Does Gita 9.32 which says that anyone can begin bhakti apply to those who fall while practicing bhakti?
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Hare Krishna. Question, does the fact that all of us have an emotional capacity make bhakti easy to begin or also it makes bhakti easy to sustain? Answer, this is based on the Gita Daily article about how we do not have to become discouraged on facing reversals in our spiritual life, never lose heart on the path of the heart. So there it talks about how even those who are low born can practice bhakti.
So is this verse focusing more on who all can begin bhakti or does it also talk about who all can continue bhakti even after facing difficulties and failures in it? Don't other verses like Apichet Sudracharo and Shipsambhavati Dharmatma talk more relevantly about failures in spiritual life, fall downs and failures in spiritual life? If this was really relevant for talking about failures, isn't it talking more about who can begin spiritual life? Answer, yes. The thrust of this verse is that anyone and everyone can take to spiritual life, especially devotional life. Anyone can take shelter of Krishna.
And that Krishna says, no birth is no disqualification. At the same time, if we go deeper, why is low birth no disqualification? Because all of us have the capacity for emotions, whether our birth is low or high. And unlike that, other faculties such as the capacity for renunciation or the capacity for intellection, serious intellectual reflection, those capacities are not always there among people who are low born.
So if we look at the deeper aspect, the reason why everybody can take shelter of Krishna is because shelter is a faculty of the heart and everybody has a heart. And because everybody has a heart, so that not only enables us to take shelter of Krishna in the beginning, but that enables us to sustain the shelter of Krishna even when along the path we face difficulties. So there are verses definitely like 9.30 and 31 Apichet Sudracharo Krishna says, even if somebody does some wrong activities, still that person is my devotee, is a sadhu.
And then Krishna says in the next verse 9.31 that that person will soon become righteous. Shipram bhavati dharmatma. And he says, my devotee will never perish.
Kaunteya patijani na me bhakta pranashyati. So those verses talk about how the continuance in the path of bhakti and the grace of Krishna that is available in the path of bhakti will redeem a devotee who has some difficulties and falls, slips or falls. But again, there also if we go deeper, what is the reason that the devotee can get that, can get Krishna's mercy or continue to take shelter? That is because bhakti doesn't call for something which one doesn't have.
Bhakti calls for a sincere heart, a heart eager to love and to serve and to seek the shelter and grace of Krishna. That is something which all of us have potentially. We may have to develop the spiritual emotions more.
And the practice of bhakti yoga helps us to develop bhakti, to develop those devotional emotions. But essentially the capacity for that is present in everyone. So even on the path of bhakti, sometimes when we see some devotees who are very learned, they can memorize so many verses and they can speak so brilliantly, we may start feeling, oh, am I really capable of practicing bhakti? These devotees seem to be so brilliant.
We should know that, yes, if they have some material abilities, they can use it in Krishna's service. But those are not prerequisites. We can continue to practice bhakti even if we don't have those material abilities.
And even when we slip and fall, it is not that suppose somebody has fallen, it's not that because the person does very severe austerities thereafter, that's what rectifies the person. Now, what rectifies the person is the heart's disposition of repentance and the desire to take shelter of Krishna. And now some people may express that by doing severe austerities.
But that's not what is the important thing. The important thing is that one takes shelter of Krishna thereafter. And the shelter of Krishna can also be through the normal forms of devotional service being done diligently.
So the emphasis is that whether it's in the beginning or whether in the course of sustaining, bhakti never asks from us something which we don't have, such as the capacity for austerities or the capacity for intellectual gymnastics. Bhakti requires us just to call out to Krishna with our heart. And that is something which all of us can do in the beginning and in the progressing on the path of bhakti.
And in that sense, bhakti is, everyone is actually capable of practicing bhakti and everyone is capable of continuing bhakti, no matter what disqualifications one may seem to have in the beginning or what difficulties one may have while practicing. Bhakti remains always our shelter or the means by which anyone and everyone can gain the shelter of Krishna and attain the perfection of life. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.