Vaisnava Festival Italy 2009 The meaning of anyabhilasita sunyam

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja requested BV Nemi Maharaja to talk about the meaning of anyabhilasita sunyam



Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya 19.168

TEXT 16

Anyabhilasita sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama

TRANSLATION

When first-class devotional service develops, one
must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge
obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action.
The devotee must constantly serve Krishna
favorably, as Krishna desires."

PURPORT
By His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

This verse is also found in Srila Rupa Gosvamis Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.1.11). As we can understand from the Bhagavad-gita (9.34 and 18.65), the Supreme Personality of Godhead wants everyone to think of Him always (man-mana bhava mad-bhaktha). Everyone should become His devotee, not the devotee of a demigod. Everyone should engage in His devotional service, including arcana (Deity worship) in the temple. Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. Everyone should offer obeisances, from moment to moment, to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These are the desires of the Supreme Lord, and one who fulfils His desires favourably is actually a pure devotee. Krishna a wants everyone to surrender unto Him, and devotional service means preaching this gospel all over the world. The Lord says openly in the Bhagavad-gita (18.69), na ca tasman manusyesu kascin me priya-krttamah: One who preaches the gospel of the Bhagavad-gita for the benefit of all is most dear to Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita is spoken by the Lord so that human society can be perfectly organized from all angles of vision—politically, socially, economically, philosophically and religiously. From any point of view, human society can be reformed by the Krishna consciousness movement; therefore one who spreads this philosophy of Krishna consciousness for the benefit of all conditioned souls in the universe is perfect in pure devotional service.
The criterion is that a devotee must know what Krishna wants him to do. This understanding can be achieved through the medium of a spiritual master who is a bonafide representative of Krishna. Srila Rupa Gosvami advises, adau gurv-asrayam. One who is serious in wanting to render pure devotional service to the Lord must take shelter of a spiritual master who comes in the disciplic succession from krishna. Evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [Bg. 4.2]. Without accepting a bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, one cannot find out the real purpose of devotional service. Therefore one has to accept the shelter of a bonafide spiritual master and agree to be directed by him. The first business of a pure devotee is to satisfy his spiritual master, whose only business is to spread krishna consciousness. And if one can satisfy the spiritual master, Krishna is automatically satisfied—yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah. This is the success of devotional service. This is the meaning of the word anukulyena—that is, favorable devotional service to the Lord. A pure devotee has no plans other than those for the Lords service. He is not interested in attaining success in mundane activities. He simply wants success in the progress of devotional service. For a devotee, there cannot be worship of others or demigod worship. A pure devotee does not engage himself in such pseudo devotional service. He is interested only in satisfying Krishna. If one lives only for the satisfaction of Krishna, it does not matter whether he belongs to this order of life or that order of life. Ones only business should be to satisfy Krishna. This process is completely manifest in the activities of the krishna consciousness movement. It has been actually proved that the entire world can accept devotional service without failure. One simply has to follow the instructions of the representative of Krishna.