How to deal with the emotions and inclinations that take us away from Krishna?

Anwser Podcast

Transcription:
Transcribed by: Keshavgopal Das

Question: How to deal with the emotions and inclinations that take us away from Krishna?

Answer: We can classify our emotions into three categories – devotional, non-devotional and anti-devotional. Devotional means directly connected with Krishna – deity service, devotees, kirtans, scriptures etc. Non-devotional means material things which do not violate the four regulative principles, e.g. attraction towards beautiful natural scenery etc. Emotions which are anti-devotional we need fight strongly against. Those are not conducive the bhakti.

Non-devotional emotions are to be looked as per time, place, and circumstance and see how to process them. Emotions can be expressed or repressed or processed. Processing means analysing emotions. If we have attachment to a material thing which is non-devotional, and we read about it and can come to the conclusion that it is not worth the energy. Sometimes, some emotions may nag us so much that after indulging in it for some time, we may not find them interesting enough and reject them. How these emotions will get processed will vary from person to person. Non-devotional emotions are not as dangerous as anti-devotional. Sometimes non-devotional things can also be used in devotional service. The categorization of devotional and non-devotional is not so black and white. In general, we focus on devotional but manage the non-devotional emotions in a way that they are not disharmonious to devotional. If it becomes harmonious to devotional, that is excellent.

End of transcription.