Posted on: 18 Jun 2024
[Shri Soumyadip Mondal asked: Balance between pravrutti and nivrutti. Sashtanga pronaam Swamiji, Kindly put light upon the following:
i) Rules applicable to nivrutti is opposite to pravrutti. Like sacrifice in worldly life has no end. The more you lay yourself down, the more expectations come along your way. The more you think about your family, the more is expected of you.]
Swami replied:- There is difference between Pravrutti and Nivrutti in certain rules. In Pravrutti, people aspire from you since they are in need. In Nivrutti, God does not aspire anything from anybody since He is never in any need. In Nivrutti, one’s sacrifice to God is only based on one’s true love to God and not on any aspiration from God. A rule, which is similar to both is that practical sacrifice alone is the proof for one’s true theoretical love. This is common in both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. The receiver of your sacrifice in Pravrutti is either in need or with ambition. In Nivrutti, God is neither in need nor has even a trace of ambition. Hence, there is similarity as well as difference between Pravrutti and Nivrutti.
[ii. Though it is understood that aspiration free service brings bliss in nivrutti and peace in pravrutti, it is considered as weakness by even near and dear people.]
Swami replied:- If you care for worldly bonds, you are in the intermediate stage, trying to have balance between Pravrutti and Nivrutti. In such case, you must sacrifice to God as per your capacity (Yathaa Shakti) and devotion (Yathaa Bhakti). The stage depends on your internal maturity and does not depend on the external worldly bonds. A devotee, who is in middle state tries to blame the climax devotee and also tries to protect himself/herself, showing the feeling of near and dear worldly bonds. It means that if a devotee is in the middle state, doing some sacrifice to God and some sacrifice to worldly bonds, the devotee will try to cover his/her incapability to do full sacrifice to God, showing the feelings of near and dear as the pretext to escape from complete Karma Yoga (service and sacrifice).
There are three types of devotees:- i) A devotee not at all interested in doing sacrifice to God and also trying to exploit God for his/her personal benefit or for the benefit of the family bonds through prostitution devotion. ii) A devotee trying to do some sacrifice to God either due to attraction to God or for the family’s welfare through business devotion (business devotion here applies to the family’s welfare only). iii) A climax devotee trying to do total sacrifice to God without aspiration for anything or for anybody. In this type, issue devotion is followed in the path and fan devotion is followed after reaching the goal.
These three types are the gradual steps in the spiritual line. One shall try to progress in the spiritual line. At least, one shall not hinder the other devotee belonging to the higher step due to ego-based jealousy. One may be in any step as on today. Tomorrow, one may climb the next higher step. Hence, one shall not be worried about his/her present step and feel jealous about the devotee present in the higher step. I assuredly tell you that the devotee sacrificing to God may undergo loss during the period of testing. By God’s grace, the loss will be compensated a hundred times more after the test is over.
The ‘near and dear’ referred by you in your question mean only the worldly bonds for which we have variable levels of fascination. If you care for the fascination of such near and dear worldly bonds, the word ‘salvation’ becomes meaningless because liberation from such near and dear worldly bonds only is salvation. Such 100% liberation (salvation) from near and dear worldly bonds should also come due to the strongest fascination towards God. In the first type, the devotee has 100% fascination towards near and dear worldly bonds and 0% fascination towards God. In the second type, the devotee has 0.1% to 99.9% fascination towards God and the remaining balance percentage for near and dear worldly bonds. In the third type, the devotee has 100% fascination towards God and 0% fascination towards near and dear worldly bonds. This is the total picture of the entire humanity. You can judge your place in this total picture and try to proceed from first type to third type through gradual progress in second type (This is general advice to every devotee and not to you because you are in the second type.).
[iii) Dedicated service to Your mission brings happiness in the mind but, is it justified if that involvement leads to negligence in worldly life? You have said that You will take care of every worldly duties of a climax devotee but, does that mean that the same devotee stops doing worldly duties submerging self totally in You? Your obedient servant Soumyadip Mondal.]
Swami replied:- If the theoretical climax devotee is in the process of reaching the practical climax state (this means that the devotee is in the path and has not reached the goal), the devotee has to balance service and sacrifice in both Pravrutti and Nivrutti because the devotee is in the middle stage. But, once the devotee reaches the climax state without any trace of doubt on God, God will certainly take full care of the devotee. Even after reaching the climax, some devotees are capable of handling Pravrutti without attachment to it and such devotees are called Sthitaprajnas.
I have already answered about the importance of the mission of God to a recent question asked by Smt. Chhanda. Love for the mission is not love for God. The mission is only an opportunity given to you by God to express your true love to God and not to the mission. God does not require your help in His work. Just by His will, He can get a positive result in a fraction of a second in His work. If God Rama wished, Ravana would turn to ash and Sita would stand by His side in a fraction of a second. In such a case, the construction of the bridge over the sea is meaningless. But, God provided an opportunity to all the angels (born as monkeys) to participate in His mission (the construction of the bridge for His personal work) to show true love to God. Single-pointed devotion (Ekabhaktir viśiṣyate- Gita) means that the concentration of your total true love must be on God only and not on any other thing or on anybody else. Pleasing God is the single aim irrespective of His work, which is whether personal or for the public because the only goal is to please God. This is the climax of devotion.
