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(a) Only way to appreciate Supreme Personality of Godhead – Devotional Service
(b) Fortunate position of devotee– delivered by the Lord very soon
(c) Realization in pure devotional service
- God is great
- Individual soul is subordinate to Him – duty is to render service to the Lord
- If not serve the Lord – you will render service to Maya
(d) Principles
- Mind – Completely fixed in devotion to Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Standard of devotional service – One can do any work but work only for Krishna
- Desire – Life’s only mission and desire is satisfaction of the Lord
- e.g. Arjuna in battle – Can sacrifice all for Krishna’s satisfaction
(e) Process is simple – Just devote to your occupation and chant Hare Krishna – Thus attracts Supreme Personality of Godhead
(f) Promise – Without delay, Lord will deliver the devotee from material ocean (Yogis have to personally endeavor to go to other planets)
- Ref. Varaha Purana – Devotee’s do not need Astanga-yoga
- Lord takes responsibility like – Analogy: Child taken care by parents
- Comes on Garuda to pick from the ocean – Analogy: Expert swimmer also needs help to be picked up from the ocean
(g) Sign of intelligence – To always prefer devotional service compared to other paths
(h) Specific benediction of devotional service – Ref. Narayaniya –
- No need to perform fruitive acts or mental speculation
- Attains all benefits of yogic processes, rituals, sacrifices, just by devotional service
(i) Conclusion of Bhagavad-gita: Simply Chant Hare Krishna and go to the Supreme destination easily and happily (Ref. Bg. 18.66 – “sarva dharman…”)
- Highest Perfection of Life – Take shelter of the Supreme Omnipotent Godhead, Krishna
(a) Two groups of transcendentalists discussed
- Jnana-yogis – Those who follow the path of inconceivable, unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord
- Bhakti-yogis – Those persons who are in full Krishna consciousness and engage in devotional service of the Lord
(b) Bhakti-yoga vs. Jnana-yoga
- Same goal – Both ultimately bring one to the same goal
- Process of Jnana-yoga is very troublesome – It is very difficult for him to simply theoretically understand that he is not this body
- Process of Bhakti-yoga is direct – It is a process of being in direct service with the Supreme Personality of Godhead
o The Bhakti-yoga accepts the Deity of Krishna as worshipable because there is some bodily conception fixed in the mind, which can thus be applied
(c) Deity worship is not idol worship
- Ref. Vedic literatures – Worship may be ‘saguna’ or ‘nirguna’ of the Supreme ‘possessing’ or ‘not possessing’ attributes
- Worship of the Deity in the temple is ‘saguna’ worship – because the Lord is represented by material qualities
- Absolute nature of the Lord – The form of the Lord although represented by material qualities like stone, wood, etc. is not actually material
- Analogy: Deity Worship compared to a mailbox
o The Deity is the authorized representation of God, known as ‘arca-vigraha’
o The Deity is a incarnation of Supreme Lord to accept service from the living entities
- The Lord is omnipotent, all powerful – Therefore He can accept the services of the devotee in His ‘arca-vigraha’ form, just to make it convenient for the man in conditional life
(d) For an embodied soul, there is always a difficulty with the unmanifest, both at the time of ‘practice’ and at the time of ‘realization’
(e) Difficulties in the ‘practice’ for the Impersonalists
- They have to understand the unmanifested representation of the Supreme
- Process is difficult: e.g. Studying Vedic literatures like Upanisads, learning the language, understanding the non-perceptual feelings
(f) In contrast, Krishna consciousness provides simple ‘practice’
- Simply chanting Hare Krishna
- Guidance of bona-fide spiritual master, simply by offering regulative obeisances unto the Deity, hearing the glories of the Lord, eating the remnants of foodstuff offered to the Lord
(g) Difficulties in terms of ‘realizations’ –
- Impersonalists – They take the risk of practicing difficult path and still do not realize the Absolute Truth in the ultimate end
o Partial realisation – They can achieve only ‘sat’ and ‘cit’ realizations
o Difficult to give up the idea – A jnani-yogi may come to the point of Bhakti-yoga by the grace of some devotee, but still long practice in impersonalism becomes a source of trouble, because he cannot give up this idea
o Against one’s real nature – Every living soul is partially independent and therefore this unmanifested realisation is against the nature of his spiritual blissful self
- Personalists – They have no risks, trouble or difficulty in approaching the Supreme Lord directly
o Complete realisation – They realize ‘sat’, ‘cit’ and ‘ananda’ which implies even the blissful portion of the Absolute Truth is realized
o Ref. SB – If surrender or Bhakti is the ultimate goal, then why to take the trouble to understand what is Brahman and what is not Brahman and spend one’s whole life in that way, when the result is anyway going to be troublesome
(h) Best solution – For every individual living entity, the process of Krishna consciousness, which entails full engagement in devotional service is the best way
- WARNING! – If one wants to ignore this devotional service, there is the danger of turning to ‘Atheism’