Why do Vraja-vasis need to perform a karma-kanda reformatory ceremony?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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thank you so when Nanda Maharaj is asking that the reformatory activities to be performed is it karmakanda or is it bhakti at a cultural level karmakanda and bhakti are not necessarily rigidly differentiated the differentiation is primarily in knowledge and intention yajnas can be performed for the devatas yajnas can be performed for Vishnu deities can be worshipped the deity may be of the supreme lord Vishnu the deities may be of the devatas so what it’s not so much the cultural forms that differentiate karmakanda and bhakti it is more the consciousness more the intention so when samskaras are performed the reformatory ceremonies are performed yes if somebody is the worshipper of a devata they may invoke that particular devata and they may do it with the understanding that oh we want to go we want this child to live nicely and go to swarga or whatever go to heavens then it will be karmakanda but in the case of the vrajavasis they are all absorbed in Krishna and Gargamuni also it’s revealed that he is also avaishnava so in that sense the performance of the reformatory ceremonies that is basically required for creating a religious orientation in the consciousness now within that religious orientation what particular aspect of religion is stressed that will depend on the consciousness of the performance so we can’t simply say that this practice is karmakanda and this practice is bhakti more than the practice the purpose is important so if the purpose is devotional in the 4th canto of the shrimad bhagavatam where the story of pruthu maharaj comes there in a purport vishwanath chakravartakura explains in his commentary that for the sake of setting an example for society because people in general cannot be expected to practice pure bhakti some people will also practice karmakanda so maharaj pruthu was performing yajnas in which the devatas were also worshipped but internally vishwanath chakravartakura says that he was contemplating that these devatas are the servants of the lord and he was remembering the lord and worshipping the lord so the activity might even seem to be devata puja but his consciousness was worshipping krishna so rather than rejecting certain cultural practices simply as karmakanda if we can infuse them with spiritual understanding and spiritual purpose then they can become bhakti ok ok ok that’s a good question see the rajivasis are pure devotees why do they need to perform the samskaras ok the rajivasis are perfected beings but they don’t act as if they are perfected beings their perfection is in that they are completely absorbed in krishna but even there if you see when gargamuni comes nanda maharaj doesn’t tell him i am a pure devotee and you are lower than me nanda maharaj thinks i am a vaishya you are a brahmana i respect you so broadly speaking they all follow the broad principles of vedic culture so brahmanas will be respected even if you see that there are devatas devatas may also be worshipped but devatas are like the gopis they worship katya but they are worshipping so that they can get krishna as their lord so the rajivasis at one level they act as if they are a part of the broad vedic society where people used to follow varanashram, respect the brahmanas worship the devatas but whatever they are doing they are doing it for krishna when in the govardhan puja krishna stops nanda maharaj from worshipping indra but that means that indra was being worshipped before indra puja was regularly happening so the point is that they all, in the bhagavad gita for example it is said in the spiritual world there is no sun, there is no moon, there is no fire but then in the past tense of krishna it is described i think in the 19th chapter it is described that when the gopis are envisioning when krishna goes out in the forest the sun becomes so hot and they are thinking oh krishna will be sweating and they see a cloud is coming oh they see a cloud is acting as an umbrella for krishna and then in sharadpurnima the beauty is that there is a full moon so and there is fire also the forest fires are there so the sun, the moon, the fire is there in the spiritual world also so in the bhagavad gita it is said what it means is in that abode it is not illumined by sun, moon, fire that means it is self luminous it doesn’t need the sun, moon, fire for illumination but sun, moon, fire are there for facilitating the past tense there is day time some past tense are performed night time some past tense are performed so like that the vrajvasis don’t need brahmanas to purify them the vrajvasis don’t need to worship the devta so that they will get some punya but all these brahmanas just as the sun, moon, fire are present for facilitating the leela similarly the brahmanas and devtas and various rituals of samskaras they are all performed for the enhancement of leela so the vrajvasis are expressing their love for krishna when they are performing the naming ceremony and it gives an occasion to congregate to celebrate and to rejoice with krishna at the center thank you one last how much time do we have one last yes so the question is