Don't Be Bamboozled

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur once said, "The modern world is a society of the cheaters and the cheated." And we can see how true his observation is. Everywhere people are being bamboozled by pretentious so-called leaders into identifying themselves with their bodies. Thus misguided they waste their entire lives in service to their material bodies only to be rewarded with another material body after giving up the present one. They transmigrate from one set of suffering conditions to another set of suffering conditions. So instead of allowing ourselves to be cheated by the false propaganda of the materialistic bamboozlers, we should hear from the enlightened sages who are so kindly teaching us how to become free from our bodily entanglement and attain an eternal existence, which is full of knowledge and full of bliss.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Challenge: Can Pravritti Marg Take Us to God?

I would like to know if the pravritti marg of bhakti (devotion) can take us to the God. Also, how many religions in your opinion teach nirvritti marg? Thank you for your guidance.

~Ankush

Answer: It Keeps us Apart from God

Pravritti marg is not the path of bhakti or devotion. It is the path of approaching God to fulfill one's material desires. Pravritti marg, the path of increasing sense enjoyment does not take us to God. In fact, even though in pravritti marg we approach God, because we approach Him to fulfill our material desires those material desires always remain as a curtain separating us from the Lord. It is nirvritti marg, the path of decreasing sense enjoyment through devotional service, that endears us to the Supreme Person, the source of all existence, and enables us to escape the cycle of birth and death to regain our former positions in His transcendental pastimes in the sublime spiritual sky.

In all the religions we see that pravritti marg is predominant. Therefore Krishna advises us to abandon all religions and simply surrender to Him. In other words, Krishna is advocating nirvritti marg. Of course, nivritti marg can be practiced by anyone in any religious tradition. But the leaders within the various religions are grossly misguiding their followers by promoting pravritti marg instead. Therefore there is a crying need for genuine spiritual leaders on this planet. The Krishna consciousness movement is trying to fill this void.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari