How can we balance between submission and overdependence?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when we are practicing bhakti and we have to make decisions about say which ashram we want to be in or what level of bhakti or detachment is to practice, sometimes we may rely too much on others’ instruction, others’ guidance of what we should be doing and we may not reveal ourselves enough.
So, how do we achieve this balance? In the Brihadbhagavatam, Sri Adi Goswami says that ultimately the highest praman is anubhav, is experience. The highest way of knowing is through experience. We have shabda, but shabda when we live according to it, it is meant to give us experience.
The practical experience we realize it. Krishna also says 9.2 in the Gita. So, regarding how we are to live our lives, no, our spiritual master cannot live for us.
Our spiritual guide cannot live our life for us. We have to live our life. So, we have two simple examples for this point.
Now, how much should one sleep or how much should one eat? It may be that, okay, one who is, okay, should sleep for six hours or five and a half hours or six and a half, whatever is our time. We may decide that. But ultimately, we have to look at ourselves and see how much can I function.
If I sleep for four hours, but if all my 20 hours are just in a groggy state, I am not doing much. And if I may sleep for six, six and a half or whatever I need, and then I am fresh. That is what I need.
So, we have to know that the process of bhakti has to work on us. And the other example that Bhagavatam gives in the 11th Canto, the Gita itself is that, that when we eat food, we ourselves know that we are nourished. Now, sometimes in the heat of the moment or in the greed of the moment, we could say in this context, we may overeat.
But after some time, we just feel so lazy, so heavy, we get some, we become overweight, we, our health gets spoilt. Heavy, this is not worth it. For a little food that I eat more, I get so much, so much of my time, energy, health gets wasted.
So, we ourselves come to know by doing and by introspecting, how much I should eat, or how much I should sleep. Same way, we, there are certain principles that you can take from others. But their body is not our body.
Their mind is not our mind. So, we have to see what works for my body and my mind. And that’s why there is, guhyam akhyatipicchati.
Others give us confidential instruction and we enquire confidentially, or we express ourselves confidentially. That means, why is this talked about, the guhyam akhyatipicchati. The guhyam is a confidential, is adjective for both for asking and for telling.
That means, this is confidentially we speak and confidentially we are told. There are generic instructions that will come through scripture, that will come through classes. But all of us have to ultimately specifically apply the principles in our life.
And so, if we have spiritual guides, who are accessible and who can give us guidance specifically for us, based on understanding who we are, where we are, then we are very fortunate. And such guidance is not available so easily, that we have to understand ourselves better. We may have to do some introspection, may have to pray, and then understand ourselves better.
And based on that, sometimes if we understand ourselves better, then we can present our situation better also for guidance. And Krishna Prabhupada also writes in the nectar of instruction, in the introduction that when one comes to the mode of goodness, how to advance further is revealed from within. So, sattva sanjayate jnanam.
Sattva guna gives us jnana. It is not necessarily the jnana or bhakti, but just the jnana of goodness. By that, we can understand material things.
This is too much, this is too little. This is what is balanced. So, broadly speaking, now, the mode of goodness, the state which we attain by the gradual practice of bhakti.
But even in our day-to-day practice of bhakti, there are times when we are passionate, there are times when we are ignorant, there are times when we are in goodness. So, if major choices or decisions are to be made, and they need to be made when we are in the mode of goodness. So, we do not act impulsively, but when we are in the mode of goodness, we think calmly, and then take a decision.
So, by recognizing that it is we who have to live the life of bhakti, and the characteristics of life of bhakti is that we know that we have to advance a lot more. And in that sense, we may feel dissatisfied, oh, I am so far away from Krishna. But in the basic sense of being situated where we are meant to be, there is a satisfaction, there is a peace, there is a tranquility that comes just by being where we are naturally, and moving forward from there.
So, just as by our experience, we can know how much to eat or how much to sleep. Similarly, how much to extend ourselves, and there to draw a line in whichever particular activity we are able to do, we can take guidance. At the same time, we need to because we have to limit ourselves.
So, we have to understand our situation through introspection through coming to the mode of goodness, and then act wisely. Does it answer address the issue? Thank you very much. We stop here.
Thank you very much.