​Why do some people get facilities for bhakti practice and some don’t?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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things without endeavor then often we may take them for granted so how do we understand, why did we get this or what do we do about this yeah actually just a couple of months ago I was in Singapore and in Singapore Singapore is the only country in the world where ISKCON is officially banned so it is one of the places where we cannot do any object programs we can do programs but not as ISKCON, they have Gita Reading Society so then it struck me that the things which we take so natural over in India they are so difficult in many other parts of the countries so now how is it that we have so much facility to practice bhakti some other people don’t have the facility to practice bhakti, now we can look at a circumstantial reason, oh there the government is inimical or there in the past some people did something because of which the government became hostile or if you go to the middle east you may say that ok middle east or communist China wherever the government is hostile that’s the cause now yes there may be socio-political socio-cultural considerations which may make the atmosphere less or more favorable for the practice of bhakti the important thing is the soul’s relationship with Krishna doesn’t depend on any circumstances so the same circumstances which are hostile can, if the soul is sincere, they can make the soul’s desire for Krishna more intense and so there the devotees may not have any temple where especially in the middle east they don’t have any temple where they can go but then at their home itself they have a temple they worship in that temple with greater devotion and that cannot substitute in absolute sense for the having a proper temple where there are reinstalled deities but still the whatever we have, if we use it or if we absorb ourselves in it Krishna can manifest himself through that so rather than going into the cause now is it that the devotees who are people who are practicing in Singapore they have done some bad karma because of which they got in Singapore and because of which now they are there where they cannot have or in middle east or whatever we don’t have to go into that analysis of past karma our focus should be on what I can do right now because getting into the analysis of past karma is something which is very very judgmental at times now if a person is poor if I am starting this person did bad karma because of which they are poor well then where is my compassion in that where is my sense of beauty where will we stop that the baby is crying, should the mother think oh the baby is crying because of her past karma no the baby is meant to take care of the baby so like that we shouldn’t go too much into the analysis of past karma, that’s the first thing whatever facilities we have if we tend to take them for granted then quite often interacting with devotees who don’t have similar facilities that often helps in appreciating what we have and quite also another thing is that we all have to go through a learning curve some of us may learn by hearing some of us may have to learn by experiencing, it’s best to learn by hearing but it may have to work that sometimes we are transferred somewhere or we have to go somewhere where we don’t have association and then the basic practices become very difficult and then see even without association we can practice bhakti but it’s like Krishna das Kabiraj Goswami compares the association of devotees to a walking stick even without a walking stick one person has a little leg problem, they can walk without a walking stick but it’s much slower and it’s much more insecure any moment they will fall down that’s what happens with us when we don’t have association now progress becomes slower and slower and any moment we may fall there is no protection of association so like that even by contemplation we can gain better appreciation of the gifts that we have and that way if we hear and learn that is the best Ram Singh Krishna thank you very much