If bhakti is perfect then why does it contain restrictions?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, question is that if bhakti is complete and perfect, then why are there restrictions in bhakti? Actually, bhakti is not just a process. It is essentially, it’s a relationship and any relationship involves a commitment.
So, for example, when a man marries a woman, now for that relationship to be a serious relationship, then the man doesn’t have any intimate relationships with any other woman. When a man and a woman beget a child, at that time as parents, when they form a relationship with a child, that relationship, developing that relationship involves putting aside many other things which they could have done so that they can invest their love in that particular, in that child. So, similarly, in bhakti, the focus is not on the restrictions.
The focus is on developing our relationship with Krishna and every relationship involves commitments. Now, bhakti can elevate anyone, even if a person is not following any restrictions. The person, for example, breaks all regulative principles, does all kinds of sinful activities.
Still that person, by the practice of bhakti, can become purified, can become elevated. So, bhakti will always work. Just like when a person takes the medicine, the medicine will have its work.
But if the person is also taking some food or doing some activities that are worsening the disease, then the medicine’s work will be countered by the other factors. So, now when we want to love Krishna, there are certain activities which take us towards Krishna and there are certain activities which take us away from Krishna. So, the activities which take us away from Krishna, they block us in offering our love towards Krishna.
So, for example, meat-eating, all living beings are children of God. So, we cannot really love God when we are killing his children for the sake of the satisfaction of our tongue. So, the restrictions in bhakti shouldn’t be seen as deprivations, as blockages in the enjoyment of life, but the restrictions are seen as pathways by which we can express, we can focus our commitment on Krishna, deepen our relationship with him and thereby experience the highest happiness.
So, the restrictions are not, they do not indicate that bhakti is imperfect or bhakti is impotent. Rather, the restrictions manifest the point that bhakti is a relationship. So, bhakti can elevate anyone and everyone, but the purpose of bhakti is the redirection of our love.
And if we are not redirecting our love towards Krishna, then we are not really letting the whole process of bhakti work in its fullness. And it’s not that bhakti is imperfect, it is that we are not letting it work. It’s like if an elevator is taking me up and while the elevator is taking me up, I press buttons which push me down.
Then what is happening is there is an upward force and a downward force and there is a continuous conflict because of which I cannot keep moving up properly. So, that’s why when we want to practice bhakti, we can see the restrictions not as deprivations, but as opportunities to focus and redirect our love towards Krishna.