UPASANA, Youth Festival

“When one vows to follow a spiritual path but later strays from it, one has fallen.” In Krishna consciousness, for example, at initiation one pledges before the spiritual master to chant the Hare Krishna mantra at least 16 rounds each day and follow four regulations: no intoxication, no illicit sex, no gambling, and no meat-eating. To break these vows is to fall. Beyond this, one may give up the spiritual life altogether. In 1966 Srila Prabhupada once said that one who gives up Krishna consciousness falls again into the material pool. Srila Prabhupada imitated the sound of a stone falling into water—“bloop!” From that moment on, “Bloop” soon became standard devotee lingo. To leave Krishna consciousness was to bloop.
In one sense, all of us in the material world have blooped. We’ve forgotten Krishna and fallen from the spiritual world. Now we’re trying to revive our spiritual life. And however far we’ve come, we ought to be moving steadily forward. Yet sometimes we stumble and slip back. Why? What causes falldown? How do we keep from falling—and help others keep from falling too? When devotees on the path do fall, how should we treat them? And what do we do if we should fall ourselves? It’ll be discussed here.
One of the most persistent underlying causes of falldown is not merely being careless with the regulative principles but maintaining offenses—in particular, offenses against the holy name—and not engaging in an effort to clear them up. If one is trying to clear up offenses, even though the offenses may be there, one is on the “clearing” stage and will continue to make spiritual advancement. But if one commits offenses and doesn’t try to rectify them, he stops making spiritual advancement, and after a while he gradually loses interest in the path of Krishna consciousness. That’s described in The Nectar of Devotion as the “waning-moon effect.” Somehow one’s enthusiasm for Krishna consciousness gradually disappears, like the waning moon. Why am I losing interest? It’s because of not trying to clear up offenses.
Actually this is not the only reason. There are many. Sometimes falldown might result from committing offenses against a devotee. And pride goes before a fall. Not enough hearing and chanting is also one of the reasons.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna Himself pinpoints the causes, in the Second Chapter, verses 62 and 63. These are two verses every devotee should hang on the wall of his mind. “While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.”
So that’s it in a nutshell—the sad story of falldown. Lord Sri Krishna beautifully encapsulates it in the Gita