When devotional service is meant to free us from material desires, how do we understand the Dhurva pastime in which devotional service was performed to fulfill material desires?
From Stoka Krishna P
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Stok Krishna Prabhu. In one of your Gita Delhi articles, you mentioned that the perfection of devotional service is that it frees us from our deceased material desires. But we see that Dhruv Maharaj rendered devotional service for the sake of fulfilling material desires.
So how do we understand this pastime in the light of the philosophy? Answer, the ultimate result of the practice of devotional service is the development of pure love of God. And as a side result of that is freedom from material desires. So initially when people go to God, they don’t necessarily go with that objective in mind that I want to develop love for God or I want to become free from material desires.
They may go to God for fulfilling of material desires also and that is acknowledged by Krishna as a valid and even pious way of coming to Him. In 4.16 he describes that So four kinds of people come to me. Artha, the stressed.
Gnyasu, the inquisitive. Artharthi, the desirer of wealth. And Jnani, the knowledgeable.
So the desirer of wealth is exemplified by Dhruv Maharaj. So when we practice devotional service, we may also initially come to God because of some material need. If we want something material, students come to the temples and pray just before their exams because they want to do well in the exams.
And similarly people before different important situations in their life want to evoke some higher blessings by which they can gain good results and that is acknowledged as a valid way. Krishna describes in the next few verses that if they continue entering devotional service then they will come to the level of In 7.19 he says that they will come to the level of understanding that Krishna is everything. Not that the material results are everything.
Not that God is the tool to material things but rather God is the ultimate goal. And material things are meant to be used in His service. So this is the level that Dhruv Maharaj came to at the end of the pastime.
And that is what we also aspire for once we understand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. Understand that our real eternal life filled with joy and love will be at the spiritual level of reality. But when we don’t know or appreciate the spiritual level of reality as will be the case initially in our spiritual life.
At that time naturally we will come to God for seeking relief from some material problems. And that is accepted as a valid reason. And it is allowed that a person practice devotional life for any purpose.
So even if it is for relief from material desires, Krishna accepts those people as Sukruti, as good people. And He calls them Udaaraha. They are large minded because they are coming to Him and not to anyone else.
So when people are in distress we can also encourage them to come to Krishna, to take shelter of Krishna. We don’t necessarily have to assure them that their material desires will be fulfilled. But we can say that they will be able to face the problem better.
The distress which they are going through will be lesser. And eventually they will come to a purer level of consciousness where they won’t be so much craving for material things. And that will make them more peaceful and joyful.
Thank you.