Question: How to deal with expectations or advice from good-intentioned yet not so devotionally situated family members, relatives, childhood friends, etc. who do not have a clear frame of reference or alignment with the bhakti path?
Answer by Romapada Swami: With respect, externally you can acknowledge their well-wishing intention, but you must not deviate from the core purpose of human life’s mission. When advice has the fragrance of entanglement in fruitive activities or pursuit of exclusively materialist goals or criteria for decision making, remain inwardly firm in your convictions which are provided by guru, sadhu, and sastra. Do not distract your inward convictions of life’s true and ultimate purpose.
This is explicitly stated by Narada to Yudhisthira: SB 7.14.6
