A sincere devotee can never give the excuse of helplessness by HG Vrajanath Pr

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A sincere devotee can never give the excuse of helplessness
1. So many questions are asked in every ISKCON class. Answers are given, still we keep asking the same questions.
2. Helplessness – the feeling of being unable to take care of oneself or do things without the help of others.
3. Excuse - A good reason that is given for doing something that one wants to do for other reasons.

Excuse – Lack of desire
1. When we fall sick, we are miserable. But there is some part of us which is happy – I don’t have to go to school, I don’t have to go to office. I don’t have to get up for early morning japa.
2. I have no desire to do these things, but I can’t openly express it without being ridiculed. I also have an opposite desire of appearing sincere (student, employee or sadhaka).
3. Therefore, when excuses come in our life, we happily grab them.
4. We have to check our default setting – whether it is to enjoy or to serve.
5. When we want to do something. We ask – “Why should I not do it?”. When we want to avoid something, we ask “Why should I do it?” Both questions mean my default setting is to listen to my mind. Give me a good reason not to follow my mind. If the reason convinces me of a greater material loss, only then do I change my default path of sense gratification.
6. We feel miserable only when we know that following a certain path will give me more material misery, but still helplessly do it. Eg – procrastination, bad habits, laziness etc.
7. Our feeling of helplessness and misery only pertains to material gains.
8. We never feel helpless not being able to listen to our japa. We feel helpless only when there is no taste (enjoyment) in japa. A devotee should feel happy if he is able to listen to his japa attentively, even if it is without taste and with a lot of endeavour.
9. While an employee may feel happy that he doesn’t have to come to work due to sickness, a shopkeeper or a businessman doesn’t feel happy. He will try his best to go. KC is our family business (Vaisesika prabhu mentions this in the context of distributing SP books), but it may refer to our sadhana, seva, following the instructions and everything related to KC.
10. When someone wants but is not able to do something, even if the reason is genuine, he feels a loss. Similarly, we have to check, do I regret not being able to chant my rounds in the morning? If I have given shallow excuse like “Neend nahi khulti”, then there will be no regret. Because I don’t value it.
11. When we have done something wrong to others helplessly, do we feel regret.
12. Revenge is also an excuse. “Usne bhi to kiya tha”. What is my desire – to feel the illusory happiness which the revenge gives me. I should rather have the spiritual desire to please Krishna, then it is easy to forgive.
13. Taking breaks in our japa may be needed, especially by housewives, but do I regret it. Do I feel that these breaks are disturbing my japa. Can I do something to stop these breaks? Or I feel that it is just an opportunity to do multi-tasking, anyways I just have to mutter the Holy Names.
14. We only focus on uttering the words, we forget about respecting the Holy Names with all our attention.
15. Summary – “Watch our desires”. There should be regret.

Helplessness – Lack of endeavour, lack of responsibility
1. When we get good results – by our endeavour or by luck – we say “I did it.”
2. When we get bad results – due to lack of endeavour – We say “It happened with me.”
3. Doing anything requires hard work. When we are not willing to put that hard work, it means we don’t value that thing. But we want to make a show that is important for us, so we give an excuse – I am helpless.
4. Not able to follow simple instructions – “Oh I don’t understand the technology”, “Oh I am old”. We can’t say these things unless we have spent at least 2-3 hours trying to understand how these things work.
5. Keeping virtual background, blur background, not checking for the display name etc. Very simple things, but the mind doesn’t want to spend those few extra seconds in checking if all these things are in place. We feel disturbed because it interferes with our desire to finish the rounds quickly. It is already a big burden, it will be delayed by a few more seconds.
6. I remember preparing for IIT. Physics book by a Russian author I.E. Irodov was a collection of a few very difficult problems. Many could not solve even 1 problem. I used to keep meditating on every problem for hours. That thin book really helped me go deep into physics.