Why do senior devotees sometimes divert from bhakti to fringe fields?

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Transcript

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So After practicing bhakti for Some time, maybe a few years or a few decades Some devotees try to gravitate Towards focusing on The world’s problems Social, political, psychological And tackling them Rather than connecting with Krishna And connecting others with Krishna Or even connecting these problems with Krishna Krishna Katha, we start having Political Katha Why does this happen and what can be done about it? You say people are focusing more on the mode of goodness There are Different Ways of practicing Krishna Consciousness If you see the 12th chapter Of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna talks about multiple levels 12.8 he says Just think of me constantly If you can’t think of me, 12.9 he says Practice the rules of sadhana bhakti 12.10 he says If you can’t do that, work for it 12.11 he says, if you can’t even do that Then just work for some selfless cause Give the Fruits of your work to some good cause So Sometimes we think of Krishna Consciousness Also in terms of Digital logic If you are doing this, you are Krishna Conscious It’s like one circle If you are inside this, you are Krishna Conscious If you are outside the circle, you are not Krishna Conscious And That is one way of looking at Krishna Consciousness But another alternative way is That we could see Krishna Consciousness As a circle Of As a As something which is Multiple circles of expanding radii Something like a parameter So Where as you come down, down, down The pyramid becomes much longer In circumference At the top it is very small So like that The spiritualization of society That Srila Prabhupada wanted That can happen at multiple levels It is not that everybody Needs to become Or everybody will become A member Of the Hare Krishna movement If you are wearing a roti kurta or a saree and a tilak That’s one way it can happen But that’s not necessarily the only way And ultimately we want to Spiritualize society So If somebody Is After many years of practice they start feeling that I want to focus on a particular issue And they go deep in that issue Now It is possible for us That we may not see The Krishna connection of what they are doing But Once one goes deep into the issue Then One actually has to Learn many subtleties over it And once one starts learning the subtleties The intricacies If you want to become specialized In a new field You see when Puran Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that I look forward to the day When the high court judges will be wearing tilak Now How is this going to happen? There can be many ways One way could be that We have Krishna conscious government And the Krishna conscious government Appoints devotees as judges That can happen But it doesn’t seem to be Near conceivable future We are a small number right now Another way it could very well happen is that Devotees themselves become so Competent in their respective professions That So a devotee becomes a judge And such a competent judge That the government or the ruling Head of state or ruling authorities They appoint devotees as judges Because of their competence, because of their character Now if somebody has to develop that level of competence And character Then they have to be in the mode of goodness And they have to be diligent in their work Now when Arjuna When he was learning his archery He completely gave himself to that Now he did not Know that in the future There is going to be dharma yuddha where I am going to use this Archery for Krishna’s service He understood that I am doing this for the cause of dharma But when he was doing it, he was lost in it Completely absorbed in it So the Absorption in a particular Field of studying Is often necessary For a depth So just like when we talk about scientific Outreach, if somebody wants to do Scientific outreach can also be at various Levels So Prabhupada There is a statement In Sadapudra Prabhu’s scrapbook About what all Prabhupada wanted D.I. to do So he said, Bhaktananda Should do outreach to scientists Should do outreach to students Should do outreach to general people And should do outreach to devotees To train them to become scientific Preachers So now the way we will speak To scientists will be different from the way we Speak to students Because their level of technical Knowledge is different So somebody has to speak to scientists They have to really become a serious scientist And it is not that all the time they are going to talk about Krishna In their paper They will talk completely in scientific language So we should think that Just because somebody has gone deep into a particular Field That means they are straying away from it It is best that we don’t judge that Now what should not happen is That If some devotee feels inspired to Go deep into a particular field Then they start Discussing that with Others who are not interested in that field And they start, this is the thing Which you should do So there is a direct mission of bhakti Which is very important And most devotees will focus on the direct mission of bhakti Practicing Krishna consciousness themselves And sharing Krishna consciousness directly with others Now it is not necessary that All devotees have to do this Some devotees may become specialized in particular fields Now somebody becomes specialized in astrology Now if they become specialized in astrology Quite often they may read more books of astrology Than they read direct shastra Somebody can get lost in it But that is what is required if they want to become a specialized astrologer So now Astrology itself It can be connected with Krishna But there are astrologers who are atheistic also Ayurveda Is from the body of vedic knowledge But there are ayurvedic doctors who are atheists also So Maya is maya Somebody can go into astrology and go into maya If they go deep into astrology and get disconnected from Krishna Somebody can go into social Today’s politics And they can go deep into maya But We shouldn’t have the default assumption That somebody is going to astrology That means they are in the vedic field Somebody is going into politics That means they are going into maya No, it is the intent that is important And In the past, in the first generation largely The whole mode of Krishna consciousness Was isolation That means This is the big bad world out there And this is the devotee community This is the safe place And we will come and stay here And we want everyone to come and stay That was the primary mode of outreach And at that time Everybody also lived in the temple In fact, for many people it was You know You couldn’t live outside the temple And be in bhakti To go out of the temple means to go into maya So the transcendental Was reduced to the geographic Inside the temple means you are in Krishna Outside the temple means you are in maya But now our movement’s outreach Is not through isolation so much As through penetration Our movement has become Primarily a congregation based movement now And devotees are penetrating in the mainstream world And there they are creating Oasis There they are creating places where people can practice bhakti So When somebody has to penetrate into a particular field They have to go deep into that field And others should know Why are they doing like this Because sometimes over a period of years People may understand This is what my interest is This is where my inspiration is This is what I want to do in my life If somebody gets a very deep calling like that From within Then That’s what they will do That’s not necessarily deviation from Krishna bhakti If their intent Is to spiritualize the whole thing Then that is not deviation But we may not be able to see Krishna in that So now the problem comes When One definition of success Is made into the only definition of success That means Book distribution means If you are doing book distribution then you are doing service If you are not doing book distribution then you are not doing any service at all No, book distribution is a very important service There are so many other services also So if somebody minimizes book distribution That is wrong But if somebody makes book distribution the only thing that is also wrong So like that some devotees may go deep into certain fields If that is their inspiration That is fine But if they start Imposing it on others So if they are specialized in a particular field Somebody goes into academics Somebody goes into politics Somebody goes into critical theology Or whatever They will go deep and that is fine That is what their interest is But if they start bringing that into the mainstream Krishna consciousness movement And the mainstream Krishna consciousness movement Instead of discussing Krishna katha They start discussing politics katha Then that is not good But if somebody is going deep into that field With The intention of trying to spiritualize that field That is perfectly fine But that has to be done carefully Usually this kind of penetration into a particular field Needs to be done under the guidance of senior devotees Some senior devotees Who is wise and realized So that they can make sure that People don’t go too much Too off track But this whole idea of penetration Into the world That is one very important way in which Our movement will grow So If we are going to a scientific conference And then We are discussing about how say Universe came about Then we can’t just tell them chant Hare Krishna and leave They have to talk in their language And talk in their language means We have to learn their language, we have to study For hours, sometimes years, decades So that’s fine So if somebody Is able to see Krishna in a particular field And is trying to spiritualize that field That’s okay But if others They don’t have that much interest They don’t have that much inspiration They don’t have that much realization Of Krishna’s presence in that field Others may not be able to see that So devotees need to be given room to practice what they are doing But devotees also, those who are given that room They shouldn’t impose that on others And make everyone else do the same things So the core practice of bhakti Is what our movement should be primarily doing And along with that Individual devotees according to their inspiration May diversify into other fields Where they become both Specialized in that field And also bring Krishna into that field Does that answer your question?