Are chanting and going to the temple bhakti only if they are done to please Krishna?

Comment by Rajesh on

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

Bhakti is, working towards giving pleasure to Krishna. Anything which doesn’t give pleasure to Krishna is not Bhakti.

Chanting & going to temple, if not directed towards Krishna’s pleasure then it is not bhakti.

Simple.

Hare Krishna.
Question is from Rajesh Prabhu. Are activities like going to temple and chanting, if not done for Krishna’s pleasure, not actually Bhakti? Are only the activities that are done for Krishna’s pleasure Bhakti? Answer, yes, at the highest level, that’s true. Bhaktarasa Amritsundar gives the definition of Bhakti.
Shilanam Bhaktiruttama. So, Bhakti means to do those activities which are favorable, which are favorable for Krishna and meant for which are meant for pleasing Krishna. That’s true, definitely.
But at another level, that is at a high level, that is pure devotion. At other level, Rupa Goswami also says, Somehow or the other, fix the mind on Krishna. So, initially, even if our motivation is not to please Krishna, but somehow or the other we get connected with Krishna, that is also auspicious and that is also preparatory to Bhakti and that is also favorable to Bhakti.
So, different people may chant or go to the temple or do such devotional activities for different motivations. They may not be motivated just for the pleasing Krishna, but they may be motivated by, say, Oh, that’s our culture, so we do it. Oh, my relatives expect me to do it, so I should go.
Or, I like to go there. It’s a sensible thing to do. The philosophy makes sense, so I should do it.
So, these are not necessarily wrong motivations. And these can also be Bhakti. In the Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit, Bhaktirinod Thakur explains that we can approach God in different levels.
There can be fear, there can be desire, there can be duty and there is love. So now, love is the highest and the best. But even fear, desire, that level of connection with God is also good.
And duty is healthy because love does not come overnight. So, we may not have the desire to please Krishna, but we may just have the desire to purify ourselves. So, most of the time when we chant or go to the temple, it may not be that we are consciously thinking of trying to please Krishna.
Yes, we should be trying to think, but even if that thought is not foremost in our mind, but if we are thinking simply in terms of purification, Yes, this will purify me, so let me do it. Or even if somebody is thinking that, Oh, I enjoy going to the temple because I like to dance in Kirtans. And that is also not wrong.
That is not Bhakti in the highest sense, but that is favorable to Bhakti and that is definitely better than doing other activities, say going to some clubs and dancing to materialistic music. So therefore, we should not, at least in the initial stages of our practice of Bhakti, be so categorical about things and try to so rigidly define anything that is not meant for the pleasing Krishna as not Bhakti. We should at our level follow the principles.
We should aspire definitely for that, but at our level we should follow the principles. Somehow or the other, fix the mind on Krishna. And by such rigid definition, we may discourage ourselves and discourage others in the practice of Bhakti.
And the whole purpose is to stay encouraged and stay connected with Krishna and gradually progress to higher levels. So therefore, let’s focus on connecting ourselves with Krishna and trying to make that connection progressively purer and selfless, centered on Krishna’s pleasure. So at a lower level also it is Bhakti, and even if it is not Bhakti, at the very least it is Agnath Sukrti.
Agnath Sukrti is unknowing good deeds which help one to go closer to Krishna. Now, what is undesirable is hypocrisy. If somebody just makes a show of doing devotional activities so that one can enjoy, say, the feelings of respect, of being respected in a pious society, or if one has ulterior motives to exploit others by doing Bhakti, which is not so common.
If those are there, then that is definitely undesirable. That will be hypocritical also. But if one is striving towards purity and selflessness, but one is not there at all, then that sort of activities are also within the range of Bhakti, and they will raise one to the level of pure Bhakti eventually.