How can brahmacharis avoid feeling superior to grihasthas?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, as Vamachari sometimes you make it the pride that as compared to Grahastha we are in a higher ashram or we are more renounced.
So, how to avoid that pride and stay focused? Actually, there is a cultural perspective and there is a devotional perspective. From the cultural perspective, the Brahmachari ashram is considered a higher than Sanyasa ashram. And that’s why in Sarvambhattacharya, he took Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to the Jagannath temple.
So, he had Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Chaitanya in the highest seat. And although he was going to teach Vedanta, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he sat on the lower seat because he was a Sanyasi. So, from the cultural perspective, the renounced order, whether the Sanyasi or Brahmachari, the renounced order is meant to be given more respect.
And Prabhupada and our movement preserves that culture. At the same time, from the devotional perspective, I am actually a servant of Krishna. Servant of the servants of Krishna.
I am not belonging to any Varna or any ashram. So, now, for the sake of the external cultural formularies, it is important that the renounced order be respected by the householders. Because then, when they respect the renounced order, then they will aspire for the renunciation and the devotion, which will help them to advance.
So, that social structure will be there where the householders will respect the renounced order. But from our devotional perspective, in the devotional perspective, it is usually the desire to serve Krishna and the dedication to serve Krishna, that is more important. And who has how much desire and dedication, it is very difficult to say based on externals.
So, usually, we as brahmacharis are spending more time in services to Krishna. But then, we also have more time. So, I sometimes think that when this pride comes, I think that if I had been a grand star, how much sense would I have been able to do? There are so many distractions, so many complications.
And actually, in that situation, one has to worry about, nowadays, there is so much worry about finances. In Australia, it may be lesser than in India, but it is there still. So, that itself is a big anxiety.
For a brahmachari, that anxiety is not there, to a large extent. Then, of course, there is the ever-present temptation. Then, further, there is a sense of responsibility of taking care of one’s family members.
And there are so many social obligations. You go for this person’s marriage, you go for this person’s birthday, you go for this party, you go So, there are so many distractions. And amidst those distractions, to be able to continue to serve Krishna, that is extraordinary.
And we really can’t know who has how much desire in the religion. From the quantitative point of view, we say that I am in an ashram which is dedicated to Krishna. And others are not spending so much time on Krishna also.
how much, which ashram one is in or how much time one is spending, that is not at all necessarily reflective of how much desire one has. And the spiritual advancement is not a function of ashram. So, we may end up, if we become proud, all that will happen is that we will just stay in the illusion thinking I am more advanced.
But others will actually keep advancing with it. Because others are serving Krishna. And actually when we are proud, what happens is that pride becomes like a wall between us and Krishna.
So, we have the facility to move faster towards Krishna. But whether we are actually moving faster towards him or not, that’s questionable. And even if we have more time to move towards Krishna, more facility and yes, certainly, definitely credit has to be given.
Somebody renounced the world and become a brahmachari, credit needs to be given for that. But at the same time, we have to see that even our ashrams are temporary. I am not going to be a brahmachari for the rest of my life, for the rest of eternity a brahmachari.
So, the brahmachari for me is a tool to increase my Krishna and if I am becoming proud, then I am forgetting the purpose for which I became a brahmachari. So, actually, humility means to accept honour and am a dog of Krishna. So, the culture requires us sometimes to accept honour but if we start expecting honour, then we lose humility.
So, rather than focusing on the fact that we are in renounced order, focus on the purpose of being in the renounced order, then we can avoid that. And actually speaking, as long as we stay in that philosophical ivory tower, ivory tower you know means somewhere high up you are there, everybody is low down, so like that we can be in a philosophical ivory tower, I have renounced the world, these people are all attached to the world. But we see, once we come out of that philosophical ivory tower, I may have renounced the world, but the world has not renounced me, I have still a lot of attachments within me, and they have not let me go, and those people whom I say are attached, they are also so dedicated to Krishna.
So, we see that then we can avoid that pride, and more importantly is that pride can lead to a fall, and there are, those, it is very, it becomes very unfortunate, sometimes Brahmacharis are very proud and arrogant, and then pride comes for a fall and then they fall down, and the same grahastha they looked out at, they become a grahastha, and they don’t even follow the standards which the grahasthas whom they looked down upon, they fall. So, suddenly, pride is, even if somebody doesn’t fall, still pride is detrimental to our life, and most importantly, it is based on a distorted conception of reality, and distorted understanding of the purpose why we are practicing Brahmacharya. So, we see that both grahasthas and Brahmacharys are basically like, we are all the same army of Krishna, and they are in one regiment, we are in another regiment.
It’s not that they have surrendered to maya and we are alone fighting against maya, they also have to fight against maya. Maya is better than you, but the enemy is attacking you. Fight the enemy, that is more important.
So, by seeing that commonality, that we are all devotees of Krishna, and we are all fighting the war against Krishna, yes, at different levels we may fight, but we are all fighting for Krishna. By seeing that commonality between us and by seeing our purpose, we can avoid that.