Be present in the present to receive Krishna’s present of purity

Purity is a cherished aspiration of serious spiritualists. When we become pure, we can relish Krishna’s beauty, please him with our service and enter his world of love.

While there are various processes for purification, the most easy and efficacious is bhakti-yoga. Why? Because in bhakti, purity is not an achievement but an endowment. Let’s see how.

Bhakti brings us in contact with the all-pure Absolute Truth, Krishna. Being supremely merciful, Krishna makes himself accessible through his manifestations such as his holy names, Deities and scriptures. By sincerely and seriously fixing our consciousness on such manifestations, we can express our desire for purity. Reciprocating with our desire, Krishna uses his omnipotence to cleanse us, thereby granting us the gift of purity.

To receive this present, we need to be present in the present when we practice bhakti-yoga by, say, chanting his holy names, beholding his Deity or studying his message. If we are absent-minded, then we don’t connect with Krishna and so don’t become purified.

Someone may doubt, “Don’t advanced devotees become absent-minded, lost in a trance of devotion?”

Yes, but even when they are absent-minded, they are Krishna-minded, that is, their mind is filled with thoughts of Krishna due to their spontaneous devotion. And that spontaneous devotion is the mature fruit of their diligent practice of conscientious devotion, wherein they lived in the present and purified themselves by contacting Krishna.

When we become absent-minded, we are rarely Krishna conscious; we are mostly conscious of our attachments or aversions. That’s why to be Krishna conscious, we need to live in the present and practice bhakti-yoga conscientiously. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (02.64) urges us to break free from attachments and aversions, and mold our life according to scripture, thereby attaining mercy in the form of purity.

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