We want appreciation for making our contribution – what to do about this wanting?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
keep that association aside. When we make a contribution, we also want prestige, adoration for that.
So how does that work? The nature of varna, Krishna talked about varna and ashram, we all have a particular nature. So for a brahmana, for a kshatriya, for a vaisya, these are broad human types, you can say body types, body-mind types. So when we do something according to our nature, then just doing that activity gives satisfaction.
If as a result of doing that activity, we get praise, we get appreciation, we get glorification, that’s a bonus. We don’t do it just for the secondary things. When we are doing something which is not according to our nature, then we don’t do it because we like it, we do it because I will get something out of it.
So if we are making a contribution according to our abilities, our talents, then we do it because we just like to do it. A brahmana will study. Now many of us, we study scripture simply because we want to speak scripture to others.
We memorize verses so that we can quote to others, which is why I know so many verses. Most of the times we study only when we have to speak something. But those who are brahminical, they study because they love to study.
And they may speak only 1% of what they study actually. They satisfy. So for them, study is not a tool to some, tool to preaching.
Study is not a tool to impressing others. So if we are doing something according to our nature, then making a contribution itself brings satisfaction. Of course, we would like to be effective and being effective means that we make a contribution in a way that benefits people.
And people are benefited that naturally they may express their appreciation. So Ashla Prabhupada, when he was preaching in India, for 30-40 years he was trying to share Krishna Bhakti in India and he did not get much results. Eventually, he went to America.
And there, people he found were much more interested. And there he got results and he brought the Americans to India and seeing Americans and Europeans practicing Krishna Bhakti, Indians started practicing. We know this more or less about Ashla Prabhupada’s life.
But looking from this perspective, Ashla Prabhupada, when he was making contribution, he had some knowledge about Krishna, he had Krishna Bhakti and he was sharing that Krishna Gyan and Krishna Bhakti. But people were not receptive in India. So when he went to America, was he dissatisfied while he was going from India? He could say on one level he was dissatisfied that the results of his service were not manifesting.
But people who met him in India also in those days, 1964-1965 when he was travelling, he really did not want to say that. He was a simple, saintly, scholarly person, he was happy. So, Prabhupada’s personal happiness did not depend on whether people were taking Krishna Bhakti or not.
He was happy in his relationship with Krishna. But he wanted that others should also take it. So he went to America and eventually he brought Americans to India.
So that means that we don’t have to necessarily very rigidly separate contribution from appreciation. If we make a versatile contribution and we make it in a way that it brings appreciation, we just see that as Krishna reciprocating and telling us to do this service more. Do it in this way.
If we are not getting that, maybe that is a signal that we have to do some course correction. But for us, the appreciation from the world is not the sole driving purpose for doing it. We are doing it because that is what is our nature.
That is what Krishna has told. Krishna has made our body and mind in such a way that that is what we are happy with. Does that