Krishna teaches “Prepare for the worst, strive for the best” – Janmasthami meditation 2

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome back we will be discussing about lessons from Krishna’s pastimes from Krishna’s life so I will focus on how Krishna demonstrates this principle of strive for the best and prepare for the worst this is a standard principle in the military in the army in general that is air force, navy or military that the military has to be always alert for any attack from the enemy so in that sense they have to be ready for the worst they have to be prepared for the worst but at the same time they also need to be they also need to try for the best that means the army shouldn’t be just looking for reasons to fight a war if some conflict can be resolved in amicable ways then it should be resolved as amicably as possible so now Krishna his own pastimes at Raji in Vrindavan and later on in Dwaraka but he is most known for his pastimes in association with the Pandavas and after the Pandavas came back from their forest exile they were in Virat and after they completed their after they completed their exile incognito exile then when the marriage of Abhimanyu Arjuna’s son was to be done with Uttara at that time Krishna also came from Dwaraka to Virat and when he came there with Matsya kingdom at that time Krishna decided that Krishna led the plan of how the Pandavas were to reclaim the kingdom the Pandavas had a similar experience earlier when they had stayed in the forest after they had been attempted to be burned alive at Varanavad they had stayed in the forest and then they had one Draupadi’s hand and when they had one Draupadi’s hand even at that time Duryodhya Dhrashtra himself did not send any message the Pandavas were alive they were entitled to at least half the kingdom and Dhrashtra did not send any invitation so at that time it was Krishna who had suggested to Drupada because Drupada was the eldest among all of them that they send a messenger to Krishna they send a messenger to Dhrashtra and when that messenger came at that time Bhishma strongly told Dhrashtra that you should call for the Pandavas back and give them half of the kingdom and that’s how the Pandavas got Kanda but in this case at that time the hostilities between the Pandavas and the Kauravas were conceived it was not known to everyone but in this case the hostilities were public knowledge publicly the Kauravas had dishonored Draupadi publicly the Kauravas had stripped the Pandavas of all their wealth so the hostility was very clear the Pandavas had also taken vows to kill to kill the Kauravas especially the offending Kauravas of Dushyasana and Duryodhana so in this case the hostilities were very very strong and at that time what did Krishna do Bhima had been waiting through all the 13 years longing for an opportunity to fight and wreak havoc on the Kauravas but what did Krishna do the first thing Krishna recommended peaceful negotiation although all this had gone wrong so much atrocity had been done Krishna said that let us try to resolve this by peaceful means now whenever there is a confrontation there are two temptations one is if somebody does something provocative we retaliate with disproportionately excessive force and just provoke a head-on total confrontation and the other is to just live in a utopia thinking that if I just neglect the problem neglect the aggression maybe they will stop intruding maybe they will stop attacking now both are weakening responses one is weakening and the other is being excessively aggressive so Krishna avoided both Krishna said that let us petition for peace at the same time Krishna did not neglect the preparation for war Krishna told the Pandavas, Krishna and the Pandavas met and they discussed who all are their likely allies and Yudhishthir using the resources, Yudhishthir was not yet a king, he did not have the royal resources so he took the resources of the Matsya king Virat who was now his relative because their son and daughter were married and he sent swift messengers to various kings in various parts of the world requesting them to align with him so in this way they were under Krishna’s guidance they were preparing for war so they were preparing for the worst but at the same time they were striving for the best what are the best? that everything be resolved amicably and actually first it was that Drupada’s brahmana priest he was sent now it’s interesting that they were in the kingdom of Virat but still Drupada’s priest was sent, why? because there was a hierarchy of power just like in today’s world maybe USA is the number one power and there are the BRIC countries which are like second level powers Brazil, Russia, India, China like that so now depending on which country is taking a particular stand that state sends a particular message and how powerful the country is so the Matsya king was not a very powerful king but Drupada, the Panchalas were also a very powerful race the Kurus, the Pandus and the Panchalas the Kuru, the Yadus and Panchalas they were the three most powerful races at that time so now what did Krishna do? Krishna arranged that Drupada send his brahmana priest so that they would know that the formidable power of the Panchalas were behind them and Drupada’s priest went and gave a very strong message, reasonably presented saying that Pandavas should be given back their kingdom and Dhritarashtra heard the message but he said I’ll think and I’ll tell you afterwards and I’ll send my message to Sanjay as a messenger and Sanjay came back and tried to weasel a way out by telling Yudhishthira that ultimately he tried to give some false reasoning, he said that basically if somebody is a grasta, ultimately they have to become vanaprastha, you are already a vanaprastha why do you want to become a grasta? why do you want to fight wars? so at that time Krishna and Yudhishthira answered Sanjay thoroughly and then Krishna said I will myself come I will myself come as a peace messenger so that we will petition for peace and that’s what Krishna did this was actually the ultimate effort that there is nothing more that anyone could have done for peace it’s like say there is a conflict between India and Pakistan India may send the minister of state or may send the secretary of state, the defence secretary now imagine if the Indian prime minister himself goes for peace negotiations that means the highest authority in India is seeking peace and if that effort is rebuffed by Pakistan, there is no result, no chance left for peace so although Krishna was not officially the king but Krishna was named as the most formidable warrior of his times and Krishna himself went for peace, what did he demonstrate? he demonstrated trying for the trying for the best so we need to avoid both these extremes one extreme is to just prepare only for the worst and not try for the best try for the best and not prepare for the worst but Krishna, he demonstrated the balance by simultaneously trying for the best and also preparing for the worst, thank you