In a previous article, I listed the five effects of aparādha. Here I examine the third in the list: bhagavan-niṣṭhā-cyāvaka-vastv-antarābhiniveśa: absorption in objects unrelated to devotion that erode one’s fixity in Bhagavān. Śrī Jīva Goswami discusses this effect in Bhakti Sandarbha Anuccheda 157.
This effect specifically involves a falling away from one’s fixity (niṣṭhā) in Bhagavān, and therefore presupposes that such fixity was already present. As such, the examples Śrī Jīva Goswami proffers to help us understand this effect are of those who were already fixed in Bhagavān. The first example is of Śrī Bharata —
evam aghaṭamāna-manorathākula-hṛdayo mṛga-dārakābhāsena svārabdha-karmaṇā yogārambhaṇato vibhraṁśitaḥ sa yoga-tāpaso bhagavad-ārādhana-lakṣaṇāc ca
His heart being thus agitated with impossible fantasies [about the deer], this ascetic yogī [Bharata] fell down from his practice of yoga and also from the worship of Bhagavān because of his prārabdha-karma, which appeared to him in the form of a fawn. (sb 5.8.26)
Śrī Jīva Goswami first notes that prārabdha karma cannot, by itself, cause a fall from bhakti, since karma is insignificant in power when compared to bhakti. He therefore explains that the reference to prārabdha karma here must indicate the effect of a prior offense. However, even this explanation is ultimately unsatisfactory for him. At the stage of bhāva, committing an offense is practically impossible. Therefore, Śrī Jīva Goswami does not accept the idea that Bharata’s distraction arose from offense-generated karma acting independently.
Consequently, in Anuccheda 158, Śrī Jīva Goswami concludes that the prārabdha karma in this case was intensified by Bhagavān Himself, as a deliberate intervention meant to intensify Bharata’s love for Him. Bhagavān Himself appeared before Bharata in the form of the deer. Given that Bharata had already attained bhāva, the sādhya of bhakti, nothing else could have attracted his mind.
Śrī Jīva Goswami then provides another example of this category of effect: Gajendra. Babaji writes in his commentary:
“Another example of such an offense is found in the history of King Indradyumna. King Indradyumna offended the sage Agastya, and as a result he was born as an elephant. Becoming identified with the elephant body, he forgot about bhakti and became absorbed in material pleasures. The implied message is that if a devotee is losing interest in bhakti and becoming attracted to material objects, relations, power, or position, then it is to be known for sure that this is an outcome of some past or present offense, or both.”
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