any attraction for anything

which can be more attractive than the transcendental beauty of the

lotus feet of Lord Krishna the Personality of Godhead. As such, we

must note it for certain that whenever there is any lack of such

attraction for the lotus feet of Sree Krishna we are surely being

counter attracted by the illusory Energy in her manifold

representations.

 

We can acquire full knowledge of everything by knowing well the All

perfect, from his devotee. One who has scanty knowledge of the

Complete Whole or one who is materially poor in knowledge and

opulence, how he can do good to others and if he ever does so he can

dessiminate his poor fund of knowledge to the still more poor audience

or followers. In outstanding contrast to such poor fund of knowledge

and acquisition, the devotee has in his possession 'Bhagawan' or

'Narayana' who is the fountainhead of all opulence, all power, all

beauty, all fame, all knowledge and all indifference in fullness.

Therefore a pure devotee is also full of all opulence, all power, all

beauty, all fame, all knowledge and all indifference. 'Narayana' or

'Bhagavan' does never become poorer as somebody thinks Him wrongly or

less than His original potency by such controlling of His devotee and

He remains the same full in every aspect. That is the instruction we

have from the 'Brihadasarayaka Upanishad' It is said there that the

Absolute Truth is full in every respect and if His full strength is

deducted from Him still He remains full. The subtracting process of

matter make it ultimately nil. But the complete Whole Spirit by the

process of eternal emanation, eternally remains the complete whole.

One who has in his possession such Complete Whole i.e. one who is

eternally engaged in supra mundane service of Godhead, cannot be

compared with any mundane creature. That is the difference between a

devotee and a nondevotee.

 

It may be noted however that transcendental service of a pure devotee

is more important than the transcendental service of Godhead. The

devotee is the transcendental medium through whom it is possible to

render service unto Godhead. Lord Chaitanya is the ideal devotee and

those who follow His footprints are also ideal devotee. Lord Chaitanya

is more kind than Sree Krishna although Lord Chaitanya is Sree Krishna

Emperic speculators become unwilling to surrender unto Sree Krishna as

it was demanded by Him in the Bhagwat Geeta. Ashuras like Dantabakra

and Shisupal considered it that Sree Krishna is not the Absolute Truth

and therefore they declined to surrender unto Him. Although Sree

Krishna presented Himself as the Absolute Truth and although He

manifested His all-pervading universal feature in His own

transcendental Body, men who have very poor fund of knowledge

considered Him as an ordinary man like them and thus made malafide

interpretations of the Bhagwat Geeta. And in order to rectify this

malafide representation of Bhagwat Geeta, Sree Krishna appeared

Himself again in the Form of Lord Chaitanya but this time He did not

declare Himself as Supreme Lord but He presented Himself as an humble

devotee of the Lord. As such Lord Chaitanya is more kindly than Lord

Krishna.

 

Lord Chaitanya made it clear that by becoming a devotee of Sree

Krishna no interest of Krishna is served. Sree Krishna being full in

Himself He does not need the service of any body else. But it is the

interest of the devotee to serve Sree Krishna because by such service

only he can himself become constitutionally perfect and happy. He also

warned us for committing the mistake of thinking God as an ordinary

man or an ordinary man as God. Both conceptions are dangerous in the

path Divine life. No mental speculator has even been able to surpass

the knowledge of Lord Chaitanya. Each every one of them were defeated

by Him and therefore Lord Chaitanya is worshipped by all section of

sane persons. He unfolded the real nature of the living being and

every one was made perfect by His preaching by knowing himself as

eternal part and parcel servitor of Sree Krishna. The teachings of

Bhagwat Geeta was practically demonstrated by Lord Chaitanya, the

ideal devotee.

 

Let us therefore be prepared to become the transcendental servitor of

the devotee of the Divinity only. Let us not be misled by false status

quo. We can fulfil our lifes' mission simply by serving & associating

with devotees who are cent per cent engaged in the service of the

Divinity.

 

 

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