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One who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says, "O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me"

Expressions researched:
"one who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says" |"O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

One who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says, "O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me. I would have been put into more and more, thousand times in distress, but You are giving me little. That's all. That is Your great mercy." That is his vision.


Viśiṣyate means he's specially qualified. He's specially qualified. Priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham ahaṁ sa ca mama priyaḥ (BG 7.17).

The . . . "For a person who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, at the same time philosophically trying to understand what is the nature of God, so he is very dear to Me," Kṛṣṇa says. "He is very dear to Me because he has no other business than to understand what is God." Others, just like a distressed man, he is in distress, but because he's pious, therefore he believes in God, he goes to the churches or to the temple or to the mosque and prays, "My dear Lord, I am very much distressed. Kindly help me."

But the difficulty of this person is that God does not require to be prayed for, asking anything. He is . . . he is pious, he is distressed, but at the same time, he is foolish. Why he is foolish? Because he does not know that "God is with me, within my heart. He's sitting along with me. The soul and the Supersoul, both of them are sitting together. And God knows everything about me. So I did not require to pray from God to get me out of this distress. He knows everything. Why shall I pray?" He leaves everything to God. He does not pray. He prays . . . he prays to glorify the God, "How great You are," not for his personal interest, "O God, give me my bread. Give me my dress. Give me my shelter."

That is also good. He is better than the person, that mūḍha, the foolish, the atheist and the lowest of the mankind. He's far better. Even he is going and asking in the church, "O God, give me my daily bread," but at the same time, he is less intelligent because he does not know that "God is with me, and He knows everything about me."

Therefore one who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says: "O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me. I would have been put into more and more, thousand times in distress, but You are giving me little. That's all. That is Your great mercy." That is his vision. He does not . . . he's not disturbed. Tulyārthāpamānayoḥ. A person who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he doesn't care for all this material distress or insult or honor, because he is aloof from this. He doesn't . . . he knows very well that "This designation, this honor or this insult, they are pertaining to my body, but I am not this body."

Just like Socrates. Socrates was condemned to death because he believed in the . . . an immortality of the soul. So he was condemned to death, and he was asked to take hemlock or something like that, poison. And the judge wanted, "Well, Socrates, how do you want to be put into the grave?" He replied: "First of all, you catch me. Then you put me into the grave.You are dealing with my body, nonsense. I am out of this. So you kill me or you put me into the grave or whatever you like, I don't mind. First of all, you catch me. Then you put me into the grave."

So this is . . . one who is completely conversant with Kṛṣṇa science, he knows very well, "I am not this body. I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. My eternal relation is with Kṛṣṇa. But some way or other, I have been put into this entanglement of this material body. All right. Now I am in sense. I get aloof from you. I am not going to be associated with the three qualities of this material nature," as we are discussing this morning. "I am not concerned with the modes of goodness or modes of passion or modes of ignorance. I am concerned with Kṛṣṇa."

Therefore such a learned, and who has understood his real position and his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, he is jñānī. He knows. Therefore he is very much dear to Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa always guides him. This man, who is in distress, goes and prays to God. That praying of God is an asset to him, but it may be, when he is put into opulence, he forgets God. There is defect in that. But a jñānī, one who knows, he'll never forget God. His business will go on, continue.

Page Title:One who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says, "O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me"
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:2015-11-13, 15:56:51
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1