In the Bhagavatam devotees renounce the world to serve the Lord but in the Vitthal tradition devotees serve their parents while the Lord waits – how to reconcile?
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In Bhagavatam we see many devotees renounce their family, renounce the world and focus exclusively in bhakti but say in other traditions or say in Pandarpur Mithal, you know it is that a devotee is serving his parents and the Lord is waiting for him to complete his service to his parents and then the Lord waits for the service so how do we understand this there is an essential principle of bhakti and there is a contextual application of bhakti so if we see this, even in the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavatam itself we see this difference the Bhagavad Gita there is practically no verse which endorses strongly renunciation of the world Krishna talks about how the yogi is going to the jungle in the sixth chapter but then he says Arjuna you practice bhakti bhakti is the easier way to control the mind and bhakti means you remember me and you fight so the context of the Gita is that Arjuna for him dharma is to fight the world, for him he needs to be engaged and because he needs to be engaged for him renunciation is not appropriate so the essential message of bhakti is that we have to devote ourselves to the Lord but for Arjuna that devotion is through his dedication to his duties in this world in contrast if you see in the Bhagavatam Pariksit Maharaj has been cursed to die in seven days and he has also accepted the curse he decided I am not going to try anything to counter it then the whole thrust of the Bhagavatam let me just renounce the world just focus on Krishna everything is a distraction to think that we are the protectors of anyone, we are the maintainers of anyone that’s an illusion Bharat Maharaj has told how he tried to protect a deer and he got distracted by it but we see that same Pariksit Maharaj when he was ruling as a king and when a cow and a bull were being attacked he did not think if I try to protect this cow and bull I will become attached to them so I should not try to protect them that time he intervened so the context of the Bhagavatam is it’s helping a person to prepare for death at that point everything in this world is a distraction so there is single pointed focus on the other world so the contextual application of bhakti for Parikshit Maharaj is very different from the contextual application of bhakti for Arjuna so in today’s example, today’s world we could say there is some young energetic devotee maybe the devotee is frustrated because of some difficulty in service I just go to Vrindavan and I will chant 128 rounds everyday now you can be a devotee now you know, don’t do that when you have youth, you have energy you will just become a Sahajyar and better stay here do some other service will encourage that devotee to be actively engaged in doing service now on the other hand say some devotee has got cancer and is terminal, is incurable and then that devotee has no chance of recovery and that devotee starts thinking I was managing this project, who will take care of this then the devotee is guiding just forget that now it’s Krishna’s mission, Krishna will take care so you focus on fixing your mind on Krishna so there is context which is very important in understanding content if we take the content without the context we can misapply and we can make a mess of things so in as I said what would be appropriate for us so in that particular context now that story of Vitthal is told but we don’t it’s just that much, that story is primarily told to talk about how Vitthal is standing on a brick but beyond that you know it’s quite likely that the parents of that particular Bhakta were also great devotees and by serving them also you are serving them and was it that for him it was a choice between it was not a life changing decision, whether I serve my parents first and then I serve the Lord or whether I serve the Lord first and serve my parents so we can’t take that example as a basis for deciding how we can practice Bhakti, that example is an illustration but we have to understand the essential principle of Bhakti is that I am meant to serve Krishna and then in my context my context means my familial context my social context my psychophysical context I have to find out how best I can serve Krishna so if I can serve Krishna by pronouncing the word and practicing Bhakti as an enunciator, that’s wonderful if I can practice Bhakti best by being engaged with the world that’s also wonderful so from the Bhakti perspective whatever is Anukul, we take that and whatever is Pratikul, we avoid that is that answer your question? yes