Hare Krishna.
Please accept my humble obeisances.
I am a new member to ISKCON Desire Tree and am a 11th std. student. As you see 11th and 12th std. are the most crucial stages which decides ur future. So now I am totally burdened with both school studies and coachings. My family wishes me to be a Doctor and so I have to cope up with AIPMT coachings too.
I came across Krishna Consiousness when I was in 8th or probably in 9th. I was so much attracted to Krishna that I could not spend even a second without thinking of Krishna. But this material world is so powerful that after about just one and a half month I lost my cherished treasure of Krishna bhakti. Obviously its not the material world but myself to blame to let such a thing happen. After about 1 long year I took to Krishna Consiousness again and am determined to not lose it once again. Well I have to admit that the intensity with which I think of Krishna is far less than that when I was in 9th. I really thank Krishna for showing his mercy on me a second time. Now as I said I am now in a crucial stage in terms of material world. I am afraid that I will lose interest in Krishna Consiousness while concentrating on my studies and coping up with everyone's expectations. This has left me in a fix. As a devotee's word is considered to be that from Krishna himself so please kindly let me know about ur suggestions.
Thank u well in advance.
Hare Krishna.........
Replies
my humble obeisances Pratap Prabhu,
this world is made of such changes: success and failure; gain and loss; happiness and suffering;
one day we will have something, another day we won't have that thing or that person;
one day we will be rich another poor; ...
one day youthful and handsome but later old age...
So many people are trying their best to solve all these problems. But intelligent one should use his life to solve the problem from the root - understand that i am soul; i am here temporarily; my real goal is to go back home to eternal Vaikuntha - place where there is no suffering.
So please continue to perform Your duties honestly Prabhu, for the sake of pleasing Krishna.
Use Your income for serving to Krishna by cooking Prasadam and feeding Devotees and other people; for Deity worship for assisting those who are preaching by giving charities; in this way You will make a nice balance in Your eternal bank account.
In the reality the amount of wealth which we will get in this life is already destined.
No man can take it away from us if some amount of money is destined to be ours. Be they be greedy or so.
But why it is destined? The rule is in this life we earn for the future life. So what we give only that thing we will take to our future life. So what we are getting now is the result of what we gave in the past for right cause.
Your servant,
I really thank u with all my heart. Your attitude towards ur studies has really changed my approach towards studies. Till now I had thought school studies and coaching to be a mere obstacles in my path for gaining love for Krishna. But now because of u I have come to understand that someway or other they will help me to serve Krishna in my later life. I am spending long hours in studies just for Krishna and that is what Krishna wants me to do so. I feel really light after reading ur suggestion and am happy that I joined ISKCON Desire Tree. Thank u Ma'am.
Hare Krishna.
Dear Dean Prabhu,
Please allow me i will say my primitive opinion:
if doctors are maya then may be this IDT also won't be there. Since the admins of this web site are doctos in profession husband and wife. So many years back they started this web site with their money which they get from their job as a doctors. So this means grihastha life - where they use all their wealth for preaching Krishna Consciousness not for sense enjoyment.
Material world is not a maya. It is also Krishna's energy. So Krishna Consciousness means use all Krishna's energies in His service for His pleasure.
We cannot renounce anything, BECAUSE WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING.
Even our bodies are not ours so what TO RENOUNCE?
Education even material we need otherwise how could i use this computer? How could i write some articles?
How could i know English? ...
Even Krishna and Balaram when they were at school they used to learn mathematics, chemistry, martial arts...etc.
Summary: both material and spiritual education is required. Until unless we are in this material world and body we have to feed both: body and soul.
Your servant in serving to Srila Prabhupada!
Hare krsna .. in my case also i have to leave krsna conscious for about 2 years because of my study as well as my family didnt supported me at all. Even they say before the ones who u were associating(sadhus) are bogus and not good people!! ha ha they said and i believed.. but then when i got seriously into it..
Firstly I will start by saying that this is not ideal, this is borne out by the words of Srila Prabhupada that reminds us that to be in a solitary place the mind turns to sex life and money; it’s easy to indulge the mind with out the devotees being around to check worst still if we indulge it by uncontrolled use of TV, IT and other mediums.
So in order to survive with limited association takes a lot of self-discipline and focus; this starts with the very basics if we get the basics right them other things come more naturally; but it need to be worked on daily.
what i did was
1. firstly wake up early which i try to do now also i figured out 6 hour slep is enough so 10 to 4 is sufficeient. then wake up and do some arti like mangal artik, narsimha prayer, and siskastaka prayer that u know .it takes 10 min max in front of radha krsna photo and chant ur fixed round ..(do either 4 or 8 or 12 or 16 rounds..which is standard ones)
2. read BG or any small books of pravupad for at least 10 min that u can do any time .prob after chanting is best.
3. load ur computer, iphone ,i pad, mobile, any electronic gaget wid spritual songs ,photo, videos lecture powerpoint notes so that u can access at any time anywhere..ur parents would not suspect it.There is so much material available, mp3, DVD, classes/lectures/music/art and also an opportunity for ourselves to learn an instrument to play. What better than after a hard day in work driving home listening to some of the amazing music by the devotees or a lovely class? By the time you arrive home the stresses have gone I can almost guarantee this..
4. Social networking/regular spiritual retreats
If we have limited direct association them social networking can keep us connected especially if it does not fall into the category of talking about mundane things but how we best can serve Krishna and how we can approach the problems in life in a more Krishna Consciousness manor.
And making sure that we take as many opportunities to visit and stay at a temple/preaching centre, especially as we see more doing short spiritual retreats to help charge and enthuse devotees. I would say this is not an optional but essential thing even if it means once or twice a year making a long journey it’s so worth it; there is nothing sweeter than direct association with devotees.
Essentially it’s basics, and it’s something that we will always need to keep an eye on; unlike if your in a community of devotees an inaccuracy is picked up on, we have to maintain regular self-checks based not on what we think Krishna Consciousness is about and what standards we think we should or like to maintain. But that we check on the standards set our by the Acharia’s and that standard we should try to maintain.
And I can say it’s hard, isolating and lonely at times for the want of having another devotee to talk too. But if we maintain things nicely we actually gain so much association even if at the time we don’t realize of appreciate it, simply by maintaining the basics in devotional life.
U r right sir. Even I smuggle ebooks of Bhagavat Gita, Krishna book, photos of Krishna in my Laptop. My parents have never opposed to my worshipping Krishna and my vegetaranism. In my whole family, only I am vegetarian and that too from my childhood i.e. before I took up Krishna Consiousness. They had never forced me to have Non-veg. But u c they think that I should spend more time on studies. They even dont know that I have taken up Krishna Consciousness. I was in 8th or 9th the first time when I was attracted to Krishna. At that time I openly preached about his glories to my parents and used to spend more time with Krishna in our Puja Room. They told about my unusual behaviour to others and people began mocking me. I thought I had learnt a very good lesson and stopped all the physical activities involving Krishna. But mentally I always think of him. He is the hero of my soul. No one can stem this Divine tide. Thank u very much Ahijeet sir for ur suggestion.
Hare Krishna.
my humble obeisances Abijeet Prabhu,
Thank You so much for Your intelligent replies! They are soaked with Your own experiences which are very effective to us.
Your servant
I'm also studying in college so here are some things to remember:
1) Wake up early to chant (I don't do this but trust me you want to get up and start your day chanting. I chant later on in the afternoon/evening, but I honestly recommend getting up early. I think I'll start doing that myself)
2) You are not always going to be studying. If you put out time to eat and sleep, you should also put out time to serve Krishna in whatever way possible. For example, if you are walking to class think about Krishna, sing the mahamantra in your mind, think about a pastime of Krishna.
3) Get together with friends who share a similar love for Krishna and preach once a month in your college. I've been trying to do this with my friends, but we are all extremely busy with our respective schedules that we never have the time. Start early on this, the longer you wait, the more difficult it will get.
4) Read the BG (at least one verse) sometime in the day. Ideally I would suggest it after chanting Japa, but at least once a day.
5) Singing the mahamantra is very relaxing. This sort of ties in with #3, but once a month try forming like a Mantra Relaxation Band or something and sing the Mahamantra. Invite people on campus and just soothe your nerves to the beauty and sweetness that is Krishna's names.
Remember, studies are important, but Krishna is also important. You must be able to find some time for Krishna too, even if it's just a minute or two (don't take this literally though, it shouldn't be hard to think of Krishna for more than a few minutes a day). Think of him before eating, sleeping, when you wake up, before class starts, after class starts, walking, sitting, talking. I have a busy schedule myself, but Krishna's always with me, day after day, night after night. Sometimes I sadly have to ignore him when I am studying, but I take a break to sing or have glance at a picture of him. It calms me down, my mind gets less agitated, and I'm able to study even better after.
Thank u very much for ur suggestion my dear friend. It really frightened me to think that I will lose my interest towards Krishna if I concentrate more on studies. But after knowing about ur experience I am at peace that no such think will happen. Ur suggestion will really help me to tackle with my student life. I am assured that Krishna will be always with me no matter what happens. And also I will try to get up early in the morning as u know I am basically a Late riser. Thank u.
Hare Krishna.
Jai ho!
Yes true Radhe Prabhu, waking up early in the morning will bring us up to the mode of goodness.
For that first we need good association of Devotees who also wake up early for chanting.
From them we will get desire and determination.
Your servant,
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