Approaching God Directly
According to the Vedic wisdom, if we want to connect with God, we must do so, not directly, but through the via medium of the bona spiritual master. But then from the same Vedic wisdom we can understand that one can also directly approach God by chanting His name or bowing down before His deity manifestation. So how could both things be true? Is this not contradictory? Factually there is nothing contradictory in the revealed scriptures, although there may sometimes appear to be contractions for those who do not have an enlightened perspective.
Because Krishna directly orders that we should approach Him through His devotee, even if we approach Him directly in a mood of complete surrender at His lotus we must channel our devotion to Him through the via medium of the bona fide spiritual master. This is confirmed in the Adi-Purana where Lord Krishna is speaking as follows to Arjuna:
ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha
na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ
mad-bhaktānāḿ ca ye bhaktās
te me bhakta-tamā matāḥ
"Those who are My direct devotees are actually not My devotees, only those who are the devotees of my devotees are factually My devotees."
So if we are really serious about approaching God in complete submission to His will, we will follow His direction to approach Him through the via medium of His devotee, the bona fide spiritual master.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Please accept my humble obeisances. I hope you are fine. I have some questions for you:
1) Does dependency on Krishna's mercy make you negligent in performing your duties? A state of pessimistic thinking arises in my mind about this world and performing my duties. When you concentrate on Krishna every time how can you do your work ? What is in this material world is so much important for us. We need everything: a good life, good job, and all material comforts. Sometimes I think am I doing too much of bhakti and losing my mind because of this state of vairagya (detachment) which one achieves. This state of satisfaction makes one uncompetitive and useless in this material world. If its not true, then what is wrong with me? How to be best in both worlds?
2) In scriptures it is written that if we light a lamp in Kartika our past sins are washed out, or if we read Bhagavad-gita just once thoroughly, our past sins are vanished. So why then is it that even gurus are suffering from some illness? I have also seen that many devotees are having problems. So if by law of karma they are suffering, what is the reason of their suffering? Their sins should have already washed out. I sometimes find myself in trouble when I read in the Bhagavad-gita where Krishna assures that He takes care of His devotees. Why is it so that in this society most of the pious people are suffering and unhappy, while all rascals are enjoying and having power and control? Where is the law of karma? I cannot clearly see it.
Hope you will definitely guide me in this regard, and thank you very much for your time.
Hare Krishna,
Your servant,
Gaurav Padgilwar
Depending on Krishna does not make one negligent in one's duties. Rather it is just the opposite. One who performs all of his duties for Krishna wants to do all of them perfectly for the satisfaction of the Lord. Those who connect with Krishna by remembering Him while they perform their activities become empowered with the Lord's special shakti to accomplish in the execution of their duties which others, the nondevotee class, are not able to accomplish.
One who is fully surrendered to Krishna cannot ever be lacking in any way material or spiritual. Because he engages everything in the service of the Lord, the Lord gives him unlimited facility to engage more and more of the Lord's energy in the Lord's service.
One cannot lose his mind by doing bhakti. Our minds are already lost because we have neglected bhakti. Our detachment is not to walk away from the world. Our detachment is to offer the entire world to Krishna instead of taking it for our own sense enjoyment.
The spiritual master may appear to be suffering when his body is sick, but because he does not identify himself with his body seeing it only as a valuable tool to be used in the Lord's service, he does not experience the misery of being sick. He remains instead always blissful in ever-expanding Krishna consciousness.
The devotee of the Lord becomes free from his past sinful reactions at the time of initiation. That is a fact. But to help him successfully complete his pathway of spiritual perfection the Lord still gives him token, minimized reactions for his past misdeeds to keep him always sober with his mind solidly fixed on spiritual perfection.
We see in the society in general that oftentimes the pious men suffer while the sinful men enjoy. It does not seem right to us. But if we see what is going on behind the scenes, it will make perfectly good sense. The sinful men were previously pious men. Instead of offering the results of their past pious activities in the Lord's service, they are greedily trying to enjoy these results themselves. Therefore they will soon be cast down into a very hellish suffering condition. The pious men who are suffering are burning off the reactions to their past sinful activities. If they faithfully worship the Lord always thanking Him for so mercifully minimizing their sinful reactions and if they continue acting strictly in accordance with the great saintly teachers and the revealed scriptures, soon they will exhaust their past stock of sinful activities and they will be allowed to enter into the all-blissful eternal existence in the Spiritual Sky where all forms of suffering are conspicuous only by their absence. With this realization glowing in their hearts they blissfully execute their duties and prepare to go back to home, back to Godhead.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Because Krishna directly orders that we should approach Him through His devotee, even if we approach Him directly in a mood of complete surrender at His lotus we must channel our devotion to Him through the via medium of the bona fide spiritual master. This is confirmed in the Adi-Purana where Lord Krishna is speaking as follows to Arjuna:
ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha
na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ
mad-bhaktānāḿ ca ye bhaktās
te me bhakta-tamā matāḥ
"Those who are My direct devotees are actually not My devotees, only those who are the devotees of my devotees are factually My devotees."
So if we are really serious about approaching God in complete submission to His will, we will follow His direction to approach Him through the via medium of His devotee, the bona fide spiritual master.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Initiation Lecture in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Be the Best in Both Worlds
Dear Maharaja,Please accept my humble obeisances. I hope you are fine. I have some questions for you:
1) Does dependency on Krishna's mercy make you negligent in performing your duties? A state of pessimistic thinking arises in my mind about this world and performing my duties. When you concentrate on Krishna every time how can you do your work ? What is in this material world is so much important for us. We need everything: a good life, good job, and all material comforts. Sometimes I think am I doing too much of bhakti and losing my mind because of this state of vairagya (detachment) which one achieves. This state of satisfaction makes one uncompetitive and useless in this material world. If its not true, then what is wrong with me? How to be best in both worlds?
2) In scriptures it is written that if we light a lamp in Kartika our past sins are washed out, or if we read Bhagavad-gita just once thoroughly, our past sins are vanished. So why then is it that even gurus are suffering from some illness? I have also seen that many devotees are having problems. So if by law of karma they are suffering, what is the reason of their suffering? Their sins should have already washed out. I sometimes find myself in trouble when I read in the Bhagavad-gita where Krishna assures that He takes care of His devotees. Why is it so that in this society most of the pious people are suffering and unhappy, while all rascals are enjoying and having power and control? Where is the law of karma? I cannot clearly see it.
Hope you will definitely guide me in this regard, and thank you very much for your time.
Hare Krishna,
Your servant,
Gaurav Padgilwar
Answer: Simply Become Krishna Conscious
When Arjuna surrendered to Krishna he became the best both spiritually and materially. One therefore never becomes the loser in any way by taking to Krishna consciousness. There is no one more competitive than a devotee of the Lord because he wants to take over the entire world for Krishna by bringing about the greatest most all-encompassing spiritual revolution that has ever occurred in the vast span of human history.Depending on Krishna does not make one negligent in one's duties. Rather it is just the opposite. One who performs all of his duties for Krishna wants to do all of them perfectly for the satisfaction of the Lord. Those who connect with Krishna by remembering Him while they perform their activities become empowered with the Lord's special shakti to accomplish in the execution of their duties which others, the nondevotee class, are not able to accomplish.
One who is fully surrendered to Krishna cannot ever be lacking in any way material or spiritual. Because he engages everything in the service of the Lord, the Lord gives him unlimited facility to engage more and more of the Lord's energy in the Lord's service.
One cannot lose his mind by doing bhakti. Our minds are already lost because we have neglected bhakti. Our detachment is not to walk away from the world. Our detachment is to offer the entire world to Krishna instead of taking it for our own sense enjoyment.
The spiritual master may appear to be suffering when his body is sick, but because he does not identify himself with his body seeing it only as a valuable tool to be used in the Lord's service, he does not experience the misery of being sick. He remains instead always blissful in ever-expanding Krishna consciousness.
The devotee of the Lord becomes free from his past sinful reactions at the time of initiation. That is a fact. But to help him successfully complete his pathway of spiritual perfection the Lord still gives him token, minimized reactions for his past misdeeds to keep him always sober with his mind solidly fixed on spiritual perfection.
We see in the society in general that oftentimes the pious men suffer while the sinful men enjoy. It does not seem right to us. But if we see what is going on behind the scenes, it will make perfectly good sense. The sinful men were previously pious men. Instead of offering the results of their past pious activities in the Lord's service, they are greedily trying to enjoy these results themselves. Therefore they will soon be cast down into a very hellish suffering condition. The pious men who are suffering are burning off the reactions to their past sinful activities. If they faithfully worship the Lord always thanking Him for so mercifully minimizing their sinful reactions and if they continue acting strictly in accordance with the great saintly teachers and the revealed scriptures, soon they will exhaust their past stock of sinful activities and they will be allowed to enter into the all-blissful eternal existence in the Spiritual Sky where all forms of suffering are conspicuous only by their absence. With this realization glowing in their hearts they blissfully execute their duties and prepare to go back to home, back to Godhead.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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