Concluding QA session in Dharma to Prema Retreat

Retreat at Ballarat, Session 4

So the question is that sometimes when say a devotee is coming to Krishna at that time some senior devotees be very insensitive at that time when they come that creates a scar and later on that impedes one's progress in one's bhakti, one may even extrapolate that negativity from that devotee towards Krishna also it may affect one's progress in bhakti, so what can we do yeah, it's very distressing when this happens that personally all of us have to go through different challenges when we come to Krishna those challenges may be that our nature, our background our some past karma and even the particular kind of association that we find ourselves in so there is a circumstantial element in bhakti and there is a transcendental element transcendental element when we try to approach Krishna from the transcendental perspective when we try to approach Krishna everything that is happening is ultimately a part of Krishna's name so if we focus only on the circumstantial or just devoted it like this and that created so much problems for me then that focus on the circumstantial means that we are not really pursuing Krishna's hand over there that is our Krishna consciousness is right now quite limited so as devotees after we start practising bhakti at least we need to recognise that the circumstantial and the transcendental so we sometimes circumstantial will be favourable, sometimes circumstantial will be unfavourable as in the story of Sahaja Yoga we accept the favourable, we reject the unfavourable but our vision has to be in the transcendental this is also somehow a plan of Krishna to help me come closer to him how exactly that is so that we will now immediately understand so it is not that everything that happens in Krishna's moment is necessarily going to be favourable for to give a somewhat materialistic example of people suppose there is a stock exchange where people come to invest money so now people's hope in coming to the stock exchange is that by investing their money they can increase their money and in the stock exchange there are expert brokers who can help one to make one's money grow but sometimes in a stock exchange people will lose money at the same time if people want to grow their money they have to come to the stock exchange so Krishna's moment is like a stock exchange for our faith we come here in the association of devotees and here there are devotees who have much more faith than us they have practised the process they know how to increase one's faith the process is one but if in the association of devotees sometimes there is a stock exchange stock exchange is not made to cheat people or to do fraud but there are also that sort of elements that come in there are some people who may be actually have a malicious intention but there are some stock brokers who do not have a malicious intention but they will just be incompetent so just because we have come to a stock exchange that doesn't mean our money is no longer our responsibility or our money is going to automatically grow similarly just because we have come to Krishna Maharaj's movement does not mean that our faith is automatically going to grow or that now I have come to the devotee association that means I feel protecting or nourishing my faith is no longer my responsibility no, it is still always our responsibility so there are devotees who can if they are under some devotees who are not very sensitive who are not very compassionate or sometimes there may be because Krishna Maharaj's movement is an open movement anybody can come in and sometimes there may be people who may not be very spiritually interested at all and it may happen that our faith may get damaged so we have to recognise that it is always our responsibility to advance so as soon as we get this is going unfavourable, this is hurting my faith, this is damaging me see different devotees come from different backgrounds and they may be inspired by different people, we don't have to judge the other devotees but if we just associate with anyone and everyone, even within devotees sometimes we may find that they may not be inspired we may find that this is how a devotee behaves you may feel actually shocked by the kind of people now why they are behaving like that that may be a whole different they may be having some problem in their own life whatever it is, but the point is that anubhuti as a sangam kutti it is a vajra that has to apply even in our interaction with devotees Vishwanath ji would have to say that some devotees some people are practising bhakti but they are not well behaved then we can offer them respect from our distance and we can focus on practising our bhakti and associating with those who are properly behaved so that's the principle of taking responsibility for our faith and within that in this Advanthi Sangam Kutti we turn away from this world for some other reasons at the same time whatever has happened it is a part of overall Krishna's man by which we come closer and in some cases it may be that by our going through that experience, Prabhupada observes in Krishna that sometimes a person has been poor and after that person becomes wealthy then that person is conscious about wealth and also that person is more charitably inclined because that person knows the pinch of poverty similarly maybe it is a part of Krishna's plan that after we are warned by some insensitive behaviour we learn to become more sensitive and we help others also to become more sensitive and thus going through those problems first hand prepares us to do a service which we might not have been prepared to do otherwise and that way Krishna can draw straight even through a crooked line from line that seems to be crooked to us Krishna can eventually make a straight pattern through it so that's how if we say this in service to Krishna whatever negative is happening, Krishna will bring out some positive through it in the wrong way at the same time this is not to justify the wrong behaviour and if say those devotees are still acting in that way then we can report to authorities and if they take some action we have done our part so we don't hold it against those devotees but at the same time if there is insensitive behaviour we should do what we can to correct it within our circle of influence whatever it is and beyond that it is the process of entering the process of bhakti is like entering a purification fire so there is some amount of if somebody has gone through those situations very early days that also indicates that one is really serious about bhakti because that could very well have become an excuse for giving up bhakti so if in spite of the insensitive behaviour one is not giving that up then that indicates one is serious about Krishna despite all those difficulties one is persevering in bhakti and as far as extrapolating that to Krishna is concerned we have to know that actually it is not that everybody who is a Krishna devotee is necessarily representing Krishna in essence they are representing Krishna because they are devotees but they may not be representing Krishna properly and that's why we need to not just look only from certain example of devotees towards Krishna if we are to understand Krishna's quality and what Krishna is like then we have to look primarily at those devotees who inspire us in the 8th and 10th chapter of the Garudita Krishna first says aham sarvasya prabho mattah sarvam prabho in 10.8 he says that everything comes from me but then in 10.41 he states that yad yad vibhuti manasattvam shrima durjitam eva tattva deva pacchattvam mam tejyam shi sambhav he says that all attractive things get their attractiveness from me now if everything is coming from Krishna then isn't it understood that everything attractive is also coming from Krishna and then attractiveness is also coming from Krishna why does Krishna need to tell you specifically separately again the point is everything comes from Krishna but in this world there are certain things that attract us and it's not that everything attracts us earlier you said that diamond ring had fallen down now if some stone pebble had fallen down you would not have noted it there are so many things here but there are certain things which are attractive so the attractive things actually catch our attention and we connect Krishnamurti's guideline that attractiveness comes from Krishna that means whatever is attractive to us we should focus on that and recognise this attractiveness is coming from Krishna so if we find a certain devotee in a particular way that is actually preparing us and we should know that this is coming not from Krishna but it is coming from their conditionings whereas Krishna is manifesting through those devotees who have attractive qualities even sadhakas we also represent Krishna to some extent but we also manifest our own conditionings to a large extent also so if we focus on the conditioning of others and we think that is representing Krishna that is not representing Krishna so it is those devotees who have attractive qualities and those attractive qualities this is the manifestation of Krishna and they are representing Krishna and that is why to have inspiring devotees and to associate with them whatever is practical and extrapolating from them or inferring from them how to attract Krishna that is the way we can protect and increase our attraction towards Krishna yeah I was just another question came to mind at the end of the last discussion yesterday I was wondering I wanted to ask the question that comes up in the discussion that you were saying about taking nayana to see if we really need to take nayana so I was wondering sometimes as well when people come like new devotees or even new devotees come we could be taking nayana just as like a way to take violence because we are trying to cease the fear and things like that but then later we might realise that we weren't so interested in taking violence or we decided that we wanted to do other things anyway or we feel like if we continue to take violence with someone senior and decide not to do that anyway so how is that I'm just wondering is it offensive or how is that they still want to do Krishna consciousness but they decide not to take the violence so I'm just wondering is it offensive or how is that okay so if I understand the question sometimes some visiting devotees come or some devotees inspire we seek guidance from them but later on for whatever reasons we no longer feel the need for their guidance so asking guidance and not following them afterwards is that offensive or what should we do in such a situation should we seek guidance or not seek guidance at all there are different situations see one is somebody comes and we do classes and in the class we ask them philosophical questions and we get some answers so in this case that is not necessarily instruction specifically for us but we are personally asking guidance that's what you see we are personally asking someone for guidance usually the relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple is a formal and serious relationship apart from that we can have many shiksha gurus and relationship with shiksha gurus is also important but it is not as formal we may have a counsellor or a guru and we should also respect them but that relationship is not as formal or as irrevocable as the relationship with spiritual master so usually it is if we seek guidance it is important that we either follow or we at least have some communication by which we explain why we are not in a position to follow or why we feel this is not really applicable for us right now so it's I won't go into the zone of offensiveness over here but it's just it's just not proper human relationships proper emotional relationships we ask someone for guidance and they don't do it so I am assuming here that they are not in an authority position for us, they don't have any management authority for us but we ask guidance from them this is my situation then if they are not having a regular mentoring relationship with them then it may happen that our circumstances may change or some other parameters come up in our life which make us feel like this is not a practical course of action so if we are having an ongoing relationship with them then we can always at least reach out to them and explain this is what we need to try and do this or otherwise instead of making it a specific personal guidance we just ask for principles so broadly it shouldn't be that the devotee feels that the devotee should not end up feeling that we are simply wasting their time so it is not that every time we meet some senior devotees they are going to give us instructions which we have to follow as our life and so it's not like that but if we are asking specific guidance and if we are not able to follow then it's best to communicate and overall it is we shouldn't worry too much about offences offences can definitely happen in a relationship but the main focus should be on on maintaining normal communication it's normally I think they are going to ask somebody for some help and then if they offer and then we don't take the help we should tell them this is what is happening but whether it's offence usually offence happens when we intentionally do something to pull down a devotee we are in the environs of the suspect group I am going to pull down some devotee that's why we speak something about the negative or something like that but in the normal course of functioning in the world if we do something which misleads or hurts a devotee that is not necessarily there is not so much offence as it is basically a human interaction which has gone wrong and needs to be corrected because while living in the world it's impossible to please everyone there are some people who will get displeased and we don't have to worry too much about it but we can clarify if required especially if there is any sort of guidance we can give brief clarifications does that answer your question? and what about in relationship with the spiritual master? in relationship with the spiritual master it is good to whenever we get the opportunity to meet later we can explain the situation because the spiritual masters also may relate with different devotees in different ways they know someone very well personally and they are directly in a personal interest in their life it's not a great fortune but still the spiritual master may not always allow and sometimes the spiritual masters may tell us something and we find after some time that I cannot follow we have that example of Narad Bhoomi and Dhruva Maharaj so Narad Bhoomi tells Dhruva Maharaj you are just a child why are you taking this insult so seriously just go back to the beginning and things will be alright so at that time Dhruva Maharaj he says yes what you are saying is true Narad Bhoomi tries to catch in both ways Narad Bhoomi first says if you are a child then you should take this insult seriously you are a grown up person and if you are spiritually wise spiritually advanced people also they don't take insults seriously and therefore go back to the beginning and Dhruva Maharaj says how many times Narad Bhoomi says what you are saying is true but I cannot follow it he says I am unbearably scarred by the dealings of my father and step mother so please guide me in a way that I can as a working instruction so Amulya clarifying and telling that we are not supposed to follow worldly instruction there is precedent for that in Shastra also but there should be, Prabhupada writes in number 4 that we may postpone following the instruction of the spiritual master but we should never neglect or reject it so for example it happened to Prabhupada that which is the best way to work and Prabhupada could not do it for almost 43 years but Prabhupada said I will always meditate Prabhupada was trying various ways he was trying to sponsor the spiritual masters so he never rejected or neglected but there is circumstances because of which we are not going to follow a particular instruction so it was not that Bhakti Sahasrat Thakur also not like a not like a watchdog, every time Prabhupada are you pitching in the west or not? are you pitching in the west? he also understood that he is aggressive and whenever there would be Bhakti Sahasrat Thakur would make audio with Bhakti Sahasrat Thakur he was very affectionate towards him so we may not be able to follow instruction and that the spiritual master really understands and depending on the nature of our relationship, how much we interact how much relationship we have, we can anticipate thank you if this is following the discussion you had about surrender often when we have lectures on surrender we have also heard surrender and the words that came from Swamiji Maharaj could you also say words on this because it is a very elevated, it feels like a very elevated state of consciousness could you also say maybe a practical way so surrender is often taught in the context of Brahma's prayer to Krishna that whatever is happening that they will come from Sushumna Krishna this is your mercy my own karma is coming which you have minimised therefore I offer my blessings to you so this is definitely very elevated consciousness and broadly speaking there are various attitudes which you can have when problems come if a problem is coming we may at one level think is Krishna really here why is this problem coming some people may go in a negative state, is God causing this problem but you need to know it is not that God is up there uncaring he is sending the problem it is problems come to us for various reasons which may ultimately be linked to the past karma but the point is Krishna is here with us and he is here to help us deal with the problem so it is very difficult, it is almost impossible to see the problem itself as Krishna's and to expect to do that itself is unrealistic for most of us even Nrityananda Prabhupada was saying in his final days Tamala Krishna Maharaj the final days final pastimes Nrityananda Prabhupada asked why is this happening it is a natural human reaction and that should not be we cannot when we have problems Prabhupada had a very prolonged illness and no medical treatment was working for quite some time and Prabhupada's time is finished so that is a normal human reaction when there is this trouble, it should not be seen as a lack of faith or anything like that even Arjuna is broken down by a human mistake so firstly to try to see the problem itself as Krishna's Marasi that is very difficult but what we can see is that Krishna's Marasi that was revealing the problem it is not the problem is Krishna's Marasi tatte nukampam susanikshaman this is your Marasi or not what is the Marasi? that atmakutam vidha this problem has come because of my own bad habits but by your Marasi I am going to be when we say that Krishna's Marasi minimises the problem that can work in various ways sometimes the problem itself might have been very big but by Krishna's Marasi the problem has become less but another point is that sometimes our own attitude determines the size of the problem life determines our problems but we determine their size that means when we think too much about a problem we always think this problem is there and that problem eats us up and becomes bigger and bigger so at that time what is Krishna's Marasi? the problem comes for whatever reason but Krishna's Marasi enables us to deal with the problem so whenever problems come somehow the problems come with a mental glue it is like if you have a glue it just sticks to something so like that problems come with a glue but they stick to the mind even if we intellectually understand thinking about this problem is not helping me but still we are just not able to think about anything else why did this happen? and that when the problem gets attached to our mind that eats us up and takes away all our energy and we feel extremely burdened and crushed but if we at that time have an alternative object of thought that itself releases us temporarily at least from the crushing burden of the world and at the very least Krishna can act as an alternative object of thought at that time and especially if you have practised Bhakti you have practised Japa, you have practised doing Sanchastra, you have practised meditatorship, whatever then it will be not so difficult for us to observe ourselves in Krishna and just that even the temporary release from thinking about the problem thinking about the problem that itself can give us a lot of mental lot of our mental energy back and then afterwards if by connecting with Krishna we have calmed down we will be able to see the problem greater and achieve it, then we can deal with the problem so Krishna's mercy is that he gives us the resources to deal with the problem so if I have a terrible disease, if I get a painful disease, to think that the disease is Krishna's mercy is not a mistake, but I can think that if I have this disease and I am not a devotee I am just crying whatever but here Krishna calls out to Krishna and in that there is not just purification we are remembering Krishna because we are remembering Krishna so Krishna's mercy is that the problem comes but the magnitude the sharpness of the problem the intensity of the problem becomes much lesser because we are Krishna and we can ask ourselves if we come back 10 years ago if we came in a room before we can be devoted and now if a similar problem has come in our life how do we have dealt with earlier and how do we deal with it now we will find that our capacity to deal with problems becomes much better so this way by recognising Krishna's mercy in terms of our capacity to deal with the problems Krishna helps us to deal with the problems we can feel grateful not for the problem but for the fact that we have Krishna in our life Krishna is there in my life and by that I am able to deal with the problems so with my heart, with my mind, with my body I offer obeisances to Krishna so it is not that I am offering obeisances to Krishna for sending me to a problem but I am offering obeisances to Krishna for being present with me in my life to help me deal with the problem and the point is what this means is that the problems can become justification for us to give up our life but if amid the problems still we stay connected with Krishna still we stay grateful to Krishna not for the problem but for his presence in our life then that shows the seriousness of our devotion and Krishna becomes pleased by that so if we stay connected with Krishna and minimise problems then that shows that we are not just fair-weather devotees when things are nice, I am better when things are difficult, I need other things to do then when Krishna sees that through thick and thin we are with him we are connected with him, then Krishna becomes pleased with him we are solidifying our relationship with him and then those who live like this they are getting Krishna so this verse how is it connected with surrender surrender essentially means that we we connect with Krishna Arjuna, for him fighting was the main connection with Krishna so here when the problem is there at that time we continue the disposition by which we can stay connected with Krishna a lot of spiritual advancement in bhakti depends on devotional re-interpretation of reality devotional re-interpretation of reality that means certain things have happened in life Parikshit Maharaj was cursed and it was actually an outrageously excessive curse his transgression was very tiny we just put a a dead snake garland around a seer it was an offence it was a minor offence and the result for that he got was to die in seven days and what was Parikshit Maharaj response he said the supreme lord has come to me so that I can become free from attachments I was attached to life, Krishna has come so I am free from attachments so what is this, this is devotional re-interpretation of reality the reality was it was unfairly cursed but he is interpreting it in such a way that this is Krishna coming to help me come closer to him Prabhupada worked so hard to operate a business and the whole business collapsed for Prabhupada's sake Prabhupada didn't say that I was trying to earn money for Krishna's sake but Krishna wanted me to preach that and Krishna forced me to do that so situations will come in our life but when we say I talk at one level about accepting things which are favourable and rejecting things which are unfavourable but it also applies at an inner level where we accept the perspective of the situation that is favourable and reject the perspective that is unfavourable so when Parikshit Maharaj was cursed he could have taken the perspective I was throughout my life at his bhakti and this is what God gives me, where is God God doesn't exist so that would be a perspective which is unfavourable to God but he took the perspective and it is favourable to me I have been serving Krishna but my consciousness is God and so many worldly affairs also in my service to Krishna but now Krishna wants me to serve him serve him wholeheartedly and that is actually that devotional reinterpretation of reality is an art and if you want to learn it immediately we often need to associate with senior devotees and by the association we can get the insights so if so there is a very famous example that when Bhaktivedanta Maharaj met Srila Prabhupada so Bhaktivedanta Maharaj he was African American black complexion everybody else in the movie was fair complexioned and on top of that most of the devotees were college dropouts and Bhaktivedanta Maharaj was a still a graduate so many devotees didn't know how to deal with him so they normally looked down on black, that was the normal white attitude although it was changing it was there but this was a black and he was so much more educated they just didn't know and there was a lot of discrimination against him so he felt that when he came to Prabhupada he told Prabhupada that Prabhupada if you talk you are not the one I was talking about there is racism in government Prabhupada did not deny that, Prabhupada did not justify Prabhupada told him no, they are acting out of the bodily misconception of mine if you respond in the same bodily misconception then how are you better than me so Prabhupada told him Prabhupada did not deny the reality but Prabhupada gave him a different perspective told him rise to spiritual consciousness and Bhaktivedanta Maharaj writes that he felt so vindicated Prabhupada loves me, Prabhupada cares for me Prabhupada, even if that devotee is not accepting me Prabhupada accepts me and Prabhupada allows me to apply his teachings, apply Veda sutras in my life in the extreme situation where there was bodily discrimination by Prabhupada's guidance he was able to reinterpret that as an opportunity to rise above our unconsciousness and as it came into use and later on when the devotees saw him he was so enthusiastic so dedicated to Prabhupada then they also stopped looking at the wrong complexion and they started respecting him for the wonderful devotee that he was does that answer your question? thank you so I think I have answered this question there was this question yesterday I mentioned that sometimes we may shake an apple tree and a mango may fall so what does this mean practically and how can we how can we see this in our own lives yeah maybe I will speak from my life so that I can explain so I was attracted to Krishnamoorty because Krishnamoorty answered my questions the first devotee that I met he came to my room for a programme the programme was from 8 to 9 from 7.30 to 8.30 and after that from 8.30 to 2.30 in the morning I was asking him questions so Krishnamoorty attracted me to Krishnamoorty but then after after I started practising Vastu then I was asking a lot of questions to him and some devotee started labelling me as a gyami too intellectual so then and now there are some devotees when I would travel to India and I would preach I would find that there are some devotees who would appreciate my class but others they would just put off one devotee told me your class means one hour you have to do intellectual hard work one hour you have to do intellectual hard work so I felt that this is the way I can serve Krishna but still I was also noticing that that there were devotees who were not so so appreciative quite a few number of devotees exactly so then I was travelling and preaching I did that for almost 10-15 years and then I was hoping that I knew that there are devotees who are interested in who are intellectually orientated who need this kind of presentation I had to search and ask many many senior devotees for answers to my questions so I felt that if the devotees had questions like this and they could be answered they would be ecstatic but I had no idea how I could do this so I was praying to Krishna and I was hoping that some way it could work out but nothing seemed to be working out so in 2011 I had gone to Juhu temple for some programmes and in the morning japa I was just chanting very intensely and suddenly there was a water and it spilt over so I just fell on that water and my whole leg was fractured very badly the same leg which I had polio was fractured very badly and then immediately I was rushed to the hospital and the operation was done and then the doctor told me you cannot travel anymore at least the way you were travelling earlier you cannot travel I was so miserable I felt that if I don't travel how will I preach but then I was helping some devotees so I was in the hospital for 1.5 months so I was giving some classes on skype to some devotees so once I was giving a class to some devotees in Bangalore and I was speaking about the opulence of Lord Jagannath as its opulence of Lord Jagannath and I just closed my eyes and continued speaking and then suddenly the internet connection went off and I didn't realise it and somehow they also called back but they couldn't connect so I was speaking for 15 minutes and there was nobody there but I didn't realise because my eyes were closed and after 15 minutes my phone rang so I had to call them and then my first reaction was I wasted 15 minutes but then the next moment it struck me that actually when I was speaking about Krishna I was happy I was absorbed in Krishna so it struck me that for speaking about Krishna I don't need an audience I don't need an audience so that gave me the idea that I knew that there are many questions which people have and need answers so at that time I thought that I can start a question answer portal on my website and that's how I started the question answer portal so then I started and there are many devotees in different parts of the world who are nourished by the questions and I also feel nourished because people ask thoughtful questions even if you ask a question sometimes people ask basic questions how can I improve my genetic how can I become more humble these are all good questions there are many deeper questions also which people want to ask so from this question answer forum I am myself nourished and I feel that I serve the devotee community also now I know that more than 3000 questions are answered so it all began in a way I was praying to Krishna that give me some forum but I got a fracture instead but through it all Krishna worked it out so we just Yudhishthir Maharaj told by Vyasadev that the inscrutable will of the Lord is surely for the good of all living beings the inscrutable will of the Lord is surely for the good of all living beings if you do his will you will realise it in due course of time Krishna's will is inscrutable so how exactly he works we can't understand but with faith we understand that it is for the good of everyone and how it is good that you may not understand in a day or two if you do his will you will understand it in due course of time so if we in our life there is our desire, our intention, our action that's in our country and the circumstances that we are in the problem that we are facing, the solutions that we get all those, those are not really in our country but if we keep doing our part consistently Krishna will work in his own way and we will provide as opportunities for serving him in a way that is inspiring for us and beneficial for the whole community so it's like the so we don't know in advance what the manual is going to be but what we do know is that Krishna is always our devotion and if we can maintain that faith then wherever the opportunity comes Krishna will get the whole intensity, this is what I feel so quite often as devotees there are two aspects that one is we try to do our service well whatever services we have we try to do it well another aspect is that we are also looking for other things which I don't know just like Dev Amrit Maharaj once gave this example I love that example, he says that suppose you are working in a company you are doing the job which your boss tells you to do but at the same time you are also thinking how you can grow in your career maybe I can learn this skill also, maybe I can learn this application also maybe I can learn this particular job also so when we are working in a company at that time we understand that my growth in my career is my responsibility it is not that I do whatever the boss tells me to do that we have to do but along with that we are also proactive in thinking how we can grow in our career similarly as devotees we should always be thinking how I can become a better instrument for Krishna's sons we do what we are told to do but at the same time our senior devotees our spiritual master they may not be knowing so much about us so we may have certain talents which they may not know about so we should be observing our talents just as we take it as ours in our career similarly we take it as our responsibility to grow, to become more multifaceted to have more knowledge and to become a better performer in our academic life similarly in our spiritual life we should be thinking how I can become a better instrument for Krishna better servant of Krishna doesn't just mean becoming more surrendered to whatever instructions we get it also can mean finding out ourselves how we can serve so we look at our talents and we look at what opportunities for serving and we find that there is some other opportunity for serving which is more suited according to our talents then we try to develop ourselves more, it's not that we have to when we are working in a company it's not that we don't do what the bosses tell us to do, but we don't limit ourselves if we want to really grow in the career we don't limit ourselves to only what the bosses tell us to do we also take responsibility for our growth, so like that if we take responsibility for our growth then we will find a way by which we can grow in this. So it's bhakti is about following instructions but there is a standing instruction that we are meant to practise bhakti lifelong we have practised bhakti lifelong to go back to Krishna and our spiritual master our spiritual guide, they are not going to be there by our side lifelong and tell do this, don't do this so one part of following the instruction of our spiritual master is also finding out how we can practise bhakti lifelong so if we can find a service which will feel inspired to do lifelong then that is a very important way in which we are following our spiritual master's basic standing instructions so that means taking inventory understanding our talents, understanding what opportunities are there and finding the service accordingly so so we don't know what the but we do know what we if we explore we can come to know what we are good at or what we can do well or what we like to do whichever you want to put it and we try to create focus for doing that so basically if we resolve that I want to practise I want to practise bhakti lifelong and if I practise bhakti lifelong what all do I need to do for that so we get the inspiration from senior devotees but also if we can find something which inspires us for example preaching is a service now if we can become a preacher wherever we go in the world there are always people to be preached to so we will have lifelong service similarly there are other services also which you can do lifelong because the point is not just following instruction the point is becoming a lifelong servant of Krishna and that means we should be able to practise bhakti even if we don't have access to instruction there is a disciple Prabhupada Ishan Prabhu last year I was in Alachua Alachua is a community of retired devotees retired Prabhupada disciples they are living in retreat over there so I met him over there so he tells one story in Prabhupada memories when he was in London at that time Prabhupada was asking all the devotees what is happening in France how is the preaching in Germany how is the preaching in England so Ishan Prabhu came to Prabhupada and he asked him Prabhupada everyone has something to do for you what should I do what can I do for you so Prabhupada said please give me something to do for you what do you want to do for me so whatever you tell me what do you want to do for me he said I don't know I never thought like this what should I do for you Prabhupada said understand our philosophy our philosophy is to find out what we want to do and do it for you then he went and he thought he would like to do some work with clay and shipping things so he said no problem so he got this mudangas from India those mudangas they all get spoiled they crack and they break so he said I am thinking I can use synthetic material from here or material available locally and I can make mudangas which won't break so Prabhupada smiled he said yes your god brothers are very passionate so make mudangas make such mudangas even if they throw it down they will not break so from that instruction he got a whole lifetime of service and he did that service not just mudangas he got a whole service for Krishna so it's bhakti is about following instructions bhakti is also about following instructions to stay lifelong in the service of Krishna and that means finding out how we can serve Krishna so in that context we have a specific problem and we look for a specific solution but we can do that but along with that we also consider that how can I serve my lord and that we find and that's how we can be open to Krishna's plan and whichever way he comes we will be able to see that can you elaborate Krishna Prabhupada's move while he was going through all the adversities that you mentioned in the lecture yes Krishna Prabhupada faced difficulties Prabhupada did not exactly keep a journal by which we can know what his move was but the nearest journal that we have is his prayer marking Mahabharata dharma in the when he saw the west empire at that time he wrote a song in Bengali which was which is called preaching the bhagavad dharma and that song if you conceptualise what is Krishna Prabhupada doing it is he is like a if you consider preaching like a spiritual war against ignorance, not a physical war spiritual war against ignorance Prabhupada was like a lone warrior going to a land which was filled with material misery and he was about to launch a spiritual mission and the land was completely devastated. So normally if a warrior is going to a war then the warrior knows the most important position of the warrior is his weapon his ten weapons because that's what is going to be the enemy so just as if somebody is going to a place where there is gun shooting going on a police person is going and the police is repeatedly saying do I have my gun? is it loaded or not? naturally their thoughts will go there similarly when Prabhupada is facing the imposing skyline of the American coast land at that time when he is thinking he is revealing to us what was the weapon that he was going to use to fight that war and what is Sri Prabhupada's view there he quotes several verses from the Bhagavad dharma and he essentially says that the meaning of the Bhagavad dharma is say Krishna you and I will become sober so if I just hear it here is the Bhagavad dharma again and I become sober and Prabhupada is not thinking that that I am going to by my intellectual by my intellect convince all of them and make them to do this now Prabhupada his vision is so deeply spiritual he doesn't see the prosperous American coast land we know these people are so wealthy so he is saying he says all these people are covered by the modes of passion in Hindus and that's why they are not able to understand us so it's amazing Prabhupada is not thinking I am an Indian they are American Prabhupada is seeing from this spiritual perspective the obstacle is not that they are Americans or they have never heard about Krishna the obstacle to their understanding Krishna is the mode of passion in Hindus and therefore Prabhupada knows he kept a diary he is also aware when he talks he knows that people are able to understand his pronunciation but he sometimes when Indians go abroad they try to learn American pronunciation so that they can pronounce properly Prabhupada is not praying to Krishna please improve my English pronunciation he says he says please ornament my katha and what is that ornament he wants it's not some good pronunciation that ornamentation says Krishna you are present in their heart tomara icchaye sabah koi maya parash tomara icchaye nash maya parash he is saying Krishna it is under your supreme will that these people have gone into illusion and by your supreme will they can come out of illusion if you so desire please make my words understand them and then Prabhupada concludes his prayer not by saying let me establish a world wide preaching mission give me thousands of followers, give me hundreds of temples Prabhupada says actually he concludes by saying nachao nachao Prabhu nachao nachao nachao please make me dance however you want Prabhupada begins by saying that Aniyaji ke jo ae yug rasai hai he says why have you brought me here to this terrible place obviously Indian after going to America it's a terrible place Prabhupada's illusion is so far away from Krishna it's not a very good place but he is saying Krishna why have you brought me here you must be having some plan Anuman it's interesting we say Anuman which is not speculative but Prabhupada says I infer I guess that you must have brought me for some purpose and whatever is your purpose make me dance accordingly so Prabhupada's move was whatever obstacle he was facing we can infer from this song is that he saw himself as a sermonic Krishna and whatever situation he was in he was seeing from the Shastra Chakshu and he was saying ok how can I serve Krishna so it was not like when Prabhupada went to America he had a complete blueprint everything clear I'll go here, I'll do this, I'll go there, I'll do that no, Prabhupada kept thinking whatever opportunity he got he kept using that opportunity and sometimes that opportunity led to a dead end and sometimes towards the later part of the road that opportunity led to a glorious expansion so Prabhupada's move primarily was please make me dance, please Krishna engage me in your service the way you want me to be engaged so that's why when Prabhupada was asked what is the best prayer to Krishna he said give me the strength to serve you so if we have that move and whatever obstacles come we can face those obstacles we can because when we have a desire to enjoy enjoyment depends on many conditions and those conditions are not there we can't enjoy but if you have a desire to serve service can be done in any condition of course if you want to do service in a particular way you may not be able to but if you want to serve service can be done in any condition so Prabhupada's move was please give me engagement in your service, please make me dance so with that move it's of course a very exalted move but in our own small way if we utilise that move and whatever obstacles come we can also get out of those obstacles and emerge stronger through that so we mentioned that Indra will become a sometimes our enthusiasm goes down and we lament too much and we keep from following the rules of bhakti so can you tell some practical ways in which how we can come out of that stage when our enthusiasm has gone terribly down yes we are at the bottom of the simile where I have no enthusiasm to come back this can happen and when this happens it is they say in the army the more you sweat in peace, the less you will bleed in war the more you sweat in peace that means you practise vigorously how to fight, how to train yourself to keep yourself fit, then the less you will bleed in war because when the enemy attacks your reflexes will be stronger and you will be able to avoid so when our consciousness is overall okay not like the dancing happening in bhakti but it is overall okay that time you should try to practise bhakti as seriously as possible we are practising we sweat at that time so when life is not all that difficult that time we become very relaxed in bhakti then when life becomes difficult it will be difficult to hold on to Krishna so when life is overall okay at that time we practise holding on to Krishna and then we can hold on even if there are difficulties so that is the first thing because we cannot predict or control what emotions our mind will come up with in future but what we can control is how we are acting right now so if we try to be as serious in bhakti as possible right now, then that is the best preparation then by that we show Krishna that I want to be serious in my bhakti and if we find out something that deepens for ourselves something that stimulates the emotions in us and keep them with us as it is possible then as some nice music some songs, some memories which we have preserved then we can draw on them to move on and to pull ourselves out of that out of that trough of consciousness which we have sunk into along with that if we have if this sine wave of going up and down it is a strong problem that we have one of the best ways to overcome that is to take up responsibility because one thing is doing some service and another is taking up responsibility doing service means you are told to do this, do that we do that, that is good but when we take up responsibility at that time we are forced to put aside our mind that is the nature of responsibility how is that? just like say when a mother has a child at that time because of natural affection the mother takes up the responsibility of the child in the middle of the night when the child starts crying the mother may not feel like picking up but she wakes up and she cares for the child because that is the nature of responsibility when we take up responsibility for something at that time although the mind may not agree to it but still we put aside the mind and do what it is what it takes so if we take up responsibility in Krishna's service then that forces us to do certain things so that responsibility may be in various things like just like we have a commitment we chant every day, we take a vow that is one level of responsibility so whatever service we are doing if we take up responsibility now one of my main services is writing and in writing major problem is called as writer's block writer's block means sit down to write and get no ideas to write so one writer says sit in front of the computer and glare at the computer till blood forms on your forehead I just get so much tense I am not able to write anything so one of the ways in which writers work around the writer's block is that they make a commitment that no matter what happens I am going to write a certain number of words in it even Nobel laureate authors they also go they may be great in their idea but that does not mean that their mind is mind of a pure devotee their mind is still conditioned they also go through their goals Nobel laureate authors also every day they would write something like 2000 words, 3000 words depending on one's sensitivity whether they feel like it or don't feel like it just do that so when they do that what happens is that commitment sometimes the writing comes out good sometimes the writing doesn't come out good that is not important just do the right thing so one author says that the rules actually free you to be you normally these rules restrict us but author naturally wants to write but at some time he feels like writing but if there is a rule I have to write and gradually as you keep writing that boredom, that apathy gets pushed aside and then normally we want there are two ways we want we can we can feel our way to our actions or we can act our way to our feelings we can feel our way to our actions means we feel like doing something and then we do it I feel inspired to go to the temple I feel inspired to do something so we feel our way to actions we feel like doing something and we do it but that is not the only way we do any serious activity if we are in a job I don't feel like working today we will never say that because it is a very serious responsibility for us so in serious activity we don't just feel our way to actions we also act our way to feelings act our way to feelings means I don't feel like doing something but still I do it and by doing it gradually that feeling comes so when Giriraj Maharaj was in Juhu project at that time he had a lot of difficulties and they were trying to get the land and the legal clearances and just not able to get anything these were young Americans they had not even much experience with American bureaucracy and now they have to deal with Indian bureaucracy because they had thought we are going with Prabhupada we are going to meet India this is so terrible for them they will just go to this office, go to that office sit for 1 hour, sit for 2 hours so disheartened and evening they will come back and Prabhupada came back and he was so demoralised about feeling so Prabhupada told them why don't you dance and he said nothing is working out there is nothing to feel happy about you are so blue, how can you dance if you dance you will feel happy so it's not necessarily that when we feel happy we dance, we dance by that itself happiness will also come so if we are deep down in the dumps we just come out and do something and then another like that happened then we noticed we are very much down in the dumps and nothing was going proper at all we will have a big fatal moment how can we have a fatal moment nothing like that, we don't have resources Prabhupada said no if you are too caught in management and legalities that will dishearten you, but if you are preaching you will get life and they actually started going and organising the programme and when the preaching happened they saw thousands of people come they all became environment so sometimes when we are too much down in the dumps just start doing something just get into the action because tamoguna perpetuates tamoguna that means if I am in tamoguna if I am feeling like in tamoguna, I act also in tamoguna then the feelings and actions they become like a vicious cycle but even if I am in tamoguna I act like atleast if I am in rajoguna I will run around, I will do this, I will do that if I don't feel like it, I will do that what happens, from the tamoguna we come out towards rajoguna and if we are associating with devotees, rajoguna will come towards our devotees so basically preparing in advance and committing ourselves to some service by which it drags us out of our demons that can help us to overcome these low phases in our spiritual life so one last question so you talked about theophobia but does it apply to the worship of Narasimhadev sometimes we worship Narasimhadev out of the desire for protection but I have also heard that we get, if we commit offences to Narasimhadev we get very severe reactions so I want to worship Narasimhadev but I also feel afraid so what should I do so I did say that if you worship Narasimhadev with prahala, then there is no offence but still if I worship Narasimhadev and something goes wrong then I feel is it because I did offence to Narasimhadev, is it because it was gone wrong so so should I worship Narasimhadev other than that by worshipping Narasimhadev problems can become worse see we have to first of all know that Krishna is not a qualifying God Krishna is not when you talk about offence the basic point is not that like sometimes if you are working on a computer you write a very good article but the spell check in the computer doesn't check any of the things you have written it just points out this was a mistake so Krishna is not like that you did so many things right and just did one thing wrong so if we are trying to serve Krishna if we are attracted to any form of Krishna we are suspicious if we are attracted to Narasimhadev then we want Narasimhadev and usually the question of offence primarily comes when we are worshipping a Deity form of Narasimhadev when Deity is installed properly then that's why the spiritual masters usually will not give us permission to instal Deities of Narasimhadev for that, there it is we are specially invoking the law and we are promising the law that it will serve you but otherwise the law is accommodating and Prabhupada had Narasimha started Narasimha temple even the devotees were very new many of them practically at that time hardly if I am not mistaken very few devotees were Brahmins and Narasimha if I am not mistaken Narasimha even without any without Brahminization also so the point is any way we can connect with Krishna so if Narasimhadev is worshipped and inspired then yes most of Narasimhadev do have Radha and that is good but the important point is if we are very committable to serve the particular Deity if we are installing the Deity then that man has to be very careful with worshipping Narasimha Deity but overall the Lord is always merciful and if we are inspired to worship Him we should worship Him and it is not that we should not be trying to imagine this problem has come sometimes a devotee say I am going to my job and my car breaks down she says because I didn't change the location I didn't do it in the morning so my car broke down now don't go into that kind of imagination Krishna is not a vindictive God it may happen that because I don't chant Hare Krishna my mind is all disorganised that's why when I don't think I make a mess of things that's possible Krishna is punishing me for all my misdeeds Krishna is not that kind of God we should not if problems come we just try to deal with the problems in a realistic way there is no need to imagine this problem has come because of this offence or that offence we just focus on striving to serve Krishna with the best capacity and if Narasimhadeva is actually looking for us that's wonderful thank you very much.