Do we need to always feel existential dissatisfaction to practice bhakti intensely?
So sometimes we feel an existential dissatisfaction and that propels us to say, change our life even take the purposes of bhakti but while practicing bhakti we can also fall into complacency and we don't feel that urgent need for Krishna so is it necessary to feel existential dissatisfaction constantly throughout our existence even when we are practicing bhakti no dissatisfaction is not the cause of bhakti the introspection and the redirection that comes after that that is what helps the growth of bhakti there are so many people who are dissatisfied almost everybody is dissatisfied with something or the other in their life even when there is existential dissatisfaction let's say we are going in a particular direction existential dissatisfaction incidental dissatisfaction means that I hit a roadblock how do I overcome the roadblock existential dissatisfaction means there is no point in going in this direction I need to go in some other direction in my life when we are going in that direction existence nature of this material world is that we don't feel existentially dissatisfied constantly and we don't have to feel that way the important thing is that we are going in the right direction so if you are moving towards Krishna then it's not necessary to feel constantly dissatisfied but it is possible that we could settle complacently in the externals of spiritual practice without continuing an inner search for Krishna when that happens then we just skim the surface of Krishna bhakti that's why periodically it is good to remind ourselves what did I come here for I have left so much in the world what did I come here for I came here for Krishna so let me focus on Krishna so life itself will give us reminders because when we start pursuing even in devotional life we start giving material things too much importance reposition prestige or say I want to I want this particular achievement that particular thing they can help in bhakti but sometimes you may give them more importance than bhakti also so we have to be life itself will jolt us sometimes and prompt us to reorient ourselves and some other time it will be that our own introspection reminds me I am going in this direction I have to come back in this direction that way we can reorient keep reorienting ourselves and so the driving thing in our bhakti life doesn't have to be existential dissatisfaction the driving force of our life needs to be our intellectual conviction about the ultimacy of Krishna Krishna bhakti and we focus on that so reminding ourselves intellectually and then practically connecting with Krishna through the activities of bhakti emotionally connecting with him through the activities of bhakti that's what will keep us onward in the journey towards Krishna does it answer your question?