Question: I heard from Srila Prabhupada’s lecture that if you want God realization, then we need to do austerity. But when I perform austerity, I become niyamagrahi. It gives me false ego and my mind becomes distracted thinking when will I come back to my normal life? So to get rid of this, I avoid extra austerities like taking havisanna, on special months. Will it be another type of sense gratification?

Guru Maharaj: Taking havisanna is not a great austerity. Doing such things are minimal austerities. So we can do some things, we fast on the Krsna Janamastami, on Gaura Purnima, on the day of our spiritual master, until noon, on the guru’s appearance day, and other Visnu tattvas, according to the time and day they appear. So I don’t understand why you think this will be a kind of niyamagraha. Just like tomorrow is Ekadasi so minimum, we don’t take any grains, cereals or pulses. It simply says that if you chant the names of Visnu, Rama, Krsna, Padmanabha, then we get special mercy. So you should chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! We do that anyway. We get all the benefits of the different days, Ekadasi, etc. But new people if they observe Ekadasi, it will be a special awakening for them.
26-Oct-2020  Sridham Mayapur, India