“Pichla bigara sab Govinda Radhey,
Guru ki sharan gahi agala bana de.”
(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Bhakti Dham, Mangadh, July 27, 2009, explaining this new kirtan verse)
All our births prior to this have been spoiled. During those lifetimes, our actions (karma) were wrong. We performed both good and bad actions and both of these bind the soul in Maya. We didn’t practice bhakti (devotion), the action that would have freed us from Maya.
This didn’t happen just once or twice. This human form, which could have enabled us to progress spiritually, was received by us uncountable times. Instead of advancing, our situation became even worse. Why? God has given the greatest gyan shakti, power of knowledge, to the human form. No other life form has this great asset. As a result, we can understand the philosophy of the Vedas and other scriptures. If we were to give an lecture to an animal, what would people say? “That person has gone fully mad! He’s trying to speak to animals!”
Leaving aside the celestial gods, the human form has the greatest capacity for knowledge. The celestial gods have other greater powers, but they do have the ability to perform new consequence-producing actions (karma), which would enable them to advance spiritually. Instead they are only subject to the consequences of their past actions performed in a human birth. What does this mean?
Let’s say you saved 100,000 rupees in the bank. You stopped depositing money and little by little you started withdrawing it. Every month, without any tension, you took out 10,000 rupees. After 10 months you went to the teller at the bank and he said, “Guard! Remove this man from the bank!” You said, “Wait a minute – you have respectfully been giving me 10,000 rupees every month for the last 10 months.” “Yes, well now your account is empty. What have you come to take? You are wasting my time!” Similarly, someone who enters the celestial abodes only enjoys the consequences of good actions they earned in a human birth. Those consequences eventually come to an end and then he must leave.
For example, the consequences of your good actions resulted in your entering the celestial abodes for four years. One year has ended and three are left. Now two years are over and two are left. Now today is your last day – who knows whether you will enter the womb of a dog, cat or donkey after this?
Please pay special attention to this point: If the special knowledge that the human being has is not intentionally directed towards practicing devotion to God (which is the best kind of good action), it will automatically be used to perform bad actions. This is because we must perform action. We can’t remain inactive even for a single moment. This is our nature. We are continuously planning and then performing actions and this is inspired by one thing, “Where is happiness?”
One person thinks, “It’s here!” He runs in that direction. Another person thinks, “It’s over there!” He runs in that direction. He merely thought and then ran. If we don’t practice devotion to God, if we don’t go in His direction, we will automatically go towards the world. This can’t be stopped by our beauty, virtues or status. No one can stop another from this. Without devotion to God, we will go in the opposite direction of spiritual progress, and we are bound to go in that direction.
In this way, uncountable human births of ours have been spoiled, and the proof of this is that we have not yet attained God realization. This will happen only when we perform those actions to spiritually uplift us. But how will we do this? Our intellect, our decision making faculty, is mayic, material.
So this verse says that the one who understands this should surrender to a true Saint (Mundakopanishad, 1/2/12), and act according to the knowledge and instructions of that Saint. In other words, perform devotion according to the guidelines of that Saint.
Create a positive devotional future; don’t think about the past. Whatever was spoiled, was spoiled. Keep building on your spiritual progress, otherwise that, too, will get wasted. How much time do you have left in the future? Who knows if you have even one moment left in this birth. So don’t procrastinate. Don’t just say you will practice devotion. Do it right away!
© Radha Govinda Samiti and Bhakti Bliss
