Dharma or duty should never be performed for material gain. But people do it so all the time. Still, the Bhagavatam is saying, “No, not for that purpose”. So, for what purpose? Bhagavatam says it is for apavarga. Srila Prabhupada very brilliantly and beautifully translates apavarga as ultimate liberation, making a distinction between the merging kind of liberation and vaisnava liberation, where one engages in service to Krishna eternally on the spiritual platform in the spiritual realm, or wherever Krishna wants one to render that service. One should do one’s duty for that purpose only, and never with the purpose of material gain.
Then the flip side or check mate of that instruction is that if some material gain does come in the course of devotional service, one might think, “I guess Krishna wants me to enjoy, because look at all this – all this bounty, opportunity, and facility. Wow! I know Krishna loves me after all. Dive in and enjoy!” But, “NO”. When you engage in pious activity, then there is going to be pious result. And when you engage in devotional service, it is transcendental piety. Nice things may come, but tribulations may come too. When nice things come, we feel, “Let me enjoy”. The enjoying propensity is so strong that one may think like that. But the Bhagavatam says that if something comes, immediately that should be used in Krishna’s service, exclusively. The motivation should be to please Krishna, and not for material gain.
Now there is this propensity, I call it the ‘Two Pocket Propensity’. There is the “Krishna pocket”and there is the “Me pocket” with the “so much for Krishna and so much for me” propensity. It is mixed. We should only have one pocket – the Krishna pocket. If something comes, it should only go into that one pocket. One place, one place only – in Krishna’s service. There is a tendency, not only for householders, but for mixed devotees, that we want a percentage for ourselves. It is like business, “I am best and I expect some return”. It’s a contamination. Fruitive tendency is pernicious and it just does not want to go away. So, how do you deal with it, besides saying “No”? You say “No”, but conditioning persists. The answer is you strongly pay attention and cultivate attachment to Krishna. The best way to cultivate attachment to Krishna is by hearing and chanting without any motivation, just for the sake of the purification that comes from hearing and chanting, and for the loving exchange with Krishna and His devotees that comes with hearing and chanting. By our thus progressing on the path of becoming attached to Krishna, our fruitive and enjoying tendencies are gone.
From a lecture by HH Romapada Swami titled "Six Questions, Six Answers Part 3", Seattle, November 2010
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