How can a bar waiter transform one’s occupational duty into devotional service?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so question from Jaydev Shantijay I work as a bar waiter in a cruise ship how can I transcend my occupation in devotional service answer there are we are all in different situations based on our past and present karma and choices and important thing is that wherever we are we start connecting with Krishna there is a connection with Krishna which is direct and there is a connection with Krishna which is indirect direct connection with Krishna is by chanting his holy names, by associating with devotees by studying scriptures by worshipping his deity, basically called ABC association books, chanting and deity worship, so these are the direct ways in which we can connect with Krishna and whatever profession we are in, the profession doesn’t take 24 hours, so we can allocate some amount of our time apart from our profession to connecting with to connecting with Krishna through a direct through a direct devotional activities now as far as the indirect devotional activities are concerned are concerned, we may not have so much facility to control or change them we just make some adjustments in our life change our priorities, we can make time for doing direct devotional activities now the indirect devotional activities are something which we have to use our intelligence to find out how to spiritualize them so usually the activities that are involving that are involving activities that are anti-devotional then they are detrimental to our spiritual growth and we can try to minimize our involvement in them but if it is not possible because of circumstances so there are four primary activities which are considered anti-devotional, meat-eating, gambling intoxication versus sex so these we try to avoid and we try to avoid being involved in professions which are centered on these activities but if it is not possible to avoid those activities in whatever situation we are in because of whatever circumstances then we need to try to infuse a devotional consciousness as much as we can so let me enhance that initially Prabhupada was so inclusive that he said that at one time if somebody is a compulsive drinker somebody is alcoholic and they say that I just can’t give up alcohol Prabhupada said think that the taste of alcohol is Krishna if you think like this then one day by that remembrance of Krishna you will become purified and one day you will become a great devotee of Krishna so what this means is Prabhupada is not saying that you drink alcohol if you are not able to give it up at least try to think of Krishna within that situation and that thinking of Krishna will purify us and gradually the person will give up alcohol so whatever situation we are in now if we have to serve in a bar then we have to give alcohol to people so if we can’t change that profession then what can we do we try to remember Krishna as much as possible in that profession so we can see people how mad they are for alcohol and then we can think what is actually alcohol basically people are killing themselves by drinking it but still they are mad for it why is it because this they are getting some taste of Krishna in a distorted fragmented way over here now when Prabhupada says the taste of alcohol is Krishna what is he meaning he is not saying that we should all drink alcohol he is simply saying that that irresistible allure that they are getting, experiencing over there where does that come from that is a spark of Krishna’s remembrance but this is a spark that doesn’t take them towards the source this is a spark that takes them away from the source so we don’t want to go away from the source we don’t want to go away from Krishna but we can appreciate people get so captivated by this so a spark can be so attractive how much more attractive will be the whole and that way whatever way is possible we try to remember Krishna we try to whatever profession we have we try to give a portion of that earnings from that profession in charity and as we keep practicing bhakti praying to Krishna for a more favorable situation for practicing bhakti maybe it will work out that we might be able to get a job which does not involve such anti devotional activities or we might be able to shift within that job to a different kind of role within that particular profession where we are not directly involved in such anti devotional activities but the important thing is don’t delay one’s connection with Krishna just because of one’s circumstance wherever we are whatever we can do we should start doing and by doing what we can to connect with Krishna from wherever we are we show him our intention to connect with Krishna and then he will give us greater facility, greater intelligence for how we can keep connecting with him more and more