If we don’t have devotee association how can we practice bhakti?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we want to be devoted to Krishna, but our circumstances are adverse and we have to be all alone trying to practice, how do we do that at that time? Yes, the Bhagavatam says we are all ekastu. Ekastu means we are all alone. We may be together as a family, we may be together as a community.
But if you consider lifetime after lifetime, we are also alone on the journey. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that sometimes when fighter pilots, they may go in a battalion to attack the enemy. But each fighter pilot has to fight alone.
If one of them gets hit, other fighter pilots cannot really help at that time. So in one sense, we have to acknowledge that we are alone. And our spiritual growth is our responsibility.
The choices that we make are going to determine results. Now we all go through difficult circumstances at different times. Now when I say we are alone, we alone have the responsibility of making the right choice.
But others can help us in making the right choice or others can harm us by guiding us towards the wrong choice. That’s why we need to as much as possible have good association. Even if it’s not physically available.
Nowadays with technology we can stay in touch with spiritually minded people, with devotees. So we are alone in choosing. But we can get support for making the right choices.
And we can see adverse circumstances as an opportunity to show Krishna the sincerity of our devotion. It’s like, as it says, a friend in need is a friend indeed. So many people can be fair-weather friends.
Everything is nice, I’m also nice with you. When things go wrong, I also go away. So like that, we may also be fair-weather devotees.
When everything is fine, I practice bhakti. When things go wrong, I give it up. But when we show Krishna that even when things are going wrong, I’m practicing bhakti still.
I’m still taking shelter of you. That means we are showing Krishna that I value you not just because you are creating good circumstances in my life. I value you irrespective of what circumstances are there in my life.
Naturally, if there are good circumstances in our life, we will be able to practice bhakti more congenially, more effectively in the external sense. But, no, there are three possibilities. We love Krishna only because he creates good circumstances in my life.
We love Krishna when there are good circumstances in my life. And we love Krishna irrespective of whatever circumstances are there in my life. That means our relationship with Krishna can be world-centered.
World-centered means only when things are good in my life, I worship Krishna. Our relationship with Krishna can be world-centered and Krishna-centered. That means our circumstances will also be good and bhakti will also be good.
All our relationships with Krishna can be Krishna-centered. That means irrespective of how the circumstances are, still I practice bhakti. When you make it truly Krishna-centered, then we will see that that is the time when we can actually realize Krishna’s shelter.
That Krishna does shelter us all the time. We may not realize it if we are also having other shelters. But when the other shelters go away, there is financial insecurity, there is relational uncertainty, there is physical health issues, at that time when there is nothing else sheltering us, at that time we turn towards Krishna.
We really experience that Krishna does shelter us. So that’s why rather than seeing that the circumstances are obstacles for my taking shelter of Krishna, we can see that circumstances are impetuses for my taking shelter of Krishna. Because of these circumstances, I am now put in a situation where I have to take shelter of Krishna alone.
Earlier, I was taking shelter of Krishna and other things. But now, I have the opportunity to take shelter of Krishna alone. And when we do that, we will realize that yes, there is some mystical magic in Krishna consciousness.
That otherwise I would have crumbled when all this happened. But with Krishna’s shelter, not only I have sustained it, but I have become strengthened by it. I will conclude with one example that is given in the Madhava Vaishnava tradition that suppose there is a child who is supposed to do some homework and the child has not done the homework.
And now the mother knows that the child is going to be punished. The teacher has a stick which is going to say, show your hand. The teacher is going to beat on the stick.
Now the mother doesn’t want the child to be beaten. But at the same time, the mother wants that the child learn the lesson, the child do the homework properly. So what the mother does is, when the child is going to school, the mother puts a nice thick glove in the child’s hands.
And when the glove is put, the teacher says, have you done the homework? No. Come here. Show your hand.
The teacher beats on the stick. Now loud noise comes. But because the glove is there, the child doesn’t feel anything.
So that teacher is like material nature. We all have done some karma by which we are supposed to go through some bad circumstances now. Krishna is like the mother.
And the remembrance of Krishna, that is like the glove. So Krishna allows us sometimes to go through certain material difficulties because He wants us to grow, wants us to become more spiritually responsible. But He gives us the shelter.
He gives us the opportunity to remember Him. He gives us the shelter in His remembrance, which is like the glove. Now if the child thinks, while going to school, my mother put the glove.
What is the need for this glove? Child takes out the glove and throws it away. Then the child gets beaten. So like that, we, the circumstances, the adverse circumstances that we have, if we see them as impetuses for remembering Krishna, then from the world’s perspective, the stick is falling.
From the world’s perspective, we will be going through a lot of problems. But from our inner perspective, we will not be so disturbed. We will be composed because we are sheltered by Krishna.
But if we think, oh, what is this? I don’t need all this shelter of Krishna. We take out the glove. Then we will get beaten.
So rather than seeing obstacles as, why is Krishna not sheltering me? Or how can I take shelter of Krishna? We can think obstacles are greater impetus for taking shelter of Krishna. And then we will experience how Krishna shelters when nothing, when all other shelters fail. Thank you very much.