(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 12 May 2015, Melbourne, Australia, Personal Address)
One who is not a devotee causes disturbance for others and himself. So be a devotee, but how to be a devotee?
Some want to be devotees living in a temple relating to the outside world. Some want to live in the outside world, relating to the temple. Fine, but make it spiritually strong. If home is your base, then make home a sacred place. Make home a place that nourishes you. Put a picture on the wall, a picture of Krsna that you absolutely love! A picture that every time you see it, you go, “Whoa! What a picture!”
It should not be, “Yeah, we are devotees now. We have to put up a Krsna picture.” So we put some Krsna picture, any Krsna picture. No! It must be a picture that you think is really extraordinary! Fill the house with the best!
Get music in the house. Let it be music that each time you hear it, you go, “Wow!” So make the house something extraordinary. Make it such a beautiful holy place that when people come there they will go, “This is amazing!” Don’t just have an altar that is boring. Make it far out!
Prabhupada said to Kirtananda, “When you dress the deity, you should make the deity very, very beautiful. If you make the deity very beautiful, then each time you see the deity, you will forget everything about the beauty of the material world.”
So choose for Krsna and adjust your life around it. You may feel Krsna consciousness difficult to practice but the more you make your home a really inspiring holy place, the more it will nourish you. That is the trick.
And then why just home? Everything. Relationships with people should be based on values of goodness. Bring in sattva guna (goodness) in relationships. Do not build relationships based on raja guna (passion) because raja guna will give you temporary pleasure and then lots of misery. So little by little, transform your whole life.