How can we practically engage in Krishna’s service all the time?

Transcript

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how do you understand that all the time should be engaged in Krishna Sarva it seems quite difficult to do at a practical level actually the Upadeesh Sarva is not that we should not waste any time that is also a principle of Bhakti but the Upadeesh Sarva is here that this is how one should spend one’s time Kalam Naid how one should do Kalam Naid this is how one should engage one’s time but yes in the Bhaktasamyut Sindhu Rupa Goswami gives various characteristics of advanced devotees and there for example, now there is Ashtavika we know the those are the characteristics but these are imitable somebody can do certain things by which the Romanchi might come up and then Ashur can come up quite easily, just use some Kanda then someone can get a lot of Ashur on the eyes so we see this kind of imitation even in Chaitanya Bhag we have that person who was imitating Haridas Thakur and he was dancing and what happened the snake charmed and he just bit him and the person went away after that so this sort of imitation can happen so Rupa Goswami also knows this and he prepares the ground for this by first he gives the Ashtavika in Bhaktasamyut but afterwards he gives other characteristics of advanced devotion also and those are non-imitable so for example he says avyarthakalatvam then like that he gives asakti you know detachment or he says samutkantha great enthusiasm tannamaruchi the taste for glorification, like that he gives characteristics which are non-imitable so avyarthakalatvam is a characteristic of advanced devotion now in general it is not these characteristics of advanced devotion they are not like digital logic, zero or one they are analog we are continually moving towards that so initially we focus on trying to engage ourselves in serving Krishna as much as possible and as we keep serving Krishna, our absorption in Krishna will become more and more so we focus primarily on slowly absorbing ourselves so how it will work is initially just try to keep ourselves engaged as much as possible now we shouldn’t think that only doing some service doing some distribution doing some cooking, doing some cleaning only those are services the way he describes is even associating with devotees if we are discussing some things that is also engagement in devotional service so basically the mind we try to move it away from maya and towards Krishna and this will happen gradually now what we can do at our level is that we try to avoid the major blanks that means what we don’t leave out huge amounts of chunk of time in which maya can rush we try to decrease that as much as possible we try to fill our day with productive activities we don’t have to worry too much about how much I am absorbing Krishna that will come gradually so that’s why for example at one level, Prabhupada recommended or insisted 16 rounds chanting because certain commitment to quantity itself promotes quality because if I have to chant 2 hours everyday then over a period of time if I am not going to absorb myself, why do I waste my 2 hours or if I am going to spend 2 hours let me use the productive and that’s how we try to absorb ourselves so that’s how gradually we can move forward it’s also very helpful if we can find out some services which attract our contention which attract us, which we like to do then it will be easier to absorb ourselves we will have some prescribed services which we like to do but if there are certain activities which we like to do more then doing those activities is also an easier way to absorb ourselves so it happens gradually in that activity, what are the rules? see sometimes I feel that the activities we are not doing Sri Krishna Prakriti they are the most relishable types so it’s like you know hearing and chanting are prescribed duties eating and sleeping are favorite pastimes it may seem like that but that’s why at our level it’s Vaidehi Bhakti we have a certain level of body and consciousness we can’t deny that and we don’t have to feel guilty there is one level aspiring for a higher level of devotion but others also we have to understand that there is a process we cannot advance faster than what Krishna wills what kind of policy we get so we over-pilgrim understand our level and to desire certain breaks see the body-mind is an apparatus body is a machine mind is also a machine so we understand that if I work throughout the day, I need rest similarly when we say the mind it’s like now, I can read but if I have to say I can read the Ramayana the Mahabharata all the Brihad Bhagavatam I can read for 6 hours, 10 hours but if I try to read Govinda Bhashya then after 1 hour I get exhausted because it’s intellectually demanding something is intellectually relaxing so the mind is a machine similarly some devotees like some devotees association is a treat and some devotees association is austerity isn’t it so now that’s just the way it is we can’t deny that so we have certain bodily and mental capacities with their weaknesses and strengths and recognizing that actually one aspect of surrender is also acceptance surrender is also accept and then act this is my level and in this level I can act so when we accept that I cannot do this all the time that doesn’t necessarily mean that I am not a serious devotee of course we can always say that I can always increase my seriousness there is no doubt about that but at my level, I can practice at this level and if I want to go further then I have to do this, this, this and I need these breaks so it’s not wrong to want some breaks because it’s just a matter of matter of rejuvenating ourselves ok, I did not take the Bhagavad Gita here now Krishna he talks about Tamoguna and in the Yuktahara we have Sri Krishna’s Karmas so Prabhupada writes in his purports that actually sleep is also required so I am explaining what I am saying is that in the characteristics of Tamoguna aprakashya pratishya pramadamohe vachah now nidra alasya pramadottam dattamasamudaratam in 18.3 Krishna says nidra alasya and pramadam that is nidra is sleep alasya is laziness and pramad is intoxication now if you see, he puts all of them in Tamoguna but then Krishna also says that na ktesna tostu dogasthi na jai kama na jati sapna shivasya that is excessive sleep yuktahara bhyarasya so at one level he is saying sleep is a characteristic of the mode of ignorance but then he says sleep has to be regulated so he is not saying that because that is a characteristic of ignorance you have to give it up no because when the body is there the body requires a certain amount of rest now for advanced devotees the amount of rest required will be less for others it may be more and even for advanced devotees when they are sick they may need more rest also so the important point is that we recognize our capacity at our level we can always try to increase our capacity but we can increase our capacity not just by jumping to higher levels like weight lifting I may be able to lift up to 15 kg right now I want to lift 50 kg but I can’t just jump to 50 kg immediately so I have to move forward progressively so this is my level and then move forward sometimes if somebody is doing counselling some devotees come and one person fixes problems second person fixes problems, third person fixes problems if you just keep hearing if you are counselling just keep hearing everyone’s problems then we will become a problem for someone else we may decide this is the number of things I can take up so it is natural we have our spirituality is not meant to sort of deny or extinguish our humanity as human beings we have certain capacities and certain limitations we accept them and then by our spiritual advancement we will be able to extend we will be able to do more and more but we are doing progress thank you very much we will continue if you have any other questions we can discuss in the next class