When spiritual life seems impractical – because of body, family, society and job

[Congregation program at Ashburn, Washington DC, USA]

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I spoke today I spoke on the topic of how to when spiritual life seems impractical what to do so I talked about Krishna offering multiple levels that you can connect with him and spiritual life is not just stereotype this is what we have to do then we are spiritual I talked about four broad things which may make spiritual life seem impractical what are the first so our body itself so we don’t work for the body pandering to all his desires we don’t work against the body depriving the body we work with the body for Krishna and we treat the body like a vehicle and cater to whatever its needs are and the body is a vital resource for us and if we eat too much if we eat too little it all becomes problematic so the second was so focus on it was family so I talked about we have vertical relationship with Krishna horizontal relationship with others and ideal situation is the horizontal and the vertical are symbiotic both strengthen each other and whatever we have to do in our horizontal relationship instead of seeing that simply as mundane we can see that also as a way to serve Krishna in that particular situation in that particular relationship and whatever love and affection we get in the horizontal relationships we are grateful for that but we don’t become attached if we understand that ultimately it is Krishna giving me this to them so we don’t have to see intrinsically the horizontal relationship as a temptation as a competitor to the vertical relationship it can be if it distracts us so we need to balance by recognizing that sometimes the horizontal relationship will require more time we need to give it but if it becomes all consuming then we recognize that just giving more time doesn’t necessarily mean that the situation gets solved better it’s not always a linear proportion it’s linear after hits a plateau it goes down sometimes taking a break and rejuvenating ourselves spiritually can actually help us to function better in our horizontal relationships also then I talked about society so if we didn’t condemn the materialistic society as just anti-devotional we can within that find that which is pro-devotional and utilize that and rather than where things are anti-devotional we don’t have to be prescriptive or normative we can simply be descriptive and if we give people their space they will often give us our space also and lastly I talked about our job where I said that just as when cancer is also growth but it is disproportionally destructive like that if you become workaholic then that’s destructive but we don’t have to see our work only as mundane if you can worship Krishna also through our work and the whole mood is that what we are is Krishna’s gift to us what we become is our gift to Krishna so thank you very much