If a devotee due to repeated falls feels that I wont be able to go BTG and so becomes discouraged how should we respond to that devotee?

From Sanjay

Transcript

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question if a devotee despite practicing devotional service for many years still keeps falling from the devotional standards and then starts feeling discouraged thinking that I will not attain the purity required to go back to Godhead and so starts thinking that even if it takes me 20-30 lifetimes whatever let me practice devotional service at whatever level I am practicing and go on so how should we respond to such an attitude in a devotee especially if the devotee is initiated and has been practicing devotional service for many years answer the first and foremost point in devotional service is that we should always be encouraged and encourage others to practice devotional service devotional service is voluntary and what keeps the person moving forward in a voluntary path is one’s own enthusiasm one’s own encouragement to practice it so no matter how how many times a person is falling the person should never be discouraged because if the person is discouraged the person will not move forward at all so whatever level one is practicing I should be encouraged to move forward and even the falls that are there they are of different levels so for example if a person overeats that’s not a very serious one that may lead to some problems but it’s not a serious one similarly with respect to the different regulative principles that are there for example no illicit sex especially if it is outside marriage if it is in that sense illicit then it is not just spiritually immoral it is even legally wrong socially wrong and it has a lot of consequences that is definitely to be taken strongly and we have to do serious corrective measures so there are different levels of wrongs that can happen and they require appropriate corrective measures but the most important thing is to stay encouraged and in general a big problem in our spiritual life comes when we focus more on what we are not able to do than on what we are able to do so there may be some moral standards that we are not able to stick to and if we keep thinking about them then are we really Krishna conscious or are we problem conscious to be conscious of our inability to be Krishna conscious is not Krishna conscious to be conscious of our inability to be Krishna conscious that is not necessarily Krishna conscious that is actually self consciousness I can’t do this I can’t do this I centeredness is opposite to Krishna centeredness so now it doesn’t mean that we just have to neglect it but that shouldn’t obsess our mind so if there are certain aspects of Krishna conscious we are not able to follow up to a high standard then rather than thinking about that too much one should focus on finding out what are the activities that we like to do what are the activities that we want to do more and more and once we do those activities and get a taste in those activities then gradually the activities that we find difficult to give up they will get crowded out of our mind in the Bhagavatam the set of prayers … … … … this is contrasting the path of Gyana and the path of Bhakti it is said that the path of Gyana the yogis the Jnanis and the Yogis they try to empty their mind I’ll not think of lust I’ll not think of greed I’ll not think of envy they try to empty the mind but it says that emptying the mind is like drying the coast.
No matter how much I try to go, the rains will come and the coast will become wet again. So emptying the mind is not possible. So what is to be done? One has to find out what is the way one can delight in devotional service.
Vilasa means delight. How can one delight in the lotus feet of Krishna? So one has to find out what are the activities in devotional service that one likes to do. And do them more and more.
So the process of bhakti centers not on saying no to maya. It centers on saying yes to Krishna. And as a part of saying yes to Krishna, if you are focused on saying yes to Krishna, automatically a no to maya will come.
Saying no to anything is never joyful. It is always painful. Because especially if that thing has been giving us some pleasure, then saying no to that is not so painful.
And our process is not centered on saying no to maya. It is saying yes to Krishna. Saying yes to Krishna is not just verbal or sentimental.
It is also practical. You have to find out what is the way in which we can say yes to Krishna in a practically engaging and absorbing way. So ultimately, my spiritual advancement is my responsibility.
There are certain moral standards which I have to follow. But how I will come to them, it is my responsibility. So I have to look at the gamut of devotional activities, whatever are there, whatever are possible, and think what are the activities that I can do.
And focus on those activities. And the more we start getting busy in those activities, then the thoughts of negative desires will go away. And then that way, the focus will not be so much on giving up maya, but it will be on giving in to Krishna, you know, connecting with Krishna, giving ourselves to Krishna.
So generally in our battle with conditioning, we go through four stages. First is helpless defeat. For example, a person is addicted to breaking the four aggregate principles and the person is chanting and practicing Krishna consciousness, giving up these principles.
I’ll give up Krishna consciousness. So hopeless defeat. The second stage is struggle and defeat.
I decide I will not do it. I still like, I succumb to it. Third stage is struggle and success.
I fight. I feel like doing it. No, I will not do it.
I fight and somehow I succeed in giving it up. And then the last stage is effortless success, where we go beyond the temptation. So right now, most of us with respect to many of our conditioning, especially those centered around lust, we are going through struggle and defeat and struggle and success.
Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. So now, the important thing, what makes us go from this lower stage to the higher stage, it is not just automatic and it is not by chance. By chance means there is no reason for it.
Automatic means we don’t have to do anything about it. Actually, it is by conscious increased attraction to Krishna that we move upwards. So we have to find out how can I attract myself to Krishna.
It is not just chanting extra rounds. Sometimes I chant extra rounds and I feel purer. It may happen, it may not happen.
Why? Because every one of us is individual and every one of us is individually and in many ways distinctively attracted to Krishna. Some of us may find that book distribution may give us a lot of taste. Some of us may find that doing some Vaishnava seva may give us a lot of taste.
Some of us may find preaching gives us a lot of taste. So whichever activity gives us taste, when we do that, then by that our attraction to Krishna increases. And that’s how we move from the stage of struggle and defeat to the stage of struggle and success.
So what will take us up? Certainly we have to do the standard activities of devotional service like chanting extra rounds, associating with devotees. But along with that, we also find out what it is that attracts us in Krishna consciousness. And by doing that, we will be able to fill our mind with Krishna and then maya will not have a place in the mind.
So you see this answer in three parts. First is never be discouraged. No matter how many times we fall, Krishna is always there and Krishna will always accept us.
So we can always stay encouraged and encourage others to keep moving forward. Second step is don’t focus on thinking of what we are unable to do in Krishna consciousness. Focus on what we are able to do and do that more and more.
And third is by this, by filling our mind and activity time with the activity that we like to do in Krishna consciousness, we become stronger and then we get the strength to go from struggle and defeat to struggle and success. So by this, we will be able to go forward in our spiritual life. Actually speaking, thinking about whether I am able to go back to Godhead or not at the end of this life or after 10 lifetimes or that is simply going to be a recipe for speculation and possibly discouragement.
Because if I have to climb up a mountain, whether I will be able to climb it up by tonight or by three after three days or after 10 days, just thinking about it is not going to take me forward right now. The important thing is let me take one step at a time, onward, onward, onward, onward. And if I keep taking steps one, one, one at a time, then eventually I will reach the top of the mountain.
So similarly, if we are practicing devotion service wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly means not necessarily that we don’t have any falls, we don’t have any feelings, wholeheartedly means we keep doing it to the best of our capacity. And then we will be moving onwards, upwards. And who knows Krishna can take us across the remaining distance very quickly and we may go at the end of this lifetime also.
Even if we don’t go at the end of this lifetime, wherever we go, if we are wholeheartedly practicing devotion service now, Krishna will take us to a place where we can better practice devotion service and we’ll keep marching ahead. So thinking about when we’ll go back to Godhead is often a very unproductive thing right now. It’s speculative, it’s unproductive.
Rather we focus on that how can I absorb myself in Krishna best right now. I don’t bother too much about the lapse and falls in moral standards. That doesn’t mean that they are unimportant.
But guilt should come between us and the things that take us away from Krishna. Guilt should not come between us and Krishna. Guilt, if it comes between us and Krishna, then it is defeating the purpose of guilt.
If guilt makes us think that I’m so impure that I cannot go back to Krishna, so let me not try also wholeheartedly to go back to Krishna. Then that is actually not guilt, that is simply temptation coming in the form of guilt to keep us away from Krishna. So anything that keeps us away from Krishna, we have to understand it is maya.
So if it is directly temptation which takes us away from Krishna, that is also maya. If it is guilt which makes us feel I can’t go towards Krishna, that is also another temptation. And we have to reject that temptation of guilt as patikul to our bhakti, as damaging to our bhakti and stay enthused and move forward in devotional life.
Thank you.