Consciousness – our under-used inner power
So, I will speak today on the topic of discovering our inner power. We live in an age where power is vitally important. If the electricity goes off, then the hurricane or whatever, then our life can come to a standstill.
If our phone power goes off, we can't communicate. Wherever we are, we all need power. And this power is what enables us to do things.
And we all work towards whatever we have. If I have a device, I want to have a device with maximum battery. If I want to have electric power, we want to have as much power as possible.
We have a computer, see how long will the battery power last. We all want to maximise whatever power we have with us, so that we can use it to do maximum work. There is outer power and there is inner power.
Now, inner power is essentially the power of our consciousness. Most of you are students here. So, when you are studying, there may be electricity, you may have computer power, you may be surfing and doing some research on the internet.
To study, for that you can prepare well for an exam. Now, the electric power, the computer power, whatever power is there, the internet power, all those are valuable. They are essential.
But, if there is not the power of consciousness, as if the thoughts are wandering, what happened yesterday, what will happen tomorrow, what did he say, what will she say. If the thoughts are wandering like that, although all the external power is there, we will not be able to use it. So, the power of our consciousness is fundamental for us to be able to do anything.
To be distracted is to be disempowered. If I am distracted in whatever I am doing, then I become disempowered. I may have all the power externally, but I can't do anything with that power.
The Bhagavad Gita actually starts with a setting similar to this situation of inner disempowerment. The Bhagavad Gita is spoken to Arjuna, who was the foremost archer of his times. And he was about to engage in the biggest battle of his life.
And at that time, certain emotions overwhelmed him and he just felt, I cannot fight. So, at that time, he became disempowered internally. Although he had the external power by which he could fight and overcome opponents, but internally he was disempowered because he lost his composure, he lost his cool.
Now, the specifics of what Arjuna was doing and why he was not able to do it. The Bhagavad Gita is not a book specifically calling for war. It's essential thing is that we all need to do what is expected of us, what is our duty.
We all need to be disciplined and committed in whatever we do, irrespective of what happens. In our life, we sometimes move based on inspiration. Inspiration means that the emotion precedes the action.
We feel like doing something, we are driven to do it and then we do it. But the moments of inspiration are not constant. Inspiration comes and goes.
What we need to be able to do something consistently is not inspiration but dedication. Dedication means irrespective of whether the emotions are present or not, I will do that thing. So, Arjuna, he had, so the essential message of the Bhagavad Gita is not that one should fight a war or why Arjuna was not fighting the war.
The essential point was Arjuna's emotions stopped supporting him. Not only they stopped supporting him, they started opposing him. Sometimes we know that I have to do something.
This is important for me. But we don't feel like doing it at all. Our feelings can often be extremely fickle and unreliable.
The same thing that we like today, I just don't like it tomorrow. A couple may say, I cannot live without you one day. And maybe a few months later they say, I cannot live with you.
So, our feelings, if we let our feelings alone determine our actions, we will always be very unsteady. The Bhagavad Gita's essential message is that can we tap a power within ourselves which is higher than the power of our fickle feelings. When I said our inner power is the power of our consciousness.
Our consciousness is primarily directed by our desires. Right now, I'm sitting here and we may be discussing. But, if say we are desiring, maybe there is a cricket match somewhere and I want to know what is the score.
The desire is there, or maybe there is a party somewhere, I want to be there in the party. The desire is there, the consciousness will not be here. The consciousness will go over there.
So, actually our consciousness, the power of our consciousness is primarily driven by our desires. And, our desires are something which often run wild. We may want to do one thing, but our desire is for something else.
And, when this happens, we cannot tap our inner power. Last year, I was in Cambridge. I was invited to give a talk on science and spirituality.
And, when I was returning from there, my tour guides took me to the tree where Newton saw the fruit falling. Some say that the fruit fell on his head. Some people say that he saw the fruit falling, whichever it is.
Now, imagine if instead of Newton, at that time a monkey had been sitting there. The monkey, what would it have done if it had seen a fruit falling? Yeah, it just picked it up, ate it and gone on its way. And, most humans would have done the same thing.
And, we wouldn't blame the humans for doing that. But, the point is that Newton did something else. Instead of just simply picking up the fruit and eating it, he thought, what makes this fruit fall? So, our desires often go towards indulgence, immediate pleasure.
And, when we let ourselves be driven by the desires for immediate pleasure, then we underutilise our potential. So, if Newton had just eaten the fruit and gone away, the law of gravity would not have been discovered. It started off the whole engine of the progress of modern science.
That would not have happened. And, that happened if a monkey had been there, if any other animal had been there. It would have just eaten the fruit.
So, we humans, we have, our distinctive power is, our desires naturally go towards indulgence. But, we have an intelligence that can think of something more than indulgence. We can think of something more.
Okay, what does it mean? What makes this fruit fall? What is the point of it all? The search for making sense of things. That sense, that search is not there in the animal world. So, our inner power is the power of our intelligence to search beyond indulgence towards transcendence.
Transcendence means something beyond. Something that means something more than what I am living for right now. So, Newton, in his own way, when he asked this question, what made this fruit fall? There is an assumption over there.
That things don't just happen by chance. There is some purpose, some order by which things happen. And, one of Newton's famous quotes is that, O father, I think thy thoughts after thee.
So, he saw his scientific discoveries as spiritual insights into the way God has arranged nature to work. That means, the point which I am making here is that our inner power is the power of our consciousness. Our consciousness is directed by our desires.
And, our desires are normally driven towards indulgence. But, we humans have an intelligence by which we can think of something more than indulgence. We can shape our behaviour according to some higher values.
Some higher purpose, some higher principle, some higher desire can drive us beyond our bodily desires. And, scientific progress is a result of that. When I was studying my engineering, I was more suited for pure science kind of study.
But, because of the peer pressure, because of the glamorisation of engineering, I just got into engineering. And, then when I came to my fourth year, I was studying electronics and telecommunications. And, then I read, this was 1990s, I read that our teacher told that the most extensive application of electronics engineering at that time was to make television.
I found that extremely anticlimactic. I thought, here I have used my intelligence to try to understand physics, understand engineering. I just got deep into electronics.
For me, it was not just a study to get a job. It was just one part of it. I really wanted to understand how things work.
I said that I am studying all this. I am using my best intelligence for what purpose? To make idiot boxes so that people become idiots? Now, there is nothing wrong with TV as such. But, the way TV is used is often, people just waste a colossal amount of time watching TV.
So, I felt that you know, isn't there some higher purpose for the intelligence? Certainly, science can be used for many different areas. But, one major area where science and technology today is used is to pander to people's short-term impulses. And, when that happens, then, the very intelligence and its products defeat the purpose of the intelligence.
That means, our science and technology are a product of intelligence. But, that product of intelligence is used to deaden people's intelligence. Many people just get caught in playing video games, doing this, doing that.
And, it's just hours and hours and hours, sometimes years, just wasted. So, the intelligence is not being used, or the products of the intelligence are not being used for an intelligent purpose. And, such people actually, colossally underutilise their lives.
Now, Martin Luther King said that we have guided missiles and misguided men. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. Werner Heisenberg said to Albert Einstein that our modern civilisation is like a huge ship.
It has most luxurious facilities on it. But, it doesn't have a compass, it doesn't have a destination. It doesn't know where it is going, or where it should be going.
That is, what is the ultimate purpose of whatever we are doing? We say, okay, I want to get a job, I want to become famous, I want to become powerful, I want to become wealthy, I want to live comfortably. Yes, these are fine enough goals, but what after that? If we, where somebody says, okay, after that we all are going to die, and that's the end of it. Yes, it could be the end of it, but if we look at life, we all have within us a desire to live forever.
A desire, not just to live forever, but to love forever. There are millions, millions of novels, millions of movies, which come up over the years and decades. Most of them are about some variant of romance.
And romance, the theme is happily ever after. Now, real life experience tells us that there is no ever after. None of us, no one lives forever.
And yet, there is this longing for ever after, for happily ever after. Where does this longing come from? If we were simply material creatures, there would be nothing, there's nothing higher than matter to us, and everything around us is just material, and nothing material is eternal. Then why would we have a desire to live forever? If there's a child in some jungle in Africa, in a tribal African community, and the child suddenly tells one day to the mother, I want a pizza.
And nobody in the neighbourhood of the child has ever heard of pizza. The mother will ask, where did you hear about pizza? Where did you get a desire for pizza from? So, if something, there is no possibility for the origin of that knowledge of something, the desire for something, from the circumstance, the question will come up, where did this come from? As in, say, you look down, and you find a gold ring lying, fallen on the ground. You immediately look up, who is wearing gold over here? There's nothing golden around here, so where did this gold piece come from? So, if something is radically different from its surroundings, the question comes up, where does it come from? So, similarly, everything around us is temporary.
Nothing lasts forever. And yet, we have a strong desire to live and live forever. So, where does this desire come from? It doesn't come from our circumstance, it comes from our core.
At our core, we are non-material. We are spiritual. And this spiritual core is the soul.
Because we are originally spiritual, because we are originally eternal, and we are currently identifying with the external body, we project that desire for eternality on the body. It's like if a child is watching a horror movie, the child may be sitting comfortably in an AC room at home. But when the hero in the horror movie is subjected to some horrifying dangers, the child starts trembling.
Why is that? Because the child is identifying with the character. So, similarly, because we are eternal, but we identify with the temporary. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said in 13.22, chapter 22nd verse, Purusha is the spiritual, conscious being, becomes situated in the material nature and identifies with material nature because of the desire to enjoy.
It's like a child. Why does a child watch a horror movie? Child thinks, I'll get some thrill out of it. But then, a thrill turns into horror when the movie becomes unbearably horrifying.
Similarly, for us, when we at our core are spiritual beings, and when we identify with the material, we try to project our natural state of eternality on the body. And when we find this body, body is vulnerable, body is temporary, body is perishable. We just can't accept it.
What is this? We hear the news of death all around us, but when some near, some loud one dies, somebody close to us dies, we're jolted. This is not meant to happen. Why is this happening? We feel like that because we belong to an eternal level of reality.
Now, our inner power is the power to raise ourselves above the material level, to realise our spiritual essence. To the extent we are sheltered in the spiritual, to that extent, we can deal with the material with greater maturity. If a piece of log is floating in an ocean, the ocean will have its waves moving up and down, up and down, up and down.
And the waves will also move up and down. But instead of that log, there is a human being. The human being may try to resist, but the waves will just push up and down.
If that human being is in a boat, then the pushing of up and down will be much lesser. If that human being is in a boat which is anchored to something really strong, heavy, then the movement will be even lesser. Similarly, the world we live in is filled with the waves of binaries.
Honour, dishonour, pleasure, pain, heat, cold, health, sickness. These are binaries which keep coming. And each of these binaries, when it comes, it raises up, it pulls us down.
Sometimes we just feel so excited. I just want to do this. This is the best thing in my life.
I want to do it. Same job, same career, same studies. One day we feel, yeah, this is so good.
The next day I feel, what have I got myself entangled into? Why didn't I choose something else? What made me choose this? The mind just goes through binaries like this. And we get shaken by these binaries. So, spiritual knowledge of the Gita is like the boat.
When we are in the boat, the shaking becomes much lesser. So just by intellectually understanding the spiritual knowledge of the Gita, we will find ourselves becoming calmer. We will find ourselves gaining a bigger picture by which we can see things in perspective.
So, if we are at the bottom of a skyscraper, we feel, oh, this skyscraper is so big. I am so small. Like that, we all face problems in our life.
And we feel, this problem is so big. How will I ever deal with it? But if instead of being at the bottom of the building, we are in an aeroplane flying above. From the aeroplane's perspective, the building, it may be a skyscraper, but we are small.
The building has not changed. Our perspective has changed. Perspective means from where we are looking.
So, when we get spiritual self-understanding, when we understand that at my core I am spiritual, I am indestructible, I am a part of the infinite consciousness, then we raise ourselves in our self-understanding. Whatever problems we are facing, they are real problems. We have to deal with them.
But we can be concerned without being disturbed. If we are at the bottom, it will overwhelm. How will I deal with this? If we are at the top, we say, okay, this problem is there.
It matters to me. I have to deal with it. But I am at my core indestructible.
Therefore, I can deal with this. So, we rise from the state of being disturbed to the state of being concerned but not disturbed when we raise ourselves in spiritual understanding. I talked about spiritual knowledge being like a boat, but spiritual understanding is not just theoretical.
It is also experiential. The fundamental difference between, say, modern material science and spiritual science is, material science is experimental. We keep the object outside us and we experiment on it.
Whereas, spirituality is eminently experiential. We do the experiment on ourselves and the experiment on ourselves, it transforms us. It gives us higher experiences which we would not get by our ordinary means.
It's experiential. And I talked about a boat being in the water and if the boat is anchored, then the ups and downs caused by the waves will be much, much lesser. So, that anchoring is the process of meditation.
When we meditate, it is not just sitting in a particular posture. That is helpful. It is not just regulating our breath.
That is also helpful. The essence of meditation is to direct our consciousness from the external and the temporary to the internal and the eternal. And meditation is a process that enables us to do that.
And the more we become adept at meditation, the more we find inner calmness. The more we find inner clarity. The more we find inner stability.
So, imagine there is a two-story building and on the ground floor, there is no heating. It's extremely cold. And if you're there, you're trembling.
You just take an elevator and rise up to the first floor. On the first floor, there is good heating. As soon as you rise to the first floor, you feel relief.
You feel comfort. So, we consider existence to be two levels—material and spiritual. When our consciousness is at the material level, then we are subjected to the binaries of life—sometimes cold, sometimes heat, sometimes honour, sometimes dishonour.
And they shake us. But, spiritual knowledge helps us to know this is not the only level of the building. There is one more level which is higher.
And, spiritual processes like meditation and yoga, they help us to rise to that higher level, to take our consciousness to the higher level. When the consciousness is at that level, then we experience relief. Because at the spiritual level, the material doesn't threaten us.
It still concerns us, but doesn't threaten us. Because we understand that I am at my core and destructive. And the Bhagavad Gita's whole message… Now, Arjuna was going to face the same perplexity, the war.
He was overwhelmed. But after hearing the Bhagavad Gita, at the start of the Gita, he has put aside his bow, saying, I can't fight. … … … … Put aside his bow saying, I can't fight.
Now Arjuna's bow represents our determination. Life's perplexities sometimes overwhelm us so much, I can't do it. That was what essentially Arjuna was saying.
I give up. I can't do this. But by hearing the Bhagavad Gita, he got spiritual knowledge, got spiritual understanding.
Experienced the higher level of reality, the spiritual level of reality. And at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, the last verse is, In 18.78, last verse of the Gita, it says that Arjuna has He has picked up his bow. He had put aside his bow initially, but after hearing the Gita, he picked up his bow.
That means, his determination was restored. His morale was boosted and he became ready to do whatever life needed him to do. So that that similar effect can happen for all of us.
For all of us, if we understand the spiritual knowledge, and not only understand the spiritual knowledge, we actually practise a spiritual process by which we rise to the higher level of reality. Then, whatever we face at the material level, we will not be demoralised. We'll still be confident.
We'll still be able to march ahead. So, I started by talking about how dedication means that whether the emotion is present or not, still the action is there. That is the meaning of dedication.
And that happens… So, when I talk about emotion, the emotions happen at the material level. Sometimes we'll feel good, sometimes we'll feel bad. Sometimes there'll be honour, sometimes there'll be dishonour.
But if we are functioning at the spiritual level, if our consciousness is at the spiritual level, then we have a higher purpose for whatever we are doing. I talked about power. There is so much concern nowadays to maximise the power utilisation.
Whether it is fossil fuels or whatever power it is, then we should not waste power. We should maximise the utilisation of the power, whatever we have. The same principle applies to our inner power.
And if we can spiritualise our consciousness, then the desires that come and go, they happen at the material level. Our consciousness is at the spiritual level, we will not be affected. We will be able to focus on whatever is important for us, whatever we intend to do.
Our ability to tap our ability will be enhanced by our spirituality. We all have certain abilities, but the ability is external. To tap the ability, we need inner stability.
Most of you have probably seen students around you or most of us have heard about sports players who are talented but who are too temperamental. Just lose their cool under moments of pressure. And although they have talent, their talent doesn't tap their ability.
It doesn't translate into achievement because they don't have the right temperament. So, if your talent is wonderful, but talent alone is not enough. Talent has to be there with temperament.
Both of them together, then that leads to achievement. But if somebody is too temperamental, somebody just gets too nervous, gets choked under pressure, then they can't function. The ability to tap our ability, whatever abilities we have, that ability to tap our ability, that depends on our spirituality because spirituality gives us stability.
When I understand, okay, I'm at a higher level. I exist at a higher level of reality. So, instability that happens at the material level, that doesn't have to shape me.
I'm concerned about it. I will function to the best of my capacity. But when we feel threatened personally, we become emotionally disturbed and then we can't function effectively.
But when we are emotionally sheltered, when we are emotionally secure, whatever it is we are doing, we can do it more effectively. And in this way, the inner power of raising our consciousness to the spiritual level, that is our greatest power. If we tap that power, then all the other powers that we have, whether it be in terms of our abilities or it be in the terms of technological capabilities that are there for us, we'll be able to use all of them constructively.
We'll be able to make valuable contributions in our life through whatever field we are working. That is, we'll be able to achieve the destiny that we are all meant to achieve. We'll be able to fulfil our potentials.
I'll summarise, then you can have your questions. I started by talking about how there are so many different forms of power— electric power, battery power, thermal power, which we all try to utilise. But the capacity to use all these powers depends on a fundamental power, that is our inner power.
The inner power is the power of our… Does anyone remember? What is the inner power? Not exactly spiritual. The power of our consciousness. Yeah! Thank you! So, to be distracted is to be disempowered.
A student who is distracted, although they may have light, they may have computer, but they can't study, they can't do research. So, the power of our consciousness is our fundamental power. Now, what directs our power of consciousness? Desire.
Thank you! So, now our desires can… We may be sitting here, but if you're thinking of a cricket match, wanting to watch it, our consciousness will be there. So, now our desires can go along either short-term indulgence or they can think of long-term purpose. I gave the example of Newton.
A monkey would have simply seen the fruit and eaten it. That is the path of short-term indulgence, which we all are inclined to go to. But Newton thought, what made this fruit fall? And long-term purpose, what is the meaning of it all? That was the question that was driving him.
And he came up with the theory of gravity. In all our lives, when we want to achieve anything, we often need some inspiration to start off. Inspiration means the emotion comes before the action.
But inspiration doesn't last all the time. We need also dedication. And dedication means that… Dedication means the action is present whether the emotion is there or not.
Now, how do we come to this level of dedication where we rise above our emotions to our purpose? For that, we explore the spiritual side of our being. So, why is it that we should think of long-term purpose? Why is it that we think of living forever? Why is it that we think of loving forever? If we were simply material creatures and everything around us is temporary, so we should not have ever got a desire for the eternal. Just like a child living in Africa who has never heard of a pizza should not get a desire for a pizza.
Just as a room where there is no gold anywhere should not have a gold ring falling over. The gold ring is there. It must have some source.
So, if we are having a desire for the eternal and it's a universal deep-rooted desire, it must be coming from somewhere. It's not from our material circumstance. It must be coming from our spiritual core.
That spiritual core can be our shelter. So, currently, we are the conscious being who is misidentifying with the body. Like a child who is watching a horror movie and getting horrified.
The child turns off the horror movie and says, I'm comfortable. I'm happy. So, another example is, we have a two storey building.
It's freezing on the ground floor but it's cosy on the first floor. At the material level, there will be always binaries, ups and downs. But if we rise to the spiritual level, then we will be peaceful.
So, just like a boat will be shaken, a person will always be shaken if they are in the ocean. But if they are in the boat and the boat is anchored, then the shaking will be substantially lesser. So, the boat is spiritual knowledge.
The anchor is spiritual experience which comes through processes like meditation. When we get that, then we can be concerned without being disturbed. We can intelligently respond to whatever ups and downs we face in our life.
And I conclude it by talking about how our ability to tap our ability is… Do you remember? What happens to our ability to tap our ability? It is enhanced by our spirituality. So, whatever abilities we have, if we don't have stability internally, we can't tap those abilities. We all know people who are underutilised talents or even wasted talents.
So, the temperament, the inner stability that can come from our spirituality and with ourselves spiritually centred, then we can tap the power of our consciousness and focus it on the important purposes in our life. So, the emotions that come from the stimuli in the outer world, they won't distract us because we will be functioning at a higher level. From functioning at that higher level, we can move towards our purpose and we can all fulfil our destinies in our respective areas of contribution.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Yes, please.
How can we know what purpose is the best purpose? We may be pursuing say engineering or pursuing research that may benefit some people but that might also harm the environment. If our emotions are oscillating, the emotions can also affect our perception of what is the right purpose. There are two different things over here.
I'll take them separately. First is with respect to the purpose. The Bhagavad Gita is an eminently realistic book.
It says that there is no activity in this world which is flawless. sarvarambhahi doshena dhumen agniribhavrata It says that just as fire is covered by smoke, similarly, every endeavour is covered by fault. So, we won't find any profession in the world which is completely flawless.
Having said that, the Bhagavad Gita actually says that whatever work we are doing, svakarmanatam abhyarcha siddhim vindati mānavā By your work, worship that Supreme Lord. Some people translate this as, work is worship. That is not exactly what the Bhagavad Gita teaches.
If work were worship, then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper. Donkey is working so hard. Work alone is not worship.
Work can be done in a form of worship. By our work, we can worship. What does doing work as a worship mean? It means that we understand that the abilities we have, they are gifts from God for us.
And we are meant to use them for a constructive service. So, what we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
We see life from this higher perspective of making a positive contribution. And the external purpose that we have, that will vary from person to person, even from situation to situation. Today, we may have the purpose of becoming a graduate.
Tomorrow, we may have a purpose of becoming a mother. After that, we may have a purpose of getting a particular position in society. Whatever it is, the purpose may vary in terms of the external goal that we are achieving.
The Bhagavad Gita goes deeper to go to address what is it that is driving us towards that purpose. The Bhagavad Gita says that if we are acting out of a desire to love and serve, to desire to love and serve God and love and serve everyone in relationship with God, then that can overcome whatever discrepancies might be there circumstantially in our profession. So, that desire for love and service, that's not a sentimental longing.
It's a process of purification. So, the process of yoga, the Bhagavad Gita especially recommends is Bhakti Yoga. The process of Bhakti Yoga when we practise, we connect our heart in a mood of loving service with God.
And then, with that mood of loving service permeating our consciousness, whatever we do, that also becomes infused with that mood of loving service. And then, we will be guided from within about how to unify the various roles that we are playing. Whether it is a student, whether it is a researcher, whatever roles we are playing, how to harmonise them in a way that they can bring the best.
Yes, certain professions may be involving harm to the ecology. But ultimately, somebody has to rectify it. So, it is only by research about how to do the same thing in less chemically damaging ways that we might find a solution.
So, how we can harmonise our specific profession with our spiritual purpose, that we will learn through our own inner clarity if we are spiritually rooted. If we are spiritually connected, if we are working with a mood of loving devotion. Bhagavata says, we will be given intelligence to make wise decisions.
That way, we can harmonise. We can go beyond whatever limitations are there in our particular profession and harmonise its essential purpose with our life's ultimate purpose. And the second question is about our emotions affecting our decisions.
Yes, that's always a possibility. And that is why the Gita recommends that there are basically… It talks about three modes in which we function. It is called sattva guna, rajo guna, tamo guna — goodness, passion and ignorance.
Basically, the modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness. That means, say, there are three people who are sitting in a bus and all three are sitting on the window seats. And they are looking out of the window and there is greenery outside.
The first person is in tamo guna, in the mode of ignorance. That person is trying to just sleep. And the bus is on a bumpy road.
The bus is bumping up and down, not able to sleep. They look out of the window. They see the lush green forest.
Such a nice place to sleep! I would just go there and sleep. The second person is in the mode of passion. They look at the greenery and they remember the latest romantic movie that they have seen.
And they think, if I just had a partner, I would enjoy over here. The third person is in the mode of goodness. They are trying to read a book.
And the bus movement is distracting them. They look at the forest and think, such a peaceful place! I could immerse myself in the wisdom of this book. Same object, entirely different perceptions.
So the modes shape our perception. So now when I talk about modes being subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness, we ourselves go through different modes at different times. Sometimes we are calm and reflective.
Sometimes we are passionate. I have got to do something. I want to achieve something in my life.
Sometimes we just feel lazy. So many things. Why bother? Just go.
Just go. Don't bother about it. Sometimes we just feel apathetic about things.
So normally, if we have to make any major decisions in our life, we should not be doing them when we are in the modes of ignorance or passion. When we are in the mode of goodness, that means when we are calm and reflective, at that time, we will be able to think clearly. In the mode of passion, so generally in the mode of goodness, in sattva guna, there is first contemplation and then there is action.
In the mode of passion, there is first action and then contemplation. We speak, why did I do that? Why did I say that? And in the mode of ignorance, there is neither contemplation nor action. Just inaction, lethargy.
So usually, if we have to make major decisions, it's best to make those decisions when we are in the mode of goodness. Even if they seem urgent, we press a pause button. We do whatever.
We will all find certain activities which can make us more reflective. Maybe go to a calm place, read some books of wisdom, pray, meditate. Then by that, we come to the mode of goodness.
At that time, we will be able to think more carefully. And it's not that all our emotions are bad. Basically, we all have some stray feelings which just come, possess us for some time and go away.
And some things which are lasting, this is what I feel inspired to do. This is what I want to do. The lasting feelings are some things which we need to take account of.
So say, if we have to make a major decision, we write down. This is what I am feeling like. These are the advantages, these are the disadvantages.
And then if it's a major decision, we keep it in abeyance, the decision. And then revisit it after a week, revisit it after 2-3 weeks. If we find that overall, our thoughts remain the same over a period of time, our overall way of thinking remains the same, then we understand this is what I feel inspired to do.
This is not just a fleeting fancy. This is actually something which is very important for me. It's a deep rooted inclination or inspiration for me and then I can decide how to act on it.
Basically, if we can take decisions when we are in a calm, collected, reflective mood, then our emotions won't interfere with our decision making process. Any other questions? So how can we be grounded on the spiritual level and a practical sense? First and foremost is association. The kind of people we associate with, that's how we become.
Our desires, they are not just linear, they are triangular. What do I mean by triangular desires? Say, a few months ago there was this new video game that came up, Pokemon Go. So now when it came up, it just created a craze.
People all over were just going around hunting, trying to find out this Pokemon, where can I catch it? So now when that happened, initially when the game came out, some people were like, okay, there are so many games already. One new game has come. What's the big deal about it? But, say a person saw somebody else playing Pokemon Go.
This is completely impressive. What's so special about it? Let me see this. And then they started playing and they also get caught in it.
And their friend says, no, I want to play now. So what happens? The desire for that game may not come just by seeing the game. It comes by seeing somebody who is caught in the game.
So the desire is not just linear, the desire is triangular. When we see someone doing something, we feel inspired to do it. And this applies all the more so for spiritual things.
Because often for materialistic things, just through the naked eye also they look attractive. Yeah, this is enjoyable. I want to do this.
But spiritual things, they are also very deeply fulfilling. They give deep pleasure. But it is not so easily visible to the naked eye.
And that's why if we want to have a spiritual grounding to our consciousness, we need to have association that is spiritually grounded. That association will inspire us. Oh! Okay, this person is intelligent person but he is also spiritually interested.
That's interesting. What is the spiritual stuff about? So by associating with them, we will get the desire. So I would say association is the first and most important thing that will reorient us.
We all live in a materialistic culture. And we will be pulled towards materialistic things. And it's not that material things are to be neglected.
They are important but they are not all important. Our life has both material and spiritual sides and both sides need to be taken care of. It's like say, there are people who are very successful professionally.
But if their family life is a wreck, then all their success in professional life cannot compensate for say, their spouse has divorced them or their children have gone into drugs. It doesn't help. So success in one area of life doesn't compensate for failure in another area of life.
Similarly, success in material life will not compensate for inadequacy of failure in spiritual life. We need both. So we need spiritual association which will help us to ground ourselves, remind ourselves to keep grounding ourselves again and again.
The second thing would be, because most of you are students, most of you are intelligent, so it is reading of wisdom texts. Bhagavad Gita has a very deep philosophy and reading the Bhagavad Gita, reading books based on the Bhagavad Gita, attending programmes like this. I talked about the desires will normally go towards short term indulgence.
What will stop them going that way is the intelligence. To the extent we boost the intelligence, to that extent we will be able to keep ourselves spiritually grounded. And in a practical sense, to give us experience of spirituality, I talked about rising from the ground floor to the first floor.
So, how do we raise ourselves? So, mantras are one of the most powerful ways. Mantra acts in various ways. One of the most potent way, it acts as an elevator for our consciousness.
Now, there are many different mantras. We chant the Hare Krishna mantra. So, when we actually enter into the meditation, when we utter the mantra prayerfully, attentively, it is like we are entering into an elevator.
Just by uttering the mantra again and again, we will find our consciousness gets elevated upwards. So, we can experience for ourselves the calmness, the clarity, the fulfilment that comes through raising ourselves to the spiritual level of consciousness. So, by association, by study of wisdom texts and by meditation, we can keep ourselves grounded spiritually.
Any other questions? Can all the purposes for our existence, for our taking birth be understood, be fulfilled? This question itself can be addressed at multiple levels. As I said, we have a material side and we have a spiritual side. So, spiritually speaking, this world is like a hospital.
A hospital is a place where we come primarily to be cured. So, we are eternal spiritual beings, but we are currently identifying with temporary material body and temporary material things. And this misidentification causes distress.
So, the process of spiritual growth, the process of spiritual healing, which is to be facilitated by our birth in this world, that is the ultimate spiritual purpose. Spiritual purpose is to realise our eternality. As the Upanishads famously say that, go from darkness to light, go from mortality to immortality.
So, that journey each of us can navigate and we are meant to navigate. Ultimately, that is the purpose. This world is like a hospital and that purpose, if we practise the process of yoga, if we connect ourselves lovingly at God, we all can fulfil that purpose.
Now, while we are here in this world, we all have different set of talents, interests and we can make our respective contributions in those fields. The nature of this world is that all the desires of no one can be fulfilled. The very world itself is, there are finite resources and human desires are almost like infinite.
So, our specific desires, our specific purposes which we have, they may or may not be fulfilled. Now, this does not mean that they are unimportant. It is just that we should know, we have to see things in perspective.
It's like say, if I am taking a car to a particular destination. Now, when I am taking the car to a particular destination, if I can go along a road which has nice scenery around it, it's more enjoyable. But even if the road is barren, the important thing is not how the road is, the important thing is where I am going.
So like that, we have an ultimate spiritual purpose and based on our material circumstance, we also have other roles to play in life. And in those roles, whatever contribution we are supposed to make, whatever we can make, we will actually be able to make it much better when we are spiritually conscious. It's that our ability to tap our ability is enhanced by our spirituality.
So, all our purposes may not be fulfilled. But when we are spiritually grounded, we will understand that our fulfilment doesn't have to come from external achievement. Most people think that achievement will bring fulfilment.
But achievement actually brings fulfilment for some time and then immediately the mind says, now I want one more achievement, one more achievement, one more achievement. So achievement is not bad. We all have talents and we naturally want to achieve things.
But the problem is when we think that achievement will bring fulfilment, then it never brings fulfilment. So if you understand that, okay, I have some talents and I will do my best and we have that mood of loving service and contribution, then sometimes the external result will come, sometimes the external result may not come. But because we have done our best and we have done our best in the field that we are inspired to do, we will be fulfilled internally.
Does this answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Oh yeah, good question. Yes, I understand.
Okay, yeah. Yeah. So does karma contribute to our achievement? And if good karma gets over, can we build good karma? Yeah, definitely karma contributes to our achievement.
We could say that there is there is the word karma first of all has many meanings. Karma at one level means action that we are doing. That is karma.
Karma also sometimes refers to reaction. You know, I am getting the result of karma. Sometimes we use the word karma over there to also refer.
I am getting my karma now. It's your karma. We use that to refer to reaction.
So now consider farming. In farming, there are three factors which will determine whether the farmer gets a harvest or not. First is the duty of the farmer.
That is to sow the seeds, plough the land. We could say that is the karma of the farmer. Then after that, the rains have to come in time, in proper quantity.
That is the destiny. That is daiva. So what you are referring to as karma is actually destiny.
So daiva is there and after that also even the rains come. The harvest is not going to come immediately. The harvesting season has to come.
The time has to pass. The third is kala. So phala, phala is the fruit.
So karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala. So all three have to work together. And even in fields which are as performance driven as sports, almost all sports players have some of their own quirky superstitions.
Some sports players may just wear a ring in one ear. Some people may put a handkerchief half in their pocket. So now these sports players know that I have to perform.
There was an Australian batsman. Whenever he would go out to bat, he would make sure that the lids of all the commodes would be closed. And if he got out early, he would not come back to the pavilion.
He would go to the commodes or restroom. Whenever the commode lids would open, he would go and blast his other players. Why did you keep that open? Because of that I got out.
Now logically, there is no correlation between the batsman getting out and the lid of the commode being open. The point is, he also knew that there is something beyond our own endeavours. A player may bat very well, but on that day, the pitch may be deadly.
On that day, the bowler might bowl an excellent delivery. On that day, the umpire might give a wrong decision. So many things can go wrong.
So performance matters, but performance is not all that matters. There is something beyond human performance. And he was, through his own quirky superstition about commode lids, he was trying to appease that unknown, whatever it is.
But the point is that destiny does shape our results. So, now sometimes we may do our karma. We may do our duty.
We may study diligently. We may prepare for an interview. Whatever it is we are doing, we do it diligently.
But the result just doesn't come. So it may be because the destiny at that time is not favourable. Now the destiny is itself not some arbitrary hostile force.
The destiny is also the cumulative result of our own past karma. What we have done in the past, that gets accumulated. And that is, so if you consider karma to be like a big water tank.
So, the water that is accumulated in the tank, that is called as the Sanchit Karma, the accumulated karma. Activity that we are doing right now, that is called the Agami Karma. That is like the water going inside it right now.
And what we are experiencing, that is like the water coming out, that is like the Prarabdha Karma. There are two categories within that. The terminology is not important.
But the important thing is that this stockpile that is there. Sometimes we may be doing good work, but we may not be getting good results. That is because the stockpile that is getting exhausted, some bad karma is getting exhausted at that time.
But still the point is that if we are doing good, the good stockpile is also getting increased and eventually good result will come. So, when we start practising yoga, especially Bhakti Yoga, that comprises the best karma that we can do. And that can actually transform our future course of life.
So, when we do devotional activities, it is not just a good activity. It is a spiritual activity. And the spiritual activity, it can change the result.
The result of that can be that our destiny itself can be changed and good things can happen to us. Or more importantly, even if the destiny doesn't change, still we can make the best out of whatever happens to us. So, if we are too disturbed, if we are too morose, if we are too weak hearted, then one thing goes wrong and we just collapse.
But if we are spiritual, even if one thing goes wrong, we find the best way forward. So, among these three factors —karma, daiva, kala, which leads to final result. Now, karma is what we definitely need to do.
We have our duty to do whatever job, profession that is there. Along with that, if we do spiritual activity, then the daiva, either it can be changed, readjusted or whatever daiva comes, we can actually face it in a way that we grow through it. We grow through it.
So, the destiny is not… What is there in our destiny is not as important as what is there in our heart. If we have intensity in what we are doing, intensity not just means materialistic focus but a spiritual focus, then the destiny will not thwart us. We will be able to move forward confidently and grow through whatever life sends our way.
Does it answer your question? Thank you! Any other questions? How can we minimise the impact of the previous karma that we have done? Yeah! So, the thing is that we should know that the previous karma that determines what happens to us, that doesn't determine how I respond to it. So, we can say, destiny is like a weather forecast. Say, if it's a stormy weather and if at that time I'm driving a car and say, I'm half drunk, I'm driving at a high speed, the probability of an accident becomes much more.
But the stormy weather is there. I know stormy weather is there. So, I'm sober, I'm careful.
The probability of an accident becomes much lower. So, like that, whatever karma we may have done in the past, that will give us some hostile circumstances in our future. But how we respond to them is right now entirely up to us.
So, if we become spiritually grounded right now, then we will be able to choose wisely. Even if there is difficulty we are going through, we will not overreact. Many times we will observe that we face a problem and our reaction to the problem multiplies the problem.
Sometimes somebody speaks something harshly to us and we just blast back at them. And then what could be a small misunderstanding that could have been resolved, that becomes like a world war between two people. So, it is often our reaction to the problem that aggravates the problem.
So, when we become spiritually minded, the problem will still come. That's the result of our karma. So, the adverse destiny will come to us.
But adverse destiny is like hostile weather. How we respond to it is still up to us. So, by becoming spiritually minded, then we can minimise our own impulsive knee jerk reactions.
And the problem will come, but we won't aggravate the problem. We will minimise the complications that may result because of the problem. That's one aspect from our side.
Another point is that ultimately this whole system of karmic justice, its purpose is not to punish. Its purpose is to reform. So, just like sometimes a particular sentence may be given to somebody.
If that person is very well behaved with their conduct. Somebody may told you have to do 100 hours of community service because of some indiscretion you have done. But if they are well behaved, 50 hours is enough.
You have acquitted yourself properly. So, like that, the whole point of this whole system of karmic justice, it is not punishment. It is reformation.
So, when we pray, when we practise bhakti, this, we can go beyond the system of cause and effect. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, in the conclusion, He says that you just surrender to Me. That whatever sinful reactions may come, I will free you from them.
So, we can, both by our choice of becoming spiritual, improve our own responses so that we can minimise the reactions and we can also invoke the higher power of mercy. There is the principle of justice but higher than the principle of justice is mercy. So, if we invoke the power of mercy, then by God's grace, whatever problems we are getting, that can also be minimised.
Does it answer your question? Any other question? Yes, please. Yes, please. So, how is it decided that something is a good karma or a bad karma? Yeah, there are two broad understandings of morality.
That morality is categorical or morality is contextual. Categorical means all that falls in this category is right. All that falls in this category is wrong.
That's categorical. Contextual means what is right and what is wrong. That is determined by context.
So, now, both are true in different situations. For example, if a person goes and kills another person, categorically, murder is a crime. But then, in context, the other person was attacking and this was a person who was battling for one's life.
Then killing in self-defence is not a crime. So, in general, there is categorical differentiation. But context also matters.
So, the point is that ultimately, there are categorical things, these are right, these are wrong, but the context and our intent, they also matter. So, we know that ultimately the purpose of this whole system is not to just catch people doing wrong and punish them. It is ultimately meant to encourage people toward healthy choices.
So, if in certain circumstances we are pushed to do certain things, then that is not going to be permanently held against us. What is really problematic is when we act out of selfish desire. When we act out of selfish desire for our own gratification at the expense of others, then that selfishness is what makes us culpable.
So, the specifics about karma are quite intricate. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that that the intricacies of karma are very complicated to understand. So, getting into the intricacies of specific good and bad karma, that's a whole different topic.
Let's focus on the question over here that we need to try to cultivate as unselfish an intention as possible. And we also learn through studying Wisdom texts like the Bhagavad Gita, what falls categorically right, what falls categorically wrong. But the categorical understanding is important.
But the categories are not watertight. Context can also shape. But broadly, through scriptural understanding and through purification of our intention, through cultivation of an unselfish attitude, we can always make karmically healthy choices.
Does it answer your question? Any other questions? So, can a spiritual mind know the destiny? Does it bring additional clarity? See, when you talk about the word destiny, there are multiple senses in which we use the word destiny. So, as far as the future is concerned, nobody knows the future. No, I mean what a person is born.
Okay, yeah. So, we use the word destiny in two senses. One is that what happens to us.
Sometimes things go wrong in our life. We say that is destiny. But sometimes we may say that a cricketer was young and very talented and that cricketer becomes a very famous cricketer, does something stupendous for their country.
Then we say this cricketer has fulfilled their destiny. So, here we are talking about destiny in terms of the actualisation of one's talents, of the fulfilment of one's purpose. So, definitely our spirituality will help us to fulfil our destiny because what is it that prevents us from fulfilling our destiny? Not karma in the sense of what happens to us, karma in the sense of what we do.
So, our own desires get misdirected by various allurements. Say like, just yesterday I came from Seattle to here, to Boston. Now, if you ask pilots, pilots say that actually a plane almost never goes straight from its starting point to the ending point.
90 to 95% of the time, the plane is off course. But what gets it back on course is the reorientation. The pilot is doing it or the machine is doing it.
The wind pressure might be there, the atmospheric conditions are there. Just get the plane off course. It comes back on course.
So like that, all of us, while we are going through our life, the circumstances of life, the materialism and the culture around us, that will make us off course. And what will get us back on course? That is our spirituality. So, in a sense, the chances of our reaching our destiny, fulfilling our destiny, they are much more increased when we are spiritual.
Because spirituality will help us to do course correction, to come back on track whenever our short-term impulses, our short-sighted desires, they allure us and distract us. We will come back on track. So, definitely, spirituality helps us to fulfil our destiny.
Any other questions? Shall we stop here? Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your thoughtful hearing and your intelligent questions.