Skip to main content

THE DEFECTIVE PURE DEVOTEE

Reading this topic, our mind naturally challenges - How can a pure devotee have defects? Shouldn't he, be free from defects? The 100% perfect person! The Mr. Perfect!

The point is that a pure devotee can't be seen with material eyes and material logic. Just like Lord Krishna can't be seen with material eyes, so also His pure devotees. You need spiritual vision to appreciate God, His abode, His name and His devotees. Thus Bhakti Vinod Thakur, one of the greatest spiritual teachers of all times quotes the following verse from the Mahabharata which is generally sung before honoring prasadam.

maha-prasade govinde,
nama-brahmani vaishnave,
svalpa-punya vatam rajan,
visvaso naiva jayate.

"Those who don't have sufficient pious credits cannot develop faith in Maha-prasadam, Lord Govinda, Holyname, Brahmanas and the Vaishnavas."

Sometimes Lord Krishna puts an apparent curtain of imperfection in front of our eyes, so that only those with faith can appreciate His devotees. As the saying goes in English, "It takes one to know one." That means to appreciate a pure devotee, we need to ourselves be on the spiritual platform. In fact it's interesting to see people find defects and imperfections even in the All-perfect Supreme Lord Krishna. How then, will their mind spare The Lord's pure devotees? The defect is not in The Lord or His dear devotees but in our eyes.



Following are few examples of devotees who apparently had defects but are still considered pure devotees.

1) Garuda is considered to be the most intimate devotee of the Lord, His personal carrier but he eats fishes and snakes.

2) ‎Bhisma is considered to be one of the 12 best devotees of The Lord but he fought on the side of the Kauravas and against Lord Krishna and His devotees.

3) ‎Devotees are known to have control over their anger and hunger, but Bhima would eat voraciously and was quite hot tempered.

4) ‎Tukaram Maharaj, although fully immersed in glorifying Vitthal didn't take care of his family that well.

5) ‎Probably, the most classic example of a defective pure devotee is Vrtrasura. He was the King of demons and was fighting and killing the demigods but he is considered to be the topmost devotee. His devotion becomes clear in his consciousness at the time of his death.

We could quote more examples but I am sure this much is enough to completely short-circuit our "so called" logic. Just like Lord Krishna is inconceivable, so also His pure devotees. They are beyond the reach of our mundane mind and senses. That is why it is said - vaishnavera kriya-mudra vijneha na bujhaya: even the most learned man cannot understand the activities of a Vaishnava.

So, the question may arise, what is the criteria to identify a pure devotee? Lord Krishna Himself answers this question in the Bhagvad-gita 9.13 by defining who a pure devotee or a mahatma is. He says, mahatmanas tu mam partha, daivim prakrtim asritah. "A great soul or a pure devotee is one who has taken shelter of the divine nature". In other words a pure devotee is one who has taken full shelter of Lord Krishna and the process of Bhakti. That is the primary criteria, the rest is secondary.

In summary a person is considered a pure devotee not from our viewpoint but from Lord Krishna's viewpoint.

The safest path is not to judge any devotee. Best is to see everyone as a pure devotee or at least as a "pure devotee in the making". During the initial days of ISKCON, someone asked Srila Prabhupada, "How many pure devotees are there in ISKCON?". Srila Prabhupada asked one of His disciple, "How many disciples do we have?". The disciple replied, "We have 72 devotees all over the world." Prabhupada turned to the person asking the question and told him, "Right now, we have 72 pure devotees." Srila Prabhupada saw all of them as "prospective pure devotees".

Just like if someone is standing under a shower, it is but understood that very soon he will become clean. The question is never "if he or she will be pure", the question is only "when". Till then let us bask in the company of these pure devotees and be grateful for thier association because we really don't have any clue as to "who is who" and "who is where" on the spiritual path. And if we come to know, we may be in for a big shock.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GAINING by GIVING - WINNING by SERVING

"Life is like a game of tennis - in order to win, you have to serve well." For two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012, we organised a contest for the school children across Goa called Gita Champions League (Henceforth referred to as GCL). We had a massive success with 3800 children participating the first year and 8600 children participating the second year. But, all this didn't come easily, we had to literally slog it out. Well, for that matter nothing wonderful comes easily, does it! THE BURDEN OF LOVE I took up GCL or rather GCL came to me at a time when I was going through intense personal struggles on literally every front - physically, mentally and institutionally. Yes, I was desperately praying for a service that could literally pull me out of the quagmire of my problems. I have always believed and witnessed the power of service. Service has always saved me in difficult times. The only reason, I am intact in my spiritual life despite the numerous challenges is beca...
1 comment
Read more

THE BREATHING BELLOWS

Every morning when I wake up and notice my breathing and observe my chest swelling up and down being pumped with air, I invariably remember a verse from the Srimad-bhagvatam which states that our breathing is like the breathing of the bellows of a blacksmith. Both the bellow and our body is made of leather. The bellow may feel that it is breathing on it's own and is fully independent but, it does not know that as soon as the blacksmith stops pumping air in it, it will stop breathing and lay lifeless. Similarly, we may be proud of our breathing and our life and may feel fully independent but, we don't realise that as soon as God decides to stop pumping air into our system, our body will stop breathing and lay lifeless.  What is there to be proud of when we don't even have control over our breath?  We should be grateful to God for giving us the wonderful opportunity and gift to breathe and live. And, the way we express that gratitude is by using ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHEN DOES OUR SEARCH END?

    Today a simple incident thought me an important lesson. Few days back, the nada string of the pyjama that I wear during my Yoga practice had come out. I stopped doing my Yoga practice due to this reason. Probably an excuse to take a break. I tried to find a safety pin to try to insert the thread back into it's socket. I searched a few places in the ashram where the safety pin could likely be found but, to no avail. I resigned from the endeavour to search and convinced myself that I will search for it some other day.  Today, I made up my mind to somehow resume my Yoga session. Which means, I had to find the safety pin - some how or the other. I searched one drawer but to no avail. Then, I searched the most obvious drawer. With a little searching, I found one safety pin lying in the corner of the drawer, as if waiting to be found. I was amazed and shocked to find it. It was as if someone magically put it there from the heavens. I had s...
Post a Comment
Read more