Prabhupada 0826 - Our Movement is Transferring that Hard Working to the Business of Krsna



The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972

In the śāstra it is said, "Generally, people in this material world, they are in..., in the rajo-guṇa." Therefore hard-working activities, they take it as pleasure. If some saintly persons do not work, he is engaged in devotional service or meditation or chanting. Sometimes devotional service or meditation or chanting, sometimes it is misunderstood that these people are escaping, because they take it very nice to work very hard. Unless you work very hard, they take it as a process of escaping: "They, they're escaping the social obligation and other obligations by taking to mendicant life and living at the cost of others." So many things. So they like it, to work very hard.

But our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is transferring that hard working to the business of Kṛṣṇa. That tendency for hard working may be utilized. Just like the Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that lust and anger, these are our enemies. Kāma-krodha-lobha-moha-mātsarya. But Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that the kāma also can be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service. Kāmaṁ kṛṣṇa-karmārpane. If one is very much attached to work for Kṛṣṇa, that tendency for the karmīs to work very hard for sense gratification, it can be utilized. It can be... Similarly, 'krodha' bhakta-dveṣi jane. Krodha, anger, is not good, but anger also can be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service. Just like Hanumān, he became angry upon Rāvaṇa for the sake of Lord Rāmacandra, and he set fire in the golden city of Rāvaṇa, Lanka. So that anger was utilized for Lord Rāmacandra's service. He never utilized anger for his personal sense gratification. In this way, everything can be dovetailed in the service of the Lord, and as I was explaining to other, there are six items, how devotional service, pure devotional service, is the only means to attract Kṛṣṇa. To attract Kṛṣṇa you cannot utilize your spirit or jñānīs or yogis. You can attract Kṛṣṇa simply by devotional service. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa says plainly that "Simply by devotional service, one can understand Me." Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. So the activities of the karmīs, when dovetailed in the service of Kṛṣṇa, even by working so hard, our tendency, we can...

Actually, devotional service depends on the main principles, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyam (SB 7.5.23). But within the category of dāsyam,... Just like Hanumān, Hanumānjī: he was engaged in the platform of dāsyam. Arjuna was engaged in the platform of sakhyam. So they were also working very hard. The Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, it was not a place of sitting down very easily and silently. When he was fighting, he was fighting just like a soldier. He took all the duties of a soldier. But it was being fought for Kṛṣṇa. That is the attraction. That is pure devotional service. Kṛṣṇa also gave him certificate: bhakto 'si priyo 'si (BG 4.3). "My dear Arjuna, you are My dear friend and devotee." So by any action, if it is dovetailed for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, that is devotional service, and one can attract Kṛṣṇa, attention of Kṛṣṇa. Attention of Kṛṣṇa can be attracted by pure devotional service, without any personal motive. If it is... And that motive, that order, is received through the disciplic succession of the spiritual master, how Kṛṣṇa will be pleased.