78 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

its followers permanent relief from the threefold miseries. The Bhagavatam describes
the highest religious form—reinstatement of the living entity in his original position
of transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord, which is free from the infec-
tions of desires for sense gratification, fruitive work, and the culture of knowledge
with the aim of merging in the Absolute to become one with the Supreme Lord.

Any process of religiosity based on sense gratification, gross or subtle, must be
considered a pretentious religion because it is unable to give perpetual protection to
its followers. The word projjhita is significant. Pra means complete, and ujjhita indi-
cates rejection. Religiosity in the shape of fruitive work is directly a method of gross
sense gratification, whereas the process of culturing spiritual knowledge with a view
to becoming one with the Absolute is a method of subtle sense gratification. All such
pretentious religiosity based on gross or subtle sense gratification is completely
rejected in the process of bhdgavata-dharma, or the transcendental religion that is an
eternal function for the living being.

Bhagavata-dharma, or the religious principle described in Srimad-Bhdgavatam, of
which Bhagavad-gitd is a preliminary study, is meant for liberated persons of the
highest order who attribute very little value to the sense gratification of pretentious
religiosity. The first and foremost concern of fruitive workers, elevationists, empiric
philosophers and salvationists is to raise their material position. But devotees of
Godhead have no such selfish desires. They serve the Supreme Lord only for His
satisfaction. Sri Arjuna, wanting to satisfy his senses by becoming a so-called non-
violent and pious man, at first decided not to fight. But when he was fully situated in
the principles of bhagavata-dharma, culminating in complete surrender unto the will
of the Supreme Lord, he changed his decision and agreed to fight for the satisfaction
of the Lord. He then said:

nasto mohah smetir labdha
tvat-prasddan maydcyuta
sthito 'smi gata-sandehah
Rarisye vacanam tava
“My dear Krsna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. | have regained my
memory by Your mercy, and | am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared
to act according to Your instructions.”’ (Bg. 18.73) It is the constitutional position
of a living entity to be situated in this pure consciousness. Any so-called religious
process that interferes with this unadulterated spiritual position of the living being
must therefore be considered a pretentious process of religiosity.

The real form of religion is spontaneous loving service to Godhead. This relation-
ship of the living being with the Absolute Personality of Godhead in service is
eternal. The Personality of Godhead is described as vastu, or the Substance, and the
living entities are described as vdstavas, or the innumerable samples of the Substance
in relative existence. The relationship of these substantive portions with the Supreme
Substance can never be annihilated, for it is an eternal quality inherent in the living
being.
