Identifying Pure & Surrendered devotees in Real life! Tips!
(NOTE: In addition to reading this post, you should also read THIS SIMILAR post with still more details from the scriptures:)
WHO IS A PURE DEVOTEE?
From the first link given above, we are aware that a Pure devotee is expected to have the following qualities:
A pure devotee is:
merciful
not defiant
truthful
equal to everyone
faultless
magnanimous
clean
aware that everything belongs to Krishna
a performer of welfare work for everyone
peaceful
surrendered to Krishna
desireless
indifferent to material acquisitions
fixed in Krishna consciousness
completely in control of bad qualities
moderate in eating
not obsessed with material things
respectful
without false prestige
grave
compassionate
a friend to all
poetic
expert
silent (speaks only about spiritual topics)
(EXPLANATION TO THE QUALITIES OF A PURE DEVOTEE OF KRISHNA! READ HERE!)
However, if a person IS TRYING HIS BEST TO ACQUIRE MOST OF THESE QUALITIES, we can consider him as a good devotee. In addition to that, a devotee should definitely follow the DISCIPLINE through four regulative principles – No meat, No gambling, No intoxication and No illicit sex.
A devotee should show anger only in the case of matters happening against Krishna. For example, if a Krishna temple is demolished by anti social elements, or, if Bhagavad Gita is insulted, he becomes angry.
Though he gets angry, he does not deliver abusive words and remain matured, but enter into action to correct the situation. He tries to find the solution through legal forums as per law of land.
ATTITUDE OF A GOOD DEVOTEE
Next, about attitude.
I do not like to go to a professional discussion about attitude because there are so many definitions by writers. However, simply speaking, Attitude is almost similar to character. Or, our activities based on our character is known as attitude.
If a person is a thief, his attitude will be seeking the opportunity to steal. So, he has an unreliable attitude.
If a person is god fearing or loving god, and likes to lead an ethical life, his attitude will be straightforward and his activities will look reliable.
If a person likes to be a successful marketer, his attitudes will always be like assessing the customer whether he will purchase or not.
(Since this world is under Maya, how can we fully surrender to Krishna? READ HERE!)
The attitude of a devotee will always be in such a way how to make others a devotee by speaking about God.
So, the approach of a person to fulfill a task can be understood as attitude.
When a person is proud about his attitudes, he becomes egoistic. That is why, the scriptures say that we should not feel proud to be straightforward. That is why the scriptures further say that we should be careful even in satva guna state because even a person behaving with satva guna feels proud being a satva guna person. This pride remains as a contamination.
So, having good attitudes means trying to be in satva guna. If we feel pride for that, it becomes ego. So, good attitude itself is not ego. It may lead to ego. That’s all.
Identifying Pure & Surrendered devotees in Real life!
SYMPTOMS OF SURRENDERED DEVOTEES ARE:
A devotee should be like a child. A child has no doubts about his parents and has blind trust on them. In fact, a child CAN NOT THINK anything against his parents. This innocence is the reason why all the people like to be with children.
A devotee too blindly trusts Krishna and he is depending only Krishna for all his needs. In fact, he does not have any other needs except the opportunity to serve Lord.
Krishna too likes such innocent devotees who are depending on Him in a surrendered state of mind.
(How can we surrender to Lord? THIS POST will help you to know that.)
It needs total change in our consciousness – from material consciousness to Krishna Consciousness.
How can we come to total surrender state?
(1) We should accept and deal only with those things & persons that can help us grow in Krishna Consciousness and avoid (or atleaast reduce) things and persons unfavourable to Krishna Consciousness. For example, we should avoid foods that increase tamo and rajo gunas and take us away from Krishna. We should have less and “only on need” interaction with the people who are highly materialistic to avoid getting dragged into materialistic life again.
(2) We should have firm belief that Krishna will protect us and save us from the painful material lives. We can not grow even a bit in surrendering process if we do not have this faith.
(Is Surrender to Krishna possible when we perform duties as said by Krishna? READ HERE!)
(3) We should be fully dependent on the Lord for all the needs of our life as said above. We should act just as an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
(4) When we start to grow in the service of Krishna, we should start to gradually lose interest in materialistic life style. This will naturally happen. Unless we start to lose interest in materialistic way of life, that means, we have not sufficiently grown in surrender. So, total desertion of materialistic life leads to total surrender.
(5) More humbleness – More surrender. So, a totally surrendered devotee is humble to everyone and everywhere. No one can accuse such a humble devotee for any reason. He sees Krishna in everyone and everywhere.
(6) He honours all the vaishnavas and those who help him in devotion.
(7) He is always trying his best to please Krishna with his service.
(8) Like Gopis, we too will always be in the thoughts of Krishna. Gopis had surrendered to Krishna, but, they were performing all their family duties always thinking of Krishna.
Now, we have to evaluate whether we have grown in surrender process. Unless we evaluate this periodically, we can not attain that total surrendered state earlier.
These are some important tips for Identifying Pure & Surrendered devotees!
(Surrender to Krishna and Surrender to Guru – which is important? A detailed analysis! READ HERE!)