Question: I heard from Srila Prabhupada’s lecture that if you want God realization, then we need to do austerity. But when I perform austerity, I become niyamagrahi. It gives me false ego and my mind becomes distracted thinking when will I come back to my normal life? So to get rid of this, I avoid extra austerities like taking havisanna, on special months. Will it be another type of sense gratification?

Guru Maharaj: Taking havisanna is not a great austerity. Doing such things are minimal austerities. So we can do some things, we fast on the Krsna Janamastami, on Gaura Purnima, on the day of our spiritual master, until noon, on the guru’s appearance day, and other...

Question: How much important is austerity for self-realization?

Guru Maharaj: The thing that pleases Krishna most is pure devotional service. And the renunciation austerity is not so important. What is more important is pure bhakti. So, that is why in the gyana yoga, to get the impersonal liberation, one should be a sannyasi. But...