If senior devotees ask us to renounce everything, should we do that?

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Transcript

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So, how do we balance between our material and spiritual side? And sometimes senior devotees may tell us that we just renounce everything, focus on the temple, join the temple or focus on this Krishna path.
Spiritual side is important, but still, we have to do something about our material life also for our attendance. Rupa Goswami in the Bhakti Rasamangala Sindhu explains that not only do we need association, we need like-minded association. सजातिय आशा स्निग्द संग where the word is used.
स्निग्द is affectionate, but around that is सजातिय आशा. आशा is desire. सजातिय means same category.
Those who have the same category of desires that we have. So, yes, any kind of devotee association is good, but for steady growth in our spiritual life, we need like-minded association. And yes, there may be some devotees who may just want to renounce everything and focus entirely on Krishna.
And that is good, but that is not necessary for everyone. And if that is not what we feel inspired to do, then we need to focus on associating with those devotees whose guidance seems doable for us. There are one of the aspects of the Bhakti Pathway is that there is an overall direction given, but we all can choose the base at which we move.
There is the Nouns to Order, there is the Householder Order. And within that also, each of us can choose the base at which we move forwards. So, we all need some level of pushing.
But even Krishna does not force. So, if we look for like-minded association, then we can move on with steadying in our spiritual life. So, renunciation of everything is not necessary for the practice of life.
For some, it may be favorable. But that is not the by no means is it a precondition for practicing Bhakti. And yes, we do understand that we have to increase our commitment more and more so that we can focus on Krishna.
But how we do it? We want to do it in a sustainable way. So, even if a major step has to be taken, that should also be done not in the rush of the moment. Because then we may not be able to sustain it.
So, gradually we take one step, one step forward and eventually we can move onwards. So, one problem often comes when when we when we ourselves have not found our niche in Bhakti. Our niche in Bhakti means all of us have to find some service, something that we can do for Krishna in a sustainable way.
One anecdote of Srila Prabhupada that he was in London and some devotees and in London was at that time the western headquarter, the European headquarters. And devotees from different parts of the world had come there. They were all reporting.
Prabhupada asked me, so, Bhagwan, how are things in France? I am saying, how are things in Germany? They were all reporting. And there was this devotee, Ishwara Guru. So, he said, everybody has something to do for Srila Prabhupada.
I don’t have anything. So, he said and told Prabhupada, Prabhupada, what can I do for you? Please give me something to do for you. Prabhupada looked at him and said, Prabhupada said, what do you want to do for Krishna? He said, Prabhupada, whatever you tell me, I will do that.
So, that’s fine. But what do you want to do for Krishna? He said, Prabhupada is just saying, whatever you want, whatever you say, I will do, Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, understand our philosophy.
He said, find out what you like to do and do it for Krishna. So, then he said, I never thought like that, Prabhupada. Then he thought for a couple of days and then he came back and he said, Prabhupada, we have these Mridangas which often break down.
And then we have to get all the Mridangas from India. I was thinking that I will make Mridangas with local material. I will make them in such a way that they won’t break.
Then Prabhupada was very pleased. He said, oh, your western godbrothers are very passionate. So, make the Mridangas so strong that even if they throw them down, no, they will not break.
And then, I had just been to Alachua. So, I met Ishaan Abraham. He still remembers that incident.
That became like the life mission for me. So, this is, all of us may, in the early stages of our life, are given instructions. Okay, do this service, do this service.
And that’s very good. We need to get connected with Krishna in that way. But while doing various services, we also observe, what is it that inspires us? What is it that makes us connect with Krishna? So, that way, if we find our niche in bhakti, okay, this is what I want to do for Krishna.
This is how I can serve Krishna. Then, intensifying, once we have found our niche, intensifying our bhakti will not require any external pressurization. We will ourselves feel inspired to commit ourselves more and more to Krishna.
So, this does not mean that we we become independent or musical and say, if somebody is saying, I want to do your service, no, this is not my niche. I will not do it. No, we have to observe over time.
Because often, the mind is very fickle. And the mind will say, the service that I am doing is not my niche. And then it will say for every service.
So, we have to be careful about that. But over a period of time, if we observe, we can learn, okay, this is what I am comfortable in doing. And this is what I am competent in doing.
So, two things, if you all understand what is our nature is, we feel comfortable internally doing it. And externally, we are competent in doing it. We are able to do it well.
That is essentially, guna, karma and bhagya. Karma refers to external competence. And guna refers to our own capacity to do it, our own comfort in doing it.
So, like that, we understand our nature and we serve accordingly. And then, by serving according, serving according to the way that we are inspired, if we want to take a, increase our dedication, that will happen by natural inspiration, not by external compulsion. Does that answer your question? Any other questions?