Should we serve Krishna as we feel inspired or as we are instructed?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so if we have this master’s mission which we want to assist in and sometimes that may fall in our area of interest, talent or ambition and sometimes it may not so if it does not then do we postpone our area of interest till the spiritual master’s mission is over and then do what we want to do or do we just do what the spiritual master wants us to do right away or do we do what we are interested in what we feel inspired to do bhakti is individual and each of us has to find out how best we can ultimately the spiritual master’s mission is not just a particular project or a particular service, that is important but the spiritual master’s most important mission is that they want us to become attracted to Krishna to become fixed and devoted to Krishna so if we feel strongly inspired to do something and we do that spiritual master and we do it well, the spiritual master is happy with that like Maharaj was preaching in India and he just got completely fried out trying to do the management and then he said I want to go to America and preach he had signed in a sense he was an adventurous person and he wanted to travel and preach and get people, but here he was simply clogged in management get this permission, do this, do that Prabhupada wanted him to stay in India but still he went to America Prabhupada was not so happy but then eventually even Prabhupada saw that what he was doing in the Rajamouli bus party, Prabhupada was very happy so Prabhupada did not say hold it against me, you disobeyed my instruction Prabhupada was happily, productively engaged in Krishna’s service so I would say that there is to be every individual and in general we have to find out what is our greater need in general we won’t get two things together we won’t get freedom and facility together by facility I mean in this context the person associated with the spiritual master if we are working in a project that is very important for our spiritual master, spiritual mentor, whoever they are then naturally because that is what they are doing, they will give us much more time than what they will give otherwise so if that personal association is a very great need of ours, we feel very inspired by that, it is very important for us then we may just do what they tell us to do and move on in our life but if you want freedom by freedom I mean the scope to do what we feel inspired to do then we we can have that but then we should not be demanding facility in terms of the personal association of the spiritual master the spiritual master should be our well wisher, should be our guide but naturally that is not the project which they are stressing, they may not be able to give that much time, they also have 24 hours a day in their life, so the problem comes when we want both to do what we want to do and we want their time also that will not work and I would say that the spiritual master may well be equally pleased with both so somebody who may just be, stay in the spiritual master’s project and and serve over there dedicatedly, somebody else may go from that spiritual master’s project to somewhere else and start a big project over there and be very successful over there so both may be serving Krishna and the spiritual master very faithfully but it’s not that naturally the person who is away, who is doing their own project, they will not get that much association with the spiritual master, that doesn’t mean that they are lesser servants to the spiritual master it’s just that, that is the choice they have made or that is the instruction they have been given, ideally speaking the spiritual authority who is guiding should be mature enough to understand what is the stronger need of the particular person, so we have a need for association and we also have a need for serving according to our inspiration and some devotees they just want to be with their spiritual master now what service I do, it doesn’t matter as long as I am with the spiritual master, my life is perfect some devotees this is what I want to do and ok, travelling with the spiritual master, being with them is good but what am I doing practically for Krishna so we have to see our need each one of us is individual and we have to find out what is our strong need it’s just like oxygen is our need and then oxygen is not provided for, normally we don’t even notice that we are taking oxygen, but when oxygen is not provided for at that time we can’t stop, we can’t stop thinking of it we just can’t think of anything else till the need for oxygen is provided so similarly for us some needs are like that we just need it and without getting that we can’t move on so our the kind of service we do will depend primarily on what our need is and as far as the spiritual master mission is concerned, yes the spiritual master strongly in a particular situation needs something to be done so he may tell at that time, do this but generally the spiritual master also looks at the nature of the followers so now I am going to America so I get a lot of, not a lot but much more than what I am getting in India of Radhanath Maharaj, so then I also spend a lot of time with Giriraj Maharaj so I was talking to Giriraj Maharaj and I was telling him about my American preaching and what I am doing and then he, when I was leaving, I spent a whole day with him, he was very kind to me I have learnt a lot about Radhanath Maharaj from you what do you mean by that? he said, you know you told me about all your interactions with Maharaj he said that not one of those Maharaj gave you any instruction he said if you feel inspired to do this you have my blessings so he did not tell me you have to do this he said this is the way Maharaj works so rather than he can tell that this is what this is what you want to do, you have my blessings but rather than you have to do it, its not like that so I would say if we are in a guiding position it is natural that we will express our desires so expressing our desire is just natural for all of us whatever be our spiritual level of advancement the more advanced we are our desires will be purer, but still they are our desires expressing our desires is just natural imposing our desire is not so spiritual master this is what I would like to do but this is what you have to do if you don’t do this you are no longer my disciple that will be a catastrophe for the disciple so when we are instructing also at one level we express our desire to others what we would like them to do or what we have to do and what we need assistance for but then we we are also we are not imposing that if they want to do something else, naturally we give them the freedom to do