When Krishna is not directly with us how can we know his will?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you so Krishna was there to instruct Arjuna directly and we don’t have that how do we know what is it that will please Krishna generally Krishna’s Krishna and Krishna’s heart is revealed to us through the devotees so those who are dear to him from there we come to know Krishna’s desires vāniṃ janāṃ kathane śravaṃ kathāyāṃ vāniṃ janāṃ kathane śravaṃ kathāyāṃ it’s a verse in the 10th canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam dṛṣṭi satāṃ darshanet bhavatano nāṃ the last line he says is that seeing your devotees O Lord is like seeing you so what it means is that Krishna he basically when we have the paramparā how it works is Krishna manifests his will through the paramparā Krishna accepts so the will manifests down from Krishna through the paramparā our service goes up from down to up to Krishna through the paramparā and then Krishna’s mercy comes down through the paramparā so first comes his will then comes our service and reciprocation and then comes his mercy down so now what this means is that we are actually we are living in a community of devotees and we have a spiritual master, we have spiritual guides and we want to serve in a way that pleases devotees so if devotees are pleased then Krishna yasya prasāda bhagavata prasāda as we say so now in our situation we may or may not have the direct guidance of the spiritual master on a day to day basis so what we do is see ultimately Krishna doesn’t want to keep us in indecision or confusion Krishna wants to guide us but Krishna also wants to see whether we want guidance so there are certain situations when we know what we should do and what we should not do if in those situations we are doing those things then by that we are showing Krishna that Krishna, I want to be guided I want to serve so when we take guidance when it is available when the things are clear about what we should do then Krishna will see that and Krishna will guide us when the guidance is not available also I will give the intelligence by which you can come to know now in practice usually even our spiritual master or spiritual guides may not give us direct specific instructions they may also bhakti is ultimately a cooperative process so cooperative process means the soul serves Krishna through the spiritual master but the soul also has one’s own nature spiritually each soul is an individual so basically we need to from our side be surrendered and ready to serve whatever we are told at the same time the spiritual authorities whoever they are, they should also be observing to find out how we can serve happily that means it is a cooperation between the individual and the authority so both of them try to find out, the goal should be sometimes when a project is project is in a stage of major expansion or stage of beginning at that time devotees may just be told to do whatever is required and that’s important to do so that is the surrender to the devotees do whatever they are told to do but over a period of time if devotees are to sustain themselves in the practice of bhakti then it is best that they will engage according to their nature according to what they are inspired to do so both the individual and the guide both of them need to work cooperatively to discover what service can this devotee do in the best possible way so we have to know that our spiritual growth is ultimately our responsibility it is not Krishna’s responsibility it is not our spiritual master’s responsibility it is our responsibility our spiritual master is there to assist us then shows the way, gives the mercy but it is our responsibility so that means we have to take stock of ourselves and by doing various services we observe ourselves what is it that I am good at what is it that I can do well what is it that I feel comfortable doing so guna karma vibhagasya called guna karma one another described it so guna we can say it refers to internal comfort I feel comfortable doing something and karma we can say it refers to external competence I am good at doing it so what is it that I am comfortable doing and what is it that I am competent doing and when we find that gradually we gravitate towards that service it is not that suddenly this is not my nature that is my nature so I will do that service it shouldn’t be suddenly giving up of service and taking up but gradually we move towards the service which is according to our nature because what happens if we do it abruptly we fall for the tricks of the mind if we ask the mind what is my nature what is the service according to my nature the mind will say the service you are doing that is not your nature so the mind will basically use that as an excuse for laziness actually even to understand our nature we need to have some level of sattva guna some level of the mode of goodness and that’s why initially we just do whatever we are told to do by that we become purified by that purification we come to the mode of goodness and when we come to the mode of goodness we can observe and if we consider this is the realm of services for Krishna and within that we can find this is my individuality this is what I like, this is what my interests are this is what my ambitions are we find out what is the intersection point between the two and we situate ourselves in that then if there is something which we feel inspired to do then we will ourselves do it enthusiastically no one will have to follow us have you done it, have you done it, have you done it now we feel inspired to do it and Prabhupada also encouraged this there is an incident in the in the 7th volume of the Indra Amrit there is one devotee, Ishan Prabhu he lives in Alachu, I met him, he told me the same incident again so he said that he was in London and London was at that time the European headquarters for our movement the devotees from France, from Germany from Netherlands they had all come there and they were all reporting preaching here is going like this, preaching here is going like that and this devotee, Ishan Prabhu is saying that everybody has something to do for Shila Prabhupada but I don’t have anything to do so he asked Prabhupada Prabhupada, everyone has something to do please give me some service so Prabhupada looked at him and said what do you want to do for Krishna? so he said no Prabhupada, whatever you tell I will do Prabhupada again asked what do you want to do for Krishna? he told me Prabhupada is testing me his idea was that you know if you want to do something maybe it is sense gratification no Prabhupada, whatever you tell I will do Prabhupada said no, I am asking you what do you want to do for Krishna? he said our philosophy is find out what you want to do and do it for Krishna he never thought like this he said Prabhupada, I will think about it and then after a couple of days he came back and said Prabhupada you know I think that you know we have these Mridangas which we get from India they often break so I am thinking I can make them make Mridangas here itself with some local material and I can make them with material that will not be so easily breaking Prabhupada said you know your godbrothers are very passionate so they will break Mridangas so make the Mridangas so strong that even if they throw it down it will not break so Prabhupada basically affirmed what he said so then that became his service he found a way to make Mridangas so the idea is that on one side we surrender whatever the spiritual master tells us we do that that is one aspect of bhakti but the other aspect of bhakti is also Prabhupada wanted us to be independently thoughtful you know find out what we can contribute to Krishna so over a period of time the individual and the guide both of them cooperatively come to an understanding of how this devotee can serve himself sustainably and then when the devotee finds sustainable service then they will be inspired to continue even when there are difficulties because that is their inspiration that is what they want to offer to Krishna so how do we know that we are pleasing Krishna we do what we are told to do along with that we keep exploring because it is not that Krishna’s pleasure necessitates our displeasure it is not that Krishna wants us to be miserable and that proves our love no it is that Krishna wants us to be happy but a part of a relationship is sometimes we have to do something which we don’t like to do so we focus on how we can develop a sustainable relationship with Krishna and if we are sustainably practicing bhakti we can understand that Krishna is pleased with us because if Krishna were not pleased, we would not be able to practice sustainably. Our lower desires will come up, they will interfere, they will drag us away. If we are practicing sustainably that means Krishna is pleased with us and if we bring out our talents, use them in his service, that means it is invulnerable.
It is said that what we are is God’s gift to us what we become is our gift to God so we find out what is Krishna’s gift to us, our talents and use them in his service does it answer your question?