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Wisdom Articles

Do devotees suffer?

January 23, 2020
By Yash Sankhla
0 Comment
70 Views

A thief while committing crime knows he will be punished if caught. And when he is
caught and punished, he promises to himself and to the judge in the court that
henceforth he will never steal. But as soon as he is out of jail he again begins
stealing.
A student knows if he does not study, he will fail. An employee knows if he does not
work sincerely, he will be fired. Many a times we take a vow to not indulge in an act
which may negatively impact us. But still we do it and we suffer.
We may wonder, “Why a person despite being punished for his actions commit the
same mistake (or crime) again and again?”
Maharaja Parikshit had similar doubt so he asked Sukhdeva Goswami, “One may
know that sinful activity is injurious for him because he actually sees that a criminal
is punished by the government and rebuked by people in general and because he
hears from scriptures and learned scholars that one is thrown into hellish conditions
in the next life for committing sinful acts. Nevertheless, in spite of such knowledge,
one is forced to commit sins again and again, even after performing acts of
atonement. Therefore, what is the value of such atonement?” Srimad Bhagavatam
6.1.9
Scriptures explain that as long as our senses are impure and uncontrolled it will
compel us to indulge in sinful activities.
In Bhagavad Gita 2.67 Krishna says, “As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the
water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a
man’s intelligence.”

A serious spiritual practitioner knows well that his uncontrolled senses and mind are
his biggest enemy and cause of miseries, so he carefully employs his senses in
executing any activity. Unless and until we completely give up all sinful activities
there is no chance that we can free ourselves from sufferings.
Even if we practice mantra meditation like chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra
but continue committing forbidden activities hoping that chanting will nullify it then
it won’t work. “Committing sinful activities on the strength of the chanting of the
holy names of the Lord” is one of the offenses against the chanting of Krishna’s holy
names.
Similarly, certain Christians commit sins throughout the week but go to church every
weekend to confess their sins thinking that mere confession will absolve them
from weekly sins. But such atonement will never provide any relief to the
practitioners.
Once an alcoholic suffering from heart disease went to a doctor. The doctor gave
him medicine and asked him to consume milk and fruit juices and instructed him not
to again drink liquor. But the patient pleaded saying that he will take all the
medicine on time, drink lots of fruit juices and milk but he should be allowed to
consume liquor. The doctor said that if you continue consuming liquor then the
medicine will not be of much help and you will have to suffer and die.
Similarly, if a devotee continues committing sins he will suffer, and his devotional
journey will never be blissful.
So, a devotee needs to take a vow not to get carried away by the whimsically desires
of the mind and senses. If we want a healthy body, we will have to take healthy
food and also not expose ourselves to contaminated environment so that we may
not fall sick. Similarly, to have a healthy mind and senses we need to be extremely careful about
what we are feeding to our mind and senses. Mind is like a blotting paper, it absorbs anything and everything with which it comes in contact with. So we need to be extremely careful when we are exposing ourselves to external environment. The members of our family, the colleagues in our offices, the friends with whom we spend our time, the books we read, the movies we watch, the websites we browse, the time we spent on social media all have great influence in our life. It shapes our desires, our behaviour and our thought process.The moment we put ourselves in unrighteous environment that very moment we sow the seed of unrighteous thought in our mind. And if we continue to be in such an atmosphere the seed fructifies and by the time we realize our mistake we begin doing horrendous things which once we may not have even thought of indulging in. But on the other hand, if we associate with righteous people especially saintly people then their presence can immediately purify our senses and elevate our consciousness. In Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.30 it is mentioned, “Even half a moment’s association with pure devotees within this world of birth and death is a priceless treasure for any man.” For example, the hippies in the western world were indulging in all sorts of abominable activities but when they got the association of Srila Prabhupada they gradually gave up their sinful way of living. Almost all of them used to consume drugs, liquor and non-vegetarian food. They indulged wantonly with opposite sex. But Srila Prabhupada’s presence and teachings transformed their hearts, purified their intelligence and gave them determination using which they not just controlled their mind and senses but also utilized it in practicing devotion to Krishna. They started getting up early in the morning at 4:30 am to attend Mangal Arati, started chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra, spent their days in reading Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita and other Vedic books, sang bhajans, took only prasad, and also started preaching others about Krishna. Many of them became sannyasis and many others responsible grihastas. Mrugari, the cruel hunter, who used to half kill animals so that he can enjoy seeing them die became so transformed after getting the association of sage Narada that he would walk cautiously so that he may not step over an ant.

Srila Prabhupada in Nectar of Instructions (purport Verse 1) explains that “if one is fortunate enough to get the association of a pure devotee, he can easily surpass all the practices for controlling the mind by the mystic yoga process simply by following the regulative principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness – refraining from illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling – and by engaging in the service of the
Supreme Lord under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master.” So we should proactively put in our best efforts to cleanse our senses and mind of all
impurities and simultaneously take precautionary steps so that no impurity again enters in our hearts. Once our senses and mind get purified it won’t force us to indulge in sinful activities. We won’t be then subjected to any suffering and we will always be blissful by happily serving Krishna.

(Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at Iskcon Kolkata. He works at IBM as an Advisory Consultant. He writes at https://discoverursupersoul.com/)


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