The Vaiṣṇava Wants to Remain an Ever-Existing Servant of the Lord
This article explores the profound consequences of our deepest desires, as explained in the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda. The material world is a place where conditioned souls desperately try to maintain their illusion of lordship, whereas the spiritual world is the realm of eternal service. By analyzing the tragic trajectory of those who want to remain in material entanglement, we can better appreciate the perfect, liberating desire of the pure Vaiṣṇava to eternally serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Devotee's Eternal Position
The ultimate perfection of spiritual life is to recognize one's constitutional identity. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that a true Vaiṣṇava, having complete knowledge, never aspires for impersonal liberation or false lordship. Instead, he simply wants to remain the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. Great authorities like Lord Brahmā demonstrated this by remaining a humble instrument of the Lord rather than becoming puffed up with the false prestige of creation. Because the devotee only wants to serve, Kṛṣṇa mercifully provides all necessary protection on the spiritual path.
- Self-interested persons, by demoniac austerity, want to kill even their benedictors, whereas the Vaisnava wants to remain an ever-existing servant of the Lord and never to occupy the post of the Lord.
- Those who have complete knowledge never think that in the future they will become one with the Supreme. They simply want to remain in their constitutional position as part and parcel of Krsna.
- A devotee wants to remain always in the Lord’s service. In this way, Krsna is merciful to His devotee and gives him all protection from the dangers found on the path of devotional service.
- Brahma wanted to remain in his actual position as an instrument of the Lord instead of becoming puffed up by the false prestige of thinking himself the creator. That is the way of becoming dear to the Supreme Lord and receiving His benediction.
The Freedom to Choose
Kṛṣṇa is supremely kind and never interferes with the minute independence of the living entity. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa reciprocates exactly according to the degree of our surrender. If a living entity insists on remaining in the material world to perform hard labor for the sake of temporary sense gratification, Kṛṣṇa will perfectly arrange the ingredients for them to do so—even if they want to flourish as a demon. However, if one uses their free will to choose Kṛṣṇa, the path back home, back to Godhead, is immediately opened.
- First of all we must decide what we want. Whatever you want, you will have. Krsna is very kind. If you want to remain bound up by the laws of material nature within this material world... Karanam guna-sango 'sya.
- If you want, you can go to back to home, back to Godhead, or if you want to remain in this material world and go under the rules and regulation of birth and death, then make your choice.
- If you want to remain in this material world and do hard work for sense gratification, that chance will be given to you. But if you want to go back to home, back to Godhead, that chance also will be given to you.
- Ye yatha mam prapadyante. That freedom is there. If you want to remain as a demon, then Krsna will supply you all the ingredients, how you can flourish as a demon.
The Entanglement of Family and Senses
The greatest anchor keeping the soul bound to the material world is the attachment to family and society. Śrīla Prabhupāda defines a gṛhamedhī as someone whose center of existence is the bodily concept of life. Captivated by false prestige, romantic love, and the endless pursuit of sense gratification, these householders want to remain in their specific material situations until the moment of death. Because there is no cessation to the demands of the modes of passion and ignorance, their spiritual progress is entirely halted.
- A grhamedhi is one who wants to remain within this material existence. This means that he wants to remain within this body or society and enjoy friendship, love and community.
- Here (in SB 3.32.1) the Lord is speaking about the grhamedhi, or the person who wants to remain in this material world.
- Because modern civilization is misled, householders want to remain in family life until death, and they are suffering.
- There is no end to sense gratification. He (one who is in the mode of passion) always wants to remain with his family and in his house and to continue the process of sense gratification. There is no cessation of this.
The Tragic Path of Degradation
When individuals stubbornly refuse to accept Vedic knowledge, the laws of material nature force them into lower forms of life. Śrīla Prabhupāda graphically explains that those who are enamored by the nudist culture and want to remain naked will, according to the strict laws of karma, be given the body of a tree to stand naked for thousands of years. Similarly, those who refuse to purify their demonic tendencies or who want to live like pigs will eventually be awarded exactly those bodies, completely stripped of their human intelligence.
- Because of their (those who want to remain in this world) attachment to material activity, they cannot attain liberation, either by the instructions of superior persons or by their own endeavor or by passing resolutions in big conferences.
- The asuras, they do not want to be purified. They want to remain in the degraded stage of life. That is the difficulty. Otherwise it doesn't matter what he is, which family he's born. It doesn't matter.
- If one wants to be elevated to the higher planetary systems, the heavenly planets, he can be promoted to the place he desires, and if one wants to remain a hog or a pig on earth, the Lord fulfills that desire also.
- In the sastra it is stated that those who want to remain naked, they are punished in the next life to become tree, that - You wanted to be naked. Now you stand naked.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Śrīla Prabhupāda establishes that our future destination is shaped by our present desires. We can either choose the degraded path of the gṛhamedhī—who wants to remain in illusion and inevitably descends into the lower species—or we can adopt the exalted path of the Vaiṣṇava. By consciously choosing to reject the temporary allurements of māyā and actively dedicating our lives to the constant chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, we prove our sincere desire to remain forever in the blissful service of the Supreme Lord.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Wanting to Remain. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.