How can we connect with Krishna tangibly when distracted by worldly objects?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So let me see if I have understood your question.
That when we are trying to connect with Krishna, there are real objects in this world which distract us away. And they are real concerns, the practical issues which we have to deal with. And on the other hand, when we have to connect to Krishna, there doesn’t seem to be anything tangible with which we can connect.
So how can we reconnect with Krishna and not be distracted by the world? Is that your question? Actually, at our stage, connection is essentially a process of reconnection. A continued process of reconnection. We will get disconnected from Krishna, again reconnect.
Get disconnected, we again connect. Now when a plane, say is going from one destination to another. Tomorrow, say I am going from Montreal to Toronto.
Now in the plane, 90% of the time, the plane is off course. Because there is a wind pressure, there is atmospheric condition, there is a momentum of the plane. The plane is off course.
What gets the plane on course, what keeps the plane, what ensures the plane reaches the destination is reorientation. The pilot or the autopilot, whatever it is, it reorients. The wind makes the plane go off, reorient.
Like when we are driving a car. The car, it will go off, a little bit we move the wheels, it comes back on track. Again we move the wheels, it comes back on track.
So like that, our spiritual journey also is disoriented, again we reorient. Disoriented, again we reorient. That’s how we grow in our spiritual life.
And that is why periodic spiritual association is required. Regularly. So once a week we come to temple for programs or whatever frequency it is, we come in the association of devotees.
That reminds us, this is also important. Because the nature of the world is that it will make us feel, this is important, this is important. The way illusion works, the way the forces of illusion, maya works, is different for materialistic people and for devotees.
For materialistic people, maya may say, spiritual, stop, this is just nonsense. Don’t bother about it. But for devotees, what maya does is, maya says, the forces of illusion, they say, spiritual, stop, this is important.
But this is urgent. This is urgent, and this is urgent, and this is urgent, and this is urgent. And in that way we stay caught in the urgent and we never make time for the important.
But when we come in association, remember, this is important, I have to make time for it. This is also urgent. So that reorientation happens when we come in association of devotees.
So similarly, that is maybe we come weekly once or whatever frequency it is. But coming periodically in association is very important. And even in our day, if we have a schedule by which we make time on a regular basis, so I get disoriented, so every morning I do some spiritual practices.
Then that reorients me. I go off track, I come back on track. So when we are going off track, it is just that I am going this way, I go on this way.
Now again I come back this way. Again I go off that way, again I come back this way. And that way we keep moving forward.
Now as we keep practicing bhakti more and more, what happens is, initially Krishna is just in the background. That, oh you know, yes Krishna is there and I have to serve you. But as we keep practicing bhakti, Krishna starts coming in the foreground.
We start perceiving Krishna’s presence more and more. Because what happens, we are getting purified, we are focusing more on Krishna. It’s like anything we do new for the first time.
Say we speak in public for the first time. You are so self-conscious, you know, how I am looking, how my hair is combed, how my tilak is, how my dress is. You are so self-conscious of other things that you forget what I am going to speak.
But if you start speaking regularly, then okay, all this, how I look is important. But what I am speaking is more important. So the externals go in the background and the essence, what I am speaking, that comes in the foreground.
Similarly, as we keep practicing bhakti, we are aware of both. We are aware of Krishna, we are aware of the world also. When we keep practicing bhakti more and more, Krishna starts coming more and more in the foreground.
So Vashila Prabhupada, whether he was speaking to two people in a private darshan, in a private meeting with people, or whether he was speaking to 20,000 people in a big program, Prabhupada was speaking about Krishna for Krishna. He was just enthusiastic. He was speaking for Krishna’s pleasure.
So we also, as we keep practicing bhakti, Krishna starts coming in the foreground. And when Krishna comes in the foreground, the disorientation that is happening, that starts becoming lesser. We get disoriented, immediately we come back.
So we will get reoriented faster and faster and faster. And the disorientation will be lesser and lesser and lesser. And as far as tangibility is concerned, yes, we need to find out what tangible objects in spiritual life can connect me with Krishna, quickly.
In the Bhakti Samhita, the word is used, Uddhipan. Uddhipan means spiritual stimulus. Just like we all have particular sense objects, which captivate us.
We may have some, say, movie songs. If we hear immediately, our mind starts fantasizing. We may have some sports.
As soon as we start watching, I just want to do this. So like that, we all have certain material objects, which very quickly trigger our emotions, which capture our consciousness. So like that, we all will have some spiritual objects, which immediately trigger our emotions, spiritually, which capture our consciousness.
For some of us, it may be just taking darshan of the favorite deities. For some of us, it may be hearing Hare Krishna dhun in a particular… Hare Krishna kirtan in a particular dhun. For some of us, it might be just hearing the class of a particular devotee.
For some of us, it might be reciting verses. So whatever it is that quickly connects us with Krishna, we need to, while practicing Bhakti, keep observing and finding this thing. Whatever it is that quickly connects us with Krishna, we cherish that as a spiritual sense object.
Just as there are material sense objects, there are spiritual sense objects. And the particular spiritual sense object that quickly draws our consciousness towards Krishna, that is what we should cherish. And we keep that available for us always.
Maybe as a picture of the deity, music, shlokas, whatever it is. Or sometimes it might just be some quotable quotes. We hear some nice quotes, nice thoughts, write them down, keep them in our phone.
Whenever we start getting agitated, just read. So we find out some tangible manifestations of Krishna conscious wisdom, or Krishna conscious culture, or Krishna himself ultimately. And we keep them readily accessible.
That way, when the disconnection happens, the reconnection can happen faster. So, essentially, connection with Krishna is a process of continuing reconnection. And that continuing reconnection can happen by repeated practice of Bhakti periodically, in external association of devotees, by regularly doing our own sadhana, by purification, by which Krishna from the background comes to the foreground, and by exposing ourselves more and more to our particular uddhipati, the particular sense objects that immediately connect us with Krishna.
Does that answer your question? So, thank you very much.