Should we pray for going BTG or pray for serving Krishna in this world?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so the question should we aspire to go back to Godhead or should we aspire as Sitan Mahaprabhu or Bhaktivinoda Thakur where they say that I may be lifetime of lifetime in this world but I just want to remember you and Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that even if I go to lower species still that does not matter if I remember you and if I stay devoted to you certain expressions come from context so when the acharyas talk about the glory of bhakti at that time they may rhetorically speak something where the point is that bhakti is so glorious that the material world no longer remains material even materially terrible conditions become transcendental by the power of devotion so those statements have to be understood as primarily meant to convey the glory of bhakti just as there is a statement where Lord Vishnu tells Narayan that I do not reside in Vaikuntha I do not reside in the hearts of the yogis I reside where my devotees glorify me now Krishna is certainly the lord of Krishna’s service there in Vaikuntha there in the yogi’s heart also but the point is there he is not perceivable accessible relishable for people in general but that happens when there is his Sankirtana where we can all perceive his presence so the stress here in this statement is on a particular point of glorifying bhakti so now as sadhakas should we aspire to go back to godhead yes certainly that is where we are meant to be that is where we will be eternally happy and that is where Krishna wants us to be that is where our longing for love will be perfectly and perennially fulfilled so certainly aspiring to go back to godhead is good it is laudable now we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees we cannot artificially jump to the highest stage of devotion without progressing through the lower stage of devotion that means that at the level of pure devotion one does not desire anything sometimes you may ask this question that we should be selfless but then we love Krishna because we know by loving Krishna we will become happy then are we being selfless or selfish because we want happiness that is why we are loving Krishna it is true initially even if we start practicing bhakti because that will provide a higher happiness as we become purified we will realize that Krishna is so lovable that we just naturally want to love him so at the advanced stages happiness will not be the motive for our practice of bhakti happiness will be the natural result of our practice of bhakti we love Krishna not because we want at the pure stages we love Krishna not because we want to be happy but because he is simply so lovable and our heart is naturally attracted to him and the result of that love is also happiness the bhakti that we uninterrupted and motivated and the result is naturally satisfaction of the heart that is not the motivation that is the natural result so in that sense happiness is not the product that we pursue it is the by-product that we receive just by the practice of pure devotion similarly in the advanced stages of bhakti we will be so absorbed in Krishna and so eager to do what Krishna wants that we will not even want liberation we simply want Krishna’s service but we cannot come to the advanced stages without becoming purified and for becoming purified we need to slowly but surely raise our consciousness by the steady practice of bhakti if the if the tangible goal of going back to godhead inspires us, motivates us can increase our determination to practice bhakti then certainly that is anukul so quite often when we experience the nisidha batalya existence they become strong impetuses for us to intensify our remembrance of Krishna but because we feel that ok by remembering Krishna I can go beyond this world of nisida and there is no yena kena prakadi when I am remembering Krishna so at the advanced stage we will not even want to aspire to go back to godhead because Krishna’s remembrance will fulfill us so fully but at our level we should see the statements of the acharyas and of lord chaitanya of being able to stay even in the material world as demonstrating the glory of bhakti as demonstrating the as expressing the potency of bhakti to help us transcend all material situations and we with that understanding and inspiration we take more shelter of bhakti and transcend and try to transcend whatever situations we face