By Śrīla Śyāma Dāsa Bābā Date 03.05.2025
The main point is that people, they are less interested to understand the difference between pure Vaiṣṇava and so called Vaiṣṇavas — those who are karmīs-jñānīs in disguise of Vaiṣṇava. That is the most dangerous problem at present. “Vaiṣṇava” means “personified form of pure devotion”. “Devotion” means to try the best for the complete satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. Pure bhakti is a very very rare thing, so rare thing that even this is beyond our realization, beyond human comprehension.
Svāmī Sadananda Mahārāja used to say that—“Those who go other ways than the path of prema, i.e., without expecting anything in return for their spiritual efforts, are much worse than atheists, because to treat God as if He were not at all is less dangerous than to entertain business relations with Him. We are sufficiently selfish but need not degrade Him to become an object of our selfish expectation for peace or rest or happiness. Of course, one thing is certain: there are few people who will be able to come to a high standard of pure prema, free from selfishness – and if they are, it is not the outcome of the awakening of the self [ātmā] but the result of being touched by the Energy of His Grace, which alone enables one to love Him.”
From Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu we find the following definition of pure bhakti —
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
(CC/Madhya/19/167) also in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.11)
[“When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, all those knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy up to now, and the result of those fruitive action done up to now. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṇa favorably, as Kṛṣṇa desires.”]
Bhagavān surely cannot accept any kind of impure bhakti (any kind of contamination in devotional practice). Suppose somebody is cooking nice paramānna [sweet rice], very tasteful, with Indian ghee (from Indian cow, Desi ghee). Very tasteful, very nice. So tasty paramānna–you cannot even imagine! With everything ok, but after that, when somebody is going to serve that preparation to Vaiṣṇavas, and when they started taking paramānna then after that they are feeling a shocking experience, because there it was found very very fine white stone chips just like paramānna rice. Though the paramānna preparation was very good, very nice, very tasty but still Guru-Vaiṣṇava-Bhagavān could not take because there was some contamination inside that paramānna. Similarly, all different kind of anartha, all different kind of anyābhilāṣa inside our heart can make some contamination inside our heart, so surely Bhagavān cannot accept that sevā.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura many times used to say that: “Don’t make any mistake in identifying a pure Vaiṣṇava from those cheaters in the guise of sādhus.” If we are going to make mistake regarding this matter than we can ruin our devotional life. Cheap sentiment should not stand in the way of our devotional life because The Prabhupāda used to say that—“If I seek the path leading to the path of absolute maṅgala then I must ignore the countless voices of popular wisdom, and listen only to that of the realized soul.”
Gaura Hari Hari Bol