Is bhakti meant for setting things right in our life or for liberating our soul?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when we are growing, we are told that if we practice Bhakti, go to temple, worship, bow down to God, then we will, things will go right in our life, we will get good marks, we will get good job. So, is Bhakti meant for that purpose or is Bhakti meant for realizing our soul, for connecting with our soul? It is both. See, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about four kinds of people who approach Him.
He says that Artho is stressed, Artharthi is those who want some material things, and He calls all these people as Sukrutina. Sukrutina means they are pious, He appreciates them. And then He says, so, that if they keep practicing Bhakti like this, then gradually they will evolve Gradually they will evolve and they will understand that Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing.
That means, if Krishna manifests in my heart, if I develop love for Krishna, that is Krishna’s greatest blessing. That understanding will come gradually. But is there something wrong in starting with that concept? Basically, we can approach God at four levels.
Fear, desire, duty and love. Fear is, if I don’t worship God, God will punish me. That is one level.
It is very negative because we see God as a punisher. When we apply God as a level of desire, then it is at least a more positive level. But again the problem there is that it is a very unsteady relationship.
If my desire is fulfilled, I say, thank you God, bye bye. If my desire is not fulfilled, I say, God, you don’t exist. Then you start hating also.
I see people complaining, you don’t exist. Then duty is, desire is based on what I want God will provide me. Duty comes, when I see God has already provided me so many things, I should be grateful to Him and worship Him.
But when you come to the level of love, that is the stablest and that is the most fulfilling level. Where we understand that actually by loving God, I will get far greater fulfillment in life than by getting some gifts from God. And this will be a natural progression.
So it is not wrong to start at the level of fear or desire, but as we associate with spiritually minded people, we understand the philosophy, then we rise from that to higher levels.