Taking on personal responsibility

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, Australia, October 2011)

In the gṛhastha-āśrama we cannot take full advantage of the temple – it’s not possible. Temple devotees they live in the temple and there is a full program, whether they want it or not. For instance, with maṅgala-ārati sometimes they do not want it:

“I hope that there will be no maṅgala-ārati today.”

But it goes on everyday, without fail! That is the nature of the temple. So therefore, in the temple there is so much push to help us to overcome our weakness.

In the gṛhastha-āśrama it is not so. In the gṛhastha-āśrama, one has to take personal responsibility. If a brahmacāri did not go to the maṅgala-ārati for a few days, then he will be chastised and pulled up:

“What’s going on! Pull your socks up!! It cannot go like this! Understood? Or else sanctions will follow!”

But it’s not like that for the gṛhasthas, since they have to do it……..it’s difficult….very difficult, but together it becomes possible. So therefore, between the two of them, one must inspire the other, by setting an example:

‘A competition of who can get up first…..who can get up the earliest – not who can get up the last! And the last one loses! The one who gets up first, wins for the day. Let’s see who is going to win the next day’.

Like that, we must try and invest in our spiritual life!