What is a preferred career for devotees?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
What would be a preferred career for devotees? Not necessarily any one career would be preferred because all of us have different natures. And to the extent we can find a career which broadly is according to our nature, to that extent, the conflict in our material life will be less.
And then we can more peacefully practice spiritual life. So, what as devotees we could do is, we can observe ourselves more and try to understand what is my nature, what are my strengths. Quite often, we choose careers primarily based on what helps us to earn more money or what gives more prestige to society, what has more glamour associated with it.
And when we choose that way, we often get into careers which are not very compatible with us. And then that causes a lot of conflict. So, if we observe ourselves carefully and understand what our strengths are, then we can choose an appropriate career or even within a career itself, we can shift our trajectory a little bit more towards things which we are harmonious with.
So, for example, say somebody has a more Brahminical nature, then they may choose the profession of teaching as a teacher or as a professor. But even as a professor, we may not be able to change our career completely. But once we understand our nature, then we can adjust our career in such a way that as much as it is compatible.
Within teaching, somebody may do more research, somebody may do more actual giving classes, somebody may do more administration. So, there is always flexibility like that. So, broadly speaking, the career is as compatible with our nature as possible.
Conflict is less. Secondly, it is beneficial if devotees don’t get into careers that are known to be excessively demanding. There are certain careers which have involved long, very long work hours or very high stress levels.
And if we get into those kind of careers, then often that sucks and drains our physical and mental energy. Then we don’t have the energy left to practice Bhakti. Sometimes in any career, the work pressure and work demands may be more and that we have to adjust.
But if somewhere constantly it is more, then it leads to imbalance. So, in careers where the workload is moderate, that is also a good career for devotees. And overall, the principle in Bhakti is that as we become more and more focused in our Bhakti, we get the intelligence from within.
तदामि बुद्धियोगम् तम्येनिमाऊपयान्ति Krishna says, I give the intelligence by which you can come back to me. So, how to move forward in one’s career, that the intelligence also Krishna gives us when we keep practicing Bhakti, when we keep studying. Another thing, the traditional Vedic culture is that there is Grahastha Ashram, and there is Vanaprastha Ashram, and there is Sanyas.
Now, the Brahmacharya, these are the traditional Ashrams. Now, literally these Ashrams may not be replicable in today’s world. But broadly, as devotees keep practicing Bhakti steadily, then as the years pass, they try to plan in such a way that in the later part of their life, they can reduce the amount of time they will spend on their work and they can spend more time on Bhakti directly.
So, when we are in our 20s, 30s, 40s, we focus more on our career, and then make some arrangements by which we can in the later years work less and still and have more time for practicing Bhakti. So, that sort of career planning is very helpful. By which, although right now, it may not seem as conducive for Bhakti as we like, but in the long run, it will become more conducive.
When Srila Prabhupada was there on the planet, most of the devotees would live in the temple. In fact, even in 1980s, 93% of the devotees were living in temples. And they were doing services in the temples.
Like book distribution and things like that. But afterwards, the demography changed. Now, practically, more than 93% of devotees stay outside the temples.
Even 97% of them. Everyone, practically. So, because this has changed, we can’t have any one standard formula.
Every devotee will find, according to one’s own nature, how best to balance the material and the spiritual. So, the balance which we seek is something which will be individual. Now, what might seem too much workload for someone else may be a moderate workload for someone else.
What might seem like a too demanding job for one person may not be so demanding for another. And they say, the shoe that fits one person bites another person. So, like that, in material life, we can’t have a one-size-fits-all formula.
This is the career that works for me, therefore, this career will work for everyone. No. We can consult senior devotees, but we have to take our own decisions about how best to balance our careers.
Does that answer the question? Thank you. Yes, that last question.