Posted on: 22 May 2021
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on May 16, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Devotees’ questions answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Karthik asked: Previously, You have said that pravṛtti (the life of worldly justice) is the foundation upon which nivṛtti (spiritual life) is built. But in practical experience, it can be seen that worldly life progresses smoothly only when it is built upon a strong foundation of true spiritual knowledge. So, in this sense, spiritual life or nivṛtti effectively becomes the foundation for pravṛtti. Am I correct in my understanding, Swāmi? Please advise us in what context pravṛtti is the foundation of nivṛtti and in what context the reverse is true. At Your Divine feet, Karthik.]
Swāmi replied: This is a good question.
1) Nivṛtti as basis of Pravṛtti:- Unless the establishment of the existence of the unimaginable God through perceived miracles is done to develop devotion or at least fear to soul, Pravṛtti will collapse. The main activity of an atheist is always to deny God and remove this foundation so that he can do any type of sin in the worldly life without fear of punishment. Even if devotion to God is not there, at least fear about God must be there to have a well-built Pravṛtti. Modern philosophers always attack on the concept of fear to attain the real freedom and go to the extreme end to say that God does not exist. These mad people do not know what they are doing since they are damaging the discipline and finally the peace of the world. They do not understand the positive side of the fear-coin. Without positive side no quality is created by God. The human being turns the coin and sees the other negative side. Every quality good or bad has both positive and negative sides. In the name of freedom, these philosophers are attracting people and finally make them to get ruined. They think that they are very clever in attacking the whole ancient tradition, but, they don’t know that they are burning their own house to remove a few rats that entered the house!
2) Pravṛtti as basis of Nivṛtti:- In Nivrutti (spiritual life), the most important aspect is not to aspire any fruit from God. Hence, every soul must be like an atheist in not aspiring any fruit from God except doing His service. For this purpose, the devotee must have well established worldly support either by having good ancestral property or by having a good job and after this only, the devotee must enter the spiritual life. If this is not done, the devotee will be forced to ask God to give support in the worldly life. Such devotion becomes business devotion. Here, Pravṛtti stands as the foundation for Nivṛtti.