If our outreach services require us to go away from devotees how can we get their association?

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Any other questions? Sadhu Sangha means… Okay. Yeah. So, as we grow in our spiritual life, often we have services which require us to often go away from devotee association, we have to preach in new places.
So, how exactly can we get Sadhu Sangha at that time and what role does Sadhu Sangha play? Yeah. Actually, Prabhupada, you could say in external vision, he left Vrindavan to go to America. But actually speaking, he did not leave Vrindavan.
He carried Vrindavan with him in his own heart and he manifested Vrindavan wherever he went. Now, a pure devotee may go out of the dham, but the dham never goes out of the devotee. The dham always stays in the heart of the devotee.
So, like that, Prabhupada also said, I was never separated from my spiritual master. He said that, although, literally speaking, he associated the spiritual master only on a few occasions, 10-12 times he heard from him in the 10-12 years that he was there, but he was associating in his heart. He committed his life to his spiritual master.
So, we need to have that kind of affectionate connection with the Vaishnavas. We may be away from Vaishnavas physically, but if we have affectionate connection with Vaishnavas, even if it is not with many Vaishnavas, we don’t have to have that affectionate connection only with our spiritual master. Any Vaishnavas who inspire us, if we have that connection, and then we do our bhakti in a mood of service to them, then we are connected with the devotees.
So, association does not have to be physical. It is true that as we advance more and more, or as we get more and more responsibilities, we may not be able to have association of others so frequently. But there should be time for associating with them.
And more importantly, or along with that time for them, the mood of associating and serving should be there. For example, if you are preaching in some faraway place, then we actually create association over there. Sometimes, at one level, if there are people who are younger to us, their worship and their service attitude, their glorification, that can go to our head sometimes.
We may become proud. Or other ways, seeing them can also increase our mood of responsibility. Now, they are getting inspired by me.
They are seeing me as a role model. I have to become inspiration for them. I have to become exemplary for them.
So, there is a danger in associating only with juniors. But junior association also inspires. And similarly, when you are associating with seniors, there is inspiration from that.
But sometimes when we are associating with seniors, that can also lead to sort of comfort and complacency. They will take care of everything. Why do I need to do anything? Now, if we are in a place with a lot of devotees, then we may not feel the sense of responsibility to do something ourselves.
Yeah, the programs are going on, the preaching is going on. Anyway, I don’t even have opportunities for preaching. So, why bother? So, it’s not necessary that if we are associating with devotees, we will be safe in that.
It is probable, but it is not essential. Ultimately, whether we are associating with devotees or not, we are always associating with the mind. And the mind can trouble us anywhere.
It can trouble us when we are in association, it can trouble us when we are in seclusion. And in fact, you know, if we don’t discipline our mind, when we are in association, we can commit offences. And that can create a big set of troubles on its own also.
So, ultimately, our protection comes neither from association nor from seclusion. Our protection comes from absorption in Krishna. Association is very conducive, very inspirational, many ways essential for absorption in Krishna.
But it is the absorption in Krishna that is our ultimate protection. So, that absorption in Krishna often comes by the inspiration of those who are absorbed in Krishna. Even if we don’t have their association regularly.
So, we may have a little association. Many Akshara Prabhupada disciples had very little association of Prabhupada. But through that little association also, they were very inspired.
And they moved onward in their spiritual life through those inspiring memories. So, even if we don’t have physical association, we should always have the mood of associating with devotees. And thereby, we can move onwards towards Krishna.