Are direct bhakti in brahmachari life and indirect bhakti in grihastha life equivalent?

Answer Podcast:

so is direct bhakti better than indirect bhakti so is for example direction chanting and practicing bhakti yoga better than better than say raising one’s child in the mood of bhakti i would not necessarily compare it with chanting because that i’m saying is there for both i’m just saying i mean more directly i’m comparing dharmacharya ashram and grahastha ashram as far as chanting reading is concerned both are doing it but the other time of the day the remaining time they are involved in direct bhakti and we are involved in the so is it that you know what since you all can’t do direct bhakti therefore better you do indirect bhakti is it that or is it based on that disposition and all that you just said and both are perfectly equal and both are perfectly all right or is it just that you know they should not feel bad therefore you know they should not feel that it’s like a second prize or a consolation prize therefore we are doing like that they should not be very irresponsible therefore we are doing like that actually from a spiritual perspective also this as good as that yeah this is these are multiple paths to krishna or are they multi-level paths to krishna is it one level and another level so and what you had answered that time is i had talked about jyotishma versus guru chari related from social perspective they are superior from a spiritual perspective they’re absolutely the same yeah i just wanted to reinforce that yeah so now we look at the process of bhakti only reason why i am emphasizing this question is because only as counselors and as you know those who are taking care of other rastas and other rituals on the boys we you know attempt very strongly and we emphasize a lot on you know like those who have let’s say decided on it and so on so we are quite bold and confident in our presentation of the rastas and we actually with full confidence we make such statements that actually they are perfect as far as going back to what it is concerned and you know it’s not a question of sincerity it’s not a question of sincerity i just wanted to have authoritative is it that we are just uh you know promoting this ashram and are you just consulting devotees and the ethics are to be decided what is right and what is wrong so it is said that there is a three criteria normally people think that okay speaking truth truthfulness is good speaking truthfulness is good speaking truthfulness is bad but there are situations when rioters are coming and attacking someone and the person comes and sits so high in their house and behind the person and the rioters come and say is he there and we say the truth will be clear but that time is completely wrong so the rightness and wrongness is not categorical it is contextual so the mahabharata essential message is that what is right and what is wrong is determined by three factors by the content of the action by the intent of the action and by the consequence of the action the intent the content and the consequence all three need to be considered by determining what is right and what is wrong and no one action alone is enough no one of one factor is enough in determining what is the right and what is wrong so intent means why i am acting content is what exactly i am acting and consequence is what is the result of what i am doing all these have to be considered before determining what is right and what is wrong so similarly with respect to the the relative position of the ashrams in content we could say that yes in brahmacharya ashram we have greater opportunity to be close to krishna we are in association of devotees more we are we have more time for directly devotional activities so in content there’s no doubt that brahmacharya ashram is offers more facility to be closer to krishna at the same time the it’s not always so sometimes some brahmacharis may also need to get some involvement activities which may not be directly spiritual there’s also brahmachari gets into temple construction then we have to do so many things we have to deal with contractors i’m a writer now i have to get into english so i have to study english and that was required for my service so everything even brahmacharya when they pick up some specialized service they can develop to focus a particular service often for doing any service in the world in an effective way one has to interact with the material side of the service that has to be done responsibly so one cannot just say that because i’m transcendental initially some people in brahmapad i once used a word which is not there in the digital room so the editors came to where i thought what should we do they could make out of the context of brahmapad men but i thought it was not there and aunty godi said oh you know pure godi has used that word so rather than changing brahmapad’s book we should change the rishis so the point is that nobody wanted competence and efficiency when they had the material life also in the rishis and that requirement is yes so even in ghastham if you say life not everything in the content may always be spiritual now even you say is one wants to make dresses for the deities is it directly spiritual but at that time when we get into measurements and styles and all those things now how much that means how much is that necessarily spiritual when we be interacting with tailors who do not be devotees so there is a material side even in directly devotional activities if one is focusing on them and specializing in them so but content is but even if we say content which is closer to krishna than rest alike but that alone is not important intent and the consequences are also important so intent is where our sincerity and our seriousness come into picture and it may well be possible that a person because of his own intent to serve krishna can actually have greater effect it can go closer to krishna more in regards to the right and from the time line this is what is the mooladhara vithyacharya works and then most importantly i would say is in terms of consequence consequence in terms of what what consequence on us ourselves on our own group and on our contribution to society society needs not just to naliciate kultic bhakti it also needs very much examples of people who are in the world and are practicing bhakti in the world without those examples bhakti will remain impractical sort of utopian thing so as of now the the way the world is going the materialism has become more and more rampant and in general in the past also most people were dhrarastras and that is all the more likely going to be now where materialism is much more rampant so if that is the case and most people are going and most people need examples of krishnas so a grasta who sets a good example for society can actually have in that sense a very significant consequence which is indispensable normally if you think of grastasana something or you go there and you come off but in terms of social contribution grastasana is not something that’s dispensable you do it and you do it up we need grastasana all the time and that’s how the movement spreads so we can think of success in krishna consciousness at various levels in the way multiple definitions not just multiple definitions i will say multiple levels over here so one is that of course if you consider krishna consciousness as like a pyramid with concentric circles of various diameters so for example at the top if you notice when those were completely absorbed in krishna so that is our ultimate goal but is that our only goal if we are to transform society even in the past when bhagavad-gita is speaking of a time when there were great saints and at that time it is saying so even at that time the bhagavad-gita is saying that the pure devotee is one among thousands one among thousands of unis of sages so pure devotees are always going to be there so that means that that the top of the pyramid is always going to be small but from that pyramid downward there can be concentric circles of people who are dharmic at various levels of intensity so for example people who chant this around the sadhanas that is one level also people who chant some around and follow some level of regular principles that is also another level also people who may not chant sadhana bhakti but are ready to do sadhana and are appreciating krishna bhakti they are also in the circle and and if krishna consciousness is actually the percolate society it will often be like these levels of service level concentric circles also number of people who become serious sadhakas is not going to be very large anyway it was not very large in the past and it will be large now but still society in general can be brought to the path of dharma instead of being on the path of adharma as it is right so in terms of consequence grahastha life grahastha ashram is going to play a vital and indispensable role and again when i said grahastha it is not just grahastha who are concentric or concentric they are the exemplary grahastha no we need exemplary grahastha at various levels so there are grahastha who may come they are exalted to temple and they do a lot of services in the temple and they inspire others also who want to get that but there may be other grahastha who may focus more on their profession and through their profession they may actually be affecting a lot of people spiritually they may not be physically present in the temple so much of course they have to have some connection with devotees otherwise that they know that krishna will become weak and then they will not be able to interact with krishna but then we shouldn’t even have a particular stereotyped conception of what an exemplary grahastha is we can have grahastha at various levels and they can all be contributing in terms of making the culture more dharmic so our ultimate goal is pure devotion and our ultimate goal is to share pure devotion but we are not propagating utopia we know that pure devotion is exalted and a majority of people will take a long time to come to the level of pure devotion the others are not used to be abandoned but they also need to be dharmically responsible it says that don’t fail people according to where they are and encourage them to practice bhakti so bhakti is at one level the just adding the intention of devotion at another level is adding the content of devotion and another level is and bring about the consequence of devotion and in terms of each devotee sarthaka how these three factors play out will vary so will it only have content yes ramcharya ashram may be is in fact closer to krishna than his grahastha ashram but in terms of intent and consequence cumulatively it will vary from devotee to devotee and how much advancement one makes will depend on the cumulation of all these factors not just one factor alone