If we are in a service that doesn’t inspire us how long can we continue in that service?

Transcript

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Question, question, when we are in a service that doesn’t inspire us or when we are in a devotee association that doesn’t inspire us, how long can we continue in such an association, especially when we find that some other devotee association is inspiring us or some other service is inspiring us? Answer, in general, inspiration is something which cannot be legislated. At the same time, inspiration is not something which can be determined in a day or two. It cannot be legislated means nobody can say that because you were introduced by me, so you have to take inspiration from me only.
Inspiration is a matter of the heart and it cannot be legislated. Nobody can, for example, say that because I have introduced you to Krishna consciousness, so you have to say do the service which I am doing or you have to do things the way I am doing or you have to take initiation from my spiritual master. So this way inspiration cannot be legislated.
That’s the first point. But at the same time, inspiration cannot be judged overnight or even in a few days because the nature of the mind is it doesn’t appreciate what we have and always looks for something new. So the grass always seems greener on the other side.
So we may be in one devotee association or we may be in one service and some problems come up, problems will come up everywhere. We start feeling, oh that would be much better and I want to go there and if these sort of feelings are passing then we should neglect them. But if they are persistent and we find that a particular devotee association, a particular mood, a particular service inspires us on a regular basis, not just a one-time basis and we have to see whether this inspiration is negative or positive.
I mean negative means we are so fed up with what we are doing earlier because of certain circumstances that we just want anything to get away from it or it is positive. Positive means this is what we like to do. Then if it is a positive inspiration just like if somebody wants to become a brahmachari and the main reason is that the person is frustrated with the heavy workload in the office and other such things, then that motivation cannot sustain the person’s brahmachari life for a long time because then what about will happen in this brahmachari life? The person has to also have a strong positive attraction for brahmachari life.
Similarly, when we talk about changing our services or changing the devotee association that we are in, it should not just be based in disillusionment with our current situation but it should be biased with positive attraction towards the the things which we feel we are attracted to right now. Therefore, it is good for us to focus primarily on observing ourselves steadily for a good amount of time and then clearly understanding what our nature is and why certain things attract us in such time writing down a personal diary is also helpful so that actually writing out a diary helps us to take a sort of snapshot of our mind. So I am feeling this way today and if I look back after one month and how do I feel at that time and I compare after two months, after three months, after five months, six months.
So if our thoughts and feelings are consistently similar then we can understand that actually this is not just the passing phase of the mind. This is actually my psychophysical nature and that’s why I should be doing this. Then our reasons will also be more clear.
So if we have to change our situation, change our service, change our devotee association now we shouldn’t do that at the first thought of the mind. We shouldn’t do that because we are frustrated because of certain situations. If we have thought about it deeply then we will be able to do it based on clear reasons that will not sound accusatory to another person.
See that person that devotee association where we don’t feel inspired we shouldn’t make them feel rejected. We shouldn’t make them feel bad and it should not be like a like a rupture. It should be more like a progression.
We are grateful for what we have got and just as Krishna revealed us the path to him through this devotee association, Krishna is revealing the path to us further through some other devotee association. Ideally it would be best if this can be done in consultation with and with the blessings of senior devotees. So the senior the counselor is close to us and we share our heart and the counselor also understands okay this is this is this devotee’s nature and this is what this devotee is inspired by.
Therefore let me facilitate in doing this. So if that happens that is the best but in some situations that doesn’t happen then we will have to see because ultimately it is our spiritual life and we cannot drag ourselves on in spiritual life forever. So the most important thing is that we should be able to steadily go on in spiritual life and we should always be grateful for those who have helped us in our spiritual life in whatever way.
At the same time we have to move forward so that we can stay steadily going on in our devotional service. So we can we can consult different senior devotees before making any such major decision and we should also check with ourselves carefully using a journal and this particular decision should never be taken suddenly arbitrarily resentfully but it should be taken gradually thoughtfully and maturely and that way when we communicate properly first of all we understand ourselves and then we do our best to help others understand. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
So I move from one devotee association to second then I find some problems over there I move to third then I move to fourth and this will just go on and I will not make any spiritual advancement because what I am avoiding then is basically problems. So if we are focused more on running away from something than running towards something then we will never run towards anything at all because we are always running away from things but if we are clear that this is the way I want to run towards Krishna and then for that we move from one situation to another situation then that is positive. So the important point is that we understand the basics of Krishna consciousness and then find a way by which we can continue practice Krishna consciousness throughout our life and this has to be done carefully over a period of time and in consultation with senior devotees whichever group of senior devotees that is we carefully maturely do this and in such a way that we don’t create a rupture in the devotee community but we gratefully move forward in our devotional life and render the services that we can best render in Krishna’s mission.
Thank you.