The Ill Effects of Pride.
Question: Because of pride somebody assumed himself as great devotee. He regarded himself as an advanced devotee and cultivated enviousness. He couldn’t recognize his deviations in consciousness. Because of restlessness in mind later he offended an associate, a friend. Earlier he had a taste for hearing and chanting because of his genuine humility and sincerity.
Now he lost the taste; instead he became like a hard-hearted and uncontrollable animal. He asked forgiveness from his friend.
In any life will he receive love of Godhead?
Romapada Swami: The symptoms and effects that you have described in your note are elaborately explained by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakura (a great Vaishnava Acarya in the disciplic succession) in his book Bhaktyaloka, a portion of which reads as follows.
“Each and every gradual step has different prescriptions and prohibitions.
Whenever a living entity steps to one level and stays there, he is obliged to follow the prescriptions and prohibitions of that step. By following those enjoined prescriptions and prohibitions, one becomes eligible to attain the next step. If one is unable to attain the next step, he falls down to a lower step. This is called degradation.”
Universally, when one acts beyond one’s level of advancement (or adhikara) the result is degradation. This degradation commonly manifests as two formidable enemies – pride and envy.
Pride manfests as an inflated overly-exalted conception of oneself. Envy, pride’s companion, directs negative thoughts and criticism toward others who are factually exhaulted. Both will result in offenses to other devotees.
As you have noted, one who commits Vaishnava aparadha quickly loses taste for chanting or any other form of devotional service.
The natural question which follows is “What is the cure?”
Recognizing that there is a problem is the first big step in the right direction. This can be done only by the mercy of other devotees and by strong introspection.
Analyzing the cause of the problem is the second step in determining the solution. In this case the root cause is that one is acting beyond one’s adhikara.
Only then one can move forward to effectively pursue the solution!
First to extricate oneself from the terrible quicksand of Vaishnava aparadha, one must beg forgiveness from the devotees he has offended, in a genuine mood of repentance. Devotees are magnanimous and generally will quickly forgive. If for some reason a devotee is unable to forgive one should simply serve him as the opportunities present.
In order to protect oneself from a repetition of this, one must carefully execute one’s devotional service in accordance to one’s level of realizations – that, too, carried out in a humble mood of service.
To thoroughly and deeply understand this one must take shelter of a more advanced devotee and understand from him the injunctions and instructions suitable for one’s own level of advancement. Keeping these instructions always in mind, he should strive to continuously engage in chanting and remembering Lord Krishna and thus continue advancing to higher levels.