And next thing you know, if you have a hero complex, where you think, "Yeah, let me fix everybody's problems, and I'm so great anyway, no wonder they want me." And next thing you know, you're at 110% and you rise to the level of your own incompetence, and then you may feel a little fried. because the feeling of being fried is that I want to please everybody. And then they start saying, "Well, how come you didn't show up, and you didn't finish it on time and so forth?"

And how could you? You're at 110%. Therefore, it's recommended—it's recommended. Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends that we find a way in which we can be steadily engaged in devotional service without over endeavor. And Prabhupāda gives examples in his purport to that admonition that you may take up a huge, huge project. For instance, building a temple; only people with a certain kind of acumen for moving material energy around can do that kind of stuff. Even then, it's a little dicey. And if you're ordered to do it, then you can do it. But if you just get into a lot of that stuff, the next thing you know, you're always answering phone calls. You're not having enough time for your sādhana and so forth; you may find yourself a little out of balance.

So it's good to have mentor sādhus who will say, "Maybe you should think about taking a break and chanting some more." I was getting more and more service. I was one year at Govardhan, and one of the God brothers I was talking to, he said, "You know, you might... you're getting more and more service. So you might want to think about spending more time in the Dhāma." It all sounds counterintuitive, right? But then the logic of it is that in order to handle more service, you should have an equal contribution to your increased sādhana to be able to maintain it so it doesn't become entangling in the wrong way.

(excerpt from the talk)

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