When bhakti can’t be quantified, why have a bhakti shastri course with marks?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHBeXLW4tc4

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Question How important Are the marks that we get in Say exams like Bhakti Shastri Ultimately bhakti can’t be quantified And Getting marks Can also be a source of pride So Why do we need to announce Marks like this and then Marks can only talk about Knowledge not about Bhakti So why do we Need to have this sort of Marks being given Answer There is A philosophical principle and there is a practical Application and these Shouldn’t be confused Here Now the philosophical principle is that We all Should engage all the Resources that we have in Krishna’s Service So One of the resources that we have is our intelligence And we use our intelligence According to our capacity In Krishna’s service So When we use our intelligence in Krishna’s service What happens by that? We actually Are Showing Krishna Our sincerity So one expression of sincerity is that We try to use all our resources to do A particular activity Now yes if some devotees have a lot of intelligence Then they may be able to do very well Others may have less intelligence and they may be able to do Less study But the important point is Not how much Is the output But how much is the input That means Rather than comparing That person got 80% marks and I got 60% marks Whether the question is That person put 100% and whether I put 100% Or not So we should see exams Not as a forum For parading our Outputs But as a forum for maximizing Our inputs That means That Yes Some students may do much better than others And it doesn’t matter who comes first Who comes second What matters is whether we put in our best effort And whether we connected with Krishna through our intelligence Or not Now some people may Become proud of getting First marks First rank or getting top marks Or whatever Now those who want to become proud they will become proud anyway They don’t need exams Rather than topping in exams for that But the point is that Most of us need Some external impetus To do internal activities Because generally When we are in the mode of passion We cannot Appreciate Goodness definition of success Now Sattva Sukhe Sanjayate Sattva Sanjayate Gyanam So there is inner satisfaction There is inner illumination That comes in goodness And that is not quantifiable very easily So because of that If there are no external impetus Then it becomes very Difficult for us to keep Up our motivation Keep up our inspiration for doing things And we know That ultimately bhakti is a matter of the heart But unless We have some External motivation Often we are not able to sustain What we are trying The externals that will facilitate the internals The externals alone are not enough If somebody just gets marks And those marks just go to their head and puff up the head And then one shows How much marks I got Just gets the knowledge, gets the marks and just becomes proud That is not really going to help much But even for those who want to study sincerely And they are not really Intending to be proud But for them also there are so many distractions That some external impetus does help So What we should see the system of exams As a facility for us To fix our mind and fix our intelligence on Krishna And to the extent It is uncool we accept it Now for some devotees They may take up the Desire They may take up the desire to come first Also as a means of pleasing Krishna Not that I want to be better than others But I want to do the best that I can And if my best happens to be better than others That is fine So now we should give others The benefit of doubt whether a person is studying Just to come first in the exam Or the person is studying to actually Serve and please Krishna And devotees that we don’t know Now we may say that from the behavior I can infer But what do we gain by such inference If we don’t find a particular devotee inspiring We don’t associate with that devotee But why ascribe negative motives To a particular devotee How does that help us to advance Apahishinam not finding false Is a quality of godly nature 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita says So therefore Now to the extent we find the whole system Of exam uncool we accept it That means we put in we use it in a way That it becomes uncool for us So if you find the exam pressure is too much And then it distracts us from remembering Krishna Then does that mean that we just Don’t not give the exam Well actually the system of When we are an organization Then there have to be some objective Frameworks by which Certain things can be done Otherwise everything when everything becomes subjective Then often there is There is accusations of partiality And there is also opportunities for Partiality that come up So now within the The Bhaktashastra exam Now those devotees who are intellectually Oriented they will naturally thrive those are not so intellectually Oriented they may not do so well But the important point is not that One can top the exam The important point is that one use whatever intelligence One has to study So now if you find the Exam too agitating then one can Just do some basic studies and pass the exam One doesn’t have to top the exam in it And overall rather than Making the Making the whole Bhaktashastra Exam centric We can make it Krishna connection centric Rather than seeing Bhaktashastra as a means To get a certificate And to get some marks We see it as an opportunity to remember Krishna To hear about Krishna So anyway Shravanam, Kirtanam, Smaranam are vital Limbs of Bhakti and the Bhaktashastra Course offers us facility to do those To hear Most of the time when we hear If we don’t have to do anything About the hearing we tend to forget it But here we can see the Exam as an opportunity to Not just hear but also to Smaranam Because we’ll have to Recollect it to write it So we shouldn’t think of Exams Just as Rote memorization test Wherein we have to just Gulp some facts And then swallow and then Vomit them out As is often done in academy exams No, this is knowledge about Krishna Anyway we connect with Krishna That can benefit us And remembrance, Smaranam Is a very important thing Smaranam can be in various Ways and even the facts connected With Krishna, remembering them can also Purify us Some devotees May approach the Whole exam with a Material, competitive Egoistic sort of Attitude And that may put us off But we don’t have to let Their attitude rub off on us And certainly we don’t have to let that attitude Rub off on Our perception of the exams On the whole system of Bhakti Shastra itself We can see it as a devotion From a devotional perspective entirely Just as an opportunity for us to do Shravanam And Smaranam and Kirtanam In one sense writing the exams We can see that as Kirtanam You know, we speak about Krishna We write about Krishna, what are we doing? Whatever we have taken in about Krishna We are now expressing it out So we can see this whole activity As an opportunity, as a structure As a forum for us to do Shravanam, Kirtanam, Smaranam in a systematic way And if we do it with this devotional disposition According to our intellectual capacity We will get good marks also Rather than seeing The marks as the product We can see that as a by-product And we can see connection with Krishna Engagement in Krishna Remembrance of Krishna as the primary product And that will be something Which will definitely lead to us further advancement And the marks will be an incidental by-product Which will come when we have the devotional Attitude towards the whole Course and exam Thank you