Should a devotee work in a devotional project where one can directly serve Krishna or in a secular company by which one can offer more donation?

Transcript

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Question, how should a devotee decide whether to work in a directly devotional environment, in, say, a devotee run project, or to work in some secular work environment? In the devotee run project, one is directly rendering service to Krishna and one is in the association of devotees.
But in a secular establishment where one works, one’s talents may be better utilized. There will be more challenges, more opportunities for growth. And also we will be able to offer more Lakshmi in the service of Krishna through donations.
So, Hansar, there are multiple factors in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, verses 8 to 11, Krishna talks about a hierarchy. So 8th verse he says, just fix your mind and intelligence and live in me. 9th verse he says, a lower level is that if you strive to fix your mind on me.
And then he says, if you can’t do abhyasa, also 12.10 verse he says, work for me. In 12.11 he says, if you can’t work for me, then work for some cause, but sacrifice the fruits for a noble purpose. So now, in the 12.10, work for me, actually there are two levels.
One is we work directly for Krishna, that means doing some service to Krishna, which is directly rendering to Krishna. Second is that we work and offer the fruits to Krishna. The 11th is offering the fruits for some good cause.
So now, normally speaking, the greater the connection with Krishna, the better it is. So if we are working in a devotional environment, working for Krishna, normally that connection would be better. But the nature of Bhakti Yoga is that it is individual.
Krishna says in the 18th chapter, 9.60, that sabhava jena kaunte nibaddha svena karmana that all of us have our sabhava and we have to act according to sabhava. We cannot just abandon the sabhava. We cannot renounce the sabhava.
So that means that although, say, working in a devotee environment, where we are most of the time surrounded by devotees and all our work is directly going for Krishna, that is in one sense better, definitely, because our contact with Krishna is more. But at the same time, different people have different natures and some people may thrive more on challenges, feel that the talents that they have, they have to do justice to those talents and in the devotee environment that may not be possible. So we can have multiple definitions of success.
In the initial days in our movement, the devotees’ definition of success was that we mainly drop out of society. And then earlier people would live in a temple, in grahasthas. Now we don’t do that, but drop out of society and focus more and more on devotional activities, which is important, no doubt, but we cannot expect the whole of society to drop out of society and join our movement.
If we want to raise the consciousness of society in general, bring society at least to goodness and some preliminary level of spirituality, then devotees also have to go out in the world and work exemplary. So, and set an example over there of not just material competence, but also material competence combined with spiritually founded character. And then that will inspire us people to come closer to Krishna.
So from that point of view, to say that one is better, working in a devotee community is better may not always be better for everyone. So now, as far as contributing Lakshmi to Krishna is concerned, certainly, if we can contribute more by taking up some kind of job, which offers more, naturally devotees would like to give more. That is fine.
But the principle of giving Lakshmi is that actually we want to give our heart to Krishna. But when we, because our heart contains so many things, so many attachments are there and especially attachment to money is there. So the idea is if we can’t give our heart to Krishna, then we give what is in our heart to Krishna.
So one of the things that is in our heart is money. So we give money to Krishna. So if we can offer our talents to Krishna directly, that is always better than offering money to Krishna.
But it is going to vary based on person to person. So sometimes certain talents are such that we may not find a way to channelize them directly within devotee circles. So then we may have to go out and create a devotee circle in that area.
So that is also good. In general, when one has to do that, it is important that one also be spiritually strong. That means now there are two different factors.
One is our sense of material job satisfaction or material fulfillment. And the second is spiritual fulfillment. So material fulfillment means that when we do activities according to our nature, according to our talents and achieve, attain some successes, there is a material fulfillment that comes over there.
And spiritual fulfillment means that we are able to do things for Krishna with the proper spiritual foundations and sadhana, sangha and seva. And that gives us spiritual fulfillment. So if by working in devotee association, we can get material and spiritual fulfillment both, that is the best.
As in the general devotee environment, getting spiritual fulfillment will be easier. And in the non-devotee environment, what to speak of spiritual fulfillment, even basic spiritual nourishment may also sometimes be a challenge. So we will have to see that if a person is strong enough spiritually, then seeking material fulfillment elsewhere may not always be spiritually undesirable.
It may work out to one’s advantage if one can share one’s Krishna consciousness with others. But in general, this sort of major decision needs to be taken after due amount of thought and also by consulting some other devotees who know our situation properly and can also give us some inputs. Generally, it is difficult for us to look at our situation objectively.
So often writing some sort of journal where we write the pros and cons and keep them there for some time and then look back at them afterwards sometime. Generally, when thoughts are in the head, they just go round and round in the head. But we take out the thoughts and put them on paper or put them in a computer.
Then creating that physical distance between our thoughts also brings about some objectivity. And then if we also keep some chronological distance, that means let some time pass and look at it again, then also we get some broader perspectives. And then afterwards, we can arrive at a more mature decision.
So I would say that by first of all observing the material spiritual fulfillment needs that we have and where they can be fulfilled, then thinking about it maturely, especially by writing down and letting some time pass and also getting perspective from some well-wishing and sympathetic devotees, devotees guides or other devotees that can help us to arrive at a decision. In general, we do need devotees within devotee projects because when there are devotee projects, we would like to have more and more devotees and less and less non-devotees. So because then that project will become devotional more vibrant.
But it’s also that if devotees go out, they can create more devotional projects. So we can’t have one definition of success for everyone. But also apart from our, all this I’m talking from our fulfillment point of view.
But another point of view is also the need of that particular project. So if the thing that we are doing is something which is not easily substitutable and then it’s very much important for the growth of the project, then unless we can create some succession plan, leaving that project may be devotionally irresponsible and it may even create some hard feelings with the devotees who are leading that project. So in general, for a devotee, if it’s a lifelong thing, we have to act according to our nature.
But on a short-term basis, of course, short-term may vary, it may be a few months or whatever, or it may be sometimes a year also or a few years. On a short-term basis, if a project requires something urgently, then even if it is not doing much justice to our talents, if that’s what is required and that’s what we can offer, then at that time, sacrificing the individual growth for the institutional growth is good. It is also one way we make advancement.
But in general, for a long time, if we neglect our nature or we try to go against our nature, that will create a sort of resentment and a dissatisfaction which can have negative effects on our devotional life in the long run. Because we may feel that because of my devotional practice, because of the devotee association, I was not able to do justice to my talents. I was not able to grow as much as I could have grown.
So sometimes some devotees may feel that for the sake of Krishna, I will cut down on my material prospects. And now that is good because then we can do more for Krishna, but then we should be able to do this with adequate conviction so that we don’t regret it later. Otherwise, if we cut down our material prospects, then focus on Krishna, and then we later on look back and regret, then what will happen is we will feel as if because of our devotion, we have missed out on our material life or our material growth.
Now, life always requires us to make choices. We cannot get everything that we want in life. But in general, we can make those choices in such a way that we will be able to maintain some level of material standard, material respectability, and also have a steady level of spiritual advancement.
So if you want to connect more with Krishna, working in devotee association is normally good. But then we also have to see whether we are contributing adequately and whether we will be able to contribute better in another situation. And then after considering, we can make a decision.