I desire to start a new business – is this desire compatible with bhakti?

Transcript

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suppose we have a desire to say expand our business now is that desire compatible with bhakti, should we try to restrain it, especially when it is difficult to restrain broadly there is in the Vedic tradition dharma, artha, kama and moksha so artha is not just money it is overall material prosperity now the, it is not that it is bad when artha comes from dharma, that is the best when artha comes at the cost of dharma, that is bad so what does that mean there is some meaning in the Vedic context and some meaning in the bhakti context in the Vedic context is that if you do yajnas then a farmer does proper yajna, then rains will come then he will have a bountiful harvest then dharma will lead to artha in today’s context in today’s world actually most people pursue artha at the cost of dharma they are just so busy in work in earning money that they have no time for spiritual life, they have no time for god so that kind of obsession with earning money where the money is something which we live with but for many people money becomes something that they live for so that is a tool for living becomes the goal for living and then it becomes they are not even materially satisfied, they are just insatiably craving so that kind of dharma which comes at the cost of artha which comes at the cost of dharma is not good but sometimes artha may emerge from dharma also that means what that a devotee practices bhakti and becomes connected with Krishna and wants to share Krishna’s glories with others now there can be different ways in which we share Krishna’s glories one is we directly focus on Krishna speak about Krishna, distribute Krishna’s books invite people do services, invite people to Krishna’s message that’s one way other way is that we excel in our work so if you see that way Yudhisthira Maharaj he performed the Rajasuya Yajna why? because his goal was that if he is enthroned as the greatest king then he would glorify Krishna and now Rajasuya Yajna required a lot of effort to do but he did all that so that eventually he would glorify Krishna so we could say that the performance of that Yajna was simply a material endeavour expanding his kingdom conquering other things it was material but it was not for a material purpose it was for a devotional purpose of glorifying Krishna so if we work in our material life with that intention of wanting to glorify Krishna so Prabhupada himself wanted to become a big businessman so that he could give money to his special master’s mission Krishna had some other plan for it but he saw that also as a valid and valuable way of serving Krishna so in our case we have to find that balance where if we see that I have certain abilities I have certain talents I have certain things which I can do, I feel I can do and through that I can get some position in society I can make greater contribution to Krishna’s cause I can attract more people to Krishna so if our intent is devotional then even the material ambition can be spiritualized the challenge in this is that when the Artha is coming from Dharma and when the Artha comes at the cost of Dharma that line can be crossed anytime that’s why it’s important that we may decide that ok I may decide to I want to excel in my professional life and I may do certain things for that but we need to decide some ground level commitments in our bhakti this is what I am going to do always and it’s not just in terms of coming for a program it’s more of being connected with devotees so we need to have some devotees whom we are strongly connected if we have that then that association will keep us spiritually oriented sometimes we feel that we have different desires some desires we might just have to give them up because they are completely anti-devotional desires so broadly our desires there can be pro-devotional desires non-devotional desires and anti-devotional desires so somebody has a desire for say gambling or meat eating we have to give it up then there are somebody may have some casual interest somebody may have some interest in nature some interest in history, geography, whatever now if it gets too obsessive then it can be anti-devotional but it’s just intellectual curiosity it’s really not devotional but it’s not anti-devotional also, it’s just non-devotional some desires can be pro-devotional so for example if somebody has a desire to learn singing, learn music learn writing learn particular skills which can be directly used by Krishna that is a pro-devotional desire so now the same desire can go from pro-devotional to anti-devotional also so I may have desire to sing but if that makes me like an egomaniac I am the best singer and nobody knows how to sing that can lead to problems also so what we need to do is we need to have the association that keeps our desires to serve Krishna strong sometimes we may embark in material life also with the desire of expanding our service to Krishna and we may feel that if I get more resources to serve Krishna, I’ll serve him better but we don’t just need resources for serving Krishna you know we also need the desire to serve Krishna and sometimes in pursuing the resources to serve Krishna we get into association which deadens our desire to serve Krishna and then we get the resources but then we don’t serve Krishna what happens is that the person says that I’ll have a big house in which I can invite many devotees and I can have a big program but then they get a big house but they have no time to themselves attend program what to speak of inviting other people for a program in their house so if we keep some baseline commitment this is what I am going to practice and this much I am going to associate with devotees and we have at least one devotee with whom we can we can share our plan this is what I am planning to do and if I go off track, please tell me so with that caution, if it’s not just impulse, if it’s well thought out then we may decide also to explore growing in our material life in a way that is, that may help us to enhance our spiritual life provide us more resources but the balance has to be carefully kept and overall our process is not about rejecting desires it is about connecting the desires with Krishna so generally if you start something new it requires much more time than what we expect it will require more time than a normal job but also it may require more time I am working 10 hours now, I may require 12 hours but we need 16 hours also so we will have to find out some way we stay balanced that means that some phases in our life may require more intense material involvement but if they are not phases that is the way it is going on then it may be counterproductive so I would say that if if one has the talent and the zeal to do well materially without having without getting consumed by it completely so then that means I decide, this is the amount of time I will work and whatever I get in that, that’s all. I am not going to cut down on my devotional commitments in a major way so if we decide it that way then we will have some check and balance and then you can it doesn’t have to be an irrevocable commitment but it has to be a it has to be something which we keep monitoring constantly and then we decide how much we can do so it’s not that we have to reject our material ambitions but we have to make sure that we don’t reject Krishna in the name of pursuing our material ambitions Maya doesn’t come in our life directly by saying give up Krishna and do this for serious devotees she comes by not telling us to reject Krishna but by telling us to lower our priority for Krishna from number 1 to number 2 from number 2 it can be number 3 so when we just take Krishna one level down in the priority we don’t feel we are making a major difference but like that from 1 to he may go down to 100 and then we may get lost you just have to be cautious if you do it in a planned way then it’s possible