Hare Krishna all,
PAMHO!
ALL GLORIES TO SRILA PRABHUPADA AND GURUDEV!
In my view one should progress materially as well to an extent which doesnt effect his/her devotional life. We can speak of many things but it is difficult to do sadhana with all the responsibilities to be taken care of around us. People are struggling to survive and to come to settlement in life that doesnt mean they are greedy or lusty for wealth.Every individual is inclined to certain things in life and not every one is devotional or he may be devotional in his own way does that mean he is karmi ? In everyone there is paramatma and why we should bycott someone only because he is not devotee or not following acharyas, Does love towards god is bound to rules and regulations? Even if someone is praying to demigod and not aware of krishna does that mean we shouldnt associate with him ?
I found after become devotee sometimes we feel that we may get contaminated by non-devotee associaton but actually speaking for me devotion is something very personal and is like love between mother and child which is not effected even though we associate with many people in life. Please forgive me if iam wrong in any way.
Servant of your servant
Aakash
Replies
Hare Krishna dear Devotees, please accept my humble obeisances! all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Devotee can earn money but first priority should be given to the Holy Names. If we have enough time for chanting and also taking proper rest for chanting and visiting Devotees and Temple then our job is beneficial to our sadhana.
But if one works on the place of chanting or reading then it is a life of an ass.
We get as much as it is predicted. If one's destiny is to become rich then he will become rich easily. But if can not become rich easily than one should not lament but try to be satisfied.
But one who is favored by Mother Lakshmi just because Mother Lakshmi hopes that Her servant will share the wealth with people who need money like Brahmanas who are busy with gaining and distributing knowledge full time. But one should not think that Brahmanas depend on our money. No. They can survive even with collecting some grains, they took this pass not because of so called easy life but because they understood the importance of Krishna Consciousness and they do not want to spend a tinge of a moment for other things rather than serving to Lord by chanting and helping others to chant.
Your servant,
-----------------
Hare Krsna,
His divine grace, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has given explanations on these topics in several books such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam and other smaller separate books. The topics of work for different motives is especially well explained in Bhagavad Gita.
From the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3:
"Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work."
From Srimad Bhagavatam:
In other Puranas there are different methods set forth by which one can worship the demigods
"The Puranas are also supplementary to the Vedas. The Vedic mantras
are too difficult for an ordinary man. Women, sudras and the so-called
twice-born higher castes are unable to penetrate into the sense of the
Vedas. And thus the Mahabharata as well as the Puranas are made easy to
explain the truths of the Vedas.
However, the Puranas are supplementary explanations of the Vedas intended for
different types of men. All men are not equal. There are men who are
conducted by the mode of goodness, others who are under the mode of
passion and others who are under the mode of ignorance. The Puranas are
so divided that any class of men can take advantage of them and gradually
regain their lost position and get out of the hard struggle for existence."
From the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"Not finding any remedy, she said to her son: My dear son, don't wish for anything inauspicious for others. Anyone who inflicts pains upon others suffers himself from that pain."
"The material world is full of envious people. Even within one's inner circle
there is much backbiting, and this is compared to the sound vibration of
a cricket in the forest. One cannot see the cricket, but one bears its
sounds and thus becomes aggrieved. When one takes to Krsna consciousness,
one always hears unpalatable words from relatives. This is the nature of
the world; one cannot avoid mental distress due to the backbiting of
envious people. Being very much aggrieved, sometimes one goes to a sinful
person for help, but he has no means to help because he has no
intelligence. Thus the living entity is disappointed. This is like
running after a mirage in the desert in an effort to find water."
From the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"Association with devotees is recommended by all the sastras because by even a moment of such association one can receive the seed for all perfection." In the beginning of his life Ajamila was certainly very pure, and he associated with devotees and brahmanas; because of that pious activity, even though he was fallen, he was inspired to name his
son Narayana."
“Ajamila was a resident of Kanyakubja (the modern Kanauj). He was trained by his parents to become a perfect brahmana by studying the Vedas and following the regulative principles, but because of his past, this youthful brahmana was somehow attracted by a prostitute, and because of her association he became most fallen and abandoned all regulative principles.”
If you have more questions, please post them. Or if you do not understand some of the above statements
please let me know.
Hari Bol,
Hare Krishna, Prabhuji !!Each person is devotional in his own way, but the question his whether his devotion is leading him to the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the ultimate goal of life. A materialistic person is devoted to Kubera or Lakshmi, but a Krishna conscious person knows very well that Krishna is the cause of all causes and all demigods are under his control. So, we shouldn't associate with such persons who worship demigods for fulfilling their own lust. Our position is 'krishnar nitya das'(Krishna's eternal servant). Our duty is to render service unto the Lord. Krishna Himself says, those who worship demigods will go to their planets(Prabhupada says, they will again have to come back to the material world and practice KC until they are transferred to Goloka, as Krishna confirms in Bhagavad Gita, those who will come to my abode will never fall). So we must see, whether the person is properly situated in his constitutional position i.e. whether he really considers himself to be a servant of Krishna. If he is worshiping some other demigod, he is simply wasting his time as the goal of life is perfection and awakening pure love for Krishna is perfection. So we shouldn't associate with these foolish persons. Only vaishnava-sanga.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to srila Prabhupada
Material progress is very much appreciated when it helps us to progress in Devotional life.
It is true that after tasting the transendental taste of devotional service in association with devotees when we mix with non-devotees mainly people with passion and ignorance it is obvious to feel contaminated and polluted. This happens because we got a taste of something higher more pleasurable to our heart. suppose we are habituated to travel in AC compartment of train always but suddenly we had to travel in a NON-AC compartment then we would naturally feel exhausted and anger would come out all of a sudden.
when the above kind of situation happens our mind started thinking is there something wrong ? mind ask us "is not you somewhat became lost from the genral environment? " mind make us to think like this due to past conditioning as we used to be like that before coming in devotional life. So in this kind of situation if we hear our mind then we will again loose our purity and would back to our previous state.
In the beginning of devotional life it is needed to maintain some distance from Non_devotees else we don't have that power to progress. when one become jivan-mukta even the material association , environment become spiritual for him and he deals with all situation very smoothly. So as long as we are in family life we must try to learn communicate with every one in a spiritual way, there is no problem to talk with non-devotees for sometime if there is no bogus talk of wine,woman and money else we should reject that kind of association.
we attract or attracted by only those kind of association whos consciousness is like us. so when we are attracted by materialistic peoples and talks then we sould know that we have fallen from goodness to passion and ignorance. It ruins our devotional service and ultimate goal.
we should try to acquire as much as we need to maintain our family well and not strive for excess that would be use for luxury. Also we should respect/honour the non-devotees as well because hatred would not work and same time always we have to keep in mind that we are not getting infected by their way of thinking else our goal will never be reached.
Your aspiring servant ....
Hari Bol...