SB 7.9.10 – False shelters that keep us away from the true shelter

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And that attracts their mercy towards us. This verse describes how the devotion inwards the normal hierarchy of piety. So normally a Brahmana is considered to be the highest in the hierarchy of piety and a Shwapacha, a dog-eater is considered to be way down in that hierarchy.
But bhakti lowers this hierarchy by placing the dog-eaters, the Shwapacha as higher if that Shwapacha has devotion and the Brahmana as lower if the Brahmana lacks devotion. So certainly our material situation is not irrelevant. Materially it is very significant.
And even in spiritual life it may play a role, but it does not play a decisive role. The decisive role is played by the way we turn towards Krishna and learn to love Him. So when we recognize that whatever material qualifications we may have, if they make us feel proud, if they make us feel that we don’t need Krishna anymore, that I can deal with things myself because I have so many material qualifications, then that makes us lose the impetus to take shelter of Krishna.
And when we lose the impetus to take shelter of Krishna, we alienate ourselves by that. So that is the real challenge on the process of bhakti. When we have material qualifications, we can use them in Krishna’s service definitely and that is the advantage in our service, in our outreach.
But they can also become stumbling blocks in our service to Krishna if we turn away from them in the sense that we cause them, we use them and become so preoccupied with them that they give us a sense of pseudo-security that we no longer feel the need for Krishna because of possessing material qualifications. So normally a brahmana is considered to be a spiritually minded intellectual and the brahmana more than other varanas should recognize the need for God. But it’s not just intellectualism.
Viparadvisad gunayata, even if the brahmana has visual qualities that are expected of a brahmana but still that devotion is lacking, then all the other qualities do not help that brahmana to move towards the ultimate goal of life of coming closer to Krishna. That’s why the important point is that we need to make sure that our material possessions or absence of possessions, either way it doesn’t interfere with our devotion. That what will be pleasing to Krishna is the sincerity with which we are offering ourselves to His service.
The diligence with which we are trying to turn towards Him, to serve Him, to love Him. And if we have material qualities we can surely use them in Krishna’s service but if they become our shelter instead of they being the means by which we take shelter of Krishna and the means by which we offer that shelter to others, then they can become an obstacle on the spiritual path. So here Srilad Maharaj is praying that rather than having these false shelters, a person who turns away from what may become a false shelter, who doesn’t have those false shelters but has your real shelter is far more fortunate.
So at the time of chanting when we feel distracted, we can try to find out what are our false shelters and contemplate on their falsity and thereby push ourselves deeper in our devotion and relationship to Krishna making Him our ultimate shelter.