Hare Krishna
I have a doubt. I want to know between these who is going to become pure devotee of Lord sooner than other as well as who is more dear to Krishna while both of them want to become pure devotee of Lord and to please Him:
One who is regularly chanting 16 rounds, strictly following 4 regulative principle and spending all other time in doing service of mankind (materially) to please Krishna as we all are part and parcel of Him.
OR
One who is regularly chanting 16 rounds, strictly following 4 regulative principle and spending all other time in Reading, Listening and Chanting more rounds regularly.
Please give some reasons or prabhupada quotes.
Replies
9 fold devotional service are interdependent, we cannot separate them all the times.for example - hearing and kirtan are interdependent
one cannot hear until there is some speaker, speaker cannot speak if there is no listener. so they are mutually dependent limbs. similarly, from hearing & kirtan leads to the remembrance. one cannot remember if he is not hearing or glorifying.
Point is that we cannot separate them all the times, however we can be good one of aspect of bhakti at a time.
Following are the top examples of each limbs of bhakti
1. HEARING (sravanam)
Maharaja Pariksit (the last seven days of his life, he constantly heard the Srimad Bhagavatam).
2. CHANTING (kirtanam)
Sukadeva Goswami (spoke the Bhagavatam to Maharaja Pariksit)
3. REMEMBERING( visnu smaranam)
Prahlada Maharaja (never forgot Krsna despite constant tortures from his father- Hiranyakashipu)
4. SERVING THE LORD'S LOTUS FEET (pada sevanam)
Laxmi, the Goddess of Fortune, is always engaged in serving the lotus feet of the Lord.
5. DEITY-WORSHIP (arcanam)
Maharaja Prthu used all of his royal possessions in order to offer them in pure devotion to the Lord.
6.PRAYING (vandanam)
Akura offered prayers to Krsna when he was traveling to Vrndavana in order to see Krsna.
7. EXECUTING ORDERS (dasyam)
Hanuman, the intimate servant of Ramacandra executed all of Sri Ramacandra's orders despite all kinds of difficulties.
8. SERVING AS A FRIEND (sakhyam)
Arjuna was so close to Krsna, that the Lord offered Himself to become his chariot driver and serve Arjuna and his brothers in various ways.
9. COMPLETE SURRENDER (atma nivedanam)
Bali Maharaja gave Sri Vamanadeva his entire kingdom, his possessions as well as his own body, although his own spiritual master was against it.
Materialistic welfare work is the activity of those iiving entities that have fallen from the Brahmajyoti
Because being merged in the Brahmajyoti is Boring..
There is eternity and knowledge but for want of Bliss they again return to the samsara
and open hospitals and mundane social work.
One who is beyond duality and doubt, whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings, and who is free from all sins, achieves liberation in the Supreme.” (Bhagavad Gita 5.25)
“In Kali-yuga there is a scarcity of food almost every year, and thus philanthropists spend lavishly to feed the poor. For this they invent the term daridra-narayana-seva. This is prohibited. One should distribute sumptuous prasada, considering everyone a part of the Supreme Lord, but one should not juggle words to make a poor man Narayana. Everyone is related to the Supreme Lord, but one should not mistakenly think that because one is related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has become the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana. Such a Mayavada philosophy is extremely dangerous, especially for a devotee. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore strictly forbidden us to associate with Mayavadi philosophers.Mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva-nasa: if one associates with the Mayavada philosophy, his devotional life is doomed.” (Srila Prabhupada from Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.6)
kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah
kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet
“This age of Kali is an ocean of faults, but there is one great benefit. Simply by Krishna kirtan, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, one can become purified of all material contamination and return back home, back to Godhead.”
So the greatest welfare work is to spread this Krishna kirtan all over the world on the other hand a person engaged only in trying to improve the physical welfare of human society cannot factually help anyone. Temporary relief of the external body and the mind does not solve one’s actual problems. The real cause of one’s difficulties in the hard struggle for life is one’s forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord. So the true welfare work which is beneficial for all the living entities of this universe is to popularize the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra all over the world.
Do both. Chanting etc will benifit your spiritual upliftment and helping others will uplift them from misery. But do not only materially help them. We need to see the condition of the person whom you are going to help. You can not teach spiritual upliftment to beggar who is suffering without clothes, food and living on footpath in worst condition. There is differnet medicine for different stages of patient. The person who is dying without food and if I will go to preach them what his response will be , we all know. We all are in good condition atleast by basic necessities with the mercy of lord krishna that's why we are here for further upliftment i.e spiritual. First we need to satisfy basic necessity then only we should preach them for spiritual upliftment to make them understand the laws of karma and their present situation. We can not preach to a fainted person. we need to make him alive first and then we can teach him.
By helping poor and needy people, you are actually worshiping krishna also who lives in their heart. You will find this quality like offering food, clothes in the life of all great devotees but keeping in mind that we all should help each other for spiritual upliftment also. First serving by basic necessities and if we make them able to earn their livelihood by themselves by skill development progrmas or by making them literate or helping them to get a job somewhere it is also the best service and then comes spiritual upliftment. Without it none will listen or take interest in spiritual upliftment. it is like teaching to a dead person or asking to write thesis to a illiterate people.
Hare krishna
A big no to first option? Helping people materially ? Opening hospitals and schools Srila Prabhupada was against all this nonsense. How to help people well by giving them Bhagvadam Gita as it is -by distributing book by doing Hari Naam Sankirtians on the road and distributing parsadam (After the kirtan only) . This way is the best of serving Lord Krishna and Prabhupada !!!
what is material service ? sense gratification?
gratifying others materially how does that benefit anyone?
So you can get money for your sense gratification?
if you get money to offer to Krishna and his devotees, perhaps there is some benefit if gotten by honest means
Sankirtana is by far the highest welfare work
it is explained in Srimad Bhagavatam
SB 4.30.34 P
A pure devotee considers a moment's association with another pure devotee to be far superior to residing in a heavenly planet or merging in the Brahman effulgence. The topmost benediction for those who are living in this material world and are subjected to the repetition of birth and death (transmigration) is association with pure devotees. One should search out such pure devotees and remain with them. That will make one completely happy, even though living within the material world. This Krsna consciousness movement is started for that purpose.
Without association of pure devotee, one usually do not become pure devotee.
Purification, Swarga destination, liberation, siddhis,... are easily given by the Lord to humble Vaishnava who follow sadhana strictly, but the transcendental pure bhakti is rarely given.
One can get opportunity to get ill from transcendental disease, only in the association of those who are already infected. There is no other way.