By focusing on future spiritual happiness are we running away from living in the present?

Answer Podcast

So, in New Age spirituality, there is the idea that we should live in the present and experience the present. So, if there is pleasure, there is pain, we just accept that.
But if we just think of something in the future, some happiness we will get. Then, are we trying to escape from the present reality? There are two different things. There is living in the present and there is living for the present.
We also live in the present, but we don’t live for the present. Living in the present means we are aware of what is happening. So, devotees are also conscious.
We live in the present, but our goal is not just in the present. We live for something higher. We are living for Krishna.
We are living for attaining Krishna. So, being in the present and being purposeful are not necessarily contradictory. Because, that purpose is achieved by how we live in the present.
That means that if we say in the future we will become absorbed in Krishna, we will develop love for Krishna and thereby we are going to experience great happiness. But how are we going to come to that level of absorbing ourselves in love for Krishna? That will depend on how we are living right now. So, a devotee is aware of the present.
And Prabhupada explains in the purport, how a devotee sees the present joys and the present pains. He says when the joys come, the devotee says, Krishna, you are so kind to have put me in a comfortable situation so that I can serve you better. And when distresses come, a devotee thinks that, okay, these distresses are there.
Just my own past karmic reactions are there. But Krishna has kindly minimized them. So, a devotee is aware of the present, but a devotee’s awareness is not limited to the present.
So, we see the present and we see the present as the womb of the future. As the womb. The means by which the future is going to manifest.
So, as if somebody is only thinking about the future and using daydreaming about the future as a means to escape from the present, then that is undesirable. The characteristic of daydreaming is that one is not doing anything practical right now. One is only fantasizing.
But that’s not the process of bhakti. We do have a glorious future which we are aspiring for, but we aspire for it by how we act in the present. So, yes, be here now, as they say in new age, that’s fine, but be here now for what purpose? There is a purpose to life and that purpose is that we want to experience Krishna’s presence now and we want to experience Krishna’s presence more and more in the future.
So, when I was talking about, say, the five rupee gain or loss and five crore gain eventually, the five rupee gain or loss is basically experiencing material phenomena in isolation. That means I just get some food, oh, it’s so delicious. I get some food, it tastes so bad.
I’m just experiencing them in isolation. But a devotee may also experience this food is so delicious. But the devotee thinks this is actually food offered to Krishna.
This is Krishna’s mercy manifesting. So, we experience the present but we don’t just, our experience is not just limited to the material phenomena that we are experiencing. We see those material phenomena in connection with Krishna.
And therefore, because we see the connection with Krishna, the material phenomena itself does not matter that much. It’s not that we are blind to it, it’s not that we are denying it, but it’s that we don’t allow that to dominate our consciousness. So, in spiritual life, we give attention to the present.
But we don’t give monopoly on our attention to the present. Monopoly. Monopoly? How do you pronounce it in American? Monopoly.
We don’t give monopoly on the monopoly on our attention to the present. We are aware of the present but we understand that Krishna is the master of the present, the past and the future. So, Krishna is present in the present and Krishna will be present in the future also.
So, by being conscious of Krishna, a devotee sees material ups and downs in context without getting too elated or too dejected. Any other questions? Not a question, just a reflection.