Can becoming spiritual make us lazy and unambitious?
So can becoming spiritual make us lazy and then we don't seek wealth? Yes, there is this fear that is there that when I become too spiritual I will become unambitious.
So definitely that is possible and that usually happens when we have a fragmented conception of spirituality. That means, I say this is material, this is spiritual and to become spiritual I have to give up this. But the Bhagavad Gita doesn't offer a fragmented conception of spirituality.
It offers an integrated conception. That means, Krishna tells Arjuna, it doesn't tell Arjuna to renounce the world. Krishna tells him, you are an archer, use your archery skills in the service of dharma, in the cause of dharma.
So there will be some people who will be renouncing the world. They will be focusing themselves to become spiritual teachers. But they are in the minority.
Most people, what they are in the world, whatever abilities we have, we can use those abilities in a mood of service to God. So it is not that we necessarily become unambitious. Rather, we no longer remain unbalanced.
As I said, ambition, quite often what people define as ambition is such that it often creates a lot of imbalance in their lives. Sometimes people are so ambitious, they work all exceedingly. They neglect their family, neglect their children.
And then they achieve a lot and they feel, you know, I missed out. I missed out on the growth of my children. I missed out on even the happiness of relationships.
So materialism can actually make us so unbalanced that in the name of ambition, we neglect even other important aspects of material life. So that unbalanced aspect can be avoided. It will be avoided by spiritual practice.
But see, the tendency of the mind is to, whatever it takes up, it wants to overdo it. So in materialism, we may overdo our work. When we come to spirituality, we may overdo our spirituality also.
So we need guidance. The more we come from the lower modes towards the mode of goodness, the more we become purified, the more we understand how I can balance things. So it is that spirituality requires a certain amount of time to do the practices, to associate with devotees.
But if we understand that in my job, actually I am serving Krishna here also. By Krishna's arrangement that I am here. This is an opportunity for me to serve Krishna.
Then whatever time we are spending in our work, we work wholeheartedly. There is no need to hold ourselves back thinking this is material. You see, this is also a way for me to serve Krishna.
When I go to a temple, that is a direct service to Krishna. This is indirect service to Krishna. But both are services to Krishna.
And that excessive infatuation with wealth as the sole barometer of success, that will go away. But it is not that everybody who is going to become spiritual, they have to give up the quest for wealth. Or that they have to give up ambition.
Rather, we get a higher purpose for our ambition. What is that higher purpose? Now if I am a good professional and I am also a devotee, then what will happen? People will say, you are a good professional and you also practice bhakti. Then they will become attracted to bhakti.
Just before I came to America, I was in a college. One student asked me, I am practicing bhakti, how can I attract other students to practice bhakti? I told him by studying diligently. If you study diligently, there may not be any guarantee that other students will become devotees.
But if you don't study well, there is guarantee that other students will not become devotees. Because people will say, your bhakti makes you irresponsible. I don't want to become like that.
So, at least from that negative perspective, we should see that our professional competence is also a service to Krishna. At least by being professionally incompetent in the name of spirituality, we will be driving people away from Krishna. By being professionally competent, we will actually be setting an example by which people can become attracted to Krishna.
So, we may not give excessive amounts of time for our work, but then that is imbalanced even from the material perspective. What is the spiritual perspective? But whatever time we give, we can give our full heart to it. This is the way I am serving Krishna.
This is the way I am glorifying Krishna. And in fact, if we develop that inner calmness, inner clarity, and whatever time we are investing, we can actually focus more and we can do more even in less time. Because our desires, our mind when it is going wild, we spend time on some work but we are just not able to focus on that.
But when we are focused, then whatever time we spend, we are actually effective, we are productive in that work. So, our goal in working hard, our goal in achieving things is not just to get fame, get power, get wealth. It is to glorify Krishna by getting those things.
So, they are not the ends for us, but they can be the means to an end. Maharaj Yudhishthir, he performed a Rajasuya Yajna. Lot of hard work.
Among the kings, he was coronated as the greatest of the kings. So, he performed that. Why? Because through that he was able to glorify Krishna.
Similarly, we can see that whatever position I have, if I do well in that position, then through that I can actually be glorifying Krishna. So, we see it that way, then we won't become lethargic. Rather, we will get a nobler, higher motivation for hard work.
And this higher motivation will also enable us to be balanced while working hard.