What exactly was Bharata Maharaj’s mistake?

Transcript

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Question, what exactly was the mistake of Bharat Maharaj that caused his fall? Was it that he should not have saved the deer at all? Answer, no.
Bharat Maharaj saving the baby deer was not a mistake. That is an act of normal human compassion. If somebody is dying, then certainly that person can and should be saved.
But he is subsequently getting attached to it and then thinking that, oh, I have to protect it. And he even rationalizes that, actually, it is the arrangement of Providence that this deer is now left with no protector, this infant deer. This fawn is left with no other protector.
Its mother, the doe, has already died. And therefore, I have to protect it. So, there is, if we extend terms a little bit, there is apad dharma and there is normal dharma.
Apad dharma is emergency duty. So, yes, if somebody is drowning or dying, intervening to protect that person is apad dharma. And during that emergency situation, even a devotee can intervene and protect.
But after that, what does one do? That is very important. Is it that the devotee has to become the maintainer of that deer all the time? No. Or who? No, that is, we have to understand that in this world, we cannot be the maintainers of anyone.
If Bharat Maharaj had to think like that, oh, there is no one to take care of this deer, then he could well have thought that, oh, my family members are left. Who is there to take care of them? They may have grown up, but still they need my guidance. So, just as he had not thought of it that way, he, when he renounced the world, he entrusted the responsibility of his family members to Krishna, ultimately.
And that’s what he could have done with this deer also. So, saving the deer was not the mistake, but his thinking that now I have to maintain the deer, that is a mistake. And further, not only they have to maintain the deer, there are householders who maintain their family members, but then they also have to have a sense of balance, where they have time for sadhana, they have their family maintenance, and they have their time for various things.
But he not only was taking care of the deer, but he let the deer distract him from his sadhana, and he gave taking care of the deer far greater importance than sadhana to the extent that not only would the deer interrupt the sadhana by coming in and wanting to frolic and play, but even when the deer was not doing that, he was thinking of that deer instead of thinking of the Supreme Lord. So, he let himself subsequently become attached to the deer due to a false sense that I have to be the maintainer of the deer. And that was a mistake on his part.
And further, even at the time of his nearest death, at that time also somehow he was so infatuated with the deer, that he was searching for the deer frantically, and when he fell down and wounded himself, and he was dying, at that time also the deer was right next to him, and he was thinking of the deer, not of the Lord. And that’s how he succumbed, and that’s how he lost his way. And that’s how he had to go into the body of a deer in the next life.
So, the point is that occasionally doing something to help someone in an emergency is not wrong, but taking up that as a responsibility, and letting that responsibility overshadow one’s devotional responsibility, that is where the blunder happens. Thank you.