Does our enthusiasm in bhakti come from our sincerity or from Krishna’s mercy?
Question from Urshotto is our enthusiasm in bhakti a product of our sincerity and eagerness or is it a product of Krishna's mercy answer it is not a case of or it can well be a case of and in the Chetan Charita Amrit when Sanatana Goswami renounces the whole world and in fact accepts living in the prison just so that he can stay he can surrender his life to Lord Chaitanya and finally after taking great risk he manages to come to Varanasi to meet him Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he he appreciates but appreciates in extraordinary way he says that Sanatana Goswami you are extremely fortunate because the super soul has been so merciful to you that that despite having royal opulence you have renounced it all and have come to Krishna's lotus feet inconceivable are the moments of the super soul so here Chaitanya Mahaprabhu it's interesting that he doesn't appreciate or glorify Sanatana Goswami saying that you are so renounced he does glorify him that way at other places no doubt and the Goswamis are known to be celebrated as being very renounced but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sees Sanatana Goswami's renunciation also as a result of the mercy of the Supreme Lord so as devotees we always need to adopt the attitude that is favorable for our bhakti so if our enthusiasm and our eagerness for practicing bhakti makes us proud and judgmental thinking that see I am so enthusiastic but these other devotees they are so lazy they are so apathetic then we should know that we shouldn't take credit for our enthusiasm because that enthusiasm can go away at any time we should know that our enthusiasm is there but it is not just because of myself it is also because of Krishna's mercy and therefore when we see other devotees being apathetic we can pray Krishna, Krishna please you have given me some enthusiasm please bless these devotees also with similar enthusiasm so that way we can have a helpful attitude rather than a critical attitude towards others now on the other hand if we are not feeling enthusiastic ourselves now at that time the unfavorable attitude to bhakti will be to think that oh no Krishna is not giving his mercy to me that's why I am not enthusiastic so when Krishna gives me his mercy then I will become enthusiastic but that is a wrong attitude because Krishna his mercy is always available it is we who have to endeavor once Giriraj Maharaj he came back after a long day while Giriraj Maharaj was managing the Juhu temple they were trying to get permissions for various things and they would stay for hours and hours in offices and they were stymied by the bureaucratic red tape in India, Mumbai and they came disheartened because they were not able to take things forward and they came in the evening for Gaurarthi and Prabhupada and they just didn't feel like dancing and Prabhupada told them that even if you don't feel like dancing still you should dance because by the dancing by the doing the feeling will come so what he did was he encouraged them to keep dance to do the activity and the feeling will come not saying that so the point we can infer from this is that when we don't feel enthusiastic we shouldn't blame it Krishna has not given his mercy rather we think let me try to be enthusiastic so let me try to be enthusiastic let me strive to be eager and it will be a reciprocal process if I show my whatever little eagerness I can muster right now if I can show that to Krishna then Krishna will increase my eagerness and he will enable me to he will by that I will become more eager so always both factors are involved our own enthusiasm and Krishna's mercy and we can focus on that aspect which is which helps us to have the proper devotional consciousness while practicing bhakti. Thank you.