Question: In BG Karma Yoga chapter Krishna instructs to perform your prescribed duty without any expectations. If this followed and everything including all actions are done to only please God, then is it selfish to ask God for His darshan? Also, what does it mean God communicates through very vivid dreams and life’s experiences? Does that mean you are on the right spiritual path or journey?
Answer by Romapada Swami: In BG 2.47 Krsna mentions that one has the right to perform one’s duty but not entitled to the fruits of one’s action. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur has said, “Don’t try to see God. Act in such a way that God will want to see you.” Srila Prabhupada indicated the same: “Instead of being eager to see the Lord in some bush of Vrndavana while at the same time engaging in sense gratification, if one instead sticks to the principle of following the words of the spiritual master, he will see the Supreme Lord without difficulty.” [Srimad Bhagavatam 4.28.15, purport]. The point is that we have to qualify ourselves through the process of devotional service which begins with hearing and chanting. The process of hearing leads to seeing the Lord. “Somehow or other if someone hears with rapt attention from the right person, at the very beginning one can assuredly see Lord Sri Krsna in person in the pages of Bhägavatam.” [SB 1.3.44 p] To receive the full beneficial effect of sadhana bhakti, there must be a strong and sincere desire to experience one’s relationship with the Lord, which is progressively awakened by the hearing process itself; the degree of purification one experiences from hearing and daily sadhana is certainly a function of one’s ardent and genuine desire to serve the Lord favorably – ie. *desiring HIS pleasure through our activities*, and thereby becoming eligible to enter into our relationship with Him. Attaining favorable service to the Lord starts with how we address ourselves to the hearing process. Great faith is simultaneously required in the hearing process, along with our execution of regular hearing & performance of sadhana. Is it not common experience, confirmed by so many scriptural statements, that mountains of practices alone do not bring direct experience of loving feelings towards Krishna, what to speak of His darshan? Yet implicit faith in the Bhakti process, simple as it may be, brings genuine joy and peacefulness of heart to the purified sadhaka, while he engages himself in various forms of devotional service and sadhana practices – even under less than perfect and ideal circumstances! Descending mercy comes like a downpour into that sadhana which is performed with strong faith in guru and Krishna, and in the process of bhakti itself. A recipient of the Lord’s mercy will experience seeing the Lord by hearing Krishna-katha, as the heart becomes gradually cleansed of all misgivings through the careful cultivation of unalloyed devotional service. All this begins from proper hearing. “One should hear with rapt attention from the real person, and then he can at once realize the presence of Lord Krsna in every page. The secret of knowing Bhägavatam is mentioned here. No one can give rapt attention who is not pure in mind. No one can be pure in mind who is not pure in action. No one can be pure in action who is not pure in eating, sleeping, fearing and mating.” [SB 1.3.44 p] Laukika-sraddha (conventional or worldly faith) places value in dreams and other subjective experiences. Sastriya-sraddha (faith in scripture) places value in verifying Truth in whatever form it may enter one’s life through scripture. Those who have sound, systematic understanding of scripture do not need dreams or miracles, nor do they hanker for such experiences. They are convinced and determined to follow the path of bhakti. See BG 7.3 purport for the following reference:Srila Rupa Gosvami writes in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.101):sruti-smrti-puranadi-pancaratra-vidhim vinaaikantiki harer bhaktirutpatayaiva kalpate“Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upanisads, Puranas and Narada Pancaratra is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.”
Please find below some additional reference verses from SB:SB 3.9.11 and SB 1.2.17
