Does bhakti make devotees just pray and not work?
You for coming today evening and i will speak on the topic today of how our spirituality our bhakti can improve our life recently i was talking about with a couple and the wife is practising bhakti the husband is favourable but the husband says tells his wife that actually you are simply praying instead of working and god doesn't tell you to do that he says if you pray but you don't work how difference is going to make so he saying that you are treating praying as a substitute for working now that is often understanding some people say you can't face life's problems so you pray to god today i will talk about this in three broad parts that what bhakti actually means and i will talk about how our work produces its results and then i will talk about how bhakti we can reshape our work and how our results are produced so let's start with the first point of how our work produces our results say for example we may study we have exam we study and then we get the result we have a project we have a deadline we work we meet the deadline and then we get a salary we get a raise we grow professionally so normally we see that our work is essential for producing results and this principle is acknowledged even in the tradition nahi supta se simhasya ravishanti mukhe mrugaha it is said that simh a lion even in a lion is very powerful and the lion has the capacity to eat other creatures but the lion cannot eat if it just lies down at one place if the lion lies down with its mouth open it is not that a deer is going to come into its mouth so this idea that we have to work for producing our results this is common sense however there is more to it we all see sometimes we work hard but we don't get the results that we deserve how many of you had this experience anyone everyone those who don't raise their hands either they are too shy or they are too inexperienced a little experience of life shows us that that our efforts are not proportional necessary to the results that we get but if we are honest with ourselves we will see that sometimes we put in a little effort and we also get a lot of results sometimes we do a little work but sometimes we get a lucky break and then things work out so our work definitely matters but our work is not all that matters so the bhagavad gita explains that between our work and our result there are multiple factors involved to understand this we can use a 3D or 4D principle duty plus destiny plus duration produces the desired result you need anything I don't need anything I don't need anything so duty plus destiny plus duration produces the desired result say for example a farmer wants a harvest so the farmer ploughs the land and sows the seeds that's the duty then the rains have to come on time in the right quantity then the seasons has to change till the harvesting season comes and then the result comes up duty destiny is the rains coming duration and then the result suppose a couple is married and they want to have a child now they may unite that's their part but not every union needs to conception there is destiny involved over there and even if conception occurs after that there is gestation it's not that today they unite and tomorrow they have a child so this applies in every walk of life even in a field like sports the sports is very performance orientated say cricketers have to be athletic have to be fit have to be talented but many of the sports players many of cricketers have their own superstitions say some players when they enter into the ground they will always enter with the right foot first not the left foot if accident they play with the left foot they go back and come back again put the right foot in so there was an Australian cricketer batsman he whenever he would go out to bat first he would go to the restrooms and close the lids of all the commodes and then go to bat and if ever he would get out early first he would come back to the open he would go and yell at all the other players why did you keep that open because of that I got out now what is the commode lids this position got to do with your batting getting out now obviously we can say there is no correlation but actually it is not so obvious what it means is that even players know that their performance matters but for their success something more than their performance also matters a batsman might be batting very well might be leading the team to victory but if it rains at that time what can you do see in any field that we work in there are factors beyond our control that shape the results our efforts matter but factors beyond our efforts also matter so sometimes the factors beyond our effort the factors beyond our efforts sometimes destiny and duration might almost seem invisible to us say for example we eat food and we get energy might say there is duty and there is result desired result what is destiny but we realise what is destiny when somebody has a bad digestion we eat and then we just feel heavy and bloated and we don't feel any energy at all actually the only time we think of our digestion is when it doesn't work so now duty sometimes duration and destiny might not be visible but that doesn't mean they're not there so how do our work produce its results it's not just by our work alone our work is one factor in a chain of events that leads to the result that's why Krishna says in 247 in the Bhagavad Gita karmanye vadhika raste ma phaleshu kadachana ma karma phala he turbur ma te sangostva karmanye he says ma karma phala he turbur do not think that you are the cause of the results of your work now what does it mean you are not the cause here it means you are not the soul cause tatraivam sati kartaram atmanam kevalam tu yaha pashyatya kruta buddhitvan nasa pashyati durmati he one of the things that I am the soul doer Krishna says in 1816 in the Gita that person is an illusion so certainly we are the doers but we are not the soul doers so this is how so maybe praying chanting worshipping also bhakti is thought of as emotion devotion we talk about how when I come in front of the lord I feel somehow that is bhakti now all these are aspects of bhakti the essence of bhakti is a is conscious continuous cultivation bhakti is cultivation of the heart so what does it mean for all of us within our heart there is there is a positive side there is a negative side we have certain virtues and we have certain vices we something within us sometimes prompts us to do something good sometimes it prompts us to do something bad so now this is a constant struggle that is going on within us and bhakti is the is the connection with god that makes us godly that means it nourishes our positive side the virtues within us they will nourish they will nourished and they will manifest more when we practise bhakti so in that sense bhakti is not just emotion bhakti is not just chanting bhakti is a process of self transformation it's a process of self transformation by which we become virtuous by which our inner strengths become stronger and by which our inner weaknesses become weaker the weaknesses might be anger negativity greed insecurity we can have many such things so these are all emotions which will overwhelm us and when they overwhelm us we cannot be at our best we are filled with fear we are filled with resentment we are filled with anger we cannot be at our best so something within us often stops us from doing our best and what bhakti does is that it removes the inner negative forces within us these inner negative forces are the result of impurity impurities within the heart they block our inner energy and when we become purified by the practise of bhakti then our inner energy starts flowing naturally smoothly powerfully so yes bhakti is about connecting with god bhakti is about practising some certain practises but it is more than that it is about transforming ourselves empowering ourselves by strengthening our strengths and weakening our weaknesses so this is what we are meant to do by the practise of bhakti it is not just some ritual now that is the second point what is bhakti now the third point is how does bhakti shape our actions so now as I said our work is important for the results to come but the work is not the sole cause of producing the results so when we are practising bhakti some people might think of bhakti as simply I just pray and let god solve all my problems now bhakti is not about making god our personal servant I don't want to do the work oh god you do all the work for me it is not like that and even if you think of it like that it is not going to work like that but some people might think of it oh I don't want to work but they are not actually practising bhakti they are simply justifying their laziness in the name of bhakti the philosophy can be very easily used or misused to do what we want to do suppose somebody says oh spiritual life tells us you should be detached say a student is studying for the exam the student stops studying and the parents say why don't you study no I am detached you are not detached you are irresponsible what is the difference detachment is from the results not from the work after we do the work we entrust the results to god whatever you want you give me so detachment is after we do the work irresponsibility is before we do the work so sometimes people claim to be detached but they are irresponsible they are not doing their work only and they say I am being spiritual that is not spirituality spirituality is as I said spiritual knowledge why should we be detached from the results because we understand I have done my part now and I cannot do anything more than this so I have done my part now let me move forward and do next thing if the results are going to come they are going to come if they are not going to come let me move on so detachment comes from understanding the reality of how things work irresponsibility comes from not wanting to work at all the two are different things so now within this whole framework when we practise bhakti say when we pray to god I was with you this thing may have gone wrong but still god is in charge and god can bring good even out of the bad so we the purpose of prayer is not to tell god how big our problems are oh god please solve this problem the purpose of prayer is to tell ourselves how big god is so when we remember how big god is and not just remember in an intellectual sense but remember in an experiential sense say when we participate in some kirtan we do some puja we come in the presence of the lord we come to satsang we experience some special vibes some sacred vibes they calm us down so yes this thing has gone wrong and we'll see how to fix it but there are many things that have gone wrong in my life in the past also and I have survived through all of them and it's not that each time it was my skill alone that led to things working out right things worked out eventually so when we pray to god it's primarily to raise our consciousness to expand our consciousness to become aware of god's presence god's controllership god's benevolence and thus the problem starts stops overwhelming us and when the problem stops overwhelming us then we can do our part more responsibly we can do our part more effectively so what am I what is the topic we are discussing now how bhakti affects our work so in this what I am talking about is I talk about duty, duration, destiny leading to the desired result so what we are talking now is how the practise of bhakti not that it will necessarily produce the result but that it will help us to do our duty better because if we are practising bhakti if we are praying to god not as a substitute for our work but praying so that we have the strength to do our work in the prabhupada he would say that the best prayer we could offer to god is oh god please give me the strength to serve you please give me the strength to do my part to be responsible to do my duty that means our part in the whole equation for producing the result prayer can help prayer and bhakti can help us to do our part better spirituality can increase our ability to tap our ability how we might have some ability but if you don't have maturity if you are very unstable if your mind is very restless then we can't use our own ability properly but if you are calm then we can use our ability better so our spirituality enables us to it increases our ability to tap our ability and for this it's important to understand that the work that we do is not dependent only on the time that we spend on it some tasks are time bound ok I have to fold these 10 clothes it's going to take me 15 minutes that's like item wise but many of the issues that we face in our life are much more complex and if say we are facing some problem some relationship problem some complex professional situation then if we consider a graph of problem solving ability with time then this graph we can say it goes up straight so if I don't think about the problem itself then I have no ability to solve the problem I apply myself and I get more and more clarity ok if I do this this will happen if I do this this will happen yeah therefore I should do this so we get more and more clarity so we have problems and we need to think about them however when this when we are trying to solve our problems this graph which goes up that means the more we think the more clarity we get about what to do this is not an infinitely extending line beyond a particular point it flattens out it flattens out the more we think we don't get any clarity after some time it starts going down what happens the more we think the more confused we get like some people say I was I was confused earlier now I am not so sure that means now I am earlier I was confused now I am not even sure whether I was confused so my overthinking can make us confused about whether we are confused how many of you have got into overthinking did I overthinking isn't it thank you now it's like see our mind is like a fan now the fan moves round and round and round at least the fan cools us down but where our mind moves round and round and round it heats us up so for us the ability to solve the problems doesn't increase simply by how much time we spend on it so sometimes some people may say oh you are not working you are simply praying you are simply doing your bhakti well if we don't work at all and simply do our bhakti then that is being irresponsible but to think that because somebody is doing bhakti that means you are not doing your work it's not like that because as I said the ability to do the work doesn't depend only on the amount of time we spend I have travelled across the world many times I have met devotees who are phenomenally successful even in their professional careers and many of them have said to me that after we started practising bhakti we are amazed about how much we are able to do during our day because what happens there is a lot of time that is eaten up by our mind how many of you worry everybody worries now does anyone have a daily worry time really in the morning getting kids ready ok but does worry stop after that time little bit yeah I know so what happens with worry is now of course you are getting your kids ready but it's not that you are just sitting and worrying you are doing work also but there is anxiety about whether this will get done or not but what happens sometimes our worry is about things which we can practically deal with at that time and we need to get it done so not all worry is necessarily bad of course the word worry has a negative connotation but we could also use the word intensity focus sometimes the little concern about whether the intended result will come or not can increase our focus and help us to do things well but the destructive kind of worry is about things which we can't do much about say for example we are working and maybe the economy is going down what if I lose my job well you can't do anything about the economy going down right now what you can do is at least do your job well but when we start worrying about in every situation in our life some things are in our control some things are not in our control so when some things are largely out of our control and when we worry about them then basically we go out of control we become overwhelmed by that so with respect to our capacity to do our work better if our mind is restless then our mind eats so much of our energy and not just by worry there are so many ways like that sometimes the mind makes small things very big say we come for a meeting and then maybe we come for a programme if you are a student if you are doing some training you go for a class and maybe there is someone whom you know and you greet them and they snub you and then the next one hour mind is filled with revenge fantasies next time in public instead of everyone I am going to snub this person now in your daily schedule for that one hour you are in the class but actually you are not in the class so that one hour was taken by your mind by the waste thoughts of the mind so the point I am making over here is that our time is not just taken by our work our time is also taken by our mind the mind's waste thoughts the mind's worry thoughts they take so much of our time but that time we hardly ever put into our schedule so our bhakti won't take our work time it will take away our waste time the time we waste on the waste thoughts of our mind so actually speaking if we practise bhakti diligently we will be able to do our duty better so bhakti is not a substitute for doing our duty bhakti is something which will give us the strength to do our part in life better and that's not the only thing how will bhakti affect the duration for us when some things are beyond our control say we have done our part and now we are waiting for the result then how do we wait how do we go through that waiting period we are constantly thinking when will this happen when will this happen when will this happen then we will just not be able to do anything constructive in that period but that duration when we have done our part and the result is yet to manifest if we understand now I have done my part now the rest is in God's hands then we will be able to be peaceful do your best and leave the rest to God our spiritual knowledge helps us not only control better the things that are in our control but also manage better when things are out of our control so whatever time duration we have to face we have to deal with by waiting what our spirituality does it during that waiting period also it gives us something constructive to do our connection with Krishna chanting his holy names reading scripture hearing about him hearing some spiritual wisdom this is something which we can do all the time and we can engage ourselves constructively so during this period when the work is done and the results have not yet come that time instead of just wasting it or letting it go in worry we can use it constructively and then with respect to destiny in the Mahabharata there is a beautiful story on the 14th day actually on the 10th day Bhishma who was the first commander fell and after that everybody thought that Karna will become the next commander because Karna was a close friend of Duryodhana and Duryodhana also went to Karna and says please take up the mantle of commandership and Karna said no he said Drona is still on the war field and Drona is your Guru make him the commander now Drona was expecting that Karna will become the commander and he didn't like the idea that he will have to obey Karna because Drona was much much more senior but when Drona was made the commander he was very pleased he said oh you pleased me with this honour of Duryodhana I would like to give you some benediction what would you like Drona Duryodhana was just waiting for this opportunity I presume all of you know the Mahabharata basic outline if not I will just give you background then we can move forward but so if you know then Duryodhana said I want you to arrest Yudhishtira and bring him alive before me so Drona eyes and he went to Drona and he said oh Acharya you had promised you had promised to arrest Yudhishthira and I have whatever you requested I provided to the best of my ability I have tried to satisfy you but why is it that you are not honouring your word is it that you are partial to the Pandavas if that is the case and you cannot fight wholeheartedly against them then please step down as the commander let Karna become the commander and he has promised me that he will destroy the Pandava army in one day Drona heard this and because he became infuriated he said oh prince can you not see that my body is filled with wounds of arrows born for your sake I have exerted myself fully what more do you think Karna can do for you I promised you that I will arrest Yudhishthira and I tried my best but only endeavour is in our hands the result is determined by destiny and the lord of destiny sits on the chariot of Arjuna as long as the lord of destiny sits on the chariot of Arjuna your success is impossible the point he is making here is that Krishna is the lord of destiny now what does it mean the lord of destiny see we are the makers of our destiny but we are not the masters of our destiny makers means what what is destiny destiny is not some mysterious force which somehow that something gives something good to someone and something bad to someone destiny is basically the sum total of our past karma you all have done some good things and some bad things and those good and bad things they produce good and bad results good and bad situations in our life at different times so it is like suppose we are driving we are going say we are driving from one place to another as our driving skill is our ability but the kind of weather we get the kind of traffic that we get that is not in our control so the situation that we get in our life are determined by destiny and that is how the efforts whether they produce the results or not that is affected so we make our destiny in the sense that the kind of actions that we have done in the past they have shaped our present destiny and the kind of actions that we do now will shape our future destiny so we are the makers of our destiny but we are not the masters of our destiny masters means that which good action will produce which good result when and which bad action will produce which bad result when that we don't control that is controlled by Krishna because Krishna is the lord of destiny now if we please him by our bhakti then he can orchestrate destiny in such a way that we can get the results faster Krishna is the lord of destiny he can reshape destiny and thus our bhakti can help us to produce to make our life better when we practise bhakti it is not that we are running away from life to God rather we are turning towards God as a resource so that we can make our life richer we can make our life better and ultimately by God's grace we may have to go through difficulties sometimes we will get success sometimes we will not get success but if we are sheltered in our bhakti then even if failure comes we won't become too disheartened by it because we know God is with us we will understand that I will conclude with this point and then we can have some questions that we will understand that in our life journey failure and success they are not the ultimate purpose we are souls and we are meant to connect with Krishna and in that loving connection with him there is a supreme peace there is a supreme joy so that is like an ultimate treasure because that is like five billion pounds and whatever pleasures and pains that we get in life the pleasures of life are like a five pound gain the pains of life are like a five pound loss now every pound matters but in perspective as compared to five billion pounds five pounds don't matter so when you become brahmavid when you become spiritually knowledgeable brahmanistita when you become spiritually situated personally connected with Krishna then that connection gives us such sublime satisfaction sublime strength that when good things happen we don't become elated by that when bad things happen we don't become dejected by that we stay steady and thus we can steadily march ahead in our life and even if life hurts us we'll find that if we practise bhakti steadily greater than the world's power to hurt is God's power to heal and we will recover faster from life's troubles creating a better life a richer life a more meaningful and fulfilling life for ourselves as well as our loved ones so I'll summarise I spoke on the topic of how our bhakti improves our life and I started by some people think that bhakti is like running away from life we don't instead of doing our work just chant or pray but I talked about how it's not like that I talked about three parts first is how our work produces the result does anyone remember the four d's what is it duty destiny duration that produces the desired result yes so I gave example of farming of having a child of sports players so our performance matters but sports players have superstitions because they are somehow trying to appease the unknown which also they know which shapes the results so our work is one cause in the set of events that produces the results our work is not the sole cause of the results then I talk about what is bhakti it is not just some ritual it is not just some sentimentality bhakti is conscious continuous cultivation of the heart cultivation of the heart so that by connecting with god we become godly that means the weakness is within us the negativities the weakness is weakened and the virtues the strengths strengthen and when we practise bhakti in this way the third part is the elaborate part about how bhakti shapes our work and its results so I talk there about when we do our work the practise of bhakti is not meant to replace our work not doing one's work is not detachment detachment it is irresponsibility detachment is after we do the work we let go of the results irresponsibility is we let go we refuse to do the work itself but what bhakti does is our spirituality increases our ability to tap our ability our capacity to do our work is not determined simply by how many hours we spend on it I talk about how our mind can take up so much of our time the graph of problem solving ability versus time is linear but only up to a particular point beyond that it flattens and then beyond that it goes out so our mind can make us confused and then it can make us confused about whether we are confused also so the bhakti doesn't take away our work time it takes away our waste time okay so now I can what bhakti does is that because Krishna is the lord of destiny so he can also reshape destiny so that we can get the good we can get good results or we can avoid the bad results and thus by the practise of bhakti all three elements the duty duration and destiny can be reshaped positively so that we can move towards the desired result and thus prayer is not so much about asking god to change the results but asking god to change us so that we can better work to produce the results thank you very much Hare Krishna so any questions if you observe the class you will get a lot of questions I have two interrelated questions for you the first question is how to make the balance between work and bhakti and work not the work we do in office but the duties we are supposed to do at home and that leads to the second question that for example with the children we would like to bring children to Krishna consciousness but they want us to go out play cricket or do the drawing I have both son and daughter and they won't let us do the bhakti and we obviously would like to be role models but they won't let us become the role model either obviously the question is how do we balance between work and bhakti say for example if our children want us to play and we want to practise bhakti we don't have to reduce bhakti only to directly devotional activities bhakti is inclusive it includes all walks of our life so yes bhakti has an exclusive aspect in the sense that we need to provide exclusive time to connect with Krishna so that means that we should we need some time for chanting for satsang for seva those are the ways where you directly connect with Krishna but along with that there is also an inclusive understanding of bhakti that our children are not just are not distractions from bhakti they are not distractions from Krishna they are also parts of Krishna they have been entrusted to us by Krishna and developing a healthy relationship with them is also our service to Krishna if we see it that way that means that whatever it takes that is to develop that relationship is broadly included so we want to help our children to also practise bhakti but they are young they are small and they also need to relate with their parents with their friends in a normal way the children play and we play with them now does that mean that even if you are not devotees even if you were non devotees and responsible parents that doesn't mean that you will be constantly playing with them you also have even the most responsible parents they don't have this responsibility to their children they have to work they may have some hobbies they will do that so it's not that there are times when it might appear as if bhakti is taking the time away from what we could spend with our children or what we could do other activities but that is often a trick of the mind because it's not that necessary that if we were not practising bhakti we would necessarily be spending that time here only we all have our personal life and we all have a personal interest so even if from an analytical point of view you consider that ok this bhakti is my personal interest but along with that I have my remaining life so the inclusive understanding of bhakti is that I bring Krishna as is appropriate into all walks of my life so how do we do that with children we our children should feel that by our practise of bhakti we have become better parents better parents means that say and it does happen if we are short tempered then if we practise bhakti our anger goes down and then we may not yell so much at our children we may be more patient more understanding and they will see the difference if we think of bhakti only as a certain set of practises then we may think I want to practise this but my children are not letting me do that yes we want to do some practises but bhakti is not only those practises in the early days of our movement many of the devotees would constantly go out for Buddhist distribution so there were some devotee ladies with young very small children and some of the community leaders temple leaders told them that you just entrust that all your children to one caretaker and all of you go and distribute books when Prashila Prabhupada came to know about that he wrote a letter he says I am surprised that you are leaving your children with some other women and going out to distribute books he says for you it is primal to mother but it applies to parents in general he says for you taking care of your children is as important as worshipping your deity he says that these are not ordinary souls they are Vaikuntha children parts of Krishna are interested in your care now of course I want to take care of my children and so I have no time to practise bhakti but if we start thinking like that then we will just get caught in entirely material consciousness and then our taking care of children will not also be bhakti so it is a balance and one characteristic of balance is that it is never static it is dynamic balance does not mean like a rigid formula 9 to 10 I will do this 10 to 11 I will do this 11 to 12 I will do this life is not that predictable we do need some structure but balance is more in a sense of direction rather than specific control that means if you are riding a cycle then you want to go ahead but if you come towards the right the road is turning right then the balance state is a tilted state but then if after you turn right it is still tilted then you just go in a circle then the balance state is come back then you have to turn left then again vertical so like that for us our purpose is to move towards Krishna sometimes now Janmashtami is coming up and you have a lot of services then we might spend a little more time in devotional activities but if say children have vacations or they are at home they want us to go somewhere then ok we spend time over there at that time or if a child is sick or child has got exams and then they need us to help us study so there is a overall direction is fixed but we balance is dynamic and if we have this inclusive understanding of bhakti as well as the exclusive understanding then we will be able to balance between directly practising bhakti activities as well as re-envisioning all our responsibilities as bhakti also ok thank you Jai Krishna any other questions are you sure ok slightly extending this question towards striking a balance between bhakti and work a very practical scenario is where you know your profession often needs upgrading all the time so then you do your daily 8 hours of work you come back home and you think why I need to upgrade myself I need to spend extra couple of hours so is the thought process right that you know this exercise is basically is basically by following this exercise I am trying to influence the future as you said you should never try to influence the future so is this thought process right that by putting those additional hours I am actually trying to influence my future let me not worry about it let me do my 8 hours of work come back home switch off go back to the bhakti mode or give time to my family and let's not worry about it when the time comes Krishna will help me to scale myself up and sink myself to the market is that thought process right when did I exactly say that we shouldn't influence our future what point gave that impression I am just trying to correlate this to the fact where we discussed that we cannot influence what is going to be our situation in the few months or few years down the line okay I got the point yes okay so if we are in a competitive field where we need to upgrade ourselves apart from our job then we come home and spend time and honing our skills maybe 8 hours work 2 hours should we do that because that's what the market requires or should we just depend on Krishna and that Krishna will provide us whatever and we just use our remaining time for practising bhakti and doing our family responsibilities it's not necessarily this or that in the Mahabharata Narada Muni tells Yudhisthira that in householder life there are 3 aspects Dharma Artha and Kama so Dharma you can broadly say as your bhakti Artha is our job Kama is not just desire Kama is basically like our family if you consider so he says that don't pursue Dharma at the expense of Artha and Kama don't do Dharma so much that you neglect Artha and Kama don't pursue Artha at the expense of Dharma and Kama and don't pursue Kama at the expense of Dharma and Artha balance all of these so pursuing Artha at the expense of Dharma and Kama could be called as workaholism people who are workaholics not only they have no time they don't even have time for their family just obsessed with work and somehow it's also like addiction but it's workaholism is a prestigious addiction it's like somebody says I've not taken a leave for the last 10 years wow you're so hard working well yeah it's not that we want to we lose at our work but sometimes there's a glamour associated with being obsessive with work if somebody is alcoholic there's no glamour in that somebody is device addict there's no glamour in that so we have to be careful we all have a tendency towards that especially today's world where often in the workplace what happens there are quantifiable results if I put in this much work I earn this much money if I put in this much more work I can earn this much more money but maybe at home maybe in a spiritual life the results are not so quantifiable so we often live in a deadline driven mode most of us when a project the deadline comes that's when we start working and get things done it's good at least with a deadline we are doing work but then what happens there are many things which are important which don't come with a deadline but they also say for example relationship between husband and wife relationship between parents and children there is no deadline by this time we have to develop this relationship but that relationship will be dead if it goes beyond a line nobody knows where that line is not that nobody but we can't predict in a finite quantity that so thing is these things are also important because we live in a world which is very passionate in the mode of passion so the quantifiable activities are those which we gravitate towards the most because we get a quantifiable result by that and we shouldn't think of our success only in terms of quantifiable so if we are in a particular profession where we need to upgrade ourselves constantly then we have to think whether okay this is a phase maybe a few months in a year or maybe a few months in a few years where I have to work very very hard and neglect other things that's okay but if that is what is required throughout my life then is this really worth it of course if you want to change your profession something it's a major decision and this is not only factor but we have to eventually think whether the amount of time that something is taking is worth it it's not that if a profession demands a particular level of work and if I don't do that and I say I'll depend on Krishna that's not right Arjuna when he chose to be an archer he practised archery day and night that's why one of his names is Gudakesha all day he would learn and all night he would practise so I will not practise archery but Krishna will make sure my arrows hit the target it's not like that so if we choose to be in a particular field we cannot expect Krishna to change the rules of the game just for us because we are devotees yes things will happen by the rules of the game of course Krishna by his mercy may help us to perform better Krishna can give us some lucky breaks things can happen like that but to make that as an expectation that Krishna change the rules of our game just because because we are devotees that is not a proper understanding of bhakti so we have to seriously think whether this is worth it sometimes we might decide yes it is worth it right now I have got this financial obligation I have got this so it's worth it but if it's something which is constantly needed then we may have to decide ok I will do this for the next 5 years or whatever and then I will change course I will do something else and if in phases it is required it's ok but if it's constantly required an excessive amount of obsession with our work then that is unhealthy not only spiritually unhealthy but socially unhealthy unhealthy for our relationships also and sometimes we may find that the people we may feel I am doing this for the family but you know we have to see what our family values we may think that you know I will get the most expensive cricket bat and the cricket ball for my child and we get that but our son say I don't want an expensive bat I just want you to play with me so they may value our time more so then the gifts things we are giving them so it has to be a properly discussed decision which we make properly deliberated and discussed but bhakti is not about bhakti is not about expecting Krishna to change the rules of the game just because we are devotees ok yeah just a question on bhakti so how do we know that we are doing bhakti what do you mean by that you are saying bhakti is a way of connecting with God so how do we know that we are doing bhakti or can we do something differently or can we do something better how do we know whether we are doing bhakti right broadly there is an internal symptom of the practise of bhakti or the internal result and there is an external result bhakti is a process that gives us experience of God who is transcendental he cannot be experienced you just come in front of the altar and look at the eyes it is not that you will experience God but there is devotion there is prayerfulness and then we offer some prayers we recite some verses then we experience so that is paraisyanubhav that comes by bhakti so the inner experience of God the inner experience of peace of clarity of strength of enlivenment all that is bhakti and the outer result or the outer characteristic of that is viraktir anyatra that means we don't become so dependent on outer experiences means outer pleasures don't allure us so much and outer troubles don't agitate us so much we become more steady more equipoised so another way of understanding is that we become more attached to Krishna and more detached from the world detached doesn't mean irresponsible detached means detachment is more lack of dependency it is not lack of care so this way if these two things are happening then it means that we are practising bhakti properly and if this is not happening then we might need to think what can I do better does that answer your question thank you any other questions in terms of I run a global business what business I run a global business and that global business requires anything between 10 to 14 hours a day and within that I don't find the time to do anything else apart from focus that's the major part and so forth I just can't find the time to do anything else at all how did time so if say we're practising a global business that takes 10 to 14 hours and just can't do any change in it what can you do to say practise bhakti or grow spiritually there are two aspects to this first is that we rise towards Krishna the second is Krishna descends towards us that means that we can begin where we are with some small way in which we can add God into our life it might be that everyday I will do some mantra meditation for a few minutes or everyday I will read some spiritual text for a few minutes or maybe I will hear a spiritual talk start with what you can do in your situation so in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna talks about you could say descending ladder of accessibility he says first he says in 12.8 constantly think of me my eva mana dhatso my buddhim neveshaya always think of me then he says if you can't do that practise to think about me chant my holy names do sadhana bhakti now you can think of me then he says if you can't do that then work for me do some seva if you can't do that then he says work for some cause bigger than yourself at least get out of yourself so bhakti is a journey you could say from selfishness or self centredness to divine selflessness so the summit of divine selflessness is the self is completely absorbed in God but if you can't come to that then at least come out of yourself so if you are doing your work then we could give the fruits of our work to Krishna that is basically the idea is we want to give God a place in our heart that's the essence of bhakti but sometimes our heart is filled with other things say if we are in the world we all need money so thoughts of money often dominate our heart now if we can't give Krishna our heart we can give Krishna what is in our heart so what is in our heart money is in our heart so when we give charity what happens we give Krishna something that is in our heart and that's how we give Krishna a place in our heart that's why the important thing in charity is not the quantity but the regularity because what happens it's a more a matter of creating a disposition of the heart okay what I'm earning ultimately it is meant for God so one time you give a big quantity that's great but what happens by that it's often more our ego is satisfied say I am so generous I give such charity but if we do regular whatever quantity we get then that creates an impression in the heart so there are various ways in which you can connect at whatever level we are at and gradually if we connect diligently at our level then Krishna may guide us how we can connect at a higher level you had a question in here how does devotee association help us in the path of bhakti we are social creatures and we all need whatever we all need either people who accept what we are doing or we change ourselves to accept to become acceptable to those people we are by nature social creatures so that means if I am living with people either I start doing what will be acceptable to them so that they will accept me or if I want to do something then I have to find people who accept what I am doing so that I am acceptable in that circle and acceptance is just the beginning we want to be accepted we want to be valued we want to be respected we want to belong so if we want to practise bhakti it is vital that we have a devotional circle because our devotional activities will not be appreciated or valued by people who are not devotees they may value other things and then we will always feel out of place when we are practising bhakti so of course in the material world not many people may practise spiritual life right now but whatever people are practising if we have that social circle then that also our bhakti practise doesn't come at the cost of depriving us of our social needs if we don't have devotee association if we don't come in devotee association then our bhakti practise starts making us lonely because we can't connect to the other people around us and then we start feeling should I do this but then if we don't do it then we get lost in materialism our life has no higher purpose or value so if we come in devotee association then our social need is taken care of in a way that is harmonious with our spiritual purpose we have a spiritual purpose to grow spiritually but we also have other needs we have social needs so at the basic level devotee association ensures that our social needs are fulfilled harmoniously with our spiritual purpose at a higher level devotee association also stimulates and energises our spiritual journey spiritual journey means that we all are trying to develop love for Krishna so how do we develop love for Krishna it is by associating with those who have love for Krishna bhakti sanjayate bhakti say for example now this way to understand that our desires are not just linear they are also triangular what do I mean by linear and triangular linear means say suppose after this programme there is prasad no suppose prasad is there but suppose maybe some some delicious items there maybe suppose some delicious dessert is there now if you see that dessert just by seeing it you might get the desire to eat it that's a linear desire so many many desires are linear we see the object and get the desire but many desires are not linear but triangular that's why I say for example whenever say company cell phone company launches a new cell phone then they will get celebrity endorsements maybe some sports star some movie star I use this phone so what happens we see that person using that phone and that's how we get the desire oh he is using it I want to use it and I had gone long ago to Australia first time maybe several years ago so I was invited to devotee's house for prasad and then he said for dessert we have baklava ok how many of you know what is a baklava ok most of you I had never heard of a baklava what is baklava it's a sweet now the name is not very sweet is it baklava so I said I had never heard of it I said maybe later maybe later and then there is another friend who had also gone on food he said ya give me and then he took it and he was eating it and he was savouring and relishing it and I looked at him and I said give me one also so what happened just hearing or seeing the baklava there is no linear desire but seeing somebody else eat the baklava there is a triangular desire similarly for us in the practise of bhakti sometimes we may see Bhagavad Gita and it's not often that we will oh I want to know what is Bhagavad Gita but if you associate with somebody who is studying the Bhagavad Gita who is relishing the Bhagavad Gita who is getting fresh insights and energy by studying the Gita what is there in the Bhagavad I want to study it also so in spiritual life most of our desires are triangular many of us if we are from a traditional background we might have heard of kirtans I think kirtan is something which is an activity done in temples but if you come and associate with devotees who are into kirtan and we see them closing their eyes absorbed clapping apparently in another world what is this kirtan I also want to experience it let me try it out so it is largely because spiritual life is about subtler things so just seeing the object may not create the desire but seeing somebody experiencing something that creates the desire within us so association of devotees taps the triangularity of desires and uses and nourishes our spiritual desires and that is why association is the single most important thing in our spiritual life if we are associating then all other limbs of bhakti will fall in place gradually one more question by practising bhakti you can be a good person and less worries but the outside environment is very challenging and competitive if you practise this how they integrate these two together that is my question how they successful in the outside environment so outside world is competitive so if kids yeah yeah yeah so if these kids practise bhakti and learn to be a nice person then they can't fit into the system not necessarily we all have certain stereotypes of what bhakti is now Arjuna was he a nice person well obviously he was not a bad person but being a nice person didn't mean that he didn't fight a war when he had to of course he tried his best to avoid the war tried to resolve the issue by non-confrontational means but when the confrontation was required he did not back away from it so bhakti doesn't mean that we become all soft and fuzzy bhakti means we can even be tough when we need to be tough in fact many many companies I speak in Silicon Valley so I spoken at Intel at Stanford at Salesforce these are all big big companies and they all encourage their employees to have some spiritual practises in fact Salesforce is one of the biggest companies in America and Salesforce has a special meditation hall in their premises and they have found that if their employees when they are very stressed they go and sit in the meditation hall do some meditation they come back and they have performance parameters they perform better they found since there is an incorporated meditation they from practical perspective for them the bottom line is important the health insurance cost for their employees have gone down so it's quite well documented that spiritual practises can help us face life's challenges better so if we have a stereotypical understanding now should a spiritualist really nice people yes nice in the sense that we don't want to exploit others we don't want to be corrupt but nice doesn't mean naive it doesn't mean that we think oh because we are devotees the whole world is a nice place and if I am nice everybody will be nice with me it's not like that the world is tough and we have to be tough like earlier I said bhakti doesn't mean we expect God to change the rules of the game for us this is a tough game and we have to fight the tough game but bhakti can toughen us from within so that we can we can face life's challenges better basically bhakti expands our vision of life so that when we face problems we understand that life is bigger than these problems these problems are there but life is much bigger than this and that's how we can live with those problems we can tolerate those problems so we may have to live with pain but we don't have to live in pain for somebody who doesn't have a spiritual understanding of life say if they lose their job or if somebody does a court case against them or their relationship falls apart this is what I was living for and this has fallen then what is the point of my life but bhakti gives us a bigger purpose for our life all these things are important but there is something even more important and thus by expanding our vision of life we can see we can face life's challenges better ok thank you what made you dedicate your life to this bhakti yoga and what keeps you going because you know what made me practise ok there's a lot of things but I'll answer briefly in light of the second question also about what keeps me going basically since my childhood I had a desire to contribute to society and as I grew up because I was physically handicapped so my parents told me you know what god has taken away physically he has given you intellectually so I was very much into studies and I did well in studies and I developed a lot of faith in the power of education in creating a better life so when I was studying my engineering I joined a social welfare organisation and there I started going to underprivileged children where they were staying and offering them free classes so while I was doing that I found that many of these children came from dysfunctional families alcoholism was rampant and then we decided our organisation decided I placed one of my inputs also that we should work to help them become free from alcoholism and we brought some campaigners and we were reasonably successful in that so but then one time it turned out that there was a local municipality elections and not only the fathers but even their kids they all the local local politician had brought like three truckloads of liquor to woo people to vote for him and the fathers and their kids everybody had drunk so at that time I started thinking that education can open doors for people but something inside them stops them from walking through something inside us works against us so that's the time I started reading books to understand our self philosophical books and then I came to the Bhagavad Gita and then through the Bhagavad Gita I understood how within us there are dark forces lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion all of these they affect us negatively and they undermine our potential so then I started practising bhakti myself I started sharing it with others one of my close friends in college was just gliding towards alcoholism but he started practising bhakti and he became free from it so I found that this was a very powerful way of inner empowerment then at that time I was also studying so I had done given my GRE I had come first in the state of Maharashtra at that time in GRE so I had a lot of opportunity to go to America and grow I also got a job in a multinational software company but then I felt that I could contribute to society better by sharing spiritual knowledge than by writing software programmes or doing something else so that's how I decided to dedicate my life to sharing spiritual knowledge and over the years I have seen many amazing stories of transformation not that I caused them but I become an agent for them once I had gone to an American university and I spoke on the topic of regulating our mental diet it was vegetarian society so just as we regulated our physical diet we should regulate our mental diet and after that one American boy came and he told me that just before this class I was contemplating suicide what happened he said that I was in a relationship with a girl and she broke up with him and I had invested a lot in that relationship so I was very depressed I was wandering along the campus I saw a poster for this programme and he said something within me said just go for this talk so he said when I came here now I understood that it is not I who want to commit suicide there is my mind inside me my mind is saying commit suicide commit suicide but I don't have to listen to my mind so I said this is a life saving insight you have got and I told him that I connected him with the local Bhakta Yoga club I encouraged him to read the Bhagavad Gita I have an online website called Gita daily where I write everyday on the Gita so he connected with that and then every year whenever I go twice a year to America so whenever I go to that university I will meet and talk with him a few years later he came to me again and he said you know I was in a similar situation again I was in a very relationship deeply invested and suddenly that girl broke up with him and she just sent him a message and she said that I don't want to talk with you I am going to die I am to die I am to die I am going to die I am going to die I am going to die I am going to die I am to I am going to die I am going to die I am going.