Without Cares - The Peaceful State of a Pure Devotee
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that living a life without cares can be either a symptom of pure spiritual advancement or a sign of gross material ignorance. While pure devotees live completely free from anxieties because they depend entirely on the Supreme Lord, ordinary materialists live recklessly, without caring for the eternal soul or the stringent laws of nature.
The Peaceful State of a Devotee
A pure devotee has no independent desires separate from the will of the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes that because such a person is unattached to fruitive results and completely pure in consciousness, they live blissfully without material cares and are very dear to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- A devotee who is not dependant on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, is very dear to Me.
- My devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some result, is very dear to Me.
- While in material existence, the devotee lives very peacefully and blissfully, without cares and anxieties, and after quitting this body he goes back home, back to Godhead.
- They simply merge in the transcendental discussions of the pastimes of the Lord. That makes them completely happy, without care for pious or impious activities.
Neglecting the Soul
The modern civilization is overly focused on bodily comforts. Śrīla Prabhupāda strongly criticizes the karmīs who work like beasts of burden day and night, utilizing the resources of nature without caring for the supreme laws or the actual needs of the spiritual soul (ātmā).
- By taking care of the cage of the bird without taking any care of the bird within the cage, certainly the bird will be restless and unhappy and create disturbances.
- Karmis, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gita as mudha, ass, simply unnecessarily working day and night, whole day and night. Without taking care of the atma, without taking care of the religion.
- All of these things are coming from the Supreme Father, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but we are thinking that they are coming from nature, and we are utilizing them without caring whether we pay the bill or not.
- Ignorance is no excuse. Therefore human life is distinct from animal life. If we live in human life without caring for the supreme laws, then we are destined to suffer.
Disregarding Worldly Impediments
When one achieves intense attraction to the Supreme Lord, social conventions and physical dangers lose their significance. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that great saints, devotees, and eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa pass through all worldly impediments without any care for material consequences.
- Brahma said, "They know they are always protected by You, and so they can matter-of-factly pass over the heads of their enemies without any care."
- The husbands began to discuss this amongst themselves: "How wonderful is the attraction for Krsna, that it has made these women leave us without any care!" This is the influence of Krsna.
- Laksmana said, "All of them were very agitated because of their lusty desires, but without caring for them, my husband, in His form as the four-handed Narayana, immediately took me on His chariot, which was drawn by four excellent horses."
- After accepting the feature of avadhuta, a great saintly person without material cares, Lord Rsabhadeva passed through human society like a blind, deaf and dumb man, an idle stone, a ghost or a madman.
The Necessity of Spiritual Care
A conditioned soul cannot safely navigate the ocean of nescience independently. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that just as a child requires the constant care of parents, an aspiring devotee urgently needs the shelter and careful guidance of a bona fide spiritual master to reach perfection.
- Without the attentive service of his parents, a child cannot grow to manhood; similarly, without the care of the spiritual master one cannot rise to the plane of transcendental service.
- Just like children: they want to play without caring for future life. But it is the duty of the guardians to engage them in education so that in future they may be happy.
- The home is considered to be a dark well covered by grass, and if one falls within this well, he simply dies without anyone's caring. One should therefore not be too much attached to family life, for it will spoil one's development of Krsna consciousness.
- This kind of parental love is generated in a devotee out of his conviction, in love, that he himself is superior to Krsna and that without being taken care of by such devotee Krsna could not possibly live.
Conclusion
To achieve true peace, one must learn the art of becoming free from material anxieties. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that living recklessly, without caring for the soul or the laws of God, only leads to deeper entanglement and suffering in the material world. True freedom from care is only realized when a soul completely abandons independent, fruitive endeavors and takes absolute shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. By living according to authorized spiritual instructions, a sincere devotee remains unaffected by the miseries of the material world and blissfuly resides in a state of unalloyed loving service, completely without cares.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Without Cares. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.