Resist the temptation to be discouraged

[Bhagavad Gita class at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So I’ll speak today on Bhagavad Gita 18th chapter 35th text which talks about determination in the mode of ignorance and the topical address is resist the temptation to be discouraged. We normally think of temptation in terms of things which give us pleasure but temptations can also be in negative terms. So 18.35 is या स्वप्नं भयं शोकं विशादं मदमेवच अविमुञ्जति दूर्मेधा रुथी सापार्थ तामसी रुथी, determination, सापार्थ तामसी.
This is determination in the mode of ignorance. Normally, we think of determination as something positive. Something constructive.
So how could determination be in the mode of ignorance? So when we are in ignorance, we don’t know what is good for us, what is bad for us and we do things which are often harmful to us. So determination in ignorance means we hold on to things that hurt us and we hold on very stubbornly, obstinately. So determination in the mode of ignorance, in common parlance, you can call it as stubbornness or obstinacy.
So a person is drowning, they may hold on to some log or branch or stick which keeps them alive, which keeps them afloat. But if somebody is actually holding on to something which is very thorny, it’s causing them to bleed, then you wonder why is this person holding on? Why are they holding on to something that is hurting them? So the reason is that ignorance distorts our perception. It makes us think that that which is actually hurtful is actually joyful.
So now physically, we would rarely if ever hold on to something that is thorny and is biting us, hurting us. But we may do it emotionally. Mentally, we may hold on to attitudes and conceptions that actually hurt us.
And what are these? Krishna talks about Swapnam, Bhayam, Shokam, Vishadam, Madhamevacha. Five things he says. Swapnam, dreaming.
Now especially this refers to daydreaming. Krishna has earlier stated that in the sixth chapter that one should be regulated in one’s sleeping and one’s waking. But here when one talks about dreaming, some people just waste their time in daydreaming.
I will do this. I will do that. I will achieve this.
I will achieve that. Now dreams can be a spur for action. But sometimes dreams become for some people a substitute for action.
Just keep dreaming. I’ll do that. I’ll do that.
But they never do anything practically to actualise the dreams. And in that way, they achieve nothing. So this kind of daydreaming, when nothing is done practically, that is in the mode of ignorance.
Similarly, Bhayam. Bhaya is fear. So actually, you could analyse this in such a way that Swapna and Bhaya is about the future.
And Swapnam, Bhayam, Shoka is about the past. And Vishada is about the present or in general. So in the future, we may dream.
But if you don’t do anything practical, that is in the mode of ignorance. Similarly, if you just become habitually fearful, this will go wrong. That will go wrong.
That will go wrong. It happens. What if that happens? So people who are habitually fearful, they become paranoid.
And they just can’t function at all. So fear is healthy when it warns us about danger and it protects us from danger. Fear is healthy.
Fear is a natural and necessary response to danger. That they get a physical level. If I go too close to fire, I feel heat.
And that heat makes me move away from fire. So what heat and our response to heat serves at a physical level, fear serves at a mental level. When we go too close to the edge of a multi-story building and we look down, we feel a sense of fear that protects us.
Don’t go in this direction. So fear is good. But fearfulness, the person is constantly fearing things.
That is again in the mode of ignorance, fear. Constantly worrying about things. Now worry is often like the interest that we pay on loans we haven’t yet taken.
Most of the problems we worry about, we never actualise. We just keep worrying. This may happen.
That may happen. That may happen. And that way, we make ourselves paranoid.
When aswapnam bhayam shokam. Shoka is lamentation. In the Mahabharata, it is said that lamentation achieves nothing except sapping the energy of the lamenter.
Lamentation achieves nothing except sapping the energy of the lamenter. And we have many common sayings also. What is the use of crying over? Don’t cry over spilt milk.
So the idea is something is already done. Something has already happened. There is no point in lamenting what has happened.
Even if it is bad, we can’t do anything about the bad constructively by lamenting about it. Just like, say, if we are driving to some place, and somehow we take a wrong turn and we end up at some other place. Now when a beret asks, why did I take that wrong turn? That is okay.
But what is the next step? The important thing is, okay, now turn there, take the right step and move towards the destination. If somebody simply keeps berating themselves, why did I take the wrong step? Why did I take the wrong step? Why am I such a fool? Why can’t I find my way? What is the use? So that sort of berating oneself is not going to get one to the right destination. Now physically, we will easily, again, we will, you know, the absurdity or the folly of these mental attitudes becomes apparent when we compare them with their physical equivalents.
Now if somebody has taken a wrong turn and has gone somewhere else, instead of just beating themselves up, why did I go wrong? Why did I take a wrong turn? Say, why are you being so foolish? Now take a right turn and come back on track. So that is obvious when we see it in terms of physical terms. But in mental terms, if we make a mistake, just whatever be the reason we made the mistake, okay, it’s over now.
Now do what it takes to correct it. But when we do mishad, we are simply lamenting, lamenting, lamenting. And that lamentation doesn’t improve things.
In lamenting, we often lose the present opportunity that we have to rectify things. And that way, we make things worse. Now, often the mistake is a problem, but our response to the mistake can make it a bigger problem.
So, mishad is a mistaken response to a mistake. When we have made a mistake, just lamenting about it is of no use. Sorry, this is shoka, not this shoka.
And mishad, Mishadashra Prabhupada translates as moroseness. You know, habitual negativity about everything. Constantly, you know, anybody comes up with an idea, people just, some people are just good at shooting it down.
This will go wrong, that will go wrong, that will go wrong. So, habitual pessimistic attitude, habitual negative attitude, habitual gloominess about things, that is extremely unhealthy. Because such people, they just, just deplete their energy.
You know, it is said that some people bring happiness where they go. And some people bring happiness when they go. So, some people are so negative, so cynical, so discouraged and so discouraging, that if they just come to some place, their negativity just permeates into others and everybody becomes negative.
So, this kind of moroseness, Krishna says, is in the mode of ignorance. So, I will focus on this attitude, this moroseness as a lead to our topic. Now, the last in this is to address that madame, which mother is intoxication.
So, people who cannot deal with life, often they think the solution to every problem lies at the bottom of a bottle of alcohol. And they start drinking. And by that, they think all these problems, I just, I forget the problems, the problems go away.
So, intoxication, the problems do not go away. The problems are going to come back and they are going to come back bigger. Because we are not solving the problems and we have made our condition worse through intoxication.
But these are all delusional solutions. We are not solving, we are aggravating. So, now, why is all this referred to as determination? Because if we see, many of us, we hold on to these attitudes.
Some people say, I do not have any determination. Some people are very lazy, just keep sleeping, keep postponing, keep procrastinating. And then they say, you know, why don’t you do things, why don’t you do something, why don’t you do something on time? I just can’t do it.
I am lazy. This is just the way I am. Actually, laziness also requires determination.
How is that? Actually, what does determination mean? There are forces which are impelling us to let go of some things. And still we don’t let go of that thing, we hold on to that thing. That is essentially determination.
So, when somebody is lazy, those persons are criticised by others, they are mocked by others. They themselves feel, I am not doing anything worthwhile. Now, in spite of all this criticism from others, the loathing from oneself, one still holds on to that laziness.
Sometimes in a movie, you may see the hero and villain are fighting near the edge of a mountain cliff, and the villain just pushes the hero off. And the hero is holding on to the cliff with his bare fingers. And the villain starts stamping on the fingers.
And if the hero just still holds on, in spite of the pain, he has a lot of determination. So like that, you know, when we hold on to our undesirable habits and attitudes, despite experiencing their bad consequences, that holding on is determination. And alcohol addiction is actually a misdirected form of determination.
Somebody who is addicted to something, they lose money, their health suffers, their reputation suffers, their self-esteem suffers. In spite of it all, they hold on to it. So that is determination.
It is just determination that is misdirected. So no one can say that I don’t have determination. We have determination, it is simply misdirected.
So, mishada is moroseness or gloominess. What does this refer to? That whenever, okay, some things may have gone wrong in our life. And because of that, we start thinking nothing is ever going to go right in my life.
This is going to go wrong. That is going to go wrong. That is going to go wrong.
And everything goes wrong. There’s one. And actually, the more non-spiritual or the more materialistic one becomes, ultimately life becomes more and more gloomy.
There’s an existentialist philosopher who said, life is misery. Therefore, the only philosophical question worth asking is, whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow. And his conclusion was, better don’t commit it today.
That was all his philosophy was about. Now if we see, the Bhagavad Gita also says this world is a place of misery. But if we consider the well-known verse, 8.14, 8.15, which talks about how, We usually quote, this world is temporary.
This world is a place of misery. But if we look at the verse itself, Now, the Dukkhalaya Vishashvatam is like a passing reference in this verse. The verse stresses that those who worship me, those who practise devotional service to me, they do not return to this world which is a place of, which is temporary and a place of, temporary and miserable place.
But they attain my eternal abode. The stress of the verse is not on the miserable nature of the world. The stress of this verse is on the potency of bhakti to elevate us above the miserable nature of this world.
So the example to understand this is, the hospital is a place where there is misery. But the purpose of the hospital is not misery. Misery is there in the hospital, but the purpose of the hospital is to cure people of misery.
So similarly, this world is like a hospital. In Krishna’s view, yes, there is misery over here. But the point is that by taking the cure of bhakti, we can go beyond misery.
The Bhagavad Gita’s message is actually a message of hope. Even from a very literal external point of view, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is overwhelmed. Arjuna is in tears.
Arjuna is completely, devastated, so perplexed, agonised, his morale is completely shattered, not knowing what to do. The first chapter describes how Arjuna’s limbs are trembling, his hair is standing on end, his Gandiva bow is slipping from his hands. Second chapter describes that, he is crying in tears.
Now, normally, you know, when boys become little, say, seven, eight, nine years old, then as soon as they start getting a little bit of manliness, they say, you know, even if they get hurt, they say, boys don’t cry, girls cry. They have that attitude. Manliness means you won’t cry.
And what to speak of as a person grows, as a person becomes a Kshatriya, Kshatriyas are actually the embodiment of masculinity, of masculine virility. And Arjuna was such a warrior, that even in the midst of war, even if painful arrows were piercing through his body, he would not cry. But such a warrior, who was so stoic in the face of pain, at the start of the Gita, was reduced to tears.
And not just tears, but tears in public view. Normally, when we cry, we just restrain our emotions in public and go and cry in private. But Arjuna was so shaken, so devastated, that he was crying publicly, in front of everyone.
So Arjuna was in misery at the start of the Gita. And what did Krishna tell him that, oh, you are in misery? Good. This is the nature of this material world.
Stay miserable. No, the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita is to help Arjuna relieve of his misery. And by the end of the Bhagavad Gita, in 18.73, when Arjuna speaks, he says that, I have become composed now.
Now I have become well-situated. I have become composed. So Arjuna’s Gandiva bow, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, he puts it aside.
He puts it aside in disheartenment. He puts aside his bow, because he is filled with shoka, with lamentation. But by the end of the Bhagavad Gita, in 18.78, it is described that, that Arjuna, he has picked up his bow, in readiness to fight.
So that Arjuna, who was demoralised at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, he becomes rejuvenated by the end of the Bhagavad Gita. So essentially, from the effect we see to the Bhagavad Gita, is a message of hope and encouragement. And a person who was discouraged, becomes encouraged.
And Arjuna’s Gandiva bow, can be said to represent our enthusiasm, our determination, our encouragement. So in our life, we will also face perplexities. We will face adversities.
And they may dishearten us. In disheartenment, I just can’t do it. I give up.
So Arjuna says, I can’t do it. I give up. But if we hear the message of the Bhagavad Gita, and understand that message, the message, what will it do? It will encourage us.
And just as Arjuna picked up his bow, in readiness to fight, we will also become enthused, encouraged to face whatever battle, life has sent our way. So in principle, so I talked about this in two parts just now, that moroseness or negativity is, habitual negativity, is a sign of the mode of ignorance. That’s the message, the content of the Gita itself.
So as devotees, if we are being morose or pessimistic, that means we are inordinately influenced by the mode of ignorance. Second point I made is that, from the Gita’s context, we see that, it is a message of hope, a message of encouragement. Now, how does the Gita offer this hope or encouragement? Usually if you look at its converse, what is it that discourages us? Largely, our discouragement can come from, broadly two categories, either external things, or internal things.
Externally, when you are planning something, and, sometimes in one moment, everything that we have planned, just might just crumble. Now we might have a dream career, and suddenly we get a pink slip. We might have a dream relationship, and suddenly we get a divorce papers.
We might have been great health, and suddenly we are diagnosed with cancer, or whatever. So now, external things can fall apart in one moment. And that can devastate us, that can demoralise us.
Internally, also we may get discouraged. We may get discouraged because, you know, we, we may have planned to do something, in terms of our own self-improvement. And when we fail to do that, or we fail terribly in doing something.
So, one is that we fail in the world’s eyes, that may cause us discouragement. The other is, we fail in our own eyes. Means we wanted to do something, we wanted to do it in a particular way, we are unable to do that.
That may also cause discouragement. Broadly speaking, when this discouragement comes, in material life, people talk about, how we should always persevere, think positive, and persevere. One day you will succeed.
So, now this attitude, if we are, if we are enthusiastically persevering, in a cause that is misdirected, then that kind of optimism, is not very helpful. Now, if a person, is going on a wrong road, and they are not finding their destination. And they say, keep going ahead, keep going ahead, keep searching, you will find the destination.
Now, if you are on the wrong road, enthusiasm or optimism, is not going to help. Because the destination doesn’t lie there. But if somebody is on the right road, and then they become discouraged, oh, I have not reached my destination.
Then actually, they need to be encouraged, so that they can move on. So, Srila Prabhupada writes, in Bhagavad Gita, Purport 13.8 to 12, that as far as, materialistic enjoyment is concerned, a devotee should be pessimistic. That, we shouldn’t think that, okay, if I just make this adjustment, that adjustment, and everything will be wonderful.
Yes, we can make adjustments. But, if they are necessary, we can do them. If you are sick, naturally, we’ll try to take some treatment.
If you don’t have a job, we’ll actually look for a job. But we don’t, we don’t think that, these things alone will solve my problems. That these things will make me happy.
This is what I need to do for functioning in this world. But, a devotee is pessimistic, not in the sense that the devotee, not in the sense, the devotee doesn’t endeavour. The devotee is pessimistic, in the sense that, the devotee doesn’t think that, these things alone will bring happiness.
If I do this in a mood of service, if I, this is what is required for my service, I’ll do it. But these things alone will not bring happiness. It is only the Krishna connection, the things that will bring me happiness.
As far as, our service to Krishna is concerned, a devotee is supremely optimistic. In the Bhakti Samrath Sandhu, among the qualities of a devotee, that are described, one quality is, Ashabhadra. Ashabhadra, Prabhupada translates that as, having hope against hope.
And, in the Bhakti Samrath Sandhu, it is said that, further that, that if a devotee is trying to practise bhakti, and Krishna himself comes and tells a devotee, you are very fallen. You will not be able to practise bhakti. Still, a devotee will not give up the practise of bhakti.
This, is the hope that a devotee has. Now, can you imagine, if God himself comes and says, you can’t do it. Say, God is omniscient, he knows everything.
If he’s saying you can’t do it, then you can’t do it. But the devotee has such faith, such hope, such optimism, in the potency of Krishna’s mercy, that manifests through bhakti. The devotee always maintains hope.
And, so, when, we talk from this perspective, that the Bhagavad Gita is a message of hope, and, a devotee should be hopeful. Then, from this perspective, you can understand that, if we get discouraged, like earlier I said, fear, is a natural reaction. Now, it is not that, it is said about soldiers or warriors, who go out, to fight a war, they go into danger.
It is not that they are afraid of fear. Sorry, it is not that they are free from fear. It is usually that, they are inspired by a cause, that is higher than the fear.
They have fear, if somebody is going to, all of us, nobody is actually free from fear. So, if a soldier is going for fighting, in a war, they have fear, naturally. But then, they have a higher cause.
Maybe they’re fighting for their country, their patriotic love for their country. And that higher cause, that gives them a positive inspiration, that counters the fear. So, just as, the fear cannot be eliminated, but fear can be subordinated, by a higher cause.
Similarly, we cannot eliminate discouragement. We cannot eliminate discouragement. Because, if things go wrong, discouragement is, becoming discouraging, the actual response.
Once, one, in India, a reporter asked the Prabhupada, Swamiji, you know, who is going to be your successor after you? So, Prabhupada said, all my disciples. They will, they will continue on. No, Swamiji, you’re seeing so many movements.
After the founder departs, then the movement shatters apart. And the Prabhupada takes a very disarmingly, human response of it. He says, why are you discouraging me? No, no, Swamiji, I’m not discouraging you.
No, but your question is discouraging. Prabhupada says that, actually, in my whole day, I have travelled all over the world. I built this movement.
And why are you discouraging me? So now, can we say, can a pure devotee ever be discouraged? Actually, a pure devotee, may go through the emotions that are natural to us. But the pure devotee’s actions, are not determined by the actions of the pure devotee. Yes, there’s a, if there is a, if there is a reversal, there is discouragement.
But devotee is not, a pure devotee does not let the discouragement, deter one from one’s devotional service. The beautiful letter of Srila Prabhupada, when one of his prominent disciples, who was in a leading position, he said he had some difficulties, and he left. And Srila Prabhupada writes a letter to him that, that, I’ve heard this distressing news about you.
He had some moral lapse. I’ve heard this distressing news about you, and I’m feeling very forlorn. Forlorn is almost like an antiquated poetic word.
Somebody’s been very lonely, deserted. So Prabhupada said, I’m feeling very forlorn. And then he goes on, a, and then he, encourages the devotee, finally he says, I am sure, I’m confident, that Lord Chaitanya, will send souls, to assist me in sharing his mission all over the world.
If not you, then someone else. If not you, then someone else. I’m confident.
So Prabhupada had invested himself in this devotee. Naturally, Prabhupada was heartened when he left. But, his confidence was based on his vision being fixed on Krishna.
So if we look at the world, we’ll soon become discouraged. In fact, at one level, we could say the Bhagavad Gita, demonstrates, the effect of Pratyaksha and the effect of Shabda. The effect of Pratyaksha is, Arjuna is about to fight the war and he’s ready.
He’s actually picked up his bow also. But at that time he says, Arjuna says, I want to see. I want to see with my eyes, who have come to fight on the side of Duryodhana.
At one level, it is not that the previous night, suddenly some unknown, unknown pact had been formed, and some new soldiers, new warriors had come on Duryodhana’s side. Who were there on that side? They all knew it. The previous night, the Pandavas had already discussed, now who will tackle which enemy on which side.
So Arjuna’s desire, to see, I want to see with my eyes, who are there? And what happened? Here he is saying, Dhritarashtra is in Durbuddhair. Who are these people who are assisting this evil-minded Dhritarashtra’s son? And then as soon as he sees, what happens? His whole vision changes. And he starts saying, that these are my people, Vandavan, they’re my relatives.
How can I fight against them? So what happens? By seeing with his eyes, by Pratyaksha Pramana, by seeing with his eyes, Arjuna goes into illusion. Arjuna becomes discouraged. But by hearing with the ears, by Shabda, he becomes encouraged.
And he becomes rejuvenated. So in general, if we find that we are getting discouraged, we can look back at the source of the discouragement. That source will be an over-reliance on Pratyaksha.
See, this is going wrong, that is going wrong, that is going wrong. Now if you want to see things going wrong, you can’t imagine more things going wrong than what went wrong in Srila Prabhupada’s life. He started with, you know, he was a young enterprising man.
He thought that I’ll assist my spiritual master’s mission by running a big business and I’ll assist financially. And he actually tried businesses two, three different times. And sometimes there was a fire, sometimes there’s burglary, sometimes there’s no market, sometimes there’s too much competition.
And he tried one after another after another and it just didn’t work. He tried in Calcutta, he tried in Mumbai, he tried in Allahabad. So it just didn’t work.
Then he tried to run a magazine, the Back to Godhead, as a service to his spiritual master. And then while he was distributing the magazine, a cow came and hit him and knocked him on the ground. Almost fell in the sun, fell in the hot sun at a time when people, many people actually died because of sunstroke.
Such was the heat in that year in Delhi. He tried to assist his godbrothers in their mission, but they had no vision for expanding. When he tried to print more magazines, print more books, they said don’t do this.
He tried on his own to start something in Jhansi and the place which he had declared would be the international headquarters of the League of Devotees. What happened? He was driven out of that by political conspiracy. He decided to go to America and all alone without any contact.
What happened? On the way he got two heart attacks. He finally came to America and he was staying in New York. First he came to New York and he was not allowed to speak by the monastic swami with whom he was staying.
Then he shifted to another establishment and he was staying there and then the janitor, the person who was supposed to be the guard, he broke in and stole Prabhupada’s tape recorder and other belongings. Then he came over to the Lower East Side and there what happened? That the person who said, David, who was looking as if he will become a disciple of Sri Prabhupada. Now he turned against him and he attacked him in a drug-induced frenzy.
And Prabhupada could literally flee for his life. Discouragement after discouragement after discouragement after discouragement. So normally speaking, no ordinary human being would have been able to survive so many discouragements.
When we say Prabhupada was empowered, empowered by Krishna. We sometimes have a very simplistic understanding of empowered. Krishna empowered Prabhupada Chia.
Empowerment does not mean absence of obstacles. Empowerment means perseverance even amidst obstacles. Even in the presence of obstacles, obstacles which would have caused a lower person, a lesser morale, to give up, Prabhupada never gave up.
So his empowerment was actually his enthusiasm, his determination, his hope, his hopefulness. Things will work out. So that actually Sri Prabhupada, one of his later disciples, she wrote to him saying that she was trying to preach but nobody was cooperating and she was feeling very disheartened.
And Prabhupada replies, there is no question of being discouraged for a devotee. Because he says, we operate on another platform. What is it we operate on another platform? A devotee’s eyes are fixed on Krishna.
If we are striving to please Krishna, we know Krishna is Bhavagrahi. He sees our intention, he sees our endeavour. The world sees the result.
Krishna sees our intention and endeavour. If we are endeavouring wholeheartedly, Krishna is pleased. And because Krishna is pleased, our service is successful already.
Now in due course, the success will manifest at the external level also. But if our eyes are fixed on the world and no success seems to manifest at the level of the world, then we become discouraged. So what the Bhagavad Gita does is that it shifts our eyes from the world to Krishna.
Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing this not just for getting a result. Yes, to offer results to Krishna, we want to do wonderful things in this world also. But what Krishna, if Krishna wants to build a beautiful temple, he can do it just by playing his flute.
He’s omnipotent. If he wants, it can happen in a moment. What Krishna wants is our sincerity and our expression of our sincerity.
So if our eyes are fixed on Krishna, then we will never be discouraged. If our eyes are fixed on this world, then sometimes we will be encouraged, sometimes we will be discouraged. So the Bhagavad Gita shifts our eyes to Krishna and thereby it gives us encouragement, gives us enthusiasm.
And in this situation, I said the topic was resist the temptation to be discouraged. Now why temptation? Normally we think of temptation in terms of say, if some wrongdoing or some tempting object is here, we are here and Krishna is here. Something which takes us towards something which takes us away from Krishna, towards some immoral things, we call that as a temptation.
So in form, temptation may be a particular object that takes us away from Krishna. But in essence, anything that takes us away from Krishna is a temptation. So material desires, they take us away from Krishna by pulling us away.
But discouragement takes us away from Krishna by deterring us in moving towards Krishna. In both ways, we stay away from Krishna. And actually when we become discouraged, the second, the first thing is discouragement stops us from going towards Krishna.
Slows us down, stops us. And when we are not moving towards Krishna, when we are not connecting with Krishna, we don’t get any higher taste. And if we don’t get a higher taste, soon we’ll fall for the lower taste.
So a discouraged devotee will soon become a degraded devotee. A devotee will soon fall to something or the other. Why? Because there is no, the discouragement is cutting off the access to the higher taste.
And naturally we have pleasure seeking. So we’ll seek pleasure somewhere and we’ll become, we’ll become degraded. We fall for our standards.
So discouragement is a temptation. And we need to avoid it. Now, how do we avoid it? As I said, first is the philosophical understanding.
That if we keep our eyes on Krishna and understand Shastra, the Shastra itself will encourage us. I’ll conclude with two more points. That first is, now Krishna, Krishna always loves us, no matter what happens.
In the eighth canto, in Gajendra’s prayers, it is said that, my dear Lord, you please liberate me. Why? You are liberated. Yeah, but the Lord may say, you are bound by your own karma.
Why should I liberate you? You are very merciful. Yes, I don’t deserve to be liberated. But you are so merciful, so you are liberated.
And the Lord will say, I tried liberating you so many times, but you have neglected me. You have not paid attention to me. And Gajendra says, Oh, my dear Lord, you never get tired.
You never get tired in trying to deliver. So my dear Lord, please deliver me. So actually, although we have neglected Krishna for so long, Krishna never becomes discouraged in trying to deliver us.
So Krishna is always there. Krishna always loves us. And in fact, even if a devotee does something wrong, still Krishna considers such a devotee saintly.
What does that mean? That doesn’t mean that a devotee should keep doing wrong things. But even after a devotee has done something wrong, a devotee should be assured that Krishna still loves me. There is nothing that we can ever do that can make Krishna stop loving us.
Krishna’s love for us is not based on who we are. Krishna’s love for us is based on who he is. Who he is.
He’s the all-merciful Lord. And he loves us because he’s all-merciful. Now, our experience of Krishna’s love depends on who we are.
If our consciousness is materialistic, we will not experience Krishna’s love. Just like the sun is always giving light. If my eyes are closed, I will not see the light.
But the sun is still giving light. So like that, Krishna always loves us. But when we are caught and attached to materialistic things, then we can’t feel Krishna’s love.
We feel Krishna’s love only in terms of those materialistic things. If the material, whatever things we are attached to, if they work out, oh, God is so kind. And those things don’t work out, oh, God is so cruel.
So we are seeing Krishna’s love in very reductionistic terms. That’s why we can’t perceive Krishna’s love properly. But the point is, Krishna never stops loving us.
And the Bhagavad Gita’s message essentially, in the end, when Krishna tells Arjuna that इश्टो सिमे दुर्धमिति ततो वक्षामि तेहितम् सर्वगुहियतमं भूया शुरुमे परमं वजा इश्टो सिमे दुर्धमिति ततो वक्षामि तेहितम् So Arjuna is saying that Krishna is telling, this most confidential message, I am telling you again now. Why I am telling you? Because you are dearly loved by me. इश्टो सिमे दुर्धमिति दुर्धमिति means determination.
So Krishna says, I am determined to love you. You are extremely dear to me. And further Krishna says again later that, and finally he asks, Arjuna, have you understood it clearly? So the Acharya has explained over there.
I mean, Krishna is asking, have you understood? The implication is Krishna is so concerned that Arjuna understands properly, that if Arjuna has not understood a part of the Gita, Krishna is ready to repeat the Gita. And if he has not understood the full Gita, Krishna says, I’ll repeat the full Gita. Krishna is so concerned.
So Krishna is a God of love. And by remembering Krishna’s unfailing love for us, we can get encouragement even amidst our failures. So by meditating on Krishna’s unfailing love, that’s one way we can avoid discouragement.
And second is, we have to be very selective about our association. If we associate with discouraging people, we will get discouraged. Sometimes even in devotee circle, we find some devotees who are very discouraging.
We can respect them because they’re chanting, because they’re practising some principles of bhakti. But we have to know that, my enthusiasm, my encouragement, that is vital for my bhakti. So if some devotees are habitually negative, either they’re negative about Krishna’s movement, about devotees in general, or negative about us.
Whichever it is that is sapping our morale, we have to stay away from it. Keep a respectful distance from it. We have to associate with those devotees who encourage us.
Sometimes, of course, we need to be corrected. But correction also has to be done in a way that is encouraging, not discouraging. So if you associate with devotees who are always encouraging, then, because we can’t always directly perceive Krishna’s love.
But through the encouragement of devotees, of encouraging devotees, we can stay encouraged in the path of bhakti. And that way, we can resist this temptation of discouragement. As we stay encouraged and stay connected with Krishna, we will actually become enchanted with Krishna.
From being encouraged, we’ll become enchanted with Krishna. And when enchanted, we’ll absorb in Krishna. Then, whatever happens in this world, it will not shake us.
It will not shatter us. But the Bhagavatam, in a sense, is a very odd book. Suppose you start a movie.
The movie starts with, say, a person getting a diagnosis of cancer. And then at the end of the movie, the person dies. What is so great? So at the start of the Bhagavatam, Parikshit is cursed to die.
And at the end of the Bhagavatam, he dies. So you say, what is going on? There is no miraculous intervention. Krishna doesn’t come and protect the hero.
What is happening? So actually, Krishna does come and protect him. But Krishna’s protection is by elevating Parikshit Maharaj’s consciousness with complete spiritually absorbed level. So the Bhagavatam demonstrates that time and time again, it demonstrates that God’s power to heal is greater than the world’s power to hurt.
The world has great power to hurt us. And if our eyes are fixed on the world itself, then the hurt can be unbearable. But the Bhagavatam shifts the eyes, shifts the eyes from the world to God.
And God’s power to heal is always far greater than the world’s power to hurt. So when we are hurt by the world, if we stay, keep our eyes fixed on the world, we’ll become discouraged. But if we hear Shastra and raise our consciousness towards Krishna, then we’ll find healing even amidst that hurt.
And we’ll be elevated about that. Fixing our eyes on Krishna, we’ll always be encouraged and gradually be enchanted by Krishna. So I’ll summarise.
So I spoke about resisting the temptation to be discouraged. And that I started with the Gita verse of determination in the mode of ignorance, holding on to things that hurt us, that is obstinacy, and that is a misdirected form of determination. So we may do it with respect to daydreaming or fearfulness or lamenting, moroseness or intoxication.
About the future, about the past, or about life in general. So within that, focused on habitual negativity. And Mahabharata says that lamenting achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamenter.
And those who are habitually negative, they just disempower themselves and they disempower people around them. And the Bhagavad Gita, although it tells us be pessimistic about materialistic life. That means don’t imagine that material solutions will be the ultimate solutions.
They’ll bring happiness. But the Bhagavad Gita itself is not pessimistic. Although the Gita says this world is dukkha laya, but its stress is on pursuit of bhakti to take us beyond dukkha.
It tells us to recognise this world is a hospital. So don’t expect a comfortable stay over here. But it also says there is treatment available by which you can be cured.
And then from the setting also, Arjuna was so shattered that he was in tears. And by hearing the messages of the Gita, he again became rejuvenated. So his Gandiva bow represents our enthusiasm, our encouragement.
It is lost when we rely on perfection and look at the world. Our encouragement is regained when we raise our eyes from this world to Krishna, which is done by hearing shabda. And how exactly does the Gita raise, make us encourage? We said that encouragement is a temptation because anything that keeps us away from Krishna is a temptation.
So when a devotee is discouraged, he uses higher taste. And by that, the devotee will soon become degraded. So discouragement is like the first temptation which makes us vulnerable to later temptations.
And the Gita helps us to become encouraged by reminding us that Krishna’s love for us is unfailing. We can never do anything that will make Krishna stop loving us. His love for us is based not on who we are, but on who he is.
And Krishna never becomes discouraged with us. So why should we become discouraged in our process of bhakti? And lastly, in a practical sense, if we want to stay encouraged, then we need encouraging devotees around us. Shri Prabhupada is the greatest example of how somebody, despite so many failures, never became discouraged.
So empowerment is not absence of obstacles. Empowerment is perseverance even in the presence of obstacles. And Shri Prabhupada is always encouraged.
And thus, Krishna Prabhupada actually enchanted the whole world with his message of Krishna bhakti. And similarly, our hearts can also be enchanted if we stay encouraged in the practise of bhakti. The Bhagavatam also demonstrates that even if things don’t change at the material level, still the devotee who fixes the eyes on Krishna is protected.
The greater than the world’s power to hurt is God’s power to heal. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
What taste is there in that? Actually, the human mind is very peculiar. So sometimes, some children who are born to, say, who have neglectful parents, the parents don’t pay any attention to the child unless the child starts crying. So only when the child cries, the parents pay some attention.
And what happens? The child thinks that being unhappy is the way to getting its needs met. Only when I’m unhappy and I cry, my needs will be met. And if I’m okay, then nobody is paying attention to me.
So that same kind of psychological conditioning at a subconscious level that happens in childhood, that grows up in some people who later on in their life may become hypochondriacs. People who pretend to be sick. You say, what is the taste in pretending to be sick? But they think when I’m sick, then people will pay attention to me.
People ask me how I am. People notice me. People offer some care to me.
So in a perverse sense, sometimes the mind makes us believe that our needs will be met when we are unhappy. Similarly, when we’re discouraged, then at a subtle level, we may think that people will come and talk to me. People will be nice to me.
People will encourage me. It’s just a distorted way in which the mind misleads us. So basically, in the conditioned stage, we are all self-centred.
And the self-centredness can express itself through ego, arrogance when we tell the world how great I am. How much I have achieved. I’ve done this.
And that same ego can come in a self-centredness, can come in a negative way where it says, you know, how much I have suffered. This has gone wrong. I’m not saying that sharing our heart or sharing our troubles is necessarily a sign of self-centredness.
In an appropriate relationship, that can help us to come closer and grow. But it can also be self-centredness. So when we are discouraged, essentially what are we doing? We are being self-centred.
We’re thinking about ourselves. Oh, I have so many problems in my life. This problem, that problem, that problem.
Therefore, we have been discouraged. So the temptation to be discouraged is just another way in which we stay self-centred. And that is why people who have some cause to live for, they can perceive it even with discouragement.
Things go wrong, they pick themselves up and they move on. So if we have something to live for in our lives, then discouragement won’t get us down for long. But if we have nothing to live for, then discouragement gets us down and keeps us down.
And different people can have different causes. But ultimately, the cause that will never be thwarted is the cause of bhakti. Because that cause is transcendental.
Sometimes some material causes we may work very hard, but they can just be irredeemably thwarted. We may work for achieving something. Somebody wants to become a champion athlete and they just lose their legs in an accident.
They just can’t do it anymore. So there will be Paralympics for physically, especially able people. They might do something over there.
Sometimes some material situations can permanently disable us from achieving certain material goals. So dedication to a material cause, any cause that is other than the cause of serving and pleasing Krishna, that can set us up for discouragement. But the cause of pleasing Krishna ultimately don’t mean anything.
Just by chetasa sevya, in some Maharashtra scriptures, the Maharashtra says that, my dear lord, you can be served simply by your consciousness. Just by remembering you, just by praying to you, a devotee can serve. So that way, any cause bigger than ourselves can get us out of self-centredness and that can help us to counter discouragement.
But the biggest cause, the cause that is beyond discouragement, that is the cause of wanting to serve and please Krishna. Does that answer the question? Any other questions? Yes. A lot of people, they don’t have faith and trust in Krishna.
He’s supposed to be the God of love, like God is love, and yet he gives us a world of suffering, as you were saying, right? They get the taste of it, that suffering, and they can’t quite trust Krishna. They see him as inscrutable. Unpredictable.
What is he coming up with next? Is he romantic? So they’re reticent, you know, that somehow they don’t trust him. So how can that, if there’s a feeling of trust, can genuinely develop? So some people can’t trust Krishna because they feel he’s unpredictable, maybe even erratic. So how can they develop trust in Krishna? See, there is there is, we could say, cultural faith.
There’s cultural faith, there is philosophical faith, and then there’s experiential faith. I’m just using these terms, I’ll explain the concepts. Cultural faith means they’ve been brought up in a family that is pious, or in a culture as religious.
You go to a temple, go to church, go to a mosque, whatever, and worship God. This faith is actually, this faith is largely based on a materialistic conception. That means if you worship God, good things will happen in your life.
If you worship God, like in our entire temples in India, you know, April is the month of exams. And before that, hundreds of students come to the temple. Why? Oh God, please help me pass in this exam.
So what has happened? It’s good, at least they’re coming at that time to the temple. But their conception is, God is meant to provide good things for me in this world. And with this vision, it’s good to have some faith in God.
But you know, in this world, ultimately, material things are not going to last. Even if one thing, two things, three things, four things are provided, how long are things going to be there? How long are things going to come? This world is a place of, place of limited things. Once there was a devotee’s child who stopped chanting.
And then, that devotee took that child to the spiritual master and said, Maharaj, he has stopped chanting. He says, why did you stop chanting? He says, you know, there was an India-Pakistan cricket match. And I prayed to Krishna that India should win.
But India lost. Therefore, I stopped chanting. So then that Maharaj told him, actually, you know, there was a boy like you in Pakistan who was praying to Krishna let Pakistan win.
And he prayed more than you. That’s why Pakistan won. The point is, that actually at the material level, all our desires can never be fulfilled.
Many of our desires will not be fulfilled. So when there is this cultural phase, which is non-philosophical, then sooner or later it will be thwarted. Because in the real context of life, if we expect God to fulfil our desires, the desires will not be fulfilled.
At least some desires sooner or later will not be fulfilled. And we think, what am I doing? And at that time, there are two options. One is, we may go down and become atheistic.
Or we may study scripture, become philosophical. And become philosophical, what does it mean? That means that Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita that this world is dukkha, that this world is a place of misery. So if a devotee studies scripture, and a devotee comes to me, one of Srila Prabhupada’s senior disciples, Ravindra Svarupa Tagore, he writes in one of his articles, he said, I have been to many spiritual organisations, and I came to ISKCON, and I heard on Sunday in his class, this world is a place of misery.
He said, at last someone is speaking the truth. Everybody is saying, oh, you will enjoy, enjoy. What do you know? There is some enjoyment.
There is a lot of misery also. Nobody actually, everybody sugarcoats the misery. So if there is misery, if we experience misery in the world, and scripture tells that this world is a miserable place.
Now we say, yeah, what scripture is saying is true. And, but scripture doesn’t leave us with this, that this world is a place of misery. It tells us that actually, by taking shelter of Krishna, we can transcend misery.
Krishna says in 18.58, if you become conscious of me, you pass over all obstacles by my grace. So now, a devotee thinks, yes, I have experienced one half of scripture’s teaching, that this world is a place of misery. Now let me try to experience the other half, that by becoming, absorbing Krishna, by taking shelter of Krishna, I will transcend misery.
Let me see if this works. And in this way, a devotee takes greater shelter of Krishna. And when the devotee takes greater shelter of Krishna, then the faith rises to ex-realised faith.
Realised faith means that, not that the problem goes away just by taking shelter of Krishna. Rather, even amidst the problem, you know, we experience relief, we experience shelter. Say it’s extremely cold outside, you’re trembling.
And then, we come in a room which is warm and cosy. The cold is there still outside. But when we come inside the room, we feel relief.
Like that, our life will be filled with problems. But if we just shift our thoughts towards Krishna, we focus on Krishna. Krishna says that those devotees who absorb the Lord Kapiladeva’s Indra Bhagavatam, those devotees absorb their consciousness in me through hearing and chanting.
The various miseries of life do come upon us. But, because their consciousness is absorbed in me, so, the devotee doesn’t suffer. So if we are expecting Krishna to be to be a provider and protector of all the material things that we want, then we will feel that Krishna is unpredictable, Krishna is erratic, Krishna doesn’t care, or Krishna doesn’t even exist.
But if you study the philosophy and you take shelter of Krishna, then our faith will rise to the philosophical level and then we’ll realise at the experiential level where we’ll see that, yes, this world is a place of misery, but Krishna is a God of mercy. And even amidst this misery, he gives me shelter. And that will, that’s the whole message of the Bhagavatam.
See, the Bhagavatam is actually, as I said, a very extraordinary book. It doesn’t end. Normally, even the Ramayana, Mahabharata says there’s a battle between good and evil, and the good wins.
And God helps the good win. But there’s nothing like that in the main storyline of the Bhagavatam. The character is sentenced to die, and he dies.
So now, what is God doing? The Bhagavatam’s thrust is that death is inevitable in this world. But by, through spiritual sound, through absorption in the supreme spiritual reality brought about by spiritual sound, we can rise above the misery of death. That’s the whole message of the Bhagavatam, in a sense.
So that’s why if, if somebody is simply staying at the cultural level and faith, then they will have these questions. But if they associate with devotees and understand the philosophy, then the adversities of this world will actually increase their faith in Krishna. Not that Krishna will remove, not because Krishna will remove the obstacles.
Krishna can do that. But more importantly, Krishna will give us strength even between the obstacles. So the same obstacle, if, if we had faced it when we’re not practising bhakti, it would have crushed us.
The same obstacle when we face when we are practising bhakti, we realise that we are developed by Krishna’s mercy and inner toughness by which we can face it, by which we can grow through it. So devotee’s attitude is, that, that don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
Shift the focus. We’ll find that Krishna is there to help us all this. Any other questions? You mentioned that the world sees the result that Krishna sees.
And then you said that the result will come in time. And my question is then, is it ever happening as part of the external? Okay. When I said that Krishna sees the efforts and the results may or may not come, Krishna doesn’t judge it by the results.
But do the results come eventually? This is not all results will manifest at the material level. So if we can define this, if we equate results with material results, then it may not work out. Mishra Prabhupada, he achieved an unparalleled thing.
He built 108 temples, went round the world 14 times, did such an unparalleled preaching in world history. But even then his desire was to translate the full Bhagavatam. That didn’t happen.
So it’s not necessary, but just because a desire is pure in spiritual, still that desire will necessarily materialise in this world. So we have to understand that there’s a complex interplay between karma, bhakti and mercy. That means that some devotees, I just analyse from the karmic point of view, and then I’ll analyse from the bhakti point of view.
Some devotees, by their past karma, they are just charismatic people. The way they talk, the way they conduct themselves, they attract others. And when they become spiritual leaders, they may attract thousands of people.
Now others, some other devotees, they may not be so charismatic. They themselves may be very serious devotees. Even when they become spiritual leaders, they may not attract, they may not be crowd pullers who attract many people.
Or to take a simpler example, some devotee may be, some devotees may be very good singers. Some devotees may not be at all good singers. Some devotees may be very good speakers.
Some devotees may not be very good speakers. So it is not necessary that the material capabilities of our devotees will change. They can change.
They can change, but it is not necessary. We have on one side, we have that by Krishna’s mercy, even a dumb person can speak or a great person can walk. But then we also have the other side, where the story of the South Indian brahmana, who was reading the Bhagavad Gita and couldn’t even pronounce Sanskrit verses.
Now at that time, 500 years ago, Sanskrit was the basic language for brahmanas. And if a brahmana could not pronounce Sanskrit, you say, what is a brahmana doing? So now the point was, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appreciated his bhakti. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appreciated his faith in his spiritual master’s instruction, which read the Bhagavad Gita.
But there’s no description that after that, he suddenly became a wonderful Sanskrit reciter. That means this can happen. Miraculously, a devotee can be transformed and a devotee can get extraordinary abilities also.
But that’s not necessary. And the absence of such extraordinary abilities does not necessarily mean a deficiency, the devotion of the devotee. That devotee may be very devoted and still Krishna may want some devotees to serve in particular ways.
Just like we have in our tradition, there are bhajananandis and there are goshtanandis. Some devotees just like to do bhajans. They like to solitary meditation.
They are great devotees, but they will never have many disciples because they just don’t want it. They may not travel around and preach and they may not have many followers. So that may not happen in their life.
Of course, in that case, it is simply their transcendental rasa with Krishna. But the point I’m making is similar, that the material attributes of a devotee may or may not change. We don’t know that.
So therefore, some devotees may become very successful at the external level in their services. And some devotees may not become so successful at the external level. See, success at the external level also requires some external abilities.
Some devotees may be very sincere, but say they do not have managerial abilities. They may never become great managers. Some devotees may have great devotion, great scholarship, but they may not have great speaking abilities.
They may never become great orators. So when we talk about results, results at the material level do not necessarily reflect one’s bhakti. And sometimes some results may come, sometimes some results may not come.
So what a devotee focusses on, one’s endeavour wholeheartedly. Now, of course, when this happens, some devotees results come, some devotees results don’t come. We need to understand that actually Krishna does what it takes for that devotee’s spiritual growth.
So sometimes the result, giving the results is what encourages the devotee and the devotee will go on. Sometimes not giving the results, maybe what is necessary for the devotee to go inwards and take shelter of Krishna more. So we should know that whatever happens in the devotee’s life, it is ultimately for the best.
It is ultimately for the growth of the devotee. So from our perspective, we keep endeavouring. Of course, we use our intelligence to endeavour.
So Prabhupada was endeavouring with determination, but he was also trying different things. First try a magazine, then try a book, then try organisation, then try helping another organisation, then try going abroad. Prabhupada tried it.
It is not that he is stuck to one thing all the time. So if results are not coming in one field, then use our intelligence and try something else. So that means that we have to be fixed in our purpose and flexible in our process.
My goal is to serve Krishna, no matter what happens. I am fixed in my purpose. But how exactly I will serve Krishna, that will change.
I may start with one particular service, but then afterwards I find I am not so good at this service. Some things are not working out. I may try something else.
We may explore, and over a period of time, we will say this is the service I wish to do. This is what I am good at. This is what I will do.
Just because we don’t get the results in a service doesn’t mean that Krishna is not accepting our intention to serve. Krishna is accepting our intention to serve, and we are growing towards it. So we, at one level, accept that whether the results come or not, I am growing in my relationship with Krishna.
At another level, we want results in this world also. So we are flexible. We keep trying different things so that we can make a tangible contribution in this world.
And usually Krishna does give results. Not necessarily all the results, not necessarily the results in the form that we expect. But Krishna does give wonderful results.
The problem happens when we limit Krishna with our expectations. Normally we think that Krishna doesn’t fulfil my expectations. You know, I thought I’ll do this.
It didn’t work out. But actually, sometimes we limit Krishna with our expectations. That means what? We expect Krishna’s result to come in a particular way.
And Krishna may reward us in some other way. We are walking through a particular door. And that door bangs shut.
And we spend all this time glaring at the door. We spend all our time and energy. We don’t notice that some other door has opened.
So if we are fixed in our purpose, but flexible in our process, process means not Chandi Hare Krishna. Process means how we serve. So one plan may not work.
But overall, the intention to serve Krishna will work. Krishna will open some door for us. That way a devotee will get the results.
But a devotee has to be open to redefinition of what results, what it means to get results. In what form the results may come, Krishna can very dramatically alter that. So we need to be open to that.
Does this answer your question? Do we have time? Okay, last question. Thank you. Sometimes we see like some devotees practising spiritual activity.
They are in principle, most externally looking for self-service. Whatever it is. And suddenly we see in that person’s life, they go into mode of ignorance all of a sudden.
And this is where it can happen in a short decline. Then they may do something which is not even expected of them. Not only from a devotional point of view, but even from a social point of view.
So what is it that was lacking? They may be sometimes in some association, but not necessarily. What is that? How can we help? Sometimes we do not even know. If some devotees are in good standing, suddenly they do something which is, it’s very bad.
Not just from spiritual, but even social perspective. And why did this happen? What was lacking? And how can we help them? Actually, we all have certain karma to be exhausted. Just like sometimes somebody may fall sick.
Normally we think about karma in terms of external things that happen to us. Somebody may fall sick, somebody may lose a job, somebody may lose a relative, loved one. These are karmic reactions.
These are karmic reactions. But karmic reactions can come internally also in the form of distorted desires. When a person becomes alcoholic, the consequences are twofold.
One is that health gets spoiled. But internally, the desire for alcoholism also becomes strong. So similarly, we all can go through phases when the desire is shoot up.
It’s not that there is necessarily anything lacking in our practise or bhakti. It’s just that that is a phase when some karmic reactions are coming to us in the form of aggravated internal desires. So, the way to do this is taam siddhi kshetra soha.
Just as when distress comes, if we just overreact to the distress, we may do something which confounds the problem. It’s tolerated, it goes away. So, like that sometimes desires just come.
And they come so fast. But then it just comes so forcefully that the person just gets overwhelmed. Now, if they are in a close devotee association, some devotee may be able to help them.
But the major problem that happens is if we become a successful devotee, then there is a certain image that we want to maintain. And because of wanting to maintain that image, we don’t tell our inner struggles. Because if I tell, I’m having this problem, then people say, I thought you were such a great devotee.
You also have such a problem. We think that our image will get spoiled. And that’s why, especially if a devotee is successful, sometimes they don’t confide about their inner struggles with some devotee who could have helped.
And then, when the desires become so strong, they get overwhelmed. That’s why, it is a matter of great fortune if we can have even one devotee in our life whom we can trust more than we trust our mind. That means what? We look at everyone through our mind.
If somebody starts speaking sweetly to us, our mind says, this person must want something from you. That’s why they speak so sweetly. So we look at everyone through our mind.
But if there is some devotee whom we trust enough, rather than looking at that devotee through the mind, we look at the mind through that devotee. His devotee is saying this, my mind is saying that. If we have even one devotee like that, it’s a matter of great fortune.
So what happens by that? The mind offers us a certain take on things. This is like this, this is like this, this is like this. But if we have some devotee whom we trust, then we get an alternative take on things.
And then, we can actually be saved from what the mind is telling us. So, sometimes devotees who are very successful become so image conscious that they can’t let any devotee know their heart. And that’s how they fall.
They fall away. And then, because the desires are so strong, the craving for pleasure is so great, at that time the mind starts imagining such things. Mind starts feeling, oh, you deprived yourself of pleasure for so long, now just indulge in it fully.
It’s like make up for lost time. In that way, people end up doing terrible things. So, if somebody does something like that, then there is a institutional level response and individual level response.
At institutional level, we need to have certain standards. And if somebody has done something which is grievously wrong, then they cannot be in a responsible position or leadership position. But at individual level, we have to see how best we can respond in that situation.
Sometimes, if the devotee is you know, we have trusted the devotee a lot, then if we try to go close, we will inevitably our feelings of hurt and betrayal will be so great that we will come off as very judgemental. And we may alienate the devotee further. So, the best way we can serve the devotee is by keeping a distance from them.
But if we are in friendly terms, then we can avoid the judgemental attitude and just be open to them. What they have done wrong, there is no denying that. But we don’t have to let that wrong define them.
We don’t have to label them for that. We give them an opportunity to come closer to Krishna in as non-judgemental environment as possible. And then, that higher taste of Krishna Bhakti always remains.
And sooner or later, they will be like, whatever I have done, it’s all right, what made me do that? They will come to Krishna’s lotus feet. So, unfortunately, if devotees become extremely judgemental, then that fear keeps them away from Krishna’s movement because they feel, you know, they just can’t come over there. So, we have to protect our community.
We have to protect our own faith. Our own hurt feelings we have to see. But we have to try to create some space if we have the capacity to, by which we can also come to Krishna’s lotus feet.
And that way they can move onwards. But we shouldn’t become judgemental because, you know, we don’t know what karmic reactions await us in future. We may also think, I’ll never lose anything.
Can’t even dream of losing anything. But, you know, sometimes desires can come in such a way that they will just grip us. So, rather than becoming judgemental and thinking, oh, how could they do such a thing? We think that, actually, such is the power of maya.
Anybody can be dragged down, so let me stay humble and let me stay fixed in my bhakti to Krishna. Thank you very much. Shri Prabhupada Ki Gaur Bhakta Vendaki Gaur Premani