Guidance of Guru and Vaiṣṇavas is essential. The thing is that we should decide: whatever we do we should do to please Kṛṣṇa. If you are chanting, remembering, and doing bhakti, but there is a desire to have some wealth, then it may (externally) be bhakti—but by constitution it is not bhakti. Whatever you do you should do to please Kṛṣṇa. If you are taking something and thinking, “I am eating.” For whom? For me. Then it is not bhakti. If you are giving to your children and you think, “I am happy that my boy is supported and nourished,” (this is not bhakti); but if Draupadī is giving milk to her child, then this is bhakti. If you are taking anything—fruits or anything—thinking that I will be very strong, then it is not bhakti. But if you are taking and thinking, “I may be strong and serve my Gurudeva; and I will chant more and do more bhakti,” then it is bhakti. Not uttamā-bhakti, it will still need to be reformed, but it is bhakti.
December 02, 2000 Germany