The Childlike Innocence of Bhakti

We simply depend on Krishna. He maintains us, sustains us. 

Too much dependence on palmistry, on what jewel stones to counterbalance Rahu... 

this kills the childlike innocence of bhakti.

~Srila Prabhupada

Some time ago, a friend inquired about how much we should involve ourselves in learning and practicing Krsna's subtle sciences such as palmistry and gemology. My friend was concerned about whether such arts are necessary or if we should just disregard them and simply chant Hare Krsna. Here is my answer, which I hope will satisfy Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krsna:

We are part of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya (disciplic succession) coming from Lord Sri Krsna (Krishna) Himself. Our mission, our purpose, is to become fully Krsna conscious through the chanting of Krsna's holy names: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Whatever is conducive to or supportive of that purpose, we accept. Whatever is detrimental to that mission, we reject.

By making the above statement, Srila Prabhupada is teaching us an important lesson. He wanted us to develop and maintain unalloyed attachment to Krsna's holy names and to His service. He didn't want us to waste time on frivolous pursuits that could distract us or take us away from our purpose of becoming fully Krsna conscious. He wanted us to utilize all our intelligence, energy and resources toward a full-on effort to becoming Krsna's pure devotees, no holds barred. He wanted us to take the elevator rather than the stairs. He wanted us to learn to simply depend on Krsna, to learn that only He maintains us and sustains us. He wanted us to always remain like innocent children for whom Krsna is Sarvashraya, the shelter of all, and Rakshobhuvana, the protector of all.

Why did Jesus say, "Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven?" Children are simple and they are completely dependent on the protection of their parents. When we become completely dependent on Krsna, the Supreme Father, we can again enter the Kingdom of God.

Srila Prabhupada recommends that when we chant Hare Krsna, we should chant "like a child crying for its mother?" The mood of a child crying helplessly for the shelter and protection of his parents is so attractive to his mother and father that the heart of even a macho tough guy who has become a father melts when he hears such a helpless cry from his little one. Anyone who is a parent can understand. The desperate call of a child in need pulls a parent's heartstrings more than anything else. The parent wants to immediately run to that child, pick him up, hug him, soothe his pain, and make everything all right. He doesn't want his child to suffer in any way.

Krsna is the same way. He is the Supreme Parent. He is God the Father, the father of everyone. And when we call out to Him in desperation and helplessness, with utter dependence on His protection, He is irresistibly drawn to such a plaintive, heartfelt call, and He wants to pick us up and take us back home to the place where we never have to suffer again, where we can always be happy.

While we are here in the material world, Lord Sri Krsna remains with us always in His benevolent form as Paramatma, the Lord in the heart. He has made each of us as individuals, with unique tastes and inclinations. He desires that we all return back home to live with Him in the spiritual sky, so He has devised different ways to attract each one of us to come back to Him. Residing in our hearts, He understands each individual soul and knows just how to attract each one of us to want to come back home to Him. So if one is attracted to the sciences that Lord Krsna has given to mankind, he can utitlize those sciences as a tool to aid himself and/or others in easing the burden of life in this material world. By remaining in the conscious awareness that all things, including Krsna's subtle sciences, come from Krsna and are to be used in His service, he can actually further his attraction and attachment to the Lord.

Lord Krsna has not only appeared in His all-attractive feature of Shyamasundara (the beautiful dark-complexioned youth) but He has also descended from the spiritual world as His holy names. He has created a system of living called Vedic culture that is specifically targeted toward helping souls in human bodies to become purified of their long-held material desires which obstruct their spiritual progress. Within that system--called daiva-varnasrama-dharma--there are physical and metaphysical sciences that are meant for the use of higher classes of human beings. Krsna understands how much we struggle in this world, so He gives us a helping hand, so to speak. He helps us along in this world by giving us such sciences as astrology, palmistry, medicine, the science of signs and omens, and gemology to assist us in our lives so that we don't have to struggle and suffer too much while we're here. 

Krsna is the most expert and strict teacher--He doesn't hesitate to discipline us when we need it--but He also has the softest heart. So He tries to make things easier for us in this world of suffering by providing tools that help us live more peacefully with less trouble. Krsna gives mankind sciences that serve to bring us closer to Him when we use them in the right consciousness. After all, we are His beloved children.

What is the proper consciousness in which to make use of Krsna's sciences? 

(1) Complete and utter dependence on Krsna. 

(2) Recognition that we cannot do anything without Krsna's permission and empowerment. 

(3) Absolute resignation to Krsna's choice of the outcome. 

(4) Understanding that Krsna is the origin, the maintainer and sustainer of all, that Krsna is the goal and the ultimate enjoyer of all our endeavors, and that Krsna is the best friend of every soul. 

This is the consciousness in which we can not only make the best use of Krsna's sciences, but it is also the consciousness in which we can most lovingly chant His holy names. This kind of attitude of complete dependence on the Lord's mercy can only truly be had by a soul who is cent-percent surrendered to the will of the Lord, desiring to please Him at every moment, and desiring to be His instrument in this world. Such a soul knows that the purpose of his life is to uncover his dormant love for Lord Sri Krsna and return back home to His lotus feet. In his heart of hearts, he really has no other desire than this, except to make sure that as many other souls as possible get a chance to reconnect with Krsna and resume their eternal, loving service to Him in the spiritual world.

So what if we're not yet to that point of full surrender? 

If we are not yet on the level of complete, unalloyed, cent-percent surrendered devotion to carrying out the will of the Lord at every moment, Krsna still covers for us. He has our back, so to speak. He sees through our weaknesses and faults and mundane desires, and mainly looks at our genuine desire to serve Him. As stated above, He is not afraid to punish us when we do wrong, but He is more inclined to look at our efforts to please Him. He would rather focus on those. He is in our hearts and He understands our sincerity and knows what we're up against. And because He wants us back home in the spiritual world more than we want to go back home, He makes all facilities to encourage us and keep us on the straight and narrow path of bhakti so that we can come home as quickly as possible. 

Krsna says that whether we have all material desires or no material desires, or even if we desire liberation, we should try to serve Him in full surrender, with all our heart and energy. He promises that we'll eventually become purified. (SB 2.3.10) And Srila Prabhupada assures us that if we still have material desires, it's better to go to Krsna with our desires than to the demigods, because after all, everything is bestowed ultimately by Lord Sri Krsna, not by His deputies. He writes, "If, however, anyone has any material desire to be fulfilled, he had better pray for it to the Supreme Lord (although that is not pure devotion), and he will thus achieve the desired result." (Bg 9.24 Ppt) (Notice how Srila Prabhupada includes the caveat "although that is not pure devotion." Here he is implicitly indicating that he wants us to come to the level of pure devotion, but if we're not on that level yet, he grants us permission to go to Krsna with our requests, and assures us that Krsna will protect us and bring us gradually to the level of pure bhakti.)

So it's okay to ask Krsna for help. In fact, we require His help for everything, even to worship Him! Srila Prabhupada says that we can't even become Krsna conscious without Krsna's help. So if we are not yet completely surrendered, Krsna understands and He offers us a helping hand as we stumble along on our path to spiritual perfection. One way in which He helps us is by appearing on our tongue and in our ears and hearts as His holy names. Another way he provides help for us is by instituting His very own culture--Vedic culture--the application of which includes various sciences, both subtle and physical, that assist us in navigating through this bewildering material realm. The Lord even demonstrates by His own example in various pastimes that one can derive encouragement from His science of astrology. In one particular pastime in the Ramayana, Lord Rama is told by His devotee Jatayu that Sita was abducted during the time of day called "vinda." He assures the Lord, "If a person loses something at that time, he will surely reclaim it very soon."  Later, when Rama and Laksmana are trudging southward through forests and jungles looking for Sita, Lord Rama says to Laksmana, "My left arm is throbbing and My mind feels perturbed. O Laksmana, We should prepare for imminent danger." A moment later, They hear the frightful cry of a vanjulaka bird. Laksmana remarks, "This indicates that victory will be Ours." These are some examples of how the Lord Himself shows us that in His incarnation of Ramacandra, He makes use of His own material sciences--in this case, the science of signs and omens.

The point is to remain always completely dependent on Krsna like an innocent child is completely dependent on his parents, and to remember that everything comes from Him, including all departments of knowledge, both spiritual and mundane. Then we'll always remain safe under His expert protection. We need to remember the maxim: "Everything comes from Krsna and is meant to be used in Krsna's service." If we maintain the proper attitude of using everything in Krsna's service and completely depending on Krsna at every moment of our lives--even if we take the help of His refined, sophisticated sciences such as the sciences of politics, debate, warfare, weaponry, architecture, construction, space travel, astronomy, mathematics, cooking, proper eating, habits of cleanliness or medicine, or of His more subtle sciences such as astrology, palmistry, gemology, psychology, physiognomy, numerology, or music--He will help us to quickly find our way back to His lotus feet. 

Srila Prabhupada taught that all tools for encouraging us on the path of bhakti (loving, devotional service to the Lord) come from the Lord. He explained that all sciences, both physical and metaphysical, come from the Lord, and Srila Prabhupada himself utilized such teachings to some degree in his life. He desired that we understand that all departments of knowledge come from the Lord and if they are used, they are meant to be used in Krsna consciousness for the pleasure of the Lord. He showed by example how a devotee recognizes that everything comes from the Lord and is meant to be offered back to Him in acknowledgment of His mercy. 

Srila Prabhupada also desired that we make the quickest spiritual progress possible and not get waylaid by the glitter of heavenly pleasures or the complacency which can arise when one enjoys too much comfort or sense gratification in this world. So fanaticism in either direction is not helpful. Moderation is the key.

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to find balance by completely depending on Krsna in every aspect of our lives. If we feel inspired to take the help of one or more of Krsna's sciences, we should remain aware at all times that all types of knowledge come from Krsna. We should limit our use of those sciences to the purpose of aiding ourselves or others on our (or their) path back home, back to Krsna's lotus feet. We should avoid the pitfall of thinking that Krsna's different sciences stand separate from Him. We should take care to protect ourselves from the temptation of becoming too much absorbed in and dependent on His sciences instead of on Him as the creator of those sciences. The key phrase in the opening quote is "too much dependent." This we must avoid. 

In order to preserve and encourage the childlike innocence of bhakti in our hearts, Srila Prabhupada wanted us to maintain an attitude of absolute helplessness and dependence on Krsna's holy names and on the mercy of Krsna in the form of His Deity, His incarnations and avataras, His representatives (merciful devotees who try to deliver us from the material world) and His teachings. He wanted that by the Lord's grace we stay firmly fixed on the razor's edge path of bhakti. He wanted us to live simple, pure, innocent lives, free of unnatural, unnecessary, or excessive indulgences, so that we could remain pure and utterly dependent on Krsna, just as little children are completely dependent on their parents. He understood that in that mood only would we be able to constantly chant Krsna's holy names, understand Krsna's teachings, uncover our love for Krsna and return back home, back to Godhead.

In conclusion, I remember that Srila Prabhupada, who is the acarya for the entire universe, wore ruby beads around his neck and he always kept ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines on his shelves. He also recommended that we take help of astrology in finding suitable spouses for our children. Yet, he admonished us that we should not depend so totally on such sciences as gemology, medicine and astrology that we veer off the razor's edge path of Krsna consciousness. In case one feels drawn to take advantage of the various arts and sciences that Lord Krsna has bestowed upon the human race to make his life a little easier in this world of constant struggle, it behooves one to remain always vigilant and prayerful that indulgence in the use of such sciences does not jeopardize his own childlike innocence of bhakti.