karmic_devotee

The life of a devotee is extremely difficult in this material world - more so than a non-devotee. Especially when he is transitioning from a non-devotee to a pure devotee of the Lord. It becomes increasingly difficult to accept the principles and activities of the material world when one starts making progress spiritually. The day-to-day dealings with non-devotees (they may even be friends and/or family) become laboreous at first, bitter subsequently and unbearable eventually. A devotee should be steadfast and loving in these circumstances. He should see his past in non-devotees and be helpful and supportive, not aggressive and critical. One cannot enter the kingdom of God unless one is compassionate and loving to others, even one's enemies. The Lord purifies His devotees by exposing them to seeming adversities. The trick is to keep working for the Lord and think of less fortunate souls than oneself. After sometime, the realization that one is getting purified becomes clear. After that, life is a lot easier to deal with. Hare Krishna, Prodi.

Hare Krishna, Financial freedom is a pre-requisite for a grhastha devotee (probably even for a non-grhastha devotee) to properly engage in spiritual activity. There are no guarantees of success in money-making ventures, but here are a few ideas which you can implement: 1. Sell stuff on Ebay. 2. Cook and sell prasadam as 'tiffin' for office-going people. 3. Start or engage in a day-care. 4. Utilize technical or mechanical skills that you may possess (eg., carpenter work or plumbing or web-site design). 5. Invest a bit of money in stock markets. 6. Manual labor. Do note that choosing a line of work depends on your skill, ability to invest resources (time, money etc.) and ability to accept risk. I hope this helps, Prodi.