anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
(Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11)
“Uttamā-bhakti is the cultivation of activities that are meant exclusively for the complete satisfaction of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in other words, the uninterrupted flow of service to Him, performed through all endeavors of the body, mind, and speech, and through the expression of various spiritual sentiments (bhavas). It should not be covered up by jñāna (knowledge aimed at impersonal liberation) and karma (fruitive activity), yoga or austerities; and it is completely free from all desires other than the aspiration to satisfy Kṛṣṇa completely.”
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
told that— “Bhakti is the natural function of our soul.”
So, it is quite natural that a jivattma can serve the Supreme Lord form heart, but usually just the opposite thing is visible. All bonded jivas are always busy to serve maya (the illusionary energy of the lord). Jivas are coming from the taṭasta-śakti (marginal potency) of Kṛṣṇa, so naturally taṭasta-bhava always resting inside the svarūpa of jiva in hidden form. Jivattma being the cit-particle, naturally free will-power must be there, and the Supreme Lord never like to interfere with the free will given to jivas, so jiva can go both way either towards the Vaikuntha-jagat to serve the Supreme Lord or towards the maya-jagat to enjoy with maya directly.
So anyābhilās means to serve maya, which is just completely opposite of bhagavat-seva mood. We must be careful about the fact that one anyābhilās can produce countless germs of other anyābhilāses in future. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has written in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu that uttamā-bhakti should be (or must be) devoid of anyābhilāṣitā and should be uncovered by jñāna, karma etc. and at the same time should be completely favorable to kṛṣṇa-anushilanam (devotional practice), then it is called uttamā- bhakti. Our special attention should be towards one particular point that Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmīpad has written “anyābhilāṣitā śūnyaṁ” (devoid of anyābhilāṣitā) but not anyābhilās śūnyaṁ. That means he wanted to advise us to eradicate the root cause of any separate desire (anyābhilās) other then kṛṣṇa-seva mood.
Also another very spectacular point he wanted to establish that all jñāna or karma favorable to Kṛṣṇa seva must be there, but only dry jñāna or material karma which is completely against kṛṣṇa-seva should not be there, so he has written “jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam” (uncovered by any dry knowledge or martial karma) but not writing “ jñāna karmādy śūnyaṁ” (not devoid of jñāna and karma).
In the way of hari-bhajan-sad guru ānugatya is the most vital point, which is a must, without which all zero. So honest and sincere service can surely produce positive result in the way of our hari-bhajan. But any smell of self-gratification mood can contaminate our whole bhajan life. Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvati Gosvāmī Ṭhākura used to say that— “Slightest deviation from the track of sad-guru charan can ultimately through us away from hari-bhajan.”
Unto the Lotus Feet of sad-guru-charan who is completely śaraṇāgata and who is not, that can be detected very easily by watching the activity and mood of a disciple. Any amount of money power, manpower or high educational power etc. nothing can give any positive result in the way of hari-bhajan without complete śaraṇāgati – which is the backbone of devotional life. But anyābhilās cannot allow us to surrender unto the Lotus Feet of Sad Gurudeva completely. Anyābhilās can make us kapat. Anyābhilās can come in our life in countless different forms like honesty, morality paṇḍitya, efficiency, vairāgya, austerities and penances or in the form of sacrifice or in the form of charity etc. etc. Any amount of preaching or writing etc. all useless without complete Śaraṇāgati unto the Lotus Feet of Sad Guru. Anyābhilās cannot stand in front of pure guru-vaiṣṇava for long time. To collect name-fame-position or lābha’, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhā or kāminī-kancan etc. is the only target in the life of anyābhilās. Anyābhilās is just like a dishonest businessman or like a pross. Anyābhilās externally can act like a chaste lady to prove his authenticity as No.1 sevak of Gurudeva, but inside heart he is going to hide his most dangerous disease like pratiṣṭhā leprosy. All his absurd acharan and siddhānta-vichar etc. can prove that he is completely deviated from sad-guru-caran and guru-paramparā. Surely, he is always ready to do something against the whole sampradaik interest, or because he has no faith in sampradaik dignity. Personal pratiṣṭhā is the target of his life. Even to protect and preserve his own dirty self-interest, he can sell the whole sampradaik dignity. He is always ready. That is why Śrīla Raghunath das Gosvāmīpad has written in his
Śrī Manaḥ śikṣā Text 7—
pratiṣṭhāśā dhṛṣṭa śvapaca-ramaṇī me hṛdi naṭet
kathaṁ sādhuḥ-premā spṛśati śucir etan nanu manaḥ
sadā tvaṁ sevasa prabhu-dayita-sāmantam atulaṁ
yathā tāṁ niṣkāśya tvaritam iha taṁ veśayati
O mind, continuously serve those most dear parshad group of the Lord to kick out the dirty garbage of pratiṣṭhā desire from the heart to allow that pure love to get entry inside heart.
So, we can realize very easily what is the ultimate result of collecting lābha’, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhā etc. Those who are going to follow kapat ācārya —they all together with that ācārya can go to hell for infinite period.
yo bokti nayerohitam anyena srīnoti yah
touuvou narkam ghoram brojitah kalamakshyam
(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 1/ 101)
He – (that guru) – Who is speaking all illegal, I mean just opposite of what is written in bhakti śāstra (against scriptural evidence) and that disciple who is hearing all those illegal topics, both of them (the guru and the disciple) go to hell for ever (or for infinite period)
Śrīla Prabhupāda very often used to say that— “Fraud sadhu and their activities should be brought into notice of common public.”
Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that — “The flag holders of bhagavat-dharma and their acharan can take bonded souls into more and more bonded condition”.
Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura Prabhupāda wrote one article in Gauḍīya, some portion of that article given below–
Devotees dedicated to the Lord’s service are eternal servants of śrī guru and eternal servants of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Devotees eternally serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa following faithfully (ānugatya) their guru. If someone does not consider it necessary to faithfully follow their guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, their endeavor to serve the Lord is not service to the Lord—it is service to maya. If someone does not faithfully follow their Guru, but, following their own idea, behaves virtuously, visits holy places, performs the sixty-four practices of devotion to the Lord, practices renunciation, austerities, nam-saṅkīrtana, japa, meditation, or engages in any other devotional (?) practices, they do not do even a little service to the Lord thereby, rather, they are simply fulfilling the desire to gratify their own senses.
When service to the Lord appears to be sense gratification in disguise, many people are often cheated by such disguised enjoyment. A deceitful show of service to the Lord motivated by desire for fame, wealth, and women is not ‘service to the Lord’—it is simply hypocritical cheating of oneself and others.
Service to the Lord is based on faithful following (ānugatya) of one’s guru and the Vaiṣṇavas. Pretending to serve the Lord without faithfully following your guru is a wicked idea compared to “jumping over the goda* to eat grass”. In the conditioned state, one cannot gain entrance into the Lord’s service without faithfully adhering to the guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, and even in the liberated state, in which one serves the Lord in a spiritual body, constant adherence to one’s Gurudev continues. If one does not faithfully follow the eternal embodiment of the Lord’s shelter (the āśraya-vigraha), Śrī Gurudev, and his followers, one only commits, in essence, the offence of worshipping one’s own self.
* Goda—a raised and sloped place for cows and buffalos to stand and eat hay on.