As devotees are sincerely trying to live according to principles can the mithyachari Gita verse 3.6 be applied to them?

Question from Trivikram Prabhu. You mentioned in a Gita Daily article that if we try to lead double lives like this, the Bhagavad Gita 3.6 warns us that we are cheating not only the world, but ourselves. But, isn’t it true that devotees are sincerely trying to lead a principle-centered life? And, this verse refers to hypocrites who are actually trying to cheat people in general.
Devotees don’t have such cheating intentions. Answer, yes, that is true. In general, when we study the scriptures, the verses within the scriptures have specific meanings within those specific contexts.
But, their meaning is not frozen to those contexts. It can extend beyond those contexts to other situations of relevance to the people at that particular time. For example, if we consider the verse 3.13 So, now, in this particular verse if we stick to the context of what is being told, the verse primarily refers to the Vedic sacrifices and primarily the Karmakand sacrifices because the section before this was Karmakanda and how by the performance of yajna within the Karmakanda sacrifices one gets purification and if one does not do those yajnas, then one gets suffering.
So, now, the extension of the application of this verse to our current situation of, say, offering bhoga to Krishna and honoring prasadam, that is entirely valid, although it may not exactly fit in the context of that verse. The internal thought flow of that section is primarily yajnas. It is not talking about deities and placing the food in front of the deities directly.
The way we do it. But it is entirely valid because the underlying principle is true that the principle is that we offer to the Supreme Lord whatever are the facilities and necessities that we are getting from Him through nature. Similarly, say, we can look at the verse, 7.15 in the Bhagavad Gita, where it describes the four categories of people who don’t surrender to Krishna.
Now, although this refers to four categories of people, we can apply this verse for looking at our own hearts. And we may find traces of each of these four mentalities. We may find that we have impersonalist tendencies.
We have the tendency to defy God, that is asuram bhagam asritah. And we may just feel apathetic, uninterested in spiritual life entirely. That would be naradhama.
And sometimes we get so caught up in working hard for improving our material life that we just don’t have any time for spiritual life. That would be a trace of the mudha tendency. So now, by analyzing in this way, we can ourselves observe which are the obstacles that are checking us in our spiritual life and correct ourselves.
So same way, the import or the purport of the verse is not something that is frozen in time. So, it is something, the verse is a manifestation of Krishna and Krishna is a living reality. So, the verses can speak to us in different ways at different times.
And this particular verse, if we talk about it as a type of person, if we are looking at it, then certainly the devotees are not mithyacharis, at least generally people who come to Krishna consciousness and become ready to follow the four aggregate principles and if they take up the practices after understanding the philosophy, then it is extremely rare that they will come with the intention of being hypocritical. So, there might be other people who live in dhams and who are living in a place where religious culture is very much a matter of prestige, religious practice. And then they may get some, exploit that prestige for their own purposes.
So, they have no spiritual advancement, but they pretend it while planning how to make material progress, gain things from their followers. So, then wealth and other things. So, then they would be, as a category of people, they would be hypocrites.
But, as a mentality that might occasionally go through us, this verse can apply to us also. As devotees, we don’t intentionally live a double life. Certainly not.
But, this tendency of sometimes we may render a service and we may think, if I render this service properly, then I’ll get a particular post, I’ll get power or I will get this, I’ll get that. Then, if that becomes our motive, then it’s not that that is our only motive. That is a motive that is contaminating our pure motive of wanting to love and serve Krishna.
But, these tendencies can be there in traces. And, to counter these tendencies that are there in traces, we can use this verse as a contemplation and introspection tool. So, to summarize, yes, this verse doesn’t apply to devotees as a category of people.
But, the meaning of the verses is not frozen. Verses are Krishna and Krishna is a living reality. So, as a living reality for us, in our practice of spiritual life, we can use this verse as an introspection tool for uncovering and expelling the similar mentality that might be present