Without Guru's Guidance We Are Lost

The Vedic scriptures implore us that if we want real knowledge, real happiness, and deliverance from the cycle of birth and death we must take shelter of the bona fide spiritual master. It is not optional. It compulsory. The bona fide spiritual master is described in the Srimad Bhagavatam as that person who has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is thus able to convince others of those conclusions. Without such a bona fide spiritual master we are hopelessly lost in the cycle of birth death. And if we follow strictly that bona fide spiritual master, this will be our last lifetime in the material world. Upon leaving our present bodies by his divine grace we will go back to home, back to Godhead.

Revealing the Highest Truth on 7 June 2012
Sathya Sai Baba Temple-Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Stuck in an Occupational Rut

I have been searching for almost half my life (17 years) for a financially viable, interesting and tolerable profession or job well suited to my nature all to no avail no matter what I do or how hard or how many avenues I try to go down. Something comes along or doesn't come along to sabotage it and it ends up not working out for one reason or another or no obvious reason at all. Sometimes it is my fault and other times it's due to unforeseeable and unfortunate external circumstances beyond my immediate control. Is this seemingly futile and never ending quest for a good job primarily the effects of bad actions from previous lives? I have no other explanation as to why this heavy black cloud won't lift off my life. Is our health/wealth/finances and relationships already fixed up and predetermined with little or nothing that we can do about it? How can becoming Krishna conscious transcend the undesirable fruits of past actions in this present life and help us to tolerate it in a serene and confident mood?

Hare Krishna

Eric

Answer: Transcendentalize Your Rut

You are feeling stuck in an occupational rut. Because this material world is not our actual home, anyone who has philosophical integrity like your good self will realize that no material occupation can itself bring satisfaction to the self. Only a fool will imagine that material life gives real happiness. Thus the only way you will find real satisfaction is to transcendentalize your job rut. In other words, accept whatever material occupation is available and most suitable to your nature, even if it is not perfect, and then concentrate your full attention on awakening your dormant Krishna consciousness. In other words, no job can make you happy, even the so-called ideal job. The only thing that can make you happy is to tolerate your job and offer your life to Krishna.

In this connection it is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.8:

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
śrama eva hi kevalam

"The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead."

In order to follow this profound instruction from the Srimad Bhagavatam you should do your job as on offering to Krishna by spending your income on a purely Krishna conscious lifestyle for yourself and by donating whatever extra income you have to the preachers of the Krishna consciousness movement to assist them in their world deliverance mission. In this way your job rut will become mystically transformed into bhakti yoga and amazingly become a means of deepening and enhancing your blissful ever-expanding Krishna consciousness.

And above all, if you will continue chanting Hare Krishna whether you are in distress or in happiness, you will discover great peace of mind and satisfaction within your heart by reviving your lost eternal relationship with Krishna as His servant.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari