SB 11.07.06 – Withdraw from the world to solidify spiritual renewal

Transcript

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Bhagavatam 11.7.6 Here the Lord is telling Uddhava that now you should give up everything renounce everything give up your attachment to all your relatives and your kinsmen completely fix your mind on me Samyak is completely Aveshu is with emotion intensely to fix something on and learn to see everything equally and then you can travel across this world throughout the earth so here the Lord is telling that when things in the material world start getting disrupted and destroyed at that time our refuge is our refuge is to fix the mind on the Lord because if we don’t learn to fix the mind on the Lord then we will stay bound in material existence we will not be able to come out of this extremely entangling and ultimately devastating material existence the only way we can come out is if we stay steady fixed and firm in keeping our mind on Krishna normally in this material world we have our ambitions in the material world also offers its prospects and bhakti includes within its scope engaging at the material level also and that’s why our various services in the material world are also important we have to do them responsibly but there comes a time in devotees life when the devotee needs to recognize that now it is time for me to withdraw it is time for me to focus primarily if not exclusively on Krishna and withdraw from my engagements in this world because this material world no matter how much facility it offers for service to the Lord or rather not so much facility no matter how much need and opportunity there is for service to the Lord here in terms of sharing Krishna in this material world but along with all that comes a temptation and forgetfulness of the Lord that is always possible so to break free from that what one needs is to withdraw oneself completely from this world Vishwapitama also at his death bed actually his arrow bed he says Vishwapitama Krishna he says that now I have withdrawn my consciousness which was played which was distributed over hundreds of things I am withdrawing it all and fixing it up only on you so at one level we have to do this at the time of death or before when death is becoming imminent but on a regular basis we need to have time to rejuvenate ourselves by withdrawing from the world and fixing ourselves on Krishna so for our own inner renewal we need to have cycles of engagement in the world alternating with engaging in Krishna by distancing ourselves from the world and if we mix these two especially if we think that we don’t need to distance ourselves from the world and engage primarily or exclusively in Krishna then gradually our spiritual strength will whittle and dwindle and we will find ourselves becoming weaker and weaker and we will be engaging in the material world not to do Krishna’s will but to do our own will and our material desires will increase by our material engagement and then we will just over a period of time become like materialists so rather than bothering when we are trying to withdraw from the world and fix the mind on Krishna during those periods for example sadhana which we do is a period for this kind of withdrawal and renewal so at that time rather than bothering or worrying oh there is so much to do how will I be able to do it at that time it is important to remember that this is the time where I will get the strength to do all the things that I am going to do without this strength whatever I do will not be spiritually potent it will neither benefit me much nor really benefit others much so there are times when we need to withdraw ourselves and at that time remembering that this cycle of engagement and withdrawal is the basis of renewal is the basis helpful for us to offer ourselves to Krishna when we are praying to him and meditating on him through his holy name