Is obsession with spiritual things ok?
Anwser Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
eventually from the body and its urges. Thank you. So, to be obsessed for Krishna is actually life’s ultimate perfection.
Because Krishna is the ultimate goal of our life. He is the highest reality. He is the source of the supreme happiness.
So, to become obsessed to him is supremely auspicious. At the same time, that obsession is not something which is to be artificially imagined or imitated. It is something which naturally emerges through very deep-rooted attraction towards Krishna.
So, when it is artificially imagined or imitated, at that time, we may think that I am so attached to Krishna that I don’t care for anything else. But actually, we are not at that level. And when the test comes, we may say that, oh, I am attached to Krishna, but then our attachment to other things will also be revealed.
So, rather than imagining that I am very attached to Krishna, the process of Bhakti tells us that we balance. It says, In the Aishwarya Upanishad, it is said that there is the material knowledge and there is the spiritual knowledge. Both are required for navigating through this world.
Ultimately, we are souls and if we attain God, then there is no need for material knowledge because we will be in the spiritual world. But while we are in this world, material and spiritual both need to be balanced. So, at our stage, an obsession for spiritual things is most likely artificial.
It is premature. So, there is a process for developing authentic attraction towards Krishna. And that process involves spiritualizing our whole life.
It is not just obsessing over Krishna alone or obsessing over some aspects of Krishna alone. It is rather learning to see Krishna in all aspects of our life. And of course, there will be some aspects of Krishna Bhakti where we can easily connect with Krishna, where we naturally feel attracted.
If they are there, that’s auspicious. If somebody likes kirtans very much, or somebody likes the deities very much, somebody likes holy places very much, a unique form of attraction to Krishna is very good. But that attraction to Krishna is something which we should cultivate and nourish while doing other activities in our life.
If somebody likes kirtans, it is not that 24 hours a day just sit and hear kirtans. No. What we should be doing is, we have our other responsibilities, we do them, but we can cultivate eagerness.
When will I get some time now? As soon as I get some time, I hear some kirtans or I see some darshan, I read some scripture, I hear some lecture, whatever it is, we are attracted to. So, at our level, the obsession we can, or the attraction towards Krishna that we can have, that we can channel in such a way that we fill our life and especially the blanks in our life with Krishna. Just like a person is attached to cricket.
You know that every opportunity they get, they look at cricket score. Every opportunity they want to read what is the cricket update. So, just as a materially attached person looks forward, naturally their mind goes to, as soon as there is any free time, immediately their mind goes towards the object of their attachment.
So, like that, rather than we rejecting our material things for Krishna s sake, what we do is, we do our material things, but we cultivate a attraction towards Krishna, so that wherever we have any free time, immediately our default will go towards Krishna. Right now, based on whatever we are attached to, as soon as we are doing that thing, our mind starts doing that thing. That s what is our attachment.
So, we can direct our, whatever it is that we are attracted to in Krishna Bhakti, we can strive to make that our default attachment. And if we are, if you also know that Krishna Bhakti is not just something which we are doing. Krishna is also reciprocating.
So, if we have a very strong desire to practice Krishna Bhakti, then, and we do what we can in our situation, then Krishna will see that and Krishna will give us more and more facility. So, now I want to do more devotional activities, but I just don’t have time. So, it’s not that we have to give up our other responsibilities, but whatever time we have, we use it.
And if we use whatever time we have, Krishna will arrange our life in such a way that we will get more time. He will arrange to give us more time. So, that way, obsession in Krishna Bhakti is good, but it can be premature and artificial at our stage.
So, it’s better to, not, better to follow the process by which authentic attraction to Krishna will emerge. And within that, if you have some attraction to some aspect of Krishna Bhakti, we can use that to fill in all the blanks in our daily schedule, so that our life becomes filled with Krishna. And then, Krishna will eventually reciprocate and give us more and more time to become absorbed in Him.
Thank you very much.