When Nivrutti is said to be capable of giving the highest fruit, what is the need for Pravrutti?

[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Sāṣṭāṅga namaskāraṃ Swami.  When Nivṛtti (spiritual life) is said to be capable of giving the highest fruit (Nivṛttistu mahāphalā), what is the need for Pravṛtti (worldly life)?]

Swami replied:- Pravṛtti is a part of the path to Nivṛtti and therefore, while explaining the path to Nivṛtti, Pravṛtti has to be explained. Like this, Pravṛtti is not the main topic, but it is a sub-topic of the path that leads to Nivṛtti. Nivṛtti gives the grace and closeness of God and this divine fruit is the highest. There is no doubt in this concept. But, Pravṛtti helps the attainment of Nivṛtti. Pravṛtti is concerned with justified qualities like truth, sincerity etc., and is completely against the spoiled Pravṛtti (called as Duṣpravṛtti), which is telling lies, cheating etc. Duṣpravṛtti belongs to injustice and is against Pravṛtti since it supports the unjust qualities. You need not think that qualities have no importance in the context of extreme devotion to God (Parābhakti). This is a wrong idea. The bad qualities make the devotion impure and the good qualities make the devotion pure. If the soul is in Pravṛtti, it always follows truthfulness and sincerity and the soul is always against lies and cheating. Such a Pravṛtti-soul is always truthful and most sincere at least in the matters related to God. In this way, Pravṛtti is helping the soul to reach Nivṛtti and also succeed in Nivṛtti.

In this way, Pravṛtti is given significance by God so that the justified good qualities of Pravṛtti will be very much helpful in the context of God. If a soul is inclined towards illegal sexual affairs, such a soul will try to seek the same pleasure from God. A soul in Duṣpravṛtti, characterised by lying and cheating others for selfish benefits, cannot succeed in Nivṛtti because such a soul will tell lies even to God and tries to cheat even God. The omniscient God knows all this unjust behaviour and hence, throws away the devotee from His sight, causing him/her to fall from God's grace. In this way only, Pravṛtti is given a lot of importance as a path to Nivṛtti. Otherwise, the highest fruit of Pravṛtti is only the temporary heaven, whereas the permanent fruit of Nivṛtti is the permanent abode of God. Hence, God always stresses Pravṛtti by saying that He is incarnating to support justice of Pravṛtti and to destroy the injustice of Duṣpravṛtti (Paritrāṇāya…– Gita). The secondary benefits also exist for Pravṛtti like the peace of society so that the administration of God becomes very simple and easy. Ignorant people alone see Pravṛtti and Nivṛtti separately. God says that both Pravṛtti and Nivṛtti must be thoroughly understood and ignorant people neither know Pravṛtti nor Nivṛtti since the link between them is lost in their brains (Pravṛttim ca Nivṛttim ca janā na vidurāsurāḥ- Gita).

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