Can all karma be offered to Krishna or does ugra-karma have to be given up?
In sarva karma purvanam udapashaya if present karma is ugra karma then does that person have to reject that ugra karma for practicing bhakti yes ultimately for coming to the level of pure bhakti one has to reject all kinds of ugra karma but whether the person is able to reject ugra karma immediately or not that will really depend on one's situation, one's condition and so one's condition somebody is in a profession somebody is in a whole generation, generation by generation they are proficient and if they just can't do fishing that's been their profession, they don't know anything else so if they give up fishing and that means poverty for them starvation then how exactly they may give up that may vary upon time and circumstances so in the Mahabharata there is no Vyadagita, Vyadagita is the hunters give up the hunters actually give special instruction to the brahmins not the hunters, sorry, but the butcher is giving instruction to them so how is that? butcher, that may be the profession but butcher has spiritual knowledge so see wherever there is spiritual knowledge we appreciate that but that does not mean that that becomes the standard see in the process of bhakti in the process of spiritual knowledge there can be exceptions because of various circumstances we don't know we don't know a person's background the bhagavatam also talks about it says that if the dog hunter is chanting the holy names then they are actually more than the brahmins they already run all these activities is the bhagavatam saying that is that you don't have to do all these activities even if you are a dog hunter that's ok no, that's not only bhagavatam so actually the acharya there is a whole trajectory so there is there is adharma there is sinful activity there is aparadharma and there is paradharma so the bhagavadgita talks about in 6th chapter it talks about somebody is practicing bhakti, yoga so actually that is yoga is not actually in a sense i will explain I am not explaining he is talking about those who from the path of yoga come back to aparadharma those who come back from the path of yoga to aparadharma they will either become born in a devotee's family or they will be born in a pious family Krishna is not talking there about the possibility of somebody who falls from the path of yoga to adharma if somebody falls from yoga to adharma then they may have some other consequences so that adharma will also have its karmic consequences and then become a low born family it's like Krishna if these two possibilities alone were exhaustive then how do we explain Bharat Maharaj becoming a deer at a material level the attachment to a deer's body had consequences his spiritual consciousness is still remaining but he is not a deer's body so these two possibilities are for people who give up yoga and come back to the level of aparadharma which they were practicing earlier but if somebody falls from yoga to adharma then adharma will have its consequences and somebody may be born into swapachar and that swapachar because they have practiced bhakti they are continually chanting the holy names but they are also swapachar so now when they will give up the swapachar then they are eating dog eating that kind of sinful life depending on when they have their spiritual awakening when they will get spiritual resources so our point is that there is a standard process for going in spiritual life and we try to practice but that doesn't mean that we have to reject everyone who doesn't fit in that standard process because every person's individual history may be far more complicated than what we can perceive so for some people giving up a particular conditioning is very easy for others giving up that conditioning may take a lifelong step now if you just condemn them because they are not able to give up that particular conditioning that's not necessarily a right thing because they may be practicing bhakti but that particular conditioning is gripped very strongly so let them practice bhakti while having that conditioning and when that conditioning will go away that will be their calling time so so the in principle yes the ugra karma has to be given up for the practice of bhakti but in practice one should not give up bhakti because one is not able to give up the ugra karma one keeps practicing bhakti and whenever it works out that by the practice of bhakti it becomes strong enough we will give up the ugra karma so even if our attachments hold on to us still we can hold on to Krishna so ideal situation is when we hold on to Krishna our attachments will lose their hold on us and we will rise towards Krishna but depending on how strong a particular person's condition or conditioning is sometimes some attachments may hold on for a very long time and then those people don't have to judge and condemn just because they have attachments yes even if their attachments are holding on to them still encourage them to hold on to Krishna and by their time they will be able to give up their attachments so they may be able to give up their attachments so sometimes some people may have certain habits, certain conditionings certain privileges, it is not a problem just let them practice bhakti from where they are but that is not a standard so the standard remains the standard but the standard should not be used to reject everyone who is non-standard we encourage people who can come to the standard to come to the standard but they are not to be condemned they are also encouraged to practice whatever they do is the answer in this?