Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In one of the discussions with devotees on 2nd Oct 2009 in Sri Sri Radha-Neelmadhav dham Rajkot, our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj gave a few thunderbolt like instructions about how we should balance our work and devotion. We would like to share some of the salient points here in this offering.
1. In working hours we should never open our mouth for non-official activities. Commitment means doing only official work. Don't disturb each other in the office time.
2. Real devotional service means till we are in this world, the flow of lakshmi must be continuous.
3. The income must be very pure. ie., we must be very honest in our job. The way we bring money, our family will be trained accordingly.
4. Those who are simple, they do not hanker for large incomes; they are satisfied with small income. Hankering means kali yuga.
5. Our present income is the result of previous life's good work.
6. The money that does not belong to you, you can never spend. If the money lies in the bank, it reduces automatically.
7. We have enough anxieties on our plate. Don't increase the anxieties by increasing your demand.
8. Even if we are millionaires, we cannot change the material laws. If we eat rasagulla, rasagulla does not come out.
9. Don't disturb anybody, anywhere illegally.
10. By our own disqualification we are thrown out of Krishna's kingdom. No one else is responsible.
11. To reduce envy we should remember our last day.
12. Don't be conscious of being a devotee.
13. Our eagerness should be only for sincere devotional service.
14. Srimad Bhagavatam will save us from spiritual bankruptcy. Chanting is actually talking with Krishna. So please chant the holy names and study Srimad Bhagavatam sincerely and seriously.
* * *
There were a couple of points which were rather crisp and many devotees had written asking for more clarification. I thought that it is better to share the explanation of Maharaj from the lecture itself that can throw light on these points.
1. Real devotional service means till we are in this world, the flow of lakshmi must be continuous.
[Maharaj said]: Please go on working very hard. First duty of the hearer is that you have to be immaculate in your earning job. You do whatever is required at the office. Don't disturb each other in the office time. Mobile should be switched off so that you are not disturbed. Our whole existence of discussing these things (Bhagavat-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam) depend upon the continuous flow of lakshmi. Nobody can change this. If we do not have lakshmi, we cannot go on. The source on which we depend upon, should not be mishandled. That is our attachment to the job. Once your age is mature, then you can worry about the money you are getting. In your young age, don't play around in the job. Less salary or more salary, doesn't matter. These are binding legal attachment with the company.
Unless you have sufficient money to fall upon, you should not leave your job. All the prices are going up, the price of gold is going up and to that extent the dal, rice and other things are also rising up. Suppose you have 10 lakhs of rupees, the income from the 10 lakhs is not sufficient now. We are in a very precarious situation.
No doubt attachment is bad, but some attachment should be there for the work, otherwise nobody will work. If you can leave everything and completely depend upon Krishna, they you can behave in anyway. No need for office and these things. You can do preaching and other services full time. But those souls are very rare. Those who renounce prematurely, they do not have natural renunciation. They will be in difficulty again.
Real devotional service means, till we are sitting in the material world, our flow of lakshmi must be continuous. (Maharaj points to himself and says), What to speak of others, even we also require lakshmi. The day dawns and we have to spend 2000-3000 Rs a day in the temple. Some of the devotees are helping, otherwise we cannot function at all. If we require this much amount, how much you will require? Children education is there, you have to buy clothes for them. Wife is there, sarees, punjabi dresses, you have to buy so many things. You can't tell that I don't want money. So everything depends upon the flow of income. You will be useless if you lose the job, unless you are really renounced. If you are really renounced then you don't have any worry. Nothing will bind you. But others having family responsibilities should not imitate renunciation.
[Maharaj would always make this famous point, "Constant flow of lakshmi keeps us in the mode of goodness." He would say that if the income is regular, then we do not have to worry about the monthly expenses like phone bills, electricity bills, house rent, food etc. When these anxieties are not there, we will be able to chant and study Bhagavat-gita and Bhagavatam peacefully. He would always advice us, "Arrange your things and be happy"].
2. Don't be conscious of being a devotee.
[In the lecture, One of the devotees asked the question, "How do we conduct ourselves as a devotee in the office?" and Maharaj replied]: We should be normal. Devotees are not abnormal. Don't be conscious that you are a devotee (laughter). Unnecessarily we are proud, "Hey I am a devotee"! But actually we are not devotee, we are proud. Our svabhava, natural constitutional position is to be a devotee. So you are not doing anything special by becoming a devotee. For your own comfort you are being a devotee. To go to the mother is not an effort for us. So how can 'being a devotee' is an effort for us? So why should you be proud of it?
* * *
We have to follow the office etiquettes, our human etiquettes. In those days nobody was looking at each other's property, they were working quite nicely. Corruption was not there that much. Everything was running very smoothly. Now the things are very bad because there are no values. Nobody knows what is the goal of existence. The needs are there. We have to buy the house, we have to buy the land, it is so costly. Plenty of money is required. In that, again, you have to purify yourself, you have to be austere and then you try to again think to whom you are telling what. That is a real test of our conduct - whatever we have learned from Prabhupada and whatever we have heard about him. With all these combined, we should try to hammer out the practical points and find the formula for our benefit and other's benefit. Nobody should be disturbed. The work must go on without hindrance.
The management is watching. If you are not working properly, they will warn you. If you don't change, then they will change you and replace with another person. In India it is very bad. They don't say anything. If they frankly speak, we can change ourself. But they will not speak. They will just remove without any reason. It is all enviousness. They will bite without any reason. That is nishkaaranam vairino bhavanti.
mrga meena sajjanaanaam / trna jala santosha vihita vrttinaam
lubhdhaka dheevara pishunaam / nishkaaranam vairino bhavanti
lubhdhaka dheevara pishunaam / nishkaaranam vairino bhavanti
mrga meena sajjanaanaam trna jala santosha vihita vrttinaam. mrga means deer. meena means fish. and sajjanaanaam means 'good people - sadhu'. What they want? trna - grass. Deer wants a bit of grass. It is not between anybody. Fish wants jala - a little water and sajjanaanaam, they want santosh - satisfaction. With very little things they are satisfied. santosha vihita vrttinaam. This is their vrtti. They don't come in between anybody. The deer is eating grass, fish a little water and sajjana they are satisfied. They don't want to trouble anybody. But still there are unnecessary enemies to them. In the second line, three enemies are given. Lubdhaka means hunter. Hunter comes and kills the deer. There is no need of it. The deer is not troubling the hunter at all. He sees that the deer is very peacefully eating grass and shoots it. Then the fisherman (dheevara) puts the net and catches the nirdosh fish. There is no need of that. They are just moving in the water and he catches them. And pishunaam means bad people. When some good man is satisfied, they are not happy to see that. They start troubling him. Either they try to rob him or fight with him. nishkaaranam vairino bhavati. Without any reason vairino, they become enemies. All these 3 living entities, they are peacefully doing everything. But these 3 people without any reason become their enemies. And this is our position. In work also, you please remember always, your enemies are there. They don't like that you are earning so much money peacefully. Please be careful about these things. Without any reason they can become enemies. If they find out some reason, definitely they will become enemies and harm you. The first lesson of the spiritual thing is that you have to be immaculately awake to do your own duties. And therein we go wrong. We are misdirected and under the name of the spiritual thing, we become lethargic. That is not allowed at all.
We have to be careful. Nobody likes that you are earning. They enjoy when you are out of the job. People really enjoy. They say that, "Very bad you are not having job. I pray that you get a job", and they pray exactly the opposite. Envious nature is there. Because of that we are away from Krishna. If there is no envy, really there is no way we can forget Krishna. Under different pretext we are very envious.
To conclude we can remember the following few lines of Maharaj's favourite rhymes composed by our god-brother H G Atmaprasad Prabhuji,
If something's due tomorrow, finish it today.
And whatever's due today, do it now and don't delay.
And whatever's due today, do it now and don't delay.
Your friends might be lazy or doing bad things.
But you think again, don't follow them and you'll win in the end.
But you think again, don't follow them and you'll win in the end.
Whatever work we are given, we do our very best.
And we only live with what we need and give Krishna the rest.
And we only live with what we need and give Krishna the rest.
This is how to live, to work and to play.
If you learn to live this way, you'll see Krishna every day.
If you learn to live this way, you'll see Krishna every day.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das.
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