When we have to choose between two ways of serving Krishna, what should we do?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So Mother Yashoda, she gave up Krishna so that she could, she put Krishna aside so that she could take care of the milk which she was using for serving Krishna. So when we have two things which are connected with Krishna, how do we decide which to give up or which to choose? That’s what makes us, if life had come with black and white choices, it would not have been so difficult to choose.
Life often comes with choices which are in shades of grey. But broadly speaking, our operational principle is So whatever is favorable for my service to Krishna, I accept that. And that means that we have to take individual responsibility.
So if there are two courses of action, I can do this service, I can do this service, I can do this program, I can do this program, I can go to this yatra or I can go for the yath yatra, whatever. Then we may have to use our intelligence, what is the best way I can serve Krishna? Now for us, every one of us has an individual relationship with Krishna. And we all want to make our individual offering to Krishna.
Not in an egoistic sense that I am special and I am doing something special. But I have a personal relationship with Krishna and my personal relationship, of course the personal relationship is through the spiritual master, but still it’s a personal relationship. So we want to make an offering to Krishna.
So we have to see how best I can serve Krishna. Sometimes in certain situations, there may be emergency and something which may not be so inspiring for us or something which may not be so foundational for us. We may do that because that’s what the circumstances require.
At the same time, we need to have actually our personal relationship with Krishna. Prabhupada, he gives various definitions of what is Krishna consciousness. In one particular lecture, he says that if you come in front of the deities and you feel Krishna is asking you, what are you doing for me? Then you are Krishna conscious.
Normally, most people come to the temple and ask God, what are you doing for me? But if we come to Krishna and ask and we feel Krishna, what are you doing for me? So we need to feel that I am doing something for Krishna. And now we have a primary service, which will evolve over a period of time. And of course, it will not be one service.
It can be various things which we do together as a part of our offering to Krishna. So generally, if we have a broader purpose for our life, not just see most of us, we understand going to Krishna is our ultimate purpose. But how does that translate into practical service in this world? We say that there are so many lost souls in the material world.
Yes, that’s true. But there can be many lost souls in a scone also. Because we have understood that Krishna is my ultimate goal.
But what do I do right now? We need to have a follower of Shri Prabhupada has to be defined by a sense of purpose and a sense of urgency. That was what distinguished Prabhupada from his many other God brothers who were also great devotees in their own ways. Prabhupada had a sense of purpose and not just this is what I want to do and this is what I want to do fast.
A sense of purpose and a sense of urgency. Krishna Consciousness cannot wait. That was the Bhakti Sahaja Chakra taught Shri Prabhupada.
So we need to have a sense of purpose and sense of urgency. And with that, we can make choices. It’s like say, if I’m going, I’m driving along somewhere.
And then somebody else, can you just pick this up? Okay, then I’ll think, okay, I had to get there by this time. I can make this detour. But if I don’t have anywhere to go, then anybody can suggest, you go this, you do this, you do that.
And we just keep going here and there. And we may get distracted by devotional, many devotional things that come up. And we may get distracted by non-devotional things also in that case.
So, now what our purpose may be, that will evolve over a period of time. It’s not that we learn it overnight. But during the course of our life, we have to, okay, going to Krishna is my ultimate goal.
But what am I going to, what am I going to practically do to go towards Krishna? So you may decide, for the next six months, I’m going to study scripture. Next six months, I’m going to focus on preaching. Next six months, whatever it is.
We have some goal and we can always do course correction. You know, okay, this is becoming, it’s taking too much time, so therefore I’ll do this now. I’ll do this, that’s fine.
But there has to be some sense of purpose and urgency, which defines our bhakti. And based on that, we can take all the decisions. Should I do this or should I do that? If we don’t have that sense of purpose and urgency, then even in devotion itself, there are so many options.
Now, we can hear so many devotional lectures. We can hear so many kirtas. We can go for so many programs.
We can do so many things. But it’s all, it can all be, in a sense, uplifting. See, when the bad is the enemy, when we have a choice between the good and the bad, then we require some moral strength to make the choice.
Why it is said that often the good is the greatest enemy of the best. The bad is not the greatest enemy, because the bad is only a side. But the good is often the greatest enemy of the best.
This is also good, that is also good, that is also good. But in the process of doing 100 good things, that which was the best thing gets left aside. So, Prabhupada, he could have been in India, he could have been, he wrote some books and he got the Prime Minister to endorse his book.
He got the President of India to endorse the book. If Prabhupada had wanted, he could have just stayed in India and written many more books and he could have become an established author. And relatively speaking, for him to write books would have been far less challenging than come to America.
Because old age, a distant land, didn’t know anyone. So, for him, he could have actually written books and would have been glorious. But Prabhupada did not do that.
For him, being an author was not just the main thing. Yes, being an author was important, but for him the books were the means by which he could share Krishna’s message with the world. So, he made that, when he came to America in 63, 64, 65, Prabhupada published one volume of the Bhagavatam.
From 65 to 68 almost, he couldn’t publish even one book after that. And he had no idea whether he will publish the books also. Prabhupada took that risk.
Because he had, his mission was to get people to practice Krishna Bhakti. Not just to give classes, not just to write books. When Prabhupada was going to go to America, at that time Sumati Morarji, she said, Swamiji, if you want to speak Bhagavatam, you come to my house, I will hear Bhagavatam from you already.
Now, Prabhupada did not want that kind of hearing. She was also Vaishnavi, but for him it was a part of her culture to hear Bhagavatam. She was not that, she was going to become a, it was going to make her a dedicated follower, practitioner, something like that.
So, Prabhupada could have made those choices, but he chose the best. And that requires courage. So, sometimes we may have to say no to certain things.
And saying no is always painful. But it’s like, say somebody invites us for a program. We don’t want to go for the program.
But then, how to say no for it? That’s the question. But if there is some other program you are already going for, then saying no is not that difficult. So, like that, the easiest way or the least painful way to say no to something less important is to have a no, to have a yes for something more important burning within us.
So, that yes comes from our overall sense of urgency and purpose. With that, we can say no to lower things. And not lower in the sense of bad, they are also good.
But we can make choices within devotion by having that sense of purpose and urgency. So, thank you very much.