Answer
All these things you have to work out and apply yourself. Here, you are receiving philosophical principles. The next step is to apply those principles in your own life.
Application requires skills and techniques. Those skills and techniques arise from the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, in every situation you have to understand the principle and then determine how it applies.
For example, suppose you are fasting and someone is offending Śrīla Prabhupāda. You may become angry. That anger is different from the anger that arises when someone merely disturbs your peace while you are fasting. The external emotion may look similar, but the underlying consciousness is different.
So there is no mechanical formula. Many principles are given, and you have to apply them according to time, place, circumstance, and purpose.
Sometimes devotees ask, "When devotees perform austerities, how do they avoid becoming proud?"
Pride arises when someone becomes successful and forgets that his success depends entirely on mercy. If a person thinks, "I have achieved this by my own strength," pride develops. But if he remembers, "By the mercy of Prabhupāda, by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa, I am able to do this," then pride cannot take root.
A devotee should understand that everything he possesses is only temporarily entrusted to him. If I have some power, talent, wealth, intelligence, or capacity, it is all received by mercy.
In this material world, possessions come and go. They are never truly ours.
Ultimately, everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. He is the creator and proprietor. Even we ourselves belong to Him. Therefore, what is the basis for pride?
Today I may be able to perform a difficult fast and feel proud of it. Tomorrow some health condition may arise and the body may not permit fasting at all. Then where has that ability gone?
So what is the value of being proud?
True knowledge removes pride. One understands:
"Nothing belongs to me. Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa."
