Does developing a devotional self-conception require a lot of preparation before it can be lived?

Spiritual perfection alone.

We need to prepare a lot to have a spiritual self-understanding when problems come. It works both ways that if we are prepared, we can face problems better. But also when problems come, we feel impelled to prepare more.

So if we see problems as tests, so the student who studies well can give the test well. But if the test comes, the student starts studying well also. So we don't have to necessarily divorce the two.

So there is at one level our studying scriptures, our doing sadhana bhakti, that is the preparation. But that is not the only preparation. Life itself is a preparation.

So when we face difficult situations in life, at that time also, when we find that this problem, how do I deal with it? I just can't figure out. At that time, I surrender to Krishna. I pray to Krishna.

At one level it says, intelligence means to know what to do when you don't know what to do. So Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita 2.6, he says that na chaita dvidmaha katarannu gariyo yad va jayema yadi vano jayeyu jyaaneva hatvana jiji vishamas te avastataha pramukhe dhartarastra He says that should I fight and win this war? But I'll have to kill my relatives. Should I just fight half-heartedly and be defeated? But then my family members will be killed.

Should I just avoid the fight? Oh, but then we'll all have to live in a forest and people will say we are cowards. What should I do? I just don't know. I just tell him.

So then what does he do? He doesn't know what to do, but then he does something. What does he do? karpanya dosopahata svabhavah prichyami tuam dharmasam mudhacheta He surrenders to Krishna. So, when we don't know what to do at that time, if we surrender to Krishna, we try at that time to connect with Krishna, that will also help us.

So, we don't have to we don't have to micro-analyze things or think that things are too difficult. We just do our preparation and get into the action. So the preparation helps us in the action, but the action also helps us to understand how to do the preparation.

Just like swimming, we have to get some swimming gear, we have to have some facility, some security guard or whatever, but then eventually we have to swim. And after swimming, I understand, oh, this is what I did wrong, this is what I should do right. So, bhakti and living are not to be considered two distinct things.

Our bhakti helps us in our living and our living helps us to understand how to practice bhakti better.