When we take or get blessings from someone, what actually happens?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So sometimes when we are inclined to enjoy in a particular way, although we know that that is not the best thing to do, but somehow we are attracted to it. And since the circumstances also has come like that, then we feel that Krishna has arranged for me to do this.
So what should we do? Okay. So I think two, three different things are there here. I talked about non-devotional and anti-devotional and devotional.
So if that form of enjoyment is seriously anti-devotional, and it’s immoral or anti-devotional in terms of regulative principles, then that we have to be firm in saying no. But in the Bhagavatam, the eleventh canto, an example is given that when a rider, when a person is riding a horse, it’s not that the horse is completely tightly under him. The horse is a little leeway, which is okay.
The horse can go a little bit this direction, little bit that direction. That is okay. So like the concept of kota is there.
So now, what will be a kota for whom will vary. For among the Pandavas, Bhima’s kota was half of their full food. For the others, it was just one-fifth of the remaining thing.
So just somebody has been, before coming to Krishna consciousness, used to a very comfortable or luxurious kind of life. Then, for them, that is simply the normal way of living. For others, it might be, it might seem to be very gaudy or very flashy or very expensive kind of thing.
But for them, that is the normal way they have been living. So the important thing is that the mind not get too consumed by either enjoying or not enjoying. So for somebody who has always lived at a particular level of comfort, and they get that level of comfort, then they can move on practicing bhakti.
I’ll give you an example. If somebody has lived always in city with basic comforts and suddenly they are told, go and live in a village. Now village living is simple living, but it is very difficult.
And it is not necessary to do that for the practice of bhakti. Of course, if some specific service is required, that is different. So, that way, if some level of comfort or some level of enjoyment that is not seriously harmful, and it is not going to be a serious distraction, then giving oneself a little bit of room is not necessarily wrong.
So, what the danger in that is, sometimes the little does not remain little. From the little it can become a lot. Say, I said, you know, maybe I can watch TV for some time every day.
But then from some time every day it becomes a lot of time every day. And after not a lot of time, it can just, that is the main thing we look forward to in life. So, now, where to stop and at what point to let oneself go, this is something which each of us will have to decide our boundaries.
Shastra tells us something, but we live in a very different world from the world that is therein. I will talk about Shastra. So, the best thing is not to keep boundary, our own boundary, at the very edge.
So, because if the boundary is at the very edge, then if you just go over the boundary, there is disaster. So, it’s like, say, if there is a road and then at the side of the road there is a big drop into a valley. At the edge of the road there will be a fence.
But they won’t put the fence exactly at the edge of the mountain itself. They’ll put it a little bit, somebody, even if they hit the fence, they go up, there is some room they can further go on and they can still come back. So, like that, maybe by our own observation, by asking others, if I have the experience, we can decide, okay, that I should have my own lives.
And over a period of time, it will, like, say, with respect to eating, sleeping, you know, if I’m used to sleeping 8 hours, if I suddenly start sleeping 5 hours, it will not work for me. There is something called organic detachment also that comes. As we keep practicing bhakti seriously, along with that, we also have our material life.
Gradually, the practice of bhakti has a higher taste and the material life, it doesn’t seem so appealing. Organically also, things will go down. Organically means naturally.
But, while we are allowing ourselves some leeway for enjoyment, we have to be careful that we have our own boundaries. Otherwise, if there are no boundaries, then we will go to the edge and we’ll fall off and we’ll not realize it. And basically, we could say that the desires that we have, some of them just go away by the practice of bhakti.
For example, say, someone before coming to bhakti might have been eating meat. Just a little practice of bhakti, the desire goes away. It’s no longer a consideration also.
Some desires, we hear about it, we philosophically analyze, we are able to give up the desire. Some desires, we may indulge in it. And then we bear the consequences.
You know, it’s stupid. I needn’t have done that. And we experience that, enough, I’m not going to do this again.
But some desires are so strong that we get into them, we experience them, they don’t lead to anything, but still, we feel impelled again and again. So, this fourth category is, if it’s the third category, then we don’t even need limits. Because, I did that once, nothing great about it.
In English they say, I’ve been there, done that. I’ve done everything, nothing great in it. So, the fourth category, where we have been there, we have experienced that, nothing great about it.
But still, again and again, we feel impelled to go there. Then, we may have to have some plan. So, for example, what we could do is, maybe write down, say, we did something, and then afterward, we find that, okay, I was looking forward to it so much.
Was it really that great? So, if we write it down, this was my experience actually, then later on, when again the desire comes, we have something tangible. Because the mind, it only remembers a little pleasure. After that, the boredom, the frustration, the irritation, sometimes we beat ourselves up because of our own foolishness.
All that, the mind tends to forget that. If we write it down, then that also helps us to, there’s no need to get into this. And if some anartha is very sweet, some desire is there, we feel I have to give it up.
Then we may even choose some specific section from Shastra which relates with that particular thing and deal with that. But overall, it’s important at this stage to more find positive things to do. Nowadays, with the whole media, things connected with the internet, it’s possible that even if one is not very close to a temple, one is not able to physically go or whatever, one can find some engagements.
One is resourceful enough. So, if one does that, then it is easier to keep other things in limits. But when one doesn’t have something to fill one’s day with, then something constructive, something devotional, then all the other things, they come up and they start taking a lot of, they start taking a lot of the mental space.
And then they need to indulge. Does it address your question?