Chances Changes Choices – Making Life’s Big Decisions

[Talk at Krishna Temple, Salt Lake City, USA]

Hare Krishna. So my thanks to all of you for coming here today evening.

I am grateful to be here at the Lotus Feet of the Lordships. I will try to share some thoughts on this topic of changes, chances, choices. If we compare life to a journey and we come to a crossroad, and we're not sure which is the way to our destination, we have to take a chance.

Should I go this way or should I go that way? It's a chance we need to take. And whichever chance we take, there will be a change that will happen. And that choice is going to have certain consequences.

So now, similarly, in life, we all face changes. Change was we're going along a straight road, but suddenly a crossroad came. And that forced a choice upon us.

And the choice requires taking a chance. So like that, something similar happens in our life also. And we'll see on what basis we can make our choices.

When we are going on a journey, we usually have a map with us. Nowadays, we may have Google Map or some other online map, which helps us, guides us along the way. Am I audible behind or is it better now? Okay, is it better now? So when we are going along a journey, we usually have a map with us.

So what kind of map can equip us to navigate through the changes, chances and choices that we face in our life? Now, the first truth about life is that things are always changing. The only thing constant in life is that nothing is constant. Everything, right from the weather outside, to the arrangement of the galaxies and the planets, to the cells inside.

Almost at every second, thousands of cells are dying out and are being recreated. And new cells are being created. So if you look at our own emotions, they are constantly changing.

Now, change is unavoidable, it is inescapable. And when things change, we, that can cause, it provides opportunity for making things better. But that can also create anxiety, because things can turn out to be worse.

So every change brings with it certain uncertainty. And how we navigate that uncertainty, how we deal with that uncertainty, that is important for us to intelligently make the right choice amidst the change. Now, if we see, the more things change, the more we need to hold on to the things that don't change.

We all need something unchanging as an anchor in our life. Without some unchanging feature of our life, everything is up for grabs, everything becomes uncertain, and we become uprooted. So many psychologists are saying that we are facing in today's world, what is called as an anxiety epidemic.

One curious feature of this anxiety epidemic is that normally we consider anxiety to be a result of uncertainty. Say after this programme, you have to catch a bus or a flight, and then you are not sure whether you will reach in time for that. So when there is uncertainty with respect to certain externals, that causes anxiety, will I reach there, will I not reach there? And if comparatively speaking, if we consider say developing countries like India or China, and developed countries like say USA, the level of external certainty in the developed countries is much more.

In many parts of India, if you turn on a tap, there is no certainty water will come. You press the electric switch, there is no certainty that the power or light will turn on. That level of uncertainty is not there in the developed world.

So logically speaking, if anxiety is caused by uncertainty, then when the uncertainty goes down, the anxiety should go down. But paradoxically, the anxiety levels among people in the developed countries are actually much more than in developing countries. And not only that, when people from the developing countries, say India and China, when they emigrate to the West, their anxiety levels actually go up.

So what is it that causes this? Although there is certainty at a certain level, in terms of there is more guarantee of material things being provided for, what is it that is lacking? So actually, anxiety is caused not just by external certainty or uncertainty. No, anxiety is also a result of our inner security or insecurity. There is external aspect and there is internal aspect.

So it is not an absolute statement, but generally, the more materially prosperous we become, the more materialistic we become. It is not necessary, but it often happens that way. And the more materialistic we become, then what happens? Then actually everything at the material level is temporary.

When we perceive of life only in material terms, and because everything material is changing, so there is no unchanging shelter that is left. So, for example, if we consider that there are things which are changeable. If a phone doesn't work, we change the phone.

If a car doesn't work, we change the car. And this change, we hope it will make things better in our life. But when this ethos of, say, use and discard, use and throw, when that is taken too far, when people start treating relationships as dispensable, as replaceable, then the result is tremendous insecurity.

So, what happens is from a materialistic view of things, we get a materialistic view of people. People also become replaceable units. If they provide me gratification, I have them.

If they don't provide me gratification, I reject them. So, this dynamic sometimes, say, when two people are attracted to each other, and they say, I can't live without you. And the mind's feeling at that time is so intense, they come together, but the mind is changing.

And if there is no higher principle on which to rest one's life, the same mind says, no, this person is not all that good. After a few months, they say, I can't live with you. So, this way, when there is no inner security, when there is no value higher in the material to one's life, then the anxiety levels shoot up.

I'll explain this a little further. So, in life, there are chances. There are sometimes chances which we can't afford to take.

It's too risky. And there are sometimes chances which we can't afford not to take. If a person is sick and the person says, you know, if I go to a doctor, I don't know how good this doctor is.

I don't know whether the treatment will work or not. Well, you have to take a risk. Because if one is sick and one doesn't take a treatment, then the result is that sickness is going to stay there, it reverses.

So, yes, it's possible that the treatment may not work. But then we use our intelligence to, first of all, evaluate whether treatment makes sense or not. So, if, say, if I have pain in my stomach, if I have, and the doctor says, we have to do surgery to amputate your leg.

I say, what's going on? I have pain in the stomach. Why are you cutting? It doesn't make sense. So, when a doctor gives a diagnosis, we use our intelligence to evaluate it.

So, it's not that when we take a chance, we take it blindly. So, the word faith often has a lot of bad press in today's world. When you have faith, just being irrational, pre-scientific, unsentimental, unthinking.

But faith is simply required in every field of life. Every time we take a pill given by a doctor, we're taking a, not a leap of faith, we're taking a gulp of faith. So, faith is required every time, in whatever we do.

So, there are, so whenever we take a chance, there is a, there is some amount of risk, there's some amount of faith required to be taken. But there are some chances which we just can't afford not to take. Now, when it comes to spiritual exploration, does life have a spiritual side? Often we feel, you know, there are so many religions, there are so many teachers, there are so many books.

Who will bother about all this? Better not get involved in the spiritual business. You know, it's a chance that let me not take. But however, there are two fundamental problems with living a materialistic world.

What is that? There are two problems. First is that actually materialism cannot explain our basic life. So, for example, now if we see, I started by saying that everything around us is temporary.

Nothing lasts forever. And yet, all of us have a desire to live forever. To live forever and to love forever.

Now, most of the movies and the novels are about romance. And in romance, the aspiration is H-E-A, happily ever after. Now, we all know from experience that actually nobody lives forever.

So there's no ever after. But still there is that longing. Now, why is that longing there at all? If we were simply materialistic creatures, if matter is all that was there to our being, and matter is temporary, where would the desire for eternal life come from? Say, if a person, if a child has lived in a nomadic tribe in the forests of Africa, and the child has never heard of pizza, and suddenly the child says to his mother, Mummy, I want a pizza.

Where did you get the desire for a pizza from? Where did you hear about a pizza from? So, if there's nothing in the circumstances from which they could have heard about a pizza or got a desire for the pizza, then the question naturally would come up, how did you come to know about a pizza? Where did the desire come from? So similarly, if nothing in this world is eternal, nothing lasts forever, why do we have the desire to live for it? Where does the desire come from? Actually, that desire, the yoga texts explain it comes from our spiritual core. We are not materialistic creatures. We have materialistic machines.

These bodies are machines that we use for functioning in this world. But we ourselves at our core are spiritual beings. We are non-material.

And the spiritual, by its very definition, is eternal. And currently, we are identifying with the material. It's like when a person, say, a child is sitting at home, and a child is, say, watching a movie.

Actually, the movie is a horror movie. And the child is getting scared, trembling, crying tears, shivering, screaming. And the mother is nearby.

And the mother says, what is all this about? As long as the consciousness of the child is caught in the movie, then the child will feel horrified. Why? Because the child is identifying with the movie, identifying with the character in the movie, and thereby feeling fearful, feeling horrified. Similarly, we at our core are spiritual beings.

We are indestructible. But we are identifying with this body. We are identifying with the things in this world.

And because of this identification, which is actually a misidentification, because of that, because the body is temporary, we feel I am temporary. We feel I am going to die. And we fear the uncertainty and the mortality that affects our body.

So actually, from the materialistic perspective, there is no really satisfactory explanation of why at all we long for living, long to live forever. But from the spiritual perspective, we understand this origin, this longing comes from our soul. Now, more fundamentally, some people will say, oh, there is living forever, I don't care.

I just want to live here. I want to enjoy here. I want to be happy here.

Now, in materialistic culture, probably the thing that people dream about, you know, maybe somebody should with their heart say, I love you. That is what people dream to hear. But if we consider from a purely materialistic perspective, what is the meaning of I love you? If we are simply materialistic creatures, then everything material is simply governed by laws.

You know, if I take this mouse and I drop it, I won't drop it. But if I drop it, now it has no free will whether it should fall or not. It will fall.

So Einstein said that, you know, gravity explains the falling of things, but it doesn't explain people falling in love. It's something different. So we see that actually material things are simply governed by laws.

They are simply governed by laws. They have no free will. And if we are simply materialistic creatures, then we should also have no free will.

So the implication is that we are, the implication of materialism is that we are simply biological robots. Einstein was profoundly conflicted by the implications of the scientistic worldview. You know, science is a tool for acquiring knowledge.

Scientism is an ideology which claims that science alone gives all knowledge. So scientism is different from science. Science is a very valuable, very powerful tool for acquiring knowledge.

But when science becomes imperialistic or science is made imperialistic by people with ulterior motives, then it becomes scientism. So Einstein recognised that the implication of scientism would be that if everything is simply governed by material natural laws, as we know from science, then we don't have any free will. The implication would be that, say the Nazis who killed millions of Jews, they're not responsible for what they did.

Because they were biologically programmed in such a way, they're programmed to kill. If I come close to one of you, I slap you on the face. Hey, why did you slap me? You know, my neurones told me to slap you.

You'll slap me back. My neurones told me to slap you. You know, all relationships are based on a fundamental presumption of accountability.

Why did you do that? That means when we ask someone, why did you do that? That means you had a choice not to do that, but still you did that. I'm asking you, why did you do that? So all sense of accountability, all sense of justice, all relationships, all of human society is based on the presumption of freedom. But if we were simply materialistic creatures, then we are programmed biological robots.

All of us have certain neuronal connections in our brain, and they make us function particular ways. And they simply help us. So that means that I and you, when we talk about I love you, I and you are simply biological robots.

And what is love? Love is simply a surge of biochemicals in certain areas of the brain. That's all there is to it. This is the materialistic world view.

So when a mother feels a love for a child, for a small baby, flood of love, what is happening? Just some chemicals are surging in the brain. Is that all that is? They actually, this is a dismally reductionistic world view. And it is completely, it is completely counter-experiential, counter-intuitive, because the point is, we all act on the presumption of freedom.

So we all understand that emotions are profoundly meaningful. Not all emotions are meaningful, but our emotions, if they are well chosen, they are well developed, then they actually bring meaning to our life. You know, we all, if we want, then we can have, we can programme our computer in such a way that every time it turns on, it can give a startup message.

I love you. And now it may speak it very sweetly. But we know there is no emotion over there, there is no relationship over there, there is no affection over there.

So materialism actually reduces life to meaninglessness. The way people live materialistically is because they don't think about the implications of materialism. Live functionally without thinking deeply.

But when we have to live our life, if we are talking about spiritual exploration, and there are some chances we have to take over there. But if we don't take that chance, what is the result? Sometimes people often equate spirituality and astrology spirituality with many other fields. One of the fields is astrology.

And other people ask, they expect a spiritual, anybody who is wearing a spiritual kind of garb, they expect the person to be maybe good at astrology. So can you see my palm and tell me what is the future? I say, no, actually, what is our future? The future is that we're all going to go old, get deceased and die. Isn't it? It's like, say, now here we are in beautiful mountains around Salt Lake City.

If we are on a road, and we are going high speed on the road, and there is nice scenery on both sides, but the road is just ending in a straight cliff from which you're going to fall off. Then if you ask, okay, what kind of scenery is on the road? Fine, there's good scenery, but you're going to fall off at the end. Be more concerned about that.

So what happens when we consider the future from a materialistic perspective? Now, yes, different things may happen to us while we live in this world, but there is a dead end. And what is going to happen? What is going to happen about that? Now, Woody Allen said that, I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Death is something that is going to happen to us, to all of us, and it's going to be agonising when it happens. So this is, it's like our current material existence, in which we are all fated to die, exploring if there is something higher to life or not, that is the chance we can't afford not to take.

Because if we don't take this chance, if a sick person doesn't take the chance to explore some treatment, the result is sickness is going to worsen and the person is going to die. Similarly, if we don't explore life's spiritual dimension, what is going to happen is, this body is fated to die. And let's consider the choices part now.

So now here, an important thing to recognise is, with respect to choices, if we don't make choices consciously, choices are made subconsciously for us. What does that mean? That means that at one level, if we, there's a survey, nowadays there's a lot of concern about, because most of the food that we eat is very fatty. So there's a lot of problem of obesity among many people.

Many of us may also be having this. So there's a lot of survey about how people's eating habits. So people, there was a survey done, I think it was in University of Pennsylvania.

They decided to ask people, how many food-related choices do you do daily? Should I eat this or should I not eat this? How much should I eat this? Like that. And most people said, between 12 to 15. And actually, when they went over the day, they found that people made around 215 food choices daily.

How is that 215? It's like every time we see some commercial, we see some promotional item, we pass by a hotel, we pass by any place catering to food, we decide, should I take it or should I not take it? If you're taking a meal, should I eat this or should I not eat this? Or if I should take a second serving of this or a second serving of this. Now, most of these choices, if we are not aware, they pass off below the radar of our awareness. Say, if a person has two snacks below them, maybe one is a fatty snack and the other is a healthy snack.

Now they might decide, I'm going to eat healthy. And if they're conscious, they will choose the healthy food. But if they're talking on phone, maybe reading something on the internet, surfing, am I responding to somebody on their phone? And suddenly the pang of hunger comes.

And then hand automatically will gravitate towards the fatty food and start eating it. And after eating, hey, I was trying not to eat that, what happened? How do I eat that? So what happens is, when we are not conscious, it's not that we don't make choices. The choice is made for us.

I started this talk with a description of the metaphor of a journey. And I said that if we come to crossroads, we will decide, should I go this way or that way? Now, in a crossroads, we may decide to go neither way and stay there itself. But that choice, life does not provide us.

Sometimes we say, time is like money. It is said that, we say time is like money and we say that, so that we should value time. But actually time is very different from money.

Why? Because we can choose to invest, we can choose to store money. I don't know how to spend it. So I just store money and in the future, I'll decide how to spend it.

But we can't do that with time. We can't store time. With every moment, time is being spent.

And if we are not choosing consciously, then the choices are being made subconsciously for us. So, every moment that we are going through, actually, the time that we have in our life is decreasing. The time is being expended.

So choices are happening at every moment. The question is whether the choices will be subconsciously done for us by social conceptions, social indoctrination also we can say, or whether they will be done by our conscious deliberation. So the default condition in today's world is materialistic.

And the whole world pushes us, prods us to live materialistically. And the result of this is that there is some pleasure in the shame. The Bhagavad Gita says that the nature of materialistic pleasure is that it tastes like nectar in the beginning, but it tastes like poison in the end.

In 18.38, Krishna says that विषयेंद्रिय सन्योगार् यत्तदग्रेयम्रतोपमं परिणामे विषमिवा तच्चुखम्राज संस्मृतम् He says, विषयेंद्रिय, when the senses and the sense objects come in contact with each other, is pleasure. There is initial pleasure, but then eventually it is like poison. It leads to misery.

So we will be making choices and if we let the mainstream culture determine our choices, if we just go along with the mainstream culture, then by default our choices will be materialistic. But if we think wisely, we all have the opportunity to choose differently. Now the fundamental insight of Yoga texts is that our life is meant for something more than these four bodily functions.

Food, sleep, sex and show of strength. This is what all animals do. And this is what we humans also do.

And this is a biological function. They're needed. In the world, if a dog is threatened by another dog, the dog shows strength.

So this is something which by our bodies we will do. But is this all that there is to life? Is there something more to life apart from just finding good food to eat, finding a good partner to enjoy with, finding, getting a nice sleep, and parading our possessions, see how great I am. Isn't there something more to life? So actually this question is what inspires, is what actually will direct us spiritually.

So the show of strength in the animal world, it's primarily muscular. In our world, it may be in different ways. It may be through political power, it may be through financial power, it may be through our networking power, whatever it is.

But it's basically the same thing. So as I briefly mentioned in my introduction, where I started off, my dream was just to become a topper, become number one in my class. I was always among the number one, among the top few, but I was never the number one.

I'd be second, joined first, but never the first. So that was like for almost 12, 13 years of my academy education, that was my disappointment. And then when I gave my GRE, at that time, Indians often struggle a little bit with English.

But actually for me, one of my childhood hobbies was I would just pick up a dictionary and keep memorising words. So I liked English and I did quite well. As I mentioned, I came first in the whole state of Maharashtra, which is almost like 10 million people there.

So then I thought that this is where all my dreams come true. Now, I was not just first in my class or my university, but I was first in the history of my university. So I thought, this is so great.

But then many of my friends congratulated me, but some people did not congratulate me. And then, you know, when I would meet with those people, why are you not congratulating me? Don't you know what I've achieved? And I just didn't like the direction my thoughts were going towards. And then it struck me that actually by becoming a topper, I have not become happy.

I have become more dependent on others for my happiness. Whenever we achieve something materialistically, if we buy a very costly, fashionable new dress, and then we come in our assembly and nobody notices it. Even what is going on here? What is the point of the dress if nobody notices it? So it's like that.

Most of the happiness in materialistic life, it depends on a show. And the show means others have to appreciate it. So we actually become dependent on others for our happiness.

So that was the time I felt there must be something higher. So there is some pleasure at this level in food, sleep, sex, show of strength. But that is very limited.

And that is actually dependent on externals. That is dependent on external things which may be taken away at any time. Now, when we talk about becoming spiritual, it doesn't mean rejecting the material.

It means seeking something more than the material. It is not that giving up the material, it is seeking more than the material. The spiritual life is about understanding that just as we have a body, but our existence is not limited to the body.

Our existence goes beyond the body. Our identity goes beyond the body. Similarly, our destiny is also meant to go beyond the body.

We are meant for something much bigger in life. So the yoga texts offer the wisdom that what we are longing for, it lies within, not without. When we seek things externally, we are basically chasing mirages.

We will never find what we are looking for. But when we find a mirage, what does it mean? Actually, we feel there is water, but there is really water somewhere. That's why we feel, okay, water is over here.

So sometimes in spiritual circles, in some spiritual schools of thought, actually there is no happiness at all. And all the hopes of happiness are actually illusory. All relationships are false.

All personality is false. There's no ultimate reality. So we just give up this illusion and we'll become peaceful.

But the fact is, we wouldn't be attracted to a mirage if there were no water and if we didn't have experience of water. It's only because there is really water and we have experience of water that we feel, oh, there is water over here. So similarly, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is that whatever is attractive in this world, it doesn't deny the attractiveness of those things.

They are attractive, but it says that it reflects only a spark of the all-attractiveness of the infinite, of the source. So we are all finite consciousness and the infinite consciousness, the source, is known in different traditions by different names. In Bhagavad Gita, that source is known by the name Krishna.

So whatever is attractive in the outer world, that reflects a spark of Krishna's attractiveness. And if we just get attracted by the spark, the spark will give us a little pleasure. But it won't do lasting pleasure.

But we see the spark not as a source of pleasure. We see the spark as a pointer to pleasure. Okay, this is so beautiful.

Then how much more beautiful the source will be? Let me get attracted to the source. Then the way to get attracted to the source is actually the process of yoga. So spirituality is not just a leap in the dark.

There is a whole process. The Bhagavad Gita offers us a process of yoga. It culminates in Bhakti Yoga, where we redirect our love from the worldly things towards the source of all these worldly things.

And by that process, we all can not just attain lasting satisfaction internally, but we can also make substantial contribution externally. Because what the Gita's vision is, it says that while we are pursuing our spiritual growth, whatever we do externally, that can also be done as a part of our spiritual growth. We work in a mood of worship.

So what we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. What we are right now, we have certain talents, certain interests, certain resources, that is all God's gift to us.

All of us are differently gifted, but it is God's gift. We don't have to become someone else. In materialistic culture, what happens is certain qualities are glamorised.

If somebody is very good looking, then everybody else who doesn't look that good, they feel, you know, only if I had been like that. If somebody is very wealthy, everybody else is not that wealthy, only if I had been that wealthy. But spiritual wisdom helps you to understand if God had wanted us to be someone else, He would have made someone else.

He has made you, you. He has made me, me. And there's a purpose for that.

So we don't have to become someone else. We simply have to become the best we. We definitely have to change.

But the change is not that we have to become like someone else. We have to just become the best that we can be. So what we are is God's gift to us and what we become.

Spirituality also inspires us to make changes. But the changes are where we become the best that we can. What we become is our gift to God.

So we grow internally in our connection with Krishna through the process of bhakti. That gives us security internally. That security, it minimises our anxiety.

And then with the anxiety minimised, when we feel the connection with Krishna, we feel security in His remembrance, in meditating on Him, in chanting His holy names, then by that foundation of inner security, we get more clarity. When we function externally, we can make greater contributions. I'll conclude with this point that our spirituality enhances our ability to tap our ability.

All of us have certain abilities. But if we are not mentally stable, not mentally focused. All of us know in sports, there may be players who are very talented, but they crumble because of their nerves.

So when there's a tense moment, then they just can't perform. They lose their head. And then they are talented people, but their talent doesn't transform into achievement because they don't have the mental stability.

So what spirituality does is that we get mental stability, we get mental clarity. And whatever ability we have, our ability to tap our ability, that will be enhanced by our spirituality. And thus we can become the best we in a mood of service and contribution.

So I'll summarise. I spoke about, so when we are to make a, when we are to make a choice about exploring the spiritual side, there are different religions. And when we are to choose, we take a chance about choosing, how can we make the right choice? All religions, they have a esoteric side and an exoteric side.

Exoteric refers to that is external. Esoteric is that which refers to internal. So often we see the exoteric differences and we think this whole thing is a confusing mess.

I don't want to get into this. But if we learn to focus on the essence, we will see the similarity. For example, say now here in America, all over the world, there are traffic and there are traffic rules.

The purpose of traffic rules is the orderly movement of vehicles. Now if you see in India and in America, the rule is not just different, the rule is opposite. The rule is opposite, but the purpose is the same.

So if you focus on the rules, we will think, what is this contradictory? Which is the purpose, the purpose is the same. So like that, there are differences in religions, no doubt, there are undeniable differences. But the purpose is to raise human consciousness, to raise human consciousness from the material level to the spiritual.

And once we understand this common principle, then we can look at the support systems offered by various religions for raising one's consciousness. So in general, if we look at the Bhagavad Gita or the yoga texts, which are coming in the Vedic body of literature, they give a very systematic understanding of life's spiritual side, of exactly who we are. The self, the locus of consciousness, we see that as an intellectual support system for understanding who we are and what we are meant to realise, how to realise it, that understanding of the soul as a concrete higher dimensional entity, that is far more clearly given in the Vedic texts.

If we look at the Bible, it does talk about the soul, but largely, whether it is the Bible or the Quran, they refer to the soul as a metaphorical reference to our non-material essence. There is no very clear description of what the soul is. The concept of the soul is there, but the specific explanation of what the soul is, that is not so much given over there.

So in terms of intellectual support system to understand the soul, to realise the soul, the facility is much more. So it is like you have to climb up a mountain. Now while climbing up a mountain, there can be different paths to go up the mountain.

The purpose is to rise up to the top of the mountain. Now some paths may be easier, some paths may be tougher. So similarly, like the top of the mountain is like spiritual consciousness, bottom of the mountain is like material consciousness.

So we have to rise from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness and the different religions are like pathways up that mountain. So as I said, in some religions, some support systems are more. In some religions, those support systems may not be there.

The purpose is the same. The purpose is all the paths are meant to take us to the top. So as far as the specific knowledge of the soul is concerned, that is not so clearly given.

And I have written a new book on reincarnation. I just came to three days ago. So actually the concept of the soul and its journey through many lifetimes, that is also not so clearly described in the Abrahamic religious texts.

Now reincarnation is pointed to, there are several references which do talk about reincarnation, at least reincarnation is compatible. But it is not explicitly mentioned or explained. So exactly who we are and how we evolve in our journey towards God, some of these things are not so well explained.

And so there is the philosophical understanding, which the yoga texts give much more clearly than in other cases. But this is not something which is just because we are practitioners of the Vedic texts, so we say this is better. It is something which we can evaluate.

The more important thing is that we practise. Just like if I am sick, now I need to take a medicine. If the medicine is not working for me, I'll find out if it doesn't work for me.

If it works for me, great, I get cured. Krishna Prabhupada, once he was giving a talk in New York and a young man said, Swamiji, your philosophy sounds like that of the Buddha. So Prabhupada said, do you follow Buddha? No, Swami.

Prabhupada said, follow Buddha, follow Jesus, follow Krishna, follow someone. Don't just talk. The point is when we follow, we will realise whether this is helping me or not, whether this is raising my consciousness or not.

If we just stay armchair speculators, maybe this is like this, maybe this is like that. And there is no transformation that happens. Sometimes people just get so caught in what to follow that they don't follow anything.

So ultimately we have to understand that the religion, various religions that are there in the world, they are pathways which God has provided for us to come to Him. So when we follow a particular religion, it is not that we are following that religion, we are following God. And if that religion is not the best for us, we put our faith in God and God will guide us.

So religion is meant for God. God is not meant for religion. So that means that when we follow any particular path, it is not just that we shouldn't see, okay, I am here, this path is here, this path is here, this path is here, which path should I follow? You see, I am here, God is here and I want to go close to God.

And with my God-given intelligence right now, I will choose something. I use my intelligence to choose and I am not just putting faith in this path or that path or that path. I am actually putting faith in God.

If we have that attitude and we put that faith, we will be guided onwards in our spiritual journey. Is the answer your question? Yes, we'll come to you. Mataji, you had a question? Yes, please.

Is the materialism or they are out of their spirituality? Correct. Or is it something that I am going to get? Okay, good question. So when we have to make choices, we may get totally conflicted and we may not be sure whether whatever we are thinking of doing, that that is coming from external materialistic influences or that is coming from our own either inspiration, our inner spiritual core.

Yes, as I said, the main difference between material and spiritual is the material is temporary. The spiritual is eternal. So by the extension of the same principle, that which is material, that keeps changing very rapidly.

That which is spiritual, that lasts much longer. So that means that generally when we have to make a decision, we always think in terms of yes or no. But sometimes it's a major decision.

Best thing is not yes, not no, but pause, wait. Wait, not just wait passively, but wait and observe. So for example, right now we have to make a decision.

Then we use our intelligence and write down our thoughts. Let's write down our thoughts in a journal. Okay, this is the pros and cons of all this.

Write it down. Now what happens as soon as we write things down, the thoughts when they come out of the head, we can evaluate them more objectively. As long as they're inside, just keep going round and round and round and they create congestion.

Get them out, there's more objectivity that comes. And then after that, say we decide, okay, I will, instead of constantly thinking, should I do this? Should I not do this? Should I not do this? We just get the thoughts out, keep them there. And if afterwards, every day, every day or every week, depending on what the nature of the decision is, we devote some time.

Okay, I'll add something over there. I'll remove something from here. We, when some new thoughts come in, we keep adding to that.

And we keep expanding that. And if we find that after a month or after three months, after six months, we find that our overall thoughts are staying the same. Then that means it's a steady inclination.

It's not just a fleeting infatuation. So basically, when we get our thoughts out, that is like a snapshot of our mind. When we get a snapshot of the mind and we find, okay, now my mind was like this.

But then sometimes we get angry with someone and we just, I'm going to break up things with him or her, whatever it is. And then after one, two, three, you know, it's a small thing. Why did I make such a big thing about it? So what happens sometimes, we see our feelings have changed completely.

Sometimes we find our feelings are just as it is. So based on that, are significantly the same. So based on that, if we have a snapshot of the mind, if we find that things are changing rapidly, then we understand this is not something which I should make a major decision based on.

Because it's an infatuation, it's coming and going. But if it stays, it endures, then we can make a decision. Another important point is that when we are caught in the conflict, often we need to raise our consciousness.

So prayer, meditation, exposing ourselves to spiritual vibrations. What happens by that is our consciousness rises upwards. And when our consciousness rises upwards, then we can see with greater clarity, we can see with greater perspective.

And then we will also understand things that we didn't understand earlier. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that, in 14.11, he says that when we come in the mode of goodness, that means when we become more peaceful, more composed, then the doors of the body are illumined. Now it is a metaphorical way of saying, it is not that for enlightened people, light comes off their eyes or ears or something like that.

What it means is that if this door is illumined, if this door is dark, then who is coming in, who is going out, I cannot know. Or who should be allowed to come in, who should not be allowed to come in, I can't decide. Because I can't see anything.

But if there is light over the door, I can see, this is a friend, welcome. This is a strange looking person, be on guard. Now this looks like a criminal, close the door.

We can select because the light is there. So like that, when we are in the mode of goodness, which thoughts to accept, which thoughts to reject, which thoughts to keep a pause and evaluate, we are able to do all that because we are internally involved. So the process of scriptural study, the process of meditation, the process of worshipping the deities, all this raises our consciousness of Buddhism.

There is one thing, I talk about journaling as a way of doing a specific decision in a long term way. But along with that, as a foundation for making decisions, we need to elevate our consciousness. So we will find that if we are doing spiritual practises regularly, then we will be having much more clearer thinking by which we can make decisions.

Does it answer your question? Thank you. Yes? Is this thought or subconscious choices that we make, are they right choices for us? And not like we should be jumbled in some religion where we can ensure that nobody is eating healthy food. Good question.

So what is your name? Ishanth. Ishanth? Yes. Oh Ishanth, very intelligent question.

Precocious question. So now is there a way we can make our subconscious choices also wise choices? Like say if you are going to eat, even when we are not thinking, we eat healthy instead of eating fatty food. Yes, actually what we do consciously, what we do at a conscious level repeatedly, that percolates down to the subconscious.

So, if we keep doing the right thing conscientiously again and again and again, then as a matter of, because that is what we have been doing, it becomes a habit. And habit basically means we do not have to invest our thought and our intention in doing it. We just do it automatically.

So, if we want to make a particular choice, choice, a default choice we could say, you want to make the right choice subconsciously, then it begins by making the right choice consciously again and again and again. And one way to make that easier, because that takes some time, is basically when our mind is not just ethereal, the mind is also real. So, for example, like this floor is here.

If this floor is inclined like this and if water falls on it, you know, I say the water should go this way. But no, if the floor is inclined like this, the water will naturally go this way. Just my desire, the water should go this way, it is not going to change it.

If I want the water to go this way, then I will have to push it, push it consciously in this direction. But over a period of time, if I want the water to go this way, then I redesign the architecture. So that the, redesign the flooring so that the floor is tilted this way.

Then the water will naturally go this way. So, in the initial stages, we have to consciously push the water in this direction. But over a period of time, if the floor gets redesigned, then the water will naturally go in that direction.

So, similarly, initially, we have to consciously make the right choice again and again and again. And when we do that, by that conscious repetition, that gets ingrained, that gets percolated. And then it is like just by repeated flow of water in this direction, a repeated flow of our thoughts, actions in a particular direction, then the flooring of our mind gets retilted, reshaped.

And then we will actually do the right thing consciously. One thing which we could do to make this process easier, whichever choice we do not want to do, we make that relatively more difficult for us. So, if we keep it easily available, so if we keep fatty food easily available, then we will eat it.

But if the fatty food is not so easily available, then what happens? Then, you know, maybe we have to go outside and purchase it, or we have to go here and get it. And by the time we go outside purchasing it, by that time what happens? Yeah, I was supposed to not eat this. Why am I eating this? We come back to our awareness.

If there is time lag between the desire coming in the mind and the actualisation of that desire, the greater the time lag, the greater the chance that we will come back to our awareness. We will not do it subconsciously. So, me creating a distance between the thing which we do not want to do in ourselves, that also helps.

But over a period of time, by doing the right things consciously, it will percolate to our subconscious. And additionally, the process of bhakti yoga itself actually purifies us. So, when we chant Hare Krishna, practise bhakti, it purifies us.

Krishna is all pure. It's like if we come in touch with a hot object, we become hot. When we come in with all pure Krishna, we become pure.

And purification essentially means that the unhealthy desire that we have, they become weaker. And the healthy desire that we have, they become stronger. We all have a good side and a bad side within us.

So, the purification means that the bad side starts becoming weaker and the good side becoming stronger. So again, like the earlier answer, same point I said that, if a specific habit is there, we can do something specific to deal with it. That is, consciously do it again and again.

But at a more foundational level, generically, we purify ourselves. And by that, the positive things, the good things will become more inclined to do them. And the bad things will be less inclined to do them.

Thank you for your intelligent question. And then enjoying these mountains in both the sides. So, my interpretation is, as you mentioned, that the cliff is death, which is the eventual end.

In these mountains, I can compare them as my social status, or the accomplishments, or the relationships, or my corporate status. And I want to enjoy all that. And in that process, sometimes I lose sight of the cliff, which is the ultimate truth.

So, how should I still focus on this ultimate truth, without losing sight or not having a lot of focus on these mountains? Like any practical advice, that I still keep on this journey, keep this thing as not the priority, but the focus point, but ultimately focus on the truth. Yeah. So, the question is that, how do we balance basically between our material and spiritual side? That we remember, we remain aware that we are mortal and we are going to die.

So, we need to prepare for that also for our eternal life or spiritual side, but at the same time, we also have to take care of our material things. Is that what your question is? Yeah. See, first thing is that from a philosophical perspective, we need to separate the material and the spiritual, by which we give due time for the spiritual.

Say, for example, in our daily schedule or weekly schedule, we have enough time by which we do some spiritual practises, we come in spiritual association, and we give time for our spiritual activities. That is what we need to do first in terms of analysis. Bhakti spirituality is also about synthesis.

That means once we have started connecting ourselves with Krishna, then it is not that every time we have to keep thinking, is this material, is this spiritual? Because ultimately everything comes from Krishna and everything, if properly used, can take us to Krishna. So, even our material life, whatever we call as material, that can also be done in the mood of service to Krishna. When we do it in the mood of service to Krishna, that can also help us to grow.

A simple example, say, somebody cracks a joke in a class. Now, if I think before laughing, is this laughter material or spiritual? Am I laughing for my pleasure or Krishna s pleasure? There is no need to go into a hyper analysis like that. No, it is in the context of bhakti.

There is a spiritual discussion going on. Within that, there is some humour. That s fine.

So, like that, once the purpose of our life is spiritual, it is not that at every moment we have to keep analysing, is this material, is this spiritual? See, in the bhakti perspective, what is spiritual ultimately? Spiritual means where we have the mood to serve. We serve Krishna directly by coming to the temple, by chanting His name, by studying scriptures. But we serve Krishna in the world also, by the way we function.

So, Krishna says, He says in 18.46 in the Gita that we can worship Him through our work. And why can we do this? Because He says whatever arena of our work is there, ultimately everything in this world has come from Him and everything is pervaded by Him. So, when we understand that whatever situation we are in, that is an arena for service.

So, if it is a family relationship, those are also an arena for service. Our professional commitments, that is also an arena for service. How is it an arena for service? I was in India recently in a university and after that one student, one devotee student asked, you know, how can I inspire my friends to also become devotees? So, I told him, by studying well.

I told him that if you study well, there is no guarantee that your friends will become devotees. But if you don't study well, there is guarantee they will not become devotees. Because if people see that, oh, your spirituality is making you irresponsible and very negligent, then nobody will want to become like that.

So, everything that we do, we are setting, people are observing, especially in terms of our obligations and our commitments. So, if people see that this person is so good, I want to be like that person. So, we can see that in our profession also, if we are competent, if we are doing responsible work, then that attracts people, that creates a good foundation by which we can inspire them to explore higher consciousness, explore Krishna consciousness.

And of course, along with that, we permeate whatever we are doing with the mood of service. And so, in that point, rather than analysing material and spiritual, we focus on the intention. If my intention is to serve, then I understand that the service will be performed in this, through this activity also, through this activity also.

So, if we see our family relationships also as a service, and nowadays there is so much instability in families' relationships. So, if there are devotees as stable families, now people see that, okay, this works, I want to see how it works. People will explore more.

And that way, we first of all spiritualise our intention, that my intention is to serve, and wherever I am serving, I can, wherever I am, whatever I am doing, if I do it in the mood of service, that is also a part of my bhakti. Now, the problem comes when we think that this is all that I have to do. Okay, I do my job, I take care of family, and that is all that I need to do.

I don't need to practise bhakti at all. That is not correct. We have to have time for our direct devotional activities, but once we have given time for direct devotional activities, once we have internalised the devotional intention within us, then whatever we are doing in our life, we can infuse that with a mood of service.

And generally, one of the things which is talked about in Bhakti Samaj Sindhu is, whatever is dear to us, we give to Krishna. So, a charity is considered an important principle. Why a charity is considered important is, that actually we want to give Krishna, we want to bring Krishna in our heart.

But our heart is filled with materialistic concerns. Our heart is filled with thoughts of money. So, if we can't give our heart to Krishna, we give what is in our heart to Krishna.

And by giving that, we give Krishna a place in our heart. So, again, the point of charity is not the quantity. The point of charity is the mentality.

That whatever I have has been given by Krishna and therefore, I should give something. So, the charity is also, we may not be constantly thinking about Krishna and death and eternal life, but just if we are doing our profession with an intention of making contribution for Krishna's cause, that also spiritualises. And most important is having good association.

Because good association means that we, of course, have a devotee association when it comes to spiritual circles. But overall, if we have good association, then that association keeps bringing us back on track. If we have good friends who are also spiritually minded, then even if we go off track, the nature of life is that it will take us off track.

But then association reminds us, oh, come back on track. It said that just today morning I came from Denver. So, I came by flight.

So, it said that when a plane is going from destination A to destination B, more than 90% of the time, the plane is off course because of the wind and other pressures. But then how does it reach the destination? Because this constant reorientation, constant reorientation. So, the pilot has said it is off course, it goes off, but then you bring it back.

Of course, most of it is mechanically done only. But still, there has to be that reorientation. So, like that, the nature of the material world is that even with the best intentions, we will go off course.

So, if we are in good association and we make it a point to keep coming back in good association, then there will be periodic reorientation and we will come back on track. So, basically by, firstly, by giving due time for our spiritual side, then by spiritualising our intention, by understanding that everything can be a way to serve Krishna, we can actually synthesise the material spiritual with the mood of service. And by making contribution to Krishna's cause, by knowing that the way we function in the material world is also going to attract ordinary people.

And by having good association that reorients us back towards Krishna. And we can ensure that we can balance both our material and spiritual sides of our life. You had a comment? Yes.

Okay, yeah. So, when we experience the sweetness of bhakti, we understand that Krishna is a person, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. But for those who have not yet tasted that sweetness, how can we explain to them that God is a person with whom we can relate? Yes.

Actually, there is, in the relationship with God, there is a cultural level, there is a philosophical level, and there is a spiritual level. So, our cultural conception of God will be shaped by whatever background we are coming from. Some people may come from nihilistic background, some people may come from monistic backgrounds, some people may come from personalist backgrounds.

So, based on that, we will have a particular conception of God, or we may have no conception of God, whatever it is. We rise from the cultural to the spiritual through the philosophical. So, the philosophy is what takes us, some people may come to a temple also because it feels good, it is a good thing to do, come to a temple.

But then, they may not have any understanding of life's ultimate purpose. So, that is good if somebody is coming to a temple, going to a church, it is good, but that is simply cultural. But when there is philosophical understanding, then actually the cultural rises to the spiritual, because we see this as a process of raising our consciousness, and then we come to spiritual consciousness.

So, in general, whatever conception a person may have, the way to rise from the cultural conception to the spiritual realisation is first, it is philosophically. So, Sri Prabhupada in his books gives several simple reasonings. He says that we all are persons.

Personality is a fundamental fact of our existence. So, if we understand that God is the source of everything, then in Him also personality must be present. Otherwise, how will personality come here? Now, the reason why we tend to feel that God cannot be a person is because we find that all persons are limited.

You are there, I am here. And when I say God is unlimited, so how can the unlimited be a person? But then here the problem is that we are extrapolating, we are conflating or confusing two things, that is material and personality. I will give an example for this.

Say, now this room is limited. This room has a form, it has a shape, it is limited. Now, if say, there is some earthquake or there is a bomb blast, this room is destroyed.

Now, its form will be destroyed. The formless heap, the debris that will be there, will that formless heap be limited or unlimited? It will also be limited, isn t it? So, the limitation is not caused by form. The limitation is a feature of matter.

Matter, whether it is with form or without form, it is limited. So, some people think that God, in order to be unlimited, cannot have a form, cannot have a personality, because that will limit. But actually, what caused this limitation is not form and personality, it is matter.

So, God is unlimited, God for being unlimited, God is unlimited not because He is formless or personalityless, God is unlimited because He is non-material. The non-material is different from the material. The non-material can have form and can still be unlimited.

The non-material can be personal and still be universal. In the Bhakti text, there are many stories about Krishna which reveal this. Now, Krishna was a small baby on his mother s lap and people would think, you know, especially when Europeans first came to India and then they came to North India and they saw these pictures of Krishna with sweet boy eating butter.

And they said, who is this and what is he doing? He says, this is God and He is stealing butter. Yeah, they just got intellectually short-circuited. This couldn t digest, you know, what is this? God is a small boy and God is stealing and if He has to steal also, why butter of all things? This couldn t process it.

So, what happens is that, actually, Krishna, if you look at Him as a small, like we see a small picture of beautiful Krishna, He doesn t look like God at all. He doesn t look like God. He is attractive, but people have this idea of God being very great.

Krishna doesn t look like God. But at the same time, when He was in mother Yashoda s lap, mother Yashoda asked Him, open your mouth and when He opened His mouth, He saw the whole universe within Him. So, Krishna, His form looks like that of an ordinary baby.

But, you know, if any mother asks her child to open her mouth, she is not going to see the universe there. So, Krishna, He is personal and yet He can be universal. So, the point is, philosophically, if you understand that the source of everything must have whatever features are present in the things which have come from it.

So, personality is present here. Personality must be present in the Church. And then the source can be, God can be personal and universal or personal and all-pervasive because He is non-material.

That way we can explain. And especially by the process of bhakti, even if people don t understand, they just come and chant Hare Krishna, experience spiritual music, they will get a taste. Sometimes, sometimes, basically when we are trying to help people rise to a higher understanding, we have to see what works.

Sometimes with some people, we give some proper philosophical understanding and it clicks for them. Some other people, philosophy just doesn t, they just try to come up with some counter arguments in this and that. They didn t try to give them an experience.

I try to just get them to, I just give them some prasad, let them chant Hare Krishna, let them taste the sweetness of Krishna bhakti and then gradually the understanding will dawn in them. So, we do our part, but we should know that Krishna is also doing His part from within their hearts and eventually their understanding will dawn. Okay.

Thank you. Hare Krishna. Any other questions? So, we will stop here.

Thank you very much. Shrila Prabhupada Ki Jai. Yeah.

You have a set or something? I don t. So, yes, I ll just. Shrila Prabhupada told that his followers should write and I ve written a few books here. So, as I mentioned, there is a book on reincarnation called Demystifying Reincarnation.

The latest book which talks about first the scientific evidence, then the historical prevalence of reincarnation, various world religions and various thought systems. And then that is the metaphysical understanding from the Vedic perspective of how reincarnation occurs. That is Demystifying Reincarnation.

Then another book is, big book is Gita for Daily Enrichment that has 365 articles on the Gita. One article you can read every day. That is, and especially sometimes we read the Gita and we feel it is so big, how can I read it? Our friends may feel like that.

But if you just give one article, 300 words it is, you can read in 3-4 minutes. As they see the relevance of the Gita, then they will read the full Bhagavad Gita also. Then you can just show other books, I ll explain from there itself.

There is this book on Energy, Your Sutra for Positive Thinking that explains how spiritual wisdom can help us to become truly optimistic and positive in our life. It is based on an acronym ENERGY. And yeah, that is the book.

Then other book is Timeless Wisdom on Current Issues that talks about how spiritual knowledge can help us to make sense of events in today s world. So, for example, there is corruption or sexual abuse or there is, there is, there is scientific development. Scientists may say that, okay, we have discovered a God particle or we have found this.

So, various current events, how to see them in this light of scripture, that is Timeless Wisdom on Current Issues. And yeah, can you take other, show other books? Yeah, that is, yeah, this is Mind It, that is 64 Reflections for Mind Management. There are 7 verses in the Bhagavad Gita which especially talk about the mind.

There are 64 articles on that. All of them are short articles. Then there is Idle Worship or Ideal Worship.

So, people say that why do you, why do you worship stones? So, that whole book is a form of question and answers, a discussion between two people of how the deity worship is actually not idle worship, but it is ideal worship. So, the philosophical rationale is explained. Yeah, this is especially for those of you who are familiar with Bollywood, that there was this movie called PK, which talked about, which was a critique of religion in general.

So, the question that that movie raised, I have answered, they are universal basically, the questions about, about superstition in religion and other things. So, I answered them in this book. It is called GK for PK.

So, so GK is at three levels. GK is General Knowledge, God Knowledge and Gita Knowledge. So, there is the searching eye, seeking spiritual meaning in a messy world.

This is also similar to that Timeless Wisdom book, but a different set of essays, which offer spiritual insight about contemporary minds. And this is frequently unanswered questions that ask a question, what is the evidence for say existence of God, existence of soul, or for people who are more philosophically inclined, if God can do everything, can God make a square circle? So, that sort of questions are addressed over there. This Why do we need a temple? It is a book which talks about, again a question-answer format, what a temple contributes to society.

So, it is again in terms of acronym, T-E-M-P-N-E, six contributions are described of a temple. The eye to see the eye, that is a book about 121 articles on the Bhagavad Gita, especially to see life with a more philosophical perspective, and to Shastra Chakshu, the eyes of scriptural knowledge. There is one book called Belong, Belong, yeah, that is also 121 articles in the Bhagavad Gita, but this is more in terms of relationships, and how can we enhance our relationship and manage them based on insights from the Bhagavad Gita.

So, that is, yeah, that is certain. This is 10 leadership sutras from Bhagavad Gita, especially people who are in the corporate world, they want to know how the Bhagavad Gita s insights are applicable in corporate world. It is also a discussion between two people, full with question-answers, the 10 sutras, explaining how Gita can be applied in day-to-day life.

Yeah, I think that is it. So, if you want any of these books, they are available. And we also have a full set of 16 books, which is available at a discounted rate.

So, you can tell the rates of the books.