Can devotees do abortion if it is favorable for their bhakti?

I have seen that in the devotee community sometimes when devotees are expecting a child, they say that they have so little time for chanting and going to the temple and an additional child will leave them with even lesser time for bhakti because of the increased care and the increased expenditure. They say that in such situations abortion is favorable for bhakti. Is their understanding correct?

Transcription By:Vandana Goel Mataji

Edited By:Priyanka Amit Kumar

QUESTION:Can devotee parents have an abortion if it  is favourable for bhakti?  I have seen that in devotee community sometimes some devotee parents feel that they already have too many children and they don’t have adequate time for chanting for going to temple, for practicing devotional activities and if they have another child, then that will even make it more difficult for them to practice spiritual life and to have adequate time for spiritual commitments, so sometimes they say that not having that child, aborting that child will be favorable for bhakti because it will ensure that time doesn’t go away whatever time they allocate for bhakti doesn’t go away in caring that child. So under such circumstances is abortion justified?

ANSWER :Not at all!  Under the mentioned  circumstances, if we say that abortion is anukulforbhakti, then we are completely misunderstanding the concept of bhakti, infact,  It is horrendous misunderstanding of what  bhakti is .

First of all the abortion is completely pratikul to bhakti, and  might just seem to be anukul .

Bhakti is not just limited to certain activities of  devotional service like  chanting or going to the temple ,  rather it is the redirection of our heart towards Krishna and  all living beings in connection with him .The importance of the activities lies in the fact that they bring about change in our inner disposition.They attract us to Krishna and to all living beings, in a mode of service to Krishna.

Understanding bhakti as one set of activities, where one is explicitly connected with Krishna would be its very limited understanding , that is  at the level of KanshithaAdhikari.

KanishthaAdhikari  sees Krishna only in relationship with the Deities .He considers his relationship with Krishna as independent of his relationship with the devotees or other living beings.  Moreover, KanishthaAdhikari is in itself not a very suitable stage for spiritual advancement, that is not anukul, not favourable and that one should rise from KanishthaAdhikari to MadhyamAdhikari  at the earliest. . The realization of one’s relationship with Krishna as also depending on his devotees and other living beings is witnessed when one gets promoted to the   MadhyamAdhikari level.

KanishthaAdhikari is more insensitive to other living entities, while MadhyamAdhikari becomes sensitive towards them and  reciprocates appropriately..

However,   committing violence to other living beings is not even being at kanishthaadhikari platform, actually  is a non devotional platform. If we  give a rational  that not having a child or aborting a child is anukul to bhakti then where would  we stop?

Say, one has   very rebellious,  naughty   and troublesome child such that he exhausts  most of his  time and energy taking care of the child, thereby leaving no time for bhakti then, would one take an action like aborting  that child or anything similar on those lines? In fact, it would be hard for most people to even conceive of such a thing, then how  can it be done to   a child  in the womb? The child in the womb is as much a person as the child outside the womb.  One   may thinkof one’s spouse to be  pratikul to Bhakti so what should be done.?   .

Actually we should not let our ideology lead to the suppression  or rejection of basic morality. No matter how high sounding our ideology is ,if it leads to  suppression or rejection of basic humanity then it’s terrible. That’s what Hitler’s Nazism did. Their  idea was  to have a super human race which would lead to the progress of humanity and  therefore everything t unsuitable for the evolution of the super human race, should be eliminated and thus began the elimination of handicapped, or blind people. Further the  idea was of social Darwinism that Jews and Gypsies were lower races and therefore should be killed and were killed.

Whatever may be the case  our ideology  shouldn’t make us insensitive to basic humanity It may seem to be anukul to bhakti with  limited understanding of bhakti in terms of a set of activities that we do. .

Iif a living being is  entrusted to one  as his  own child and one would think   of aborting that child then where lies  the attitude of bhakti??  It’s completely anti-devotional, and can never be devotional.

There is a grave requirement that the philosophy of bhakti should be understood in real terms . As mentioned earlier it is a set of activities, meant to help  develop that inner disposition.

Sometimes demanding circumstances brings about that change in the inner   disposition by development of certain virtues,which eventually help us in chanting of the Holy names also, it may make us more dependent on Krishna, and  take more shelter of Krishna. For instance we may be forced to become tolerant or humble because of somebody say a relative who is not favourable to bhakti .

We can’t know in advance how Krishna will make certain things favourable to us and therefore  we should just try to serve Krishna,

It does stand true in today’s scenario that an additional child would definitely mean increased demand on our time and  financial pressures.

The question now arises how does one deal with it? There are various ways for the same. One practical way would be if  it is impossible to maintain  a child then the child can be given for adoption. There are many parents who are unable to conceive and  are eager to have a child or  for that matter one may take help from various  agencies, working on these lines rather than going for a knee jerk step like abortion ,for  it is nothing less than a murder, and that also  in the name of bhakti?  .. .

It is recommended for  devotees who give such rational    to see some of the documentaries available like Silent Scream prepared by gynaecologist who had done hundreds of abortions. Once, with the advanced  technology,  he photographed the entire process of abortion. It was observed that  the device  commonly used for abortion  use to catch the child’s head and crush  it. The baby out of fear use to battle with that device to protect, by  pulling off itself in the womb After little battling in that limited space     baby gets tired and eventually can’t pull off and the device crushes the baby’s head, it’s Ghastly! A real live person  is mercilessly killed.  There may be some other forms of abortion which may not seem to be so brutal, but life is literally taken.

From a philosophical and technological point of view  there is  real life and taking that life is never favourable to Bhakti, certainly not in this situation. It would be rarely favorable to Bhakti. In an I extreme situation  say, Arjuna fighting the war against the sinful Kauravas was different, but the child  in the womb is not at all sinful to deserve  a death sentence .

Hence, by properly understanding what is Bhakti and what is abortion, one can get clearer mind to choose appropriate course of action, to deal with the situation.

Thank you
Hare Krishna