Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 123

Bhakti as Popular Movement

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Thus, a Bhakta is one who is non-envious, a kind friend to all, free of
false-ego, equiminded and equipoised under all circumstances, tolerant, self-con
trolled, does not get disturbed, harms no one, and does not depend on anyone
except the Supreme Person. A Bhakta is pure, satisfied, without cares, does not
desire anything, fears none, has no anxieties, no pains, does not strive for any
results, neither rejoices nor grieves, and neither laments nor desires. Finally, a
Bhakta is silent, satisfied, fixed in knowledge, and always engaged in the devo
tional service with full determination.
Elsewhere in the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna mentions twenty quali
ties for the enlightenment and devotional service of a Bhakta. These qualities are:
Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplic
ity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadi
ness, self-contr ol, renunciation of the objects of sense gratifica
tion, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death,
old age, and disease, detachment, freedom from entanglement with
children, wife, home, and the rest, even-mindedness amid pleas
ant and unpleasant events, constant and unalloyed devotion to Lord
Krishna, aspiring to live in a solitary place, detachment from the
general mass of people, accepting the importance of self-realiza
tion, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth.
Goswami Satsvarupa Dasa also mentions twenty-six qualities of a Bhakta
in Vaisnava Behavior. These qualities, as earlier enumerated by Lord Chaitanya
to Sanatana Goswami, are:
Kripalu (merciful), Akrit-droha (not defiant), Satya-sara
(truthful), Sama (equal to everyone), Nidosha (faultless), Vadanya
(magnanimous), Mridu (mild), Suchi (clean), Akinchana (without
material possessions), Sarvopakaraka (performs welfare work for
everyone), Shanta (peaceful), Krishnaka-sharana (surrendered to
Krishna), Akama (desireless), Aniha (indifferent to material pos
sessions), Sthira (fixed), Vijita-sad-guna (completely controls the
six bad tendencies of Kama - lust, Krodha - anger, Lobha - greed,
Moha - illusion, Mada - madness, and Matsarya - envy), Mitabhuk (eats only as much as required), Apramatta (without inebria
tion), Mananda (respectful), Amani (without false prestige),
Gambhira (grave), Karuna (compassionate), Maitra (a friend), Kavi
(a poet), Daksha (expert), and Mauni (silent).