Knowing when to endeavor and when to surrender

[Congregation program at Ashburn, Washington DC, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I thank all of you for coming today evening and I’ll speak on the topic of knowing when to endeavour and when to surrender. We all face situations in our life when we are expected to put in efforts and there are sometimes when efforts just become pointless.
So, when to endeavour and when to surrender? How do we decide that? First of all, whenever we make any dichotomies you know like this or this, this sort of dichotomies are never watertight. Why? Because when I say know when to endeavour and when to surrender, actually surrender also requires endeavour. Why? Because for us it is a tendency to hold on to things and at one level holding on to things requires willpower, at another level letting go of things also requires willpower.
Willpower of a different kind but that is also willpower. So, sometimes it requires courage if there’s a meeting going on to stand up and speak and take a stand but at other times it also requires courage to sit down and hear because sometimes other people may speak something which you just don’t want to hear. So, we shouldn’t have a stereotypical notion of courage.
Yes, speaking requires courage, hearing also requires courage especially when somebody is speaking something critical to us. So, similarly it is not that surrender does not require endeavour. Surrender also requires endeavour because we like to hold on to things and letting go of things also requires effort.
Now, I will take the pastime of Draupadi being dishonoured in the assembly of the Kurus and we will use that as a narrative around which we analyse the theme of surrender. Now, Draupadi is the classic example of she finally realised I can’t do anything. She just raised her hands and surrendered.
Krishna, please help me. Now, that is a very arresting image of surrender and it is important at times. We just raise our hands and helplessness and surrender.
Now, that does not however mean that Draupadi was not surrendered. Certain incidents may draw out, highlight a quality in a particularly vivid way but that does not necessarily mean that at other times that quality is not present. The quality was present at other times also but at particular time it is most memorably demonstrated.
So, the way the whole narrative happens is that Dhristir is pressured into gamelan. Dhristir is always very reverential to his elders and he, when Dhritarashtra tells him that how can you, that Dhritarashtra sends Vidura to force them to play the gambling match. At that time, he can’t refuse.
Just after the Rajshri Yagya has happened, he has also, Vyasadev told him that the future a great war will take place and that war will cause the destruction of many Kshatriyas and after that your rule will be stabilised. So, Dhristir starts thinking a war is a terrible thing. What can I do to avoid war? He says war is caused by dissension, by conflict and conflicts are caused by disregard or disobedience.
So, he says I will never disobey my elders and that way I can avoid conflict. But he takes a, he takes a resolution in that regard but that very resolution works against him because what happens is his elders tell him to do something which is horrible and Dhristir says you know if we gamble we’ll fight, why do you want to gamble? But Shakuni and Duryodhana, they have it all plotted out. Duryodhana says if you are afraid, there is no need to gamble.
Now, for a Kshatriya, this is the worst kind of insult to say that you’re a coward. So, Duryodhana says Shakuni will play on my behalf. Dhristir says it’s unfair.
You know, if you are playing, if I am going to play, there should be someone who is equal in wealth with me to play and not only that, Duryodhana says I’ll stake my wealth. He says no, that is not fair. If you are staking your wealth, you should be the player.
That is the rule of gambling. It’s like saying, you know, two children, two kids have an argument and they decide, you know, we’ll fight. So, they appoint a time, you know, we’ll have a boxing match.
Another time of the boxing match, one of the kids comes and the other kid instead of coming, the other kid gets like a world champion boxer to fight. It’s amateur versus the world champion boxer. It’s unfair.
The fight should be so. Shakuni is like a professional gambler. So, to have him play against Dhristir is to rig the match for all practical purposes and eventually, Dhristir, he loses one thing, second thing, third thing, fourth thing.
Finally, every time he loses things, he’s horrified. He’s thinking, what will happen? I’m losing everything. I’m supposed to take care of the Brahmins.
I’m supposed to take care of the citizens. I’m supposed to take care of my family. I’m losing everything.
How will I take care of that? And he’s desperately hoping that by winning the next gamble, he will get back what he has lost. And that’s how he’ll be able to do his duty. So, it is not so much because of greed that he plays the gambling, as most people do.
He’s constrained by circumstance to play. And when he keeps playing, it is because he feels, you know, I have my responsibility. How can I abandon? I have to do something.
And finally, nothing is left. He starts gambling, his brothers, gambles himself. I mean, everything is lost.
At that time, he puts Draupadi in the gamble. And the whole assembly erupts in agony on hearing this. But actually, Shakuni suggests, you have something remaining.
You can put Draupadi. Subhadra at that time is not there. Subhadra has gone to Krishna’s place.
So, Draupadi alone has come here to Hastinapur at that time. So then, Draupadi is in another chamber. And then, when the messenger Pratikamin goes there, he says, he tells her, he’s also aghast.
In traditional Indian culture, there would be servants. The servants would also keep serving for generations. They would have a lot of faithfulness to the family.
They are all mortified. He’s also mortified to see what is happening in this family. He stares in the eyes and he tells that you are being summoned to the assembly because you have been lost in gambling.
So, Draupadi is shocked. He says, how? Why did he stake me in gambling? How could he have lost me? Didn’t he have anything else to scramble? No, he lost everything. And he tells the whole story.
Now, Draupadi is also Kshatriya. She also knows how to be resourceful. So, immediately Kshatriya intelligence, it comes in the picture.
And Kshatriya intelligence is not just force. They have a lot of strength to fight. It’s also diplomacy.
She looks for some way and she finds a way. She says that if Yudhishthir had gambled himself first, then was he my master? If he was not his own master, how could he be my master? How could he gamble me then? So, Pratikama is confused. He says, go and ask this to the assembly.
And then he goes back and Yudhishthira asks, why have you not brought her? She asks this question. So, they turn to the assembly. Yudhishthira says, tell her to come and ask this question herself.
So, the Pratikama goes back. And then at that time, he asks and he tells what has happened. She says, I’m not in a condition to come right now.
And anyway, for honourable lady to come in the assembly is not appropriate the situation. So, he says that, first of all, if I have not been gambled and lost, then what is the need for me to come here? So, let the assembly answer this question. Again, he goes back.
Now, at that time, Pratikama comes again. Yudhishthira gets angry. He says, this guy is a coward.
He’s afraid of Bhima’s anger. He turns to Dushyasana. Dushyasana, you go and get her.
So, now throughout it all, at one level, Draupadi is holding on to straw. When a person is sinking, they hold on to straw. But if that is all that is there to hold on, Draupadi holds on to that.
But throughout it all, when she comes there, this is dragged forcefully. It’s a horrifying incident. All the Kshatriyas are aghast.
But all this is a power play. The Kauravas want to humiliate the Pandavas. And Draupadi becomes a tool by which they humiliate the Pandavas.
And Draupadi folds her hands, offers her respect to the assembly, and she repeats the question. And then, at that time, she repeats the question. Nobody answers.
And finally, Bhishma, he says that, actually, you know, the wife always belongs to the husband. But if the husband has lost himself, he doesn’t own anything. So, he says, these two principles are confusing.
Therefore, I cannot answer your question. But, O Draupadi, it is laudable that even in such an emergency, even in such a terrible situation, you are asking about what is Dharma. Your qualities are glorious.
And so, at that time, Duryodhana is very cunning. And Duryodhana tries to play husband against wife, or wife against husband. O Draupadi, if you say that Dharmarao Yudhishthira committed adharma by gambling you, then say this in public, and I will release all of you.
So, Draupadi is very clever. She doesn’t fall for this. He says, actually, my husband is always dharmic.
And he had no desire to play this gambling match. He played this gambling match only because he was constrained by his elders to do so. And those elders who told him to play this gambling match, it is for them to decide whether what is happening is fair or not.
So, she turns it around and puts the ball in their court. And actually, as this whole incident goes on, then Vikarna, who is one of the brothers of Duryodhana, he gets up and he says that, O assembly, please answer her question. And he says, if a distressed person comes to a royal assembly and asks for help and no help is provided, the whole assembly will be covered by sin.
It is your duty to answer this question. And nobody answers. Then he finally says, so although there are elders here, they are not answering.
Therefore, I will answer based on my understanding. And he says that there are four devices to which men are vulnerable. This is gambling, womanising, hunting, and what is it? Yeah, intoxication.
When men get gripped by these four things, then they lose their good sense and they do terrible things. So, what people do under the grip of these four things should not be taken seriously. Therefore, this gambling match should not be taken at all seriously.
The whole match would be declared null and void. And on top of that, he says, Duryodhana, Yudhishthira was pitted against a professional gamester. That itself was unfair.
And on top of it, as Draupadi has pointed out, she was gambled after Yudhishthira lost himself. Because of all these, I feel that Draupadi was not lost and this whole gambling match should be declared null and void. Many of the kings in the courtiers, they cheer him.
They want someone to speak because they all can see this is a great travesty. What has happened? Bhishma himself is very dharmic, but at this point, he gets caught in a technicality. In the Bhakti tradition, there is the concept of Niyamagraha.
Niyamagraha means that we hold on to the letter of the law while forgetting the spirit of the law. So, yes, there might be a particular rule for this, a particular rule for that. But ultimately, the essence is what? The essence is people are to be protected.
The point of a woman belonging to a husband is not that the woman is to be dominated or to be treated like a property. Yudhishthira also did not gamble Draupadi first. He lost all his property.
He lost himself and then he gambled her. It is not that he was treating his wife like a property. This is something much more valuable than himself.
He gambled her after that. So, the point of all these rules is to protect people. So, here in public, when an honourable lady is being dishonoured like this, to get into a technicality, he should have spoken out directly at that time that this is wrong.
So, Vikarana did that. At that time, Vikarana gets up. Vikarana silences everyone.
He says, you know, I have seen many improper things in this assembly, but nothing is as improper as the speech of this Vikarana. And he says, he is but a child. Actually, Vikarana is not much younger to him.
But he is but a child. And he doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong. There are so many elders, they have not spoken anything.
Why does he have to speak? And he says, I will tell you. Nobody forced Yudhishthira to gamble. He could have not gambled at all.
He could have walked out of the gambling match whenever he wanted. He chose to gamble himself. And he knew the conditions of gambling match and even then he chose to gamble.
Whatever he has lost, he has lost fairly. And then he says that as far as bureaucracy is concerned, you know, she has already got five husbands. What kind of chaste woman has five husbands? So, she is as bad as a prostitute.
Whatever we do with her, that is fair game. Now, to dishonour an honourable woman like this is outrageous. This itself is a horrible crime.
At Draupadi, she never on her own did anything to get more than one husband. And even if she had five husbands, they were her morally wedded husbands. So, there is no question of comparing her with a woman who sells her body.
And she did not. It was her elders who told her. She just was in a swayamvar as per her elders’ instruction.
And at that time, she was duly won by one bride, one groom. But then, because of circumstances, she got five husbands. So, she had done nothing dishonourable at all.
For Karna to speak this was horrible. Actually, in this whole narrative, normally we focus on how Krishna intervenes and protects Draupadi. That is true.
And that along with that in the whole narrative, actually, it is Draupadi who behaves most heroically. She remembers Dharma and she reminds everyone of Dharma, even under the most adverse of circumstances. And Karna emerges as the worst villain in this piece.
It is he who originally suggests that now that Draupadi has won, let us bring her to the assembly and have her disrobed. That is he who stops Vikarna. Otherwise, this whole thing could have stopped at that time when Vikarna brought him.
And then again, Karna suggests that Draupadi is wrong. And when they try that, at that time, she looks at her husband. None of them are there to protect her.
She is furious. She is helpless. She is crying in agony.
At that time, when she realises that she is helpless, she raises her hand and surrenders to Krishna. And Krishna appears as unlimited, sorry, to protect her. Vishasana falls flat exhausted, helpless, completely, doesn’t know what has happened.
And the whole assembly cheers at this miraculous way in which Draupadi is being protected. So here, Draupadi’s surrender is when she sees there’s nothing that she can do. She raises her hand and surrenders.
So it is not that she has not surrendered earlier. Surrender itself has many different forms. So even earlier, when she is enquiring on the principles of dharma, what is dharma at this time? That is also surrender.
You see in the Bhajana, in the Bhagavad Gita, when he is confused about what to do, should he fight or should he not fight? At that time, what does he do? He surrenders to Krishna. And he surrenders to Krishna and what does he say? Karpanya doshopahata svabhava pruchyami tvam dharma samudhachetaha. Yashreyasya nishchitam rohitanne shishya sveham shadi mam tvam prapannam.
Prapanna, prapatti means surrender. So Arjuna is surrendering. Surrendering for what? Pruchyami tvam dharma samudhachetaha.
I want to know what is dharma. So for enquiring about dharma, Arjuna surrenders. Anthropology is also enquiring what is dharma.
That is also a form of surrender. So she surrendered at that time also. By the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sarva-dharman parityajya.
Give up all varieties of dharma and just surrender to him. And what does Arjuna do? Arjuna says in 18.73, karishye vachinam, I will surrender to you. But then how does Arjuna surrender? Arjuna’s surrender is not by raising his hands in helplessness.
Arjuna’s surrender is by raising his bow in willingness to fight. So surrender can have many forms in different locations. So it is when it is Draupadi and she is using her intelligence in every possible way to try to avert this calamity, that is also surrender.
When she is reminding the assembly to act dharmically, that is also surrender. And when she realises that there is nobody to help her, she raises her hand in helplessness, that is also surrender. So surrender doesn’t mean only helpless giving up to God.
Yes, that is one way of surrendering. When I started public speaking for the first time, we were given some guidelines and the last guideline was depend on Krishna. And in bracket, but after you have prepared.
So if some speaker comes, they don’t prepare anything at all. And then they just come and say, I’m depending on Krishna. And that is, that is not dependent, that is not surrender.
That is actually irresponsibility. Surrender is not the abandonment of human responsibility. Surrender to God is not the abandonment of human responsibility.
Surrender to God is also an expression of human responsibility. The responsible human being surrenders to God as a matter of one’s responsibility. So sometimes the simplistic idea of surrender means only letting go of things.
Yes, letting go is one form of surrender. But endeavouring is also a form of surrender. Shri Prabhupada, when he was preaching, he was trying to establish the Krishna Consciousness Movement in India.
The spiritual master gave him the instruction and Prabhupada shared Krishna Consciousness and Prabhupada was trying to do it in various ways. So he was endeavouring. He tried so many things.
He first thought that I’m a householder, so I can, let me become a successful businessman and with the money that I get, let me support my spiritual master’s mission. And that’s what he tried to do. He worked very hard.
Now Prabhupada, if you look at his early life, now he tried a business here. First he was in Calcutta, then he was in Mumbai, then he was in Labar. He tried many businesses at different times and he would travel a lot all over the country and that was the time when travelling you would read a lot also.
So he was working very hard to try to start a business. So he was endeavouring because that was the way he was surrendering to spiritual master’s instruction. He was thinking by this endeavour to work and earn so that I can contribute to my spiritual master’s mission.
That was his surrender. At one particular point he felt that you know he, so while he was working he was also doing as much service as he could. He was in contact with many influential people, so he would get his god brothers to in connection with them and he practically helped in starting the temple in Mumbai and then he helped in many other ways and eventually he felt that I should myself start preaching.
So he started running back to Godhead magazine and he would himself go and distribute it. So at one time when he was distributing a buffalo came, a cow came and hit it in the middle of the street. Just fell on the ground, all the magazines got scattered.
Another time when he was going on the streets of Delhi, it was so hot and at that time Prabhupada you know he was, he had very little money. So he had to choose between either using the money to buy his breakfast or use the money to buy paper for printing back to Godhead and Prabhupada would buy paper and then he would take the paper to the printing person and he would give the paper to the printing person and he would personally wait over there, waiting to for the book to be printed and that printing person he would say, Swamiji, do you have any breakfast? He was also a pious person, you could see that he was not Swami, he was Abhay Babu, he was not yet an annunciate. But he said, do you have any breakfast? He said, no.
Then he would arrange something for Prabhupada and Prabhupada would sometimes get breakfast and may not get breakfast. Prabhupada was eating as less as possible, sleeping as less as possible and working as hard as possible for Krishna’s service and at one time he was just walking along the streets trying to distribute back to Godhead and the sun was so hot that he got a sunstroke. He fell on the ground unconscious.
So fortunately by Krishna’s arrangement there was a car passing by and they said, who is this? And then looking person and he saw that person was actually a friend of Shri Prabhupada, friend of Abhay Babu. He took him in his car and he took him to the hospital and treated him. The doctor told him that, you know, he needs to take complete rest.
Prabhupada said, I must go to master’s mission. Prabhupada kept endeavouring, kept endeavouring and he tried one thing and sometimes we saw on the magazine was, used to store in the magazine but people would just take a magazine read for a few minutes and put it aside. Somebody told him that, a postman told him that, you know, you should, people will put away the magazine but if you write books, people will keep books.
So publish books. So Prabhupada saw it as his spiritual master Krishna speaking through this. It was a postman who told him this.
The Satsvarupa Maharaj is actually Prabhupada’s biographer who wrote Leela Amrut. So I had met him last year. So he told me that, you know, when he was doing research for this, for the first volume of Leela Amrut.
So almost 20 postmen came and said, I told Prabhupada. So it is said that success has many parents and failure is an orphan. So whenever something good works out, I did it, I did it, I did it.
Everybody is like that. So actually Prabhupada, you know, for him who was speaking is not important. This is a good plan.
This is a good idea. So I’ll do it. So Prabhupada’s surrender was that he was, if some, from anywhere a suggestion would come about how he can, he had, driving mission was to fulfil his spiritual master’s instruction and from where the idea would come, it could come from anywhere.
From wherever it came, yes, this is a good way. I can do it. And he started doing that.
And then he was printing the books and then he started a mission organisation called League of Devotees in Jhansi. Worked very hard over there. Got a place and he got a big inauguration.
Very influential people came and he was hoping that would be like the headquarters for his world mission. And then somehow there’s a local political clique which worked against him and he was practically evicted from there. Prabhupada could have fought.
He had the legal rights, he had the legal papers and Prabhupada had to build business. So he knew how to do this kind of fights. But Prabhupada felt this is just not worth it.
Jhansi is a small place and the people here are also more sentimental. They’re not really that serious. Prabhupada wanted people who would hear philosophy, understand the philosophy and transform their life.
But most of the people who were coming, they were coming out of piety. You know hearing Bhagavatam is nice. That’s why they were coming.
So Prabhupada said it’s not worth fighting over it. Prabhupada let go. He let go of a particular service but he did not get let go of the service attitude.
He kept serving. And later on he came to Mumbai and there was there’s a wealthy Vaishnavi, Sumati Moraji. She had helped Prabhupada in some of his Bhagavatam publishing.
So he came to her. He knew that she had a shipping company. So Prabhupada just trying whatever worked out.
So for example, you know whenever he would meet people he would say that I have a vision. I want to go to America and I want to share this Krishna Bhakti in America. And Prabhupada would speak this.
He would speak it to many people and some people say many people will say you know oh I can help you. I can help but nobody would do anything. But one day Prabhupada just got a message that his visa for America has been approved.
Prabhupada was surprised. Who did this? He was just travelling along and he got a message. So one person Mr. Agarwal whom Prabhupada just like hundreds of people Prabhupada don’t talk.
He had talked with him. He says I have my son there. He will do it.
And then what happened? He wrote to his son and his son did it. And his son did it at that time. Basically what happened was that his son had done this for many other people also but none of those other people had come.
So his son thought this is just something which I had to do for my father’s pleasure and he thought this Swamiji is also not going to come because you know it’s one thing to get at that time not many Indians would come to America hmm and there’s not many Indians in America. I’ll talk about that a little later. But then so he and so it’s one thing to get the visa but another thing is you have to have the money also to come.
Now Prabhupada did not have the money. So he thought whom to meet. He came to meet the Sumati Murai and you know he was waiting for several hours outside waiting waiting waiting and then finally her secretary was not allowing him to meet but when she was going out he saw Swami is waiting.
He got him on the footsteps. She was a reverential lady. She was a respectful lady.
Pious lady. What is this? So he’s been waiting all day for him. Oh she had told me and then he called her and she called him in his office and he told her that I have my spiritual master’s admission.
He said I want to speak the Bhagavatam. So she says Swamiji if you want to speak the Bhagavatam come to my house. Every evening I’ll hear Bhagavatam from you.
Prabhupada did not speak Bhagavatam like that or just as a pious ritual. For him Bhagavatam hearing was a transformational practise. So he wanted people who would be hearing and getting transformed by that and then he told him Swamiji you cannot go to America.
America you know you are so old. America is so cold. So Prabhupada said no this is my spiritual master’s instruction.
I must go there. Prabhupada had no idea whether there would be any vegetarian food available also over there. So he thought if there’s nothing available I’ll just get some vegetables.
I’ll cook the vegetables and I’ll eat that. So Prabhupada was ready for whatever it took and then when finally so she agreed to give him passage on a cargo ship. Now normally nobody travels on a cargo ship.
People travel on a passenger ship. There was one cabin over there. He stayed over there and on the way he got a heart attack.
Not just one heart attack, two heart attacks. Prabhupada persevered through it all. So Prabhupada’s life it was a life of surrender and endeavour.
He surrendered to his spiritual master’s instruction but along with that he was endeavouring. Finally he survived those two heart attacks. He prayed to Krishna.
Krishna I don’t think if a third heart attack comes my body can survive it. So please protect me. And then Krishna came in a dream and told him that you know I have arranged everything.
And then this Captain Pandya who was there in the ship he said that he said that when finally they reached America he said in the 40 years of my travel since never have I found the Atlantic Ocean to be so peaceful. So oh Prabhupada yes Krishna had told me he will take care of everything. So Captain Pandya’s wife said Swamiji you come back with us.
Again Krishna will take care. So Prabhupada said Krishna has brought me here for some purpose. I want to fulfil that purpose.
And then Prabhupada when he came to the American coastline there is a beautiful song Markine Bhagavad Dharma that he has written. And there he says my dear lord you know lord. Now somehow that they have brought me.
Prabhupada has endeavoured a lot to come there. But he is saying that it is Krishna’s mercy that all his endeavours have worked out. And he has a very beautiful song of utter surrender.
And he says Krishna you know you are the supreme controller. It is by your arrangement that people are under illusion. It is by your arrangement people can come out of illusion.
So if you so desire my dear lord please make my words understandable to them. And then he says oh my lord you brought me to dance make me dance make me dance. Anya chagati prabhu amari nachati.
Nachau nachau prabhu nachau saniti. Just make me dance the way you want. So Prabhupada’s surrender was not a surrender of just raising his hands.
His surrender was the surrender of dancing to Krishna’s will. Krishna got him here he went there. Krishna got him there he went there.
Krishna got him there he went there. Now Krishna had a plan for him. You know actually when Prabhupada was endeavouring so tirelessly to come to America Krishna was also making a plan.
The most Americans who come to most Indians who come to America one big anxiety is the visa. If the visa expires then you are forced to go back. You may be doing many things over here but everything is you know the visa expires.
You have a job, you may have a house, your children may have school. Whatever is there you have to give up everything and go. You just can’t do anything.
So actually so just in 1965 just a couple of months before Srila Prabhupada came to America that was the time when the American government relaxed its visa regulations. America is a country of immigrants but around 1905-1910 there are some racial ethnic riots had broken out quite severe before the first world war. So at that time America had a clamp down on its immigration regulations and that’s why from till 1965 not many Indians had come.
But just two months before Prabhupada came the American government relaxed the regulations and that’s why Prabhupada came on a two-month visa but he would keep extending the visa, could keep extending the visa. They kept extending for two more months, two more months, two more months and then finally you know the visa officer said now we cannot extend it anymore. So all the disciples, the devotee couple who were there, they came and told Prabhupada that you know Prabhupada, they are saying they cannot extend your visa now.
So Prabhupada was so transcendent. Prabhupada says you do one thing, you tell them that you have adopted me as your child. So Prabhupada was at his own level of reality.
Of course the devotees had some lawyer and then they did, they said they showed that you know he’s heading a, he’s inspiring a significant number of young people and especially the local government was very appreciative because Prabhupada had got many drug addicts to give up their drugs. So they gave a letter and eventually Prabhupada’s visa was extended. So the point is that if Prabhupada had come maybe one year earlier, the visa would not have got extended because getting a visa would have been difficult.
Even if he had got a visa, he would not have stayed on, could not have stayed on for long. So Krishna was arranging behind the screens for his pure devotee to work and for them to work, things to work out for him. So surrender means make me dance.
So endeavour can also be a form of surrender and surrender itself requires endeavour. So underlying and unifying everything that Prabhupada did was the desire to serve. Krishna I am your servant and please guide me how I can serve.
Make me dance simply means I want to serve you Krishna, guide me how I can serve you. So sometimes in specific situations we may just get caught and should I do this or should I do that. So if we have the attitude of service, Krishna I am your servant and then that desire to serve places things in perspective.
Now we all have different things to do in our family, responsibilities are there. They are also service to Krishna. If we are practising bhakti of Krishna, the goal of our life, in a family responsibility service to Krishna, we have a professional responsibility.
Our job is also by our work we can worship Krishna, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita. We have our temple services, we may have our own sadhana, all these things they demand our time. And in all these activities that we do at different times we will face problems.
Now the endeavour that we put in, sometimes we have to balance this, this, this, this. How do I balance all this? Sometimes it just appears like too crushing a burden to balance it all. So if you understand it, yes I have this responsibility, I have this responsibility, I have this responsibility.
How do I do it all? But if we focus on the point that you know ultimately through it all I am connecting with Krishna. And Krishna is the lord of everything. Now Krishna is not just the god of the temple.
Krishna is the god of the temple, Krishna is the god of the home, Krishna is the god of the office also. Krishna is the god of the traffic also. So he’s the god of everything.
He’s in control and he has a, he is seeing we are going through difficulties, he sees that we’re going through difficulties. We are endeavouring, he sees that we are endeavouring. In the Vishnu Sahasranam, there is a beautiful prayer where Nimisho, Nimisha Swagri, Vachaspati Rudarathi.
So there’s a Nimisha and Animisha. Nimisha means one who blinks his eyes. Animisha means one who never blinks his eyes.
So two contradictory names are used for lord Vishnu over here. One who blinks his eyes, one who never blinks his eyes. Sushila Baldevidya Bhushan, one of the prominent acharyas in our tradition, he has written a commentary on this.
He’s explained the various names of the Vishnu Sahasranam in a very bhakti-centred way and he says that Nimisha means that when a devotee is trying to serve Krishna and while serving, the devotee commits a mistake. Krishna just blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake. And he says if a devotee is striving to serve Krishna, then when the devotee is striving, Krishna unblinkingly takes note of every single service that is being done.
So the example is that when Putana came to kill Krishna, to poison Krishna, what did Krishna do? Krishna closed his eyes. Krishna closed his eyes, he overlooked the malevolence that she had. The murderous mentality that she had, he overlooked.
And he saw only, oh, she has a maternal desire. She wants to nurse me. And Krishna took that.
Now, of course, because she had that malevolent desire, she had to be purified of it. Krishna was not punishing her. Krishna was purifying her.
Krishna saw the good in her and magnified it and elevated her to his own abode as a nurse. Who can be so merciful in the Lord that he elevates a murderess to the level of his nurse? And then, Nimisha. This is Nimisha.
On Nimisha, he never blinks his eyes. He described that once when Krishna and Arjuna were together, Draupadi came to serve them some fruits. And while Draupadi saw that they were talking very intimately, so she just kept the fruits and went away.
So Krishna picked up the knife and was peeling the fruit. And suddenly, the knife slipped from his hand. His finger got cut.
His finger got cut. His blood started coming. So Draupadi saw that.
She just, she saw, ripped off her silk sari without looking anywhere else. She just started bandaging Krishna. And she was agitated, but Krishna was delighted.
And Krishna looked at her. He says, O Panchali, I’ll remember this service that you’ve done, and I’ll repay you for this. And when did you repay? During the assembly.
With unlimited desire. So Krishna unfailingly knows every service that you’re doing. So often, we feel it is very difficult.
I have to do this also. I have to do this also. I have to do this also.
When we start thinking that, you know, I alone have to get things done, we think, then we don’t see the Krishna connection. Then we feel, this is too much. How can I do it? But if we see Krishna is in control, what I can do, let me do.
Right now, I’m doing this one thing. Let me do this one thing. After I complete this, I’ll go to the next thing.
Then the next thing. So if we just have this attitude that, okay, whatever I have to do that is service to Krishna, and I’ll do one thing at a time, then we’ll find that Krishna will take care of things which are not in our control. When we say take care of things doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will work out wonderfully.
The way the world is that always there will be problems in life. But Krishna will help us find a way forward. So when to endeavour and when to surrender.
So it is that, you know, we have various roles in our life, we have various services in our life. Whatever we are doing, while we are doing it, we endeavour wholeheartedly. And once we have done it, then we surrender.
Then we just move on to the next service. Move on to the next service and just focus on that service. So suppose a student doesn’t study for the exam.
And then says that, you know, mother says, why are you not studying? So you study? He says, no, I will surrender to Krishna. Krishna will take care. Now at that time, the surrender is expressed through endeavour.
Endeavour, you have to endeavour wholeheartedly. So endeavour is what enables us to express our service attitude to Krishna at that time. Say we have an interview, which is for a job, which is important for us.
And at that time we endeavour as a service to Krishna. Now when we endeavour wholeheartedly, prepare and do the interview well. And after the interview has been done, the results are going to come.
Then we don’t know. Well, how will this result be? Will I get this job? Will I not get this job? Will I pass this? Will I not pass this? So all that time, surrender. So just after it has been done, no need to obsess over it.
While the thing is in our hands, while we are doing it, do it wholeheartedly. After it has been done, surrender. Sometimes people say that in the Bhagavad Gita, there is one shloka which everybody quotes from the Bhagavad Gita.
And actually they don’t even quote Ma Faleshu Kadachana. They only quote, You have a right to do your duty. But people are sometimes asked, you know, normally it is the result that inspires us to work.
That, oh, you know, I’ll get this, I’ll get that. And that result is what inspires us to work. So if we are not to have any goal, if a student is supposed to think that, you know, okay, are we supposed to think that if we don’t keep any goals for ourselves, how do we inspire ourselves to work? So actually, the Bhagavad Gita is saying something very subtle.
That it is saying Ma Faleshu Kadachana. There are goals and there are results. And the two are different things.
The goals are what we set before we do the work. Results are what come after we have done the work. So Krishna is not saying don’t set goals.
Krishna is saying don’t be attached to results. By setting goals, what happens is we are able to endeavour better. You see, when the Kauravas were fighting the Kurukshetra war, at that time, sorry, Pandavas were fighting, at that time every day they would set goals.
Especially famously on the 14th day, when Arjuna set a goal that by tonight, I will kill Jayadratha, I will avenge Abhimanyu’s death. He set a goal. At that time, Krishna said Arjuna, you have forgotten Bhagavad Gita.
Now Krishna helped Arjuna achieve that goal. So setting goals, what it does is, setting goals inspires us to concentrate our endeavour. But after we have done our endeavour, when things are no longer in our hands, if we are attached to result, then that distracts us from the next endeavour that we are meant to do.
So attachment to results means we are attached to that which is not in our control. So endeavour is in our control and goal helps us to endeavour wholeheartedly. But results are not in our control.
And attachment to results distracts us from what we can do to that which we can’t do. So basically, when we are having that attitude of service to Krishna, each activity, we see as a service to Krishna. And then when it is in our capacity to do something, we do it.
And that is no longer in our capacity, we move on and we do the next thing. And we do the next thing. We do the next thing.
Like that, we keep taking steps forward. Sometimes we will have a lot of room to endeavour. Sometimes we will have little room to endeavour.
But whatever situation we are in, we just keep moving forwards. We don’t want to focus only on endeavour means to think that everything is in my control. That is the illusion.
But to focus only on surrender means to think that nothing is in my control. And that is also an illusion. Because actually, we see that in the Bhagavad Gita, after the Bhagavad Gita, it is Arjuna who fights.
Arjuna takes the responsibility of acting. Prabhupada says in lecture, you know, when Krishna reveals to Arjuna that how he is God, Arjuna doesn’t tell Krishna, Krishna, you are God, you fight the war. Why do I have to fight? No, he doesn’t think like that.
No, this is my service to Krishna. So, I will conclude with one example, and then we can have some question answers. Many of you have seen tennis matches.
So, did I give this example of tennis match yesterday? How many of you were there yesterday in the class? So, in a tennis match, sometimes the player is serving. And sometimes when one player is serving, the other player is receiving. Now, when the player is serving, at that time, that player has a lot of freedom.
Can serve right to the forehand, towards the backhand or right into the body of the player. Serve at a tall height, serve at a low height. The server has a lot of freedom.
The receiver, the returner doesn’t have much freedom. Wherever the ball has come, the returner has to hit the serve. Similarly, in life, sometimes we are serving.
And sometimes we return. That means sometimes the initiative is on us. And we get to make decisions, I can do this, I can’t do this, I’ll do this, I’ll choose this.
Sometimes life gives us many options. And we have options on which to choose. But sometimes life constricts us.
And now when a player is returning, the returner can’t choose where to return from, wherever the ball has come from there, they have to return. If the returner starts expecting the freedom of the server, the returner decides, I will swing, I’ll swing the ball, swing the racket wherever I want. And the ball will go in some other direction.
So, what happens is, just as the returner, when they’re returning, they feel, oh, you know, this server is so good, I just can’t do anything. I have to stretch myself. At that time, all that the returner can do is just get the ball back in the court.
Just get the ball back in the court. But that also requires skill. That also requires effort.
And that also is something which the returner by doing well, can continue the play of the game. So like that, sometimes in our life, we are servers and sometimes we are returners. And the biggest problem comes when we are serving, when we are returning, and we expect the freedom of the server.
Their life sometimes puts us in constricted situations. At that time, we have to accept, this is the situation in my life. Sometimes we may have too much pressure in our work.
At that time, we may not have much freedom to do what we want to do. Sometimes in a family, somebody’s health goes down. And then we have to pay attention to that.
In a family, say a new child is born. Everybody has to focus on the child at that time. And at that time, the relative freedom that we have to do what we would like to do is very limited.
That’s fine, we are returning at that time. So when we don’t understand this role, what we are playing, there are a lot of unnecessary frustration comes up. On the other hand, also, if we have the initiative to serve, and at that time, we exhibit the passivity of a returner, then also we miss opportunities.
Yes, now I have options. Sometimes our life slows down, because we don’t have much options, but life is not always the same. Later on, when we have more freedom, more capacity to do things, but at that time also we stay sluggish, then we miss the opportunities.
So basically, when we understand, in both the cases, when the player is serving, the player is returning. Their purpose is to play the game, to keep the ball in the court and keep playing. So like that for us, we just want to whatever situation we are in, we serve Krishna.
But sometimes our focus is on endeavour. Yes, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. Sometimes, you know, at all times we endeavour, like I said, even the returner is doing some endeavour.
But sometimes our capacity to endeavour itself is limited. We just can’t do much at that time. But at that time we are returning, then we focus on doing what we can, and leave what we can’t to Krishna.
But sometimes what we can is a lot, and what we can do is a lot, and what we have to leave to Krishna is little, little. Like when a player is serving, there is a lot of freedom. But sometimes what we can do is very little, and what we have to leave to Krishna is a lot.
That’s like when we are returning. So whichever situation we are in, we focus on doing what is in our power. And sometimes, some situations, some problems just start becoming too complicated.
You know, you spoke like this, you did like this, you did like that, you did like that. And you know, some problems, they just suck so much energy. So if the problem is not about a very important thing, then if your life is too precious to be wasted in doing post-mortem operations.
You know, okay, something happened, something went wrong. If there’s something to learn from it, let’s learn from it. Let’s not spend time blaming anyone.
You did like that. No, I did not do like that. You did like that.
Just, you know, just close the chapter and move on. Sometimes when some, if some mistake has happened, some complication has taken place. But usually, if we are too close to that event, our emotions are too involved.
And at that time, we can’t really have a dispassionate discussion. And understanding also doesn’t emerge. Only accusations and counter accusations emerge.
So it’s best at that time, okay, this chapter is closed. Let’s close the chapter and move on with life. So afterwards, maybe, after a few months have passed, then when everything has calmed down, we have the advantage of distance.
Then with that distance comes a sense of perspective. Then maybe, maybe we can learn some things. Otherwise, even when we are trying to serve, we can get too caught in small things.
When we say, when Krishna says tolerate, what does tolerance mean? Krishna is telling Arjuna tolerate, but Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna that, oh, the Kauravas have insulted you so much, the Kauravas, they saw not proper, they tolerate that. So Arjuna fight the war. The tolerance means, tolerance simply means to keep small things small, so that we can focus on big things.
So Arjuna, heat and cold will be there, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up your duty. Similarly, sometimes we’ll feel good, sometimes we’ll not feel good, but still we do our duty. So the way we feel, it’s a passing thing, it’s a small thing.
But your duty, your purpose, that is far more important. Your dharma is much more important. So like that, sometimes in life, if we are regularly hearing scripture, if we are regularly doing our sadhana, then our focus stays on Krishna.
And you understand, from that perspective of the vision fixed on Krishna, we can recognise, you know, this is not really that important. This is important. So when our vision is fixed on Krishna, we can understand from that perspective, this is not all that big.
So keep small things small. Yes, this is not working out, just leave it. Let’s move on forward in life.
And that way when we keep our vision fixed on Krishna, our tolerance is not that we just let everything go whichever way it is going. Rather, we keep small things small, so that we can focus on big things. We all have, when we say we should endeavour and we should surrender, we have to endeavour, knowing when to endeavour, when to surrender.
That means we have limited time, limited energy. And where we put in our endeavour, that also requires intelligence, because we can’t endeavour in 100 places. We have limited time, limited energy.
But sometimes some situations are so complicated, that endeavouring over them, it just wastes time. So if we have that attitude of service to Krishna, and we keep reminding ourselves, Krishna, ultimately, I want to come to you. Please guide me how I can come to you.
Then that, Krishna will use the intelligence when to just let go. Now, this is too complicated and too small a matter to spend so much time. Let’s close this chapter, move on in life.
And sometimes this is important. Although it’s taking time, I will put my time in this. And in this way, by keeping our focus on Krishna, we will be able to do the best that we can.
And we will leave the rest to Him. So that, that will be a cooperation between the human and the divine. The Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion, conclusion is this.
You know, the synergy of the human and the divine. Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna, Yatra Partha Dhanurthara. Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna is Krishna.
He, Krishna could be referred to by many names, but he is referred to by the name Yogeshwara. He is a lord of mystic powers. Why? We see many times in the Bhagavad Gita, after the Bhagavad Gita, in the Kurukshetra war, although Krishna does not actually fight, Krishna uses his mystic powers many times to help Arjuna.
So where there is Krishna and where there is Yatra Partha Dhanurthara, Arjuna has picked up his bow, is ready to fight. Where there will be victory, the Bhagavad Gita assures. So this human-divine synergy, which the Bhagavad Gita depicts as its conclusion, that happens when we have that attitude of serving Krishna and we endeavour where it is possible for us and we surrender where it is beyond our capacity.
And thus we move forward and by Krishna’s grace, he will enable us to succeed in our life. Let’s summarise. I spoke today on the topic of knowing when to endeavour and when to surrender.
We started by firstly problematising. There is no watertight classification because endeavour can also be a form of surrender. Just like Arjuna picking up his bow and fighting, he surrendered and he’s endeavouring.
And surrender also requires endeavour because when we are surrendering, it is our strong energy to hold on and letting go also requires effort. It requires willpower. So that is also an endeavour.
But if you consider endeavour and surrender in terms of endeavour means we are doing something seriously. Surrender means we are leaving things to Krishna. So how do we do that? We discussed from the example of Draupadi being dishonoured first and then it’s the Prabhupada’s example.
So I focus on Draupadi. Normally, the image of surrender is she raises her hands in helplessness. Yes, that is a visually evocative image of surrender.
But even before that, Draupadi was reasoning based on Shastra. If Yudhishthira has gambled himself, how can he gamble? She is trying to avert disaster using her intelligence, using her Kshatriya resourcefulness. That is also her surrender.
In the whole incident of this gambling match, it is Draupadi who is dishonoured, but it is Draupadi who emerges as the most honourable. And unfortunately, the most villainous character turns out to be Karna. And then I discussed, so she is surrendered throughout to Krishna.
And her surrender is sometimes through endeavour, sometimes through surrender. And sometimes just leaving everything to Krishna, sometimes doing everything in her power to avoid disaster. We discussed from Prabhupada’s life also.
He was endeavouring so tirelessly, trying as a businessman, trying as a magazine distributor, trying as a book publisher, trying as an organisation founder, trying as a travelling preacher to come to America. And throughout it all, what was his surrender? His endeavour was there, but along with that, what was the surrender? That Krishna make me dance. Now, whichever way an opportunity was presented, Prabhupada chose that opportunity.
He was endeavouring. And he is surrendering what is not in his control. So, I discussed how Krishna arranged.
Prabhupada came to America at a time when the visa regulations became relaxed. That is how he was able to keep repeating, repeating his visa. So, he was doing his part and behind Krishna was doing his part also.
The same human divine synergy that the Bhagavata prophesies will bring success, that’s what characterises Prabhupada’s life. And then for us, how do we know when to endeavour, when to surrender? I said, if we have an attitude of service to Krishna, then service to Krishna means that we do whatever service we are doing right now. For that, we endeavour wholeheartedly.
And other things that we have done, we are worried whether they will work out or not, we surrender to Krishna. Surrender does not mean irresponsibility, not doing our service. Surrender means that we do ourselves whole service wholeheartedly.
And after that, for the results, we depend on Krishna. Krishna is telling us to be detached from results, not from goals. Because goals enable us to maximise our endeavour.
Whereas attachment to results distracts us from surrender. And I give the example of a tennis match. That sometimes when we are serving, we have much more freedom.
When we are returning, we have much lesser freedom. Similarly, in life, sometimes we have much more scope to endeavour. At that time, we take initiative and we do a lot of things.
Sometimes our scope of endeavouring is very little, and we just have to leave a lot to Krishna. So at that time, we do that. So rather than agonising why I have so little control or so little freedom, we accept that this is the time when I have my schedule is tight, my life is going through some situations, I accept that and just keep moving onwards.
And when we have the freedom, when we have the initiative, we take the initiative wholeheartedly and endeavour more at that time. And then we discussed about how surrender, so this is with respect to when situations when we endeavour less and endeavour more, except whatever the situation, endeavour accordingly. And if we have many things to do, how do we choose among them, which one to focus our endeavour on? That comes if we have focus on Krishna.
Ultimately, I meant to serve Krishna, then we’ll be able to see from that perspective, this is a small thing. Okay, this misunderstanding happened, this problem came up. Life is too precious to be wasted in doing postmortem operations.
So just leave it. Let’s close this chapter and move forward. There’s something to be learned.
Afterwards, with the benefit of distance, we will learn from it. And we move onwards. And when we, the human and the divine, when we are determined to serve Krishna, Krishna uses a mystic power to orchestrate things for us and to help us move towards fulfilment, move towards success in our service to him.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes.
I have a question. Many times there is a tendency to, okay, I have done a service, now I will relax and use that time for my own enjoyment. So how to overcome that tendency? I have done that service wholeheartedly at that time.
But there are like other pockets of time that I think that okay, I will use this time for my own relaxation or enjoyment or something like that. Okay. So after we do our service wholeheartedly, does it feel that you know, now I want to, the remaining time I have that I’ll use for my enjoyment or relaxation.
See, relaxation itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Yukta ahara viharasya. Krishna says recreation also is a part of life.
Devotees try to spiritualise their recreation as much as possible. So the important thing is that we see that my body, my mind, they are tools which I want to use for serving. And they also, just like any tool, it needs polishing, it needs some work on it to keep it sharp.
Like if I’m using an axe to cut, I may need to sharpen it periodically. So it’s not that bhakti means you just have to rush from one thing to another to another. See, whatever we are doing, we are constructively engaged.
And rather than rigidly differentiating that you know, this is service to Krishna, this is another gratification, we can see from the ultimate perspective whether it is taking us closer to Krishna or whether it is helping us to have a frame of consciousness by which we can go closer to Krishna. Then relaxation is also a part of, is a human need. But how we seek relaxation, that will vary from person to person.
So depending, if somebody is sattva guna, they will seek relaxation through reading. Somebody is rajo guna, they may watch some movies. Somebody is tamo guna, they may drink.
They’re all seeking relaxation, but in very different ways. So devotees seek relaxation in a way which are as devotional as possible, as at least sattvic as possible. So relaxation is just a need of the human body and mind.
We’re not meant to deny that. But we do it in a Krishna conscious way. Srila Prabhupada would go for walks every day.
Srila Prabhupada would take massage every day. So that is perfectly fine. But he would do it with Krishna consciousness.
So we shouldn’t associate Krishna consciousness only with external forms of services. Yes, there are other activities which also need for rejuvenating our body. And if we can do them also with the intention of service to Krishna, then we will be able to discriminate.
This is something which is not really helpful to my consciousness. This is something which is relaxing me, but is also helpful for my consciousness. So that way we can find out and we can adjust accordingly.
Okay, good point. And the judgement on how well I proceed will depend not on the goal, but on the result. And in this regard, people may say something as endeavour and something as over endeavour.
I may fail 10 plus repeated times and still try to, let’s say I fail to become a doctor or a big engineer and I keep trying. How can one find this balance or understand this distinction? Okay. So if our goals depend on the results from our past endeavours, and then how do we differentiate between endeavour and over endeavour? Should we just keep persevering in a particular goal even if we don’t achieve it again and again? Or should we just move on to something else in our life? The basic principle is that we don’t lose hope.
No matter things go wrong in life, we don’t lose hope. Failure is an event. Failure is never a person.
Failure is an event that happens in a person’s life. The person is not a failure. Sometimes once a failure may come, second time failure may come.
Sometimes we may be going through a patch of bad karma, during which many times we may, repeatedly you may get some reversals. But that doesn’t make the person a failure. As in this life, during this period, the person is going through difficulties.
So we have to, we see the Krishna connection, that ultimately Krishna is control and then I am His servant and whatever way things are going on, I always stay fixed in His service. With that attitude when we work, even if we face reversals, we won’t get so disheartened by it. This is just happening at the material level.
My relationship with Krishna is still there. But we do have to work at the material level also. So therefore, we have to, when we are endeavouring, especially when we are endeavouring repeatedly, we have to look deep within our hearts to see whether this is what I am inspired to do.
Sometimes we endeavour in a particular field, not because we are so inspired by it, but we endeavour because that particular field is glamorised by society. And then, although we really don’t have much interest in it, we don’t have much inspiration for it, but just because of social pressure we are doing it. And then we don’t put our, we can’t put our heart in it, we don’t do very well in it, we get frustrated.
So if something is, if something is an area in which we feel deeply driven internally, then we can perceive it. Even if things don’t work out, keep perceiving it. Because we see that way, many of the greatest successes that happened in life, we see that, in many times, in motivational books, we may hear about how Edison, he tried so many thousands of times before he found a form, made to make a ball.
So many endeavour there. So that there is, there is that point that through repeated failure one comes to success. But then if we look at these people who were successful, they were very deeply driven to that particular mission.
That’s what they felt, I want to do in my life. Prabhupada himself failed so many times. Of course, Prabhupada’s endeavour is at a completely different level, because he was working to Prince Krishna.
But the principle, Prabhupada wrote in a letter to Brahmananda Prabhu, the first time they did a Rath Yatra in London. And then, everywhere the other devotees had done Rath Yatras. They thought we would do a bigger Rath.
And they made a bigger Rath, but they kept the wheels of the same size. And then when the Rath was being made, when the Rath was being driven, the Rath collapsed. And it was, the wheels collapsed practically.
It was like a big PR disaster. Everybody already decided. So Brahmananda Prabhu wrote to Prabhupada, Prabhupada, did this Rath Yatra fail because of my poor devotion? Prabhupada replied, it’s not poor devotion, it was poor engineering.
So, the point which I am making here is that actually, so there Prabhupada writes, that it is a material principle that failures are the stepping stones to success. So Prabhupada doesn’t say it is a spiritual principle, it is a material principle. Material principle means that any endeavour you are doing, first time a child tries to drive a cycle, can’t bear, they fall sometimes.
So, it’s a material principle, through failure we go towards success. The important thing is, whether that success is so important for us internally, not just socially, that we were ready to go through all the failures, still we come to success. Or sometimes we feel, this is just not what I am interested in, this is not just what I am inclined towards, I will go somewhere else.
So, that’s why to some extent, Sattva Guna is important. When we are in Rajoguna and Tamoguna, what happens in Rajoguna, we worry too much about public opinion. What do people think about me? Oh, I want to look good in people’s eyes.
That is the driving motivation of people in Rajoguna. So, that’s why we often try to achieve things, which we ourselves don’t need very much, but we just want people to know, I got this. So, in Tamoguna, we are just caught in our own inabilities.
I can’t do this, I can’t do that, and we are just beating ourselves up. In Sattva Guna, we are able to see, yes, these are my limitations, these are my strengths, this is what I want to do. So, if we have endeavoured in a particular field repeatedly and things have not worked out, then rather than immediately rushing into repeating that endeavour or going to another endeavour, it is best to calm ourselves down, maybe withdraw ourselves from the situation a little bit, pray, read and get oneself in the mode of goodness.
And once you are in the mode of goodness, then calmly reflect on the situation, write things down. And then after writing down, evaluate it. See, when we write things down and get the things out of our head, that’s like we get a snapshot of our mind.
And then if we find, I will revisit this maybe every day for some time. Don’t think about it constantly. Some thought comes in, just note it down.
Think about it consciously for some time. And if we find over one week, two weeks, one month, our thoughts overall stay the same. And this is what I feel I should be doing, what I’m inspired to do.
Then that means it’s not just a passing infatuation. It’s a steady inclination of our mind. Then we can go on.
But sometimes, you know, after one month, we feel again and again, this is just too tiresome. I don’t want to get involved in it. So if we feel driven, drawn to something else, then better focus on that.
So basically, we can consult our senior guides. But even when we have to consult, sometimes we ourselves are so confused that we don’t present our case also properly. It’s like a doctor can give medicine when the patient tells all the symptoms.
Nowadays, that’s why what doctors do is they don’t rely on the patient only. Because the patient will not tell the symptoms reliably. That’s why they have hundreds of tests.
But with respect to the inner world, you know, doctors cannot do tests like that. We have to tell what are our inspiration, what is our frustration, what is our concern, what is our fear, what is our hope. We have to have, even when we want guidance from some senior, we need to have done our internal homework properly.
And this process which I’m talking about, that helps us to do our homework. So based on that, once we have sattva guna, sattva sanjayate jnanam, knowledge comes in that. And we can understand ourselves better, understand our situation better.
And then we can decide based on that understanding, coupled with consultation, what I should do and what I should not do. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Near the Mataji, I have a question.
My question is about the force of nature. As a yoga teacher, I’m doing the chanting. I’m doing the visual activities.
Still, I feel I am dominated by the mode of passion. My question is, then whatever I do in the mode of nature, I still feel I am dominated by the mode of nature. So, despite doing activities in the mode of goodness, still, if you feel that we are in the mode of passion, then how do we go beyond and attain the transcendental stage? Firstly, as long as we are in the material world, the modes are going to surround us.
They are outside us and they are also inside us. So when we transcend the modes, that does not mean that the modes are no longer there. The modes won’t control us.
The modes won’t influence us so much. But still, the modes are going to be there. So for example, the real problem is not whether the modes are there or not.
The problem is whether the modes are controlling us or not. So once I was talking with a senior devotee and then he asked me, so what is your plan now? So I said, my plan is to surrender to the mode of ignorance. No, no, he said something very sweet.
He said, my plan is to surrender to Krishna who is manifesting in the mode of ignorance. So what that means is, if a devotee can see, when we sleep, it is an activity which requires the mode of ignorance because there is inactivity over there. So the mode of ignorance is required for that.
Sometimes we try to sleep and we don’t get sleep only. Sometimes what happens is we try to control things and this doesn’t work, that doesn’t work, that doesn’t work, then we just pull a blanket over our face and go to sleep. At least that works.
And when even that doesn’t work, when we are not able to sleep also. The point which I am making is that the modes are functional, are functional features of this material world. And various activities that we do, it just, the modes are required for it.
Brahmaji supervises creation. So when we are creating something new, we are planning something, we are executing something, that creative activity requires a mode of passion. So the point is that as devotees, our intention is transcendent.
We are trying to make our intention transcendent, that is serving Krishna. At the same time, we for functioning in this world, we may work through different modes at different times. So the very nature of our life is that we will run around here and there.
We have to have, the world around us is passionate and sometimes we may also get passionate. So now it’s that, you know, there are four varnanas, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra. And different varnanas are characterised by different modes.
Kshatriyas are in passion, combined with goodness. Vaishyas are in, rajali in passion with some ignorance. Shudras are in ignorance.
Now when we say the Shudras are in ignorance, it does not mean that they are totally ignorant. Because if the Shudras are also following scriptural rules and regulations, well for Shudras, that following rules and regulations requires goodness. So the things, what I’m saying is that all of us, we have a particular psychophysical nature.
Some of us may have Kshatriya mentality, some of us may have Vaishya mentality. And then it is not that we are chanting Hare Krishna, that mentality is going to change. The mentality will remain the same, the purpose will change.
So I will be a Vaishya and I’ll use the Vaishya mentality for serving Krishna. Some people, you know, they just feel, you know, like if a Brahmana is there, you tell them, you know, we want to build a new temple, we have to get 10 million dollars for that. The Brahmana will say, no, after you build a temple also, you’re going to just have some Bhagavad Gita.
Why have it now only? Why do you need to build a big temple? For the Brahmana, Vaishya world’s work will seem like a burden. But the Brahmana will use Brahmanical inclination for serving Krishna. The Vaishya, Vaishya will tell them, come on, we will have a, you know, 3 hour Bhagavad Gita.
3 hour, too much, you know, we can’t do it. Tell the Vaishya, you know, we have to raise 10 million dollars. Now I got something to do.
Now I’ll go here, I’ll go there, I’ll do that. So basically, we all have different natures. And Bhakti, it is not that we have to change our natures.
We have to change our purpose. So if we tend to go more into the mode of passion, we don’t have to feel too worried about that, as long as we keep our purpose, Krishna. And over a period of time, as we keep practising Bhakti, you know, even Vaishya’s work can be done, dominated by the mode of passion and ignorance.
Vaishya’s work can also be done in the mode of goodness. That means some people, they are doing business work. But even as business people, they are very calm, composed, very regulated in their functions.
Some people are just running around, just worried too much, too much pressure, too much tension they are in. So the overall activity remains the same. But gradually, the purpose for doing it changes.
The purpose changes when you start practising Bhakti. And the way we do it will also change as we rise higher upward in the modes. But the important thing is, at this stage, we make sure that our purpose stays Krishna.
And if we find that the mode of passion is agitating us too much, then we can find out how we can increase the mode of goodness a little bit. We can slow things down, maybe we can take a little break. Maybe I can do something, activities which root me back in the mode of goodness once again for some time.
But the important thing is, it’s not that we have to beat ourselves up because a particular mode is prominent in us. Now, whatever mode is prominent right now, just use what we have for serving Krishna. So focus on changing the purpose, not so much on changing the mode.
The mode will change gradually when our purpose is strong. So when I want to grow in my spiritual life, but as a inner critic which stops me from moving forward, says, you know, you don’t have time, you can’t do this. So how can we deal with it? I think this inner critic will stop us from doing any good thing in life.
Suppose, you know, suppose we decide, okay, I’m going to speak in public. You make a fool of yourself and forget everything. People will laugh at you, this, that, that.
Whatever we try to do, the inner critic comes in. See, all of us have a creative side, which inspires us, gives us ideas, do this, do this, do this. And we have a critical side, which is no, this is not working out right.
Now, both are important. The creative side gives us ideas. And the critical side helps us to evaluate the ideas.
So the important thing is, like as a writer, for me, creative side gives me ideas, creative by creative side gives me ideas. And sometimes the ideas are just too far out, they are not going to work, but some critical side evaluates that. The problem comes when the critical side does not allow the creative side to express itself only.
So what, so one way to resolve this is just to separate the two. That means, when we are creating, when I’m writing, just write, don’t worry how good it is, just write it down. And then afterwards, I can edit it, I can evaluate it.
So like that, what we could do is, when the ideas are coming, we take the inspiration and try to use the inspiration fully. Not that we need to take a giant step forward in our spiritual life. But just when the inspiration start off, take a small step.
So if I can do this much tomorrow, like from tomorrow onwards, from today onwards, okay, don’t do that. Take some small step forward. And what happens, when we actually do things, we often find out that things are in real life, not as difficult as the mind makes them out to be.
So when we do the thing, we find it okay, you know, ultimately, now if, okay, I’m going to chant this many rounds, how can I chant that many rounds? Okay, but then if you actually start chanting, it’s not all that difficult, it can be done. So just start, we start it off, then the fear goes off. So generally speaking, the one of the best ways to silence the critical side is to just take off, you know, just start off in some small way or the other.
And then once we start off, we get a taste for it, we can move on. That’s one way to do it. The other way to do it is another thing which you could do to deal with the critical side is to turn that critical voice on itself.
What that means is that, okay, you know, that okay, saying this will go wrong, this will go wrong. Yes, it’s possible. But if I just keep hearing what all will go wrong, you know, ultimately also something is going to go wrong.
That is what I’m never going to do anything good. See, the critical voice wants us to take the safe option. But actually, as far as life in this material world is concerned, the no option is not a safe option.
Because every time is going to pass, we are eventually going to grow old, we are going to get deceased, we are going to die. So the material of life of the option of living materialistically, it may seem to be a safe option because everyone else is doing it. But that doesn’t mean it is a safe option.
It is the option which is eventually going to lead to frustration only. So we turn the critical voice saying, don’t do anything. But what is the result of that? That’s not the safe option at all.
So let me start off. And the last thing which we can do to deal with the critical voice is to categorise it. Categorise it means that when that voice comes in, see, when we identify that, when we identify with that, that’s when the problem comes up.
But suppose there are some people, we know that they are always negative people. Whatever, whatever, whatever problem, whatever is brought before them, they will find problems with that. They will find and this is not going to work because of this, it’s not going to work because of this, it’s not going to work because of this.
There are probably people who are always so negative. It is said that there are some people, they bring happiness where they go. And some people bring happiness when they go, isn’t it? So when they go.
So people are negative like that. So what we should do is, if we identify this person as negative, then we don’t take their criticism so seriously. Like that, when that negative voice starts coming up, what do we do? This is a critic speaking.
We just identify that and create a distance from that. And then we take its voice with a pinch of salt. So identifying that voice is very helpful.
Ultimately, when we are facing problems in life, a lot depends on whom we consult. Now say, a boxing match is going on, two boxers are fighting and one boxer knocks down the other boxer. Now this boxer has fallen down and this boxer has to fight.
If the boxer turns to the other boxer and asks, can I win? Never! Defeated! Let me defeat right now. The boxer wants to keep fighting. The boxer can’t answer the other boxer.
Boxer has to look at his own coach. Coach, come on, get up, try this, you can do it. The coach is going to encourage this.
So like that, when we face some defeat, when we face some problem, at that time, it is often because of the critical voice only that we have faced the problem. And then we ask the critical voice only, can I do it? Never! Quit now! So we need to consult Krishna. We need to consult Krishna as a representative.
We need to consult those who encourage us. Then we will be able to proceed here. Relaxation.
Playing games for relaxation. What mode does it fall in? See, Prabhupada said that Kabaddi, swimming, these are, especially swimming, he was quite appreciative of that. That is, but more important thing is, rather than the specific forms, look at the principle.
See, any particular game, it can be, it can be done for relaxation, it can be done for exercise. At the same time, we have to ourselves be honest about the consequence of it. Sometimes we play the game, not so much for relaxation, because we get attached to it.
We get consumed by it. So at least, actually, playing sports is better than watching sports. Because you know, watching sports is simply spectator sport.
We are not really doing much constructive. So people often, so in that sense, playing sports is good. So we have to find out from ourselves what is the effect on our consciousness.
So the more reflective an activity is, the better it is for spiritual growth. So for example, if you go for a walk, then walking, if it is also a form of exercise, what happens is walking does not emotionally consume us. When we play games, they emotionally consume us.
And that emotional consumption, that will later distract us from bhakti. Yesterday I was playing table tennis, if I only played this shot, I would have won the match. So what happens is that we get emotionally consumed by it.
So there is a form of physical exercise and relaxation that is there. But we have to see how much we are getting emotionally consumed by it. So that’s why those activities which don’t emotionally consume us so much, if I do them for relaxation, then our emotions and our consciousness will be better available for Krishna.
So especially if you’re doing some sports also, it’s best not to do them in a competitive mode. It’s like walking, there’s no competition involved. Even if it’s jogging, or whatever exercise is required, we may need to do it for the body.
But we want our consciousness to be available for Krishna. And for serving Krishna, we need to, we don’t want a healthy body also. So how best we get that, that varies from person to person.
So if we have Krishna as the purpose clearly in our life, suppose we decide that now then I feel that this is the exercise that relaxes me. And I do that. Or this is the particular game that I feel it relaxes me.
We do that for a few months. And then we objectively evaluate. Now what is the effect on my consciousness? If you find that actually it is consuming me too much emotionally, it is distracting me, then you decide, okay, I don’t want to do this.
But if you find that, okay, this is something which helps me to work better, you may continue it. So rather than making a value judgement that this is good, this is bad, we can focus on more on individual effect on our consciousness. And try to make sure that our consciousness is not emotionally consumed by things other than Krishna.
We want our consciousness to be available for Krishna. Does that answer your question? Thank you very much.