hare krishna to all devotee,
i m a student and since last year m regularly doing 16 rounds without any gape result of this i feel more interest in PRABHUPAD BOOKS, VIDEOS, SANKIRTAN RADIO and all.......my heart force me to this side......but my mind force me to study my syllabus BOOKS..... i know both are important for me but m not able how to manage my life? i feel more interest in spiritual books and due to this i lost my interest in syllabus books
plz help me.....
ur servant
Replies
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
What you have described is the most common side effect of getting into spirituality. Pls understand few things:
1) Arjuna was a grihasta, a kshatriya before he heard the Gita and also after. He did not change his status and position just because he got the highest knowledge, that too from God Himself. What he changed was merely his consciousness - this is an internal change and thats why the most difficult.
Its very easy for us to change our externals - take bead bag, wear devotee dress, kanthi mala, renounce our prescribed duty and move around thinking of oneself a devotee, soon the most renounced devotee and soon, thinking everyone else to be fallen souls who have not understood the message properly. I am not criticising you prabhu, I am merely stating that is has happened to scores of people before you. So learn from them and do not make the same mistake.
We have to change internally - we have to crave for company of devotees, and do devotional activities in their company. We have to crave for Krsna's attention, and to the extent of our surrender, we will get reciprocation from Krsna in terms of right direction at the right time.
Right now you are a student - it is your prescribed duty to study. The same studies you can do as if your life depends on it, or as if it is timepass, when there is nothing else to do, then you study for a few hours or as a service to Krsna. You can study thinking that your studying is pleasing to Krsna because you are doing your prescribed duty , so you will study with due diligence. This means that you will not hanker after marks or be jealous of fellow students who got more marks than you.
THis also means that you will not waste your time with friends - just to please them, you will go with them when they go drinking or smoking. It means that you will study and do sadhana. Believe me, there is enough time in a day for both and for one to excel in both.
If you do well in studies, you will become a brand ambassador of Krsna - that see how nicely a devotee of Krsna does materially also and people will get attracted to Krsna Consciousness. Parents will give children your example - see, this person doesnt waste his time, he studies and prays - what an ideal son. Your parents will be proud of you. All this - by doing your prescribed duty of studying. This way, not only Krsna, but the whole world will be pleased with you.
I hope I have made some sense to you.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
thank u so much mataji for such words and show me right path
hare krishna
hare krishna prabhu...
ur question is most common with all those students who are interested on spiritual path.even i was one among them till last year ,but i found a solution for it for my self, seriously i tell u.. journey of self discovery is biggest thing that can happen in ur life.
generally what happens parents and others like friends and relatives wont support us taking the spiritual path and it is not as it is for everyone...some parents do support. they worry because they are concerned about us .coming to managing the our material lives, it is an easy thing,only thing is that we should know about giving priority for the things. education is more important than anything which is our dharma(dharma means the right work at right time)in a student life.even god will be happy when we carry out our student dharma.
love krishna and his words which are explained by srila prabhupada, der is nothing wrong in it. above all these things what krishna said is "DHARMO RAKSHATI RAKSHITHAHA"hopefully u r understanding what im telling.studying spiritual books is a good thing but don stop der, try to implement in ur gained spiritual knowledge in ur material life i.e., for ur studies.
if good has given us 24hrs in that spend 18hrs on ur syllabus and 1 hour for ur spiritual path and rest of the time for ur self and ur family. i know u r feeling weird seeing this. y said 18hrs for syllabus books and only 1 hour for spiritual is because u need to give more attention and support for those things which need more effort and energy to strengthnize those parts in ur life. for example , if we are building a house we construct coloumn or pillars for support right ,so we do pay more attention on those pillars because if they are not built properly the house may not last long for many days,now u r understanding rite.
spirituality is already in us,only thing is that u need a rite amount sunshine which is called ur education ,when these both are together no one can stop u. u study gita,bagwatam,ramayan...etc., in proper way , take out the essence out of it and understand the meaning which is required for ur life.because they are guide and rule books for our lives. so, keeping them into consideration and taking them as reference u should concentrate on ur studies.
der is no question of selfishness thinking like this, because god has given u this life to make it better than the previous one.. no one should have regrets further ,neither u nor ur parents . once for all if we are good and upto date with our academics no one will stop us walking towards the path of spirituality. u know what krishna will become still closer towards u and he will be ur best friend , its my own experience. because i lost 3 full academic years in my life.i know how valuable it is. and in these 3 yrs krishna became so close to me,i never ever thought some thing would happen with me in this life,he has cleaned all the cobwebs in my mind and took me out a very big puzzle of life and im leading a awesum life at his lotus feet .
academic studies are important for now in at present along with the spiritual studies.spirituality needs only affection and love ,interest towards it and i tell u , it will give u the ulimate and absolute knowledge but academics studies needs love, affection ,interest and it need ur attention it wants u to sit before and experience it, and im sure it gives it 100% for u because it starts loving u and u do love it as well.
this is my experience and opinion as well as suggestion,chanting the holy name is a good and sacred thing but leaving all our prescribed duties by krishna . and just chanting his holy name wont work out.for example, if u just light a lamp in the mid city and pray krishna to save the lamp has no meaning,instead light the lamp under a roof and safeguard it by keeping bricks so that it will light beautifully, which is making sense. material life looks good wen spirituality roofs ur material life and spiritual life in u looks gud wen ur material life is balanced by using the spiritual knowledge gained in ur material life.
this my opinion and experienced suggestion,hopefully i answered it in a useful way.if u have and more quires u can mail me to vinayvanamali@gmail.com .
===================================HARE KRISHNA===================================================
thank u so much vinay prabhu ji its help me lot
hare krishna
Very Nice and effective reply by Vinay Prabhuji.