Healing requires not just the expelling of germs, but primarily
the boosting of immunity.
When germs infect us and we start feeling sick, we take
treatment for driving out the germs. However, healing requires not just the
driving out of germs but also the boosting of the body’s immunity; otherwise,
the germs will infect us again, often sooner rather than later.
The same principle applies to our spiritual healing too.
Gita wisdom explains that we are presently spiritually sick, being infected by
the germs of self-centered desires. These germs misdirect our natural quest for
happiness from the spiritual level – where we can delight in loving and serving
Krishna – to the material level, where we seek pleasure in possessing and
controlling temporary worldly things.
When these attachments start impelling us to sinful actions
with their many complications, we become concerned and strive to free ourselves
from them. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (07.28) indicates that, to be
situated in determined devotional service – our spiritually healthy state – we
need to be free from sin.
While various yogas can act as antibiotics against worldly
desires, bhakti-yoga alone acts as both an antibiotic and an immunity booster.
It activates our heart’s natural longing to love Krishna and provides us
multifarious practical ways for expressing and strengthening our budding
attraction to him. As our heart and life becomes filled with Krishna, the germs
of self-centered desires are automatically driven out. Thus, bhakti-yoga acts
as an antibiotic.
More importantly, as our attraction to Krishna increases,
loving and serving him becomes increasingly fulfilling. When our need for
happiness is thus spiritually fulfilled, we no longer feel the need for
spiritually-injurious worldly indulgences – thus, bhakti’s spiritual taste
boosts our immunity against germs.
Given this paramount potency of bhakti, the Gita (18.66)concludes by urging us to surrender single-mindedly to Krishna, even if we may
not yet free from sin.
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