How can a student who wants to become a brahmachari in future feel inspired to do academic studies?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Question If someone wants to become a Brahmachari how can he develop or increase the taste for academic studies because those studies are not going to help him in the future on becoming a Brahmachari Answer Our focus in doing our duties should be on doing what is best for the service of Krishna and for our own spiritual advancement and with respect to a devotee student the presence for Dharma is studies and if we do well in our studies we set a good example in society of how a devotee also does activities responsibly competently and in fact in studies if somebody is doing well that itself can become a very powerful means by which one can attract others to Krishna and often in India there is a widespread conception that people who are good for nothing people who can’t do anything well in material life people who are useless they become renunciates they become Brahmacharis and Sanyasis so that is a conception which is erroneous and it is our responsibility that we don’t perpetuate that misconception but rather we help eliminate that misconception and the way we will eliminate that is by doing our studies well so we are actually by doing studies well helping in the gaining of respect for Sanatana Dharma and for the representatives of Sanatana Dharma by that so normally when students study it is just for the sake of their own ego or for the sake of their future career I want to prove how clever I am or I want to show I want to have a very happy life with a high paying job in future but a devotee has a higher purpose than that devotee studies well to glorify Dharma and along with that even for the individual level spiritual advancement is not just something that comes by being in a particular ashram it comes by learning to discipline our mind and one aspect of disciplining the mind is doing things which the mind doesn’t like to do so that doesn’t mean that we have to deliberately make ourselves miserable but sometimes when our duties do require us to do things which the mind dislikes because of its lethargy then doing those things can lead to our inner growth because it gives us the experience of disciplining the mind and of mastering the mind at least for that time period so often when a devotee says I don’t want to study because I am going to become a rabhichari now how much is that unwillingness to study reluctance to study due to an eagerness to be a rabhichari and how much is it because one is just getting the easy way out it is the path of least resistance one doesn’t have to apply the mind to a subject which is difficult so we should know that our spiritual advancement depends on how much we learn to discipline the mind and even if the specific knowledge that we acquire through our academic studies may not help us in future but the training in disciplining our mind which we can acquire through our studies will stand us in good stead in our rabhichari life also and also we should not assume that because I am going to become a rabhichari because I want to become a rabhichari I will become a rabhichari in future many things can change and it is better always that we don’t for the sake of a future neglect the present so things may change we may not be able to become a rabhichari even if we become a rabhichari we may not be able to continue as a rabhichari so it is always good for us to make sure that the opportunities we have presently we are utilizing them properly this is not negative thinking this is not pessimism to think that I may not be able to become a rabhichari it is just not that utopianism should be allowed to strip us away from the present opportunities that we have yes what will come in the future I will deal with in the future but what I have right now let me use it well and who knows in future what I study suppose I am studying engineering now and in future who knows that I am going to temple that might be a project which may require my engineering knowledge we do not know what will come in the future so it is best for us for the sake of ensuring that people don’t think of devotees and especially renunciates as escapists for the sake of glorifying dharma for the sake of disciplining our mind and for the sake of preparing for future contingencies that we do our present duty of studying responsibly and competently thank you