Guest (2): Prabhupāda? You said in, in the past lecture that, uh, for one who wants to take up bhakti, the work that you're engaged in does not stop. This has been a source of confusion for myself, maybe other people. Could you sort of delineate what it meant by this?
Devotee (1): He said that when you take up bhakti, the work does not stop. So he's confused.
Prabhupāda: No. Bhakti . . . therefore we are defining bhakti. Definition of bhakti, it means,
- anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
- jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
- ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ
- (CC Madhya 19.167)
That is bhakti. Try to understand what is bhakti. You are following me? Or you come here? You come forward? You come forward? Try to understand what is bhakti. Bhakti means we have no other desire than to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna satisfied Kṛṣṇa by fighting, and he became a bhakta.
In the battlefield Arjuna was hesitating, that "What is the use of killing my own . . . own men, my family men, my brothers, my nephews, my grandfather?" all on the other side. And he was to fight with them, fight with them and to kill them. So he was hesitating. He was a warrior, a very great warrior.
He knew that, "I fight, I shall kill them. Although they have come to fight with me, they do not know, but I know. They are my men, so why shall I fight with them? Let them enjoy. I don't want." That was Arjuna's feeling.
But after understanding Bhagavad-gītā, when he came to the understanding it is his duty to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, so he sacrificed his own conviction that he would not kill this men. He satisfied Kṛṣṇa, by the same art. He was a warrior. So he did not change his position.
After reading (hearing) Bhagavad-gītā, he did not become a Vedāntist or went away to Himalaya for yoga practice, and gave up the fighting, battlefield. No. He did not change. But he changed his consciousness. That is wanted.
Our, at the present moment our consciousness is that we are working for our own sense gratification. When this consciousness will be changed, that we have to work for satisfying Kṛṣṇa, then our life is perfect. You haven't got to change your work or position.
But when you understand that you'll have to work not for your personal sense gratification, but for satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, that is success of life. But there is no question of changing your position. Changing your consciousness—that is success.