How much should sadhaka discriminate between matter and spirit while practicing bhakti?
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Transcript
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how much emphasis should be given on the pursuit of matter and the pursuit of spirit in description discrimination between matter and spirit discrimination between matter and spirit in our practice of devotion firstly, in terms of basically allocating time in our life we need to divide this time is for my spiritual activities, I come to the temple or come to satsang weekly or whatever, I have some time for chanting on a regular basis I do some scripture regularly so with respect to allocation of our time we should divide between material and spiritual and make sure that we allocate adequate time to spiritual and after that, in terms of our day to day functioning we don’t have to be constantly worrying whether something is material or something is spiritual we should be focusing on whether how can I connect this with Krishna now if somebody makes a joke in a class and then I start thinking, am I laughing for Krishna’s pleasure or for my sense gratification the preacher makes a joke and nobody laughs, the speaker will feel like crying what is happening so we don’t have to analyze too much like that for a devotee, ultimately everything is connected with Krishna if our heart atleast has some strong intention, we want to connect with Krishna, then everything is connected with Krishna and also for example, our education our career, our marriage our children we may become very hard hearted if we start thinking all this is material we should see that this is all ultimately connected with my spiritual life and also immediately, it has an effect on my spiritual life ultimately, all these are sticks Krishna has already mentioned that I am in this situation and in this situation, Krishna wants me to serve him and immediately, any upheaval in this life these things also happens so we should focus on how we can connect with Krishna and normally we say that we should not pray to Krishna for material things but the point is that does not mean that we we are banned from praying to Krishna for material things the point is, we should not make our material status the basis of our relationship with Krishna if Krishna has provided material things, then I will have a relationship with him otherwise, what is the point of practicing that should not be the case but material things are important for us so when Draupadi is being disrobed and she is calling out to Krishna now, is she seeking material protection or spiritual protection nobody analyzes like that it’s an emergency and she is seeking protection so we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees that means first we have to have a relationship with Krishna, then we can have a pure relationship so if something is burdening our heart even if it is a material concern how do we develop a relationship with someone we meet that person, talk with that person we unburden our heart to someone that person hears us and even if that person doesn’t give us a solution immediately still that hearing itself gives us a relief from the burden and also brings us close to that person similarly, when we are relating with Krishna, if something is burdening our heart we don’t have to bother too much we focus on sharing our heart’s concern with Krishna and we don’t expect or demand immediate resolution unburdening of the heart will bring our heart closer to Krishna and gradually once we develop a relationship we develop that our heart becomes connected with Krishna and that Krishna’s presence will gradually purify us so in terms of allocation of time we should have time for material and spiritual otherwise just say I will not chant because all the time I am thinking of Krishna no that will not work we need to give some time in terms of allocation of time we divide between material and spiritual and make sure that directly spiritual activities have quality time but apart from that we don’t analyze everything in our life with material and spiritual we focus on connecting everything with Krishna so thank you very much