If we are not serving the Lord

“Anything religious, or irreligious, which is not pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is sinful!”

As stated by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami. When you hear things like that then you think that he is a fundamentalist. Some might say that he is a bit on the fundamentalistic side every once in a while. But no, it is not at all about fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is a type of reductionism – it is a type of trying to simplify the diversity of arguments and reasons in an entire paradigm to just a limited number of elements, and therefore everything is made to be black and white – it is either good or bad.

But that is not what Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami was doing. When I read the verse:
“Anything religious, or irreligious, which is not pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is sinful!” Then I take that as a symptom of Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami’s ecstasy…. I think that he is in ecstasy! He is in ecstasy about devotional service and that anything that is not devotional service, then it is useless! What do we benefit from it? All right we are religious, but it is not devotional service. So we are acting according to pious standards and so on. We pray and give to the poor, but we are not serving the Lord. So what is the point?

(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta Part 2