Evaporating Enthusiasm

Mahanidhi Swami

In his book of life nourishing teachings, Srila Rupa Goswamipada describes six actions which diminish and ultimately destroy loving sentiments for God (bhaktir vinashyati). And in the absence of love and devotion how can there be enthusiasm to serve another?

Let’s examine these six and the results they cause. If we are experiencing some of these results, we should immediately correct our behavior and carry on with enthusiastic devotional practices.

1. Ati Aharah: Over—eating or collecting money.

This means eating too much prasada or taking food from inappropriate sources.

Result: Provokes material desires; and one’s consciousness becomes tainted with the negative non-spiritual energy of the source.

2. Prayasa: Strenuous endeavors.

This means endeavoring for mundane things.

Result: Waste valuable human time and energy, and weaken your devotion by distraction to material pursuits.

3. Prajalpa: Idle talks.

Engaging in idle talks, such as blasphemy, gossip, topics of sensuality, reading newspapers and materialistic books.

Result: By these acts of cultivating a taste for the mundane we cut the very root of devotion.

4. Niyama Agrahah: Neglect of principles, regulated and devotional.

This means neglecting one’s spiritual practices, sadhana, i.e. upholding vows, and one’s daily chanting, reading shastra, worship, prayers and meditation.

Result: The lack of these nourishing waters cause one’s creeper of devotion, bhakti lata, to wither and dry up.

5. Jana Sanga: Company of materialistic persons.

This means keeping mundane association either through cultivating relationships with worldly people or by vicariously enjoying their ways through movies, novels, newspapers, TV and Internet surfing.

Result: One nourishes his taste for the worldly and vanquishes his interest in devotion. And by this duhsanga, bad association, one becomes tainted with their lust and greed and eventually falls from the devotional path, bhakti vinashyati.

6. Laulyam (lobha): Fickleness and mental restlessness (chancala mana).

If the mind is fickle, it will run here and there to any tasty distraction. And if one is the curious type with lots of intellectual interests, he will indulge in unlimited unrelated topics of sense enjoyment.

Result: Scattered brain and loss of mental peace. And most importantly, one loses the focus of his consciousness in God and the goal of human life, namely Radha and Krishna’s eternal prema seva in the bowers of Vraja.

Conclusion: Be fixed and one pointed in bhakti bhajana. Avoid these six actions at all cost. Then you will attain everything—peace, harmony, love, fulfillment and eternal bliss in the kingdom of Krishna prema.

The actual verse reference from Srila Rupa Goswamipada’s (Upadeshamrita 2):

atyaharah prayasash cha, prajalpo niyamagrahah

jana sangash cha laulyam cha, shadbhir bhaktir vinashyati

Shuddha Bhakti Bhajana ki jai!

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!