Question:

Is it possible to be connected with Krishna throughout the day? How to be Krishna conscious even at office while doing our material duty?

Answer:

Sarvam SriKrishnarpanam asthu!!!!

Sarvam SriKrishnarpanam asthuFrom Devi

Amma, namaskaram.

Although ‘Sarvam Sri-Krishnaarpanam astu’ is answer in a nutshell, it is helpful to understand it in some detail. Let me briefly share whatever little I can, and hopefully other members here and our Swamy too will give us all a deeper understanding.

To be connected to Krishna, all our activities must be carried out in a mood of offering to Him. (Bhagavad Gita 9.27). We carry three main misunderstandings which prevent us from acting with the awareness of offering to Him.

1. We expect some result for ourselves from the work. This can be in the form of money, praise, appreciation, recognition, promotion etc. 
2. We think we are the doer, and feel a sense of pride in our ability to do the work. The moment we successfuly complete a code, that too if it works the first time without any bug, we tend feel so elated and proud. We forget that the knowledge, memory, and the ability is given my Him. So, He is the doer and we are merely an instrument.
3. We tend to think ‘this work belongs to me’. In reality, the work belongs to Him.

So, if we can apply ourself to our daily engagements with the awareness that the work belongs to Him, my ability to do the work is given by Him, and the results belong to Him, then we will not be lazy in our work, we will not be proud in our execution, and we will not be affected by so called ‘success’ or ‘failure’ arising out of it.

By practising this, we can be connected to Perumal throughout the day. I am realising it is not easy to practise this. Everytime we fail, we can pray to our acharyan and Perumal to help us work in proper awareness.

And one more important thing. In choosing our work we must avoid those things that are against the interest of Perumal. For example, if there a project to write a program for gambling, it is better to excuse ourselves from the project. If our work is related to distilleries or meat industry, it is better to opt for another job which is not against scriptural prescription.

Thank you very much.

Hopefully others members will add to this to help us understand better and practise better in our daily life.

adiyen dasan.

Thank You so much swamy for giving detailed explanation.

Sri Velukudi Krishnan Swamigal Thiruvadigale Thanjam…..

Amma, let me add a little more. After understanding these three conditions, if we try to direclty practise these it is very difficult! Because, although we theoretically understand that the work belongs to Perumal and we are just an instrument, in reality we forget it in practise. The sense of ownership of work makes us want the result. Wanting a specific result and rejoicing after the result is obtained is because of Rajo gunam. Feeling sad and dejected when we don’t get the desired result is Tamo gunam. We are soaked in this rajo gunam and tamo gunam for millions of births and it pervades all aspects of our life. Even something as simple as sending a txt msg to someone or sending an email to someone, or uploading something to the social media (or even posting something in this forum), our mind is constantly hankering to get a reply or number of views or number of likes. Thus rajo gunam and tamo gunam pervades even tiny aspect of our life!

So, the prescribed method for us to cultivate devotional mood in an ongoing manner is to increase our satva gunam more and more and decrease rajo gunam and tamo gunam. This involves all activities in our life, not just work place. Our eating, sleeping, recreation, charity, sacrifices, austerities we take in life, our faith in different things, our speech, thinking, our knowledge and actions – all these are currently soaked in rajo gunam and tamo gunam. In all these aspects if we cultivate more and more satva gunam, then the devotion in our heart automatically matures, and we can easily apply ourself to doing all things (including office work) as a devotional offering to Perumal.

If you want to know more about satva gunam, rajo gunam and tamo gunam, and how to over come these, please listen to our Swamy’s Bhgavad Gita upanyasams on chapter 14, 17 and some part of chapter 18.

If someone knows any other upanyasam/series where our Swamy discusses the three gunams in a comprehensive manner, please indicate here. Thank you.

adiyen dasan.

Srimate Ramnujaye Namaha!

To add to the ongoing discussion.

Krishna tells Arjuna to remember Him and fight in  8th chapter verse 7.

“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.”

So activities dedicated was easy for Arjuna as it was directly by Krishna’s order and it was to establish a religious society for the pleasure of Krishna. In our case, we have to either offer the results of our work for such positive work or atleast maintain our own family in a religious and spiritual way for the pleasure of Krishna.

Mind and intelligence can be fixed upon Krishna by essentially remembering and following the instructions Krishna has declared in Bhagavat Geeta.

1. As Kambandasan swamy has listed , recognizing the doer, owner of work and owner of result. 
2. Applying the qualities that please Krishna during our interactions with others in work place remembering that this will please Krishna, (Chapter 13 :” “Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity;…..”
   Chapter 12 “One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy,….”)
3. working in moderation with a sense of duty -without like or dislike for a particular task- without attachment or without laziness.
4. Accepting both praise and insults equally without much disturbance to our work progress.
5. Seeing our colleagues also as children (part and parcel) of Krishna.
6. Working in moderation in terms of time spent not too little or not too much that it takes up our time in direct spiritual  endeavors..

There are many more ways to fix the mind and intelligence on Krishna during work.

We can also have/create positive impetus that if i quickly finish task A then i can spend some time in Dharma sandeha forum reading and discussing..:)-

Adiyen

Thank you so much swamy