When multiple dharmas call us, how do we decide which dharma to practice?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so dharma is categorical not contextual so in different contexts if there is a conflict about various dharmas to practice so how do we decide which dharma to practice we do not have Krishna the way Arjuna had Krishna and we may not even have access to our spiritual master as readily as we might want to be that’s why overall we need to practice the process of bhakti nicely and Prabhupada writes in the introduction of nectar of instruction that if one practices bhakti diligently one will come to the mode of goodness and in the mode of goodness how to advance further will be revealed from within that means that there are decisions where it may not be very clear what I should do or what I should not do but there are many other decisions where it is fairly clear what I should do and what I should not do and to the extent we do the right thing when it is clear for us by that we are showing Krishna that Krishna I want to act according to your guidance and when we show Krishna that Krishna I want to act according to your guidance Krishna will guide us more and that way if overall we are living a life of life guided by Krishna’s instructions then within that life whatever decisions we take they will also be more or less guided by Krishna’s intelligence Krishna gives the intelligence to take those decisions properly having said that still if there are major decisions to be made we should not make them on the spur of the moment because Krishna’s guidance comes to us but to receive Krishna’s guidance we have to be at least in sattva guna and looking towards transcendence and that’s why if major decisions we do on the spur of the moment on the spur of the moment usually we are in rajo guna because we are running around doing things, our life is fast so if we have to do major decisions we shouldn’t this is what Krishna is telling me from within this is what I will do we can sit down, we can try to postpone the decision till the time when we have come to the mode of goodness we pray, we chant we study scripture, get a cultivated calm disposition, maybe write things down deliberate on them and then after evaluating the pros and cons, praying over them, using our intelligence basically brings us to this level of goodness and then using our intelligence to analyze things and then presenting our analysis to Krishna in a mood of prayer, then that is like, just as we offer our food to Krishna, we cook it and offer it to Krishna so like that our decision making process also, we cook it carefully and then we offer it to Krishna and that means Krishna this is what I plan to do, please guide me and then after that we spend some more time in praying and then Krishna will give us guidance, so that way we can first of all bring ourselves to the mode of goodness and then spiritualize also the decision making process and if there are major decisions which are going to have major life consequences at that time, we should consult senior devotees, either our spiritual master or some other senior devotees who have been guiding us and even when we are consulting them, it is good if we have done our homework first that means if we have done our own analysis properly, we have done our prayer, then we will become like a patient who is able to at least explain the symptoms systematically to the doctor the doctor cannot just gauge everything from the patient the doctor has to be informed by the patient, so if we do our homework properly then we will be able to give an informed understanding to our spiritual guides and they will also be able to give us informed guidance and that way we can arrive at a mature decision and yes, even with all this process, sometimes the decision may be wrong. Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if you are supposed to go here and you find you are going here, it is not necessary that you have to go back and start again from there you can turn and move onwards so in general, living in this world is often a mode of constant reorientation if we decide to go in this direction but the force of life makes us go in some other direction, then again we bring ourselves back on track, we go off in some other direction and we bring ourselves back on track and that’s why even after we take a decision regularly hearing scripture that is what brings us reorients us in the right direction sometimes we may take a decision and at that time in those circumstances the decision may seem right, but afterwards other facts come to light and then we may realize this decision is not a sound decision so we may have to, not that the previous decision was wrong, but we have to do some course correction so basically trying to live a life of dharma as much as possible in the mode of goodness and especially making sure that our process of decision making is done in goodness by that we can let Krishna guide us and help us make sound decisions thank you very much