​Prahlad sees his glory as bhakti’s glory

Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Juhu

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Good morning we are discussing the last verse among the prayers of Paramahamsa 790 passing the fruition of one of the most important directly devotional or prayer sections to Bhagavan so we have the standard depiction of Narasimha ripping apart the intestine of Hiranyakashipu and Prahlad is offering a dharma this depiction is actually what is in heart called as a composite depiction composite means two things are brought together it is not that when Narasimha was ripping apart the belly of Hiranyakashipu at that time the two events happened separately first Hiranyakashipu was destroyed and delivered and thereafter actually a long sequence of events happens, the various devatas offer prayers and after the devatas are dead they have to be overthrown then Prahlad is invited to offer prayers and at that time Prahlad goes forward, offers the dharma and offers obeisance and then the lord becomes classified and then the sequence starts it’s like we have Bhagavan class normally if there are any senior devotees in an assembly the senior devotees are asked to be in the Bhagavan class then the younger devotees so like that in this assembly all the devatas are assembled together so the devatas are all allowed, they also offer prayers first, they have the signal killing the Bhagavan class they have glorified the lord so the devatas are offered prayers respecting the lord offering respect to the lord so Brahma, Shiva, Indra all these great personalities are offered prayers and Prahlad in his young age not just in terms of age he is this 5 year old boy but also in terms of community position in the causal hierarchy, they are all men so all these devatas he is born of an asura that’s why Prahlad starts his prayer by declaring Brahma Dayog so he says all these devatas and the munis and the devatas they have fasted this is all these devatas they are chakras of the guna the words that they spoke were like a shower of nectar and if that shower of nectar could not satisfy the lord how can I satisfy him and then the next verse says you are satisfied not by the human beings you are satisfied you are satisfied this is like Mahatma Gandhi so Prahlad doesn’t see his glory as his glory it’s a great honour that what great great people have not been able to achieve he has been able to achieve so Devata has not been able to satisfy the lord but the lord has been able to satisfy him but he doesn’t see it as his aim and he sees that you know there is a little bit much going on and there are international famous ballers they are trying to get a maximum out of it and they ball and ball and nobody is able to get out and a new person who is on his debut just comes in and easily moves out he becomes very proud and I achieved all this because of your achievement so Prahlad does not have that kind of good approaches at all he has achieved what all these great people have not achieved but he doesn’t see that achievement has its own meaning he sees that as a glory and in a very beautiful way cyclic sense he begins his prayers for the perfection of bhakti and he ends his prayers for the perfection of bhakti so here he says paramahamsa dataro labhya that is the decision of paramahamsa how can I gain bhakti in janah by the practise of bhakti so the process of bhakti is what is consistently glorified by Krishna one of the distinctive characteristics of Mahabharata as compared to the other Puranas and as compared to the broad body of Vedic literature is that the Mahabharata glorifies bhakti directly with verses which say how wonderful bhakti is but it glorifies bhakti by promoting the traditional social hierarchies in every society there is a hierarchy even in democracy the elected head of government the prime minister is the head of the state there are capital ministers, inter-minister of the state there are government officials there is a hierarchy so in the Vedic traditions there is a hierarchy the devatas are higher, asuras are lower the brahmins are higher the kshatriyas are lower men are higher, children are lower there are such hierarchies but bhakti invokes all the hierarchies and that is what is the consistency of the bhava this was demonstrated in the 6th Yantra where there is the traditional depiction of the battle between the devatas and asuras in all the Puranas they talk about this battle between devatas and asuras and the bhagavatam seems to be telling a similar story but suddenly there is a twist in this battle between Indra and Uttarasura that it turns out that Uttarasura is a great devotee and Indra is actually a materialist he is also a religious person but he is more of a materialist so in the normal depiction the devata is higher than the asura and the devata wins by the grace of Vishnu in this case also the devata wins Indra wins but it is Uttarasura who ultimately wins Uttarasura goes back to godhead and Uttarasura goes back to godhead it is he who has attained the ultimate victory although he lost the battle in this world against Indra he won the war against Indra, he won the war against Vaya and attained life supreme victory so what is depicted in this story is that normally devatas are higher than asuras but if a person born as a human family has defeat then that asura becomes much much higher than him and that same thing is depicted in the second canto through a battle between devata and asura in the sixth canto it was depicted through the battle between devata and asura now it is depicted in the seventh canto in a different way through a conflict among the asuras so Hiranyakashipu and Prahlad both are asuras in one sense asura in the sense of genealogy not asura in the sense of psychology the soul has two coverings the soul has the covering of the body and the soul has the covering of the mind so where the body comes from that is what we refer to as psychology, genealogy this person comes in this dynasty that person comes in that dynasty and in traditional Vedic society genealogy is very important which food will somebody want so especially when scenarios are to be planned or something, traditionally genealogy is considered very important to determine what kind of relationship to be formed so now there is genealogy there is psychology and there is spirituality at the spiritual level all of us the souls are the same but that sameness of all souls is not apparent now just like there is a chandelier here or there is a bulb there now the chandelier inside may have a yellow light but if it is covered by a red glass then the light that will come out will have a reddish hue if it is covered by a green glass it will have a greenish hue if it is covered by a blue glass it will have a blueish hue so the original light will be the same with the three different chandeliers in which there are three different colours coloured glasses the light that comes out will be different so like that the soul in all bodies is identical but depending on the covering of the soul the soul appears differently and that covering is determined by the genealogy and by the psychology so usually we judge people based on their exteriors we say oh this person is Indian, this person is American, this person is Chinese, this person is like this and this person is like that we tend to look at people based on their exteriors but their psychology may be very different from what the genealogy appears to be that is a person might be a fierce looking giant kind of person but that person may have a sensitive heart and that person may look very gentle and soft and diminutive and small kind of person but they may have a harsh tongue a tongue that cuts and hurts far more than a sword so the mentality inside the psychology of a person may not always agree with the opinion that comes from the body the physiology so the relationship genealogy refers to which dynasty we are talking about the physiology refers to the kind of body that a person has, the body and its bones so I’m not going to go into technicality but the point is the Bhagavatam depicts that although Prahlad is born in an asura family although in his body asura blood is running in his heart there is no asura blood there is actually transcendental authority and Prahlad Maharaj unabashedly, uneducatedly he admits that his glory is not his glory he has got a glorious position that is by the process of nominating one of my main services is writing when we write a book so usually at the end of the book or at the start of the book the author writes etymologies this person died in this way, this person died in this way this person died in this way so the etymology means because a person when they write a book they know that actually I haven’t worked on this, so they can’t do this so I once saw a book where the acknowledgement began by saying the first acknowledgement for this book was to me that if I hadn’t worked so hard this book would not have been written this is simply egomania it’s obnoxious level of egomania where the acknowledgement is the opportunity to thank others this person helped me in this way, this person helped me in that way but to say that I acknowledge myself it’s an absurd level of egomania so actually speaking others may not do it but people do feel what I have achieved is my greatness yes, we do have to work hard to achieve whatever we achieve but it is not just our effort there are other factors involved which ensure that whatever we are able to do, we are able to do see, you consider for example sports sports is very performance driven let me consider cricket a batsman has to bat well to lead the team to victory a bowler has to ball well to get the ball back over the net so in sports performance matters very much but even in something as performance driven as sports performance is not all that matters performance matters but performance is not all that matters see for example cricket a lot is determined by the toss in the start of a toss a lot is determined by the toss when you bat well and that is not an easy task nobody can control the toss people try their own ways to try to control the toss there was a famous cricket captain what he would do is he would before he would go for the toss he would toss the point himself and he would call out and whatever he would call out while going there he would say that I have a probability next time it will come opposite so now I am going to toss he will call heads and later he will call tails now his idea was somehow he will try to play against me but it doesn’t work like that see many cricketers have their own superstitions many of these superstitions are famous there are the cricketers who always keep a red handkerchief in his pocket and not fully inside one third out of the pocket and he will think as long as the handkerchief is there I will perform well sometimes he will drop a catch before looking at the ball he will look at the handkerchief because of which I dropped the catch so now these cricketers are not foolish in the sense that they work hard, they train, they practise and they know that they have to perform well but they also know that there is something beyond me which also plays a vital role in determining the pace so these sports people their superstitions are their ways of somehow trying to appease whatever is unknowing whatever is unknown how can I classify it so that it will work on my side so the fact is that performance matters performance is not all that matters there is a higher version of destiny which also plays a vital role in the results of our actions and acknowledging that in whatever I am able to do there is a higher force which determines the results that is the beginning of intelligence that is the beginning of recognising reality as it is so Prahlad in his prayer he says my dear God it is whatever I have in intelligence, whatever I have been able to achieve it is all because of bhakti so we will see this the theme of the glorification of bhakti in the prayers also now we don’t have the time, I will have gone over all the 41 prayers, 42 prayers and explain this flow in the brain, I will just talk about 2-3 prayers in which I will show how we glorify something on one side Prahlad says that actually I am afraid of little existence he says that my dear Lord this little existence is so dangerous, so terrible that everybody is caught in danger over there and I long oh Lord so he says that my dear Lord I am afflicted in little existence the senses can catch us and drag us down any time we can all fall to simple activity we can all suffer in that and therefore I beg you when will you call me to your lotus feet please oh Lord this little existence so at one level he is praying this is very terrible and some person later he says so he says I am not afraid of little existence he says this little existence how one can get over how people get over is that great thing they are worried about it, but I am not worried about it why am I not worried about it in glorifying you my consciousness my consciousness is absorbed and as my consciousness is absorbed in glorifying you impersonalists talk about merging of being the bhaktas talk not about merging of being bhaktas talk about the absorption consciousness it is not that the two become one physically but rather two become one in the heart so he says it is not that I become one with you but the consciousness is absorbed and what is happening maham maham means great nectar I have experienced so the devotees have no urge to merge the impersonalists they want to merge with the absolute truth the devotees have no urge to merge why? because in glorifying the lord maham they experience the supreme nectar and because they are experiencing the supreme nectar so paragrahanta says that I don’t feel tempted in such a way I don’t feel afflicted by the affliction of the soul and normally whenever we are practising apnea the mind always makes us wonder I have seen this, I have seen that I have seen that you do this in India you go there and do that in India there is so much pleasure you are missing in life and the feeling that I am missing something that often takes our consciousness away from Krishna towards other things and if we dwell on that feeling a lot then we are also withdrawing towards the greater good it all happens because the mind makes us feel we are missing something but Prahlad Maharaj when he is actually glorifying the lord instead of feeling that I am missing something he feels that oh all the other people are missing this this all these people I am relishing the great nectar of Krishna of glorifying Krishna and everyone else is missing it that won’t change as I meant about suppose we are having a feast and see outside we have got some beggar who is starving has got a bloated stomach and mastic like arms and we think oh it is not really food we know he has an extra piece of this food so if we are relishing something and others are not having that we feel sadness and it doesn’t look like we share it so normally when bhakti is not there and if one tries to practise a spiritual path what happens is the same thing gets reversed we feel oh they are ignoring so much spirituality because I don’t have it but when bhakti is there and when one is relishing bhakti then what happens rather than feeling I am missing what other people are enjoying we feel oh they are missing what I am relishing and let me share it with them so once we start getting a taste of bhakti then the temptations lose their enjoyment because we don’t feel I am missing something so when the Maharaj is saying actually I feel that they are missing something I say no they are enjoying so much he says no it is Maharaj who is higher who you are moodha is food moodha is an empowered food what do you mean empowered food what do you mean empowered food a foolish person does many foolish things but an empowered person works hard to do foolish things works hard they are very materialistic people many of them are very intelligent but unfortunately they use their intelligence for foolish things that means they use a lot of their intelligence to get pleasure which lasts for just a few years so if somebody works for say 15 years to get an engineering degree and they study diligently to get an engineering degree going through various levels of education we appreciate but suppose somebody works for 15 years to get an engineering degree which is going to have a value different for one month so what does it mean working like that hard work is to be appreciative but if you don’t just work hard you should work hard in a way that is intelligent so materialistic people work so hard for self gratification and often they crave for it they smell for it but at the end of the day that nature lasts for a few years so what they do is maaya sukhaaya the sukha is where is maaya that means it is individual there is pleasure there is pleasure which is gratification the Allah himself talks about this he uses two different metaphors he says normally when prayers are offered to the lord at that time meditations are asked for so Allah Narayan says kutra aashish what aashish what blessing can I ask when I go to the lord all the happiness that is there in this world you just hear about it so nice so great so wonderful and when they actually experience it it is like a mirage so the example of a mirage implies that there is no pleasure normally when we say mirage there is no water so when they see a mirage they rush towards it and what they get in their mouth is burning sand so the mirage example implies that there is no pleasure but in the same verse Allah Narayan continues and says that so he says there is pleasure which is honey and it is intoxicating this honey is so intoxicating that it is almost impossible to bear but in the way it is a very small quantity so now these two examples mrudat vishnu mirage and madhura vayi they seem to say two different things one mirage implies that there is no pleasure in between whereas madhura vayi seems to say that there is pleasure madhu means delicious so what is the reality is there pleasure in between actually there is pleasure there is pleasure in between existence what is the illusion is our imagination about the quantity of pleasure the pleasure is there but it is very less and our mind imagines there is so much in between so there is very little pleasure and our mind imagines that pleasure is so much and then we crave for it in the bhagavad gita in the 11th chapter it is like the pleasure is very little but the craving is very strong very less so there is pleasure but because of our imagination we think there is so much pleasure now the kaushika future talks about hierarchy of pleasures for example it says whatever pleasure you have on earth there is thousand times pleasure more on heaven and there is thousand times more pleasure in brahman thousand times more pleasure in brahman and then bhaktisamhacharya continues the hierarchy there is thousand thousand times more pleasure in man so now if we consider this hierarchy of pleasure if the pleasure in this world is zero. There is no pleasure in this world. Zero and thousand, zero, zero, it will become zero, zero, into ten million, or billion, or trillion, or quadrillion, or zillion, gazillion, is all zero.
So, this hierarchy will have no meaning if the pleasure to people existed from zero. There is pleasure to people, but it is very, very small. The problem is, our mind imagines it to be a very big pleasure.
So, when the mirage example is given, the point of the mirage example is not to say that there is no pleasure. The point of the mirage example is the illusion of perception, that when in a mirage we see something which is not there. So, we think there is so much pleasure here, but actually, the pleasure ends up diminishing.
So, now, this, if we see here, the prayers of the mirage conclude with the declaration that therefore, O Lord, nobody can attain You, except by the practise of love. And He missed some of the prayers of love. And He says, therefore, we should practise love.
That is His conclusion. So, in the Karmakand literature, there is a lot of glorification of heavenly pleasures. Yama Pushpita Parvachanam.
Krishna talks about this in the Bhagavad Gita, in 2.142.3, when He said that Pushpita Parvachanam, flowers like lotus, they describe the heavenly pleasures. But, Lord, they are temporary. And, O Pushpita Parvachanam, to the non-discriminated, non-invited, they get attracted to these pleasures.
So, here, Yama Parvachanam is another way inverting the hierarchy. Normally, in the hierarchy, for people, in the Vedic times, going to Svarga is considered to be very critical. And following the processes that you take on to Svarga is considered to be a very great thing.
But, in our culture, all those processes, they are all useless. They cannot get, I want to attain the Supreme Lord. One can attain the Supreme Lord only through love.
And, here we, glorify the Supreme Lord. It’s interesting, that normally, when we offer prayers, for most people, prayers are a means for asking the Lord to come. O Lord, please do this for me, please do that for me.
So, Pranayama is offered 42 times in prayer. And, it concludes without asking for anything at all. There is no request at all.
It’s just saying, therefore, O Lord, it concludes this prayer with a glorification of the Lord. Ratte arattama nasti karma nijat. Karma shuddhi.
Sharvannosha om kathaya. This is the process of bhakti. My dear Lord, without practising this, who can attain it? So, the implication, what is it? That, O Lord, please bless me, so that I can engage in your bhakti.
Without asking for anything else. Now, after this, person will again ask, O Kriyaaja, please do your prayers, and please ask for some validation. And then, please ask for some desire.
Pranayama says, my dear Lord, my only desire is that, there be no desire in my heart. It is asked, Varahamsa Ambalakshara Kamamukhyam Sastra Brahmam Bhavatasya Guneyam That there be no desire in my heart. The disciple says, no, please ask for some validation.
And then Pranayama says, my dear Lord, my father also said, it will be very good. And Pranayama says, actually, because your father has already been liberated, because you will be a father. You are noting, 21 generations have been liberated.
So Pranayama says, in his prayers, he has covered a wide scope, but the central theme is, that they glorify the process of bhakti, inspire us to practise the process of bhakti. And, the process of spiritual advancement is the process of increasing appreciation of what we have done. It is not that advanced devotees chant some other mantra.
It is not that advanced devotees read some written books. It is not that advanced devotees worship some other secret devta. No, they are reading the same shastra, chanting the same mantra, worshipping the same devta.
But their appreciation of that mantra, of that shastra, of that devta, of that supreme being, that is increased. So here, N. P. Maharaj has a lot of universe in front of him, asking him for Guru’s benediction. And he says, I don’t want anything, my dear lord, except Guru’s benediction, except the opportunity to practise bhakti.
By that, we can understand how valuable this is. How valuable bhakti is. Suppose there is a feast, and the feast has arisen, the market is open, and there is a very special delicacy and everybody goes there and gives the food.
And somebody else goes and says, give me that night. And nobody else notices the value. What is it? They all decide, it is so delicious, it is extremely healthy food.
So give me. You know, suppose we know that person is very intelligent, and that person is a connoisseur, and they are taking an item, even if we don’t know what that item is, it is still a good item, let me try it out. We will also take it.
So like that, externally speaking, bhakti may not appear to be very glorious. We used to do yoga, sit in a yoga posture, and twist your body in a way which is very interesting. Bhakti, externally speaking, is very simple.
Why? When we see great souls, asking for bhakti, they say bhakti. When they see that word bhakti, our appreciation of bhakti increases. You see, they are asking for bhakti, but I also ask for bhakti.
In that way, as our appreciation for bhakti increases, then our absorption, we can increase our absorption in bhakti. That’s like, say, if I am eating some food, but I think that’s very ordinary food, and I am eating that food, I am looking what other items are going to come. What other items are going to come.
And if I see someone else eating a long diet, eating that food. What is so special about it? Do you eat this food? I didn’t notice it. So like that, what happens is, in our initial stages of practise of bhakti, we may be practising bhakti when we are distracted with other things.
What about this one? What about that one? But when we see everyone’s absorbed in the practise of bhakti, what is there in this? And sukhena brahmata nisparasya atyatam sukham. In 6.27 the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about sparasya. Earlier in 5.52, he is talking about maybe some sparasya is going to come.
He is talking about identification where the senses come in contact with the senses objects. But here in the 6th chapter, he talks about samskara. Sukhena brahma samskara.
Contact with Brahma. And he says that means atyatam nisparasya. That is the item that happens.
So this contact with Krishna is param brahma, supreme brahma. This contact with Krishna, how does it happen? It doesn’t happen just like Mahajan, Kirti women touch the deities. That is not a contact.
Yes, it is good if we have the opportunity to serve the deities in any way. But the contact with Krishna is a contact of consciousness. And that contact of consciousness happens through devotion.
When there is devotional intention in our heart, then when we remember Krishna, we actually contact Krishna. When there is that devotional intention absent, then even when I am trying to think about Krishna, my mind reacts. And then brahma samskarsha will happen.
And when brahma samskarsha will happen, then there is no experience of Sukha. What to Sukha? Tell me to Sukha. So what is happening for the advanced devotees, that is what it is.
The brahma samskarsha is happening. Contact with Krishna is happening. Because they contacted Krishna, they are experiencing sublime happiness.
And Prahlad Maharaj, because he is experiencing this contact, Mahamudra, he is relishing. And therefore he says, what can I ask for you? There is nothing to ask except for the absorption of your bhakti. Your bhakti is so glorious.
He is right now engaged in bhakti. He is glorifying the lord. He is offering up an offering.
And he is saying, this is what is required of lord to attain. Without this, nobody can attain it. And with this, you are already attained.
Therefore, oh lord, I don’t want anything except your bhakti. And that, the more, our desire, more and more for Krishna and bhakti, the more we will start relishing the master bhakti. And then, we can march ahead in the same way, and joyfully in the samsara.
So in summary, you may have your questions. Talked about in this verse, Lord Maharaj says, he listens to lots of his prayers, and he simply glorifies the process of bhakti. And I discussed how the bhagavatam, whole bhagavatam is a glorification of bhakti.
And one way to glorify bhakti by is, by showing how bhakti inverts all normal hierarchies. Those who are normally considered higher become lower if they don’t have bhakti. And those who are lower, become higher if they have bhakti.
So we discussed this inversion in terms of Uttarasura and Indira. But Asura becomes higher than a devata because he has bhakti. And similarly, over here, Krishna becomes higher than Krishna.
So Lord Maharaj also Prahlad is an Asura. And we discussed in terms of their spirituality, their psychology, and their genealogy. So in terms of their genealogy, he is born in Asura family.
But what determines a person is not their genealogy or not. It is primarily their psychology. As souls, everybody is the same.
The primary condition is not in the body. The primary condition is in the mind. And normally, certain kind of bodies may have a kind of mind associated with it.
That is, Asuras, they have Asuri body and they have Asuri mentality. But it is not necessary. And Prahlad demonstrates here that although we have Asura body, a person can have not just daivi mentality, but a higher than daivi mentality.
A parahakti mentality. And here, Prahlad achieves what the great devatas like Brahma, Shiva, Indra all have achieved. And through this, there is a demon, there is a devotee, there is a Hiranyakashipu, there are the devatas.
And Hiranyakashipu is defeated. But it is not the devatas who are praised and are glorified. Actually, here it is another demon, Prahlad, who is glorified.
The devatas are not ever passive or dissimilated. But it is Prahlad who does it. Prahlad, rather than taking credit for what he has done, he says that actually, by the grace of Kunti that I have been able to achieve.
So it is just how, in whatever we achieve in life, our endeavour plays a part. But it is not all that it will be the results. Performance matters, but performance is not all that matters.
We discussed in sports, how sportsmen have their superstitions. Because they recognise that there is something unknown which shapes the results of their performance. And they try to appease that unknown by their superstitions.
So, ultimately, it is not a matter of superstition, it is a matter of devotion. That the unknown is Krishna, and the unknown Krishna is classified, satisfied, and pleased through devotion. So Prahlad gives credit to the Lord who is the object of devotion and the process of devotion by which people connect with the Lord.
And we discussed how, at one level, Prahlad says, I am so fallen, I am trapped in middle existence, I am afraid of middle existence. But at another level he says, I am not afraid of middle existence. So it is not that when he is saying I am not afraid of middle existence, he is not saying I am such a great person.
He is saying, because I am absorbing bhakti, so, I don’t feel like I am missing anything. And that’s why, I cannot achieve people in this world. I am missing this world.
I feel that I am missing something that the middle existence people are enjoying. I feel that they are missing the ground that I am reaching. And therefore, I want to share this with you.
So as you become absorbed in bhakti, we become less and less vulnerable and we don’t feel as if we are missing anything, rather we feel other than missing what I am having. And we discussed in terms there about is there pleasure in middle existence? Yes, there is Madhugavi, the small top of the hill. In Bhagavad Gita, the illusion is about the quantity.
There is so little pleasure that it’s not worth pursuing. It’s like working for 15 years in a engineering degree that lasts for one month. So, there is pleasure, but it’s not worth pursuing.
And the real pleasure is in bhakti. And it’s in remembrance of Krishna. And the process of spiritual advancement is a process of increasing and increasing of bhakti.
Because the more we appreciate something, the more we become absorbed in it. And we can increase that appreciation by looking at the example of the great sages. So, when we see somebody relishing the delicacy which everyone else is neglecting, we wonder why this person is relishing it so much? When we are to try it out and we absorb it, it’s so nice.
So, like that bhakti externally we don’t see anything very glorious. But when we see great souls wanting nothing other than bhakti and that inspires us to do something about it. We try to absorb all the spirituality.
And the more we absorb it ourselves, because of that enhanced appreciation, the more we relish it. And as we relish it, we can march forward joyfully in our journey. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? You can ask aloud. So, how do we have confidence? How can we ensure confidence when it comes into practise? Yeah, I mean confidence to do some service, but at the same time I don’t want pride to make a certain trajectory. So, how do we do that? Yes, there are two different things here.
First is that there is the relishing that Krishna has given to his disciples. And acknowledging some gifts which we have been given. That is not pride.
If the focus is on Krishna and we think that this is Krishna who has given this to us, then actually rather than pride we don’t want that. The focus can be we all have certain gifts, certain talents. Some of us, some of the talents will be immediately apparent, some talents we have to explore and discover and develop.
Whatever it is. To look at our talents and look at whatever abilities we have and to acknowledge them as Krishna gives to us. That will lead to pride.
That will lead to gratitude. And that, acknowledging whatever we have, that’s what brings confidence. So, for example, if we are able to speak fluently, that’s a good thing.
If we look at others, they will think I am superior to them. They can’t speak, I can speak. But if we start looking at others as Krishna, the focus is on Krishna.
This is something I can change. Others, they will have some other attitude. See, pride comes when our vision becomes our world, not on Krishna.
When our vision becomes our world, if we see that I have something more than others, I become proud. And if I see that others have something more than me, then I become inferior. I don’t know which way that becomes.
In both cases, the problem is we are just focussing on ourselves and others. But instead if we focus on ourselves, I am Krishna. Then, our awareness about other people does not lead to pride.
It uses the confidences of Krishna. So, what we have is God’s gift to us. Where we become is our gift to God.
What we become is our gift to God. I will do something and I will be good seeker. By using that capability, I become a good seeker.
And that is my offering to Krishna. So, this way, if we keep it, not between us and the world, but between us and Krishna, then awareness about other people’s rather than interfering in our devotion can enhance our devotion. In assessing our bhakti, by giving us tangible means by which we can perform bhakti.
So, seeing that Krishna has given us abilities, we get that tangible confidence. And it’s not that somebody has to have extraordinary abilities. Even ordinary abilities, if we use them diligently, that can also lead to substantial contributions.
So, seeing them as Krishna’s gifts can help us to have confidence without connecting it with others. Is the answer to your question? Yes. Question is related to the thing called conditioning, right? It can lead to emotions of our life.
We can analyse emotions of this state. We can analyse some emotions, emotions of that state. It’s basically a way to analyse emotions that we still do not appreciate.
So, sometimes we want to overcome certain emotions. So, what are the solutions for that? So, analysing emotions is another matter. How do we overcome some undesirable emotions? Yes.
To overcome something, we have to do three things. You know, we have to know where it comes from. Where it comes from.
Second is how it grows. Third is how it can be It’s a simple thing. If an enemy is going to attack me, I need to know where is the enemy going to attack me.
So, where does it come from? Okay, if Pakistan is going to attack India, at this point, the war will be over. And, you know, how does the enemy become strong? Is it that they’ve got machine guns? Is it that they’ve got bombs? Is it that they’ve got weapons of mass destruction? What do they have? What strengthens them? And how can they become them? You know, if the enemy is attacking, they create a smoke screen over there. Smoke screen means they can’t see me.
So, basically, to battle you need to know these three things. Know where it comes from, how it grows, and how it can be. The Shraddha Gaurani, with respect to our unhealthy emotions, when we analyse them, it is not an analysis where you say, okay, this happened, and this happened, and this is how it happened.
How did I… I did something wrong at that time. How did it happen? Where did that emotion come from? If we find that there’s a system similar to the social dimension, then we try to create a system, we try to avoid it. You know, we all have certain traditions.
Alcoholics are told, don’t ever go to bars. Don’t drink alcohol with people. And if you want to meet with friends, meet with friends, but don’t meet with them in a bar.
So, that is where the alcoholism comes from. So we can find out where the design comes from. And then try to avoid those situations.
We’re not going to avoid them completely, but we can minimise the exposure. Second is, how they grow strong. Certain times, certain stimuli cannot be avoided.
But we can find out what makes them strong. So, for example, say, when I’m alone, or when I’m bored, or when I find that somebody has spoken something which hurts me. And then when I’m hurt, at that time, I become more vulnerable to certain emotions, certain temptations.
This is the situation, and I’m weak, and at that time, they become strong. So then what happens is, we avoid it. This is how the temptation comes, but this is how it grows strong.
Then I find out, how can I weaken it? How can I weaken it? Okay, when I’m in agony, if I just start chanting in the kitchen, or if I hear some people, or if I just come in the temple and take the mission, or if the church starts a 7.0 class, or if I just start doing something, I find out how I can take my thoughts away from there and get them somewhere else. So we find out what is the way we can do that. And by this, if you have these three things, the origin, the genesis, and the weakening, the first one.
Then the analysis comes out right. So the analysis should focus as it leads to resolution. And if we don’t do this kind of analysis, we just fall into the same trap again and again.
You know, I’m just like this. I always overthink. I always do this.
I always do that. I’m just like this. You know, you don’t think, okay, I always think like this.
What happens if I do this? I start coming to the situation. Maybe I don’t put an alarm, or I sleep alone, or I, whatever it is. So you can apply what you have and try to find out how it comes, how it grows, and how can you weaken it.
Then we can prevent the analysis. And that requires some distance. When we are at the heat of emotion, either we are doing things, nothing wrong, or we are just beating ourselves up for having done something wrong.
Now I’m a foolish, I can do this. And that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. So we have a distance, and observe ourselves and learn.
And when we learn, then we can find out what is the way to overcome these emotions. Thank you very much.