How can we draw the line about how much material things we can use in Krishna’s service?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, how do we, when we are using the material in Krishna’s service, how do we draw the line? Because we can get into the material also a lot in the name of doing it for Krishna. Yes, this is like weight lifting.
You know, when I lift a weight, the purpose of lifting the weights is that my muscles should grow. So, if I lift a half kg weight, it’s so small that probably nothing will happen to my muscles. So, if my capacity is that I can lift 10 kg weights, then I need to lift at least 10 kg or maybe a little more than 10 kg, 11 kg.
But if I lift 25 kg weight and my capacity is 10 kg, then I will break down. So, like that, when we are dealing with matter and doing material things, we ourselves need to observe how much is our capacity and accordingly engage in matter, engage in material things. Now, all of us have different levels of capacity, even in our own field of interest or excellence, whatever it is, and according to our capacity, we engage ourselves.
So, if we do too little, we feel unfulfilled, I should be doing more. So, sometimes we go to the one extreme and do too little and feel unfulfilled. And sometimes we go to the other extreme and get too stressed.
I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do that, I have to do that. Sometimes, you know, when people are travelling, sometimes they want to take their whole house in their suitcase. You know, that looks impossible because it is impossible.
So, similarly, sometimes we just try to squeeze in too many things in 24 hours. Like we try to put our whole house in a suitcase. It just doesn’t work.
So, then we start feeling too stressed, too burdened. You know, I can’t do this. I have to cut some things down.
So, it’s by experience we learn what is too little and what is too much. And in general, when we are trying to balance the material and the spiritual, it is best to first decide how much time I need for my spirituality. And give that new priority.
And if we do that, then we will have greater clarity in how much to engage in the material. And how much material things can we devote. So, if we try to do the material first and then fill in the spiritual in between, then we will not be able to have enough focus on the spiritual.
It will not purify us. It will not elevate us adequately because we are not focusing on it. And then everything will get obfuscated.
We will get too much involved in the material. We will not adequately focus on the spiritual. And there will be imbalance.
So, if we start with the spiritual and give due time to the spiritual, then how much material we can engage, that we will be able to learn. Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, दामि बुद्धि ओगल्तम् येन इमाम पयान दिते That I will give you the intelligence by which you can come to me. And we also can consult senior devotees who know us well about, you know, I got this job and if I take up this promotion, I take up this job, you know, I might be able to get this, this is the future that I have.
But then these are the things I don’t know, what should I do? You can consult them and with their guidance also we can arrive at a mature decision. So, usually when something is a major decision, it’s best not to do anything hastily. We observe ourselves for some time and then learn from that self-observation.
Then we can make a decision. Answer your question? Thank you. Would you like to comment something more? You got anything? I have a question.
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