A Life of Dedication

Everybody is dedicated to something. What are you dedicated to you? In this human form of life choosing the right object of dedication will either make you or break you. Those who are fortunate choose the Supreme Person as their object of dedication. Just as by watering the root of a tree all the leaves and branches are nourished, by dedicating ourselves to Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we are able to offer the best loving service to everything and everyone throughout all of existence. In this way we do the highest good to everyone, including ourselves. If, however, we choose other objects of dedication we will always feel unfulfilled, imperfect, and dissatisfied.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: No Bliss in Bhakti?

Based on your study materials, I should be in bliss right from the beginning if I follow Krishna. Being with literally hundreds of devotees, including some gurus, I am seeing that no one is in bliss most of the time.

Could you please explain it?

Again thanks for your time,

James

Answer: Bliss from the Beginning

Srila Prabhupada's passport photo

We cannot always properly judge the bliss of someone who is advanced in Krishna consciousness. One time a disciple looked at Srila Prabhupada's passport photo and commented to Srila Prabhupada that he looked very unhappy in the photograph. Srila Prabhupada's reply was that he was in a state of great transcendental bliss when that photograph was taken.

Another point is that if someone is not tasting the bliss of Krishna consciousness, they are doing something wrong. They are not properly practicing Krishna consciousness. Of course, in the beginning because we are not accustomed to pure bhakti, it may sometimes seem like poison. But if we have faith in the words of Sri Guru and Sri Krishna, we will quickly pass through this phase and enter solidly into the state of pure bhakti bliss.

It is something like when someone is suffering from jaundice. For a person suffering from jaundice sugar tastes very bitter. But it is that very sugar which is the cure for jaundice. The physician prescribes him to take sugar candy regularly, and he does so on the doctor's order even though its taste is very bitter. By regularly taking the sugar candy it gradually loses its bitterness and tastes sweeter and sweeter. And when the patient fully recovers from the jaundice, the sugar tastes fully sweet.

So bhakti is pure bliss from the very beginning. We simply have to learn how to taste it.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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