Vihita-bhoga — Permitted Enjoyment
Vihita-bhoga — enjoyment that is 'vihita' (sanctioned, enjoined) by śāstra — clarifies an important boundary in the Śrī Vaiṣṇava framework of conduct: not all pleasure is prohibited, and the ideal is not blanket asceticism.
Śāstra distinguishes between: vihita-bhoga (permitted, sanctioned pleasures), niṣiddha-bhoga (prohibited pleasures explicitly forbidden), and aniṣiddha-bhoga (pleasures neither specifically enjoined nor forbidden — neutral). A Śrī Vaiṣṇava is free to engage in vihita-bhoga and may carefully navigate aniṣiddha-bhoga. Only niṣiddha-bhoga (which falls into the tyājyam and akṛtya-karaṇa categories) must be avoided.
Vihita-bhoga includes: proper married household life (gṛhastha-dharma), enjoyment of Bhagavān's prasāda, celebration of divine festivals, the aesthetic pleasure of hearing the Divya Prabandham or classical music in Bhagavān's presence, and the natural pleasures of life when not pursued with addiction or to the exclusion of dharma. These are not mere concessions — the Gītā explicitly says (7.11) 'I am the desire that is not opposed to dharma' (dharmāviruddho kāmeṣu), acknowledging that sanctioned desire is itself Bhagavān's expression.
The conceptual key is the inner disposition: vihita-bhoga taken without possessiveness (amamata), without the sense that 'this is mine and I must have it,' is compatible with prapanna life. The same experience taken with possessiveness and dependency becomes a binding. A meal offered to Bhagavān and then accepted as prasāda is vihita-bhoga; the same meal grabbed with 'I want this for myself' is qualitatively different.
For the prapanna, vihita-bhoga becomes kainkaryam in miniature: enjoying what Bhagavān has provided, with gratitude, without clinging, and as a recognition that all enjoyment is ultimately Bhagavān's gift flowing through His śeṣas.