What is the essence of pure bhakti?

From: Annpriya Mataji

It is said that pure bhakti should be desire less & we should not ask for any thing from the Lord. But what if one is not on that level. I personally do not ask Radha Krishna for anything material but i do ask them for giving me pure bhakti, their service & let me have pure love for them. Is this mixed bhakti?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna I personally do not ask Radha and Krishna for any material I do ask them for giving me pure bhakti their service and pure love for them is this mixed bhakti? Answer? No to ask Krishna to give us pure love for him is not at all mixed in fact it is natural and it is an exalted desire that if we can genuinely cultivate it will help us advance spiritually it is natural for the soul to love Krishna purely and to ask Krishna for that which is natural is not considered impure if you look at the word purity purity means a thing while it exists in its original natural state when it is said to be pure so for a thing to exist in its pure natural state means that it should exhibit the qualities which it is exhibiting in the pure state so when the soul is pure the soul naturally desires to serve Krishna and Radharani in the spiritual world who is the ultimate devotee and all the other devotees in the spiritual world they are filled with desires to serve Krishna so when we similarly have desires to serve Krishna that is not at all impure in fact we are trying to return to our original state of purity so to ask for pure love for Krishna is not at all mixed now if one is not at the level of not asking anything material from Krishna then one can ask for those material things which one feels are essential for oneself so that one can practice bhakti properly preface or conclude these prayers with my dear lord if you so desire that means if I want to practice bhakti but if my family situation is not compatible with the practice of bhakti then to pray that my relatives become more favorable to my devotional practice that is certainly within the jurisdiction of bhakti and similarly if one has a more material situation that is even material demanding if one requires some material facilities by which one can practice bhakti properly for those but in general we should always express our surrender to Krishna’s will by saying if you so desire my dear lord Srila Prabhupada himself actually was living just for the sake of spreading Krishna’s message so his life was led at a pure devotional level and yet even when he he wanted to ask Krishna or he wanted devotees asked him whether we can at one time in 1968 when he suddenly fell very sick and devotees were fearful that he may depart from the world so at that time the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada can we pray to Krishna for your health and your recovery so Srila Prabhupada although he was practicing bhakti at a pure devotional level and if his life continued he would have practiced bhakti at that pure devotional level itself but still he considered that this prayer should be prefaced with if you so desire my dear lord so he told the devotees that our master has not yet completed the work so my dear lord Krishna please allow him to stay with us for some more time if you so desire so we can pray to Krishna if it is necessary for us but we should pray if you so desire and in general it is important for us not to make the practice of bhakti dependent on the fulfillment of our prayers prayers are only one limb of bhakti they are not the essence of bhakti at the material or karmakand level of practice of religion the essence of the essential purpose for practicing religion is to get something from god and if we don’t get something from god then people feel what is the need to practice religion but in bhakti we practice religion not to get something from god but to actually enter into an eternal relationship with him because that and that alone will satisfy us completely the bhagavatam describes in 126 that this pure love satisfies our heart completely nothing else will satisfy our heart like that so therefore if we are not at the level of pure devotional service and we feel the need to pray to Krishna for something material we can take care of these two precautions we can pray but we face or conclude the prayer with a surrender to Krishna’s will if you so desire and secondly not make our practice of bhakti dependent on the fulfillment of that prayer Krishna knows better than us what is best for us and therefore even if we feel that the fulfillment of a particular prayer is indispensable for us but Krishna can see longer down the road than what we can and he has his own ways of doing what is best for us we have to maintain that faith in Krishna and even if he doesn’t fulfill the prayer still we need to continue our devotional service