Do interruptions in our remembrance of Krishna occur because of circumstances or consciousness?
When our connection with remembrance of Krishna gets interrupted is it because of the circumstances or is it because of because we can't remember him it's both that we live in an embodied state in this material world and in this material world if there are ups and downs actually we get back our attention and we are functioning in this world we have our services in this world also so we need to give them our attention so Tamal Krishna Maharaj when he was looking after the Juhu project in Mumbai there was a local mayor he was doing all kind of politics to prevent the devotees from getting permissions to visit him and the devotees started getting frustrated so one day Babaji asked Prabhupada and said Prabhupada these land delights they are causing me so much anxiety that they are disturbing my chanting Prabhupada went there and said they are disturbing my chanting also the anxiety is disturbing my chanting also what Prabhupada told him and Prabhupada said the anxiety to serve Krishna is like killing Krishna so actually the anxiety to serve Krishna is like killing Krishna sometimes we reduce chanting to just the verbal utterance of those words the verbal utterance is vital to chanting but actually chanting is meant to help us develop a relationship with Krishna and any relationship involves some amount of anxiety so if we are being anxious for some service related to Krishna that is not outside the value of bhakti if because of that anxiety we give up bhakti then it is a problem but anxiety is a part of life we don't let ourselves get controlled by those anxieties but in a sense anxiety is a sign of responsibility if I take up responsibility it brings some anxiety with it so it could be because we have responsibilities and they are they require us they consume our mind and that's why we are not able to remember Krishna so if we are doing it all in the mood of service to Krishna then even through that we are in a sense having said that we all need to also as much as possible manage our load of anxieties according to our capacity that means say if I can lift up 20 kg weight if I can lift up 15 I'll get crushed if I lift up 5 kg that's too expensive so like that we all need to we all need to know how much we can take up and if we are going beyond our capacity we need to lose our existence so sometimes the circumstances are such that they are not in our control sometimes we can adjust a few things so we can try to if circumstances are distracting us too much from our connection to Krishna we can see if we can be adjusted but if we can't be adjusted we just do what we can in that situation as far as our inner intention is concerned yes our intention can also be weak that happens especially if there are temptations which are trapped on us I have to do this, I have to do that so at that time associating with devotees who have a strong intention that helps a lot so understanding the philosophy that also solidifies the intention so but more importantly for us at this stage in bhakti connection with Krishna is primarily a process of repeated reconnection we live with disconnected, we get reconnected yato yato nishchalam manas chal chalam asritam tatas tato niyam etat Krishna says wherever and whenever the mind wanders, bring it back it will wander, bring it back the mind may stray away don't let it stay away it will stray, we can't avoid it that's the nature of the mind but don't let it stay away, as it goes, bring it back so this time when a plane it is moving say a plane is going down torrent of the material now the plane doesn't literally go in an absolute straight line 90% of the time the plane is off course but the pilot or the plane's mechanical system, it reorients because of the wind, because the atmosphere gets disoriented, it reorients disorient, reorient, and by the continuous reorientation, it maintains its position so like that whether it is because of our circumstances externally or because of our mind internally we will get disoriented we don't have to become disheartened just because we become disoriented we accept it and we reorient ourselves and by the process of repeated reconnection we will develop attraction to Krishna and then our connection will become steadier and stronger.