View source for Why you should give any importance to weakness? Weakness is weakness. Rectify it

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{{terms|"Weakness is weakness. Rectify it"|"Why you should give any importance to weakness"}}
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{{compiler|Visnu Murti}}
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[[Category:Why Should]]
[[Category:Give]]
[[Category:Importance]]
[[Category:Weakness]]
[[Category:Rectify]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="GardenConversationJune231976NewVrindaban_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="157" link="Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban" link_text="Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban">
<div class="heading">Weakness there, you should rectify weakness. Why you should give any importance to weakness? Weakness is weakness. Rectify it.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban|Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Devotee (1): Can one develop determination gradually?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why gradually? When you promise before your spiritual master that no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating, why should you fall down? If you have no determination, why should you promise in presence of the Deity, fire, spiritual master, Vaiṣṇava? Why do you make this farce, if you have no determination? If you want to make it a farce, that depends on you. But you should not.</p>
<p>Devotee (1): When we make that promise...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, you should not fall down, that is determination. That is gentleman's determination, that "I have given my promise. Why shall I fall down?" That is determination. "I must respect promise." That is called dṛḍha-vrata. So he'll success. Where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. But if we want to cheat, that is another thing. If we have no determination, we should not take up this life. Therefore, chance is given that "Stay with us for six months or one year, be determined. Then be initiated." If you are not determined, what is the use of false initiation?</p>
<p>Devotee (1): Sometimes this weakness seems to be...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Weakness there, you should rectify weakness. Why you should give any importance to weakness? Weakness is weakness. Rectify it.</p>
<p>Kulādri: This promise is the minimum determination.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hmm?</p>
<p>Kulādri: This promise of following four regulative principles, chanting sixteen rounds daily, that is the minimum determination. Then, from there, he must increase.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Initiation means minimum, just beginning. That is the dictionary meaning, initiation. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a verse, śraddhā-śabde-viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya, kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya (Cc. Madhya  22.62). Explain. You understand? Śraddhā, śabde, viśvāsa, sudṛḍha, niścaya. Kṛṣṇe, bhakti, kaile, sarva-karma, kṛta, haya.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: The word śraddhā means faith. So by the word faith, we need firm determination or conviction, śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya. Viśvāsa means faith which is sudṛḍha, very..., sudṛḍha, dṛḍha means firm, and sudṛḍha means very firmly. Niścaya. Niścaya is used here also, sa niścayena yoktavyaḥ. Yoga is to be engaged in, applied with firm...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Faith, niścaya means conviction.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: Conviction. Kṛṣṇe...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Bhakti kaile.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: Kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva kṛta-karma.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Sarva-karma kṛta haya.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: Sarva-karma kṛta haya. And if one engages, if one performs service to Kṛṣṇa, then everything else becomes accomplished. Everything else becomes accomplished. If one renders service to Kṛṣṇa, then automatically everything else, one has no obligations to the material world.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Otherwise, why Kṛṣṇa will say sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ([[Vanisource:BG 18.66|BG 18.66]])? Because by that action everything will be done. Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam, that means He is cheating? There are so many other occupations, say veda-dharma, samāja-dharma, brāhmaṇa-dharma, kṣatriya-dharma, medical dharma, lawyer dharma. You can manufacture so many occupations. Dharma means occupational duty. But if you take only one occupational duty, to serve Kṛṣṇa, all things will be included. Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is instruction. So to accept this principle means firm determination, firm conviction: "Yes, if I serve Kṛṣṇa, then all my other duties will be automatically done." This is firm conviction. "By one stroke, I'll kill so many birds."</p>
<p>Kulādri: Anartha-nivṛtti?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hmm?</p>
<p>Kulādri: Rūpa Gosvāmī says bhajana-kriyā and then anārtha-nivṛtti. Then all the unwanted things go away.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: First of all, beginning with kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. So bhakti, beginning is ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga bhajana-kriyā anartha-nivṛttiḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). The material world means simply creating unnecessary duties. Simply anartha. Any material activities, you take, analyze, it is simply useless. Therefore we have called anartha. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Take for example we say no meat-eating. So what is the difficulty there? I have seen in the airplane, they eat meat, a little piece, not a lump. But because everyone is eating little, little, we require huge number of slaughterhouses. But if one decides, "I have got so many preparations to eat, so why shall I eat little meat?" (indistinct) I shall forego. Immediately he is saved from so many sinful activities. It is not that he will die if he does not eat a little piece of meat, he will die. He'll not die. We are not dying, and we don't take. So similarly everyone, without eating meat, he can live very nicely. In the whole principle, there is no difficulty. So on this principle this whole world is merged into sinful activity. (Sanskrit), unnecessary. That is material position-unnecessarily creating trouble. There is no necessity. But on account of ignorance, foolish association, sinful life, more and more and more and more going on. Andhā yathāndhair upagīyamānāḥ. And the deed is encouraged: "Yes, you do this. Enjoy life." What is his enjoyment? If anyone sees slaughterhouse, will he enjoy? Eh? What is...? He visits a slaughterhouse, is it enjoyment? But he takes as enjoyment. (Sanskrit), unnecessary, without any meaning. Mad, just like a madman acts, without any meaning. The monkey acts without any meaning. (Sanskrit), unnecessarily creating disturbance. (Sanskrit) sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then all (Sanskrit) is finished. (Sanskrit) We are no more interested in unnecessary things. Illicit sex—one side they are encouraging contraceptive method, so why they'll not stop illicit sex, then automatically there is contraceptive method? So one side there is encouraged, contraceptive method, another, unlimited, unrestricted sex. This is their civilization. Why not teach him not to practice illicit sex? Then everything is done automatically. There's no need of contraceptive method. If one is trained up to indulge in sex only for begetting nice children, there is already contraceptive method. There is no necessity of unnecessarily producing cats and dogs children. So that requires training, determination. The śāstra says you should not become father if you cannot train up your children to save him from death. Who is the father who's training? To save him from the cycle of birth and death means to make him Kṛṣṇa conscious. So if you are not yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious, how you can train up your children to become Kṛṣṇa conscious? This is determination, that "If I cannot train my children to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and thus avoid the botheration of birth and death, I shall not have sex." That determination will save so many troubles. That can be done by practice. By engaging the mind in Kṛṣṇa, it is possible. The more you advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you'll lose interest in this sex life. In Vaikuṇṭha there is no sex life because the sex pleasure is not the foremost pleasure in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka. The sex pleasure is foremost here in this material world. They have got so much transcendental spiritual pleasure, this sex pleasure—they are astonished: is that pleasure? (Makes spitting sound) Phu! Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhāma... That stage is possible. Still there are so many brahmacārīs. So everything depends on practice. Abhyāsa yoga-yuktena ([[Vanisource:BG 8.8|BG 8.8]]). That requires determination.</p>
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