Should devotees give up all pious religious duties and focus only on bhakti?

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So there is something like our debt to the Devatas or our ancestors and there are some pious activities that are recommended like digging a well or something like that so how should devotees see this? Yes, so Prabhupada in the Ishvopanishad says that all kinds of isms in terms of communism, capitalism all these isms can be perfected if they are done for Krishna so basically now, actually this was going to be the concluding part of my class but let’s bring it to this point here as compared to papa, punya is you could say hundreds of times better why hundreds of times better? like even this example I gave of family structure and of parenting and abortion and all that so when I go to colleges in America and Canada and Western Australia when I talk with students, so many kids are from broken families there was one boy, I was there for almost 2 months and this boy was coming for each program and after coming for 4 or 5 programs he decided to go to close to JSA I grew up in a foster home and I asked him, what happened? did your parents pass away in an accident or what? he says no, both my parents are alive I said really? then why are you in a foster home? he said when I was 5, my parents separated when they separated, both my parents told me that this marriage was the biggest mistake of my life and you remind me of that mistake and both the parents said, I don’t want anything to do with you ok, how horrifying it is, isn’t it? you know, ok but what is a child’s mistake? you know your marriage may be a mistake, but why take it out of the child? so although he had both parents, he became a ward of the state and he went to an orphanage for some time but after that he was in a foster home so now, here you can say that what is the level of irresponsibility about it? ok, two people can’t get along sometimes it happens, what can be done? it’s not good, but sometimes we should try to tolerate, but we can’t what to do? at one level, after marriage say, the parents make children but at another level, the children make parents in the sense that, children force people to become responsible I can’t just think about my pleasure and my indulgences I think of the child and start taking care of the child now everybody has a need to nurture a need to nurture and if somebody doesn’t take care of that need to nurture then they will find something else to nurture so somehow in the western world feminism, if you want to say feminism in terms of women should be given equal opportunities in their career that’s fine, but sometimes feminism becomes very aggressive so what happens? there is a trivialization of the maternal role and then, so this abortion it is quite clearly if we look at it from a scientific perspective, logical perspective it’s that the baby has life but what some aggressive feminists say is that now Prabhupada gave a simple reason, a man and a woman come together without proper responsibility and the woman becomes pregnant, and then she is stuck with the child so women need to be protected and marriage is a structure where they are protected Prabhupada said, actually nature has been unfair to us so their argument is when I first read it, I was shocked it says, pregnancy is biological slavery and abortion is technological liberation so nature has been so unfair to us that nature has burdened us with pregnancy actually bearing a new life is a special privilege and that privilege nature gives to women it’s such a deep rooted need but when that is completely distorted society can collapse completely so, in many traditional cultures, if a couple doesn’t have a child they feel unhappy and they try various means to have a child there are so many kings who do various yajnas even Ramayana there is a shloka that does various yajnas so now, there are many women, they say they don’t like to say, I am childless they say, I am child free now, if somebody doesn’t want to have children, that’s ok that’s their choice but to say, he says, I am child free child is a burden we just let ourselves be completely governed by impulses now, society will just not have a foundation at all so, the point I am making here is they are taking care of the family it’s the basic functional unit for society now, even if your family members don’t become devotees but still, taking up responsibility is very important and getting out of arsons by that if one takes care of one’s family responsibilities, that is purviya if somebody thinks that is all that is there to dharma then that’s incomplete but we can’t minimize or trivialize that same way, if we live in a broader social circle the whole principle of yajna is that, if we take something, we have to give something so, if we are taking something from society it’s our duty to give something to society just like, we take amenities from the government and we give taxes to the government similarly, as far as charity is concerned sometimes, if charity becomes a substitute for spiritual or rather, social welfare becomes a substitute for spiritual welfare then, that is unhealthy but it’s not always that it has to be a competitor for that sometimes it can be there’s one disaster relief organization whose slogan is God, in double quotes God sends disasters, we send relief it’s a horrible way of looking at things it’s not that God is sending disasters it is, now, why disasters happen we can get into a lot of analysis about that but the point is, God is not the cause of the suffering of the world God is ultimately the cure of the suffering of the world so, if somebody starts doing social welfare as a means of rejecting God then that social welfare is unhealthy so, in India also, there are some people who say now, ok, it depends on what context we are saying it if we are saying that, oh, people are starving and you just go to the temple and worship the temple and not take care of people at all well, that should not be done in most Indian temples, wherever there is opulent worship of the deities there is also abundant distribution of food and anybody can come and take food in the Udupi temples, only the temples so, we don’t have to separate Manoseva and Madhoseva like that so, in Madhoseva, Madhoseva is not just going to temple and doing worship Madhoseva is a holistic culture which also includes taking care of humans you see, in the Govardhan puja when the puja is done for Govardhan Krishna says, offer food to everyone offer food to not just cows but all living beings other animals also and not just to brahmanas give dakshina and food give to all people of all castes so, the point over there is that Madhoseva is a whole culture which includes Manoseva but when Manoseva is separated from Madhoseva you just do this, why do you need to do that? so, some people, there was one person who was considered to be quite a prominent spiritual teacher he said, you Hindus why do you worship, why do you water Tulsi? what do you give out in Tulsi? you don’t want to spend time watering something you water a brinjal tree you get something to eat now, this is completely utilitarian and there is no transcendental understanding Tulsi Devi is a manifestation of the Supreme Goddess of Fortune and worshipping her now, how much water are you going to put in Tulsi? is Tulsi a competitor to some edible food? hardly so, when Manoseva is positioned as a competitor to Madhoseva then what happens? people say, why do you spend so much money on this? you spend money on this but Madhoseva is inclusive and these things can also be done within the temple so, I am not interested in charity or any kind of social activism social welfare see, as devotees we all have certain drives which we get from the past some people might be even before coming to Bhakti they might have a lot of zeal to do some kind of social welfare and if they have that zeal it’s not that in Bhakti you have to give it up you spiritualise it if you like to distribute food then let’s see how you can offer food to Krishna and then distribute that food if you like to help poor people then see, what could you do maybe you could have a build some houses but have something spiritual within it so, there are various ways in which devotees at individual level if that is what they are inspired to do they can surely do that actually, Prabhupada started ISKCON for a primary purpose that is, promoting Krishna Consciousness so, the primary energies of the Krishna Consciousness movement should be focused on the direct activities of promoting Krishna Consciousness but devotees who are inspired by the principle of Krishna Consciousness they can take that at an individual level using their own inspiration they can do other activities so, when we do such activities there is a standard person of Krishna Consciousness and there is an individual inspiration which we may have which is broadly compatible with Krishna Consciousness so, the individual inspiration that we may have we could say that is like a preference and say, chanting Hare Krishna or worshipping the deities or having satsang this is the principle so, preferences if we have there is no need to campaign for them that everybody should do it and for somebody else they don’t need to campaign don’t do this you feel inspired, do that and do it in Krishna Consciousness so, when preferences are made into principles then it becomes fanatical so, same way with respect to somebody who has been brought up in a Dharmic Consciousness and they would do some they would give some charity just because they have come to Bhakti they won’t stop giving that charity somebody did not have that Consciousness before is it that by practicing Bhakti they will develop that Consciousness they may or they may not because each one of us has a particular kind of body and mind and with a particular kind of body and mind we will function accordingly somebody who has just come to Bhakti and they are struggling to chant so many rounds come to these programs and you tell them, actually you do this charity also you do this also this is too much for me I can’t do this so, there is no need to impose this but there is no need to reject this also so, in general as devotees we should live at the level of Punya we don’t want to do Punya we want to do Bhakti but apart from Bhakti there are direct devotional activities apart from the direct devotional activities we should be living at a level of Morality and we could say Culture Culture and values so, Prabhupada was asked how do we know your followers so, Prabhupada could have said they chant 16 rounds they follow these 4 rags or whatever but Prabhupada did not say that what Prabhupada said was that my followers are perfect ladies and gentlemen now, what does ladies and gentlemen mean that means they behave in a way that is respectable that is cultured that is, that will be appreciated by people in society because people in general they are not going to care how many rounds you chant they are not going to care how much you fast they are not going to care how much puja you do they will see how you behave how you behave and how you conduct yourself in your day to day work so, that’s why that is important, we cannot pre-realize that so, in general devotees should live at, devotees are recommended to live at the level of Punya it’s not that we want to do Punya but Punya means we can see the big picture we don’t just live for our immediate pleasures we see the big picture and you contribute to society you contribute to nation you contribute to the family, you contribute to the community and ultimately you contribute to Krishna also does that answer your question? any other questions about this?