Hare Krishna
I hope I'm not offending anyone by introducing this as a topic, but I'm really confused about this and not sure what to do and have not had time to ask anyone in my immediate network for advice so am putting the question on there on this forum... please forgive me and ignore this if it is distrubing to you in any way.. I'm just confused and trying to sort things out ...
I feel that I may have a problem with internet and am wondering : Is it possible that for some devotees using internet even for vaisnava association might be counterproductive for their spiritual development? I know I have had many years of being addicted to using internet in very unhealthy and obviously harmful ways (I'm sure you can imagine what kinds of things those might be) and have only been completely sober from that for maybe a year. So is it possible that I need to completely surrender my usage of internet to God for some time? I still feel compelled to do things like check facebook every once in a while but I always feel guilty about it after even if it's only for a few minutes. So I'm very confused about what pupose internet has for me other than simply e-mail and banking, and maybe ordering things from Krishna.com. The whole idea of associating with devotees online seems promising to me but in practice I am really unsure as to whether I ought to be, or if I should use my time to focus on inpersonal relationships.
Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you balance online time with much needed interpersonal interaction which I'm sure we would all agree is much more "natural" and more the way Krishna designed us to interact. Curious to know what others think about this... THanks so much in advance.
D.
Replies
Thank you all for excellent ideas - i will restart my efforts to control this. What i realize - though practice is much harder - is KC inspiration, KC news etc is good reading, but i need PRACTICE = serious chanting - so i start again.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji Dandvat! Prabhuji using internet for good & positive things & specially to gain knowledge on spiritualism is not at all harmful. But at the same time if you use the internet and involving on social meadia sites like facebook, twitter & orkut for saying hellow, hi with the material karmi people and for unmeaning chat which is not related to Lord Krishna then I think that is sin. As there are more disadvantage & less advantage of using this social media websites. YES u can use can check ur regular mail id, bank details and other fruitful information on website apart of that you can check the current news, there is no harm but try to stop chatting with material karmi people.
Hare Krishna
Your Humble Servant
Bhuwan Dutt
Haribol I have this problem to an extreme. I am now retired. Too many hours on mayapur.tv and dandavats.com, planetiskcon.com and similar and i procrastinate on needed work (bills, exercise, home etc) till they become urgent. My excuse is i'm doing KC! but i'm ignoring my duty but this good?? KC internet addiction is really causing problems. I don't know how to limit my internet habit! I am begging Krishna's help. So am i using KC only as an excuse to indulge in internet addiction? Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
Hare Krishna dear Devotees, please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Internet or all other things are like a knife.
Knife in the hand of a butcher will harm animals.
But the same knife in the hand of a doctor will remove the disease.
So Internet has good sides also bad.
Good sides:
---it is as like huge library - within few seconds i will find all info which i need. Educational videos; ebooks; blogs; dictionary;
---Connection - easy connection with far distances plus cheaper in price. Emails, social web sites like Facebook...
Bad sides:
---sitting in front of PC many hours is not good for health;
---maybe attractive with intriguing ads, offers so one goes on and on seeing different web sites one after another. So sometimes before opening Internet i write down what things i have to do on net. And use Internet according to that plan.
---wrong association - if we are not careful then we may be involved in wrong associations with wrong people. Sometimes even get attached, or harmed by them...so we have to know people with whom we are talking;
---time consuming - if we do not use Internet with planned purposes we will waste our time by just surfing one thing after another. So better to plan things before.
...
From the beginning of my Krishna Conscious life I was guided by senior Devotees on emails. I was almost alone who was chanting around my area so Devotees helped me a lot through Internet;
Nice preaching; We can reach many people and even sometimes help them; So this side is nice;
Summary:
Internet may save our time and energy IF we use it intelligently according to our plans.
Your servant,
Yes , nice summary. Thank you! _/\_
Yes thank you. I was sensing this already as soon as I posted it. I need to get away from it for a while! I don't know why it was so hard to admit it to myself... anyways, thank you so much for you help.
Hare Krishna _/\_
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
I agree personal interaction is much better than internet interaction and since you hace identified yourself to be a 'net addict', its better to abstain.
However, going to Facebook is not a crime. Dont kill yourself everytime you go to facebook. There are a lot fo facebook pages by devotees and temple run pages, you could visit them also while on Facebook.
Otherwise all of us visit karmi sites like news sites. I do it to stay in touch with the change in times. Otherwise, it is very difficult to relate to the world and there can be absolutely no conversation with a non devotee. Since I am working, I need to interact with people in this world also, so there has to be some conversation. Like a dispassionate observer, the same news items we can relate to our understanding of spirituality and realise that the world is actually dukhalayam ashaswatam.
Do not go to the harmful sites, which you would do earlier. Else, you can use internet also in the service of the lord. Go to gaudiyahistory.com to gather information about devotees, whether gaudiya vaishnava or other, go to youtube to watch videos of lectures, temple openings, abhisheks, kirtanas, deity worship and such things. The same thing which was harming you can be used as an instrument to uplift you spiritually. Internet is the same and it has all the stuff - it is our consciousness that will make us use it gainfully or harmfully.
Therefore, I request you to concentrate on the change in your consciousness that you want to bring about, not in the instrument called internet.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Thank you, this really rings true to me! I feel more sure of what I need to do....
Hare Krishna