Worldliness and devotion

SYNOPSIS: After taking human birth, we waste most of our life in worldliness and thus fail to fulfill the purpose of human life. The gain from worldliness is too small when compared with the gain from devotion. READ THE FULL ARTICLE BELOW -

GOD is one and the same even in different forms. But the people of the world are different. Therefore, we can fulfill our relationship with one GOD but how can we fulfill the relationship with this big world ?

Firstly, the world sees our flaws and errors and therefore our relationship with the world becomes strong and weak at times. But GOD does not see our flaws and errors and therefore the devotion of the devotee continues to flourish.

For example, the relationships of the world do not remain stable. It becomes strong and weak at times. If someone likes us today it is not necessary that he will like us tomorrow. Today’s friends may turn into an opponent tomorrow. Who is praised today will be cursed tomorrow by the world. It is not possible to upkeep the stability of relations in this world. We do not know who will become unhappy with us by any of our actions. If we please one, the other gets displeased. To keep harmony with all every time is quite impossible.

Even if we assume that if someone is able to keep harmony with all, he will get praise from all. He will generate arrogance due to it which will lead to his downfall. By keeping harmony with all he will at best be able to fetch 2000 - 3000 people to his funeral. People may praise him in the 12 days (mourning period) after death. Then they will forget him. Then the people will remember him once in a week, then once in months and then once or twice in a year. After the passage of one or two generations, he will be fortunate if they remember him during Shraddha Paksha (memorial practice). Just think how much we know about our grandfather’s grandfather.

Even if we devote half the time to GOD that we devote to this world, we will see that our devotion will greatly progress. GOD does not see our flaws and errors, He just rectifies them. With devotion, we become purified and our heart, action and speech are refined. Our sins and wrongs are destroyed and we become pure. A pure heart is able to unite with GOD. The devotee and devotion, both become immortal. Just ponder that we know more about Bhagwati Meerabai than our grandfather’s grandfather even though we have no relation with Bhagwati Meerabai or her family.

Secondly, GOD never breaks His relationship with us even if a devotee leaves devotion. The world will leave us for a small reason. Just see an example to testify both. There is a story of Shri Ajamilji in Srimad Bhagwatji Mahapuran. Shri Ajamilji was a very religious person. He had a good reputation in society. People used to praise him. Then he had his downfall. He hired prostitutes and started stealing and drinking and therefore the villagers disqualified him from society and the village and he was forced to live far away from the village. He started living with the prostitutes away from the village. All left him upon his downfall. Those who were praising him till yesterday were ready to hurl stones at him. The world does not hate our bad qualities but it starts hating us. GOD did not hate even Ravan. He punished Ravan for his wrongs but He did not have an ill feeling for him. In the end, GOD gave him salvation because whoever receives his end from GOD gets salvation since GOD has nothing less to offer other than salvation. At the last breath of Ravan, GOD sent Shri Laxmanji to seek knowledge from Ravan and gave him the stature of a teacher. GOD gave such honor to Ravan. Despite the wrongdoings of Shri Ajamilji, during his last time, GOD freed him from YamPash due to utterance of the name of GOD for once and gave him the devotion by which he was able to reach the dwelling of GOD. Shri Ajamilji has left GOD, he left devotion and was downtrodden but still, GOD did not leave him. GOD gave back his devotion and uplifted him and gave him that place which the opponents who criticized him could not get. In this episode, we can clearly see the merits and demerits of devotion and worldliness. Shri Ajamilji's story is a big example of the merits of devotion and demerits of worldliness.

Thirdly, GOD always favors a soul whereas the world never favors. Even if it does, it is negligible to what GOD favors. The above story of Shri Ajamilji is a testimony to it. Even if the world favors us it will not fortify our afterlife. GOD fortifies our present life and afterlife as He did for Shri Sudamaji, GOD frees us from the cycle of rebirths as He did to Bhagwati Meerabai and GOD grants salvation to generations as He did for Shri Kewatji. The world cannot give us anything more than some simple words of praise. Those words of praise are also self-destructive as it will lead to arrogance and will lead to our downfall.

In a nutshell, we must keep limited worldliness and concentrate our full attention on GOD. We spend so much time in worldliness that we are left with no time for GOD. The time spent on worldliness will at best give a few words of praise in a lifetime and after death. Apart from this, it is not capable of doing us any good but the devotion of GOD sails us through. The soul gets ultimately blessed only due to devotion.

Therefore, we should give more and more time of life to GOD. We must only keep ordinary and limited worldliness. We should not have malignity for anyone, we should wish well for all, we should have a desire for the welfare of all, only worldliness to this extent is okay as this is the best worldliness. We do not require anything more than this. If we do more than this it is just like a child who plays during his study time and then fails in his exams. If we also spend our human life in worldliness then we will also not be able to succeed in our life’s examination.

If we want to make our human life successful, we must spend more time, more energy and more strength in the devotion of GOD. There is no option other than this. By doing our self’s duty we must devote our life in the devotion of GOD because this is the best way and is also the essence of Shrimad Bhagavad Geetaji.

English Translation vetted by Sheelnidhi Gupta