Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #42 – Bhakti, Bhakti Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

Bhakti, Bhakti Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink [1]

The practice of bhakti is very simple, but very qualified people can find the path of bhakti challenging. Simple, but challenging. It’s a paradox. Let’s try to resolve it.

What does it mean that bhakti is simple?

It means anyone in any circumstance can take to bhakti. It has no material qualification. For example, you don’t even have to be born yet.

Not even born yet!

The Bhāgavatam was originally spoken in four verses. The last verse explains abhidheya-jñāna, the means to realize the absolute truth. One of the significant phrases in that verse, which is relevant to our discussion, is sarvatra sarvadā (anywhere and everywhere), which means that Krishna consciousness is universally applicable. The Bhaktivedanta purport to that verse focuses on offering example after example of how one can take up the path of bhakti in every conceivable material situation, even when one is unborn. Śrī Prahlāda heard the Bhāgavatam in the womb of his mother from Śrī Nārada and was born a great saint!

Back to our quandary. If bhakti is so universally applicable, why do so many, even those aristocratic, educated and even yogically disciplined, find the path of bhakti difficult to take up and execute?

Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the resolution:

“The process is simple, but the application is difficult.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.2, purport)

Simple? Who cannot bow down, chant Hare Krishna, hear the Lord’s glories or just see the deities? From the material perspective it is therefore simple.

Difficult? The most difficult thing to do is to apply ourselves to things we don’t like to do, even if they are simple tasks. We have come to this world to enjoy and control. Who truly wants to relinquish control and bow their head to God and his devotees in complete humility and supplication?

But that’s what pure love or devotion means. It’s complete surrender to the needs and desire of the worthy object of your affection. It’s analogous to a mother’s care for her child. Caring for a child is a service so simple that any woman anywhere in the world, regardless of education or social status, can perform that task. It’s the most difficult sacrifice, however, for even the most materially qualified person, if she lacks a selfless and loving heart.

And bhakti is like that. It is so simple that anyone with humility and devotion can perform the practices of devotion. But it can be the greatest challenge for one who doesn’t have a heart of selflessness and service, even the most accomplished yogi or learned scholar.

So that’s the paradox, it’s so accessible, but such a challenge for the egocentric. For them:

Bhakti, bhakti everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

[1] A paradox is “a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well-founded or true. Perhaps the most famous one is “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.” Seems contradictory, but with a little investigation we find out that the person making the statement is in the ocean. So the title is a parody on that paradox as a segue to explain how bhakti is very easy and accessible, but still one can miss it. By the way, the quotation is from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and the speaker is stranded in the middle of the ocean.