​Gita Leadership Sutras 5-10

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we will now start the fifth sutra.
So, we have around, probably if we go on to 8.20, we have around 90 minutes. So, we have 6 sutras. So, probably I will take 15 minutes per sutra.
So, we will have to go through them fast. But, we may have some time for question and answer, if we manage to go through this fast. So, I will go over, basically the overview slide.
And, I will talk about some points within that, further. The fourth sutra as we discussed, which is the Bhagavad Gita was mind the mind. I have discussed about how the mind has certain default programmes, which make us act in particular ways.
Now, the fifth principle is assume accountability. We have used the word accountability. For example, there should be accountability in the government, that where is the money coming in, where is the money going.
And, quite often in today’s world, morality is often seen as a result of lack of opportunity. And, people feel if I could get away with being immoral, I should be moral. But, assume accountability means that we are all accountable for our actions.
It is best that we function with this assumption, that whatever is going to, whatever is, whatever goes around, comes around. Now, why should we think like this? Firstly, how is it related to leadership? That actual leadership is very much based on trust. When people accept somebody as a leader, they may follow that person because that person has a position.
But, if there is really to be a joining of hearts in a team, the leader has to be trustworthy. And, position can be acquired by various means. But, trust has to be earned.
And, it is earned by integrity. When people see that a person behaves in an upright way consistently, that conduct of integrity earns trust. And, the bonding that happens around a trustworthy leader, the kind of motivation that the team has, that cannot be earned by any other means.
So, the most effective leaders are able to earn this trust. And, now there can be various motivations for the integrity. But, the foundational motivation for that integrity can come from our understanding of karma.
Now, karma, the word has multiple meanings. But, usually it refers to the system of cosmic justice where there is action and there is reaction. Now, if we look at the world around us and let us look for the corporate perspective that normally in any company where we work, there is an appraisal system.
If a person has performed well, then there are rewards that are given. And, if a person has underperformed, then there are prices to be paid for that. There are penalties that are incurred because of that.
So, just as there is an appraisal system in a company, similarly there is an appraisal system in the universe. And, that cosmic appraisal system is called as karma. So, based on the kind of actions that we do, there are reactions that come.
And, this system of correlation between action and reaction is called as karma. Now, again going back to the topic which I talked about in the first session of science has the fate that even when there is some, even there is just a random set of data, there is some order underlying it. So, that same point we can take further that science talks order in terms of laws.
We have the law of gravity, we have the laws of motion, we have laws of thermodynamics. Now, laws means that basically laws shape the connection between causes and consequences. What is basically a law? If this cause is there, then this consequence will come.
That is a law. If I take acid and I take a base and I mix them together, then this is the result I am going to get. So, that is basically a law.
So, just as there are laws in physics, there are laws governing overall human conduct also. So, laws basically shape the connection between choices. We humans are ourselves causal agents.
So, we make choices and the connection between our choices and the consequences that are associated with them that is shaped by laws. And, karma is the name for the overarching system of this connection between choices and consequences. Now, another way to understand this is that there is standard training.
Standard method of training is that whenever somebody does good, even as parents we reward our children when we do good. When they do not study, then we may discipline them in some way. And, the purpose of this is to encourage that the parents purpose is never to punish their child.
Parents purpose is to help bring the best out of their child. Similarly, we should not see the system of karma as a system meant to punish. It is actually a system meant to help us grow.
It is meant to help us grow gradually. And, there are both aspects to it. It is meant for training for growth.
Now, at one level we assume this connection between cause and effect implicitly. Now, if you come back home, if you go back home today evening and if you find that say your roommate, your relative, they have got a burn scar on their head. Immediately, you would ask the question, what happened? What happened? Now, this question itself reveals our understanding that that burn scar could not have just come by itself.
That means whenever we see an effect, we assume that there is a cause. Now, the time duration between cause and effect can vary. Say for example, if I put my hand in fire, the cause and the effect are almost instantaneous.
I put my hand in fire and there is burning. On the other hand, say if I overeat gluttonously at midnight, I may feel good at that time. But, next morning I may have an aching stomach.
There, the cause and effect may be after 6 hours or 8 hours. Or, say somebody starts smoking prodigiously at the age of 20 and at the age of 40, they get lung cancer. There, the time delay may be 20 years between the cause and the effect.
So, we see that even in our own lives, there are different causes may produce effect after different durations. So, karma is basically the action. The word karma can have many meanings.
One meaning is the system of action-reaction. But, karma also means action. So, the kind of actions that we do, they are like seeds that are sown.
Now, when we sow seeds, just as in nature, different seeds fructify after different durations. If we sow grains, then we can harvest them within 2-3 months. If we sow some fruits, they may come within 2-3 years.
Some fruits may take 10-15 years. So, like that, every action that we do, it is like sowing a seed. And when we sow a seed, it will grow, it will fructify.
But, the time duration between choice and consequence. See, cause and effect, we talk in terms of science. In terms of human arguments, we talk about choice and consequence.
So, that may vary. And sometimes, one action may produce a consequence not in this life also. So, a common question that people have is, why do bad things happen to good people? And it is sad.
It can be heartbreaking when we see some people who are living very well and suddenly some terrible thing happens in their lives. So, if however, we are honest with ourselves. You know, I often give talks in colleges and I ask students.
Sometimes, it happens that we study and then some very peculiar question comes and then we do not do well. But, sometimes it also happens that we do not study much and whatever we study, that only comes in the exam. And we are able to do well.
So, it is not necessarily that destiny always gives us a bad hand only. Sometimes, it gives us good also. So, the point is that our actions produce consequences.
Some of them may come in this life, some of them may come in our next life. So, when we say, why do bad things happen to good people? What it means is that the people who have done good right now, all their good is going to produce good consequences in future. But, if they are getting some bad results, then that means they have done something bad in the past, because of which the results are coming.
So, you know, if I have a big water tank and this is considered a hypothetical situation. So, if I am putting in, if I have put in a lot of dirty water before and then I am putting in clean water from top. So, it is a big tank.
The clean water is going in from the top, but earlier there was dirty water. So, when I pull out a tap, open a tap over here, although I am putting in clean water from here, dirty water is coming out. Why is that? You say, I am putting in clean water.
No, but there was dirty water earlier, which we had only put earlier. So, when we say bad things happen to good people, that means they are putting in good water right now and that good water will also come out eventually, no doubt. So, good deeds never go in vain.
But right now, if they had done something bad, those results will come now. So, the important thing is that the causes always produce effects, but there may be a time delay and during that time, when we have the understanding of the system of karma, then the time delay does not discourage us too much. Otherwise, when we are doing right things, when we are doing good things, if we do not understand that there will be a variant time delay, we may start feeling that, oh, there are no results now.
That good, even if I do good, I am only going to get bad. Why do I do good? No, this delay may be there, but there is always the result, which comes out as per our actions. So, this understanding of the chain of cause and effect in terms of karma, it has multiple effects.
Now, the question, why don’t reactions come in the same line? We have to understand that the reactions are not just simplistic because here there are people involved. It’s like if we talk about the laws of physics, it’s mechanical. If I hit with this much force, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
It’s purely mechanical law. So, in a story associated with the Mahabharata, it’s stated that the Dhritarashtra once asked Krishna, Krishna, I had 100 sons and why did all of them have to die? Why couldn’t one son be spared? So, Krishna told Dhritarashtra that 50 lifetimes ago, you had been a hunter and as a hunter, you once went and tried to shoot some birds and when the birds slipped away, you got angry and you ravaged the nests that were there. And there in those nests, there were 100 birdlets.
Some of them were eggs, some of them were birds just coming out and some of them were baby birds. You killed all the 100 birds. And because of that action of killing the 100 birds and the mother and father bird, they are watching helplessly while you are killing them.
You caused them that agony of losing their 100 progeny. So, you had to suffer the consequence of losing your 100 sons. So, Dhritarashtra became pensive and then he asked, Okay, if that happened 50 lifetimes ago, then why did I get the reaction now? So, Krishna said that for 50 lifetimes, you had to earn the punya by which you could get 100 sons in one lifetime.
And then that reaction came to you. So, Krishna in 4.7 in the Bhagavad Gita says, गहनां कर्मणों वर्ति That the way karma works is gahan, it’s complex. So, there is action produces reaction, but there are many factors involved in the appropriate reaction coming at the appropriate time.
And that’s why there can be variant time durations in the connection between action and reaction. So, I’ll just take a couple of points here from what is the result? So, basically, if we consider karma alone, or we consider action-reaction alone, without considering reincarnation, without considering a multiple life perspective, then we will feel that there is no justice in this world. That people who are wrongdoers, sometimes they flourish, they are so powerful.
And people who do good, sometimes they are sidelined, sometimes they are persecuted. So, what is the point of it all? But even if we sometimes feel like this, we may feel there is no justice, but still we all function with an intuitive assumption of cause and effect. We just can’t live without understanding of cause and effect.
There may be some exceptions. Most of the time, say, if somebody calls a doctor in the morning, Doctor, I’ve got a stomach upset. The first thing the doctor will ask is, What did you eat last night? Normally there is a correlation.
Sometimes there will be some exceptions. Sometimes it may happen that I have not eaten anything odd, but suddenly somehow my stomach has become upset. So now, when that happens, there might be some systemic problem in the stomach, which is going on for a long time, and suddenly it’s surfaced.
There can be some other causes. See, even in science, and this will be a little technical, so I won’t go deep into that. In science, whenever scientists come up with a particular theory, then, say, Newton produced the classical physics.
Then, by the 20th century, scientists found that at the microscopic level, these theories did not work. Classical physics, the microscopic particles were not obeying those laws, as well as huge bodies, they didn’t seem to be obeying those laws. So at that time, scientists didn’t give up the assumption of there being laws in nature.
They said we have to probe deeper. This law was making sense due to Newtonian physics at a normal level of functioning, but when it doesn’t make sense, means there may be some deeper law working. And that’s how, for the subatomic level, quantum physics was proposed, and for the cosmic level, relativity was proposed.
So this example itself is technical, but the principle is that science moves on by assuming that even when certain laws don’t seem to work, they assume that the principle of laws at work is true. We just have to probe deeper to understand what the laws are. So normally in our life, we do see a connection between cause and effect.
If I study well, I do understand the subject, and I do get good marks. Sometimes it may happen that I may study well, and still I may not get good marks. Sometimes it may happen that some person studies a little bit only, and they get good marks.
These exceptions are there, but the exceptions don’t disprove the law. The exceptions point to some deeper application of the law. So if we integrate the principle of karma with reincarnation, then we can get this deeper understanding of the law.
Otherwise, if we see that, say, without this integration of karma and reincarnation, life seems to be extremely unjust, right from the start itself. All of us, some of us are born wealthy, some of us are born poor, some of us are born good looking, some of us are born with average looks, some of us are born very intelligent, great memory, some of us are born with mediocre memories, some of us are born with healthy bodies, some of us are born with sickly bodies. So why this difference? Why this difference? If we just start from the starting point itself, if we see, there are basically three options.
First option is that everything happens by chance. And everything happens by chance, and some people are just unlucky. You know, why are you born in a poor family? You are unlucky.
Well, basically this reduces life to a cosmic lottery. And some people are the losers in this cosmic lottery. It’s actually a doctrine of hopelessness.
Because if life is just chaotic, everything is happening by chance, anytime the lottery may work against us, and everything we may lose. So this is the atheistic world view. Then we can have the theistic world view, but without reincarnation.
I accept God, but I don’t believe in reincarnation. There are people who think like that. Now the problem with that is, then how do we explain the differences among people in the world? Why are some people poor, some people wealthy? Why are some people good looking, some people average looking? Then it appears as if God has done that.
And if God has made this discrimination, then God becomes partial. If God becomes partial, if God becomes discriminatory, then how can I devote myself to such a God? It becomes very difficult to adore a person. If we had siblings, and if we found that our parents were partial to a particular sibling, then it becomes very difficult to wholeheartedly love such a parent.
So it’s not just partial, it’s usually discriminatory. If God makes someone healthy and someone sickly, why would God do such a thing? If you understand God is good, then it doesn’t make sense at all. So in fact this conception, many people, if they have to accept this idea that God made all the discriminations in this world.
You see, if God can be so unfair, if God can play favourites like this, better I’ll not believe in such a God. People turn towards atheism quite often because they can’t reconcile God’s goodness with the world’s inequities. How can there be so much inequality in this world and how can we believe that there is a good God? But if you understand this inequality is not coming from God, it is coming from our own actions from previous lifetimes.
Then we can reconcile the two. So God is simply giving us the consequences of our actions. And the important thing is that our starting points in this life will be different.
But we all have an opportunity to grow. So once we start off in life, quite often the starting point doesn’t matter all that much. These are different starting points as I said.
You can have these three explanations, chance or divine caprice. Divine caprice means God has arbitrarily decided certain things. Or we can have multi-life progression.
So this multi-life progression is the way, is the most intellectually satisfactory explanation that reconciles a good God with the inequality of this world. And further if you go, the further positive results of the karma reincarnation worldview. What are they? Firstly is that the jungle becomes a university.
What does that mean? That if we have a pure materialistic world, then basically it’s a dog-eat-dog world. Everybody is out to compete with everyone else. And everybody thinks that I have to pull down others to move up myself.
But when we have this vision of multi-life progression, then we understand that okay, if somebody is wealthier than me, somebody is cleverer than me, somebody looks better than me, that does not mean that they are permanently there and I am permanently here. It’s the university, say I am in the first standard and somebody else is in the seventh standard. Well, I will also go to the seventh standard one day.
And those who are in the seventh standard, they have also gone through the grind of the first standard. So rather than seeing this as unjust, we see this as progressive. We don’t see the jungle as a university and we move forwards.
We all have the opportunity to move forward from where we are without being unnecessarily negatively disposed towards those who are elsewhere. Maybe ahead us. See, if we have this competitive mentality, then those who are ahead, they will only push others down.
But if you understand the progress, then it is that we will all move cooperatively forwards. So the world, another important point of this karma reincarnation worldview is that the world is a station, not a destination. Whatever situation we are in right now, it is temporary.
It is temporary. And we do have to make decent arrangements for being over here. But while we are living here, we do have to have, just like if we have a rented house, we will make it reasonably comfortable, fairly respectable, attractive.
But we do at the back of our mind, this is a rented house. I don’t have to invest all my energy over here. I’ll have to move out a new house.
So like that, when we understand this world is a station, not a destination. We do work in this world, but we don’t get consumed by the inequalities of this world. Because even if somebody is having a better house than me, but even their house is a rented house of mine.
So even if somebody is more good looking than me, still they are not their bodies. Their body is also temporary like mine. And we are all going through this journey.
So the progressiveness of life becomes very beautifully revealed when we see life as a multi-life progression. And then what goes around comes around. Eventually, if I do something, the consequences, both positive and negative will come to me.
And with respect to leadership and with respect to self-leadership, the important thing is that immorality dwarfs us into weaker versions of ourselves. That means that each time I make a choice, that choice doesn’t just have an external consequence. It has an internal consequence.
Let me say, if we consider, say there’s two students, they’re staying in a hostel here, this is a college. And say there is a liquor bar in between. Now one student has been brought up in a very cultured family.
The parents have taught very nicely. That student decided, I’m not going to drink. He just passes by, doesn’t even think about drinking.
But the other student thinks, I want to explore life, I want to enjoy. So the student goes and drinks once. And then does twice.
And every time the student passes by the bar, what happens is, thought, maybe I can go and drink. And that student indulges again and again. And what happens after that is, as soon as they start off, the mind has already gone inside the bar.
And sometimes some people become so addicted that the first thought they get after waking up is, I have to drink. And the last thought they have is, they drink and then they sleep. So what happens is, here there is a bondage that is happening.
Invisible rope between the person and in this case the bottle. It’s invisible but it’s a tight rope. आशा पाश शता इन पद्धा Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, our own desires bind us.
16.11 says, पाश, their desires bind us. So like that, every time we make a wrong choice, every time we act immorally, that is causing a bondage. Remember earlier I talked about the default programming of the mind.
So similarly, same point over here, that every time we make a choice, if it is an ethical choice, if it is a positive choice, it expands our consciousness, it enables us to grow. Otherwise it constricts us. And in that way, when we see this life in this long term vision, then we understand that the moral choices, the wise choices, they are truly for my own good.
That actually they will help me to grow. Even if we just have a materialistic conception of life, then we will think that, yeah, I am good, but then still, as they say, good guys finish last. That’s what we will see from the materialistic perspective.
But from the spiritual perspective, we will understand that every choice has a consequence. And the good that I do, it will come to me. And the bad that I do, that will also come back to me and that will shackle me.
So this way, there is this empowering result of the karma reaction going on. That actually provides us the wisdom and the inspiration to make healthy choices. So I started by this talk by saying how leaders need trust to bind their team together.
And that trust comes from integrity. And one level of foundation for integrity is the understanding of karma. That if I understand that actually my actions will have consequences, then naturally I will want to choose in a way that will produce good consequences for me, good results for me.
And in that way, we can move onwards in our life journey. This is a very life-enhancing vision that life is not just a journey from birth to death, but life is a multi-life progression. And no matter even if we seem to be in a small or insignificant position right now, we have the opportunity to progress towards the highest destination now, the highest destination.
And how fast we progress, it depends on our choices. So this is the assume accountability. That’s our… I’ll just continue speaking and then the PowerPoint is there to continue.
So we are progressing now in our thought flow. So we discussed about the mind, the mind in the fourth session and the fourth sutra. Fifth is about assume accountability.
That means our actions have consequences. And therefore, we need to choose our actions in a healthy way. Especially for a leader, one of the most defining kind of actions is the words.
Yeah. That’s what this topic will be. Words shape words.
Choose your word. Watch your words. Words shape words.
And therefore, watch your words. Chanakya Pandit says that if you want to conquer the world, first thing you need to know, first thing you need to learn is the art of effective speaking. Because leaders, world conquerors, they may be able to fight and be very resourceful.
But ultimately one person cannot conquer the world. They have to have troops, they have to galvanise troops, to sign treaties. So speaking is extremely important.
Now, effective communication of course has two parts. It’s verbal and non-verbal. So through our gestures, through our body language, we convey a lot.
But especially in today’s world, where we are living in an increasingly digital world, where we send messages, where we use emails, quite often the words have become very important. How we use the verbal communication is becoming increasingly important. And the verbal communication, because the non-verbal aids are not there, so the verbal communication, if it is not effective, when we speak something but its impact is exactly opposite of what we wanted to say or different from what we wanted to say.
Now words can, broadly speaking, serve two purposes. They can act as windows or they can act as walls. A window enables us to see through.
So if I am talking with someone, then I want them to understand me and I want to understand them. So if we choose words properly, then the words act as windows, so that I can see what they are thinking and they can see what I am thinking. But sometimes the words are not chosen with appropriate thought, with adequate thought, then the words act like walls.
And when two people start quarrelling, sometimes the more they speak, the more, both seem to be getting angrier and angrier and angrier. So it’s like every word that they are speaking, that word is like adding one brick till the wall in between then becomes like a China wall. This cannot be scaled.
And in this way, the misunderstandings grow more and more. So the art of speaking is that we should be able to speak words that act as windows, not as walls. The Bhagavad Gita talks about this in the 17th chapter, 16th verse it says, अनुद्वेग करम् वाक्यम् सत्यं प्रिय हितम् चयत् स्वाध्याया भेसनं चयिव वान्मयं तप उच्छते So it describes how we should speak.
It’s interesting, the first characteristic says, अनुद्वेग करम् Speak words that are non-agitating. अनुद्वेग करम् वाक्यम् सत्यं Speak truthfully. प्रिय, speak in a pleasing way.
हितम्, speak in a beneficial way. स्वाध्याया भेसनं चयिव स्वाध्याया भेसनं, that means recite scripture, recite spiritual sound. वान्मयं तप उच्छते, this is austerity of speech.
So when we speak, austerity of speech means, we all have the power to speak. Nowadays we use the word austerity, especially in financial terms. The government imposes some austerity measures, because the economy is going down.
So basically austerity means, we can spend a lot, but we are told spend less. Or we can do this much, but we choose to do lesser. So austerity basically means voluntary regulation.
So austerity of speech means, we voluntarily choose to regulate our speech in a particular way. So अनुद्वेग करम्, Krishna says first of all, the Bhagavad Gita does is, speak in a non-agitating way. As it is, the world has many many sources of agitation.
Now I sometimes write for the Speaking Tree. Now the Speaking Tree has become a very big column. It started around 12 years ago.
At that time when I was writing, it was the first spiritual column in the country. Later on many other newspapers have got that. Speaking Tree is a spiritual column in the Times of India.
So I had asked the editor how she got the inspiration to start the Speaking Tree. She gave a very interesting explanation. She said that all the news that is there in the newspaper, it is basically about three things.
She said deceit, death and destruction. There is deceit, death and destruction. There is corruption here, there is a scandal there, there is this earthquake here, there is this curfew here, there is terrorism there.
So basically it’s all negative news that agitates people’s mind. She said we wanted at least one corner in our newspaper which would make people’s mind pacified. And that’s why we have this spiritual column.
So the idea is there is enough already to agitate the mind. And when we are speaking, if we also speak in a way that agitates people, then that agitation causes alienation. None of us, say for example, if I am sitting here and I find there is something which is pinching me, maybe there is a nail or there is anything sharp over here, immediately I will move away from there.
So why? Because there is a natural reflex action to protect ourselves from that which causes any discomfort or pain. So with respect to physical objects it is easy to understand. Okay, there is a thorn over there, there is a nail over there, I will naturally move away from it.
But our words can also act as verbal thorns or verbal nails. And when we habitually speak in agitating ways, then that creates alienation. And then people are always tender-footed around us.
What is this person going to speak? How are they going to speak? They can never open their heart, they cannot really come close to us, they cannot trust us. Because they just don’t know what verbal barbs are going to come my way next. So there cannot be trust if there is habitual speech which is agitating.
Unfortunately, some people consider expertise in insulting others as a sign of intelligence. The more sarcastic, the more sharper the way I can send a barb at others, I am so clever. And that is one kind of cleverness.
But that is cleverness that will cause loneliness. Even if other people laugh, if I make a taunt at others and other people laugh with me, but actually they will always be at their back afraid, this person will make a taunt at me like this also in future. So when we are agitating speech, then actually we alienate people because of that agitation.
So now this does not mean that all the time we are just flattering people. No, Krishna also says, we have to speak truthfully. But truthful speech does not always have to be necessarily harsh speech.
Truth can also be spoken palatably. Especially when somebody is a leader, as a leader, there is a responsibility to point faults. Okay, this you are expected to do like this, but you have done it like this.
This is not right. So now fault finding is to some extent necessary when anyone is a leader. But even while finding faults, the fault can be found in various ways.
That means fault finding can be seen as an obligation or it can be seen as a temptation. Temptation means we delight in pointing out the faults of others. And people can also make out when somebody is speaking something to me, when somebody actually wants my good and that’s why they are telling me this faults or when they actually just want to push me down, to show to themselves and to me and to the world that I am a fool.
And when this happens, it demoralises people. Many corporate surveys have shown that there are many motivators for people. Money is one of the biggest motivators for people when they are working.
But along with money, what people want is also to be valued. Unfortunately, in our society, people’s self-worth is equated with their net worth. Now how much you earn, that’s how much you are worth.
That’s how it is thought. And although the net worth is important, but everybody wants to be valued. And if people feel that I am valued in a particular place, then they work there in a committed way.
And that valuing, a large part of that valuing comes through the word that we use. So for a leader, people can come with their hands, that means they just bring their skills. People can come with their hands and their head.
They are not just using their skills, but they are also using their creativity. People can come with their hands, their head and their heart. That means people can offer their whole being.
And when they will offer their whole being, hands, head and heart is when they feel a connection with what they are doing. When they are inspired to do their best. And the word that a leader uses, that makes a lot of difference in how much people are inspired to contribute.
So although the truth has to be spoken, the truth can be spoken gently. So I will talk about two points over here. As I said, should we avoid all confrontation? No, but speak harsh truth gently.
And the gentleness of speech does not necessarily mean that we do not speak the truth. It simply means that every time if we consider our self-esteem, we all of us need self-esteem to function in life. If we consider our self-esteem to be like a balloon, then every time somebody criticises us, whether that criticism is true or false, whatever it is, that deflates the balloon.
It’s like air going out of it. And if we consider whenever anybody appreciates us, that appreciation can be genuine or it can be flattery. Either way, that inflates the balloon.
So now, of course, when we use, some people may have a very inflated ego. And then they want to surround themselves with flatterers so that they want to be always having that inflated self-conception. But irrespective of that, some people may have a big ego, but whatever it is, we all need a healthy self-esteem.
Anything that we have to do in life, if we don’t have some basic confidence that I can do it, then we just don’t attempt anything. And others words, we’ll talk in a later discussion, how we can get self-esteem from within. But even if we have a spiritual conception by which you can get self-esteem from within, still others words shape us a lot.
And especially leaders, they want to bring the best out of their team. So if we consider the self-esteem reservoir, every time we criticise someone, their self-esteem reservoir is going down. And every time we appreciate someone, the self-esteem reservoir goes up.
So now, if we only appreciate, people will never improve because they’ll become complacent. If we only criticise, then also people may never improve. Why? Because they may lose confidence that will I ever be able to improve.
So there has to be that intelligent balance between correction and appreciation. And so whenever correction has to be done, if overall there has been an interaction where there is a healthy relationship between people. Now that person trusts me that I am their well-wisher and I want their good.
Once that bond is there, even if there is some correction, they understand that this is actually for my good. This is actually for my good. And when there is appreciation for what good is done, then people feel, yes, let me do this more.
So it’s like if you’re driving a car, what happens is a car, by nature, tends to go off track. It may go left, it may go right. So there has to be continuous steering of the wheel.
Left, left, right, left, right. And that way, little, little, the wheel has to be moved, but that keeps the vehicle straight. So like that, at different stages in people’s life, people may need appreciation, people may need correction.
But there has to be a basic relationship where people feel valued. And once that is there, then the whole relationship can help people bring out their best. And if you look at the Bhagavad Gita itself, it is a demonstration of the power of words.
The Bhagavad Gita is actually 700 verses only. And 700 verses, if you consider, each verse has around 15-16 words, four words in each line, sometimes less also. So it’s basically around 12,000 words.
So that is on just two pages of the Times of India. There are more words actually. So the Bhagavad Gita is just less words than two pages of a daily newspaper.
And that brings about a complete transformation in Arjuna. At the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is depressed. विस्रुज्यससरं चापं शोकसं वीडिन मानसा Arjuna is put aside, he is more disheartened, saying, I will not fight.
न योध्सेति गोविन्दं उक्त्वतु श्नीं बभुवाः न योध्सेति गोविन्दं I cannot fight Arjuna. And at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what has happened? यत्र योगेश्वर कृष्णू यत्र पार्थो धनूर्धरः Arjuna is Dhanurdhara. He has picked up his bow, he is ready to fight.
So Arjuna’s morale has been completely restored by Krishna’s words. And this is the extent of the transformation that can come by the power of words. And how do we tap the power of words? I talked about certain principles of discipline.
But here the Bhagavad Gita also says that स्वाद्धाय आप देशने मुझे वर that there are spiritual sounds. That the Bhagavad Gita’s verses itself is spiritual sound. And we will talk about meditation a little later.
Meditation is also centred on spiritual sound. What do the spiritual sounds do? They actually connect us with our higher self. I talked about the mind and the impulses.
So even in our speech we have impulses to speak irritably, to snap at others. But when we connect with our spiritual core, when our soul comes in control, then we will naturally speak with gentleness, kindness and maturity. So reciting of verses or reciting of spiritual sound, reciting of the names of God, this is a way by which we connect with our higher self.
So we are ourself using our power of speech in a spiritual way. So when we recite mantras, when we recite shlokas, this purifies our power of speech. And when our power of speech becomes purified, then it naturally acts in purer ways.
So reciting verses and reciting mantras, this may seem to be just one activity that we are doing. But that activity will have a cumulative effect on the rest of our life. And our speech will become better overall.
And we will be able to have much more constructive consequences. Words shape worlds. Words shape worlds means actually if you see, at a destructive point of view, Hitler, what did he do? In 1920 after the First World War, Germany was defeated.
But then he came up with the idea of Nazism. And he would give speeches televised on German TV at that time. And slowly but surely he was poisoning the whole country.
And then that caused the Second World War. The idea that this one country will be able to conquer the whole world, it was from the military point of view, from the politics point of view, it was absurd. But just he caused everyone to believe that.
That is the power of words. So words can have negative power, words can have positive power. And the important thing is, this when you talk about the power of words, this should not be equated with fluency in speech.
Fluency in speech is one aspect of the power of words. Actually speaking, those who are very fluent in speaking, they can sometimes be very reckless in speaking also. Because they can speak so easily, they don’t need to think so much while speaking.
So fluency in speech is a skill that some of us may have, some of us may not have. Or some of us may have a lot, some of us may have moderately. But when we are talking about tapping the power of words, it’s not simply fluency in speech.
It is actually maturity in speaking. And in this case, sometimes actually lack of fluency may work out better for us. Because if I’m not very fluent in speaking, then I have to think before I speak.
And if I think before I speak, then I’ll be more mature when I’m speaking also. Some people are what is called motor mouths. They just speak so loosely and they get themselves into trouble.
So one vital aspect of speaking well is to know when not to speak. And that capacity to not speak is easier when we don’t have much fluency. So here, that fluent speaking is a quality more associated with public leadership.
When a person is very fluent at speaking, they will be able to influence a lot of people. But when it comes to personal leadership, when it comes to having character and actually motivating people in day-to-day activities in life, often restraint in speech may be more important than fluency in speech. So there are certain external attributes of fluency, such as fluency, which we may or may not have.
But this restraint in speech, this regulation of speech, by which our speech will become more productive, that is something which all of us can develop. And by tapping the principles of the Bhagavad Gita and the practises, practises of recitation of verses, we all can move forward and tap this power of words. So I’ll move on to the next one now.
No, it’s here. No, no, no, I’ve got it here. I know what I’m doing.
Yeah. So the seventh, eighth, I will just be taking them a little quickly now. So life determines our problems.
We determine their size. All of us have to go through problems. We just cannot avoid that.
But how can we say that we determine the size of our problems? A simple example. Suppose we are going for an outing. We are going for a picnic with our friends.
And just before the picnic, we get a flu. And doctor tells us you cannot go anywhere. I’ll actually be frustrated.
I wanted to go out. All my friends are having such a nice time. And I’m lying here in this bed, helpless, frustrated.
So now there is some amount of frustration that is natural. But if I think about it objectively, when I have a flu and I’m recovering from the flu, there is some bodily discomfort because of the flu. But it’s not that there is perpetual misery because of that.
But if I am resentful, I could have there all enjoying. Why am I like this? And resentment of reality often hurts more than reality. The reality is painful.
But when I’m resenting that reality, that resentment hurts much more. The discomfort caused by that flu is, there is some amount of discomfort. But when I’m always thinking about it, why, why, why, why? Then that hurts me much more.
So when we determine the size of the problem, what does that mean? That means based on our attitude towards the problem, we, towards the problematic situation, we can burden ourselves more or we can burden ourselves less. It’s like if a person is a porter, a coolie, and they are given 20 kg weight to carry. 20 kg is difficult.
But while carrying 20 kg, they put 10 kg more. It will become all the more difficult to carry. So like that, there are problems in life.
But sometimes when we just obsess over the problem, then we make the situation worse. When we obsess over the problem, we make the problem bigger and bigger and bigger. So we determine the size.
Suppose I’m going for some meeting or some party and then someone snubs me. They may snub me within 10 seconds. For the next 10 hours, I may be seething, having all kind of revenge fantasies.
Next time in public, I’ll snub that person. Now, yes, if they snub me, it’s a cause for concern. But I don’t have to waste my whole day because of that.
So there is a problem over there and I may have to deal with that problem. But we often make the size of the problem much bigger than what it needs to be. So by spiritual understanding, we can actually keep the problem from becoming bigger than it needs to be.
So one problem, we’ll talk about three ways how we can avoid this. First is don’t eternalise the present. Eternalising the present means what? That when we have a problem, quite often the mind makes us imagine that this situation is going to be like this forever.
This problem is going to be there forever. And once I start thinking in terms of forever, it seems I can’t manage it. I can’t do it.
So for example, say if I had to carry a 1 kg brick or a 5 kg bag, I can carry it. But if I had to carry this 5 kg bag for the rest of my life, if I was told to carry 5 kg for the rest of my life, in five minutes, I’ll start feeling it to be a burden. So in this world, nothing is permanent.
The pleasures of this world are temporary and the problems of the world are also temporary. The problems of the world are also temporary. Even if we feel a particular problem is going to be there for a long, long time, but still it is temporary.
So when we eternalise the problem, that means the problem is there, but we imagine this problem is going to be forever. And that way we make it bigger than it needs to be. So don’t eternalise the problem.
Don’t eternalise the present. When the present is problematic, we know that it is going to come and it is going to pass. Some of us can do this thought exercise later.
You can look back at your life and maybe think of your 10th standard exam or 12th standard exam. And maybe just before the exam, we think we are in so much tension. This is the most important exam of my life.
What will happen if I don’t do well? Now if we look back, okay, that exam came. We did appear for the exam. Whatever happened, life has gone on.
Life doesn’t end, but when a problem comes, we feel as if if I don’t deal with this problem, the whole world is going to come crashing down. So this will eternalise the problem, then we make it bigger than what it needs to be. And thus we disempower ourselves.
So no matter how big the problem is, it is temporary. Going back to the past karma example, sometimes by the kind of action that we have done, we sometimes get certain problems. So sometimes we may just fall sick for no reason or sometimes there is some misunderstanding in our family, some friction among the family members, sometimes there is some trouble in the office.
And we may try our best to resolve those problems and we should try our best. But sometimes the problem seems to be just going on and on. No matter what we do, it seems to be going on and on.
So at that time, when we are doing our best to deal with the problem, but still it goes on, we need to recognise that there are some things beyond our power. So we just have to wait and it will go away. It’s like sometimes leeches, in some places the leeches, they bite.
Now when the leech bites, at that time, it’s very painful. And the leech is actually sucking the blood from our body. It’s scary to think that somebody is actually taking blood from my body.
And I may want to pull the leech out. But while the leech is sucking the blood, it holds on so tightly, that if I try to pull it out, it will rip out my whole skin. It will not let go.
But if I just wait, the leech has its own tubule, which it will fill with blood. And once the tubule is filled with blood, the leech will let go. And if you just flip it, it will fall off.
It will fall off. So at that time, similarly, some problems are like leeches. When the problem comes and we just get overwhelmed by the problem, and somehow or the other I have to solve it, and we just have some knee-jerk reaction at that time.
That’s like pulling out the leech, and our whole skin comes out. The problem becomes much worse than what it used to be. But if you just wait, here waiting is not necessarily passivity.
Waiting is maturity. When we understand that there are certain problems which are there, they will be there for some time, they will go. So if we recognise that, okay, no matter how bad the present is, it is not forever.
It is not permanent. Don’t eternalise the present. That way we can minimise the size of the problems.
Then we’ll talk about two principles of humility and tolerance. Humility empowers us to not let our ego interfere with our purpose. Many times people talk of humility.
That means, oh, everybody will treat me like a doormat. Everybody will trample over me. That is not humility.
Humility essentially means that we have certain purpose in life, and whether while pursuing that purpose, sometimes I will be respected, sometimes I will not be respected, but I will stay fixed in my purpose. So sometimes people feel that in a professional setting, how can I be humble? I have to promote myself. I have to always tell, I have all these skills.
I have to write my CV. I have to promote. That promotion is fine.
But even in a corporate setting, actually speaking, if we are in a team, and if I am the leader of the team, and if some team member comes up with a good suggestion, then if I have the humility to accept that suggestion, then that whole team can grow. If I think it’s my way or the highway. If I start thinking like that, then it is not a team, it is only one person who is working.
And this has double negative effects. One is that the other people feel resentful that our voice is not heard, our inputs are not taken. And secondly, the burden of the responsibility on me increases too much.
So actually humility can, even in a corporate setting, be empowering. If we go beyond certain stereotypes of humility that we may have, and understand humility as not letting our ego come in the way of our purpose. I am the boss, my idea should be right.
How can somebody else have a better idea? No. When I say my ideas, even my ideas are actually coming from what I have studied, what I have learned from others. If I got inspiration, that is coming from some higher source, that is coming from God.
So similarly others have learned something, they can also get some ideas. So if we have this humility, we can take constructive inputs from others also. And another very valuable role that humility plays is, humility allows us to share credits.
When a team succeeds, then if the boss hogs all the credit, I did all this, then there are few things more disheartening for the team members. We did all the work together, and the boss is taking all the credit for oneself. Why did the boss say yes? I worked but we had a whole team with, and the boss appreciates.
That is humility. So we don’t have to think of humility in some negative stereotype as becoming a doormat for everyone. Humility means actually appreciating others.
Humility means being open to ideas from others. And humility means being willing to learn from others. If we see humility in that sense, then humility can be a big empowerment.
And how can it help us to decrease the size of problems? See quite often, when we have a big ego, then we expect a lot from others. And when others don’t give us what we expect, then we blow up. If I go into a particular place and expect that everybody will respect me, and then people don’t respect me adequately, then people just get wild.
Especially when I see, nowadays in the media we always hear politicians. When they go in an aeroplane, they expect all the time privilege, special privilege. I should be served first and this and that.
And when they don’t get it, they snap mentally. So what happens here is this arrogance, it is impeding them in whatever they are meant to do. So humility, so just a small thing goes wrong.
If I am proud, if I am arrogant, I become hypersensitive. A small neglect, a small slight, I make it into a very big thing. But no, we can just move onwards in our life.
So humility in that sense can be very empowering. We will be able to avoid small slights and move onwards in our life. Many of the ego tussles that come, they can be avoided when there is humility.
And problems can be minimised that way. Closely related to humility is tolerance. Krishna talks about humility in the 13th chapter as the first quality of knowledge.
Humility is the beginning of knowledge. To the extent we have humility, to that extent we can learn. Amaanitvam.
So then he talks about tolerance. Titiksha. Now tolerance means what? That we all in life have to choose our battles.
Choosing our battles means there are so many things that are wrong around us. There are so many things we would like to do. So many things which we feel I can contribute to.
But we have to choose. What can I do? Suppose say I am going to the office for an important meeting. And I am planning.
I have all planned nicely. Okay, I am going to make this presentation, speak these points and in this way I will pursue it. Now I am going in my car and suddenly somebody just cuts across me.
And I just get so angry. How dare? And then I start seething. You know that person cut across me and is going.
And I think I will catch him. I will chase him and I will punish him. And then that person goes off and I am still caught with that person.
I am seething. And by the time I reach my office, I am so exhausted mentally because of that anger that I can’t offer my presentation properly. So often it is said that keep small things small.
And the capacity to keep small things small that comes from tolerance. Tolerance does not mean impotence. Tolerance does not mean that anybody and everybody can do whatever they want and I will passively tolerate.
That is not the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. When the Kauravas did so much injustice, the Pandavas were assertive in countering it. And such assertiveness was what Krishna asked Arjuna to apply.
But while we are being assertive, we have to choose which battle to fight. You know maybe I will decide I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. If I try to do all things, I will not be able to do anything.
So tolerance means I decide that these are small things for me, these are important things for me. So if this is a small thing, I will neglect it. So tolerance enables us to keep small things small so that we can focus on the big things in life.
When we are not able to discern between small things and big things, then we feel as if I am overwhelmed by problems from all sides. Now like Abhimanyu was caught in the Chakravyuh. He was caught in six big Maharatas.
We feel this problem also, this problem also, this problem also. How will I deal with it? And then we become crushed underneath. So yes there are problems, but it is not that all problems need to be tackled right now.
Some problems can be just kept in a state of abeyance. So this choosing our battles is something which we can do when we have tolerance. See when we don’t have tolerance, we expect that everything should become the way I want right now.
But life doesn’t go like that. So even if some things don’t go my way, that doesn’t mean nothing should go my way or everything I have to give up. Basically this is very important.
This is very directly related to planning. Now people go through two extremes in planning. One is they try to micro plan their life.
Now morning this minute I will do this, morning then this minute I will do this, this minute I will do this, this minute I will do this. And when we try to micro plan like that, we try to plan our life, but life comes in the way. You know people don’t behave the way we want.
I have planned my whole day and right at the beginning of my day itself my cell phone stops working. I have to go to some dealer to replace the cell phone and so many hours go in that. So when we try to micro plan our life, we get frustrated.
And when we get frustrated like that, we go to the other extreme and say I will not plan only. Whatever happens I will do it. So this happens.
In reality what happens is plans may not work, but planning works. That means plans means I think this, this, this, this, this, I will do like this. That may not exactly work out.
Planning means I get an overall general sense of direction for my life. These are the avenues in my life in which I have to work. So when I have this, when I do overall planning, I am not trying to micro control my life, but I am trying to have a overall direction for my life.
So in our plan, in among our plans, some plans may not work and tolerance enables us to accept that. Okay, some plans don’t work, but still I can go on. Otherwise what happens when one plan doesn’t work, we get so frustrated that we just give up trying other things also.
So the one thing goes wrong, second thing goes wrong, third thing goes wrong. Then we make the fourth thing wrong. Not that it is going wrong, we ourselves do it wrong afterwards.
So that can be avoided if we learn tolerance. That yes, this thing is over. It didn’t work out fine, but doesn’t matter.
Let me go to the next thing. No problem is so big that it is going to end my life. It is not that no matter how big a defeat, no matter how big a mistake, tomorrow always comes.
And I can always make a fresh beginning tomorrow. So we can keep small things small. We can prevent big things from becoming bigger than what they need to be through tolerance.
And again, how do we develop this tolerance? If we have an understanding of ourselves as spiritual. So if I am thinking of myself as a material being, then material things and material issues will seem very big for me. But if I have my understanding that I am spiritual at my core, I am indestructible, I am a part of God, then that will bring a security which will enable us to keep the problem, to see the problem in perspective.
So the eighth principle is work as worship. As I mentioned earlier, this is not work is worship. Work is not automatically worship.
If work itself were worship, then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper. This is not to minimise the idea of work as worship. Work as worship is good as a principle for imbuing, for teaching dignity of labour.
We should not look down at any kind of work. It is good for making people take their work seriously. But work as worship is not a philosophical truth.
It is not that all work is automatically worship. No, work needs to be done in a mood of worship. If work itself is worship, a beggar may say my begging is worship.
A robber may say my robbing is worship. No, all work itself is not worship. Work can be made into worship.
So actually spirituality brings to us a very elevating conception of work. Say imagine there is a teacher. And the teacher is teaching students in the three classrooms.
And three teachers are there for teaching the students. And say a person goes and asks one teacher, what are you doing? Can’t you see? I am trying to teach these dumb kids. Go to second class, ask the teacher, what are you doing? I am earning my living.
Go to third teacher and ask, what are you doing? I am helping shape the world’s future. Now all three are doing the same activity, teaching. But their conception of that activity will determine their inspiration in that activity.
If my conception is these kids, they are dumb, they are lazy, they are troublesome. Then how much inspiration will be there? I will basically try to somehow just stay out of trouble. Or minimise the trouble.
Not if I am saying I am helping shape the world’s future. That will bring out the best from within. So depending on our conception, we may have or won’t have inspiration.
So the Bhagavad Gita offers us inspiring conception of work. Now we can work at four levels. I can work out of fear.
If I don’t work, I will be fired. If I don’t work, I will starve. That is the lowest level of work.
Now fear also is good. If I don’t have fear, then that is unhealthy. So fear is good.
But that is far from the best platform of work. Then beyond fear is desire. Desire means if I work, I will get a raise.
I will get some bonus. I will get a promotion. That’s why I will work.
That is a higher level of work. Then there is, third is duty. This is my job.
I am paid for this. So I will do my work. Desire and duty are good.
But the highest level of work is love. When we work out of love, then we naturally bring out our best. So what does it mean to work out of love? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita talks about Varanashram.
Varanashram is chatur varane mayasushram gunakarmal bhava-darshanam. In 4.13, the Bhagavad Gita says that there are four kinds of people broadly. There are intellectuals, there are administrators, there are merchants and there are general assistants.
Now these actually are, often these are called as the castes. And we talk about the caste system in India and often we say it is a discriminatory caste system. But what the Bhagavad Gita talks about is not castes.
It is talking about human types. Broadly speaking, human beings are of these four types. Some people are intellectual, some people are managerial, some people are mercantile or business orientated, some people are skilled in assisting in other ways.
These are four broad human types. And the purpose of the Bhagavad Gita’s classification of these four human types, it is not discrimination, it is cooperation. So the idea of talking about these four human types is that if people understand their human type and work accordingly, then they can do their best.
If a person is intellectual and they are told to get into money making, they will be miserable. They just can’t do it. They also have to earn money, no doubt.
But they won’t have that expertise at earning money which a person who innately is business orientated will have. So the basic point here is, this is a whole big subject, but the basic point is all of us have certain natures. And we will find that we naturally gravitate towards certain kinds of actions, certain kind of work.
So if we learn that what work is the best for me, if we observe ourselves, we learn from others, then we will be inspired to do the work. Okay, I have a particular talent, I have a particular interest. And I try to develop that interest.
I try to work in that interest. Now most of us may already be situated in particular careers. And you feel it is not practical for me.
But even within a particular career chart, we can gravitate towards the things that we are good at. So basically, what do we mean by the work that is natural to us? There are two aspects to it. There is external competence and there is internal comfort.
When some work is natural for me, then I am naturally competent at doing it. And also I am comfortable doing it. So if somebody is an artist and they are told to do business, they feel uncomfortable.
If they are told to do art, they just naturally do it. So we can observe ourselves in our situation, what is it that I am competent at, what is it that I am comfortable. And this way we can, when we work according to nature, then there is what we call as job satisfaction.
People feel satisfied in what they are doing. And then they blossom in their lives. They make optimum contributions.
And I will skip that middle part actually. Don’t romanticise or demonise work. Utilise it.
Basically, some people think that my work itself will lead me to all fulfilment. And for the sake of work, they neglect everything else. They neglect their family, they neglect their spouses, children.
So their work becomes their identity. They become workaholics. That can be very damaging in the long run.
So there is no need to romanticise work, thinking that my work alone is my identity. But there is another excuse to demonise work. Work is just blood sucking.
Everybody is out there exploiting you. Utilise it. Whatever is our ability, we utilise the work accordingly.
And what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is, how do we work as worship? We understand that what we are is God’s gift to us. We are something right now. We have certain talents, certain interests, certain abilities.
That is what God has given to us. What we are is God’s gift to us. And what we become is our gift to God.
What we become, using the talents that we have, using the abilities that we have, we improve them. We make contributions. And that is our gift to God.
So we see work as a medium for completing a circle of love with God. That there is a circle of love where God has given us gifts, God has given us talents and we make contributions with these talents. So the Bhagavad Gita says in 18.46, yathah pravrttir bhūtānāṁ yena sarvam idaṁ tatam svakarmanāṁ tapam dhyarjam siddhim vindati mānavaham So it says that God is not just some being who is far away somewhere out there.
The whole world has come from him and he pervades the whole world. And thus by acting in this world also we can connect with him. svakarmanāṁ tapam dhyarjam, by your work worship him.
Means we see our work as an offering of love to God. Whatever gifts he has given, we use them to serve God. This means we develop our talents, we develop our abilities and we see our work as an offering to him.
This is 8th. So 9th is retreat within to treat without. Retreat here means to deal with external problems.
So treat without, without is outside. Retreat within is go inside. So meditation minimises inner friction and maximises outer contribution.
The meditation, we may have different visions of meditation, sitting in a particular posture, closing one’s eyes, it’s all fine. But the purpose of meditation is there are multiple desires. aneka-citta-vibhrānta-moha-jāla-samānta.
Krishna says in 16.16, that multiple desires which drag us in different directions. So when we meditate, what happens is all the desires calm down. prashānta-vanasa-dhyenam, yoginam-sukha-muktamam, the mind becomes peaceful.
Krishna says in 6.27 that when the mind becomes peaceful, we become joyful. So what meditation does is, it calms our inner territory. So the best form of meditation for the present age is mantra meditation.
So when we, mantra is actually God manifesting through sound. Mantra is, it’s like there can be any letters A, B, C, D, H, jigsaw puzzles or something, child may have many letters scattered over there, here and there. But if we take a particular combination of letters, E is equal to MC square, there is so much meaning, so much wisdom, so much power packed in that one formula.
Why? Because that’s a specific set of letters arranged together. So like that, mantra is higher power encased together in sound. The specific sound of the mantra enables us to tap, to connect with higher powers.
And when we focus on the mantra, we chant the mantra, this is the recommended mantra for the present times, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare. So when we chant this mantra, it is not just some verbal repetition of the sound. This sound, as we keep repeating it, there is something akin to a magnetic resonance that happens in our consciousness.
Resonance means there are multiple vibrations and they come together to get a loud sound. So like that, when we chant this mantra, our inner desires become harmonised and thus we become more and more focused. So there is friction.
I want to do this. I want to do this. I want to do this.
I talk about my mind’s programmes. Now from the mind itself, this desire, that desire, that desire, we get pulled in different directions. But when we meditate, in all those other programmes, they get pushed in the background.
So going back to the earlier example of virus corrupting a software, so meditation is like an antivirus programme. So when we do meditation, it’s like we are applying an antivirus programme. All the viruses that are there in the mind, they go out and thus we are able to contribute the best.
So it’s retreat within to treat without. We go inwards through meditation and whatever outer problems we have, we can deal with them more effectively. And two other practises, two other ways of retreating within our scriptural study, when we study the Bhagavad Gita, when we study other books of wisdom, they give us intellectual understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
So when we have this understanding, that acts like a map for us. The territory is always around us. But if I want to go somewhere, the territory alone is not enough.
I need a map. The map tells me, okay, I’m here, I should go there. So when we study scripture, that gives us a sense of the territory in terms of a map.
Okay, I’m here, this is where I can go and this is the path by which I can go. And the most important principle is association. Association means we need whatever we want to do in life, we need like-minded people.
It is with like-minded people that our inspiration, our motivation improves. And the more we are away from like-minded people, the more we are there with unlike-minded people. And the more our values will get skewed.
Should I do this? Should I do that? Should I do that? Should I do that? One of the easiest ways to discourage ourselves is to associate with those who are not inspired by what we are doing. If I want to be a writer and if I associate with people who are all businessmen, then what are you doing writing? It’s wasting your time. Where is the money in writing? There is money everywhere if you can earn it.
But if I want to pursue a particular field and if I associate with those who are pursuing a completely different field, I discourage myself. And the same applies to spirituality also. So we need to associate with spiritually-minded people.
And that strengthens our determination. So the last one, I’ll come to a couple of, a few minutes. Last one is never lose heart.
Why never lose heart? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita describes that this world is a broken world. Broken world means there are always things that will go wrong over here. It’s like if we come to a hospital.
In a hospital, it is natural to expect sick people. In a hospital, we don’t come to expect healthy, cheerful, happy people. But the hospital itself, although there is misery in the world, the hospital is not meant to make us miserable.
Misery is a fact of the hospital and the hospital also has a system by which we can become free from misery. So there is suffering in this world. There are problems in this world.
That’s inevitable. The world is a broken place. But the Bhagavad Gita uses a programme that is the programme of living according to Dharma, living according to spiritual principles.
By that we can stay unbroken. Stay unbroken means, actually the Bhagavad Gita’s message is that we are souls, spiritual beings and we are integrally connected with the supreme spiritual being. He is known by different names in different traditions.
The Bhagavad Gita reveals him to be Krishna. Now the Bhagavad Gita reveals a vision of God who is not up there somewhere in the sky judging everyone. It reveals God as the guide by the side.
This is literally for Arjuna, Krishna became his charioteer. So Krishna was the guide by his side. Krishna guided him when he lost his composure, when he lost his cool, when he got confused.
But that is not only for Krishna. That is not only for Arjuna that Krishna was there as his guide. Just as Arjuna was on a chariot, so the Bhagavad Gita also describes that our body is also like a chariot.
Ishvara sarva bhootaanam hrideshya hrithishtati brahmayan sarva bhootaani yantra rungaani maaya In 18.61 Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita that actually all of us are on a vehicle and Krishna is right next to us. So he is the guide by the side of all of us. And Bhagavad Gita explains that God’s love for us is unfailing and unflinching.
No matter what happens, God never stops loving us. There is nothing that we can ever do that will make God say I won’t love you. I will give up on you.
Our parents may give up on us, our spouses may give up on us, our friends may give up on us but God never gives up on us. He is always there with us, always by our side, always there to help us, always there to elevate us. Now we may not always feel his presence or love.
That is because our consciousness is caught in other things. Just like say if a child is watching a horror movie and a mother is sitting next to the child. The child is watching the horror movie and getting horrified.
Horrified, screaming, crying, trembling. The mother is right next to the child but because the child is caught in the horror movie, the child doesn’t realise the mother’s presence and the child feels fearful. So similarly, the more we get caught in worldly things, the less we can feel God’s presence.
And that’s why we may feel lonely, we may feel that I am there alone in this big bad world. How will I fight? But God is always there with us. And the more we practise the principles of Bhakti, especially the more we study scripture, the more we meditate, the more we become attuned to God’s presence.
And we become attuned to God’s presence, the more we realise that he is always there for me. He is always there to help me. He is always there to guide me.
And he is always there to uplift me. So at the very basic level, how do we understand God’s presence or God’s grace? You know, say if it’s very hot outside and if I come to an air-conditioned room, immediately I feel relief from the heat. Actually, the atmosphere out there is still hot.
But as soon as I come inside the room, I feel relief. So like that, in the world, when we go out, there will be agitation, there will be frustration. But if we come in the presence of God, if we remember God, if we come and hear some kirtans, if we come in a place where there is a temple, as soon as we come in that sacred presence, we will feel a sense of relief.
We will feel a sense of calm. Now we may not even understand why that is happening. But that sense of calm will come to us.
And that sense of calm comes because just proximity to God is like entering into a God-conditioned room, like we have an air-conditioned room. So the specific problems that we have, if we expect that, okay, I have this problem, and God, if we treat God like a problem-solving machine, you know, as soon as I come to God, I pray to God, my problems go away, then it may not work like that. But if we come to God for absorbing ourselves in higher consciousness, by which we get the strength to face whatever problems we have, then we will get that strength.
So it is said that don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is. Don’t tell God how big your problems are.
Because when we are doing that, although we are in the presence of God, we are actually in the presence of our problems. Oh, I have this problem, I have this problem, I have this problem. No.
Yes, we have problems, and we may have big problems, but God is bigger. And when we understand this point, that God is always there, if we focus not on first seeking the solution of the problem, if we focus on absorbing ourselves in divinity, in which we are chanting, we are meditating, we are doing kirtan, we are praying, just focus on connecting with God, that itself will give us relief. And with that relief, we will be able to find out how best to deal with the problem.
Srila Prabhupada, who is the founder of ISKCON, he was asked once, what is the best prayer that you can offer to God? So he said, the best prayer is, pray to God, give me the strength to serve you. Give me the strength to serve you. That means whatever situation I am in, you pray to God, give me the strength to go on in this situation.
Then we will find that we do get the strength. Actually, we all like to serve God in one role. We all like to serve God as advisors.
Why did this happen like this? This should have happened like this. This should have happened like that. This should have happened like that.
And the problem is, when we try to advise God, actually this is a role that atheists like very much. You know, for atheists, their God doesn’t exist, except he pops into existence to take advice from them and then he gratefully after taking advice, goes back into non-existence. If God had existed, he would have done like this.
Because he has not done like this, therefore God doesn’t exist. What this means is, see that when we start advising God, God has two aspects. There is omnipotence and there is omniscience.
Omnipotence means he is all-powerful. And omniscience means he is all-knowing, he is all-wise. So when we pray to God on conditional terms, God I will pray to you and you solve this problem like this, like this, like this.
So in this case what are we doing? We are half trusting God. What does it mean half trusting? That means we are trusting God’s strength but not God’s intelligence. That means I think that I have this problem, I can’t solve it, therefore I will go to God.
And God has the strength to solve this problem. So we want to make a team with God where it is my intelligence and God’s strength. So I have faith in God’s strength.
Okay, I can’t do this but I don’t have faith in God’s intelligence. So when we try to act as advisors to God, it doesn’t work like that. Because if we look at it, our own mind keeps giving different advices.
And we get confused by that. So when we go to God, rather than going in conditionally, solve this problem, solve this problem, solve this problem. If we have that mood, whatever situation I am in, please guide me how to move forward.
Please give me the strength to serve in this situation. Then basically we are not only trusting God’s strength, not only God’s omnipotence but also His omniscience. When we have that God is wiser than me.
And He will bring out things to a result which is better than what I can plan, better than what I can envision. So let me do the best that I can in this situation. Let me pray for the strength to do the best.
God often breaks things to make them better. He breaks clouds to give rains. He breaks clouds to give rains.
He breaks the soil to give grains. He breaks the grains to give food. And He breaks the food inside the body to give energy.
So often, sometimes our plans have to be broken so that bigger plans of God, better plans of God can emerge, can manifest in our life. That’s why when we go to God and pray to God, we focus not so much on making God do the things which we feel should be done. We can surely pray to God.
This is what I feel is the best and therefore I pray to Him. But as it is said in the Bible, let thy will be done, not mine. So we pray in a mood of surrender.
And that is what the Bhagavad Gita also demonstrates. I told earlier that Arjuna had put aside his bow and he picked up his bow at the end of the Bhagavad Gita. So this Bhagavad Gita is a historical book but there is also symbolism over there.
Arjuna’s bow represents our determination. You know, life will often present us with perplexities where we lose our determination, we lose our morale. This is Arjuna put down his bow saying I will not fight.
Similarly, life will present us perplexities where we feel what is the point? I just give up. But just as by hearing the message of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna picked up his bow and became ready to fight. Similarly, if we understand the spiritual history of the Bhagavad Gita, we will become inspired by this understanding of God’s unfeeling love for us.
And then we will also be inspired to raise our determination and move onwards. Just as Arjuna attained victory yatra Yogeshwara Krishna, the Bhagavad Gita concludes with a prophecy, a prophecy of victory for the team of Krishna and Arjuna. yatra Yogeshwara Krishna, yatra patho dhanudhara, tatra shri vijayo bhutir, dhruvani tirmatir mama Wherever there is Krishna and Arjuna, there will be victory.
So actually Krishna is already there in our hearts. In all of our hearts he is there. And we all can be like the Arjuna who has lifted up his bow.
If we become determined, Krishna please give me the strength to serve you. So that biblical prayer is let die will be done. It is a prayer of surrender to God.
God whatever you do, I accept it. The Bhagavad Gita actually takes one step forward. And it says in 18.73, the last word that Arjuna speaks.
He says, krishe vachinantava. I will do your will. It is not just that let die will be done.
That means whatever is happening, I accept it. That is good, but along with that we also have to do something. And I will do your will.
So God give me the strength to serve you and I will do your will. With this mood when we have, whatever life sends our way, we will always find a way ahead. And we will be able to move onwards.
I told you yesterday that faith means to take one step forwards even when the full road is not visible. So like that if we have that mood, God please give me the strength to serve you. Then no matter how dark the clouds of confusion or tribulation in our life, we will see the silver lining and we will move onwards and eventually we will see the bright sun of ultimate fulfilment, of ultimate happiness.
So thank you very much for your kind attention. Ray Krishna.