If our aesthetic side is not nourished by regimented bhakti practices what to do?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, if we have an aesthetic side, then in the structural practice of bhakti, sadhana, the aesthetic side may not be so nourished.
And we may not get the experiences, and we may feel deprived because of that. There are two distinct aspects over here, that one is the disciplining of the consciousness, so that it becomes directed towards Krishna. That happens by the standard practices of bhakti.
So, we hear, we chant, we do sadhana. Along with that, there is our own individuality. So, the individuality means, we have our particular psychophysical nature.
And with that psychophysical nature, we try to serve Krishna accordingly. So, people who have some special interests or special talents, then we have to see that this is a gift from Krishna. And one challenge when we are specially talented, or specially inclined towards something is, that we may start identifying too much with that.
If I am good at something, then I might just think that this is what I am. And that can divert us from Krishna. But ultimately, our talents are Krishna’s gifts to us.
And we are meant to use them in Krishna’s service. So, once we have become well-rooted in our identity, that okay, I am a servant of Krishna, and Krishna is my goal, then we can strive to create some space for ourselves, where that ascetic self can also be nourished. So, that means, that we appreciate the importance of the structured practice of bhakti.
At the same time, that structured practice is not meant to suppress our individuality. It is meant to spiritualize our individuality. And spiritualizing our individuality means, if we consider, say, as a part of our individual nature, there can be some things which are pro-devotional, some things which are non-devotional, some things which are anti-devotional.
Sometimes we just separate things into spiritual and material, and we say this material I have to give this up. But no, in the material also, there can be different things. So, something which is pro-devotional, then that should be used in Krishna’s service.
Something which is non-devotional, that may not be that, depending on how it is, one may give it up, or one may also try to engage it in some way in Krishna’s service. The anti-devotional has to be given up. So, it is the decision which has to be made with due maturity.
So, the structured practice of bhakti is not meant to suppress that. In the name of individuality, we don’t want to go away from spirituality. So, creating that space for oneself, under the guidance of senior devotees, is something which we may need to do if a particular inclination is very strong.
But we have to do it in a way that we don’t accept. We identify with that in a functional sense, not in a fundamental sense. This is what I am right now, and I use it for Krishna’s service.
Because this is what is very strongly there within me. So, each one of us will have to deal with it, deal with these things in our own individual way. So, ultimately, nobody can live our spiritual life for us.
I have to live with my mind, I have to live with my senses. And I need to take guidance from others, but it is for me to live with my mind and senses. So, if the mind is inclined to a particular thing very strongly, then in a functional sense, we do what is required, and then we move on.
It’s like, if somebody is sick, then there is a painkiller and there is a medicine, curative medicine. Now, depending on how much pain somebody is experiencing, they may need that much level of curative medicine. Now, the same thing, we have a tooth extraction, it’s painful.
But for different people, they may have different thresholds of pain. And somebody, when the tooth is extracted, they just can’t do anything at all, constant pain. Somebody has a little pain.
So, the doctors use pain medicine according to the level of the pain that the patient is experiencing. So, depending on the particular patient, we say, I have a lot of pain, take a high dose of painkiller. If there is very little pain, little painkiller.
So, the point is, when a person is sick, it is not how much painkiller one takes. It is whether you are taking the medicine or not. So, depending on one’s psychophysical nature, dealing with something at a material level is like taking the painkiller.
Bhakti is the curative medicine. Now, if we tell somebody, don’t take any painkiller at all. And then the pain will kill the person.
He is just not able to live. The craving is so much, the agitation is so much. So, we don’t have to campaign against the painkiller.
You can’t do it. We don’t have to campaign for the painkiller. This is what I am going to do.
No, if you need a painkiller, take it. The real thing is to take the medicine. So, life is… After, in the last one, one and a half years, there have been a wide variety of… understood that even the practice of bhakti… India, we often make fun of people who are very attached to dogs.
But in America, dogs are so… And many devotees have pets. So, I heard of one Mataji, she had a pet dog, and when the dog was dying, she chanted 128 rounds for that dog. And all night she was chanting.
And then, when she had Prabhupada Brahma Samhita going on, and then the spiritual world was described, that time the dog left the body. So, now I was thinking, why do you have to do that for a dog? I found out that that Mataji, she had gone through three bad marriages. And one marriage before… abusive marriage, one before she became a devotee, two after that she became a devotee.
And then, the temple where she had been to, the temple where she had some spiritual problems, the spiritual master had fallen down. So, she said that, I can’t trust any human being at all. I know Krishna is the ultimate goal of my life, but, for me, at this stage, I need some reciprocation with someone.
So, the dog only alone offered the reciprocation. Then, instead of asking, why is the devotee doing like that? The question becomes, after having gone through all this, how can someone still be a devotee? So, for that devotee in that situation, having a pet dog is a necessary pain killer. I am not advocating people having pet dogs over here.
This is simply Maya, this is material attack. We don’t know what pain who is in. And, if somebody needs something as a pain killer, we don’t have to become judgmental about it.
We have to make sure that they are taking the medicine. Similarly, based on the kind of situation that we may have gone through, the kind of mind-body we have, we may feel the need for a particular thing. If we need that, we can take that.
If that calms the mind down, and we can focus on Krishna better, then fine, that’s a pain killer. Take the pain killer and focus on the real medicine. Sometimes, saying no to the pain killer, it distracts our mind so much, that we can’t even take the medicine.
We can’t focus on Krishna. So, yena kena prakarayana manah krishna negation. So, we have to find out how best we can fix the mind on Krishna.
And, for that, whatever is required, we may do that. Not in a licentious, immoral sense. But, if certain things are required, for us, so that we can fix the mind on Krishna better, we don’t have to glamorize that and tell everyone that you have to do this.
But, if that is what we need to do it, we can do it in a discreet way, which is what is required for us. Thank you very much. So, if our attitude is largely a function