What is the difference between householder devotees and karma-yogis?

From Kiran Pr:

What is difference between both these categories? What is difference between karma yogi and devotee. Generally parents give this kind of comparision to make a point that even karmis are not less than devotee.

Transcript

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you question from kiran prabhu what is the difference between karma yogi and devotee people give below kind of comparison to make a point that even karmis are no less than devotees the working devotees work and earn the pious and religious karmi also works and earns the working devotee gives parts of the earnings to the lord the pious and religious karmi also gives parts of a part of earning to the lord the working devotee does his spiritual practices the pious and religious karmi also does his rituals and both also regularly visit temples so what exactly is the difference between the two answer the essential difference is in the values and the goals the external lifestyle may seem similar in fact the third chapter of the bhagavad gita is telling arjuna that don’t be deluded by seeing the similarity in the external lifestyles of the karmi and the transcendentalist and mistaking that both are similar so lord krishna describes so that the attached do work so they are attached so there are there’s one category of people who are they are attached and they are not informed they are not with one and the other category is they and they are knowledgeable and they are detached so the knowledgeable and the detached and the unknowledgeable the uninformed and the attached both act in the same way but there is a world of difference the world of difference is in the values and the goals so first of all um the people whom who are just giving a part of the earnings and doing some rituals they are they karmic yogis not necessarily unless they are having a transcendental object to do their life most people in the religious community are generally at best karmakandis that means they are pursuing dharma artha and kama so they are doing dharma so that they can get artha and kama and that is okay as far as it goes that can if it is done well take people to some higher destination either in this world or the next world but doing it well in kaliyuga is not easy because even practicing dharma involves a lot of entailments and living in kaliyuga itself involves doing so many sinful activities so first of all most of the people who claim to be karma yogis are actually not karmis are not karma yogis they are karmis and and many of them are not just karmis some of their they may also have to do vikarma they may have to eat meat they are quite likely to be involved in some sorts of dishonest activities and some some kind of gambling intoxication is a common part of modern lifestyle and then illicit sex is also so widespread so if we have a few people who are actually avoiding these sinful activities and are practicing some kind of charity then they may be called karma yogis if they have a transcendental goal to their lives for most people their religion is just a social cosmetic we are also good people we also go to temples we also donate that is the idea that people have for doing their religious activities they really are not interested in pursuing god as the ultimate goal of life so and that reflects in their values if we look at their overall lifestyle apart from the cosmetic of religion that they wear occasionally they are practically indistinguishable from other materialistic people so so if we leave aside this broad category of people who may claim to be karma yogis but are not they are karmis at best and usually some with quite a bit of vikarma within it now let’s come to the karma yogis who are actually doing karma yoga so these people because they do not know bhagwan because they have not dedicated their life to bhagwan so for them the progression on the spiritual path will be extremely gradual because the ultimate purpose of dharma is not just to do dharma the ultimate purpose of dharma is to awaken bhakti so even by doing dharma one is not awakening attraction to krishna then that is a waste of human life that is a waste of time it is a waste of endeavor so this people may be doing dharmic activities and that is good but if it is not done with objective developing love for krishna then the spiritual progress will be extremely gradual and as krishna says actually this is for those who are striving on the path of cultivating knowledge through karma yoga first and then through jnana yoga for them to realize that vasudeva sarvamiti and to surrender to him it takes many lifetimes now for those who are on the path of karma kanda it is actually many many lifetimes because gradually their enjoying mentality itself keeps them going up and down in material existence for a very very long time and after the enjoyment mentality gets exhausted then they start developing detachment and they start inquiring spiritually and it is that time that they slowly start coming towards perceiving an eternal goal then detecting what the eternal goal is then moving from brahman paramatma ultimately to bhagwan realization and then developing attraction for bhagwan so on the other hand if a devotee is practicing as a householder then the devotee’s values and goals are very clear the devotee is clearly understood based on bhagavad gita ashram’s bhagavatam that the purpose of life is to develop love for krishna and everything in this world has to be harmonized and oriented around that ultimate goal so that’s why the devotee is not just doing some ritual religious rituals which are called as punya the devotee is doing sadhana so sadhana are specifically activities that are designed and performed for the explicit objective of developing love for krishna these activities are far far more potent than the most elaborate and expensive karmakandi activities and there are repeated references in the scriptures to that so therefore because the purpose and the values of the devotees are far superior to those of the the slightly religious karmis and the properly religious karma yogis therefore there is a world of difference between the two and to the extent one is confused that both of them are similar to that extent one will decelerate one’s own spiritual advancement and perpetuate one’s existence in the material world