Category:Advising Devotees of God
Theme Analysis
Devotees progress safely when advice is received from the Lord, the spiritual master, the ācāryas, sādhus, and revealed śāstra. Śrīla Prabhupāda shows that such guidance is not merely moral instruction; it is the living current of Kṛṣṇa's mercy, protecting the devotee from distraction, lamentation, material attachment, and forgetfulness of the ultimate goal.
- Guided Devotional Action: Devotees are advised to act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by following the Lord and His previous servants. This protects spiritual life from speculation and keeps one's service connected to the authorized path.
- Following the Ācāryas: The devotee advances by walking in the footsteps of past ācāryas and saintly persons. Their example gives practical certainty, so progress is not spoiled by confusion, lamentation, or independent invention.
- Intelligent Discrimination: Devotees must learn to distinguish different levels of spiritual advancement and act accordingly. Such discrimination is not judgmental pride; it is necessary intelligence for proper association, service, and humility.
- Detachment and Remembrance: Spiritual advice trains the devotee to accept necessities without attachment and to remember Kṛṣṇa at every step. When the mind is disciplined in this way, material circumstances cannot easily disturb devotional progress.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Advising Devotees of God Protects Their Progress in Bhakti.
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
Pages in category "Advising Devotees of God"
The following 16 pages are in this category, out of 16 total.
A
- A devotee may not be expert in materialistic activities. It is therefore advised in the sastra that materialistic activities are not at all suitable for the living entities, especially the devotees
- Arjuna is here (in BG 4.15) advised to act in Krsna consciousness, following in the footsteps of the Lord's previous disciples, such as the sun-god Vivasvan, as mentioned hereinbefore. BG 1972 purports
I
- In this verse Srila Rupa Gosvami advises the devotee to be intelligent enough to distinguish between the kanistha-adhikari, madhyama-adhikari and uttama-adhikari
- It is advised that a devotee follow the past acaryas and saintly persons, because by such following one can achieve the desired results, with no chance of lamenting or being baffled in his progress
T
- The devotee is advised to accept the necessities of life without attachment. He'll take boiled water, but if boiled water is not available, does it mean he will not drink water? If it is not available, he will drink ordinary water
- The significance of this particular verse (SB 4.8.71) is that Dhruva Maharaja acted exactly according to the advice of his spiritual master, the great sage Narada
- The state would get the best advice without expenditure. They were themselves sama-darsi, equal to everyone, both man and animal. They would not advise the king to give protection to man and instruct him to kill the poor animals
- This process of transmigration is very subtle; therefore Srila Rupa Gosvami advises devotees to train their minds in order that they will be unable to remember anything other than Krsna