{"id":117,"date":"2007-05-02T21:02:02","date_gmt":"2007-05-02T21:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=117"},"modified":"2013-10-01T21:10:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T21:10:48","slug":"austerities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/austerities\/","title":{"rendered":"Austerities"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2, 2007<\/span><\/p>\n

Last night we had a interesting discussion about austerities. My
\nunderstanding is that Krishna consciousness is meant to be “joyfully
\nperformed.” In other words, whatever austerities that we may execute should
\nbe done joyfully or happily. For many this appears to be a tall order.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are different motivations that people have for performing austerities.
\nHere are some of them that I can think of:
\n1. Guilt
\n2. Fear (of getting smashed for not doing it)
\n3. material goals (Hiranyakasipu type, desire to be respected, etc.)
\n4. spiritual goals (liberation, spiritual advancement, desire to become
\ndetatched, etc.)
\n5. ritualistically or because of habit-not thinking of the goal or
\nreason for them.
\n6. Love (desire to please someone)<\/span><\/p>\n

Of these different types I have chosen 6 as I find it the most joyful. In
\nfact when austerities are executed in this way, they are no longer
\nausterities in the sense that they are no longer austere. They are life
\ngiving.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes devotees look at my simple diet and comment that it is too
\naustere, but I do not find it austere at all. I had the realization that my
\nbody belongs to Krishna. It does not belong to me for my enjoyment. So as an
\noffering of love for Krishna I would do what was necessary to keep it
\nrunning nicely as long as possible to maximize my service. I don’t think of
\nmy diet in a negative way. If I did, it would make me miserable. Rather I
\nthink of it in a positive joyful way. Then it becomes super enjoyable, more
\nthan all the glubjamons, halavah, pizza, etc that I have imbibed throughout
\nthe years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also the austerities should be performed and guided with intelligence. For
\nexample two days ago it was Lord Nrsimha’s appearance, and I fasted the
\nwhole day up to dusk. I had no problem doing this. But, after the mid day I
\nfound that I unable to focus my mind or eyes well (because of the fasting),
\nso I was not able to perform much service. As the day wore on I physically
\nbecame weaker and weaker and finally when it was time for the evening
\nservice, I could barely stand to perform my part of the abhiseka, and after
\nI was finished I had to sit down feeling exhausted being unable to continue
\nor participate in the aroti ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I decided that from now on, if necessary I would take fruit during the
\nday during these long fasts, so that I could serve Srila Prabhupada
\neffectively. Of course some may criticize me for this. The tendency to feel
\nguilty about this may also be there. Or the tendency to be scared (maybe
\nLord Nrsimha will rip me to shreds for this).<\/span><\/p>\n

But, I understand that Krishna is a person, and He knows my intention and my
\nheart. Therefore there is no guilt or fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

We really need to understand what motivates us, and how other people are
\nattempting to motivate us. Sometimes people attempt to motivate us by guilt,
\nfear, shame, denigration. If succumb to this, we will be miserable.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example 2 days ago I received a letter from a Godbrother who was
\nattempting to motivate me to do what he wanted. He replied to my statements
\nin such a way as to appeal to guilt, using negative psychology. His method
\nof attempting to motivate me was ineffective and manipulative (especially in
\nregard to my rebellious self!). It would have been more productive had he
\ntried to understand me first and had he explained why he was thinking the
\nway he was.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an institution sometimes we are stirred into actions simply by unthinking
\nobedience to an authority. Prabhupada did not want us to be blind followers,
\nbut wanted independently thoughtful people who consciously chose to do
\nthings to serve Krishna. These are the sorts of people who can become
\nleaders. Prabhupada wanted leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prabhupada appreciated Tamal Krishna Maharaja immensely because of this
\nquality. Ultimately he was submissive to Prabhupada but not in a blind way.
\nHe interacted with Srila Prabhupada in a very mature fashion and that is why
\nPrabhupada called for him to ask him for advice sometimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was reading a sociological text. In this text the author was talking about
\nhow sometimes we slip into the mode of blind obedience to an authority, and
\nin this mode we may do things that are even contrary to our personal moral
\nprinciples. He calls this the Agentic state, that is the state when we lose
\nour own moral compass and simply become the agent for a larger process or
\nmachine. We don’t want to slip into that state if we wish to be joyful in
\nour Krishna consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is my firm belief that the structure of our society has to be changed so
\nthat the tendency to manifest a domination culture is replaced with life
\ngiving enthusiastic voluntary serving culture. Until that time we will not
\nexperience the true joyfulness of Krishna conscious, nor will we be fully
\nempowered to carry out the great mission that Srila Prabhupada has given us.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I remember tomorrow I would like to write about overcoming old age, an
\ninteresting topic.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2, 2007 Last night we had a interesting discussion about austerities. My understanding is that Krishna consciousness is meant to be “joyfully performed.” In other words, whatever austerities that we may execute should be done joyfully or happily. For many this appears to be a tall order. There are different motivations that people have read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}