While doing our service is seeing everything in connection with Krishna necessary?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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By doing our service, is it necessary to always see everything in connection with Krishna? Or should we just do the service like other people? Krishna consciousness is not like digital logic, one or zero. It is analog.
Our consciousness of Krishna becomes more and more as we progress more and more in bhakti. So, initially when we are practicing bhakti, so, Krishna is in the background of our consciousness. And we ourselves are at the foreground.
I am doing this. So, first time, say, say first time I gave a class 20 years ago or something. So, I was very conscious.
I am speaking class. How is my Tilak? And what are people thinking about me? Am I pronouncing it properly? All these externals are very important. But as we keep serving Krishna, what happens is the world and the specific thing that we are doing in the world, we are aware of them.
But they start going to the background. And Krishna starts coming to the foreground. So, eventually, you know, who I am speaking to, or the fact that I am doing public speaking is not as important that I am speaking to Krishna.
So, for Srila Prabhupada, this is for Harish Aurobindo to write that. Now, whether Prabhupada was speaking to two or four people during a private darshan, or whether he was speaking to 1000 people in a bandhal program, Prabhupada would speak with the same enthusiasm, same energy, because he was speaking about Krishna for Krishna’s pleasure. So, similarly, the more we start practicing bhakti, the externals do not matter so much.
So, whether I am speaking, whether a person is speaking in Kharagpur or Mumbai or London or Canada or wherever, we are speaking about Krishna. What we are speaking about is more important than where we are speaking. Whether we are travelling by a bullock cart or by a rail plane, that does not matter as much as why we are travelling.
So, like that, gradually, as we keep practicing bhakti, the externals we are aware, but they go in the background. And the purpose of why we are doing it, that comes more and more in the foreground. So, it is not necessary that in every activity that we are doing, we have to consciously strive to think about Krishna.
It was not that when Arjuna was fighting the Kurukshetra war, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, he was not shooting arrows and saying Hare Krishna. He was completely focused on how to fight, how to shoot the arrows, how to kill the enemies. But, so, what was the Krishna connection at that time? The Krishna connection was in intention.
He was fighting the war for Krishna’s sake. So, say, if we are discussing some scientific arguments on reincarnation, existence of God or science and spirituality, then it is not necessary that throughout we are always thinking about Krishna. We may be deep in the science of that subject, but our intention is to help share Krishna’s glory.
Having said that, the first level of connection is primarily with intention. Having said that, if we are regularly encountering certain manifestations, if we are regularly doing a particular activity, then it is worthwhile to take some time out to acquire a more spiritual vision of that activity. So, for example, if you are dealing with money a lot, then it is worthwhile to take some time out to read about Lakshmi Devi and how Lakshmi Devi manifests as money, how money can be used in Krishna’s service.
So, if you are doing a specific service on a regular basis, spending some time to spiritualize our vision of that service is very helpful. Say, for example, when I am writing, then I am, when I am writing, I am writing about Krishna, but I am not really thinking about Krishna. So, I am thinking, is this punctuation right, is this the word right word, is this too long, is this too short, is this a easy enough word, is this a tough enough word.
I am to some extent thinking about the technicalities of writing. But then, if I associate with other devotees also who are writers, and they have been practicing bhakti for many years, they have been writing for Krishna for decades, then I see, how they see the kind of Krishna I wrote. They see, whenever I get an idea, for me, as soon as the idea comes, I want to write an article about it.
And then, whenever one devotee writes, whenever I get an idea, the first thing I do, I thank Krishna. So, for me, when the idea comes, the first thing is, I will tap the idea and write. But then, the Krishna connection which I got by associating with these devotees, all this idea, where did it come from, it just came, it is ultimately coming from Krishna.
Remember Krishna, thank Krishna for that. So, like that, if you are doing a specific service on a regular basis, associating with those who have been doing it in a devotional mood for a long time can help us to see Krishna more in that sense. Because when you keep doing something regularly, there is a tendency to become mechanical in it.
So, we are reading about how that service is spiritual, associating with those who are seeing it spiritually, that helps us infuse spiritual consciousness into that service. But we do not have to stop the service till we get spiritual consciousness. We continue the service and try to infuse it with spiritual intentions and with spiritual connections as much as possible.
Our primary purpose is to do the service. In devotional service, devotion is the adjective, service is the noun. That means, we want to do service and we want to be devotional.
But even if we cannot be devotional, just do the service. Gradually, the devotional intention will come as we keep doing it.