A Study of SB 10.14.8

(written on August 27, 2019)

1. Earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord.

The purport says, “The word su-samīkṣamāṇa indicates that a devotee earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord even while suffering the painful effects of previous sinful activities.” "earnestly" means with sincere and intense conviction. The goal of the devotees is to achieve the mercy of the Lord by serving Him. They have no personal material desires. Hence, no matter how much suffering, the pure devotee eagerly performs the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and awaits His mercy.

1. Previous sinful mentality and last vestiges of the enjoying spirit.

Krishna says in BG that after a devotee fully surrenders unto Him their past karma doesn't actually affect them. However, the consciousness might still contain traces of the previous sinful mentality. The previous sinful mentality comes due to prior association with the material nature.

Even after a devotee fully surrenders unto Krishna, some of the previous sinful mentality might remain. This is what the "last vestiges of the enjoying spirit" mean. Vestige means remains or traces. So a bit of our tendency to enjoy without the Lord, might remain even though we might have completely surrendered to Krishna. Even though we give up all sinful activities, those thoughts might still be in our minds. Situated as Paramatma in everyone’s hearts, Krishna knows that we still have the remains of our past sinful mentality.

1. Tendency to enjoy without the Lord and slight inclination to enjoy the false happiness of this world.

It is explained in the purport that the reason for the entire creation of the material world is to make sure that we rectify our “tendency to enjoy without the Lord.” As the marginal energies of the Lord, we have the choice to decide between Krishna and maya. We have a tendency to fall under the spell of maya. It is explained that the entire point of the material world is to get rid of this tendency. The word “rectify” means to get rid of. The material world is actually like a rehabilitation center. We are all here to correct our mistake of trying to enjoy without Krishna. We try to enjoy without Krishna, but the actual happiness is serving Him.

1. Specifically designed to curtail the mentality.

Because Krishna is in our hearts as Paramatma, He knows that we still have remains of the previous sinful mentality. Hence, the Lord sends us punishments to remove these tendencies. The purport says, “the particular punishment given for a sinful activity is specifically designed to curtail the mentality that produced the activity.” So Krishna sends punishments as a purificatory process. What is this punishment? It is actually Krishna’s mercy. Krishna’s mercy is that he helps his pure devotees out of the material world. The devotee might be waiting for the mercy, but this is Krishna’s actual special mercy. As explained in the purport, “Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord.”

1. Rightful claim.

The direct translation of the verse is “My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.” This means that the pure devotee actually has the right to Krishna’s mercy, or liberation.

Srila Sridhara Swami explains in his commentary that, “just as a legitimate son has to simply remain alive to gain an inheritance from his father, one who simply remains alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga, automatically becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the Personality of Godhead. In other words, he will be promoted to the kingdom of God.” In order to have the rightful claim to liberation, we must simply stay in Krishna consciousness, following Bhakti Yoga’s regulative principles (no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex), chanting, reading the Vedas, and serving the Lord.