Bring out the best within not the beast within

[Talk at youth forum meeting, Nasik]

I am delighted to be here.
It’s all of me. Krishna Yantra has been a trend for many years. And I heard about the college preaching that he is doing.
It’s a beautiful place, so close to the college, where you can learn about spiritual knowledge and culture along with the mental education that you are getting. It’s a very special privilege that all of you have. I have spoken at colleges and near colleges to the college students.
Many of the best universities, not just in India, but all over the world. And very few have such a good facility for also getting spiritual knowledge along with material knowledge. So, you are all blessed to have this special facility.
I am happy to be here to assist all of you in this one’s following. So, I will speak today on the topic of bring out the best within. Not the beast within.
In the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about the Dayu Asura Sampad Bhaga Yoga. That is, the divine and demoniac natures. And therein he describes how there are certain forces within us which bring out our worst, which degrade us.
So, he talks about Trivitam Narakasetam Dwaram Nashenam Atmanah Kaamah Grodhas Tathalobhas Tasmadev Tatrayam Teje There are three. Trivitam Narakasetam Dwaram There are three gates to hell. Krishna is using this metaphorical language over here.
These are the ways in which not only we may go to hell in the next life, but in this life we may end up with hellish conditions. We will talk about that later. Let’s go over to the next one.
Dwaram Nashenam Atmanah These destroy the soul. They ruin our spiritual prospects. And ruin our core.
So, that’s how they actually bring out the worst within us. Dwaram Nashenam Atmanah Which are these three gates? Kaamah, Grodhas, Tathalobhas There is lust, selfish passion for one’s own enjoyment. There is Krodha, which is anger, wrath.
And there is Loba, greed. Tasmadev Tatrayam Teje Therefore, these three, a wise person should give up. And in the next verse, this is 16.21 16.22 he states Etair Vimuktah Kaunteya Tamodwarai Stribhena Raha Aachiratyaatmanah Shreyas Tathovyatiparangate Etair Vimuktah One has freed from these.
Kaunteya Vajanam Tamodwarai Stribhena Raha These three gates to darkness. Tamah Aachiratyaatmanah Shreyas A person will be able to act in a way Aachiratyaatmanah Shreyas for one’s own benefit. Aachiratyaatmanah Shreyas Tathovyatiparangate And thereafter, one will attain the supreme destination.
So, in these two verses, Krishna is saying that if we succumb to these forces that will bring out the worst within us. That will destroy us. Whereas, if we can resist these forces then we will act in a way that will elevate us.
That will bring out the best within us. So, last year I was, not this year itself, I was in Cambridge. Cambridge University, I was giving a talk and there itself, there is a in Cambridge University, there is a tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling.
Of course, it’s probably not that tree. It’s a descendant of that tree. It is considered to be like a pilgrimage place for scientists.
It’s a sacred place where people go. And now if we see when Newton saw the fruit falling Now, fruits have fallen for millennia. And millions of people have also seen fruits falling for millennia.
Now, instead of Newton, if a monkey had seen the fruit falling the monkey would have simply picked up the fruit eaten it and gone its way. And many humans would also have done the same thing. Just pick the fruit, eat it and go.
Newton asked the question Now, if you see somebody sees a fruit falling, picks it up and eats it what’s wrong with that? There is a fruit and I see you following it. Nice. So, there is nothing wrong in it.
But, that incident which was the engine for the dramatic progress of science that incident indicates it hinges on the capacity, a distinct capacity of human beings. Sometimes, some people think that science and spirituality how can they go together? I don’t think the opposite is belief in God, all this scientific. Actually, Albert Einstein said that the arts, the sciences, the arts and the religions, all three are the fruits of the same tree of the human intelligence.
So, when the human intelligence explores the realm of matter, the material realm, then we come up with sciences. When the human intelligence explores the world of imagination, creativity, not imagination in the sense of falsity, but imagination in the sense of creativity, then we come up with the arts. And when we explore the world beyond the visible world, the trans-material world, the non-material side of our being, that’s how religion and spirituality comes up.
So, it’s not that they are contradictory. They are actually just different directions in the same human being, human intelligence progresses. And they all require, they all centre on this capacity of the human being to subordinate impulse to intelligence.
On seeing a fruit falling, the immediate impulse would be, eat the fruit. And if he had done that, that would have been the end of the story. Nothing more would have happened.
But, by subordinating impulse to intelligence, that, okay, I can eat a fruit and eat that fruit. What made this fruit fall? That capacity to subordinate impulse to intelligence leads to growth. That led to scientific growth.
And that same impulse, same capacity is required also for spiritual growth. So, when we are talking about Atmanashayas, as the Bhagavad Gita says, doing that which is good for our, that which brings out our best. So, acting on our impulses at best, it will just keep us at an ordinary level of existence.
And, at worst, it will drag us down, it will bring out the worst within us. On the other hand, if we can subordinate our impulses to our intelligence, then that will help us bring out our best. And in that way, we can progress in our life.
The Mahabharata gives illustrations of people, I’ll first talk about bringing out the worst within or bringing out the beast within. One of the most controversial characters in the Mahabharata is Karna. And in many ways, there’s a lot of injustice that happened to him.
He was born to royalty but he was never given the privilege of royalty. And he did not get the best training. And he was not given the honour of royalty.
So, unjust things happened to him. At the same time, if we look at life, whose life is a bed of roses? Yes, some bad things happened to Karna. But what about the Pandavas? Karna and Arjuna are often seen as rivals.
And they said that destiny was unfair to Karna. And everything worked out hunky-dory. Everything worked out wonderful for Arjuna.
But it was not like that. If you look at life giving a royalty, life gave a royalty to the Pandavas also. How is that? No.
They were also born in royalty. But their father had, because of an unfortunate curse, been living in the forest. And then that curse cost his father their life.
And at a very young age, they became orphans. They had their mother, but for all practical purposes, being fatherless was illegal. And although they had an extended family to which they could come back, but that family, far from sheltering them, was against them.
They had Duryodhana, who was incorrigibly envious. And Dhritharashtra, who was like a consenting adept, who turned a blind eye, his eye was blind, and he turned a blind eye also. He neglected whatever Duryodhana was doing.
Can you imagine that actually, Duryodhana was barely about 10 to 15 and Bhima was of the same age. And at that age, Duryodhana hatched an entire conspiracy to poison Bhima. It is not just sometimes in movies when you see that somebody is eating something, and you put some poison in it.
It is not like that. He planned everything, let’s go for a feast, and he arranged that Oh Bhima, I will feed you personally. And then after feeding him, when Bhima fell asleep, he had ropes ready, he tied him up and threw him into a river.
Not only wanted to kill, but he wanted to destroy the evidence also. To make sure the body disappears. So, that is for teenagers to become fatherless and to be thrust in the midst of hostile relatives.
It was unfair. And then again they were trying to be burned alive. Then their wife was disrobed.
So, actually bad things happened to the Pandavas also. The fact is that if we look from this life’s perspective, bad things happen to everyone. Life, if we see only from this life’s perspective, there are periods when it turns out to be unfair for everyone.
The whole essential teaching of scripture is how to respond with integrity to adversity. Adversity, reversals will come in our life. And how we respond to that, that is what is our intelligence, that is what is our decision making.
And if you see Karna, he was actually a virtuous person. Although he always felt the agony of not getting pure recognition for his skills, still he was a virtuous person. But it was the association of Duryodhana that brought out the beast within it.
And the incident where Karna acted in a beastly way, that is actually the gambling match. In the gambling match, it was Karna who suggested that once the Pandavas had lost themselves, the Pandavas had lost Draupadi, and at that time it was Karna who suggested that now that Draupadi has become your slave, bring her here and disrobe her. She is your property, you can do whatever you want with her.
Okay. Get her and disrobe her. Now this idea was so atrocious.
To dishonour any woman is bad. To dishonour any woman in public is even worse. To dishonour a royal woman in public is worst.
To dishonour a royal woman in public amidst her own relatives, that is horrendous. And even Duryodhana did not think of this idea. But Karna thought of it.
And Karna instigated Duryodhana. And that whole plot, it didn’t work out. That’s a whole long story.
I’ll not go fully into the story, but briefly. Now Draupadi, when she understood what had happened, she was a Kshatriya. She was a heroic lady.
And she tried to hang on to straw. When somebody is drowning, straw is there, you hold on to that. So she held on to a technicality.
And she said that if Yudhishthira had gambled himself, before he gambled me, was he his own master? How could he have gambled me if he was not his own master? He asked her, please answer this question. And nobody was able to answer. Nishma said that I’m confused.
Normally the wife belongs to the husband. But if the husband is not the master, then is the wife, does the wife belong to him? I can’t answer. It’s a difficult question.
Everybody has an insight. And at that time, this atrocity was so unspeakable. It was Vikarna, who was one of Duryodhana’s brothers.
He got up. And he said, oh assembly, there are many who are elders to me over here. You answer this question.
And nobody answered. He said, I will answer based on my instinct. And he said that this whole gambling match was null and void.
Firstly, because Yudhishthira was forced to gamble against a professional gamester, against Shakuni instead of Duryodhana. Secondly, because Yudhishthira was provoked to gamble more and more throughout. And what a person does, he talks about these four activities, he should talk about the four aggregate principles.
Mediating, intoxication, sex and yam, he says, once a person comes under this grip of these things, the person loses intelligence, the person becomes mad. The impulses take control of the intelligence. The impulses destroy the intelligence.
He says, therefore, what a person does under their spell, that should not be taken very seriously. This whole match should be split null and void. Moreover, Vandrapati Singh is right, that because Yudhishthira gambled himself, he had no right to gamble.
And the whole assembly at that time erupted in applause. Because Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra were the king, de facto king. Dhritarashtra was the official king.
Duryodhana was the de facto king. And he was very powerful, so the Kshatriyas were confused and he was also fearful. But when one from the ranks of the Kauravas itself, Vikarna, spoke up, then they all applauded.
At that time, it was Karna who said, O Vikarna, you are small in age and you are small in intelligence also. So when all these elders have not found any fault, it is you who have foolishly found fault. And he tried to counter his arguments.
He said that, Yudhishthira chose to gamble. Nobody forced him to gamble. He was incited, but he chose to be incited.
And he is supposed to be Dharmaraj, he should know the rules and codes of morality. If he has gambled properly, that is his problem, that is not our problem. So basically he tried to give some reasoning.
Now irrespective of whether the reasoning was right or wrong. See, the point is that ultimately, whatever is the rule, the rules are meant to protect. Whatever rules are there, the rules are meant to protect.
So here a woman is being dishonoured and there is an argument going over a technicality. And Karna, so Vikarna’s words could have stopped that travesty. But Karna opposed that.
So not only first he suggested getting Draupadi to assembly, dragging her, then when that dastardly deed was being stopped, he opposed that stop. And then eventually when Dushasan tried to disrobe Draupadi and then Krishna manifested unlimited saree to protect her. And then the whole incident went on and on and eventually Vidura practically shouted at Dhritarashtra, he said, stop this, he said.
What you are doing will cause destruction of the whole dynasty. Your sacrificial fire which you had kept lit throughout your life, now it has become extinguished all around. I see the inauspicious moments.
At that time Dhritarashtra had gone too far. And he said how to pacify. So he said the most aggravated part is Draupadi.
So he appealed to Draupadi and told her that no princess, actually I have called this gambling match simply as a playful test of skills. Don’t take it seriously. If Gandhari and I have ever done any good to you, please remember it.
And forget all that has happened. And please ask some meditations. So at that time Draupadi said please release your wisdom.
He said if this is done, ask for something more. He said okay, release my other aspirants and give their weapons. He says I have confirmed that they just have their weapons.
Then they can regain whatever they want. He says ask something more. He says no I cannot ask anything more.
Kshetra is not going to ask more than two or three meditations. He says but I want to give you more. He says all the kingdom that you have lost all the wealth you have lost, I will give back to you.
And at this point also things could have been resolved. But as the Pandavas were leaving Karna could not resist one last cheap shot. He says just see all these supposedly great heroes, they had to be saved by a woman today.
They had to be saved by a woman. Now of course what happened was after that Duryodhana instigated Dhritarashtra and they called them back for another gambling match and in that gambling match they lost everything. But the point is that here Karna acted in terrible ways and there is a difference between the character of Karna and Duryodhana that there is no record in Mahabharata of Duryodhana regretting what happened in the assembly.
But there are at least two occasions when Karna regrets what he did. When Karna talks with Krishna before the Kurukshetra Yudha and when Karna talks with Bhishma after Bhishma has fallen. At that time he says that actually what I did on that day was terrible.
And I did that simply because I wanted to please Duryodhana. I wanted to please Duryodhana and I regret bitterly what I did. So what happens is that Karna is an example of a good person who became bad by bad association.
Karna was basically a good person but the association of Duryodhana spoiled him. Even after he had sided with Duryodhana initially he tried to oppose Duryodhana’s scheming. When Duryodhana wanted to send the Pandavas to Varanavarta and have them born.
Karna said why are you doing these things? Let’s call them for a fight and we will defeat them in a fight. So Shakuni said no you are a child. You should know that fighting should always be a last resort.
Let’s explore other means. Then if they don’t work then we will fight. Now Duryodhana didn’t know whom to listen to.
Shakuni and Karna. So then he did Shakuni for a longer time and he just went by Shakuni’s way. So initially he opposed some of the human schemes.
But over a period of time we all need a sense of belonging. We all want to belong to some group. Some group of friends where we are accepted and where we are respected.
And often for the sake of belonging to that group we may do things which we would normally not do. So Karna sought that sense of belonging to the group of the Kauravas. Now initially when Karna was given the kingdom by Duryodhana he was very obliged.
Now Duryodhana was actually a masterly emotional manipulator of people. He just knew which buttons to press to make people dance according to his tunes. So when he offered the kingdom in the Maharashtrian exhibition to Karna, Angadesh he offered.
At that time Karna felt oh my honour has been protected. I said oh Duryodhana what can I do for you? He said I don’t want anything from you except your friendship. Karna said that you will have till my dying breath.
So now Duryodhana seems to be very charitable over here and it seems to be the forging of a wonderful friendship. But actually what is happening? Duryodhana wanted a point for Arjuna. Among the Pandavas he felt that I can deal with Bhima but who will deal with Arjuna? And he saw how Karna can be a point.
And to win Karna over, he gave him the kingdom. Now this might seem to be an act of charity but there was a problem in the charity. The problem was that the Angadesh did not belong to him to give.
If I come and tell you I want to give this whole camera to you. It doesn’t belong to you. So actually at that time who was the king, who was the ruler all that is unclear because Pandu had been the king and Pandu had retired and Dhritarashtra was the caretaker king.
There had been no transfer of authority to the next generation because all Duryodhana was still training. They were just in Drona’s academy for training. So at that time Duryodhana was a prince.
A prince does not have the authority to just give a kingdom to someone. But because it was a member of the whole royal family who had done this the Pandavas also consented to it. Because they saw it as for Kshatriyas honouring everyone’s word was important.
They said if one of our family members has given a word that I’ll give the kingdom we cannot go back. So now when he gave the kingdom what was his purpose? It was not just to benefit Karna. It was to make Karna into his puppet so that he could control Karna.
And from his side Duryodhana wanted to control Karna and from his side Karna wanted to belong to some group and that need for belonging made him perverted. And it at one particular point brought out the beast within. And eventually the Kurukshetra war he met his due end.
That’s a whole different story with a lot of ethical issues over there. But the important point is that Duryodhana’s association brought out the beast within Karna. And a virtuous person behaved horrendously viciously.
If you look at today’s world there are many forces which are trying to bring out the worst within us. How is that? The world is filled with advertisements. Not just consumer electronics.
Consumer electronics or consumer products in general they have huge budgets for promotion of their products. But it’s not just even medicines. If you study pharmaceutical companies many of these pharmaceutical companies they spend more on promoting the medicine than on manufacturing the medicine.
Why? Because through the promotion you get people to purchase. And quite often the advertising industry sometimes in some cases some advertising products may inform us about what we need. But many times advertisements don’t inform us of things that fulfil our needs.
They create needs where none exist. They trigger desires within us for things that we don’t need. And not only trigger desires they trigger insatiable desires within us.
And in that way what happens is they are after our money. And for the sake of money they can bring out the worst within us. So bringing out the worst you know, there’s a nowadays in India there is IPL is going to start and IPL is where there is big money in cricket.
India had India has two favourite forms of entertainment. One was cricket and the other was Bollywood. And these two favourite forms of entertainment got married.
And the child that was born is IPL. So IPL has big money in it. But the money that is in IPL is actually peanuts when compared to the money that is there in America in games like football, basketball and baseball.
But even the money of all the franchises of football, basketball and baseball combined together is less than the money that is involved in the pornography industry. Pornography is the biggest business in the world today. And actually there is within this also there are degrees.
There is romance, there is romantic things, there are erotic things and there are pornographic things. In romance they focus on the relationship. Male-female interaction is the basic feature of mutual existence.
And there is a story over there and through that story some romance is talked about. That has been there throughout history. That is just a part of human literature and human culture.
Erotic means that there is not just male-female interaction, there is a significant amount of sexuality, explicit sexuality within the male-female interaction. But pornographic means that there is nothing but sexuality. There is no storyline over there.
There is no relationship. There is just the bringing out of the basest emotions from people. And this has actually led to even on the spiritual perspective.
Spiritually people get degraded by this. Even from the material perspective it just brings out the worst. All of us have our lower desires.
But our imagination has a particular capacity to imagine. But you bring together the dirtiest imagination of all the people from all over the world and put it all together and make it accessible to everyone. It’s horrendous.
So leave alone the spiritual perspective, even from the material perspective, when people get addicted to this kind of depersonalised sexuality, when there is no person, there is simply a sensual detonation over there. Then even in real life people cannot sustain relationships. Because they can’t treat others as people.
They treat others simply as objects, as shapes to be manipulated. And then even at a material level relationships collapse. There is a whole movement in America of people who are, there is an article in Times Magazine and New York Times also had a big cover story on this, a major story about how there is there are many people who are aggressively who are quite actively campaigning against pornography.
Not because they have become detached and renounced. But because they are finding that by doing all this in their imaginary world they are not able to have any real relationships at all. And that’s how it’s become a big crisis at the material level even more at the spiritual level.
And the sociologists who have said that, as I said romantic, erotic, this has always been there in human history. But the scale of pornography the scale of exposure to sensuality that is there in today’s world that is unprecedented. And it is actually causing enormous amount of destruction.
Destruction of families, destruction of morality, destruction of individual, the way they act. There are hundreds of books written about addiction to pornography and how to get rid of the addiction. And among the various forms of addiction there can be alcohol addiction, there can be drug addiction, there can be cigarette addiction.
All these forms of addiction are bad. But sociologists say that this addiction is the worst because for all these other addictions we have to go somewhere to get it. We have to put some effort to get it.
But today with the internet available everywhere you know we have to put effort to avoid it. Just by visiting some site we start seeing obscene images. And there are so many people who get unsolicited emails and pop-ups, all sorts of pop-ups come up.
So there is a there are many softwares which are paid softwares and they make big money for protecting people from the anti-porn filters. So it’s a whole big universe that has come up because there are forces which are trying to bring out the worst from people. And this is just lust being dragged out.
Similarly there is anger that is dragged out. Similarly there is greed that is dragged out. And this can make life hellish even in this world or to speak of the next.
There are people who there are always people who are short-tempered. Anger is a normal human weakness. But in America they have this whole agitation that civilians should have guns.
Now what happens is that when civilians, general people have guns, see all of us have impulses. So I started by talking about how the capacity to subordinate impulse to intelligence. Now in today’s society when we say bring up it’s bringing out the worst within, what is exactly happening is that we all have our impulses and for acting on the impulses we need certain facility.
You said if somebody gets the impulse to say drink alcohol, then that person has to go somewhere and then they can act on that impulse. But when it comes to porn, you don’t have to go anywhere, just click on a few buttons and it’s there. So when acting on the impulses is made more and more easy, then degradation becomes more and more fast.
So similarly, anger is there in everyone. But when people have guns at their hands then what happens? That anger leads to murder. There is a whole phenomenon called road rage.
Road rage means somebody is driving on the road and if they find that there is a traffic jam or there is some slowdown over there and the person from behind honks, go on, go on this person, just get angry. I also want to, why are you honking like this? The person takes a gun, shoots him. It’s called road rage.
People get angry on the road because they are not used to patience. You may all have read about schools or sometimes children or young youth go to schools and they shoot. They shoot other students, they shoot the teachers and they shoot themselves also.
So all this happens when there is when there is access, easy access to acting on impulses in an extremely destructive way. So we all as human beings have always had lower impulses, bad impulses. As I said, last anger has always been there.
But the facility to act on the impulse today is available on a scale that was never before. Similarly, when it comes to greed, in the past, if people were greedy, what could they do? Depending on how much money you have, you can go and buy things. But today, even if you don’t have money, you can take credit.
And then, just like there is alcoholism, there is another form of addiction which is called shopaholism. Shopaholism means people just shop, shop, shop. Shop till you drop.
So people get addicted. And nowadays, again through internet, shopping available, just click a few buttons and whatever you want, it comes to you. Now, I am not criticising technology per se.
Technology can do many good things. We are right now using technology to speak. But the point is whereas technology can be used to do good, we will be able to do good using technology only when our intelligence is in control.
Not when our impulse is in control. If our impulses are in control, then the technology can be used for doing terribly destructive things. The internet, there is so much information available so easily today.
And for people who are researchers, for people who are scholars, for people who are writers, it’s a big blessing. All that information is available. But they have to have their intelligence, the impulse gets in control.
Then the same thing which can be a great facility can become a great hazard, a great danger. And that is why in today’s world when there are so many easy ways in which the worst within us can be brought out. It is all the more important for us to have our intelligence regularly nourished.
Because the impulses are there, the facility to act on the impulses is there. But to act with our intelligence is therefore all the more important. It is all the more difficult.
And that’s why when we come and attend spiritual programmes, we study scriptures in the Bhagavad Gita, these boost our intelligence. They help us to understand the danger of acting according to short-sighted impulses. And they help us to by reinforcing our intelligence to act wisely.
So the more facility that we have, the more responsibility we get with it. Because the facility can be used or it can be abused. So I’ll talk briefly about bringing out the best within.
So now if we see Arjuna, he too faced many injustices in his life. Not just the Pandavas, but Arjuna specifically. He also faced many injustices.
At one time when the Pandavas were in the forest, Yasadeva told Arjuna that you should hone your skills. You should perform asceticism, get more weapons. And then he performed great austerity and ascended to the heavens.
And he was actually the son of Indra. So Indra welcomed him very happily. And then he was living over there and he was learning various things over there.
And that time there was the Apsara, Urvashi, who was attracted to Arjuna. And then she came and propositioned him. And Arjuna said actually you were the wife of my ancestor, Purvaiva.
And therefore for you, for me you are like my mother. I cannot see you any other way. So Arjuna had been glancing at her earlier.
So Urvashi had thought that she is a dad. He is attracted to her. And she came.
Arjuna said I was looking at you, but I was not looking at you in that mood. So he says, you know, I offer my respects to you. She was furious.
She was agitated and she wanted to be satisfied. She says, what kind of man are you? A woman is offering herself to you and you are saying no to her. You are not a man.
Therefore you will lose your manhood. She cursed him. And now Arjuna said, how unfair is this? I exhibited so much sense control.
Isn’t it? A beautiful Apsara is offering herself to me and I was so virtuous and what is the result of the virtue? That I lost my manhood. I lost my manhood. And then he went to Indra and Indra said that you know, have faith.
He says that there is some plan that will work out. That this, it is not going to be permanent because you are so virtuous, such a curse cannot affect you permanently. And this curse will come upon you but I will give you the blessing by which you can choose when this curse will come upon you.
And then when the Pandavas’ forest exile was getting over, at that time they had to live for one last year incognito. All the Pandavas were very famous but Arjuna was especially well known. Such a great archer.
And for the Pandavas to hide was very difficult. So at that time Arjuna took on the role of a eunuch. He became Brihannala and he was able to do that because of that curse that his manhood at that time went away.
And so what happened was, actually Duryodhana’s plan was, Mahabharata describes that Duryodhana as soon as the incognito exile started, he sent out 10,000 spies everywhere he wanted to search. We will find the Pandavas. And his plan was, the exile was 12 years in exile, one year incognito.
And he had found that again 12 years in exile plus one year incognito. And he had found that again 12 years in exile, one year incognito. So his plan was that actually he had put the stipulation in such a way that lifelong I want the Pandavas to be in the forest.
Mahabharata describes the frustration of Duryodhana and he says, where did the Pandavas disappear? It is like they have fallen off the face of the earth. Where did they go? So the Pandavas were able to hide this way because of various arrangements but for Arjuna specifically that curse turned into a blessing to him. And how did that happen? He could have, when Durvasi cursed him like that, he could have got angry, he could have counter-cursed her.
He could have blasted destiny. He could have somebody will say that, he could have become atheist. He says, what is this? I was following this principle and then look at the consequence of that.
But what did he do? He maintained his faith. Maintained his faith, immediately went and took guidance from Indra. Indra reassured him, says, what has happened, it will work out for the good.
And you can see, Arjuna is a person who by his character, by his principle centred in him and by his devotion to Krishna he brings out the best within him. He is a person who is not just sense controlled but who is also devoted, who is very competent. Sometimes people think being devoted means you are just otherworldly, do nothing practical, just chanting, dancing, singing.
No, that is fine, that is very good to do but we have energy, we have youth, we have capacity and we are meant to use them. So, Arjuna did that. Now Arjuna, we see him as a devotee, he is a devotee but he was hard working.
He was a fearless archer and how did he become such a great archer? He had great talent but he also had tremendous commitment. Most of you know the story of how when Arjuna was once eating food in the evening, suddenly a gust of wind caused the lamp to get extinguished. He continued, if I can eat in the dark, why can’t I shoot in the dark? From that time he started shooting in the dark and he developed the skill to hit invisible targets just by their sound, just by their motion and that was a vital skill for him in his becoming the champion archer.
So, he strove tirelessly. So, it was not just that during his education he was honing his archery skills but after that also, when the Pandavas were in the forest, he was performing austerities, further austerities, just living in the forest was austerity but he did not feel sorry for himself. Oh, I am a king, I have to live in the forest.
But he actually performed more austerities. The Pandavas were living the austere life in the forest but he went and specifically performed tapasya so that he could appease the devatas and he could get weapons from them so that he could serve Krishna better. So, Arjuna worked hard and what happened was he became a peerless archer and he was able to continue an unparalleled way for Krishna’s cause.
So, what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. What we are, we all have certain talents, certain abilities and they are God’s gift to us and what we become using those talents, that is our gift to God.
So, by having this vision, we can see, oh, if we say what we are is God’s gift to us but God has given no gifts on me. God has given to that person so much shawl and that person so much shawl and that person…I have got no talents. It’s not like that.
All of us have talents but the problem is we equate talents with certain talents that are glamorised in society and if I don’t have that talent, what is the use? But no, we all have talents. Even if we have little talents, we can develop that and if we focus, if we are looking too much at what others have then we miss out what we have. It’s like, imagine, say, after this programme there is prasad.
Now, you don’t have to imagine that there is prasad. Prasad is there. No need to imagine.
But imagine that there is special kind of prasad where everyone is going to get a separate plate with distinct items. So, you are going to get a special plate. You are going to get a special plate.
Items you are going to get is different from the item you are going to get and item different from the item that you are going to get. And now suppose somebody is eating. A nice feast in their plate.
They are looking. What has he got? What has he got? You have a feast. Eat your feast.
Why bother about what feast others have? So, many times for us what happens is we are so eager looking at what all gifts others have that we don’t even realise what gifts we have. So, if we focus on what we have without worrying too much about what others have. Now, if God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else.
You know, he has made us. He wants us to be us. He wants us to be the best us, of course.
But he doesn’t want us to be someone else. So, don’t bother about what others have. Focus on what we have.
Try to love it. Discover yourself. We will find that we have gifts.
So, what we are, we discover that. That is God’s gift to us. And then, again, if we are to use whatever gifts we have.
I talk about achievement. Everybody wants to achieve the big things in life. But achievement doesn’t just fall down.
Even Arjuna’s achievement did not fall down from the sky. Actually, there is talent and there is achievement. And the bridge between talent and achievement is built by commitment.
So, the bridge from talent to achievement is built by commitment. And even a person who has modest talent, if that person has good commitment, they will be able to achieve some significant things. Somebody may have a lot of talents, but if that person does not have a good temperament, does not have adequate commitment, then they will not be able to achieve much.
So, what our devotional practises will do is that, first of all, we will stop looking at others. We will focus on looking at what we have. That’s why we will discover what talents we have.
And secondly, the more we practise bhakti diligently, we get a spiritual understanding of life, then our intelligence becomes stronger. Then the intelligence can control the impulses. And actually, commitment requires that.
If I have to study, my intelligence can study, but my impulse is, okay, let’s see what is on Facebook. I go there and then, from one link, second link, third link, and one hour of study is gone. So, actually, even to perform at the material level in our studies or any other field, we need the capacity to subordinate our impulse to our intelligence.
And that capacity is enhanced by our spirituality. So, whatever talent we have, we will discover that by our spiritual practises. And our capacity for commitment, that will also increase by our spiritual practises.
And thus, we will be able to achieve more and more. And thus, we will be able to bring out our best. In this world, whatever talents we have, we do justice to that.
But also, we are parts of Krishna. We are parts of God and we are Godly. So, Godly virtues are there within us.
And they will all come out when we connect ourselves with God. This is bhakti, is the process for bringing out the best within us. And if it does bring out the best within us, then we gain satisfaction and we are able to make contribution in the world.
Both ways, internally and externally, through satisfaction and through contribution, we become successful. So, I’ll summarise. I talked about bring out the best within, not the beast within.
And in that connection, I spoke about what does it mean to bring out the beast within. Bhagavata talks about this force of lust, anger, greed, which drag out, which bring out, which degrade us, which bring out the worst within us. I talked elaborately about Karna, how he, the association of Duryodhana brought out the worst within.
Good person became bad because of bad association. Yes, injustice happened to him. But injustice happened to everyone.
It happened to Pandavas also. Unfortunately, Duryodhana, because he desired to belong to a group of people who were vicious, he became not just as vicious as them, but worse than them. At least in one particular incident of the disrobing of property.
So, it is to his credit that he regretted it afterwards, but still the deed was done at that time. And just as Duryodhana had his own agenda by which he was manipulating Karna, similarly in this world there are many forces which are out to manipulate us, bring out the worst within us. After all, how there is big money in IPL, there is bigger money in baseball, basketball and football, but there is even bigger, biggest money in pornography.
And that is just out to bring out the beast within us. This is not just spiritually destructive, but materially relationships can’t be sustained when you objectify others. So, it can terribly degrade people.
And there is just one thing, similarly there is, there are forces which trigger anger within us. And the impulse to do bad things has always been there within us. But when the facility to bad things is easily available, then the bad things can be very easily done and very massively done.
So, I talked about road rage where people kill when they just get angry on the road because of the free access to guns in America. And then I talked about greed where with credit cards and easy purchasing where available, people become shopaholics and they become bankrupt and completely lost because of just, because their greed is kindled, greed is inflamed. So, that’s why in today’s world, subordinating impulse to intelligence is all the more important.
I started actually by discussing about how in the Newton’s incident that the scientific progress also happened because Newton supported the impulse to eat the apple, to the intelligence. And the question, what made this work? So, science, arts and religion, all of them are fruits of the same human tree. All of them require us to subordinate impulse to intelligence.
And by that we can bring out the best within. In that case, in that connection I just talked about Arjuna, where he faced a terribly unjust situation, where he acted with great sense control and he was cursed by Vashi for that. But rather than responding by becoming atheistic, becoming faithless, becoming resentful, he stayed faithful.
And that work around good for him. In the Agyanta, that curse worked out as a blessing which enabled him to maintain his disguise. So, Arjuna was not just had a very good character, he was not just devoted, he was very devoted, but also he was completely tireless in his learning, in honing his archery skills.
And discuss that, talent, commitment, together lead to achievement. So, whatever talents we have, we will discover them better if we are spiritually conscious. If we are materially conscious, we just be looking at what others have and what are especially glamorised in the world and we feel I don’t have this, I don’t have that.
But if we have spiritual vision, then we understand what I am is God’s gift to me. So then, we look at what we have. Everybody has feats which focus on our feats.
So, we will be able to better discover our talents. And commitment requires us to subordinate our impulse to our intelligence. And scriptural studies boost our intelligence by which we can actually become more committed.
And by this combination of talent and commitment, we will all be able to rise to greater achievement. And thus, we can bring out the best within us. Materially by constructing contributions and spiritually by growing, by becoming Godly, by connecting with God, we gain inner satisfaction and make out a contribution.
And thus we become all around successful. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you. Do we have time for questions? Any questions? Yes. We were talking about unfair things happening to everybody.
But also, sometimes we face criticism from our equals. Whenever we tend to do something good, it is very natural that friends these days they criticise you. Generally, when students come here for programmes, their friends criticise, you know, because it’s a good activity.
Naturally, the friends will say, you’re doing something good, friends criticise you. Again, even among your friends here, they will tend to criticise you. So, what should be your course of action in such scenario? So, if we try to come for spiritual programmes, then some of our friends in hospital or college criticise us.
Because it’s a good activity, they will criticise that. So, how should we respond in such situations? Actually, whatever we do, we cannot avoid criticism in this world. Whatever we do.
Some of you may know the story of the man with his child and a horse. So, how many of you don’t know the story of the man with his child and a horse? Okay, I’ll just quickly tell it. There’s this man with his child and they were riding a horse.
They brought a new horse and they were riding it. And people said, no, just see. We are putting a double burden on the horse.
The poor horse has been crushed. And the man said, towards the child, you get down. The child was walking around and people said, what is this? Where has parent and love gone? The child is walking and the father is comfortably riding.
And the father said, okay child, you get on the horse, I’ll walk. And then people started saying, you know, the father is aged, the child is young, why is he riding? Why is he not allowing his father to ride? And the father said, child, you also get down. So, the horse was walking around and people said, what stupidity? You have a horse, why are you walking? So, what do you do? So, in if we base our decision making on avoiding criticism, we will never be able to do anything.
Not just anything good, we will not be able to do anything. We will become paralysed. So, criticism is just a fact of life.
So, we have to use our intelligence and understand what is important for us, what is good for us. And we do that irrespective of whether we get criticism or not. And that is the first point.
We can’t just base our decisions on avoiding criticism. It’s like, I think that if I will avoid criticism, that is the basis of my decision making. It’s like, I decide to travel and by travelling, my purpose is to avoid crowded roads.
Well, okay, you can avoid crowded roads, but will you get anywhere? If you have a particular destination to go, we go to that destination, whether there is a crowd or not, we persevere. So, when we are travelling, our purpose is, yes, traffic jams are never pleasant, but avoiding traffic jams is not the purpose of travelling. So, similarly, avoiding criticism should not be the purpose of our life and basis of our decision making.
We will be criticised, but we have to use our good intelligence and we act based on that. That’s the first point. Second point is that we also need to choose our social circle.
Because if we find that we are being criticised for doing some activity which we know are good, then that means that social circle may not be so good for us. So, we need to change our social circle. That doesn’t mean that we reject and back-criticise those friends.
Let me just understand that they are at a different stage in their life. Their intelligence is at a different level. They may be coming from a different cultural background.
And their understanding is overall different from ours. So, we let them do what they want to do, but we do what will be important for us. And over a period of time, see, people who are driven by their impulses, they do recognise that acting with intelligence is good.
But they are not able to do it. And if they see somebody else doing it, they feel it is a threat for them. So, they want to pull that person down also.
But actually, real friendship is not that we all fall into a ditch together. Yes, you wonderful friends. No.
Real friendship means if we can find a way to come out of a ditch and then others say, no, come down over here. Why are you leaving us? I am not leaving you. I am inviting you.
Come with me. So, if we use our intelligence and we can start living, we start living better. We start living more on principles.
We become more committed. We become more peaceful, more happy. Others will see that.
And over a period of time, their criticism will change to appreciation. And some of them may follow us also. And even if that doesn’t happen immediately, what we need to do is, we need to understand that I need a social circle where I will be accepted.
And that’s why when I started the talk, I said that for all of you, you have a facility like this, where you can get spiritual association. So close to the college. That is a rare blessing.
So, we need a social circle where what we are doing is accepted, validated and respected. And that’s why choosing our association is extremely important. And lastly, we find that some people are criticising us too much.
Then, sometimes the criticism is simply born out of malice. That they are ill-willed for us. And sometimes, the criticism may be born out of misconceptions.
So, if they have some misconceptions, then we can, rather than just reacting to the criticism, we can actually enquire from other devotees. Okay, they say like this, if I go here, it will become like this. If you do this, it will become like this.
Get those misconceptions addressed. So, there is, to criticism, a rational component and there is an emotional component. So, the emotional component we cannot really address.
Because people’s emotions are of an artist. Then, they are what they are. We can’t change their emotions very well.
That will take some time. But there is a rational component to the criticism. They may have genuine doubts.
Sometimes they may be well-wishers. And they may feel that you do this, you neglect your studies, this will happen, that will happen. Then we can get it addressed.
So, that way we see criticism not as a threat, but as a predictable phenomenon. Whenever we try to do anything purposeful, and then intelligently respond to it. First, by deciding that I lack my own intelligence, not just by avoiding criticism.
Second, by choosing better association. Third, by recognising that the best way I can be a friend to them is not by doing what they want me to do, by going down with them, but by determinedly rising and then setting an example by which they will also rise. And fourthly, if they have some rational objections, addressing those rational objections intimately.
That way we can perceive them on the right path and inspire them also to come on the right path. Thank you. Anandbhai, you have said in your lecture that you must have to focus on your gifts and talents.
You are given talents. But when we are going to focus in our talents, the other people think that he is a selfish person in one’s perspective. How to respond? If we focus on our talents, others say that we are selfish.
How to respond? Selfishness is when we do our own things at the expense of others. That means I would say, selfishness, going back to the example of different feasts in different plates, I would be selfish if somebody is eating something and I seize their plate and I start eating that. But if I am eating my own plate, that’s not selfishness.
We all have needs and I am just fulfilling my needs. If somebody else is starving and I seize their plate and I eat it, that’s selfishness. If I am concentrating on developing my talents, that’s not selfishness.
That’s intelligence. But it may come off as selfishness because we may not socialise the way we were socialising earlier. We may not spend time with others the way we might have been doing earlier.
But then you look in any field, look in any field, people who have achieved anything substantial, they have been focused. They have been focused. Without focus, you can’t achieve anything in life.
Focus means when we do one thing, that means it implies that we don’t do other things because we are finite beings. So if people start thinking of focus as selfishness, that is their mistake. For any field, for us to be successful, we need to focus.
If somebody becomes a champion cricketer, they have to practise for hours and hours, for months and years to become a champion cricketer. And then they may have so many social occasions. Friends go for parties and this and that.
They can’t do that. Those who are fit cricketers, they have to do their workouts, they have to do their fitness routines. They can’t just hang around with people all the time.
Success in any field requires focus. When we are using our talents and focussing on developing those talents, that’s not selfishness. That’s basically intelligence.
That’s what commitment is all about. Commitment requires saying no to certain things so that we can say yes to certain things. If we properly explain to people that this is my time for doing these things, and at other times I’ll be available, but this time I’m going to do these things.
We can’t reject people entirely from our life, but we do have to focus. Without focus, we’re not going to achieve anything. That’s not selfishness.
That’s actually intelligence. As you told about gifts from God to us, some gifts are there which at a certain point, they help us. It’s like I have a little loud voice to help me with something, like preaching.
But the same thing turns out to be misery to others when I’m talking something in my room, but in every room, people get disturbed. Sometimes whatever is a gift in one situation may become a trouble in another situation. If somebody has a loud voice, then they can speak effectively in public, but then in private conversation also become very loud.
That troubles others. So what to do? Every gift is like a double-edged sword. It’s like a knife.
A knife can cut an object which needs to be cut, but the knife can also cut the cutter. The person who wants to cut, I want to cut vegetables. I have a sharp knife, that is good.
I can cut the vegetables. But if I’m careless, it can cut my finger also. So our talents are like that.
Whatever gifts we have, they can be used to do constructive things in life. But those same talents in various ways. In your case, it could be inconvenience.
In one case, it could be inconvenience. In another case, it can lead to pride and arrogance. And then it cuts off.
So a person becomes very famous, very popular, but then they become so egoistic that nobody can be there with them. So there can be various ways in which our talents can be used constructively or they can actually harm us. They can hurt us.
And that is where intelligence comes into picture. So intelligence means, as I said, that the capacity to subordinate our impulse. So somebody may have a capacity to have a natural love voice.
But then you also have the capacity to speak softly. So you may have to exercise a little bit. So I also have that problem.
I think very fast. And because I think fast, I speak fast. And so almost every class that I give, every five minutes I have to remind myself, slow down, slow down.
And in spite of that, I speak fast. So now, without nonsense, I can say Krishna has given me intelligence by which I can think fast and I can speak fast. So because I think fast, I can, if somebody asks questions, I can give answers.
But that thinking fast, if it leads to speaking fast, and I give a good answer, but nobody understands the answer because I spoke so fast. It’s not of much use. So, every gift comes with a responsibility of using the intelligence so that that gift leads to constructive things.
Sometimes some people can sing very nicely. Now, some people, especially they are very good at music, they do kirtans. But they sing in such tunes that that kirtan is not a participation, it is a performance.
Only they are singing and nobody can follow the tune. Now, they may have the capacity to sing like that, but then if it’s a kirtan, which is meant to be participation, then they have to sing in a way that others can also follow. So, sometimes when you have a talent, and we may have to, see there is a time when we have to release the talent, and there is a time when we have to harness the talent.
Release means let it go free, and harness means you have to regulate. So, for example, if I am preparing, I may think very fast, but if I am delivering, I have to speak slow. So, there are some special occasions when somebody is, you know, somebody may sing in a very expert way, where it’s meant to be like a recording, a performance, but it’s a participatory programme where the person may have to sing in a way which others cannot follow.
So, even when we have talents, we have to have the intelligence to know when to release the talent and when to harness the talent. And that way, we can use the talent constructively. Question inaudible Question inaudible So, if is it that if we love our body, then we get misery and we cannot attain God, so we should just focus on bhakti whenever we can, and even at night we don’t feel like sleeping, we wake up and we chant or we read.
See, there are two different things over here. There is pampering the body, and there is torturing the body. Pampering means that there is one extreme where every single desire of the body I want is satisfied.
Whenever I feel like sleeping, I go to sleep. Whenever I feel like eating, I eat. So now, that is actually you know, whenever, if I can just keep eating, whenever I feel like eating, then that is very unhealthy for the body.
So, pampering the body is undesirable. But the other extreme is torturing the body. That means the body has genuine needs and don’t fulfil that.
So, the body needs a certain amount of rest. The body needs a certain amount of food. If you don’t fulfil that, that is also harmful.
In 6.16, Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, One who eats too much or one who eats too little. Such a person cannot be a yogi. And similarly, one who sleeps too much or one who sleeps too little.
That person can also be a yogi. So, one has to be regulated. Next verse Krishna says, So, now what will be regulation, what is regulation may vary from person to person.
So, among the Pandavas, if the Pandavas would have food, now Kunti would divide the food of the Pandavas in two halves. One half would go to Bhima. And the remaining half would be divided into five parts.
Four Pandavas and Kunti. Now, somebody may say, Bhima is a glutton, he is eating so much. But Bhima, you know, he had a body like that.
And he had a need like that. And one time in the Pandavas, when Kunti was tired, Bhima said, I will carry Kunti. And he said, Alright, carry Kunti, I will carry the other Pandavas also.
So, all four Pandavas and Kunti was carrying through the forest. So, he was Bhima Karma Vrkodara. Bhagavatam says, Vrkodara he would eat a lot, but Bhima Karma he would work a lot also.
He would do phenomenal things. So, for him, eating that much was regulated. So, what will be regulation for different people will vary.
And we have to learn by experience what is regulation for us. So, as if we are not able to sleep, then why we stand just lying on the bed doing nothing. We can read, we can chant, we can do some devotional activities.
But, the body also needs rest. And if we don’t give that, that will also cause harm to the body. So, we have to find out using our own experience what is the regulated level.
For some people, they eat 2 chapatis for lunch, that’s enough for them. For some people, they may eat 10 chapatis for lunch. Now, it’s not that 10 chapatis per person is a glutton.
If after eating those 10 chapatis, that person is still energetic and is doing a good amount of work. So, different people are different. With respect to sleep also, different people may have different needs.
Some people may need to sleep 8 hours. Some people may sleep 5 hours. Some people may sleep somewhere in between.
Whatever it is. So, we have to find out what is regulation for us and function. So, we don’t pamper the body.
So, what causes misery, Krishna says, is pampering the body. यही संस्पर्षिजाब होगा तुख होना है If we pamper the body, fulfilling all our desires, that will lead to misery. But, कर्षयंतः शरीरस्थ Krishna says that, in the 17th chapter, those who torture the body, Krishna says, they are, that is also, Krishna says, unhealthy.
We call it पान्विद्यासूरिश्चया Since they are born young. So, it’s undesirable. So, we don’t torture the body.
We don’t pamper the body. We nourish the body in a way that is regulated. So that the body becomes a functional tool for us, for doing whatever we need to do.
Any other questions? Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. प्रभुपाद की जयो गवर भावत विल्लकी जयो दाई गवर पेमाण We would like to thank Chaitanya Charan Prabhu for his valuable time tonight, to all of us.
So, we thank him on behalf of all of us my lovely friends. हरियो हरियो हरियो