How can we persevere amidst distractions?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you conviction and the determination thereof they are not like a fixed deposit I have to invest that much and it’s always there it’s more like a deposit in a stock market share so depending on how the stock market is going, the value will be very high, the value will be very low also, like that our conviction and determination keep varying so we need to replenish it regularly now replenishing means that we have to observe within the broad activities of sadhana bhakti, within the broad activities of bhakti, what activity energizes me the most we have standard activities of sadhana bhakti that we do but along with that the activity that energizes us the most we need to take special time out to do that so if we like to do puja of the deities then we need to make time for that Rupa Goswami calls this as uddhipan uddhipan means spiritual stimulus and it can vary from individual to individual just like we can consider sensual stimulus material stimulus now for all of us what might agitate our minds materially can be food items not everybody is attracted to same food items necessarily, everybody is attracted to different different food items just as there are different sensual stimuli that may attract us similarly there are different spiritual stimuli that may attract each one of us so we have to find out what spiritual stimuli can connect us with Krishna most effectively and we keep that readily accessible to us so it might be if we like to hear classes of a particular devotee then keep some in their classes or some extracts from their classes some specially inspired classes, keep them readily accessible if we like to hear kirtan then keep kirtan readily accessible so when we keep these things readily accessible then whenever the mind when we start feeling weak then we can draw on the sources of strength we needn’t see our spiritual weakness as a character flaw our spiritual weakness is simply a circumstantial inevitability we will be strong for some time and after that we will become weak so rather than thinking oh something must be wrong, why am I feeling like this yeah something is wrong but it’s not that it’s not that there is something because of which I cannot practice spiritual life I cannot be serious about spiritual life okay, I can practice it at whatever I just need to get the strength back again and then I will be able to practice it so that’s one aspect to it that wherever we get the strength we make time to do that activity the second is that we don’t have to necessarily reduce spiritual life to just a certain set of activities that means if I am not able to do this that means I am not spiritual a spiritual life is more a set of more a matter of consciousness than of activities so I write articles on the Bhagavad Gita everyday at githardinji.com so there I try to put the Gita’s message in memorable terms so one article I wrote recently was that even if we can’t succeed in Krishna Consciousness we can fail in Krishna Consciousness not fail out of Krishna Consciousness now what does that mean that means that failing in Krishna Consciousness means that even if I am not able to do a particular thing, say if I decide to wake up in the morning but I am not able to wake up in the morning now one reaction could be that I can’t wake up in the morning therefore the spiritual life business is not for me let me give it up so I won’t be able to chant, I won’t be able to do the sadhana just let me give it up that is failing out of Krishna Consciousness but it is not that if you can’t chant in the morning that doesn’t mean you are banned from chanting there are no rules for chanting so that would mean that if I can’t succeed in Krishna Consciousness I can fail in Krishna Consciousness that means Krishna my conditioning is so strong I am not able to do this my conditions are such that there are too many distractions right now too many other things are coming up I am not able to do this right now but please I want to serve you please guide me how I can serve you best in this situation so sometimes certain things do require time and attention when Srila Prabhupada was, before he started his con when he was a grahastha he was in Varanasi and he was in Allahabad he had his own pharmacy business and he used to give medicine and there was a doctor who used to prescribe the medicine, Prabhupada was a dispenser so that doctor’s interview was there and he says, at that time Prabhupada was Abhay Babu it was clear that Abhay Babu was a very deeply religious person but he says at that time his main question was the main thought dominating was how can I earn more money he had his daughters to get married one of his sons was very sick and he had to be treated properly so Prabhupada was burdened by those thoughts so if we see Prabhupada might not have seemed to be going to the Gauriyamma temples regularly some of his Gauriyamma devotees, godbrothers were saying why don’t you just move into the temple Prabhupada was not doing that but in his own way he was Krishna conscious so we have to see that the distractions may stop us or limit us from the external activities of Krishna consciousness but they don’t have to stop our Krishna consciousness itself you can see that even in this Krishna I long to be with you I want to do this service but I am just not able to do it please guide me how I can do it that longing is there and we are moving towards Krishna it’s like a traffic if we are travelling to a particular station and the traffic is too much we will have to go slowly but if we are really eager to go to that place then we are looking how can I move forward is there some other route and then as soon as the route becomes clear we will move faster similarly there are situations in which the traffic in our life will become just too much and then we can’t do the external Krishna consciousness activity that much that’s ok Krishna is an understanding god, he is not a judging god but the test is that after the traffic clears even after that also we are going slowly that means we are not interested in going so when the conditions become less inclement, when they become more favourable then we can intensify our bhakti so thank you very much Ishila Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhakta Vendaki Gaur Premanandi so now we will have everybody can come do you have the books Prabhu ok understood so Ishila Prabhupada wanted his followers to present the bhakti message in contemporary language so I have written about 25 books till now but we have got a few of them here the latest book is on the Ramayana, it is Wisdom from the Ramayana there are about 20 incidents from the Ramayana which were narrated and then analysed to explain practical lessons sometimes some good people behave in a terrible way like Kaikeyi did or sometimes the best of good friends have terrible misunderstandings like happened with Bali and Sugriv how do we respond in a constructive way when bad things happen in our life when to accept them as destiny when to act to counter them so we learn from Ram’s life and other characters life lessons like this so this is Wisdom from the Ramayana and this is another this is a new concept this is 365 meditation cards so like what I talked about the course which I mentioned today that even if we can’t succeed in Krishna Consciousness we can fail in Krishna Consciousness not out of Krishna Consciousness so there are many course like that these are all based on verses from the Bhagavad Gita and they are on topics three broad topics, nourish yourself nourish your devotion and nourish your relationships so there is mindfulness there is positive thinking there is work like balance so each card can you open one of them so this card deck you can keep on your own desk and you can read it yourself even children they may not read the whole book but they can read Gita they just look at one card and they can see it and this is a very good gift to give to friends and colleagues who are not yet interested in reading the Bhagavad Gita we distribute Bhagavad Gita as it is unfortunately many people keep it as it is they don’t read it so they see that some quotes are so you could just take out any quote and have a look at it and see if it speaks to you so each of them is based on a verse from the Bhagavad Gita and you can if you go to gitadaily.com and type that quote you will also see an article which explains how this verse is related how this quote is related to that Gita verse and this is also something which you could keep in your one devotee is doing it, he is keeping it in his office desk and in offices you generally can’t preach to anyone but if somebody sees a quote and asks a question then that is a good springboard for you to speak about philosophy and share Krishna Bhakti with them so these, we have these card decks and these books there are few other books also might be available you can have a look at them also thank you very much this is 10, this is 25 thank you very much Hare Krishna