Q. 234. CAN LUST BE FOUND IN THE PERFORMANCE OF PURE DEVOTIONAL SERVICE ?
A. BY SRILA PRABHUPADA.
sā na kāmayamānā nirodha-rūpatvāt
SYNONYMS
sā — that devotional service in pure love of God; na — not; kāmayamānā — like ordinary lust; nirodha — renunciation; rūpatvāt — because of having as its form.
TRANSLATION
There is no question of lust in the execution of pure devotional service, because in it all material activities are renounced.
(Narada Bhakti Sutra).
PURPORT
In pure devotional service there is no question of sense gratification. Some people mistake the loving affairs between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs (cowherd girls) for activities of ordinary sense gratification, but these affairs are not lustful because there is no material contamination.
As Rūpa Gosvāmī states in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:-
premaiva gopa-rāmāṇāḿ kāma ity agamat prathām
ity uddhavādayo 'py etaḿ vāñchanti bhagavat-priyāḥ
"Although the dealings of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa are wrongly celebrated by many as lust, great sages and saintly persons like Uddhava hanker for such loving affairs with Kṛṣṇa."
Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, the author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, has therefore said:-
kāma, prema, — dońhākāra vibhinna lakṣaṇa
lauha āra hema yaiche svarūpe vilakṣaṇa
SYNONYMS
kāma — lust; prema — love; dońhākāra — of the two; vibhinna — separate; lakṣaṇa — symptoms; lauha — iron; āra — and; hema — gold; yaiche — just as;svarūpe — in nature; vilakṣaṇa — different.
TRANSLATION
Lust and love have different characteristics, just as iron and gold have different natures.
PURPORT
One should try to discriminate between sexual love and pure love, for they belong to different categories, with a gulf of difference between them. They are as different from one another as iron is from gold.
ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā — tāre bali 'kāma'
kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare 'prema' nāma
SYNONYMS
ātma-indriya-prīti — for the pleasure of one's own senses; vāñchā — desires; tāre — to that; bali — I say; kāma — lust; kṛṣṇa-indriya-prīti — for the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa's senses; icchā — desire; dhare — holds; prema — love; nāma — the name.
TRANSLATION
The desire to gratify one's own senses is kāma [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is prema [love].
The impersonalists cannot understand the principle of satisfying Kṛṣṇa's senses because they reject the personality of Godhead. Thus they think God has no senses and therefore no sense satisfaction.
But the devotees simply want to satisfy the senses of the Supreme Lord, and so they take part in the pure activities of love of Godhead. There is no question of lust in that category of pure transcendental love.
Lust leads to fruitive activity for sense gratification. There are different kinds of duties for the human being, such as political obligations, performance of Vedic rituals, obligations for maintaining the body, and social formalities and conventions, but all such activities are directed toward satisfying one's own senses.
The gopīs, however, simply wanted to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses, and thus they completely gave up the conventional path of social restriction, not caring for their relatives or the chastisement of their husbands. They gave up everything for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, showing their strong attachment to Kṛṣṇa to be as spotless as washed white cloth.
It is said that when conjugal affection between a lover and beloved comes to the point of being destroyed and yet is not destroyed, such a relationship is pure love, or prema. In the material world it is not possible to find this kind of love, for it exists only between Kṛṣṇa and His intimate devotees, such as the gopīs.
The sentiment between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa was so strong that it could not be destroyed under any circumstances. Kṛṣṇa praises the gopīs' pure love in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:-
na pāraye 'haḿ niravadya-saḿyujāḿ
sva-sādhu-kṛtyaḿ vibudhāyuṣāpi vaḥ
yā mābhajan durjara-geha-śṛńkhalāḥ
saḿvṛścya tad vaḥ pratiyātu sādhunā
SYNONYMS
na — not; pāraye — am able to make; aham — I; niravadya-saḿyujām — to those who are completely free from deceit; sva-sādhu-kṛtyam — proper compensation; vibudha-āyuṣā — with a lifetime as long as that of the demigods; api — although; vaḥ — to you; yāḥ — who; mā — Me; abhajan — have worshiped; durjara — difficult to overcome; geha-śṛńkhalāḥ — the chains of household life; saḿvṛścya — cutting; tat — that; vaḥ — of you; pratiyātu — let itbe returned; sādhunā — by the good activity itself.
TRANSLATION
I am not able to repay My debt for your spotless service, even within a lifetime of Brahmā. Your connection with Me is beyond reproach. You have worshiped Me, cutting off all domestic ties, which are difficult to break. Therefore please let your own glorious deeds be your compensation.
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