How can we remember Krishna constantly and also do our work properly?

From: Rahul
Lord Krishna says Always think of him while doing work also. According to my experience while working I only concentrate on work and I am finding it difficult to think of Krishna while doing work.So can you tell me a way where I can simultaneously think of Krishna constantly and also do my work properly.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Rahul Prabhu. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that always think of Him while doing work also.
According to my experience, while working, I only concentrate on work and I find it difficult to think of Krishna while doing work. So, can you tell me a way where I can simultaneously think of Krishna constantly and also do my work properly? Answer, we have to understand Krishna’s recommendation for thinking about Him constantly in a proper perspective. Krishna is not recommending that we be distracted or half-hearted while doing our work.
He is recommending that we make our love for Him so integral to our very being that it permeates into us and it becomes the motivation for everything that we do. Just as if we love our family then when we are working, Vishwanatha Chakra Thakur used this example that when we are working in an office, we think about our family, think about our children, about our spouse and we feel that we are doing everything that we are doing for them. So, those whom we love, we naturally think about them.
Although they may not be in the foreground of our thought, they are definitely there in the background because we are doing that whatever we are doing, earning a living and having a respectable way of leading life. That is all for them. So, similarly when Krishna says, always think of me, what it essentially means is that we develop our love so much for Him that by the virtue of our deep love for Him, we will naturally think about Him.
So, how does that become possible for us when we don’t have love? So, the wonderful thing about Krishna is that just by thinking about Him, also our love for Him develops. Because Krishna is all-attractive. So, Prahlad Maharaj used the example that just as iron fangling is attracted to a magnet.
Similarly, the pure soul is attracted to Krishna. Currently, we are covered over by some contaminations because of which we are presently not attracted to Krishna. However, if we just keep practicing Krishna Consciousness, just by bringing the iron filing close to the magnet, the coverings, the rust on the iron filing goes away.
This is how things happen in Krishna Consciousness. So, just by coming close to Krishna, we will become attracted to Krishna. So, for us as sadhakas, we try to cultivate the thought of Krishna.
How do we do that? We have our exclusive sadhana, we have our scriptural study, our chanting, our association with devotees, where Krishna is in the foreground of our consciousness. Ideally, especially during our sadhana, Krishna should be the only presence in our consciousness. If not only, then at least the primary presence.
He should be in the foreground. And then, when we invest our thought, our heart, our emotion in Krishna Conscious activities, then naturally we will carry those impressions with us. So, apart from that, exclusive focus on Krishna for a significant part of the day, preferably the morning, where we are most fresh and receptive to take in devotional impressions into our consciousness.
Beyond that, we can also try to have some background presence. If you are working on a laptop, we can have a desktop, we can have a desktop background, picture can be of Krishna, we can have some kirtans going on. When we are driving, we can hear some lectures, have some kirtans.
Or we can chant, we can work whenever we are not doing any intellectual work, we can chant or we can pray. And in general, we may not be able to think about Krishna while we are doing the work. But, if we have made Krishna the goal of our life, right now, we may not be having pure love for Krishna, but if pure love for Krishna is our aspiration, that is what we hold as our sacred value in our life, then we are also by that practicing Krishna consciousness in the sense that our life is motivated for the service of Krishna.
And even while other things that we are doing, our worldly professions, our family responsibilities, they are all contributing to our ultimate relationship with Krishna. So in this way, actually what we are essentially doing is trying to establish Krishna as the pervading and unifying goal of all aspects of our life. But in some aspects of our life, Krishna will be in the foreground of our consciousness, that is, during our sadhana and explicit devotional activities.
And in some other aspects, Krishna will be in the background. So now, even when he is in the background, we try to get him to the foreground gradually. So we keep him in the background by, as I said, having some devotional stimuli around us as much as is possible.
And ideally, before we begin any work, we can try to pray to Krishna briefly. After we finish the work, we can pray to Krishna, thank him. And in that way, even if we don’t remember him during that work, we are seeking his blessings and we are offering that work to him through our prayers.
That way it becomes spiritualized. And over a period of time, as we keep doing our worldly duties and also practicing Krishna consciousness, Krishna will move from the background to the foreground of our consciousness. Just as when a person first time drives in a plane or rides in a plane, he is very conscious.
Oh, I am going in a plane, I am going in a plane. The people also think, I have only developed wings. Now I have become some special person because I ride in a plane.
But for those who are routinely riding in planes, for them, in the plane ride, that I am in a plane is not very important. What is important is where am I going, why am I going. So, similarly, for devotees, in early stages, for us, our externals are very important.
But as we keep living a life in an overall Krishna conscious framework, then the externals remain important, we are aware of those externals, but they don’t preoccupy our consciousness. The internals become equally if not more important for us. So, even when we are doing our worldly activities, slowly, Krishna will come from the background more and more towards the foreground.
And that’s how our Krishna consciousness will increase. So, right now, we don’t have to think too much of trying to do a mental balancing act, that okay, I type one word on my computer and then I say Hare Krishna. Then I type another word on my computer and say Hare Krishna.
It’s not like we have to do something like that. It’s not a recipe for being distracted of our half-hearted. It’s a recipe for, it’s a guideline for making Krishna the lord of our heart and making Krishna the goal of our life.
Then naturally we’ll think of him. So, by the process of devotional service in which we keep Krishna in the foreground during the sadhana period and by creating a such way setting by which Krishna can be in the background while we are doing other activities. So, by that gradually we’ll bring Krishna from the background to the foreground and we’ll be able to remember him always.
Most important is we make Krishna the goal of our life, even now. And that way gradually his remembrance will increase and will become constant at all times