Hare Krishna Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
We are so glad seeing your reply Maharaj (for a second, I thought what is this feeling as if I got a big promotion and is this much I'm waiting to see your reply. For not seeing your reply for couple days I thought so many things, may be my letter is missing or something, how poor the mind is think and how much anxiety I have).
And thanks for the "tip" and I'm trying to make sure my rounds will be finished ASAP before anything.
I heard your lecture on "cultivating human spirit" and I have a question (Please pardon my ignorance).
How "Karma" is in relates "quota" that you explained in the lecture. If a person is rich and still getting rich, is it because of his past Karma that, Krishna is providing him more and more and on the other hand a person is "lazy/ignorant" and not earning much and becoming poor.
In this situation "how the quota" works? Is this where we use our intelligence to draw a line to say "this is enough" or because you have the ability to earn more (due to the past karma) and use that in the service of Krishna.
Then anothe question pops-up, Do we earn enough (as per the necessity) and spend more time on Krishna service directly (more of a personal growth, reading more sastras, more rounds of chanting etc.) or earn more and help to Krishna's service (indirectly, charities, organizing things, book distributions etc) and bring more people to Krishna (less personal growth and more society growth).
I personally beleive "everyone is special in Krishna's view and given certain talent to serve "Krishna" in his own way", but knowing that talent and using it for Krishna is the main difficult part.
Am I wrong Maharaj? Am I proud? Please pardon my ignorance and correct me. I have a burning desire to serve Krishna and desparatlely looking for help.
Your Humble Servant
-Srinivasa (from Richmond, VA)
ASA - !!!!!!!!! So, so, so , soooo nice to hear from you Prabhu! AGTSP. You can see from the DTC that we are in Sydney. Your question is really the content of the whole BG, so it is not an easy question to answer in complete detail, but basic principle is that we are getting rich, poor, because of our past karma AND our present efforts.
Now... our present efforts, how much we can change the situation are also dictated by how we used free will in the past.
Eg. You have Karma to make $35,000 this year and that may be COMPLETELY fixed. You can't increase or avoid it, or it maybe that this is weak destiny, to that you can increase it o $50,000 by your effort or only $15,000 will come unless you make some reasonable effort.
It's simple, no? We have free will and we create specific future and also how specifically how much we are DESTINED to have free will.
Of course, when we get connected to the Kings, Krsna, then it becomes a personal thing. At the time of initiation, Durga hands our Account Books to Radha. Our Karma continues, but now is under the supervision of Radharani and She can change it as She sees fit for our Spiritual Advancement, Krsna's service.
O.K???? We are trying to fix tickets pretty soon for September.