anyathā pātityāśāṅkayā

अन्यथा – or else; पातित्याशाङ्कया – there is the fear of a fall

Or else, there is the fear of a fall (from the spiritual path).

Narad Ji says that if we don’t protect the scriptures then it would impact our own spiritual journey as a bhakti yogi as well as that of the majority of humans who have not even realized the importance of bhakti. We cannot just try to copy some self-realized saints and expect to become self realized ourselves. We have to follow the process and it is the scriptures that contain the required process and these scriptures are the authoritative source for this.

We cannot just pretend to be a bhakti yogi while either being unaware of or disobeying the instructions given in the Scriptures on how to lead a righteous life. Such a behavior will only bring about the downfall of such a person.

As long as we are under the control of our senses and sense objects and as long as we are impacted by the material world, we should implicitly follow the instructions contained in the scriptures and follow the teachings of the guru. Once we have attained self-realization, only then can we stop relying totally on the scriptures.

We discuss this in detail along with the next two shlokas which are closely related.