PURE acronym – 4 attitudes for progressing in spiritual life

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Ypsilanti, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you and I’ll speak on the topic of being pure in our service tasmadhe kena manasa bhagavatam sattvatampati shotavya kirtitavyasya deya pujascha nityada so I’ll take this this is the verse from the bhagavatam first canto where it is said that one pointed ekena manasa with one pointedness person works towards bhagavatam sattvatampati that lord who is the master of the devotees shotavya kirtitavyasya here speak deya pujascha nityada one meditates on him internally and worships him nityada always so I’ll speak based on acronym PURE P-U-R-E they cover four aspects of how we all can develop more purity in our service so first is P is purposefulness the whole of material existence is actually characterised either by purposelessness or by false purposes so ishwarya prabhupada writes in the purport of naasti buddhir yuktasya na cha yuktasya bhavana na cha bhavetah shantir shantasya kutah sukham 2.66 in the bhagavad gita he says that if one is not Krishna consciousness one is not yukta yukta is a variant of the word yoga yoga, one who is in yoga is yukta, connected so one who is not connected spiritually naasti buddhir, such a person cannot have buddhi naasti buddhir, na cha yuktasya bhavana such a person cannot have a peaceful a steady mind na cha bhavetah shantir and such a person can’t have peace and then they don’t have peace ashantasya kutah sukham where is the question of happiness so in that section prabhupada writes that peace comes when you understand the ultimate goal of life which is very interesting, normally we would think that peace will come when we achieve a goal but quite often when we achieve many times people feel frustrated because this didn’t work out, that didn’t work out I couldn’t get this I couldn’t get that, so people are often frustrated by failure however a more disorienting kind of frustration comes because of success frustrated by success means that one becomes successful and then one finds that success is not fulfilling I achieved something that I dreamt of achieving and after that I feel what’s there in it before I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness I used to read a lot of books so a lot of biographies I used to read so I remember I read the biography of an American tennis player Andhriya Ghasi, when he became the number one, he said I expected to be later, and then I became the tennis number one, I said so what’s the big deal a machine loves me, a machine thinks that I am the best player in the world what’s the big deal about it so actually all of us, we have certain goals which we live for and if we don’t achieve it we feel disappointed, if we achieve it it leads to some fulfilment but it doesn’t last for long and then what to do next if one is fortunate then one comes to know a higher goal otherwise one just keeps pursuing another goal in that same level of reality so he said that, I just felt what am I playing for, and then he thought no, the holy grail in tennis is you should become a master grand slam, win all the four grand slams, and he kept pursuing that throughout his life so there are some people who may be phenomenal achievers in the eyes of the world and we respect the hard work that they have done, any achievement requires lot of talent and lot of commitment and that is appreciated, definitely Arjuna also worked very hard to become a champion Arjuna but when we talk about purpose we are talking more about the ultimate purpose of life, I was born and raised in India, India is a very education centred society, so my dreams since childhood was, I want to be the number one academically, and I was always among the toppers maybe number two, number three, a joint one, but I was never the first and in my college days I gave GRE there is a craze in India to come to America, so I gave GRE and I used to love English language since my childhood, one of my hobbies was just to take a dictionary and memorise words so most Indians find English a little difficult, so then I got at that time 2350 out of 2400 so I was I was not just first in my college, I was first in the history of my college not just first in the history of my college, I was first in the whole state of Maharashtra, which is almost 10 million people, more probably so I was elated, I thought now I have arrived but then, after that I found, there is no real happiness in just looking at a mark sheet it’s when people come and congratulate you and you feel okay and somehow, because my achievement was so well known, that some of my friends they thought, already everybody knows it so two, three of my friends just didn’t congratulate me and when it happened a third time, when it happened for a second, I was agitated, third time it happened it’s almost like I had a conceptual out of body experience I looked at myself from above and I thought here, I have fulfilled my dream and here, I have not become happy, I have only become more dependent on others for my happiness earlier I could just be with my friends and we could go on talking but now, I am just so expected, when will somebody congratulate me so I realised this cannot be the goal of life there has to be something higher in life so actually we all, based on our own culture, our upbringing our talents, we all set a purpose for our life and that purpose has its value, has its utility, definitely but that purpose has to be seen in the light of the ultimate purpose of life the ultimate purpose of life is to love Krishna because in learning to love Krishna there only the lasting happiness so, whatever we achieve ultimately, we are all looking to love and be loved and we hope to achieve things in life become wealthy, become famous, all that so that, we will become more lovable in the eyes of others however somebody becomes wealthy people often love the wealth more than the wealthy, or people love the wealthy for their wealth and eventually, it doesn’t lead to the fulfilment of the heart so, the achievements in this world are the means, they are not the end the end is the ultimate achievement of learning to love Krishna because Krishna will always be there in our heart He will never leave us no matter what happens and so, the purpose of life is to learn to love Krishna, to become an absorbed in loving service to Krishna and that is what will bring the supreme satisfaction and all our purposes they need to be harmonised with that purpose so, we all have specific purpose in our life some of us may be parents, some of us may be professionals some of us may be in particular kind of vocations, whatever it is and those purposes are fine, but they need to be harmonised with the ultimate purpose so, Krishna consciousness sometimes it is thought that you have to reject everything material and take to the spiritual it is not so much of rejection as of connection we connect what we have with Krishna so, the whole purpose of practising bhakti is to make Krishna our ultimate purpose that purposefulness imbues everything within a devotee everything that a devotee does so now let’s speak U is urgency all of us have many purposes in life and maya, the force of illusion works differently for different people for materialistic people, she makes them believe that this whole spiritual business it’s all hocus pocus it’s all nonsense it’s pre-scientific mythology or whatever and that’s how she keeps them away for those who are practising devotees maya knows that kind of that kind of rationalisation is not going to work so maya works in a more subtle way this is important but that is urgent and that never ends 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 one thing after another, another after another keeps coming and we know that my relationship with Krishna is important but so many circumstantial things keep taking priority and thus we never say no to Krishna directly but effectively we keep saying no to him because we just keep postponing, postponing so the sense of urgency means that yes, there are many things which are urgent in life but Krishna consciousness is also urgent my relationship with Krishna is also urgent and that sense of urgency is what actually transforms the whole concept of bhakti from excellent idea to a transformational reality it’s true, bhakti is important but it is what is going to transform my life now Shri Prabhupada is characterised by such a sense of urgency now urgency is different from hastiness the primary difference between urgency and hastiness is that in hastiness we just rush through things not giving them due time because we are just going to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing so that comes from the mode of passion rajoguna just feel it, I have to do this, I have to do that I have to do so many things and I am just not able to do all the things so I rush through things so hastiness is in the mode of passion whereas urgency is actually recognising that this is important and therefore let me do it well urgency comes from the mode of goodness hastiness comes from the mode of passion now one way to cultivate urgency is by remembering our death that we are all temporary our life presently is temporary and we may die at any moment and we will surely die at some moment and contemplation of death can be it has to be done properly I answer questions on my website the spiritual scientist so one mataji she asked a question she said that from her childhood she had paranoia fearfulness and then she came to a scone lecture where the preacher was speaking you can die at any moment at this moment you may get a heart attack, the roof may crash and his whole class was painting all kinds of scenarios by which we may die at any moment and she said after she became so paranoid the paranoia had been subsided and just came back and then she had to go to a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist told her you know hearing this kind of lecture is psychologically damaging for you, stop hearing them so then she wrote to me and asked I thought that the bhagavad gita message is psychologically uplifting how can the bhagavad gita message be psychologically damaging so I explained that actually death can be perceived differently in different modes it can be perceived in transcendence in goodness, in passion, in ignorance depending on what mode we are in if we are in a mode of ignorance or we are permanently affected by the mode of ignorance then death will create constant fearfulness thought of death, oh I may die I may die and that is how it leads to paranoia if we are in a mode of passion and if we think of death either death leads to the pointlessness of everything what is the point of life or materialistic people also say, youth the same fact is that youth is temporary spiritualists will say youth is temporary therefore focus on Krishna, focus on spiritual life materialistic people say youth is temporary enjoy before it goes away I saw an advertisement once in Calcutta it says you know party before you become a dirty old man so the idea is the fact of death when perceived in Vajoguna, in the mode of passion leads to the idea that I should enjoy right away what is the point of life it just leads to frustration the existentialist philosopher Alberto Camu he said that he says existence is miserable and pointless therefore the only philosophical question worth asking is whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow so his conclusion was you can commit it tomorrow that is all he said so in the mode of passion awareness of death doesn’t lead to anything substantially transforming either it makes one frustrated or it just makes one more frenzied about worldly enjoyment in the mode of goodness when we are then we understand that Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita in 18.20 that in the mode of goodness, knowledge in the mode of goodness means we see that in all living beings we see there is an imperishable nature within them and this is how all living beings are similar despite their surface dissimilarities so essentially in the mode of goodness we can perceive the spiritual nature along with the material nature and when we see the spiritual and the material together then remembering that the material is temporary inspires us to redirect our consciousness from the material to the spiritual so in the mode of goodness when we perceive the reality of death that intensifies our spiritual practise in transcendence we see death as Krishna himself Krishna is taking us to a higher level of reality may be taking us back to him so pure devotee can even welcome death in goodness still there is some fear but there is a sense of urgency that comes so the point is that I answered to this devotee lady that actually we should whenever we are hearing any classes whenever we are reading any books we should always remember the purpose of everything the purpose of everything is to fix the mind on Krishna so Srila Prabhupada was so practical that he said the Rastlila which is the culmination of the Bhagavatam the heart of the Bhagavatam the part of the Bhagavatam which everyone cherishes Prabhupada said that by hearing this Rastlila if your mind is getting agitated then don’t hear it you need to become more pure then you hear it later so that means even if Krishna’s pastimes don’t help us to fix the mind on Krishna then we needn’t hear Krishna’s pastimes also not Krishna’s pastimes but a particular pastime of Krishna if that triggers sensual desires within us then we can avoid hearing even that so everything that we do has to be in the light of that purpose is to fix the mind on Krishna so even if we are in the mode of ignorance and we hear about death it will just make us paranoid so don’t hear about death hear about other practise, other parts of Krishna conscious philosophy by which you can be more uplifted and gradually when one comes to the mode of goodness then hearing about death will not cause fearfulness rather it will increase one’s purposefulness it will bring more urgency so the whole point is that we have to bring urgency in our life and that urgency comes when we remember that ultimately we can say life is temporary but still death seems to be a long way away so we can infuse the urgency by thinking that the time that I have for practising Krishna Bhakti right now is limited I have next one hour for studying Bhagavata, for hearing Bhagavata I have next one and a half hours for chanting I have the next this much for this and sometimes when you meet with people you can just think I have this 2-3 minutes with this person so let me try to give as much radiate as much of the wisdom and the love of Krishna as possible in the short interaction so rather than thinking of the finiteness of life we can think of the finiteness of specific activities or the finiteness of the time we have for specific activities and that way we can cultivate urgency in our devotional service third R is Resoluteness Resoluteness means that we need determination to persevere in whatever we are doing in 9.14 Bhagavata Krishna says that always singing my glory in this way endeavouring with determination going down to me nitya yuktao paasate the exalted devotees constantly worship me now when I read this verse I was surprised Krishna in 9.13 and 9.14 is describing pure devotees now why do pure devotees need to endeavour why do they need determination we have our mind and senses which drag us here and there and I feel I need to be determined to practise bhakti but what do pure devotees need determination for they don’t have mind and senses running here and there but actually to do anything in this world requires determination so if pure devotees want to serve Krishna in this world they also need determination Krishna Prabhupada when he was trying to share Krishna consciousness faced so many obstacles sometimes we say oh Prabhupada was empowered so he was able to do so much but we have to understand empowerment the concept of empowerment carefully empowerment doesn’t mean absence of obstacles empowerment means perseverance amidst obstacles so Prabhupada was empowered in the sense that he faced so many obstacles but he persevered through that so that resoluteness is what characterised Prabhupada otherwise the sheer amount of obstacles that he faced if we look at if we look at his life from a biographical perspective he started a business it collapsed, he started another business fire broke out, he started another business and employees stole everything he started a magazine people were not interested, a cow rammed him to him he tried to start an organisation and the very people who were patronising him, they conspired against him and practically evicted him from there he tried to work with his god brothers and they also didn’t cooperate, they practically sent him out and he tried to he tried to come to America and he got a heart attack he came here, found a place and then Vijayanath, the watchman himself, stole his tape recorder he started preaching and a young person became interested, was thinking of becoming a disciple, that same person attacked him almost threatened him and Prabhupada had to face so many obstacles so Prabhupada’s empowerment was his resoluteness in persevering against obstacles so now what is our resoluteness for the pure devotees, they face the obstacles of the world so that they can give us Krishna for us, we also have to face the obstacles of the world, but for us we face the obstacles of the world so that we can just receive Krishna so sometimes you may feel that sometimes when a child is sick and the child is given a medicine and the medicine is very bitter, the child doesn’t want to take it it’s too bitter I can’t take it but then the child comes to know that that medicine is actually very expensive and her mother sold her own jewellery her own precious jewellery to get that medicine for her and the child will think there is so much love in this medicine let me take it, let me tolerate the pain so like that me we feel struggling against my mind and senses, practising the principles of Krishna consciousness is so difficult yes it is difficult but if we compare our difficulties with the difficulties that Shila Prabhupada went through just to give us the opportunity to practise Krishna consciousness we realise our difficulties are insignificant they are significant for us insignificant doesn’t mean that they are not real, they are not consequential they are real and consequential but still in perspective if we see they are not that big so our resoluteness can come from various sources our resoluteness can come also from our sense of ego I have decided to do it and I will do it that’s good if you do it that way also but that kind of resoluteness often leads to pride because I think that I am so great I am so great, I have achieved this once I decide to do it, I will do it which is good, still we are resolute and we are doing some service for Krishna and gradually we will become purified but the resoluteness that comes from seeing the Acharyas seeing their inspiration, seeing their dedication and the resoluteness that comes from the desire to serve Krishna desire to serve Krishna’s devotees that resoluteness is far more purifying and uplifting so when now Prabhupada was asked that if our purpose is to serve Krishna why is Maya so strong and Prabhupada replied immediately because your purpose is not strong your purpose is not strong so if our purpose is strong that means we are determined to persevere then the obstacles will find a way through them so it’s not that the practise of Krishna consciousness will make life easy for us it will make life joyful for us but the nature of the material world is that often the fulfilling lies at the other end of the demanding now if the fulfilling hides behind the demanding so we have to go through a demanding process of application, purification with resoluteness and then we attain fulfilment and the last E is exploration what do I mean by exploration life in Krishna’s service is actually an adventure because when we decide to do something and we may do this service and it’s just not working and we’re trying this, trying that, it’s not working and we pray to Krishna Krishna I want to serve you, please help me and none of our help seems to be coming so at that time we start feeling does Krishna really exist, does Krishna really care but exploration means that we don’t go into life with a with a rigid plan of how things should work out and life plans don’t work much but planning works planning gives us an overall sense of direction ok these are things important for me and these are things I need to do see planning is in the mode of goodness because we’re taking things seriously and we’re thinking how I’m going to do them but plans refer to specific courses of action and when we make plans often we go into the mode of passion this is my plan and I want it to work like this and when it doesn’t work which often it doesn’t, then we get frustrated but planning does work, so when we are going into a service to Krishna, we may make our plans I’ll do this, I’ll do this, I’ll do this and somehow those things don’t work I think I just met a dead end but exploration means that we are open to Krishna’s answers in ways different from our expectations so we are not just going into a stereotype but exploring let me say if a child is hungry and child goes to orchard and sees a mango tree, child starts shaking the mango tree and it’s so big, the mangoes are so high up he prays to god, oh please I want a mango, I’m hungry shaking, shaking, shaking and no mango is falling, he says oh god help me, he thinks god is not helping him but in the meanwhile an apple falls from an adjacent tree if he’s so caught in looking at the mango, waiting for the mango, craving for the mango, it is a notice that the apple has fallen down but if he’s exploring I’m trying this but let’s see my basic need is hunger I had expressed that need through the desire for a mango so Krishna often answers our prayers but not in ways that we had expected or we had envisioned so at one level, faith means certainty, certainty of the conviction that Krishna exists, Krishna cares, Krishna loves me and loving Krishna is the ultimate purpose of life but faith at another level also means openness to possibility openness to exploring possibilities, yes Krishna loves me, Krishna will answer my prayers but how will he answer so when we are open that way we’ll find that our specific desire may not be fulfilled but the need underlying it will be fulfilled sometimes the problem may not go away but the problem is external and the misery is internal if you take shelter of Krishna, the problem may not go away but the shelter of Krishna will shield us from the misery within so when we have that exploratory attitude okay, I’m going to serve Krishna I’m determined to serve Krishna but specifically how things will work out we don’t know, when Srila Prabhupada came to America, he had that overall vision there are temples, there are devotees only time is separating us but then he didn’t know how exactly it was going to manifest Srila Prabhupada was in in the lower east side normally any preacher they had to do some publicity to get people for the programme now Prabhupada had no money to do any kind of publicity so Prabhupada used the cheapest and the oldest way of publicity what was that? he would just go around for long walks and he would be in such an exotic dress that people would see him so the first set of people who really became serious they spotted him on a morning, on a walk now Prabhupada was just walking along and there were these two, Bruce and Keith who became Brahmananda no, I think Howard and Keith it was either Hagriva Prabhu and Kirtana whatever, they were there and they had gone to India in search of God and they had not found any, in search of a Guru and they could not find anyone they came back to the lower east side and they were going to go to take drugs and go high while going along they just looked on the other side and they saw the swami walking over there and then a truck came in between they thought have we already taken drugs are we getting some vision and then they went by and then the truck went by and they saw the swami was still there, not only was he there, the swami had also stopped and he was looking at them they thought this must be some strange vision another truck went by and that truck went by, they looked again and they saw that swami was actually waiting for them, looking at them and they crossed over and they said are you from India yes and what about you we have been to India and they started talking and they were the people who really became serious at that time so when Prabhupada came to America to share Krishna consciousness, it was a great adventure and how that would manifest that was not known, so if you have that spirit of exploration, Krishna I am determined to serve you, specifically how the service will manifest, I am ready to explore that, I will do what I can and I am open to your plans, I will conclude with this point that sometimes, you know in our life, we are just walking along a path and a door closes right in our face and we are so shocked how could this happen somebody whom we love just rejects us some plan which you have made just completely gets shattered and when that door closes right in our face we often get so caught in glaring and staring at that closed door that we miss out on some other door that is opened so there is the form of service and there is the principle of service sometimes, particular forms of service may be frustrated just by the nature of this world, but the principle of service will never be frustrated Krishna I am your servant and I will always serve you Krishna Prabhupada asked, what is the best prayer that you can offer and he said, pray to Krishna to give me the strength to serve you, if you pray for that then even if a door closes some other door will open the principle of service can always go on without being thwarted and that’s why rather than being stereotyped, we are in an exploratory mood to life and to service this is what I am going to do and how it will manifest let Krishna reveal that when we have that attitude, even when problems come, rather than problems seeming frustrating they actually become enlivening because we start seeing how Krishna will manifest now, what will Krishna do to help us move on in our life in our service to him, so I’ll summarise I spoke about how we can become pure in our service pure is ultimately a state of consciousness and it comes when we have no selfish desires and that will take gradual, as I said, purification but to accelerate the process that brings that out, we discussed, we could do four things pure, P was, anyone remembers? Purposefulness, thank you so we all have many purposes in our life, which based on our situation, our inclination our upbringing, we set up for ourselves now, we feel frustrated in life when our purpose is not fulfilled, but a bigger frustration comes when our purpose is fulfilled and we find it is not fulfilling so I gave an example of Andhra Yagasi and then I talk about my own frustration with success, so it is not that these purposes are to be given up but these purposes need to be harmonised with life’s ultimate purpose, that is, to love Krishna ultimately, whatever purposes we want to achieve, they are for making us more lovable in the eyes of the world but ultimately it is Krishna who loves us and in loving Him we find lasting satisfaction so we make Krishna and loving and serving Him as the central defining purpose of our life and harmonise other purposes accordingly and I talked about new was? Urgency, there I talked about how the Maya deludes people, materialistic people by telling them that spirituality is just irrational but it deludes seekers, practitioners by making them think that yes, it is important but material things are urgent, so we can get urgency by remembering death, that we are all going to die however, if we are in the mode of ignorance, the thoughts of death can make us paranoid, in passion it can make us frenzied or it can just make us frustrated with the life’s pointlessness in goodness, the remembrance of death makes us shift our focus from the material to the spiritual in transcendence, we see Krishna we see death as a form of Krishna so depending on our mode we need to hear those aspects of Krishna conscious philosophy that help us fix the mind on Krishna so if hearing about death makes us paranoid then we needn’t hear about death, then we can contemplate the finiteness of the time we have for doing specific activities and thus infuse our doing those activities with urgency so rather than thinking, oh I have to chant 16 rounds lifelong, I think today I have only this much time to chant, let me chant as well as I can, so then R was Resoluteness, thank you, so there I talked about how the perceive we need to be resolute because we are obstructed by our mind and senses, pure devotees also need to be resolute, although their mind and senses don’t obstruct because the world is fashioned to obstruct doing anything constructive so Prabhupada faced incredible amount of obstacles and his empowerment was not that there was no obstacles but that he persevered amidst obstacles and we all face obstacles and we can become determined to overcome those obstacles either by our own our own will power, which is good because we are determined but a higher inspiration is we see we infuse it with the desire to serve Krishna, we see how much Prabhupada has sacrificed for giving us Krishna Bhakti, like a child may feel the medicine is very bitter but the child understands how much your mother has sacrificed selling her own precious jewellery to give this medicine, then the bitterness will be will not matter so much so by meditating on Prabhupada’s sacrifice we can infuse infuse our resoluteness with a devotional dimension to it service dimension to it and lastly E was exploration so when we are serving Krishna we should make plans we should do planning but plans may not work instead of getting frustrated we can think of exploration, okay this is not working, let us see what door opens a mango may not fall but an apple will fall our specific plan may not work but the underlying purpose that we have that Krishna will arrange to have it fulfilled in some way, so faith is not just certainty in Krishna’s protection but it is also openness of to the form in which Krishna may protect, in which Krishna may help and when we have this attitude that we just stay determined to serve Krishna, the principle of serving Krishna without being attached to the form of service then we will find Krishna will manifest in newer and newer ways and constantly draws closer to him, draws closer and closer to the life’s most supreme fulfilment thank you very much Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments yes what is reading Prabhupada’s books with purpose what is the purpose when we are reading Prabhupada’s books okay, so what is the purpose when we read Srila Prabhupada’s books first is of course that we are just associating Srila Prabhupada he has so much desire to serve Krishna that by associating him we will get the desire to serve Krishna so the purpose is that we want to learn the message of Krishna consciousness we want to learn the wisdom that he is imparting in his books we want to become more intellectually equipped to answer the questions that our own mind poses and the world poses so you could say association then as I said then equipping ourselves intellectually and then also related to association also is purification we become purified because Srila Prabhupada is so pure Krishna is manifesting through it so we become purified by that and the if our purpose is simply to look for information information which no one has heard and then I want to speak that information then what happens? after initial phase of enthusiasm we will become a little disappointed with Prabhupada’s books because Prabhupada keeps speaking the same things again and again so we need to be clear about what my purpose is see in spiritual life if we have an intellectual need for new information we can find out which devotees give classes are intellectually stimulating and hear those classes we can read some other devotees books but we need to know what will help us to advance spiritually is not just intellectual stimulation it is actually application and transformation Srila Prabhupada constantly keeps reminding us of the basics and of course it’s not only the basics Prabhupada’s purports are very they are deceptively simple they are deep but we have to actually enter into them to realise it so instead of an information seeking approach if we cultivate an application seeking approach yeah I have read this so many times ok I have read this instead of saying the mind what happens is when we hear classes one of the ways the mind tricks us this is all basic this is for everyone else this is not for me I am a knowledgeable person now many times we just have to learn to out trick the mind ok this is for new people this is not for me ok that’s not necessarily true because we also need to apply the basic things but still even the mind says like that ok this is for new people how can I best present it to new people so ok how is this devotee presenting it let me think how would I present it this is a nice point I would present it this way so we can just turn the question around obviously this is for new people yes I also have to speak to new people how can I speak to them so like that when you are reading oh I have read this point so many times ok when did I last read it what was the context you know is this a different context you know when was the last time that I tried to apply it or what happened to me I didn’t succeed or I succeeded how much did I succeed so basically rather than just looking for new information if you start looking for application then we will find that Prabhupada’s books will become like a like a invaluable compass for us they will always keep getting us back on track you know when a flight is going from one place to another you know 90% of the time it is off course because of the wind pressure because of the atmospheric conditions what gets it to the destination the reorientation so Prabhupada’s books act like the reorientation for us get us back get us back on track get us back on track so we have to see at different times in our spiritual life different purposes may inspire us our ultimate purpose is I want to serve Krishna and reading Prabhupada’s books is the way we are serving Krishna’s pure devotee so but which specific the ultimate motive is serving Krishna which specific motive will inspire us in our service to Krishna or through reading that will vary on time basis so we have to find out whichever inspires us and study accordingly does it answer your question? yes thank you any other questions? to do elaborate on how to make a plan which will be effective despite Krishna’s plan ok how can we make a plan that will be effective despite Krishna’s plan or in accordance in accordance with Krishna’s plan even when Krishna’s plan is different from ours yeah actually planning is an indication of seriousness now if I am just giving a casual talk with some people I am just doing a casual talk I am not planning if I am going to give a class which I consider very important I will sit and prepare for it that preparation is also a form of planning so planning basically indicate that we take things seriously so in that sense planning is a way we can show Krishna that I am serious about serving you and beyond that if we so showing Krishna that I am serious about serving you is vital for our bhakti but from that if we shift to the idea that this is the only way I am going to serve Krishna then we are shifting from the mode of service to the mode of controllership see most people like to serve God as advisors as advisors God you didn’t do this right you didn’t do it like this you should have done it like that so even atheists like to advise God you know they if God had existed he would not have designed it like this he would have designed it like this so their non-existent God pops into existence just to receive their advice and then pops back out of existence so actually serving Krishna we make a plan based on the understanding that actually Krishna is I want to show Krishna that I am serious about serving you at the same time service means that we do it according to the way Krishna wants and sometimes the way Krishna works is through the upheavals of life so generally if instead of sticking to one particular specific plan if you understand this is the direction I need to go in my life so then say for example from here I am going to the Detroit airport now this is one way and this is the way I plan to go but if there is too much traffic in this way I might go by another way sometimes I might go a longer way because in that particular situation that is a shorter way so there is a path and there is a purpose so if our planning is focussing on the purpose this is what I want to achieve this is what I need to do for example in the next one month I want to read one canto of Bhagwat so if I read one hour everyday I should be able to complete one canto now so reading one canto is the purpose, reading one hour per day is the plan some days may be so busy that we can’t even touch the Bhagwat so we may get frustrated oh my plans never work but you know some days may be free more free or some days I can make myself free and say I may not be able to read for 5 days then one day I read 5-6 hours so if my purpose is clear then even if one path doesn’t work out that purpose is there in my mind and I will find another path so if all that I know is that to go to the airport this is the way if I don’t if I am not knowledgeable enough, if I am not open minded enough what is the other way, is there any other way then what happens, if there is a traffic jam I think oh I can’t get there, so planning if it gives us a sense of direction then that planning is very helpful even when there is an obstacle in a particular path but if planning makes us attached to a particular path then that planning can become counterproductive so Krishna’s plan means so in bhakti there is two dynamics, one is we understand that we are not the controllers, we are not the doers the bhagavata says that one of the things that I am the doer one of the things that I am the doer is is deluded by arrogance but yet at the end of the bhagavata Krishna tells Arjuna, now do as you desire kuru means do and at the end of the bhagavata that is 18.6-3 18.7-3 Arjuna speaks I will do your will Arjuna is being a doer so the illusion, to think ourselves think of ourselves as doers is not the illusion the illusion is to think of ourselves as the soul doers in 18.6 Krishna says that those who think that one who thinks that I alone am the doer of everything, that person is an illusion, so we definitely are doers but we are not the soul doers, that means we alone don’t bring about the results of our actions, so if I decide to go by a particular path, I may not be able to go, but that doesn’t mean I just give up and don’t do anything, I find some other path, see if our planning helps us to it drives the purpose deep into our mind, then we can be flexible about the path but if our planning reverts us to a particular path, then we will get frustrated when that particular path gets blocked so if we have the purpose, I want to serve Krishna and I want to do some Krishna service, how can I do it? Then we will be open to whatever door Krishna opens whatever Krishna’s plan is, so that way our plan and Krishna’s plan can be harmonised together Does it answer your question? Thank you Any other questions? Yes Mataji Do you think that our past karmas also create a hindrance in our devotional life and how to overcome it? Ok Can our past karmas create a hindrance in devotional life and how can we overcome them? Yes definitely Our past shapes who we are and our past shapes what we face in life Our past doesn’t shape what we do it shapes who I am some of us may be intellectual, some of us may be emotional some of us may be introvert some of us may be extrovert all these things about us are shaped by our past but it doesn’t control our choices, we always have free will to choose and our past also shapes what we face in life so in a sense, if we are going on a journey we are given a particular car say and we are going on a path where the weather is in a particular way now it’s up to us to drive that car and navigate that weather so who we are, that means what are our bodily conditions, that’s like our car our past has determined that, we can’t change that and during our journey what is going to happen is like the weather so sometimes the weather is bad and we may have to stop or we may have to drive very slowly so like that sometimes in our life we face unfavourable circumstances and when those come at that time the critical thing is just tolerate so a part of being responsible is taking responsibility and a part of being responsible is also shirking responsibility shirking responsibility means that if I can’t do this, I’ll clearly say no, I can’t do it saying no to things is also being responsible what is responsible is saying yes and not doing it so like that philosophically also we have to understand that some things are just not in my control so when we understand that then we don’t beat ourselves up because of problems which are not in our control sometimes our problems are created because of the way we have acted we act carelessly sometimes the problems come despite our best intentions and even our best actions so then at that time we just understand this particular situation has come because of some past karma or sometimes we do a small mistake and such a big reaction comes up because of that what is going on? it’s a small thing, keep it small but we have to understand it’s not just the reaction to that small action, it’s a past karma is also coming in so when we understand it’s not in my control Prabhupada writes in the first canto purport that that there is nothing to regret when things are beyond human control sometimes by the force of nature things go in a particular way, we just accept it and move on so TAM SITIKSHA SUBHARAT so you know when a storm comes it can be scary we need to find some shelter during the storm now we are worried how much damage will this storm cause but we are never worried what if this storm never ends storms can be deadly but they are not permanent they will come, they will go like that by a past karma some difficulties will come in our life they are like storms so we just tolerate that means tolerate means that we just try to serve Krishna whatever we can in that situation so in every situation there is always something which we can do and something which we can’t do so if we just focus on what we can do then that gives a sense of purpose a sense of confidence, I am doing something but when we focus on that which we can’t do then we get frustrated we feel disempowered so I will conclude with one sports example most of you know tennis matches in tennis sometimes the player is serving sometimes the player is receiving so now the player who is serving, that player has a lot of freedom they can hit the ball to the left corner the right corner, right into the body of the other player they have a lot of freedom when the player is receiving they don’t have much freedom wherever the ball is coming that’s where they have to hit and if the player who is receiving starts acting as if they are serving they swing the racket wherever they like they will completely miss the ball isn’t it so like that in life sometimes we are serving sometimes we are receiving so the big problem comes when we are receiving and we act as if we should be serving so sometimes life puts us in constrained situations so when a player is receiving and the opposite player is a very good server then the receiving player’s goal is just to get the ball back in the court just to keep it in play, touch it and get it back into play but even that requires skill, that requires expertise so like that sometimes we can do very little but just doing that keeps things going on and over a period of time you know, it’s not that the player has to always receive, eventually that player turns server also comes so when we are serving, if we start becoming passive like when we are receiving then also we miss the opportunity so intelligence means to recognise in what situation am I right now sometimes we are in a situation where it is up to us to take initiative be creative, be resourceful and do things and other times it’s just for us to just take the humble position always we want to be humble but sometimes externally also we may have to go out of our way to show ourselves as humble just keep a low profile, just keep doing something small because we are in a constrained situation at that time so that way the obstacles that come in the path of bhakti because of past karma they may change the exact form of what we are doing but they won’t stop us from serving Krishna in some small way we can keep serving Krishna even in that situation does that answer your question? thank you so shall we stop here ok so thank you very much Shri Prabhupada Ki Gaur Bhakt Vrindaki Jai Gaur Prema Devi Jai