Posted on: 08 Mar 2022
[Smt. Priyanka asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, I recently learnt about Saint Pundalik's story, on how he initially used to cause trouble to people and ill-treat his parents after getting married. Later, after meeting a guru, he started serving his parents with full devotion and surrender towards them. Swami, please help me understand one point in this story. When Lord Krishna came to see him, how did he so casually throw a brick outside for Lord Krishna to stand on, and wait for him without even looking at Lord Krishna?! It is said that he knew that Lord Krishna came, but he refused to pay his respect to Him before his duty towards his parents was done. While serving elder parents is generally the right thing to do, when God came into the picture and competed with worldly parents, he gave more importance to the parents instead of God. How did this please Lord Krishna? Is it that there is some past life background, which only God knows and we should not judge anything from face value? Swami, please forgive me. I don't know what I am failing to understand here. At Your divine lotus feet, Priyanka.]
Swami replied:- You have Pundalika on one side, who defeated his bond with God in the presence of his bond with parents. On the other side, you have Prahlaada, who left his father for the sake of God and you have also Shankara, who left His mother for the sake of God. You have the Gopikas occupying the Goloka (which is higher than the highest abode of God), who defeated all the worldly bonds for the sake of God and that too for the sake of the contemporary human incarnation called Krishna! The sages are the topmost authorities not only in Pravrutti or worldly life, but also are the topmost authorities in Nivrutti or spiritual life. Are you not seeing everywhere scholars referring the authoritative scriptures written by sages only in the matter of any point in Pravrutti or Nivrutti? Every devotee or sage is said to be a fully liberated soul only when all his/her worldly bonds are dropped spontaneously due to the attraction of the soul towards God. In such case, don’t you hear that such attraction to God is called the highest and purest ultimate devotion? In view of all these points, how can you get even a trace of doubt that the path of those most sacred sages is not the right path especially in the spiritual line?
The story of Pundalika is mentioned for the lowest grade people, who do not care for their parents due to fascination for the wife or even an illegal sexual bond. For such lowest people of Dushpravrutti, the above example of Pundalika standing for perfect Pravrutti is a very good example. In LKG class, one child could learn all the alphabets and no other child learnt so many alphabets. To encourage the class, the child well versed in all the alphabets will be praised very much so that all other children will get motivated to learn more and more number of alphabets. Will you take the praise of this child to a Ph.D. student and say to him that the child is the best student in the entire education system of the entire country? He is the best LKG student. He should not be told as the best student in the total education system itself. I think that you have understood Me.
Pundalika was in Dushpravrutti by neglecting the legally justified bonds and going behind legally unjust bonds like prostitutes etc. After reformation, he entered Pravrutti and left Dushpravrutti. In Pravrutti, he started taking maximum care about legally justified bonds and became completely dedicated to the bonds of parents. In this stage, he has taken the legally justified bonds to the climax and did not enter Nivrutti so far. In this stage, he gave more importance to parents than to God. How can you compare this Pundalika to Prahlada, Shankara and Gopikas, who are in the Nivrutti? How can you compare a graduate student studying in college to the postgraduate student studying in the university? He may be a topper in college but he cannot be compared with a PG student in university. Hence, Pundalika left school and joined college. He cannot be compared with devotees of Nivrutti, who are PG students of university.