Are We Doing Real Devotion?

Three people ate meditating on Krishn's form. The first one adores Krishn as his Beloved just to seek His Grace and Love. The second one worships Him in a ritualistic style, or worships Him with lots of worldly ambitions in his heart. The third one contemplates his mind on the form of Krishn, but rejecting the Divine supremacy of Krishn; he believes that this practice of meditation is only a medium to reach the absolute truth.

Now, check the consequences: the first one is doing devotion; the second one is doing a good deed, and the third one is committing a transgression by disregarding Krishn's Divine greatness.

The third one, when he understands the truth that Krishn is the Truth, finds it hard to put this knowledge into practice because of past misleading practices. Although he is not committing those kinds of transgressions anymore, but settling into devotion requires time as it is a complete change of concept.

Now, we understand that the face value of an action does not determine its class and consequences. The determining factors are different,. The are millions and millions of sanskars of hundreds of kinds that collectively affect the average state of mind of a person, with their positive and negative effects of varying nature and intensity.

(pg. 28, The Shikchashtak By Swami Prakashanand Saraswati)