Hanuman and Prabhupada were given a purpose – when we haven’t been given one how should we live?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, how do we live before we get our purpose? Actually, Prabhupada Hanuman got. It’s not that there is necessarily one particular moment of revolution when the purpose comes.
If you look at Arjuna, he was born in a Kshatriya family. And right from his early childhood, he knew that I want to be Kshatriya. And nobody told him specifically among the five Pandavas that you have to become a champion archer.
He went to Drona’s academy and there he saw that archery was what he was good at. And he started specializing in that. It was not that when he was tirelessly practicing archery, he knew in future there was going to be a great dharma yuga, great war for establishing dharma in which he would have to play a pivotal role.
He saw that this is the ability that I am good at. Let me use it in Krishna’s self. Let me develop it as well as I can.
And whenever the opportunity for service comes, I will use it. So we can say that for us, the sense of purpose can be at different levels. At one level we have ultimate purpose that we want to attain Krishna.
We want to develop pure love for Krishna and attain Krishna. But that purpose can sometimes seem too far away. We sometimes say that there are lost souls in the material world whom we want to get to Krishna’s movement.
That’s why we distribute books, we invite people for programs. Yes, there are lost souls in the material world who don’t know what is the goal of life. But there can be lost souls even in Krishna’s movement who don’t know what to do now in Krishna’s movement.
Because even in this crown you may have. Oh, this is happening, that is happening. Nowadays it’s very easy to get lost, especially if you go to dharms where hundred people are talking about hundred things.
We go on the internet and this people are saying this, that people are saying that. So even in Krishna’s movement we need a purpose. We have a long term purpose of going back to Krishna.
But we need short term purpose, we need medium term purpose. We have to meet multiple levels of purposes. That’s what will give us focus.
So for us, it need not be any particular specific resolution coming up. We just look at ourselves. We see what is our situation, what is our disposition.
And we think how best can we serve Krishna in this situation. There is a pastime, Prabhupada is one of his disciples, Ishan Prabhu. He is even now in Alachua, so whenever I go there I meet him sometimes.
So Prabhupada was in England and at that time England was the headquarters of the European outreach of Krishna Bhakti. So devotees from Germany, from France, from Netherlands, all those places, they had come to meet Prabhupada and everybody was reporting how are things in our temple over here, what is happening. So Ishan Prabhu was there and he said, everybody has some service to Srila Prabhupada, I don’t have any service.
So then he asked Prabhupada, Prabhupada what can I do for you? Prabhupada said, what do you want to do for Krishna? He said, whatever you tell me I will do. So Prabhupada said, what do you want to do? He said, whatever you tell me I will do. Prabhupada said, understand our philosophy.
He said, find out what you like to do and do it for Krishna. So find out what you like to do and do it for Krishna. There are some devotees who may be specifically told, do this for Krishna.
But it’s not that even in our Puranas also, we don’t see everybody giving one specific instruction. Is it that there are so many great sages, they are told, go and become a sage now? There are so many great kings, are they told specifically, become a king? It’s understood from their situation, that’s what they will do. But it’s not always so clear.
So rather than waiting for some instruction to come, we see that I have been given certain situation, certain disposition. Let me see how best I can serve in this situation. So we have a service of distributing books.
And we try to learn the best skills possible so that we can distribute books as much as possible for Krishna. If we have the service of decorating the deities, we try to learn how best we can decorate the deities. And then we do that.
If we are taking care of our children, we see how best can we give them the sanskaras, the impressions, by which they can become wonderful human beings and wonderful devotees. If we take care of our home, we think of how best can I spiritualize my home. If we have a job, we can think about how can I conduct myself in a job in such a way that I can attract more and more people to Krishna.
Either directly by the way I am acting in the job or by using the position to attract others or by using the job to create financial security so that I can focus more of my energy on Krishna. So we have to find out how our present situation can be used to serve Krishna. I was in L.A. recently, before I came here.
So there is one of Srila Prabhupada’s scientist disciples is there, Datta Karma Prabhu. So he is not exactly from science background, but he took up that service. Then I asked him, how did he take up this service? He said, when I read Srila Prabhupada’s books several times, all of his books, I felt that Prabhupada very strongly wanted scientific outreach to happen.
So he said, I see Srila Prabhupada’s books themselves as filled with jewels of his instructions. And we can take just one of those instructions. And if we take that instruction and try to fulfill that, that will be like a jewel which will enrich our life.
So he took that instruction. Prabhupada talks about scientifically to establish the principles of Krishna Bhakti. He took that and he made that the purpose of his life.
And now he is invited all over the world. And the royal places where great scientists have spoken in Britain and all over the world. That just became his purpose.
So it’s not that we have to be, first of all, we don’t have to be given a special purpose or we don’t have to be specially given a purpose. Through some special occasion or some special purpose. It can just be the ordinary thing that we are doing.