Lord Brahma is the first acharya in the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya, but why is he not considered pure devotee?

From: Radhakrishnan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
question by Radhakrishna Lord Krishna is the first in line of Brahma in the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Sampradaya but why is he not considered pure devotee answer it is too strong a statement to say that Brahmaji is not considered to be a pure devotee pure devotee is not a digital electronic term where you have 1 and 0 so somebody is a pure devotee and somebody is not a pure devotee pure devotee is a spectrum and Brahmaji is certainly an exalted devotee and only when he is compared with other devotees who may be more exalted than him then he may not be considered to be a pure devotee but we should not generalize the statement and say that he is not a pure devotee as compared to us he is a very advanced devotee and for all practical purposes from our point of view he is as good as a pure devotee as a pure devotee now there are some references where it is said that he is not a pure devotee in the sense that he is said to be the top most among karma mishra bhaktas so karma mishra means those who do activity and they offer the activity to Krishna that is karma mishra bhakti so because he does the work of creation he is said to have some contact with the mode of passion and that’s why he is considered to be not the pure devotee but again if we look at the context where the statements are made we have to understand that Brahmaji is actually living in the material world and there are devotees in the spiritual world who are connecting with Krishna not as God who are not attracted to Krishna because of his greatness but who are connecting with Krishna just as their beloved as Krishna is somebody who is so sweet so in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit in the Bhakti Amrit Sindhu these are all books which are based on the Vedic scriptures and it is described how Krishna loves those who love him for himself and not for his divinity the most just like the bodyguard of a prime minister or the secretary of a prime minister may also be very faithful and devoted to the prime minister but at the same time the love that the mother or the intimate relative of the prime minister has and has had with the prime minister even without bothering whether the prime minister is the prime minister they love that person because of what he is not because of the fact that he is temporarily on the post of the prime minister so the mother’s love for the prime minister is without any real awareness or focus on the fact that my son is the prime minister loves him because he is my son so same way it is considered that those devotees who love Krishna not because he is God but just because he is so sweet so Nanda Maharaj, Ishwara and all the other devotees so in Vrindavan as well as in the Pandavas like Arjuna to some extent who often, because of his intimate dealings with Krishna and a level of friendship he often overlooks the fact that Krishna is God so those devotees who connect with Krishna at a personal level without really focusing on his divinity so much, that awareness is there but it is in the background so they are considered to be much much closer to Krishna in that sense they are said to be very exalted pure devotees at a level higher than Brahmaji so because Brahmaji is relating with the Lord primarily in the mood of Aishwarya and normally Brahmaji and the other devotees other devatas go and pray to the Lord that there is this demon who is troubling us please rescue us so the relationship they know that Krishna Vishnu is a person and they know that ultimately he is the benefactor and protector of everyone but their relationship is more on an official level in the sense that they are very conscious that he is God so that relationship is considered to be a slightly less level of intimacy so in the material world Brahmaji is an exalted devotee and he is the first receiver of the wisdom of Srimad Bhagavatam and through him the Srimad Bhagavatam was passed down so it is not that he is deficient or that the knowledge that is passed down by him and through him is deficient but just because on one side he is approaching Krishna primarily in the mood of Aishwarya and secondly because he is involved in the work of creation and because of that sometimes he gets overcome by the mood of passion and does some activities that are unseeming and inappropriate for a exalted devotee so he is not considered to be a pure devotee in that limited contextual sense Thank you