Go beyond fight or flight to sight

[Evening program at Charlotte, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna I’m grateful to all of you for coming today evening to this programme, I’m sorry we got late because of the traffic as was mentioned so today I’ll speak on the topic of going beyond fight or flight responses fight or flight is a common psychological term used to describe the typical responses of most people in various situations so whenever we feel threatened whenever we feel that we are in danger most people have two responses they feel, I have to fight now, this person, whatever this is threatening me, I have to fight it and I beat it I will beat it down or other responses, if you feel this problem is too difficult, I can’t face it then other option is flight, it’s a run away from it now, if you consider from the deeper perspective of spiritual knowledge there are three distinct ways in which you can analyse this response first is that there is a animal side to our being our physical body is just like the body of animals and the body is more or less like a programmed machine so animals typically exhibit this response in the jungles when they face danger they either fight it or they fly away from it and because we also have bodies which are made of the same physical characteristics as the animals, so we also have that as a gut response which comes so the Mahabharata says how there are four characteristics which are common to human beings and animals which are those four characteristics four activities common to eating, sleeping, mating and defending so put in other terms there is each of these activities are driven by certain activities so food, sleep, sex and power these are the four drives that motivate everyone we may do various actions, some people may say we have done so much scientific research we are not eating, sleeping, mating, defending but actually scientific research is also motivated by the urge for power, we consider in the past century most of the research in science has been funded primarily by the defence industry, so defence is basically power, defending so basically food so now among these the defensive instinct is what comes up in the fight or flight responses, so when we feel that we have power then we want to fight and when we feel that we don’t have power then we want to flee and usually we want to fight or flee over the other three things the arrangements for food, the arrangements for sleep, sleep means basically comfortable bodily living and arrangements for sex in the animal kingdom often animals fight over mates two lions may fight over one lion and they fight, fight, fight and if one lion is seen to be superior the other lion finally flees so basically fight or flight is a response that comes from bodily nature from the animal side of our being there are some materialist philosophers who say that we are actually nothing but animals and they say to think that we human beings are anything special that is simply human ego but the fact is that actually if we had been simply animals we would not even have the intelligence to say that we are simply animals that means the capacity to differentiate between the levels of consciousness between different living beings that itself is a higher factor, animals simply exist animals don’t think about the philosophical difference between, okay what is the difference between a lion and a tiger, what is the difference between a bird and a monkey, they don’t differentiate we differentiate, so there is a fundamental difference but that difference is not in our biological nature, so when Darwin proposes the idea of survival of the fittest, struggle for existence, these principles are true but they are true for the body, they are not true for the non physical side of our being and thus the more we live at the bodily level of consciousness the more our default responses will be fight or flight, now we may say what’s wrong with it, if I have a problem if I can fight it, I will fight it, if I can’t fight it I will flee from it, isn’t that natural, actually yes it may be natural but it is not always desirable we human beings when we say natural actually speaking the word natural has different meanings human existence is actually very is a divided existence, we are divided between two natures our biological nature and our spiritual nature, so our biological nature makes us want to eat, sleep, mate and defend just like all other animals but our spiritual nature makes us want to look for happiness and look for not just happiness, look for lasting happiness so we have consciousness that is developed enough by which we look for lasting happiness and this longing for lasting happiness cannot be satisfied by our biological urges animals, cows may be in a forest but how many cows, there will be grass all around and cows sometimes they are constantly eating but how many cows have to take anti obesity treatment how many cows have to take some pills for losing weight no, they don’t have to do that why? because animals are more or less driven by their biological nature and that means when the urge for eating comes, they eat when the urge for sleeping comes, they sleep when the urge for mating comes they mate and similarly when the danger comes the urge for fight or flight comes, they fight or they fly they flee, now we humans because, so in the animals, the spiritual, there is a spiritual in the animal body also but it is at a very diminished level of consciousness that’s why they exist more or less satisfied through whatever little pleasure they get at the biological now of course, when you say satisfied it is not that they are happy their animal life is also very insecure Prabhupada explains in a Ishopanishad purport that animals live under very, animals bodily needs are fulfilled under very nasty and unpleasant conditions suppose you know we are, after this programme we are sitting and eating food and there is a delicious item is there and we close our eyes and we eat it and suddenly next moment we find the plate has disappeared this is what happened somebody just took away the plate from us so for animals it is like that, you know mosquito may be sucking blood and it is delicious for the mosquito and suddenly next moment somebody just flicks away what happened, I was sucking blood and suddenly my food went off and people will actually flick away the mosquito when those people are kind people if they are ordinary people they will just crush the mosquito you know how many of us when we are eating food think that somebody is going to crush me now we don’t live in that fear so animals for them they live in great fear even their basic needs are fulfilled under very nasty and unpleasant conditions so we humans we have higher intelligence our consciousness is better developed and because the consciousness is better developed we can perceive our spiritual nature and we can find spiritual happiness unfortunately however when we live in a materialistic society we try to fulfil our higher nature’s longings our higher nature is our spiritual nature and a spiritual nature spiritual nature’s longing is for lasting happiness we try to fulfil the higher nature’s longing by indulging more in the lower nature that means we want happiness lasting happiness, we try to get it by increasing the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending as I said animals don’t suffer from obesity but we humans do why is it that we tend to overeat it is because we are seeing eating not simply as an activity to satisfy the body’s hunger we are mistaking eating to be an activity that will satisfy our heart’s longing for happiness and therefore we look for more we eat more food than what is necessary for our body so it is said man is the only animal who eats when he is not hungry man is the only animal who sleeps when he is not tired man is the only animal who mates when he doesn’t want to procreate and man is the only animal who attacks even when he is not attacked even when he is not threatened so what is happening over here so now what is happening here that we are looking for higher pleasure at the lower level so we are trying to fulfil the soul’s longing for lasting happiness by trying to increase bodily pleasures but bodily pleasures just can’t be increased beyond a particular limit sometimes people may see some 5 star hotel or 7 star hotel there are such delicacies over there, you know if I had enough money I would go there and feast and have a feast but even if say we were the owner of a 7 star hotel and whatever we wanted to eat we could eat ultimately how much can we eat the body’s capacity is limited many of you must have heard of these Egyptian pharaohs the kings of Egypt whose bodies are preserved as mummies in the pyramids so some of these Egyptian kings were the word is epicureans epicureans means they were just into indiscriminate bodily pleasure so what they would do is they would have their cooks prepare a huge feast of food and they would eat and eat and eat and they stuffed to the full then they had their physicians make for them painless vomiting pills and then they would take a pill and they would have a bowel vomit everything out and after vomiting all out they would have another feast brought and eat it again can you imagine how desperate someone can be for pleasure the point is when you want to eat and get some pleasure it’s not just whether our stomach is empty or not we might empty the stomach by artificial means but the body has to process all the food it’s going in and it’s coming out so most of those who tried this they just they ate a lot and they died very fast most of them died young even middle aged didn’t reach so afterward that experiment has not been tried so the point is we may use whatever means we want we can’t expand the body’s capacity for pleasure beyond particular limits the same applies to all other pleasures the pleasure of sex is so glamorised in today’s world but beyond all the hype ultimately the pleasure lasts for a few minutes so because of the glamorisation people just get agitated and think maybe I should do this, maybe I should do that but no matter what one does the body’s capacity to enjoy is limited now this does not mean that our longing for pleasure is to be frustrated it is just that we have to understand that our longing for pleasure is misdirected so when we just as we human beings can seek a higher happiness beyond the body we have a longing which makes us seek something more than what the body can offer so basically the soul when it is trapped in the animal body the soul’s consciousness is not developed enough so it is just satisfied it acts more or less according to the bodily urges and it lives with whatever pleasures the body provides we humans because our consciousness is more developed we also feel the pullings of the body but we can choose not to act on those pullings we have the intelligence to resist those pullings we have the intelligence to understand that my longing for pleasure will not be fulfilled by indulging in the pullings of the body now at a biological level we have certain needs and they need to be fulfilled but the mistake is to confuse a biological need with a spiritual longing the spiritual longing for love is often equated in today’s world with the biological need for mating and this causes a lot of confusion so now our topic is fight or flight how is this related fight or flight is the response that will come to us from our body but we are more than our body we have a body but we are at our core souls and as souls we can choose a wiser response most problems in real life we are not living in jungles where some animal is going to threaten us and we have to we have to either fight it or run away from it most of the problems that we face are of a subtler nature if we have a quarrel with our spouse we can’t have a fight or flight response over there if there is some misunderstanding we have to have a wiser course of action shout, shout, shout, shout and nothing works we rush out of the door bang the door and go away that is not going to solve the problem so whenever we have issues we need a more enlightened approach than fight or flight and the Bhagavad Gita explains that human behaviour is shaped by the three modes of material nature does anyone know what are the three modes? goodness, passion and ignorance so the behaviour, our behaviour is shaped by the mode that is influencing us so imagine that there are three people who are sitting in three successive bus windows and they are going along the road and all three of them look out of the window and there is greenery outside the window so the third person is in the mode of ignorance, second is in the mode of passion, first is in the mode of goodness the third person is trying to, lethargic trying to doze off and because of the bus movement not able to sleep, look out of the window, they see the greenery such a nice place to sleep you see the greenery and think oh such a nice place to just sleep so nicely, the second person is in the mode of passion as soon as they see the greenery they remember the latest Bollywood movie that they have seen and romantic scenes over there, they think oh if I just had a partner I would enjoy in this forest the first person is in the mode of goodness they are trying to read a book and the bus movement is distracting them a little bit they look out of the window such a peaceful place I can just immerse myself in the wisdom of this book without any distractions so what has happened is the stimulus is the same the response is different the stimulus is seeing the greenery the response is different what has made the response different, it is the mood in which the person is so depending on the mode we are in we will respond differently to different situations so another way of explaining these three modes is in terms of how people act some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened so the people who make things happen are in goodness, they are thoughtful they think and then okay you do this I will do this and let’s get this done they are in passion, they are just running around hey I have to do this, I have to do that and they are running around so much that they often forget, oh I have to go for this I have to go for this meeting and you go halfway to the meeting and oh I forgot to take this, come back again and then as you are coming back you find that the car has broken down oh this is going wrong, that is going wrong that is going wrong, just watch things happen we try to do one thing and ten things go wrong at that time so some people you know they are some people are always in a hurry but if you see actually they don’t get much done because they are running to one thing second thing, third thing, fourth thing, fifth thing because their minds are so wild that none of the things they are able to do properly and they are always in a hurry and actually they are never productive so that is the effect of the mode of passion and in the mode of ignorance people just can’t do anything he did this that person did that, that happened what is happening, I don’t know some people just watch things happen it’s like some people if you see them in spectator sports and they are watching, if a tennis match is going on the eyes move from here to here to here to here to here to here to here so like that some people just watch what is happening, what happened, what happened just watch things happen that is the response of the mode of ignorance and when problems become big just run away from the problems I can’t deal with this so basically from the perspective of the three modes the fight or flight response is typical of the modes of passion and ignorance when we are in passion we want to fight when we are in ignorance we just want to flee so Shri Prabhupada when he came to the coast of America the first thing he said is Rajasthamo guna era sabaiyachana all the people here in his song Markane Bhagavad Dharma which he composed on the Boston fire while he was coming to America he said people here are covered by the modes of passion and ignorance Rajasthamo guna era sabaiyachana all people are covered by this so actually the modes of passion and ignorance they shape our perception in today’s world and it is not just America actually it is all over the world sometimes people try to say that Indian culture is good and western culture is bad it is not a matter of Indian culture and western culture it is a matter of materialistic culture versus spiritual culture in the west also there was spiritual culture in the past and in India also there was materialistic culture in the past but relatively speaking Indian culture is more favourable to spirituality than the present western culture so the point is that India and west these are material divisions these are simply political divisions we as devotees need to see things not from a political perspective but from a philosophical perspective in the philosophical perspective there is more of goodness, passion and ignorance in India and there is goodness, passion and ignorance in the west it is everywhere it is there relatively speaking we can say that the modes of passion and ignorance are more in the west than they are in India and India is also becoming westernised now so the point I am making is as long as we are in the modes of passion and ignorance we will choose the fight or flight response fight or flight response so for example say a boy and a girl are attracted to each other and then they are ready to fight with the whole world they say we are going to be together I can’t live without you I can’t live without you they are ready to fight with the whole world for each other and after sometime sociologists say that romance has a bench life of about 18 months what that means is you know when a boy and a girl are attracted to each other initially basically it is a biological attraction it need not be simply sensual but by each other’s personality each other’s physical characteristics they are attracted and when they are in each other’s presence there are certain hormones which are secreted in the body and that’s why people feel as if you know I saw you and I felt as if electric current went through my body you feel all sort of things now they are biological sensations they are there but what happens they last for a particular period of time and usually any time between 12 months to 24 months they die out and after that the same people who are saying I can’t live without you now they say I can’t live with you laughter laughter so the response becomes exactly opposite so this is functioning in the mode of passion or the mode of ignorance so initially they are ready to fight with the whole world to be with each other and now when they can’t get along they are ready to fly away from each other just get out I want to get out you get out so what is happening over here is we are simply being driven by our biological side but we humans have higher intelligence we have higher consciousness so Arjuna at the start of the Bhagavad Gita was also caught in this fight or flight response he thought oh I have to fight with my relatives he was ready to fight and he thought what should I do? if I fight and win so I will have killed my relatives what is the use of winning like that when that victory that victory is tainted with the blood of my own loved ones so he was thinking should I fight but if I don’t fight what is the alternative for me they will fight and they will kill me if I decide to flee then I will be disgraced I will have to live in the forest what should I do maybe initially I should fight maybe I should fly he says actually it is better for me to live as a beggar rather than by fighting with my loved ones but then he eventually said I don’t know this also doesn’t work this also doesn’t work so in real life when there is immediate physical danger for example if suddenly a thief breaks into our house at that time a fight or flight response is advisable because there is an immediate danger immediate physical danger over there but we live in a world where that kind of dangers are very less to us they may occur but most of the troubles that we face cannot be solved at the fight or flight level and that’s why we need to go beyond this level and going beyond that level means beyond fight and beyond flight to sight we need to get a higher vision sattvaat sanjayate gyanam in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that the characteristic of the mode of goodness is jnana, knowledge in 14.11 he says sarvadvaare shudhehe smin prakasham upajayate jnanam yadatada vidyad viruddham sattva mithyota when the mode of goodness becomes prominent at that time all the doors of the body sarvadvaare shudhehe smin the doors of the body are illumined prakasham upajayate are illumined now what does it mean? is it that people who are in the mode of goodness light comes out of their eyes light comes out of their ears light comes out of their nose light comes out of their mouth no, when Krishna says prakasham upajayate what it means is that the senses are like doors to the body now say there is a door to this room now if there was darkness at that door we wouldn’t know who is coming in and we wouldn’t know whether we should let that person come in or not let that person come in a friend is coming would say welcome a stranger is coming would be a little cautious if an armed person is coming who is clearly a robber would be alarmed so now when there is light at a door we can understand what to let in and what to not let in so similarly if we consider the senses to be doors for our body then when we are in the mode of goodness we understand what to let into our senses and what to not let into our senses so many people treat their tongue like a conveyor belt you know anything and everything they eat whatever tastes good whatever looks good just eat it and then one of the paradoxes of American civilisation today is that with the technology advancing the devices are becoming smaller and smaller but the people are becoming bigger and bigger so sometimes you travel on these small flights short distance small flights are there now many people actually struggle to squeeze into that seat itself they find it very difficult to sit people are just becoming bigger and bigger so what is happening here is that the discrimination the vision what I should eat, what I should not eat how much I should eat, how much I should not eat that is being lost so again this is an indication that the mode of goodness is not there there is a mode of passion and mode of ignorance so when we come to the mode of goodness we get sight sight means the proper vision this is the problem this is the problem because of which this person is angry with me this is the problem because of which the situation has gone wrong we look beyond the specific problem to the underlying situation many times when there is an iceberg in the ocean an iceberg is actually what we see is just the top there is something below that and what is below that is the bigger threat iceberg at the top is the visible threat but there is something below that so when we are in the mode of goodness we don’t just see the specific situation no, somebody becomes angry with us a loud one becomes angry with us they shout at us and we just if we are just at a superficial level, no, this person is short tempered this person is always nagging me this person is always irresponsible this person is like that what happens is we see people’s behaviour and we label them now if we are, this is how we label them what happens two things happen when we label somebody, you are lazy you are irresponsible you are short tempered you are this, you are that two things happen, the label makes that person defensive I am not like that they may say I am not like that, but when we keep repeatedly labelling them, we unwittingly make them also believe that yes, I am lazy and you know then either their energy goes in defending to prove that I am not lazy or to just accept it this is how I am and conversely when we label somebody you are like this then we end up, we feel that we basically stop investigating whether there is something within us which is triggering that behaviour in them it could be something within them that is making them angry like that, making them lazy like that but it could be something within me also so basically when we put a label on someone both people abdicate responsibility for change you know other person thinks I am like that, first person thinks you are like that that’s all but quite often when somebody is angry what is it that is making them angry then we may say ok, it is such a small thing, why are you becoming so angry you are short tempered but below the surface of the iceberg there is something much bigger maybe there is some insecurity within maybe there is some fear within which is expressing itself as anger so when we are in the mode of goodness we can sit calmly and avoid judgemental labels avoiding labels we can discuss, we can understand what is the problem and ultimately tadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te when we practise bhakti we get the intelligence by which we can come to Krishna that means we understand that ultimately the specific issue is not the problem the specific behavioural pattern is also not the problem the ultimate problem is that we are all disconnected from Krishna somebody may be lazy, somebody may be angry somebody may be irritable somebody may be irresponsible ultimately everyone is longing for Krishna ultimately whatever deficiencies whoever has they are because they are disconnected from Krishna so we when we bring Krishna into our life by the practise of bhakti then we get we go beyond fight or flight we work at the level of sight sight means we have a higher vision of things with that vision of things we work intelligently how can I respond in this situation in a way that can help me grow and help this person also to grow so I’ll conclude with one example we can have question answers after that suppose there are some people, some person in our life our boss, our spouse our child, our parent whoever it is, our relative who are very irritable and we just feel why is this person like this now it is not that that person is, everybody has someone in their life who we feel, they make my life miserable it is said that some people bring happiness where they go and some people bring happiness when they go laughter so suppose we have some person who is like that now if they behave angrily with us, we behave angrily with them and it just simply makes things worse as devotees so I was giving a class in Australia in Melbourne so it was a question answer session actually so then somebody sent a question on a chit they asked that there is a devotee with whom I have to do some service but that devotee has told me on the face that they don’t like me now if the devotee directly told me they don’t like me, what should I do and if that devotee is here, what would you like to tell them laughter so I explained that actually the difference defining difference in the relationship between devotees and the relationship between non devotees is not in terms of the normal personality issues just as sometimes materialistic people may not get along with each other different people have different natures sometimes even in the devotee community it will happen that some people we just like and some people we just can’t connect with them so this normal human personality mismatches matches and mismatches they are just going to happen in any community whether it is devotee community or non devotee community the difference is that for a devotee the relationship with another person is not just a relationship with that person it is also a relationship with Krishna so suppose there is an attendant in a clothes shop and these attendants whenever customers come they show the various clothes to the customer suppose there are some customers who are very fussy they go to a shop and they look at 100 clothes and then they say actually I want something else and then they go away now when that happens the attendant can feel frustrated I took out 100 clothes from the rack showed it to you, now I have to iron them wash them, put them all back in proper place he didn’t purchase also anything now if there are some customers who are like this now the attendants also come to know who customers are like that and none of them want to attend to such a customer so now normally if a customer is seeing 100 clothes and not taking anything then the actual attendant may feel irritated but the attendant is thoughtful the attendant knows that actually my salary is not coming from this customer my salary is coming from my boss and there are cameras and my boss is watching so even if I don’t make a sale to this customer my boss also knows that this customer is fussy this customer is a troubling customer and if it may well happen that the attendant may not make any sale but the boss sees you are a cool headed guy even with such a difficult customer you are courteous you are polite so you know how to handle tough people and although that attendant may not make any sale still the boss may promote the attendant why? because you know how to handle tough people similarly in our relationships who is the boss? Krishna he is there in our hearts and you know if some people are irritating people, Krishna knows that they are irritating us you know sometimes we may feel that this person is troubling me and everybody thinks everything is so happy in our life but this person is troubling me so much and we want to tell the whole world sometimes this person is like this, this person is like that and then unnecessarily we aggravate the matter because that person feels threatened feels insulted you should know that Krishna knows if somebody is difficult somebody is treating us badly somebody is making life difficult for us Krishna knows it now if we respond in a way that will please Krishna we see that interaction not just as an interaction with this person we see that as an interaction with Krishna that does not mean that if a person abuses you we always have to tolerate the abuse it just means that we don’t have to be governed by the fight or flight response you know this person is this person is always irritating this person is always rude I will give them a peace of my mind I will fight or this person is so troublesome I will not deal with them I will just go away, I will run away flight now this fight or flight are not necessarily wrong responses in some situations we may need to fight and in some situations we may decide I don’t want to get involved in this we may move away also but these should be thoughtfully chosen responses so if there is first sight we understand this situation is also an opportunity for me to grow to grow in my bhakti to Krishna to grow in my virtuous qualities to grow in my tolerance grow in my inner strength then we will stay calm and with that calmness we will be able to choose the appropriate response sometimes some issues and some behaviours need to be confronted but if we have illumined ourselves, if we have raised ourselves to the mode of goodness, if we have risen higher then when we speak we will not speak in a judgemental way we will not alienate people rather we will be more objective you know when you did this I felt angry because I expected this to be done so instead of that if I just came here you are a shameless irresponsible, hopeless, useless brute oh where that person gets so many uncharitable labels what happens, they also become so angry and then see the issue is here and the label is here, so when we put a label, the whole fight shifts from the issue to the label you are like this, no I am not like that you are like this, no you are not like that well the issue is left aside so now what happens is, and we are in the mode of goodness, sometimes we may need to confront issues, but we will be able to call to confront better, because we are ourselves calm and we can objectively present, this is the problem no, no, objectively no, this is what I expected but this is what you did, and I felt hurt by that so rather than telling the other person you are like this, we can say this is how I felt because of this they can’t deny our feelings the mistake that we make is, we take our feelings and project them on to the other person as a label on them now if I say I am feeling angry you can’t tell me I should not feel angry well, I am feeling angry, I am feeling hurt I am feeling, ok, I have my feelings now how do I respond that feelings are up to me now if I am feeling angry, the other person, ok what has made you so angry, they won’t want to know but instead of feeling angry, I start shouting at the other person, I start blasting at the other person, then they become defensive now if I say I am feeling upset about this ok, what are you upset about please tell me, what can I do if instead of saying I am feeling upset, I just start labelling the other person, then the whole issue, the whole fight often is on a inconsequential thing the fight is on a label and the issue is left aside that’s why we human beings actually have the higher intelligence to go beyond our body’s fight or flight responses and when we do that, when we function at the fight or flight level we make small issues big we make small issues into such big issues that sometimes, you know, a domestic world war is fought because somebody did not wash the sink so a small thing can become very big but if we are now, when we are practising bhakti, bhakti is not just a matter of rituals there is, in bhakti there is siddhanta, there is sadhana and there is sadhacharya siddhanta is our philosophical understanding, sadhana is our spiritual practises siddhanta is we study the bhagavad gita, we understand the philosophy, that is how we get the siddhanta sadhana is our chanting the holy names, our worshipping the deities now, the siddhanta and the sadhana should lead to sadhacharya sadhacharya means proper behaviour proper behaviour doesn’t just mean following four regular principles, that’s important, no doubt it also means, you know, there should be humility, there should be tolerance, there should be kindness there should be sensitivity these are all basic, these are all basic human virtues or sometimes you know, we may be chanting very strictly, but then that chanting, instead of leading to sadhacharya what it leads to, we do our sadhana nicely, but we become proud you know and we become judgemental towards others so the world doesn’t care what your siddhanta is the world doesn’t care what your philosophy is the world doesn’t care what your sadhana is the world cares what your sadhacharya is how is your behaviour? because people will see the behaviour Mishra Prabhupada was asked in a public forum, how can we know your devotees? Prabhupada said, they are perfect gentlemen they are perfect gentlemen perfect ladies, that means well behaved and well behaved Prabhupada could have said, who are my followers? they are those who are chanting Hare Krishna constantly yes, they are always remembering Krishna they have devoted their life to Krishna, that’s all fine but the world is not going to care about that, the world does not care whether you are chanting 16 rounds or 64 rounds or 192 rounds the world cares how are you behaving so our siddhanta or sadhana needs to translate into sadhacharya and if we do that then we can attract, we ourselves will find that our life becomes more peaceful more joyful and not only we individually become peaceful and joyful but we also become agents of peace and joy there are conflicts because we are well behaved we minimise the conflicts otherwise we unwittingly maximise the conflicts so by ourselves using the spiritual energy that comes from our sadhana, comes from our siddhanta, we use it to curb our fight or flight responses, then our sadhacharya improves and then we become agents of peace and joy, wherever in our family situation, in our professional situation in our devotee community, we become agents of peace, agents of joy and thus we make a positive contribution so I’ll summarise I spoke about going beyond the fight and flight response and in this connection I spoke about how the animals, whenever they are faced with danger they either fight against the danger or they flee from the danger and this is a typical human response also when we face problems, we either want to counter attack whoever is causing the problem or we want to run away from it but we humans are capable of something better and how are we capable of that? because although we have an animal nature because the body of the human beings also at a biological level similar to the animal body so basically the eating, sleeping mating, defending, the urges for food, sleep, sex and power these are common to us and based on power considerations we have fight or flight, if I feel I am more powerful I fight, if I feel I am less powerful I flee and usually the fight or flight is based on whether the arrangements for food, sleep and sex so now we human beings because we have a more developed consciousness than animals so we are not satisfied with bodily pleasures animals more or less they act according to the body and they live with whatever pleasures they get they are not happy their life is also under very nasty and unpleasant conditions just like I discussed about a mosquito being stripped of its food or killed while eating it is getting flicked away eating in blood but still we human beings our bodily needs are fulfilled in better conditions but because we have a higher consciousness our longing for lasting happiness we try to gratify by doing the bodily activities we eat even when we are not hungry we sleep even when we are not tired we mate even when we want to procreate we fight even when we are not provoked so that way what happens is we are trying to look for the spiritual in the biological and that is never going to work this misdirection of our consciousness also causes us humans to act at the level of fight or flight and then I discussed the same thing in terms of three modes of material nature so I discussed the example of a greenery, green forest people in goodness people in ignorance see that as a place for sleeping, people in passion see that as a place for romancing people in goodness see that as a place for studying immersing themselves in wisdom some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened so when we are in the mode of passion and ignorance our response is fight or flight when we come to the mode of goodness we get sight we can see the situation properly and when we come to the mode of pure goodness through bhakti then we get higher intelligence so many times when there is immediate threat for the body fight or flight response is appropriate like a thief comes to attack us but most of the problems we face like say relationship issues disputes differences they cannot be solved by fight or flight that’s why we need to rise beyond the mode of passion and ignorance to goodness and normally when there is a problem we move from the problem to a label and then that label makes the person either defensive or aggressive and then again we can’t solve the issue so when we are in the mode of goodness we see the behaviour but we like the tip of the iceberg we go deeper and try to understand what is the problem so that way instead of labelling we can objectively observe the issue and then we can deal with it so the difference between the devotee and non devotee relationships devotee relationship and non devotee relationship is not that there will not be conflicts, not that there will not be differences not that there will not be difficult people but in a devotee relationship there is a third person just like the attendant who deals with the fussy customer calmly, politely because the attendant knows that I am not just responding to this person I am actually serving my boss like that a devotee when dealing with a difficult person says actually I am trying to please Krishna and let me act in a way that will please Krishna so by bringing Krishna into the picture we can calm ourselves down we can avoid the fight or flight response and see from a deeper perspective intrinsically fight or flight are not wrong sometimes some situations may be so messy that we want to get out of sometimes some situations need to be confronted but when we do either we will do it not just out of instinct we will do it with intelligence instead of affixing labels we will address issues and when we thus live with the power of bhakti in the mode of goodness then that manifests as sadhacharya sometimes we focus a lot on siddhanta, right philosophical understanding sadhana, I am chanting so many rounds all that is good but the inner energy that we get from our siddhana and sadhana, from our philosophical understanding and devotional practise that inner willpower, that inner motivation should be used for sadhacharya, that means restraining the fight or flight response and acting with sight when we act in this way Nashila Prabhupada said we will be perfect gentlemen, perfect ladies that means we will become agents of peace and joy in whatever we do and thus as devotees we can experience that this world can also become a joyful place ultimately there is distress in this world but there can be as less distress as possible there can be, we can become agents of peace and joy, we can become parts of the solution, not parts of the problem and all of us can make positive contributions in a mode of devotion to Krishna thank you very much Hare Krishna so are there any questions or comments yes Projit Balavesan says to issue a response to someone who is causing us trouble would it be good to incorporate this yeah things are happening to us, things are going on in our lives they are going to happen good things are going to happen bad things are going to happen and we don’t really have a choice anyway so to accept the situation as it is and just be able to deal with it in a conscious manner yes thank you so when we are facing a different situation can we see that as this is my own bad karma coming to me like Prabhupada said that don’t be angry with the instrument of your own karma and we just see it as Krishna’s mercy and deal with it yes definitely that is a very elevated spiritual vision and if we can have that we can avoid a lot of aggravated harsh feeling aggravated negative feeling that comes now in general whenever we face a troubling situation there are three broad options we have one is that we change ourselves and tolerate the situation second is we change the situation we change the other person or change the situation third is we walk away from the situation now all three can be valid responses when we say that something is the instrument of our own karma that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are not meant to do anything it’s just like say ok I have got a disease that is because of my past karma but that doesn’t mean that I am not meant to take medicine Ayurveda is a whole well developed branch of knowledge we have to take medicines so basically if you look at the Pandavas they exhibited all these three responses at different times initially when Bhima was poisoned or the Pandavas were burnt, they attempted to be burnt in Varanagadh, what they said Yudhishthira told don’t publicise this, don’t complain just tolerate it, just keep it this in-house conflict in-house so he basically changed himself you know somebody tries to poison us, we feel so angry somebody tries to burn us, we are naturally angry but they tolerated, changed themselves but then eventually when Draupadi was disrobed attempted to be disrobed a particular line was crossed and Krishna tells Arjuna tam sthitiksa subhara he says tolerate but the same Bhagavad Gita also tells Arjuna tasmātmuktiṣṭha yasholabhasva fight, so Krishna is not telling Arjuna tolerate the injustices of the Kauravas so we fight so there are some situations where we need to change the situation and we need to act, but we act not by impulse, we act by intelligence so that means sometimes we understand that suffering is coming because of our past karma at the same time we have to choose an appropriate response so say if a if a thief has robbed someone now the person who has been robbed, they go to a king and suppose the king says at that time don’t be angry with the instrument of your karma it’s your karma, that’s why you are robbed okay it may be my karma because of which I was robbed but the question is, what is the king’s dharma the king’s dharma is to maintain law and order so when the point is that when we are talking about karma the important point is that we don’t have knee-jerk responses we have wise responses the second response could be that we change the situation sometimes some situations need to be changed so Prabhupada we see that sometimes say when when he was in America and he was living with the Mayavadi at that time, he was still not allowed to speak at the Vishwa Yoga Studio so Prabhupada tolerated it tolerated it at that time but when when he was having his own movement and then something would go wrong Prabhupada strongly take action if some mismanagement was happening Prabhupada would send some other person himself go there when the Juhu land was being taken away, Prabhupada did not think that this person is simply giving us our own karma Prabhupada fought for Krishna and then in some situations we may just walk away from the situation walk away means I have better things to do in my life I will not get involved in this when Krishna departed from the world the Pandavas walked away so like that Prabhupada when he was in Jhansi at that time he started League of Devotees and then there was a whole political clique against him and that which is going to be the headquarters of his movement he was practically evicted from there. Now Prabhupada had the legal documents by which he could fight a war but Prabhupada said it’s not worth it he said we walk away from it so we have to choose we understand that when we see the other person as an instrument of our own karma that means that prevents us from becoming too resentful or hateful towards that person that protects us also from the mentality of being victimised when we face a problem we become hateful, this person is like this this person is like this or we feel sorry for ourselves this goes wrong, that has gone wrong we feel sorry for ourselves seeing things as coming from our own karma it helps us to avoid these two negative responses either resenting people or feeling sorry for ourselves at the same time we have to decide what is the appropriate response in that situation and the important the basis for that appropriate response is what is my dharma so if something is an important thing for me something is my service and somebody is interfering with my service then I may have to fight sometimes we may just walk away from this because I have some other service to do and I don’t want to fight in this issue so it’s all if we have a sincere service attitude towards Krishna and that is the mood of the Tenu Kampam verse Krishna I am your servant so we will know at that time how best we can serve and that way we can ensure that our response is a response that connects us with Krishna so in some situations just accepting this is what has happened, I can’t change it so Krishna I accept it this has happened because of my past karma I accept it, please let me engage in your service that way we can avoid negative emotions and focus on the positive activity and the positive attitude of service to Krishna thank you for that comment thank you Krishna any other questions or comments yes Mataji I want to say something before I put up my question I want to give some background just now you spoke of Bollywood Bollywood development Ashok Mahatma he was great actor he was given a film in the in the end he asked which God he was given or which God he should have and Ashok Mahatma just looked here and there he was not having much answer the reporter again asked some human being by whom he was talking oh I was not my God is my friend Krishna my God is my friend Krishna so my question is most of the teachers I may be wrong I have learned more than teachers taught about spirituality good behaviour or good things but nobody teaches about karma how to how to be a Karma Jogi how to follow Karma Jogi Krishna what type of karma in Sikhism do not have all those words in Sikhism but if Krishna comes then one suppose whatever we have to divide amongst ourselves and eat the number three is Naam Kapo in the name of God so my question is why people don’t preach about karma karma is work people people are doing work a farmer is doing work a farmer is doing work everybody after working after the whole labour after a day’s labour he gets money and in that money he has to feed his family so my question is why people don’t preach about karma so why don’t we speak about karma and about Karma Yoga which is what Krishna demonstrated as a Karma Jogi actually there are certain things which people are anyway going to do so bodily functions bodily maintenance this is something which everyone is going to do because we are driven by our bodily nature to do that an animal a she-cat does not need a lesson on Karma Yoga to take care of her kittens a lioness a mother bird does not need a lesson on Karma Yoga to arrange for food for her babies for baby birdlets as far as the biological functions are concerned in today’s world we may do it in more complicated ways animals just go and search for food we actually get a big education get a degree get a job and through that we get money and using the money we get food so the whole process is much more complicated but essentially we are doing the same thing so the Karma in terms of acting for bodily maintenance that is something which we just do by our biological nature so there is no specific need for instruction in that the instruction is not needed for Karma it is needed for Yoga how to make our Karma into Yoga and the Yoga happens by connection with God Krishna says by your work worship him thus you will attain perfection now some people translate this Krishna’s words are very specific by your work worship him some people translate this as work is worship now work is worship is a good moral principle for infusing people with the mood of dignity of labour, equality of all work but work is worship is not a spiritual principle because if work were worship then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper the donkey works so hard so work can be done as a worship by our work we can worship the Lord that is what the Bhagavad Gita says now how can we worship the Lord with our work for that we have to cultivate a mood of devotion for the Lord so Arjuna is a warrior he would anyway have fought the war but Krishna by speaking the Bhagavad Gita enlightened Arjuna about how he can do his work in a mood of devotion Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are very similar the Yoga aspect is common in Karma Yoga the focus is on the action in Bhakti Yoga the focus is on the intention the intention is to serve the Lord in Karma Yoga basically we do what we like to do and we offer it to the Lord in Bhakti Yoga we do what the Lord wants to do for his pleasure but essentially they are quite similar in terms of what is to be done so actually what we need more is not the not the instruction to do our work that people are unable to do what we need is the instruction of how to spiritualise our work how to do that in a mood of Yoga and that has three aspects to it first is that we need exclusive time for Yoga we need exclusive time for connecting with Krishna through our sadhana through our worship by this our heart becomes connected with Krishna and only when our heart is connected with Krishna then after that when we do our work whether it is our family responsibilities professional responsibilities we can do them in a mood of service to Krishna otherwise it is just a sentiment I think I am doing everything for God but actually you know there is nothing actually how much time do I think of God how much am I devoting to God it may just be a sentiment it is a good sentiment to have but it is not really it won’t lead to much transformation it won’t lead to much spiritual growth so there has to be exclusive time for devotion to God then after that we can take that and infuse a mood of devotion in our work so before doing the work we pray to Krishna after doing the work we thank Krishna for the opportunity to do that work and we offer Narayanayati Samarpayami as a famous verse it says that kāyena vācā manasendhirvā whatever I am doing with my body, mind senses, intelligence buddhātmanāvā whatever I am doing all of it I offer it to Narayan that mood has to be cultivated to arrive bhakti and then also there is the offering of the fruits to Krishna when we offer the fruits to Krishna through charity then what happens is that which is in our heart see the whole mood is that we want to offer our heart to Krishna but our heart is filled with so many other things of this world so then if we can’t offer our heart to Krishna we offer what is in our heart to Krishna so what is in our heart is the fruits that we want the attachment to Bhanu is there so we offer that to Krishna apart of that to Krishna then what happens Krishna gives the place in our heart so this way if we see Krishna’s example Krishna teaches the Bhagavad Gita and what he exemplifies to the Bhagavad Gita what he emphasises to the Bhagavad Gita is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja so the whole purpose of the message of the Bhagavad Gita is not just to do karma it is to do it in the mood of yoga and that’s why when we speak our focus is people are anyway going to do karma but how to transform that into yoga that is the focus of our classes thank you you had a question when Krishna comes it looks like a second nature that you have to have a problem not your brain troubles you yeah correct so we know the devotees what we do sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja so what are the things that we should be doing to strengthen ourselves to strengthen ourselves and make Krishna consciousness a practise not just a use and do some yoga that the devotees have to practise so what are the do’s and don’ts that devotees need to practise to be Krishna conscious in action actually we are talking about do’s and don’ts in terms of actions action is one thing consciousness is another thing and the two should be related but they are not necessarily related what relates what relates action and consciousness is intention what is my intention for example I may fast on ekadashi I may fast nirjal but after fasting nirjal then I go to the kitchen and see who is eating what so attached sense gratifier, hopeless then what is happening I am doing the activity of fasting my body is fasting but my ego is feasting and what is happening is my intention is not to go closer to Krishna my intention is to prove my superiority over others so if we remember that whatever I am doing I am chanting, I am studying scripture I am doing services the purpose is that I want to go closer to Krishna and I want to take others closer to Krishna if we keep that intention as much as possible in mind remind ourselves repeatedly of that intention then the action will be accompanied by the right consciousness so repeatedly reminding ourselves of the intention that is important so that the activity may be Krishna conscious or the activity may be externally of bhakti but our consciousness may not be Krishna conscious so one very important or very powerful way in which you can remind ourselves of that intention is by associating with devotees who have that intention so in the devotee community also you will see there are different kinds of devotees with different levels of motivation for practising bhakti so if you associate with devotees who are serious who are striving to be Krishna conscious then their association will inspire us it will rub off on us and we will also be Krishna conscious so wherever we are the mind often sees the tendency of the conditioned mind is how sinful I can be without becoming sinful how much wrong I can do without being wrong or how little bhakti can I do while still being called a bhakta so that is the attitude of the mind and if we are not careful in devotee association what will happen is we will look at the lowest level of the devotee and think I can do this also and I can be a devotee but if we keep the purpose in mind then we will see who are the serious devotees how can I become like them and then in the devotee association we will rise upwards and we will become example by which others also rise upwards so keeping our purpose that I have come here for coming closer to Krishna and associating with those who can help us come closer to Krishna those who inspire us to come closer to Krishna that was actually Sri Prabhupada’s speciality the Vedic scriptures are very vast Prabhupada in almost every purport he comes back to the essence we have to be Krishna conscious so reading scriptures is a very powerful way of reminding ourselves of what our purpose is by constantly reminding ourselves of the purpose of our activities we can infuse those activities with Krishna consciousness does that answer your question? Hare Krishna shall we stop here thank you very much