If an initiated devotee does something non-standard such as eating food cooked outside will the spiritual master get the karma?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, if somebody is an initiated devotee and then they they say eat outside or go watch a movie or do something which is not which is not expected of a devotee, will that affect the health of the spiritual master? See, bhakti is to be practiced out of love. It is not to be imposed by fear.
Occasionally fear is fine. It’s like parents. Sometimes they might do this, this will happen, this will happen.
They might scare the child sometimes. But the point is not that the child always be fearful and out of fear do the right thing. The point is the child grow up, recognize once intelligently that what my parents are telling is good for me.
And then accordingly do that thing. So, we shouldn’t become too paranoid about karma considerations. If you are constantly thinking, okay, this one got good karma, this one got bad karma.
It’s good to consider karma considerations, but our primary focus should be on service. So, we have a relationship with our spiritual master and our relationship is that, especially when we take initiation, that means we are committing to the process of bhakti. It’s a commitment.
And rather than focusing on what we should not do, it’s far better to focus on what we can do or what we should do. The more we fill our life with constructive activity in the service of the spiritual master, the more these other things, they’ll get adjusted. So, in general, sometimes some devotees may speak certain things, that is, like a mother, because the child is very restless.
Mother says, if you go out of the house alone, you’ll get kidnapped. It’s possible. But that’s not the point.
The child has to be intelligent. When I should go out, I should not go out. So, the mother may become statements, but they are not like absolute statements.
The point is we have to look at the intent. So, the intent is to be understood and it is to be appreciated. Similarly, as devotees, especially when we are initiated, we are focused on developing a relationship with the spiritual master and serving the spiritual master.
So, then if we are doing things which are contrary to the mode of service, then that is undesirable. And to stop somebody from doing those undesirable things, sometimes some statements will be made like that. But the focus should not be on those statements alone.
We don’t want to practice a fear-based conception of bhakti. We want to come to the level of an affection-based conception of bhakti. So, Srila Prabhupada did say once or twice on some occasions that, you know, spiritual master suffers because of the wrongdoings of the disciple.
But if we look at all of his books, how often has he spoken that? That’s not the same. He did not want to send, to make his disciples practice bhakti by sending them on a guilt trip. He wanted them to use their intelligence, understand that bhakti practice is in my best interest.
So, Prabhupada, if you see that way, how often did he talk about hell also? All the books kind of talks about hell. Many Christians, their preaching is, if you don’t surrender to Jesus, you are going to go to hell. Prabhupada never uses that approach.
Prabhupada uses the approach, you are not the body, you are the soul. Therefore, why are you wasting your time in pandering to the body? His approach was based on intelligence. So, in general, we should also not propagate, nor should we obsess over the fear-based motive for practicing bhakti.
If somebody else is doing that, we understand and appreciate their intent. But we focus on using our intelligence to philosophically understand how bhakti practice is in our best interest and practice bhakti accordingly. Does that answer your question?