A Devotee is Desireless (Sajjana-Akāma)

When the jīva is unable to understand his own true nature, then, being overpowered by a sense of deficiency, he develops various kinds of desires. When desire is devoid of both dharma and adharma, it is called yathecchāra (whimsical desire). Desire directed toward piety is called sat-karma (virtuous action), and the renunciation of desire is called mokṣa–kāma (the desire for liberation). A jīva possessing desire seeks tri-varga (the threefold aims of life – dharma, artha and kāma), whereas a jīva who is free from desire strives for his own apa-varga (liberation, or mokṣa). Both the seeker of tri-varga and the pursuer of the fourth goal, mokṣa, are servants of the cravings to fulfil their own desires. Since desire is present in both these categories, they cannot be truly sajjana (noble) nor akāma (free from desire). Only a devotee is truly akāma.

A devotee desires nothing of this world. He abandons all varṇas and āśramas and surrenders exclusively to Kṛṣṇa. In the fourteen worlds, there is no object that is so alluring that a devotee will become enchanted by external greatness or tempted by greed. Śrī Kṛṣṇa alone is the only desirable object for a devotee, and in the desire for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, all his hankerings are fulfilled. A devotee can have no desire for the pleasures of the senses. All the senses of a devotee are constantly engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa; therefore, there is no scope for desiring any object other than Kṛṣṇa.

kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma ataeva śānta
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta

A devotee of Kṛṣṇa has no desires, thus he is tranquil. Those that desire sense-enjoyment, liberation and mystical powers are always agitated. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.149)

Even if one desires to be externally identified as a Vaiṣṇava, if it is false, he is still a kāma-dāsa (a servant of desire). A mixed devotee, being covered by karma or jñāna, cannot be free from the desire to indulge in whimsical cravings. Hired devotees, mendicants who are vāntāśīs (‘vomit-eaters,’ or those renunciates who have returned to married life), and false devotees who are not actually Vaiṣṇavas are all full of material desires. A mixed devotee believes that even a devotee has desires, but a mixed devotee and a true Vaiṣṇava are not in the same category. A mixed devotee is never akāma – he desires to worship the Devas and the Pitṛs (forefathers), he is committed to serving matter with a miserly heart, he is envious of the Vaiṣṇavas, he is desirous of accumulating piety, and is proud of his seminal birth. One who attempts to equate a devotee with a non-devotee cannot understand the nature of a niṣkāma-bhakta (desireless devotee) whose desires are transcendental.

(Translated by Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri)

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