Should I give up my ambition to become a successful person in material world to practice Bhakti Yoga?

[Bhakti Yoga Content]

Sometimes people get confused about regular life when they read Bhakti Yoga books, or in fact any spiritual books.

They come across statements such as anything material is for low graded people and one should not aspire, and after reading that one is discouraged to continue regular life. How can one aspire to run a startup, or one aspire to become IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer, or anything of that sort. How can one continue normal life?

Let’s look at what Bhakti Yoga advises.

First one needs to understand the different stages of bhakti, and what those stages state about the practitioner in that stage.

Bhakti has the following stages (progressing from Sraddha to Prema). A person following bhakti goes through these stages)

Sraddha: (First Stage)

Having faith that bhakti as the ultimate goal for jiva. Because of his faith, he begins practicing bhakti

Anisthita Bhakti: (Second Stage)

Along with association of devotees, he practices devotional activites such as chanting, reading etc. However, he practices bhakti unsteadily and with material desires (sometimes enthusiastic but sometimes unethusiastic). The person though practicing bhakti such as chanting, reading/hearing Bhagavatam/Bhagavad Gita, etc, would get disturbed by unwanted things (anarthas) such as laya (mental inactivity or sleep), spriitual indifference (feeling that doing spiritual activities is difficult), sinful habits (such as indulgence in anger, greed, pride, lust, etc) and taste for enjoying in the material world.

Nisthita Bhakti: (Third Stage)

Most of the unwanted things (anarthas) are destroyed. The person at this stage, would be able to continue devotional activities properly and in a steadier state. Though lust, greed, anger, illusion, hatred are slightly present (very slightly), they are “not” present as obstacles for the person. They don’t disturb him anymore.

Ruci: (Fourth Stage)

The person will have taste for bhakti. As a sexually inclined person has strong attraction for sex, as drunkard has strong attraction for drinking, this person will have stronger attraction for bhakti and its practices. His taste or attraction for bhakti is greater than attraction to anything else.

Asakti: (Fifth Stage)

The person has a very strong attachment for Krsna. At this stage, he mind is purified almost completely, in such a way that the glimpse of Lord would occur at times.

Bhava: (Sixth Stage)

The person’s material desires are completely destroyed at this stage. He would realize bliss of love of Godhead. The bliss of love of Godhead is millions and millions of times greater than the bliss one could possibly get in the material world such as svarga loka or brahma loka. Then, what to speak of ordinary enjoyment in this earthly planet. At this stage, he would get personal association of the Lord sometimes. He could feel, touch, smell the Lord. He would identify himself with his spiritual body at this point and so he wouldn’t care for his material body as it’s irrelevant anymore.

Prema: (Seventh Stage)

This is the full love of Godhead. The bliss he would realize is very concentrated and ultimate and is millions and millions of times more than the bliss he got at the previous stage. At this stage, he becomes the associate of the Lord.

If you look at the above stages, only at the stage of bhava, one gets rid of material desires completely. Bhava stage is very very very rare to attain, even among devotees we consider exalted. So, don’t expect yourself to be freed from material desires.

The purpose of statements discouraging material enjoyment in Bhakti Yoga books is to encourage a person toward higher stages of bhakti.

Most of us would be in the stage of Anisthita bhakti, struggling to get rid of material desires. (Anisthita bhakti is a continuum, wherein some would be in the beginning of the continuum and some would be at the other end. In face every stage is a continuum) Some devotees are actively aware that they shouldn’t have material desires or have plans to get rid (or at least planning), and some are unable to give up or feel sorry about giving up material desires.

If you have desires in the material world, and if you can’t or don’t want to give up, you can reorient them. For example, if you want to become IAS officer or anything, you can consider how to spiritualize the desire. One way is that once you become IAS officer, you can use your IAS title to preach/promote Krsna Consciousness among budding college students and this is very very helpful in preaching. If you’re an IAS officer and you recommend/promote Bhagavad Gita, ordinary people will take it and in this way you’re helping others spiritually. Thus your aspiration for IAS officer is no more a mere material desire as you’ve spiritualized it. When Arjuna is fighting in the war (war is a material activity), he’s doing spiritual activity. Why? Because it’s the desire of Krsna and because his goal is spiritual, he’s doing spiritual activity. So, you can fix the goal of your current activity a spiritual one (such as, I want to become IAS and will promote Bhagavad Gita and spiritual activities so that Bhagavad Gita and spiritual activities would be respected by ordinary people. Ordinary students would be inspired to read Bhagavad Gita, because an IAS officer is promoting.) So in this way, you can also work hard for IAS since you’re spiritualizing your activity. And through your earnings of an IAS officer, you can help for preaching, or spend money at making your home itself a temple (keep an altar with Krsna and decorate him nicely), etc.

But also do your spiritual sadhana (such as chanting, reading) regularly.

More detailed description of the stages of bhakti are given in Mādhurya Kādambinī