DAILY SCHEDULE OF A STUDYING OR WORKING KRISHNA DEVOTEE!
A devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“hare krishna. namaste master. can you please share daily works, to do as a krishna devotee(from morning to night). i want to follow krishna consciousness. ofcourse i know some rules about it. but i want to know in depth about it. hare krishna.”
REPLY:
Of course rules are there. But, just following the recommended rules alone is not sufficient for the devotees. There must be change in his CONSCIOUSNESS. In other words, his materialistic consciousness should become Krishna Consciousness. He should see everything and everyone as Krishna. He should work for Krishna. This is the REAL requirement for every devotee.
If a devotee follows all sadhanas (devotional practices), but, have no change in his consciousness, then, the rituals become not fully beneficial. The recommended sadhanas are just practices to develop a dedication towards Krishna. Once this dedication comes, love must come. So, one should develop love on Krishna while practising all the sadhanas.
As asked by you, let me list a sample daily routine for a devotee:
(1) He wakes up before sun rise, say at around 4-4.30 AM. Cleans his face and teeth. Bathes if he performs Mangal arati (as said in this post) to Lord. Or, he bathes after chanting. Starts chanting as much as possible before sun rise.
(2) After that he takes bath, makes the preparations for food and he also offers a simple worship of his guru and Krishna through manthras.
(3) Once the food is ready, he offers everything to Krishna.
(4) After offering food, he honours that prasadam.
(5) He may read his lessons after chanting if he is a student.
(6) Then, he goes to school/ college/ job. He also studies or works sincerely. He also chants in the available gaps in the institution or office.
(7) He performs his work thinking of Krishna and thanking Him.
(8) He returns home in the evening. Chants for some time. Offers worship to Krishna (Sandhya arati).
(9) Again offers food to Lord if available. Honours dinner prasadam.
(10) Goes to bed after chanting one round if possible.
(11) During this entire day, he follows four regulative principles sincerely: 1. No meat, 2. No gambling, 3. No intoxication and 4 No illicit sex.
(12) During the whole day, he works for satisfying Krishna, not his senses.
(13) He visits Krishna temples/ sathsangha atleast once a week, or thrice a month and takes the association of devotees.
(14) He reads books on Krishna atleast for 20-30 minutes whenever he gets time every day.
(15) He tries to detach from material affairs and attach to Krishna and finally achieves it by sustained practice and efforts.
If you like to know all the details of the chanting, aratis and offering processes, there is a small, wonderful book written by H.H.Bakthi Vikas Swami namely “Beginners Guide to Krishna Consciousness”. Read that and get all the details. Or, read all my posts on all topics searching in our site.
All the best.