Should we fight for our service or should we cooperate?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
So when we say that we should fight when we face obstacles or service to Krishna but then we are also told to cooperate for serving Krishna and people are more important than projects. Ultimately we are not meant to be attached to the results but just keep doing the service and it is Krishna only when we surrender to him we will get the results. Yes.
There is whenever we hear one statement there is a possibility that we may absolutize that statement and then that becomes a problem. Say for example we may say that all of us come with our life spans fixed number of breaths that we have to take are fixed that we have to take are fixed but then in the same tradition of same broad Vedic tradition we have Ayurveda. The very name Ayurveda means the Veda which will increase your Ayu.
So if our Ayu is fixed how can the Ayu be increased? So things are not that black and white. When a particular point is being stressed then a particular statement is to be made. But then another point is to be stressed some other statement may be made.
So it is for us to get a holistic understanding by integrating various statements. Now when Prabhupada said that you can show your love for me by how you cooperate. That’s a very important one of the last instructions that he gave.
At the same time what did he mean by cooperate? In cooperate it is implied that there is operate. First we operate and then we can cooperate. If in a particular conflicting situation one is not able to operate at all then one cannot cooperate.
So each of us has a particular nature. So some of us may be more sensitive, some of us may be less sensitive. And say if somebody insults us, somebody hurts us, somebody angers us.
Now one person who may not be that emotional, that doesn’t matter. But if somebody else it might be an unbearable storm and if you tell them just tolerate this that might make it even more difficult for them. You don’t understand.
So just as say all of us have different levels of temperature sensitivity. If say some people are very sensitive to cold. If somebody starts feeling very cold then if you tell them don’t feel cold.
What do you mean don’t feel cold? That’s not in my control. I am feeling cold. We may decide that even when I am feeling cold if I have to go for a service I will do that service.
I will wear warm clothes and go. So we cannot we cannot absolutize one way of behaving for everyone. So for cooperating for some people just neglect the issue and keep doing what you are doing.
So that’s the best way they cooperate. For some people I cannot neglect this issue so I will need to create a particular distance. I serve here, you serve here and we will cooperate.
So when I talk about fighting against obstacles for serving Krishna I made it very clear that we are not fighting against devotees. We are fighting for our service to Krishna. And what does that mean? Primarily it means that we don’t let discouragement stop us from serving Krishna.
And we don’t let discouraging situations stop us from serving Krishna. How exactly that fight is to be implemented you cannot have animosity against devotees. But at the same time we can’t we can’t have unrealistic expectation of submission from ourselves or from others.
Each of us has a particular capacity. So Bhagavad Gita tells Arjuna, tolerate. But in the whole Bhagavad Gita it’s followed by Kurukshetra war.
So why Arjuna and Krishna just tolerate the indignities that the Kauravas had done to them. There was Pandavas tolerated for a long time. But at a particular point they decided that they have to fight.
Because then it was not just a matter of tolerance it was a matter of establishing Dharma. Now with respect to people being more important than projects. I know temples where to make sure that people are given more importance than projects people have to fight for that.
Sometimes if the temple leadership is such that you just do this service, this service, whatever service is told you just do that. But then there is a vision for how devotees should grow, how devotees should be nourished. Then and if that vision is not taken care of, then devotees feel fried out.
So then you may have to fight to keep that priority on people instead of projects. And for keeping that you may have to fight against some people whose priority is on projects. And again going further when we say that some people are more important than projects but then people themselves are of different types.
And some people by their own nature are more people oriented and some people are more project oriented. That means some people just can’t be satisfied unless they are doing something big. We all talk about multitasking is not very good, we should focus on one thing.
But I know many people see that unless I am doing five things, my mind doesn’t stay peaceful. I can’t focus on one thing. That’s just the way they are.
It’s not that they can’t it’s not that they are distracted. They do the five things with reasonable efficiency. And they try to do one thing, they get more disturbed.
Because that one thing doesn’t consume their attention enough. Doesn’t demand their attention enough. So sometimes for some people who are project oriented, the way to nourish those people is to give them big projects.
And then sometimes in doing those big projects, they may just tread on some people’s feet. But taking care of that is what at that time people orientedness would be. So some people are people oriented and then say they want to spend time and talk with people, just feel the connect.
So that time it is the community leader or whoever is nourishing the community, they have to see how best this person can be nourished. Some people need some quality time to sit and talk and they feel, oh I am so valued. And some people they feel valued when they are given some challenging responsibility.
A big project. Oh you trust me so much that you are giving me such a big project. So we don’t want to have animosity among devotees.
I am talking about fighting for Krishna, fighting for our service for Krishna, fighting against obstacles for serving Krishna. The stress on that is not to create conflict among devotees. The stress in that is to not have excessive expectations from devotees or to put more precisely to not let expectations from devotees become the precondition for our service to Krishna.
So it is not so much that we are fighting against devotees, it’s like we are fighting against our expectations from those devotees. If this devotee should do like this, then I’ll serve Krishna. If the devotee doesn’t do like that, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the devotee is a bad person.
But it’s just that I have to serve Krishna even when my expectation is frustrated. So it’s more of a purposeful focus on moving towards Krishna. And it is each person will have to find out what level of what level of fighting they can take up.
That means as I said, especially if somebody wants the freedom to serve Krishna, then they may require a little more space. And somebody wants the facility, then they may exhibit a little more submission and then they’ll get the facility also. The principle is, when I’m talking about the way to Vrindavan is to Kurukshetra.
Kurukshetra signifies that there’ll be many forces which will discourage us in our service to Krishna. Those forces may come from the actions of others. Those forces may come from our own conditionings.
Those forces may come from our own expectations from others being frustrated. But through all these discouraging forces, we have to persevere. And for that persevering, we need the fighting spirit.
If we are doing it under the guidance of senior devotees, then they will also tell us, if somebody is project-oriented too much. And that’s just people’s nature. That’s just people’s nature and you can’t change that nature.
So, then while doing that project, working on that project-orientedness, if that person is becoming too excessively obsessed, or too becoming too dismissive of others, then they will have to be told, you cannot do this so much. You can do this, but not at the expense of others. One devotee, friend of mine, he loved music.
And he felt, our basic tunes are so simple. I want to become a specialist musician. And then he had such a strong desire, he said, no.
Devotee told him, you just do your kirtan. Just learn this a little bit more. He said, no.
Kirtan is a whole culture. I want to learn musical instruments. I want to learn singing.
So, then when he had a very strong desire, he said, okay, you give the facility to go to some traditional music schools, music teachers, and learn various kinds of music. And he felt very nourished by that. And then he became a traditional kirtan specialist.
And he attracted a good number of people by that. But then the result of that was, that whenever he would be in normal kirtans, he would keep finding fault. This person doesn’t sing nicely.
This person doesn’t sing nicely. This person doesn’t know this. This person doesn’t know that.
And finally, one day he told the temple management that, actually, nobody in this temple knows kirtan. Therefore, all the kirtans I will do. And there, at that time, the temple manager said, no, we can’t do that.
We are here to express our devotion to Krishna. And all of us have to do it. So, then he was given, he recognized that he will get a space to do his own kirtan mandali or whatever.
Within that, he can have his standards. So, sometimes in project-orientedness, a person may become, you can say, almost obnoxious towards others. And that has to be checked by someone, some mature guide.
But, nourishing some people may mean giving them projects. Because that’s what will nourish them. Does this answer your question? I can always talk