When we have to work so many hours in nondevotional jobs for our financial needs, how can we grow devotionally?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Do more Krishna Bhakti. In general, there are two broad conceptions of how we see Krishna Bhakti or rather how we see the spiritual and the material.
One is we see spiritual and material as competitive. Oh, I go to my job, that is material and I come to the temple and practice Bhakti, that is spiritual and that material is taking my time away from the spiritual. That’s one way of looking at things.
Another way of looking at it is that we see that Krishna is not just the God of the temple. Krishna is the God of the whole world. Krishna is the God of my office also.
Krishna is the God of everything. So, we see that even our work is a form of service to Krishna. So, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, sva-karmaṁ tam abhyarcha siddhiṁ vindati māṅgavaḥ that by your work, worship Him.
So, Arjuna, when he was practicing as an archer, he was not thinking at that time, he did not know at that time that in the future there is going to be a great war in which my archery skills will be used in this service, in Krishna’s service. No, he just practiced archery and excelled in it because that was his karma. The Kshatriya, as a martial guardian of society, he did that well.
But of course, he also took time out to associate with the sages, hear from them. So, we needn’t see, especially in the Granth Ashram and we are more or less in our youth, at that time we don’t have to see the material and spiritual as competitive. We see them as complementary.
That even through our material life, whatever talents we have, Krishna says, I am the ability to give to others. So, my talents are gifts from Krishna. I am using them in Krishna’s service.
And who knows what doors Krishna may open for us in the future. We learn some skills, we develop some, get some position in society and then Krishna may give us some opportunity even for direct service later on through those talents. So, it’s important that we don’t become workaholics.
Workaholics, they not only neglect God, but actually they neglect even their family. They even neglect their own bodies, get obsessed with work. We don’t want to do that.
But whatever time we are working, we can do that in the mood of service to Krishna. And through that also, through the position that we have, through the proficiency that we have, we can attract people to Krishna through that. I was in a university in India and one student asked me, how can I preach to my other students? How can I inspire them to become devotees? So, I told him, by studying myself.
Of course, there is no guarantee that if you study well, your friends will become devotees. But I can almost guarantee you that if you don’t study well, they will never become devotees. Because very few people are directly spiritually interested.
Very, very few people. There are some exalted Prabhupada disciples who went out in search for God. But most of us didn’t go out in search for God.
God’s devotees came out in search for us. So, there are very few people who are directly spiritually interested. What people will see is how we are functioning in the material world.
Not that we have to be workaholics, but if we are reasonably good at our work, if we are well-behaved, if we are cultured, people see that. In a television interview, somebody asked Prabhupada, how do we know your disciples? Prabhupada said that they are perfect gentlemen. Perfect ladies, perfect gentlemen.
So, we do not say they are constantly chanting Hare Krishna, they dance on the streets in Kirtan. All that is true. But at that point, people, what will they make sense of that? They will see how we function, how we behave, how we interact.
So, if we are doing our job well, if we are interacting nicely, people see that. And they can become attracted to Krishna. So, we need to have this integrated understanding of Krishna Consciousness.
Yes, for practical purposes, to make sure that we have enough time for direct devotional activities, we can separate. Every evening, if I go to a program, or in the morning, I will be chanting. I separate my life into material and spiritual.
But after allotting the basic time for our direct devotional activities, we don’t have to constantly think, oh, this is material, this is spiritual. Ultimately, what is material and what is spiritual? It is determined by attitude. If my attitude is to serve Krishna, then I am actually in a devotional disposition.
Somebody may be in office, and they may be doing that in a devotional way. Oh, I have a temple in my home. I earn well.
I provide for the deities at home. I serve the devotees. I provide for Krishna’s mission.
I take care of my family members. Somebody can have a devotional disposition. Somebody can be in a temple, and they may be on an ego trip.
How many followers do I have? How much fame do I have? So if that happens, then their consciousness will be more mundane than somebody who is outside. This doesn’t mean in any way to minimize direct devotional activities. They are important.
We would like to do them more. But the point is that we don’t have to dishearten ourselves because we are not able to do them right now more. Even our material activities can be spiritualized.
As we keep doing this, gradually we ourselves will develop that realization and renunciation organically. So yes, I did this now. I want to focus more on Krishna.
So after we get some financial stability, after we have some good experience, then we can maybe take a less demanding job where we can focus more on direct Krishna bhakti. So it can be a gradual process. One definition of surrender is that surrender means to serve Krishna with what we have now.
In the future, if I have more renunciation, in the future if I have more time, I will serve Krishna then more. But now, with what I have, I will serve Krishna. That applies in everything.
It applies to our talents, it applies to our… Even if you want to do charity. Sometimes people say, Oh, I don’t have much money. I’ll do charity later.
That’s fine. But charity is not just an activity. Charity is a mentality.
So, it’s a habit. Even if I do a small amount now, I develop that habit. And that habit, that habit of mind is what will purify us much more than the specific amount that we have.
So, the externals are important. But the internal is also equally, if not more important. So by that integrated understanding of Krishna bhakti, we can spiritualize even our material life through our self-centredness.
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