The process of devotional service
Suta Goswami describes the process of devotional service in more detail. How can we become free from material desires and the false ego? It seems difficult, but there is a process.
Subscribe to receive all the new articles. It’s free, but if you like, you can pledge a donation:
Understanding the material creation can help us to understand many important philosophical points, but this knowledge in itself doesn’t do much to make us free from this material world. For this, we need knowledge about devotional service to the Lord, which is the main topic of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
In the first canto, the sages asked six questions to Sukadeva Goswami. Here are the questions and the answers by Suta Goswami:
1- What is the ultimate good for people?
A: Loving, unmotivated, and uninterrupted devotional service to the Lord. (1.2.6)
2- What is the essence of the scriptures?
A: The process of devotional service is the essence. There is nothing superior. By practicing devotional service, one develops causeless knowledge and detachment from the world. (1.2.7)
3- Why did Krsna appear as the son of Devaki?
A: To give association to His devotees and benefit all people who are in the mode of goodness. In the process, He also kills the demons and reestablishes the principles of dharma, but these are secondary reasons. (1.2.34)
4- What are the activities of the Lord connected with the creation of the material universes?
A: As Maha-Viṣnu, He creates the material universes, as Garbhodakasayi Viṣnu, He enters inside each universe and becomes the father of Brahma, and as Ksirodakasayi Viṣnu, He lies down in the ocean of milk and permeates everything as Paramatma. (SB 1.2.30-33)
5- What are the incarnations of the Lord and their pastimes?
A: This is answered in chapter 1.3 and the rest of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
6- What became the shelter of the religious principles after Krsna left our planet?
A: The Srimad Bhagavatam gives light to the people who lost their spiritual vision due to the darkness of Kali-yuga (1.3.43)
After answering that the process of devotional service is the essence of all scriptures and explaining that the goal of performing our duties is to gradually elevate ourselves to that platform, Suta Goswami describes the process of devotional service in more detail.
“With sword in hand, intelligent men cut through the binding knots of reactionary work [karma] by remembering the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, who will not pay attention to His message?” (1.2.15)
The sword mentioned here is transcendental knowledge, which must be combined with devotional service. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Krsna says that we should control the mind using the intelligence, but later He says that just like the mind and senses, the intelligence is also occupied by lust, and thus can’t be trusted. At first, it may appear as a contradiction, but it is not so.
The material intelligence is mainly subservient to the mind, working to satisfy the different material desires that come from it. When Krsna says we should control the mind using intelligence, He means a different type of intelligence: spiritual intelligence, which in turn comes from hearing from the scriptures and receiving instructions from pure devotees of the Lord.
If we hear something genuine, coming from Krsna, and we accept it, we gradually develop our spiritual intelligence, which in turn helps us to control the mind. This same spirtual intelligence, when used to engage in spiritual activities, chanting, and remembrance of the Lord, also becomes the sword that can help us to cut through the knots of karma, freeing ourselves from this material world.
However, often the problem is that we don’t have a taste for hearing, just as we may not have a taste for chanting and doing other aspects of our spiritual practice. What should we do in this case?
“O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vāsudeva.” (1.2.16)
Amongst all devotees, pure devotees who accept personal inconveniences to spread Krsna’s messages are the most dear of all. By serving such devotees, we can gradually develop their qualities and thus acquire a taste for hearing about Krsna. This happens because Krsna feels indebted when we offer respects or try to assist His dear servants in any way, and thus becomes inclined to more directly help us to come closer to Him. Srila Prabhupada explains that it may be very difficult to please a very rich and powerful man, but if one can please his child by giving a small sweet, he immediately gets his favor. Similarly, it may be difficult to directly approach Krsna, but His pure devotees are much more accessible.
One may argue that apart from acquiring a taste for hearing and chanting, there is still another formidable obstacle, which is the desire for material enjoyment. Even advanced devotees can sometimes fall down, so what is the hope for us? The next verse answers that:
“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.” (1.2.17)
Once we acquire a taste for hearing the message of Srimad Bhagavatam, our path back to Godhead becomes wide open, because by seeing this sincerity, Krsna Himself, in the form of Paramatma inside the heart, starts to clean such material desires. As a result, we can focus on the transcendental message.
Actually, Krsna is capable of clearing the material desires of everyone, but He does that only when one becomes sincere in the spiritual path. Often, we want to hold to our bad habits and material desires, maintaining some hope of doing it secretly or satisfying such material desires in the future. Because we are still holding on to such desires, Krsna doesn’t clean them away, even if we are chanting. Holding to them is the result of a conscious choice, and Krsna respects this choice. As we become more sincere, by following the process of hearing and chanting, serving advanced devotees, and hearing transcendental knowledge from them, we gradually become more sincere, start to give up such material desires, and as a result, Krsna starts to clean them away.
After we become eager to hear, the cleaning of the material desires from the heart starts. What is the next step? This is described in the next verse:
“By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.” (SB 1.2.18)
The verse mentions “nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā” (regularly serving the Bhāgavata). Srila Prabhupada explains that there are two Bhāgavatas: the book bhāgavata and the devotee Bhāgavata. As he explains: “A devotee Bhāgavata is as good as the book Bhāgavata because the devotee Bhāgavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhāgavata and the book Bhāgavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhāgavatas. Bhāgavata book and person are identical.”
By associating with these two Bhāgavatas, we can progress on the path of devotion. As Srila Prabhupada mentions: “by such sincere association of the Bhāgavatas one is sure to receive transcendental knowledge very easily, with the result that he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord.”
Srila Prabhupada explains that by “almost completely destroyed” (naṣṭa-prāyeṣv) Srila Suta Goswami means that about 75% of all inauspicious things, such as our material desires, anarthas, and so on, are eliminated from the heart, and this gives a chance of becoming fixed in the process of loving devotional service to the Lord (bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī). Once we become strongly fixed, we can continue our process of hearing, chanting, and spreading Krsna Consciousness without interruption, and this can bring us to ultimate perfection.
We often practice devotional service as a series of sprints, going for mangala-artik for a few days and then stopping, chanting 64 rounds for a few days and then stopping, distributing books for a few days and then stopping, becoming overly enthusiastic during a festival and then apathetic after returning home, and so on. Although this can help us in the beginning, progressing to advanced stages of devotional service requires attaining stability in our practice. As already declared, devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. This passage teaches us how to reach this level.
What happens when we finally reach this level of irrevocable devotional service? The effects are described in verse 19:
“As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature’s modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.” (SB 1.2.19)
As the verse describes, the visible result is that one becomes completely happy. This, however, does not come by magic. Srila Prabhupada explains that the original position of the soul is to be always fully satisfied in spirtual bliss. This bliss is different from the satisfaction of a foolish person who may also be always happy due to ignorance. Instead, a devotee in such a stage is happy due to realizing his constitutional spiritual position and becoming free from material influence.
The reason we feel miserable in conditioned life is due to the influence of the modes of passion and ignorance. These lower modes cover our original spiritual knowledge and make us identify with the body and become absorbed in material activities under the influence of lust, anger, etc. Material activities are based on attachment, and they always result in bewilderment and frustration, because in the material world, everything is unstable and temporary, and as a result, we are always anxious about losing what we have and not being able to attain the things we want.
When we become fixed in the platform of devotional service, we finally become free from the influence of passion and ignorance, and consequently free of lust, desire, hankering, etc. With this, all unhappiness and lamentation disappear, and we become first situated in the mode of goodness, and later we transcend even the mode of goodness and become situated in the transcendental platform. When we finally achieve this transcendental platform, our devotional service matures, and we become able to see Krsna face to face.
Krsna confirms this in the Bhagavad-gita, where He says: “One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.”
As we can see, there is a progression of the path of devotional service that is described in these verses. By serving pure devotees, we get some taste for hearing and chanting, and by this taste, we become regular in our practice. By this regular practice, we reach the stage where we become “almost cleansed”, and this helps us to improve our practice and remain fixed, eventually reaching the platform of irrevocable loving service described in this verse. When this happens, the influence of passion and ignorance disappears, and we become completely happy in the transcendental platform. From there, we progress further, up to the point of attaining love for Krsna.
In his purport, Prabhupada mentions that “for a devotee the entire world is as good as Vaikuṇṭha, or the spiritual sky.” This, of course, describes the position of a pure devotee, who is in the transcendental platform, just like when Prabhupada mentions that “A devotee is always in the mode of unalloyed goodness; therefore he harms no one” or when he later mentions that “A pure Vaiṣṇava is a liberated soul and is transcendental even to the position of a brāhmaṇa.”
We tend to use the words “devotee” or “Vaiṣnava” loosely to describe anyone who has started in the devotional process, no matter how imperfect, but Prabhupada often uses these words in the full meaning, meaning a pure devotee who has attained this stage of being situated in the transcendental platform.
The influence of the modes of passion and ignorance is a great hindrance to our spiritual progress. Not only that, but they also make us feel miserable. That’s one of the reasons Krsna explains so much about the three modes in the Bhagavad-Gita, so we can learn to recognize attitudes, habits, ideas, etc., connected with the lower modes and gradually become free of them. We often have the idea that it’s very difficult to advance in spiritual life, what to say about attaining an advanced stage of devotional service, but that’s just because we are struggling with the influence of the lower modes. When we can finally become free from them, our progress becomes much faster.
We thus come to the last two verses of this passage:
“Thus established in the mode of unalloyed goodness, the man whose mind has been enlivened by contact with devotional service to the Lord gains positive scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead in the stage of liberation from all material association. Thus the knot in the heart is pierced, and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions is terminated when one sees the self as master.” (SB 1.2.20-21)
Spiritual knowledge is absorbed in two stages: first, we get some information, by reading it in some book or hearing from someone else (jñana), and later we finally realize it (vijñana). Simple book knowledge has limited application in our practical lives, because it’s hard to relate it to practical situations, or even properly understand it. However, when this knowledge is realized, it suddenly becomes real. We can then finally see what it really means and see its application in practical situations of life. This realization, however, does not come automatically: it comes from the spiritual master, saintly Vaiṣnavas, and the Lord inside our hearts. It also requires us to have the necessary level of purification, since a broken glass can’t hold any water, even if a good quality is poured on it. We may receive lots of mercy, but we still need to have the necessary qualifications to be able to hold it.
This qualification is gradually attained, but it becomes prominent when we achieve the stage of unalloyed Goodness. It happens that passion and ignorance are not just detrimental in the sense that we feel miserable, engulfed in hankering and lamentation, but also because they cover our capacity to understand spiritual knowledge.
As long as we are strongly influenced by passion and ignorance, we see and hear everything through the filter of these two modes. Apart from that, intelligence contaminated by passion and ignorance becomes flat (like a chapati), working under the material duality of good and bad, black and white, hot and cold, etc., and in this way, incapable of understanding the delicate details of transcendental knowledge. Our comprehension improves dramatically when we reach the mode of goodness and becomes fully developed when we reach the transcendental stage of suddha-sattva or pure goodness.
In this way, one cuts to pieces all misgivings, and the knot of material illusion inside the heart is destroyed. One then finally realizes the Lord in truth, and this completely stops the chain of actions and reactions that bind us to this material world.
What exactly is this knot of illusion in the heart?
It’s called ahaṅkāra. This is the false ego that makes us refuse our eternal position as servants of Krsna and instead accept different temporary identities in this material world. The false ego ties us firmly to this material world, making us incapable of understanding the difference between spirit and matter. This false ego can manifest itself on many different levels, and it is difficult to even notice what to say about being given up. A devotee may be chanting and studying the scriptures for many years, constantly repeating that he is not the body, but may reveal himself as a nationalist when his country goes to war. A senior lady may have studied the whole Srimad Bhagavatam multiple times, but still becomes angry when some young man tells her that ladies are less intelligent. These identifications with different material labels go very deep into the heart.
However, when the knot of ahaṅkāra, the knot that ties spit to matter, is finally cut from the heart, all doubts are cleared off, and one can finally see himself as an eternal spirit soul and realize his eternal relationship with the Lord. At this stage, the last vestiges of karma are destroyed, and one becomes finally free. Even while still living in this material world, one acts in a transcendental stage, and his actions no longer create any reaction.
In this way, this passage explains to us how the Srimad Bhagavatam can help us to go all the way from the elementary stage of understanding the Krsna Consciousness, including all other stages of God’s realization, to the ultimate level of becoming free from all material entanglements and attaining our eternal position in pure love of Krsna. All these topics will be gradually explained and expanded throughout the whole of Srimad Bhagavatam, but these eleven verses give us all this knowledge in a nutshell.
You can also donate using Buy Me a Coffee, PayPal, Wise, Revolut, or bank transfers. There is a separate page with all the links. This helps me enormously to have time to write instead of doing other things to make a living. Thanks!