When we use our imagination in devotional service, will whatever we imagine come true?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Clear? Thank you. If we spiritualize our imagination, then whatever we aspire to do for Krishna, will that become true? Yeah. For us, as sadhakas, we can see this, if you see prayer, as it is thought of in ordinary life.
Prayer is something which I can’t do on my own. I go to God and ask him for it. So, like I saw an advertisement, if you don’t have insurance, if you don’t, it’s an insurance company, if you don’t have an insurance from us, it is time to say your prayers.
So, what it is? Their idea is, prayer is basically a tool to get God to do what you can’t do. But, in the Bhagavatam, when Prahlad Maharaj defines prayer, it is a limb of devotional service. And just as hearing does not have any direct objective, in terms of getting God to do something, chanting does not have any direct objective to get God to do something.
If you see Kunti Maharani, her prayers are there in the first canto, 8th chapter, the prayers end with, she doesn’t ask anything. She simply asks, let my consciousness flow towards you. In fact, initially, her prayers start with the intention that she doesn’t want Krishna to go.
She says, Krishna, we have so many enemies still there. But then she starts thinking of the Yadus and how they are deprived of Krishna’s association. And then she feels, no, how can I continue to deprive them? And she therefore says, Krishna, wherever you go, let my consciousness go with you.
So, essentially, many times in the Brahma Samhita, there is no request at the end. In Brahma Samhita, it’s just Govindam Adi Purusham Tamaham Bajami. There is no request.
So, similarly, when we talk about spiritualizing our imagination, we can see that itself as a way of absorbing ourselves in Krishna. Whether it is fulfilled or not, that doesn’t matter. There are many factors that are involved.
You can say, even for Srila Prabhupada, it is not that all his desires were fulfilled. Prabhupada could not complete the Bhagavatam. Prabhupada was not there when the new temple was inaugurated.
It was fond desire. But that doesn’t matter. So, what we focus on is we want to offer our external activities to Krishna and we want to offer our inner life also to Krishna.
So, it is true as a psychological principle that if our internal and our external is synchronized, then the probability of success is more. Psychologists say that if a person what happens is many times, there are two players playing tennis and one player is a big champion, world number one or world number two and the other is just a new rookie. Many times, the new player is so overpowered by having to play such a big player that the player cannot play up to one’s potential also.
So, if we are internally defeated, then we will automatically be externally defeated. If we are internally determined to fight, then there is a chance that we will win. So, the point here is that Krishna talks about the five factors of action.
adhishthanam tatha karta karanam cha pratak vidha vividhasya pratak ceshta daivam caivatra panchavam. So, he says one of the factors over there is ceshta. Ceshta means endeavor.
So, our endeavor when we, for an action to produce its result, one of the things is endeavor. Endeavor also includes our inner commitment to that thing, inner determination to achieve it. That’s not the only factor.
So, it is not that just by imagining something will happen that will automatically happen. But, our imagination can contribute to it happening. Our imagination can accelerate that happening.
Our imagination may not alone make that happen. But, basically for us, we can see that not so much thinking about Krishna or imagining about doing things for Krishna, envisioning, the word imagination has a really negative connotation in bhakti usually. So, we could use envisioning.
So, envisioning doing things for Krishna, we can see it more as a way of offering our mind and intelligence to Krishna. Rather than thinking in terms of whether I will be able to do this or not. Sometimes they may work out, sometimes they may not work out.
You know, it is said that plans may not work, but planning works. That is, plans means if I say, I’ll do this in the morning, I’ll do this in the afternoon, I’ll do this in the evening. Life is so unpredictable, everything we cannot make like that.
But if at least we have done some planning, if some emergency comes up, then we know, okay, I have to do this, but then I have to come back and do this. If there is no planning at all, then one thing goes wrong, then after that we get so discouraged that we let a dozen more things go wrong also. So, we don’t have to go between the extremes of, see, to make plans work means everything has to work the way I want.
And to not plan at all means to think that nothing is ever going to work the way I want. Real life is somewhere in between. So, if we have done planning overall, then I know, even if this doesn’t work, okay, I can do this.
I can do this. So, that way, planning is also, in one sense, it’s an act of imagining. It’s more of an intellectual imagining.
Okay, after I complete, this will take me about three days. This will take me about two hours. This will take me about one month.
There is some amount of imagination involved, but it’s a regulated, directed, well thought out imagination. So, Prabhupada did say that for sharing Krishna consciousness, what is important is organization and intelligence. So, organization, we need to organize.
Not just in terms of organization structure, but even in our own lives. The more organized we are, the more effective we will be. Does that address your question? Thank you.
Yes.