Category:Willfully
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda draws a strict distinction between accidental mistakes and willful disobedience in spiritual life. While Kṛṣṇa is endlessly merciful and excuses the unconscious or accidental falldowns of a sincere devotee, willfully committing sins or neglecting prescribed duties is highly dangerous. He highlights that willfully sinning on the strength of chanting the holy name (nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ) is the greatest offense. Whether it is willfully neglecting the advice of great souls, imitating ecstatic symptoms, or deliberately breaking regulative principles, such intentional acts bring severe spiritual consequences.
- Accidental Versus Willful Mistakes: An accidental falldown or an unconscious mistake made by a sincere devotee is easily excused by the Lord, but deliberately committing sinful acts is highly dangerous and punishable.
- The Greatest Offense: Committing sins willfully on the strength of chanting the holy name, expecting the chanting to neutralize the reactions, is considered the greatest offense in devotional service.
- Neglect of Spiritual Duties: Willfully neglecting one's prescribed spiritual duties or the instructions of great souls leads to severe consequences and falldown, as seen in historical examples like Mahārāja Bharata and King Vena.
- Avoiding Willful Misdeeds: A practitioner must be extremely careful not to willfully act against the principles of bhakti-yoga, whether by imitating spiritual ecstasy or engaging in intentional sense gratification.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: The Danger of Willfully Committing Sins.
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
Pages in category "Willfully"
The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total.
A
- A devotee is never vanquished. Due to his willful neglect of devotional service, a devotee may be punished for a short time, but he again revives his devotional service and returns home back to Godhead
- A pretentious religious system manufactured by one who willfully neglects the prescribed duties of his order of life is called abhasa (a dim reflection or false similarity)
- Accidental mistake is not dangerous. Willful mistake is dangerous. That we should be careful. We should be very careful always so that accidental mistakes also may not take place. But if it takes place, it is excused
- Although you are eating green grass every day, you are not filling your milk bag so we can utilize your milk. Since you are willfully committing offenses, it cannot be said that you are not punishable due to your assuming the form of a cow
I
- If he (a person) performs sinful activities (not willfully but by chance), Krsna gives him all protection. It is not necessary for him to purify himself by any other method
- If one unconsciously, without any knowledge, does something wrong, that is excused. But they do willfully. They know it is wrong, still they do it
- If you keep yourself on the platform of chanting Hare Krsna mantra and do not commit willfully again sinful life, then you are liberated
- It is seen that sometimes these (ecstatic symptoms) symptoms are willfully imitated, and for this reason Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti accuses the imitators of being stonehearted men
O
- On account of strong habit, if he fails sometime, that is excused, forgiveness, not that willful committing sin and ask for forgiveness. That is not allowed. In common affairs we do not see
- One should strictly try to follow in the footsteps of great souls. Vena became a king, undoubtedly due to his past deeds of righteousness, but because he willfully neglected great souls, he was punished by the loss of all the above-mentioned acquisitions
T
- The conditioned soul, due to madness only, engages his full energy and intelligence in sense gratification, and to achieve this end of life he willfully commits all sorts of misdeeds
- This mentality of committing sins willfully on the strength of devotional service is called namno balad yasya hi papa-buddhih, and it is the greatest offense in the discharge of devotional service
- Those who are advanced in yoga practice can willfully transfer the soul to whatever planet they like by the yoga process, and others take the opportunity in various ways. BG 1972 purports