Which is better – staying in a devotee community or going away to earn more so that later we can practice bhakti more?
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ok we decide between staying with devotees and practicing bhakti in the association of devotees or going away from devotee association so that we can earn more and then later on we can take a part time job and then practice bhakti more actually there is no one rigid answer for this it is both are perfectly viable options both from material and spiritual perspective the important thing is to be honest with ourselves that means we have to consciously think whether without the association of devotees I will be able to practice bhakti or not because it’s one thing that we need financial resources for living in the world we need financial stability so that we can practice bhakti also peacefully without too much anxiety now yes we need the stability for practicing bhakti the most important thing needed for practicing bhakti is the desire to serve Krishna the spiritual desire and that desire is usually strengthened or at least protected whatever we have in the association of devotees sometimes when we leave the association of devotees to go to another place for say earning more that time at the start it may well be that our desire is to actually serve more in the future but once we go away from the association of devotees the desire to serve will go down and also because we are focusing on earning money the greed for money may also increase more and more and then we will both become materially too entangled in pursuing more and more and craving for more and more and also we will become spiritually distanced we may even give up our spiritual practices so also this can affect not only our spiritual life getting too much in the mood of working very hard for money that can also affect our family life also we may not live with our family and they may feel neglected whatever so this is something which is a major decision and should not be taken on an impulse so basically it’s good to I talk in the retreat also about journaling means what right now all the pros and cons of what are the advantages and and also share them with those family members and also some close devotees explain to them their rational, positives and negatives and write them as clearly as you can and then for a major decision like this it is best not to take the decision immediately but to, the mind at such times often just keeps going, should I do it, should I not do it should I do it, should I not do it so instead of letting our mental energy consume that way we can make it a plan that we keep writing like this regularly so everyday you may decide, 5 minutes whatever thoughts are going to come in my mind, I will write it back so the mind starts thinking about it throughout the day say no, I won’t think about this so dedicate 5 minutes even 5 minutes should be enough because we don’t get so many thoughts, we actually start writing them down we find the mind is simply recycling old thoughts for most of the time we write them out they stop going round and round like a loop in the mind and then we can say ok, I will think about this later just get it out and then basically putting our thoughts out it creates an objectivity by which you can evaluate those thoughts also then inside it is too close to us for evaluating secondly when we put them out it also gives us like a snapshot of our mind this is the kind where I am thinking and say after one week if we again look at what we are thinking, we find ok, I am thinking similar if after one month we see it is similar the thoughts are more or less in the same direction that means this is not just an impulse of the mind this is my steady kind of thinking so if then that means we are more or less strongly inclined to do it and we are more or less convinced about it we are aware of what are the shortcomings and we have decided how we are going to deal with the shortcomings then it will be a considered decision not just not just an impulsive decision so writing things down and not just letting them dwell in the mind but getting them out and also taking inputs from others then that will help you to achieve a mature decision we can maintain our spiritual strength and we make proper plans to maintain our spiritual strength when you are regularly coming you are staying in touch by phone by mail or whatever it might also be if we are strongly inclined to do it at that time it might also be advisable if possible to see if we can do it for a short period maybe in a smaller project or something like that we go for a few months and see how actually it turns out because right now we may have a particular conception but the reality may be different it may be better than what we expect or it may be worse than what we expect we don’t know so instead of making an irrevocable commitment something at a smaller level for a month or two or something is possible then that may also help us in making a more informed decision