So you have to uncover. You have to discover. That discovering process is devotional service. The more you are engaged in devotional service, the more your senses become pure, or uncovered. And when it is completely uncovered, without any designation, then you are capable to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is apprenticeship. Vaidhī-bhakti, that is apprenticeship. Real bhakti, parā-bhakti, that is rāgānugā-bhakti. This rāgānugā-bhakti, we have to come after surpassing the vaidhī-bhakti.
In the material world, if we do not try to make further and further progress in devotional service, if we are simply sticking to the śāstric regulation process and do not try to go beyond that . . . śāstric process is also regulation, that is required. Without śāstric process you cannot go to that platform. But if we stick to the śāstric process only and do not try to improve ourself . . . the śāstric process is kaniṣṭha-adhikāra, lowest stage of devotional service.
- arcāyām eva haraye
- yaḥ pūjāṁ śraddhayehate
- na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu
- sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ
- (SB 11.2.47)
Generally, people come to this temple, they are very devoted to the Deity. They offer their respects, flowers and other things, make the regulative process, circumambulate. This is nice beginning. But one has to go above this. One has to know who is actually bhakta, who is ac . . . na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu. One has to do good for others. That is madhyama-adhikārī.
If I become satisfied only with these regulative principle for worshiping the Deity in the temple and following the regulative principle daily, but if I have no other idea, then sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ. Prākṛta means on the material platform. Such devotee can fall down at any moment, because he's on the prākṛta stage. And prākṛta means this guṇamayī, prakṛti. It is very strong. So any devotee can fall down if he remains prākṛta-bhakta. So he has to raise himself above this in the madhyama-adhikāra.
So here it is said that sva-nirmiteṣu nirviṣṭo bhuṅkte bhūteṣu tad-guṇān. So we are not enjoying actually. We are enjoying the interaction of the three modes of material nature. And we are thinking . . . the same thing, as my Guru Mahārāja used to say, that licking up the bottle of honey. That is not real honey. You have to open the bottle of the honey and lick up the real honey, then you'll get taste. That is advancement of spiritual knowledge.
- satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido
- bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ
- (SB 3.25.25)
Therefore, if we do not associate with the advanced devotees, uttama-adhikārī, if we simply want to remain in the lowest stage of devotional service, then we are not making progress. Then we shall simply enjoy the material field, without entering into the spiritual platform.
Bhuṅkte, bhuṅkte bhūteṣu tad-guṇān. You have to rise above the modes of material nature. Nirguṇa. Traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna. That is the statement of Bhagavad-gītā. In the Vedic instruction, traiguṇya, Vedic instruction is dealing with the three guṇas, the three material modes of nature.
Nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna (BG 2.45). Nistraiguṇya. What is that? Because when Kṛṣṇa was asking Arjuna to fight, he was in the traiguṇya platform, in the material platform. He was thinking, "How shall I kill my grandfather? How shall I kill my teacher? How shall I kill my brother? How can I kill nephews?" This is traiguṇya-vicāra, consideration on the material platform.
Then Kṛṣṇa said, nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna: "Just become transcendental to the material modes of nature." What is that transcendental material nature? "I am asking you to fight. You do it." That is nistraiguṇya. Kṛṣṇa is asking him. That is nistraiguṇya. Traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna.
The guṇa or nirguṇa, these two words are there in the Vedic literature. When we speak of guṇa, that is . . . means these three guṇas, three material modes of nature. And nirguṇa means above these three material modes of nature. So actually devotional service is above the three modes of material nature. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26).