If my counselor breaks a regulative principle, how do I maintain my faith?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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I just wanted to take this step.
Question. I derived a lot of faith and inspiration. In my bhakti.
From my counsellor. But now I am seeing that. That same counsellor.
Is not following the principles of bhakti. And is breaking the regularity principle. Principle of no illicit sex.
And that has. Deeply disturbed my faith. What should I do? I want to practice bhakti.
But. With my faith so deeply damaged. I find it very difficult to practice bhakti.
How should I move ahead? Answer. It is very distressing. When.
Those. In whom we have put faith. Disappoint or.
Betray us. And at such times. It is.
It is. For us to recognise. That they are not independent shelters.
It is. Krishna. Who has given us his shelter.
Through them. And. Of course we may say that I can’t see Krishna.
I can only see. The people who are in front of me. Yes that is true.
But the visible. Is founded on the invisible. Even from physics perspective.
We see that. It is the invisible force of gravity. That keeps the planets in orbit.
It is the invisible space time. That keeps the visible. Objects in their position.
And their relation in motion. So. The basic understanding.
Of life. With a more informed perspective is that. It is the invisible.
Which sustains the visible. And. Maturity in understanding means.
To see the defining role. Of the invisible. In our lives.
So. What do we do in such a situation. When.
Some visible channel gets disconnected. Gets blocked. We have to recognise that invisible source.
And see through which other. Visible channel. We can still stay connected.
Thus for example. If we find. That.
We are no longer able to connect. Through a particular. Visible channel.
With. So for a particular representative. Of Krishna who has given us.
Faith is somehow. Now. Actually wounding that faith.
Then we have to keep a distance from them. And. We have to find out others.
Through whom Krishna may give us faith. Everyone goes through their. Struggles in their lives.
And sometimes. Even sincere serious devotees. May face.
Some stormy temptations. So. Now our past karma.
Comes upon us in two different ways. One way is that. It comes in the form of.
Distresses. And. We may lose our job.
We may lose our health. We may. Face some serious.
Relationship issues. There are external problems which may fall us. And at that time.
We see that as karmic reactions. But sometimes. Karmic reactions may also come.
In the form of. Sudden forceful inner desires. And when those desires come upon us.
At that time. It is not so easy. To overcome them.
What we need to do. Sometimes. Even.
Serious. Spiritual seekers. May sometimes be attacked by such forceful temptations.
That they may get swept away. So of course. With respect to distresses.
They just come upon us. And we are helpless victims. With respect to desires.
We can say that we are expected to have the will power. To resist the temptations. Yes in principle it is true.
In practice. It is only the person who is facing the temptation. Who knows.
How strong that temptation is. And the temptation that may. To us seem.
Such a lowly thing. How could anyone. Who is speaking such lofty philosophy.
Fall for this. For that person. At that time.
They are caught in a weak moment. They may just fall. We may be walking smoothly.
On. Walking swiftly on a smooth. Comfortably on a smooth floor.
And somebody else. May be walking on a slippery floor. And.
There is a small. Push by someone. A small bump against something.
A small slip. And they completely fall down. You see you know.
How can this person be so clumsy. How did they fall down. But you know we don’t know.
What floor they are walking on. So the. The floor that we are walking on.
Is. Like the karma. That we undergo.
And sometimes this floor that we walk on. Can be. Very slippery and treacherous.
And even experienced people. May fall. So at such times.
This is not. We have to see that. If somebody has.
Served Krishna sincerely. If somebody has. Helped others come closer to Krishna.
Then something extraordinary. Something. Incomprehensible for us.
Not in a positive sense necessarily. But something. Inconceivable is going on.
Between that person and Krishna. This is not to rationalize. The wrong.
If they have done something which is wrong. Then it is wrong. But.
Once somebody has served Krishna. They are in Krishna’s inner circle. Krishna will take care of them.
So if at present. Their actions are such that. That they cannot.
They don’t. Thinking of those actions. Damages our faith.
Then it is best to keep a distance from them. Try to. Give them.
Some benefit of doubt. It is not. When an ordinary materialistic person.
Falls for. Some say. Affair or something like that.
And when. A devotee falls for. Some kind of innocent sexual relationship.
Certainly a devotee is doing this. Is far more. Reproachable.
Because a devotee is supposed to be connected with Krishna. But then. You have to understand that.
If their wrong behavior is hurting us. We keep a distance from them. And we pray to Krishna.
For giving us shelter. And showing us. From where we can get shelter.
Sometimes. In our spiritual life. Those who give us shelter of Krishna.
Can become shelters. Who become competitors to Krishna. That means we may think that.
This person alone is my shelter. And Krishna is not my shelter. That person who is connected with Krishna.
Is our shelter. Because they are sheltered in Krishna. And because Krishna’s shelter is manifesting to us.
Through them. Sometimes Krishna. For our sake.
May take away from us. Something that gives us shelter of him. So that we are forced to take direct shelter of him.
So that we can recognize. That he is our greatest shelter. Draupadi she just couldn’t understand.
How her husband. Who were duty bound to protect her. And how her.
Especially her. First husband. Yudhishthira was such a virtuous king.
How could he have gambled her away. It was. It is incomprehensible thought.
But what did Draupadi do at that time. She just accepted it. Not that she.
Accepted her fate. And resigned herself to it. But she did not make it.
A big issue at that time. She just took shelter of Krishna. So.
She saw that Lord Krishna. Who is normally sheltering me through my husband. And now somehow.
My husband has done something which is. Which is. Horrendous.
And he is not able to give me shelter. So. Let me take shelter of Krishna directly.
She did speak strongly to Yudhishthira later. When they were alone in the forest. But at that point her focus was on.
Taking shelter of Krishna herself. So. Of course I am not comparing someone.
Who is. Having an illicit. Sexual relationship with Yudhishthira’s gambling.
Yudhishthira’s gambling was actually. He is a pure devotee. And his actions are to be seen as.
Ultimately orchestrated by the Lord. For his own special purpose. But what I am trying to say is that.
Sometimes even through people’s misuse. Of their free will to do something grievous. Krishna may be teaching us some.
Teaching us some valuable lesson. That we need to learn. So.
The lesson we may need to learn. Over here is that. Those who give a shelter of Krishna.
Should not ever become the competitors. Of Krishna. And if we somehow let that happen.
Then. Krishna may do something. Or.
To disabuse us. Of that misconception. So we can see this.
As an opportunity for taking direct shelter of Krishna. So yes. Initially it may be difficult.
To. Even take shelter of Krishna. But if we try.
Sincerely we will find that. No matter whether a person is. In good standing or not in good standing.
The. The holy name. When chanted.
When sung. Does give us shelter of Krishna. Does give us.
A sense of inner serenity and peace. The. Beautiful.
Message of Krishna. His songs. His verses.
His deities. They all do give us shelter of Krishna. So in this way when we see.
That. The process of bhakti still works. Then we can actually.
Continue. In that process. By taking the shelter of Krishna.
And. Eventually Krishna will guide us. I will give you the guidance.
You can come to me. That means he will tell us. He will reveal to us.
What we can do. By which. We can.
We can. Find some other channel. For his trust.
For his. For connecting with him. So that we have many shiksha gurus.
And. We can find out a shiksha guru. Who works best for us.
And thus. Move onwards towards Krishna. Through that shiksha guru.