" What is the use of wasting so much time after God, just do good to people, perform pious acts and you do not need God "
The above phrase depicts the mentality of general populace, this is what many devotees have to hear from the general people when they see devotees practicing devotional service , by chanting , dancing , and giving their lives for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna . People in general thing of religiosity as an act of piety by which one may go to heaven and enjoy .However the Ancient scriptures from India like the Srimad Bhagavatam define this kind of religion to the cheating religion , kaitava dharma. Since as per the Vedas real religion means to surrender to GOD in devotion , in other words render loving devotional service to GOD fro HIS Pleasure , in turn the individual living entities who are parts and parcels of that Supreme Being become blissful automatically , just like watering the root of the tree provides nourishment to individual leaves and branches of the tree. However in todays day and age it has become difficult to understand or even know this essence of religion, because almost all the religions of the world today have deviated from this principle and now the common man thinks of religion to be only a means of earning piety and achieving more better material comforts in heaven . Religion is not a kind of faith as mentioned in dictionaries today , faith can be changed , Religion or Dharma as translated in Sanskrit means occupation, like the dharma or occupation of sugar is to be sweet, similarly Dharma or Religion or occupation of a living entity is to be eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. Vedas describe the Supreme Being to be Sat- Cit- Ananda, which means, eternal, full of knowledge and blissful , being his fragmental parts and parcels, us the living entities are also Sat- cit- ananda . So the questions is then why dont we feel so? The reason being because of our material desires to lord it over the material nature and become controllers, we are trapped in the material energy of the lord which is exactly opposite in nature to that of the spiritual nature , which means it is asat, temporary , acit, full of ignorance and nirananda, full of misery . We have been trapped in this material energy for many many lifetimes hence we are not able to perceive our real identity as spiritual spark .
Having said this, the notion that we may only act piously only and need not bother about religion is just another way of getting bound up in this material energy , only with a goldern chain . As explained above, we are eternal spiritual sparks, who are above the duality of pain and pleasure, pious or impious acts, since we are in this material world and have this material body we are subject to these dualities, and we perceive everything as right or wrong. It is certainly good to act piously however there is a higher principle that human life is meant for and that is devotional service or Bhakti. Pious acts will direct you to our ultimate goal , they are not the end in themselves. If we simply act piously then we will have to come back to this material world to reap the benefits of those activities hence only by acting piously we are just binding ourselves with a golden chain instead of an iron chain . The problem is not of the chain , the problem is that we are bound , hence either we are bound by a golden chain or iron chain, we are still bound . As in this human form of life we need to inquire on the higher principle on how to get released from this bondage. How do I get beyond this dualities of piety and impiety? How to become reinstated in our original spiritual identity and act according to that ? How to free myself from the repitition of birth and death ? These are the questions that need to be answered.
Fortunately in this age of Kali , the solution is simple as compared to other ages, Simply by Chanting the holy names of the Lord Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, we can understand all these questions and free ourselves from the bondage of either Golden or Iron chain , which means we can transcend both pious and impious activities and become blissful in this life and Go back home Back to Godhead in the next life.
Having said this, the notion that we may only act piously only and need not bother about religion is just another way of getting bound up in this material energy , only with a goldern chain . As explained above, we are eternal spiritual sparks, who are above the duality of pain and pleasure, pious or impious acts, since we are in this material world and have this material body we are subject to these dualities, and we perceive everything as right or wrong. It is certainly good to act piously however there is a higher principle that human life is meant for and that is devotional service or Bhakti. Pious acts will direct you to our ultimate goal , they are not the end in themselves. If we simply act piously then we will have to come back to this material world to reap the benefits of those activities hence only by acting piously we are just binding ourselves with a golden chain instead of an iron chain . The problem is not of the chain , the problem is that we are bound , hence either we are bound by a golden chain or iron chain, we are still bound . As in this human form of life we need to inquire on the higher principle on how to get released from this bondage. How do I get beyond this dualities of piety and impiety? How to become reinstated in our original spiritual identity and act according to that ? How to free myself from the repitition of birth and death ? These are the questions that need to be answered.
Fortunately in this age of Kali , the solution is simple as compared to other ages, Simply by Chanting the holy names of the Lord Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, we can understand all these questions and free ourselves from the bondage of either Golden or Iron chain , which means we can transcend both pious and impious activities and become blissful in this life and Go back home Back to Godhead in the next life.
