As a to-be householder, should I work fulltime in a temple or take a job outside

Answer Podcast

Jai Krishna Prabhupada ki! Jai! Gaur Bhakta Vendaki! Jai! Jai Gaur Prema! Jai! In such decisions, a lot will depend on time, place, circumstance.
So, I can’t give a specific answer, but I can talk about some general principles. Broadly, our mission, our movement is moving more and more towards, we are going to have more and more grhasthas. And we need to engage grhasthas as much as possible in missionary work.
That’s how our movement will spread. So, if there is an opportunity for devotees to work for the mission, that’s wonderful. Because the number of brahmacharis is always going to be finite, even among a small percentage of those who become devotees.
So, we definitely need grhasthas to take up missionary work, and our movement also needs to facilitate grhasthas to take up that missionary work. So, if there is an opportunity, it should be seriously considered. And I would say, broadly speaking, there are three factors which we may need to consider.
There is security, privacy and propensity. Security means, financial security is an important consideration for those in the grhastha ashram. And devotees can have this kind of financial security in multiple ways, even when they want to serve Krishna full time.
One way is that they work for some time outside, and they earn a reasonable amount, save that amount, invest it in some property or somewhere else where they get good interest, and then they can work full time. Then while working full time, if they are getting some lakshmi, some maintenance, they have some supplementary income along with that. Or rather, the money from the retirement will be their primary, and what they are getting from the temple is secondary.
The second option could be that the devotee is young and doesn’t want to go into any job outside at all. Then they can check whether they could do both in parallel. So we might gain some inheritance also, that might help.
Or we might have a job, which is a part time job, which is a freelance kind of job, if we have some talents in that field. Then we work and earn on the side while also working for Krishna as our major work. Third is that even if one is not working for Krishna, one is not having a job, and one is feeling that whatever I get from the temple is enough for my maintenance, then at that time also one needs to consider that while we are in the temple, what is the work that we are doing.
If we are learning some tangible skill that can help us to earn, then that is a significant advantage also. That means if somebody is learning some specific skill, somebody is looking after the computer department in a temple, somebody is doing a managerial role. So there are certain skills which are used in bhakti, which are also usable for the purposes of marketing.
So when that happens, then that is also something with which one can earn in the long run if it is required. If in the future somehow, for whatever reasons, working with the temple doesn’t work out, then that is an option which can be considered. Even those who become brahmacharis, they are advised that they complete their degrees and also try to get some job experience so that if later they feel that the monk’s life is not for them, then they can have some degree to fall back on.
So we want to depend on Krishna and ultimately no arrangement of security is foolproof in this world. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t bother about security at all. Because we have to see that Krishna has given us intelligence and we are meant to use that intelligence in His service.
So part of using that intelligence in His service is also recognising that we make our plans for security. Arjuna was dependent on Krishna when he fought the Kurukshetra war. But he also practised archery lifelong.
So he just wouldn’t go into the war. So we can see that we also use our God-given intelligence to do our service to Krishna. Moving on, the next thing which we can consider is privacy.
That if somebody is going to be in a temple, then working in a temple, it’s almost like our office and our home becomes the same place. Generally, for most devotees, there is the office, there is the home and there is the temple. There are three things.
So for those who live in the temple, especially, if you’re not just working in the temple, but you’re living in the temple, then all three become one. And although we like to have the same service attitude with which we function at the home and the office and at work and in the temple, but still there is a difference between the three. The mood with which we go to a temple is very different from the mood which we go to office.
And the mood we go to office is very different from the mood with which we go to our home, say. So this difference becomes difficult to maintain when we are working for a temple. It becomes our office.
So it becomes our material workplace as well as our spiritual shelter and which to seek when that can become a confusion for many people. And to deal with that, one has to come up with one’s own strategies. Now what exactly that strategy will be and how it will work, that has to be decided according to time, place, circumstance.
So if one feels a very strong need for having one’s private space, then bringing the three together, the temple, the home and the office together, or even the temple and the office together, that may make one feel somewhat choked. Now of course this depends on how much shelter we get in our relationships and how much we get shelter in our activities. Some people are more project-oriented, things-oriented.
Some people are more people-oriented. It’s not that one is right and the other is wrong. It’s just that they’re different.
So if we are more people-oriented, then it may work out that having the same place where we deal with people professionally and then we deal with them personally, like we do in office and home respectively, that may become difficult. So that’s one consideration also. And depending on individual nature, that will be a major or minor concern.
The third would be propensity. By propensity I mean, now what is it, all of us have certain swabha or certain nature. And based on that we may have certain aspirations of what we want to do in our life.
So if we have a strong career ambition to do a particular, to follow a particular trajectory, we feel these are my talents and this is how I want to use them. Then we have to see whether while serving Krishna those talents are usable or they’re better usable for working outside. So for example, if somebody is very good at software programs or is writing software programs and writing code and doing that kind of thing, now they may be able to do exceptionally well because of their talent in the outside world.
And because there’s nothing directly analogous which they can do within the scope of bhakti, they may feel unfulfilled by that. So for most people their job is just a job. For many people, that means that’s just the way they want, they’re earning their living.
And they’re not particularly emotionally or intellectually invested in any particular job. Some people may study engineering because it’s a job for them by which they can have financial security and social position. For others it may be a drive that they want to innovate, they want to invent and that is the way they feel inspired and driven to contribute.
So if one has a particular vocation to which one is very strongly inspired and if that is fulfillable within the devotional circle through our work, say for example, somebody likes to decorate, do things artistically, decoration and that person is given a service of the DT department. Then they will be very happy because what is their propensity, they will be able to do it very nicely. In fact, everything else will be a distraction for them and this will be the way to fulfillment for them.
So on the other hand, somebody likes to deal in stocks and invest and then multiply the investor’s amounts. So if we don’t have a particular, if we have some propensity which is very strong and which is not fulfillable directly within devotional circles, then we may want to consider working outside in a job or in a role where that innate drive can be fulfilled. In contrast, if we have a drive which can be fulfilled in devotional circles, then that is all the more a reason to start practicing bhakti enthusiastically because we see that actually this is what I want to do and this is what I am able to do.
So if somebody likes to sing, somebody likes to speak, somebody likes to paint and if those kind of services are facilitated by our working for the temple, then that can give us long term stability. We all need to battle against the lower tastes of worldly pleasures and this battle will be won when we get the higher taste of absorption in Krishna. Till that absorption comes, we need to get what we could call an intermediate higher taste.
It’s a dharmic material higher taste you could call it. The brahmana works as a brahmana. The brahmana gets some taste, the satisfaction in living in harmony with our material nature.
And that satisfaction enables us to function responsibly in our respective roles and move towards further steady application of our minds to the process of purification by which we will eventually attain the state of higher satisfaction. Because moving from lower material taste to higher spiritual taste takes time. And if during that we are getting some material higher taste, that means our nature is also at one level a product of our karma.
At another level, it’s not just a random mixture of our karma. It is a product of karma that is arranged by Krishna in a particular way that is conducive for our spiritual evolution. So if we see that we can do certain things in our relationship with Krishna through using some of the gifts that he has given us, then that will give us the satisfaction, the fulfillment by which we can persevere in the pursuit of the devotional higher taste of direct absorption in Krishna.
So if we consider these factors, the security, the privacy and the propensity, and if we find that there’s a opportunity for us to serve in a project where these things are taken care of, then definitely working for Krishna’s mission is a wonderful thing to do. We’ll ourselves be living much closer to Krishna in our external situation also that will facilitate our internal remembrance. And if we consider Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about various levels from 12.8 to 12.
So in 12.8 he says just fix your mind on me and in this way you will live in me. In 12.9 he says that if you can’t do that, then try to fix your mind on me. That is sadhana bhakti.
That is what we all are trying to do when we follow the process of sadhana. Beyond that, he says that you work for me. Now work for me can be at various levels.
One is we work directly for Krishna doing his service. Second is that we work according to our nature, do it in the mood of service and then offer the fruits of that work to Krishna. And below that Krishna says that you then you work for some good work, whatever you’re doing and give it in charity.
Try to cultivate some selflessness. So this way we all can move towards Krishna in our spiritual journey. So if we are working for Krishna and not just give the fruits of our work to Krishna, then at one level that is a stronger connection with him.
And not only the stronger connection with him, but also opportunity for greater contribution. All of us, according to our nature, our situation, we all can contribute in our own ways to sharing Krishna with others and to relishing Krishna ourselves. And by praying to Krishna, by thinking deeply in the mood of prayer, after consulting with those who know as well, we can take a decision.
Krishna will guide us from within. Krishna says, I’ll give the intelligence by which you can come to me. Thank you.