26 Oct 2021
[A question by Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya]
Swami Replied:- There is not much difference between will power and confidence. Both these are generally related with ego. One has to be careful about will power and confidence to see that both are not turned into ego and then excess of ego. In Pravrutti, will power, confidence and ego are needed to some extent even though excess of expressed ego is dangerous. In Nivrutti also there are two phases:- 1) Doing God service in the world containing human beings and here, the devotee has to deal with human beings only, which constitute the field of Pravrutti. In this field, while doing propagation of God’s knowledge, will power and confidence are essential, but, ego shall not be expressed. Even if ego comes in mind, since the human being is not omniscient, there is no much danger. 2) Dealing with God alone without touching human beings or Pravrutti is another phase in Nivrutti. In this, omniscient God exists on the other side. Even if trace of ego is generated in mind due to will power and confidence, God immediately notices it. In presence of God only total surrender is the best since will power and confidence, sometimes, generate ego in the mind even without the awareness of devotee. God always sees the internal mind and not the external behaviour or speech of the devotee. Even if the behaviour and speech are egoistic and if the mind contains only love, God will not mind the external expression. In the case of a human being, it takes only whatever is expressed externally since it does not know the internal mind due to lack of omnipotence. Even though Satyabhaama showed egoistic behaviour and egoistic speech, God Krishna did not mind them because He knows very well that she is full of love to Krishna in her mind.
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