Jayapataka Swami: Well, when you hit the bottom point, you have hit the bottom point. In the Upadeśāmṛta there is a recommendation that one should have the association of devotees. And that you should avoid association of non-devotees. So, it seems that you are in such a situation, that you don’t have control over. So it is difficult to practice devotional service. If you can encourage the people with you to also meditate or chant or something, for an hour or so, then that may be very good. If you cannot do that, then somehow, probably they sleep late. Then you can go to be bed early and get up early and then you chant every morning when they are sleeping. Or you can do your studies, when they wake up. Stay busy that you have less association. The real point of association is to open our heart, hear to other people. Now you want to avoid them because their heart will be filled with non-devotional thoughts. So, somehow or another, spend your time reading. They may consider you as anti-social. Then you can ask them, could you help me understand this? Show some Prabhupāda book. Then they will read it, they will get purified. Or they may say, I don’t have time and go away. So you want to give them association, not take association. And if there is time, you can use your phone to talk with the devotees. In this way, you can have association with the devotees. I visit many devotees virtually. Actually, to associate with me materially, you have to be quarantined for 14 days. I am always associating with devotees, virtually. So you can associate with devotees virtually. And in this way, there is lot of devotee association. So these are a few things that came to my mind.
18-Nov-2020 ŚRĪ MĀYĀPUR DHAM, INDIA
