How can Krishna be our top priority when our studies need to be our priority?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we said that Krishna should be our first priority, but if we are students, at an important stage in our lives, then academics has to be a priority. See, when you talk about priority, priority does not necessarily mean in terms of time. For most of us, what to speak of academics, later on, say, if you have a job, the amount of time when we are going to do bhakti is going to be a few hours, the job will take much more time, the family will take much more time.
So priority is not in terms of time. Priority is more in terms of understanding. So at one level, we separate, these are my bhakti activities and I have to give time for them.
So initially, when we are practicing bhakti, we need to have some amount of separation, so that we have some time for practicing bhakti. Every day, I will chant Krishna’s name. Every week, I will go to a spiritual program, regularly I will read spiritual books.
We separate. This is my spiritual time and this is the rest of my time and we give some reasonable amount of time for our devotional activities. But after we have done that, we don’t have to constantly be separating, this is material and this is spiritual.
No, everything is for Krishna. So even in academics, rather than seeing this is academics and this is Krishna, we see, this is Krishna and everything is for Krishna, even my academics is for Krishna, my family is for Krishna, my job is for Krishna. So, 18.46 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that by your work, worship Him and thus you can attain perfection.
Some people translate this as work is worship. Now that is not the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. If work were worship, then the donkey will be the greatest worshipper.
Work alone is not worship, but work can be made into worship and how does that happen? That is, if we worship Krishna separately, then our heart becomes devoted to Krishna and then with our heart devoted to Krishna, that same heart we bring into our work and we do our work in a mood of devotion to Krishna. So, if we see Arjuna, he, when he was a student, he was studying archery. He was working hard.
He became a champion archer, not by playing marbles as they say, he was actually practicing archery. He, he was so diligent that he would practice more than all the other students, would learn one thing and just keep practicing, keep practicing, keep practicing. And one day, or one night rather, he was taking food in the night and there was a small lamb and the gust of wind came and the lamb got extinguished.
The lamb got extinguished. He was eating food and his hand still went to the plate and he ate and he thought, oh, since if in the dark, if I can eat, then in the dark I can shoot also, why am I not practicing at night? And he started practicing at night from that time. And he became excellent at hitting targets simply based on the sound of those targets.
If a moving target is there, just by hearing the sound, he started hitting. And that proved vital in his being a champion archer. So Arjuna did work hard and excelled in the archery by his diligence.
Similarly, if we are in academics, we need to do the best that we can. When we do the best and those who are non-devotees, they do their best. The difference is not in the action, the difference is in the intention.
They want to do their best so that they can prove to the world how great I am. We want to do the best so that we can prove to the world how great Krishna is. I am a devotee of Krishna and Krishna’s devotees are also good in things.
They are also the best in things. I was in a university in India recently before I came here. So one student asked this question, a college student he was.
How can I help my other students, how can I make my friends in college into devotees? I told him, by studying nicely. I said, if you study nicely, there is no guarantee that your friends will become devotees. But if you study badly, there is guarantee they will never become devotees.
Because what they will say, you are chanting, you are bhakti, you have become irresponsible. I don’t want to become like that. They will give it up.
So both at external social level, the way we act is sending messages to people. So if we are competent, if we are committed, if we are responsible, this is the kind of person I want to be like. That’s from the external perspective.
We can see our studies, our profession, whatever it is, as a service. From an internal perspective, we can know that these are the resources by which I am meant to serve Krishna. Actually, I have a full class on this topic, but I just mentioned this briefly.
In the bhakti vision, what we see is, what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. What we are.
Yes, I have certain talents, I have certain abilities, I have certain interests. This is God’s gift to me. And if God has given me a gift, what am I meant to do? I have talents, they have been given to me for a purpose.
I am to make a contribution using these talents. So what I become is my gift to God. And when our eyes are fixed on God, not on the world, then what happens? We can work hard, we can achieve, but without the insecurity.
Because for worldly people, if I get this, then I am successful. If I don’t get this, oh, I am a failure. Now for us, we are doing this for Krishna’s pleasure.
We do our best, the result comes, that is for Krishna’s pleasure. The result doesn’t come, still we did our best. So what we are is God’s gift to us.
And we don’t have to become someone else. Sometimes some other student may look better than us, some other student may have better memory than us, some other student may be better at athletics than us. And they may become more famous in class.
But we don’t have to become like that. Now if God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else. You know, he has made you, you, he has made me, me.
So what God wants is that you should become the best you, and I should become the best me. So what we become is our gift to God. When we see from this devotional vision, then we will do our best.
But we will do our best not for our ego’s sake, not to prove how great I am, but to show how great Krishna is in a mood of service to Him. So that way we can keep God first in priority in our heart. And in our execution, we give our studies, we give our job, we give our family, whatever it is, our responsibility, we give them due importance.
Does it answer your question? Thank you very much. Ishwara Prabhupada ki, Gaur Bhakta Vrindaki, Tai Gaur Premanandai.