By RK Lakhi Kant
Can we put ourselves in the position of a child that is totally dependent on its mother by its very nature? For that is the factual position required to know what is devotion without which we cannot understand the words of the Lord as is told in the Vedic scriptures. Closeness is born of relationships. And the Vedas are meant just for that – to know a personal Lord Krishna – and we can know him only if we are dependent on him like a child is dependent on its mother without believing in any other norms.
Lord Krishna says mam tu veda na kascana (Bhagavad Gita 7.26) meaning no one knows me as I am. The perfect soul who knows god is very rare sa mahatma su durlabah (Bhagavad Gita 7.19). According to the Lord among thousands of men one may endeavour for perfection, and among those who have attained perfection, hardly one knows him in truth manushyanam sahasreshu kascit yatati siddhaye/yatatam api siddhanam kascin mam vetti tattvatah (BG 7.3). Those who dabble with the idea of devotion may know nothing through their scholarship and philosophy. Only a devotee has proper knowledge about god as he is because the Lord is favourably inclined towards his devotees.
As in the case of Arjuna the famous hero of the Mahabharata war to whom the whole text of Bhagavad Gita was addressed prior to the war, the Lord says to those who want to follow the path of devotion man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru/mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo si meor always think of me, become my devotee, worship me and offer your obeisances unto me and you will surely come to me without fail (Bhagavad Gita 18.65). Those who disregard this principle are only so-called devotees and have nothing to do with the Lord or devotion to him because when the Lord calls for practice of devotion factually under rules and regulations they fall away from the path and hence are unable to understand Lord Krishna.
Rupa Gosvami writes in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu sruti smrti puranadi pancaratra vidhim vina/aikantiki harer bhakti utpatayaiva kalpate or devotional service that does not follow the Vedic literatures like Upanishads, Puranas, Narada-pancaratra, etc., is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society, neither uplifting for the individual nor benefitting anyone else. The Lord says that no one can understand him by his blunt material senses but he reveals himself to his devotees, being pleased with them for their loving devotion towards him. That is precisely the crux of the supernatural and loving world of devotion – love as a practical symptom in any organism that conducts this positive energy; or the ability of any particle to transcend all other feelings like lethargy or hatred that oppose it.
The Lord says anasritah karma-phalam karyam karma karoti yah/sa sannyasi ca yogi ca na niragnir na cakriyah or one who is unattached to the fruits of his work and works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life and is a true mystic, not one who lights no fire and performs no work(Bhagavad Gita 6.1).The desire for love between man and god repulses any other desire that the devotee may have and one whose mind is controlled in this manner finds liberation in god. One cannot stop performing work in the name of being renounced for one cannot even feed himself if he stops all work even if he is a renunciant.
God in the form of an ascetic, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to teach the methods of devotion to his own divine form of Lord Krishna prays na dhanam, na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadish kamaye/mama janmani janmanishvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi, or ‘O Almighty lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want only is the causeless mercy of your devotional service in my life, birth after birth’ (Siksastakam 4).
One who serves the Lord in his daily worldly activities wholeheartedly is a renunciant even though he may not be in the ordained order of life. Only love of god teaches him and leads him so that he is perfect in what he does because the Lord accepts even his failures and does not find any fault in him due to his sole occupation of pleasing the Lord with his works. God is not somebody who is lost every time you need him, and found every time you forget him. He loves you and if we accept this fact we are already his devotees.
