We are all incentivized by profit, but when one takes to the path of liberation from the illusory energy of matter, then the desire for profit means less and less with each step toward liberation. And this path of awakening consciousness is a lifelong journey. Now at the end of my life, I have chosen the path of liberation through service to the supreme, a practice known as bhakti yoga. This yoga process involves an affair of the heart. Profit pales in comparison as an incentive.
Now that profit has been removed, fortunately the momentum of bhakti yoga or the practice of rendering service to the supreme has gained enough steam that it is a self-sustaining process. After all, the goal of this bhakti yoga far outweighs some little bits of coin, which are like pennies for food, like scraps of bread to a man at a banquet.
This is called experiencing a “higher taste”. The Sanskrit term is “param drishtva”. My taste for profit still lingers, but it pales in comparison to the higher taste for liberation. Moksha or samadhi are terms unknown to most. The masses are easily incentivised or swayed by profit and the allure of such shiny trinkets. But the yogi has already walked away from such allures. Or even if they are still attracted by habit or material conditioning, when the profit finally dries up, it doesn’t matter.
Liberation through service to the liberator is a sweeter pleasure, for it is on the path of the eternal. The long term game is way beyond this one lifetime. It is on the eternal platform. Bhakti yoga means the yoga of loving devotional service. The result is the opportunity for more service. A king and the yogi have everything they need but still reach out to uplift the citizens in the kingdom, out of compassion, concern and a parental nurturing mood.
When you are dealing in gold, you don’t worry about foraging for pennies. With the heart of gold that develops by spending a lifetime in service to the supreme, the passion (rajas) and ignorance (tamas) are burned away and goodness (sattva) remains. It is an unmotivated state, one where you are already filled and feel complete, enriched by the opportunity to serve.
And here my service is to transcribe the Bhagavad Gita onto the Hive blockchain for posterity and for future generations, one verse at a time. Interest may be almost non-existent from current readers who appear to be too preoccupied with chasing coin and the allures of maya, illusion and temporary profit. Most here are still young and have no learning of Veda or concept of the real value of this human life. So they miss the pearls of wisdom found in the Gita.
Yet even one interested soul is enough to consider my service successful. Even if there are none who are pious or blessed enough to be able to comprehend the wisdom of the Gita, still my service continues because for me it is my path to liberation, as I serve the supreme, the speaker of the Gita and the messenger, the translator of the Gita, my guide. This service is in itself the reward. It is an attempt at unmotivated or unalloyed bhakti yoga, as recommended by Rupa Goswami in his 17th century treatise on bhakti yoga called “Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu” (Nectar of Devotion).
Keep the coin friends, you will need it more than I will, where I am now, and where I’m going. I’m already a millionaire in consciousness, thanks to the lifetime of service on the bhakti yoga path. I came to this world in this lifetime to be of service as a writer of the Gita, among other texts, simply following in the footsteps of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya or lineage, which is a line of writers and messengers who transmit the wisdom of the Veda from one generation to the next.
I will be dead soon, but this writing will live on, via this Hive blockchain. If that goes down, then it means the world has gone down. And that’s the end of it, at least for this generation or even this century. And that is fine, since I’m not attached, neither am I the doer. Everything is going on by higher arrangement. I simply play my part without attachment or aversion. The material result is insignificant. The process or practice, day by day, is in itself my path to liberation, regardless of whether this Hive blockchain can stay up and running with my writings and with the Gita or not.
Unless one has acquired the higher taste, they will always be swept about by the material energy, by the allures of profit or coin above all else. So look at your motivations in life. Whom do you serve? Do you serve your own senses or do you have a higher goal, beyond that of defending your crop and clan? The path of bhakti yoga, or loving devotional service to the supreme, leads to liberation, and paves the way back to the kingdom of god, it reveals the higher love. Selfless service to the master of the universe leads to the door of liberation opening up and welcoming you back to the kingdom of god, where every step is a dance and every word is a song eternally. No coin required, not even readership. That is all a secondary side issue.
So let the coin fall where it will, let the money hoarders try to buy their stairway to heaven. Bhakti yoga is the means and the goal. And my yoga and devotional service is publishing this Bhagavad Gita, one verse at a time, day by day. My life is already perfect and my goal is already achieved in the bigger scheme of things. I wish all living entities could be a happy and fortunate as I am, for I see the gates of the kingdom of god already open to me, as I pave my way there, one blog post publication at a time. Coin is for those who think they are the body, for those in illusion and forgetfulness of their real wealth that they already have unlimitedly.
Let me show you how to perfect your life and transcend petty coin chasing, like a little street beggar doing favors for some merchant (godasa), dependent on the welfare of others, instead of being self-sufficient and independent (goswami), a true sovereign entity, not bound or enslaved by their own senses. Renunciation is an opulence too. The yogi walks away from the allures of maya or illusion because he or she can see through the fake façade of this life, and they have savored a higher taste, as mentioned in this verse of the Gita.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:59
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः ।
रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ॥ ५९ ॥
viṣayā vinivartante
nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso 'py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
viṣayāḥ—objects for sense enjoyment; vinivartante—are practiced to be refrained from; nirāhārasya—by negative restrictions; dehinaḥ—for the embodied; rasa-varjam—giving up the taste; rasaḥ—sense of enjoyment; api—although there is; asya—his; param—far superior things; dṛṣṭvā—by experiencing; nivartate—ceases from
TRANSLATION
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.
COMMENTARY
Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased person from certain types of eatables. The patient, however, neither likes such restrictions, nor loses his taste for eatables. Similarly, sense restriction by some spiritual process like aṣṭāṅga-yoga, in the matter of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dharaṇā, dhyāna, etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, in the course of his advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no longer has a taste for dead material things. Therefore, restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good if one actually has a taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
Image of Krishna my own, edited using Canva