Seek not a pleasure-filled life seek a purpose-filled life

[Evening program at ISKCON, Montreal, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so I thank all of you for coming here today evening I seek the blessings of all the so that I can try to speak something today so I’ll speak today on the topic of seek not a pleasure-filled life seek a purpose-filled life yesterday I spoke on seek not a problem-free life today I’ll speak on seek not a pleasure-filled life usually when we are going in a life journey two things may stop us from progressing one is problems because of problems we feel I can’t move on and pleasures may distract us instead of going this way I’m going meant to go this way but I may end up going some other so if we take the metaphor of travel yesterday I talked about how when we are travelling if there’s a lot of traffic the traffic makes travelling uncomfortable so just a small note sometimes I tend to speak a little fast so if any of you find that I’m speaking too fast you’re not able to understand please feel free to just raise your hand and signal to me I’ll try to slow down is that okay thank you so so when we are travelling a traffic if it is heavy it obstructs us it irritates us but if somebody starts thinking oh there’s so much traffic here let me go on some other path and if that path is not taking them to the destination then that’s pointless now the purpose of driving is not just to avoid traffic the purpose of driving is to get to a destination similarly the purpose of life is not just to avoid problems the purpose of life is to fulfil the higher ultimate purpose of life when we drive so similarly while we are driving pleasures can be compared to the various sights that we may see we’re driving along the road this is a nice park this is a good amusement amusement centre this is a good theatre this is a nice valley and whichever places along the path we see good sights we just go over there and we keep looking at those things then again we would not get to the destination if while going along our journey if there are nice sights to see along the road that’s fine we can see those sights we can enjoy those sights but if we are meant to go to a destination then just the desire for seeing good sights if it diverts us from our journey to the destination that is undesirable similarly in a life journey you know pleasure will come occasionally but if pleasure alone becomes the purpose of our life then we will have no higher purpose now what do i mean by pleasure over here sometimes the concepts are important to understand and terms may not be adequate to convey the concepts so if say there is a suitcase there’s a bag the bag has a handle the handle the suitcase is much bigger the handle is what enables us to pick up the suitcase to access the suitcase so the concepts are like the suitcase and the terms that we use they are like handles so terms are verbal concepts are intellectual so terms are like verbal handles for intellectual concepts and sometimes you know we may if we try to if say after we come out of airport we go to the baggage claim area and suppose we just purchase a new suitcase and we do not remember the colour of the suitcase just remember the handle was of red colour and then we may we catch which of suitcases has a red handle but it may well be that that red handle is attached to some other suitcase isn’t it so just the handle alone is not enough you have to know the handle you also have to know the suitcase so like that the term is important but what the concept that the term refers to is also important so when i’m using the word pleasure there are different kinds of pleasures there is material pleasure and there is spiritual pleasure and ultimately the Upanishads say that our very nature is to seek joy we are by our very central nature seekers of pleasure so in that sense we can’t avoid seeking pleasure but we have the intelligence to know what kind of pleasure to seek last year i was invited to cambridge university to give a talk on science and spirituality and while going along there we passed by the tree under which newton is said to have sat when he saw the fruit falling so now some people say the fruit fell on his head some people say the fruit fell in front of him whichever way it is now imagine if instead of newton a monkey had been sitting there the monkey oh its fruit fell down the monkey just picked up the fruit eaten it and gone on its way now many humans might have also done the same thing and nobody would have faulted those human beings for doing that it’s a natural thing to do but newton did something else he asked the question what made this fruit fall and that seeking the answer to that question what made this fruit fall that led to the development of gravity and that was the engine for the development of modern science and technology which has so dramatically transformed the world around us too so even scientific progress requires the subordination of impulse to intelligence even scientific progress requires the subordination of impulse to intelligence if newton had simply been impulsive would just grab the fruit eaten it and that would have been the end of the story subordinating impulse to intelligence means he asked what made this fruit fall and then he understood the concept of gravity postulated it and that gives a different kind of fulfilment eating a fruit gives some fulfilment some pleasure but developing a whole new scientific concept that gives a much deeper fulfilment so when we say that seek not a pleasure-filled life seek a purpose-filled life that means there are different kinds of pleasures and if we refer here when you use the word pleasure it’s often used to refer to impulsive pleasures impulsive pleasure means i get an impulse i want to do it i want to eat it i want to watch this i want to touch this i want to buy this and we succumb to the impulses the impulses offer pleasure that is short-lived and in seeking those short-lived pleasures we miss out on the opportunity for higher happiness all living beings seek pleasure even a tiny ant which is just crawling along the ground if it finds some sugar piece somewhere we may not see it that ant does its own version of a dance of ecstasy it’s delighted oh i found the sugar i can enjoy it now and there is some pleasure over there but how much if a cat sees a rat the cat cannot think oh today is ekadashi i should fast today it is a sacred day on which i meant to fast or the cat can’t think no my weight is increasing i’ll fast today i’ll diet the cat will simply act according to impulses and pounce on the rat so the animals seek pleasure but their search for pleasure is directed by and restricted to their impulses they seek pleasure according to their impulses and they have no capacity for seeking any higher pleasure the impulse directs them to eat they’ll eat impulse directs them to sleep they’ll sleep the impulse directs them to mate they’ll mate the impulse directs them to fight they’ll fight so food sleep sex and power these are four primary ways by which all living beings seek pleasure which is primarily impulsive power means you want to show how powerful i am animal world is all about showing off one’s power subordinating threatening the others intimidating the others and subordinating them might is right is the law of the jungle now we human beings also have these impulses at the same time we are capable of subordinating these impulses to our intelligence when we seek pleasure only through our impulses which push us towards food sleep sex and power then we shortchange ourselves we get far lesser pleasure than what we could have got we human beings are caught in a very peculiar situation a peculiar situation is that we have physical bodies and the physical bodies have their drives and those drives impel us to seek pleasure at the physical level but at the same time our consciousness we are at our core spiritual beings and our consciousness is so advanced that we cannot be satisfied with the pleasure coming from physical drives and their satisfaction that is why we see animals when they are hungry they eat a man is the only animal who eats when he is not hungry man is the only animal or man we could say is gender sensitive humans humans are the only creatures even only species who eat when they are not hungry they are the only species that sleep when they are not tired humans are the only species that mate when they do not want to procreate and we are the only species that we fight even when we are not provoked for no reason so actually how many species in the animal kingdom suffer from obesity they do not know because they are governed by their biology now there are some dogs some pets who get contaminated by human association and their human masters feed them so much that those pets may become obese but naturally the animals some animals may be bigger some may be smaller but the animals don’t become obese in the sense that morbidly sick because of overeating it doesn’t happen like that why because they are biologically driven in their search for pleasure and they eat and they get some pleasure by that but we humans you know we are also biologically driven but because our consciousness is more evolved so we seek more pleasure than what the body can offer us the animals they are satisfied with whatever pleasure the body offers us offers them that’s all they can do they can’t think anything beyond the body we humans want more pleasure than what the body can offer us and not knowing where to seek that pleasure we seek it at the bodily level and that’s how we seek bodily pleasure in a way that ensures us according to some statistics the amount of money that Americans spend on countering obesity that money itself is enough to feed all the starving people in the world it’s phenomenal so what is happening here actually the search for pleasure is degenerating into the urge for eating and urge for eating because we seek more pleasure than what the body can offer so we eat more than what the body needs and thus our search for pleasure gets distorted at the bodily level in such a way that it hurts us how many animals do we see they sing songs about how their heart has been broken because their lover ditched them now for them sex is simply a biological function they do it and that’s it but we human beings what happens is we invest so much of our emotions in this because we look at it as something much more than just biological union for mating we look for emotional fulfilment we look for love and the body is craving for mating and the heart’s craving for loving our song for loving these get inextricably entangled and they confuse and confound our search for happiness so they at the body level we will never get the happiness that our heart is longing for because no matter what happens bodily pleasure is always limited the whole propaganda of the world is that just get this object you’ll become happy just get that object you’ll become happy just get that and become happy and we keep chasing i want this object i want that object i want that object we keep chasing now what is the process of material pleasure krishna describes some that look that the senses and other sense objects when the senses and the sense objects come in contact with each other there is pleasure so for example when my tongue comes in contact with some delicious food item say ice cream so good so i feel the contact of the senses with the sense objects is what gives us pleasure and we think that i am not getting enough pleasure because i don’t have good enough sense objects oh the food i’m eating is not that good the house i’m living is not that good the car i’m driving is not that great the smartphone that i am using is not that smart so now we think that the sense objects that are out there we don’t have good enough sense objects and we think that if i get a better sense object i will get more pleasure if the food were cooked so much better somewhat better i would i would enjoy it more if my partner was more good looking i would enjoy much more whatever it is so we think because the sense objects are not good enough that’s why i’m not getting pleasure and we seek better and better sense objects the whole pursuit of material pleasure is centred on trying to get better sense objects to enjoy but the fact is our pleasure at the material level is not limited just because we don’t have good enough sense objects our pleasure is limited because the body’s capacity to enjoy itself is limited even if we had the best sense objects still the body’s capacity to enjoy is limited suppose somebody owned a five-star hotel or a seven-star hotel or whatever number of stars the hotel may have which has the best food in the whole world you know okay when we go there and maybe they’re a very high class chef so cook the food but after that how much food are you going to eat the stomach has limited capacity and once that capacity is over sometimes you know when we are the food is we are yet to eat it when will i get it when will i get it when will i get it and after we have had enough then somebody offers us you also take them so it’s not that we are concerned about them our stomach is full at that time so what has happened the the limitation in our enjoyment is not because we don’t have good enough sense objects it is because our own body’s capacity to enjoy is limited and no matter what we do we can’t extend this body’s capacity to enjoy that capacity is always limited when there were some egyptian rulers the pharaohs they tried their own creative way to surmount this body’s capacity to enjoy what they would do was they would have golden plates in which they would get a big feast they would eat the feast full stomach and they would have their physicians well on another plate they would get painless vomiting pills and then they would take the vomit everything out after the stomach has become empty and again they would get another plate of feast and eat that can you imagine the despair how desperate somebody can be for enjoying good food they tried that but what happened you know the problem is not simply that the stomach has limited capacity to enjoy the problem is every time when food goes inside food comes out the whole body has to bear that impact the alimentary canal the digestive system it has to bear that so those who tried this experiment they lived terribly short and afterwards people have stopped trying it so we can’t extend the body’s capacity to enjoy it and that’s why when we seek pleasure at the level of impulses the level of bodily impulses we will never be satisfied the world will tell us get this get this get this when we are going on a life journey now we see we see ads we see billboards we see promos and they’re all telling us get this buy this touch this smell this taste this enjoy this and we just get caught aneka chitta vibhranta moha jala samamrita krishna says in the bhagavad-gita and 16 chapter 16 the verse the consciousness gets ripped apart here there there i want this i want that i want that i want all these things in this way people are covered covered by ignorance by illusion not just illusion but a network of illusion very strongly attached to sensual enjoyment the life descends to hellish conditions now how hellish conditions the impulsive when indulge repeatedly becomes compulsive the impulsive when indulge repeatedly becomes compulsive and we do the same thing again and again and again and the desire for it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger say for example here there is a home let’s say two students are staying and here there is a college and along the way there is a drug joint where somebody’s selling drugs now one student has decided i’m not going to take drugs that’s what they learned from their parents that’s what they have understood with their intelligence and it is passed by they don’t even think about it the other student thinks maybe i can go and take let me explore this you take once and once they take next time whenever the student passes by that drug joint you think oh maybe i can go and take it they indulge in it again second time third time fourth time then even before they come to that they see the drug joint their thoughts have already gone over there they’re just caught in it and sometimes when people become addicted the first thought that comes in their mind when they wake up is i have to get some drugs so initially so drug addicts and they try to recover from the addiction they often tell their counsellors that initially they take drugs to get high but eventually they take drugs simply to feel normal initially taking drugs seems to be some pleasure but afterwards not taking drugs causes so much pain the torment of not taking of the torment of the craving for drugs is so great that they take it just to feel normal so what happens is when we repeatedly indulge in some pleasure then krishna says 16.12 in the bhagavad gita he states that desire asha is like pash it’s like a rope it ties us so what happens if a person starts taking drugs repeatedly for that person between them and the drugs an invisible rope is formed and each time they take the drug the rope becomes thicker and tighter and it pulls them more and more and more so in this way people are bound by hundreds of desires which act like shackles and so the person who is addicted actually they started off in the search for pleasure thought oh by taking drugs i’ll feel i’ll feel great and enjoy life but what happened far from enjoying life they became bound they became enslaved now physically they may be free and today our age we are very often proud that now we have almost abolished slavery in the past centuries so in human such a in human practise and there was some humans made other humans into slaves we have abolished that yes we have abolished physical slavery but we have adopted psychological slavery what do you mean by that we have abolished physical slavery but we have adopted psychological slavery psychological Political slavery means that people are bound, addicted. In the history of the world, there have always been people who have succumbed to self-destructive behavioural patterns.
But the sheer scale of the number of people who are bound, whether it is to smoking, whether it is to drinking, whether it is to drugs, there are so many different forms of addictions. They are addicted to it, it is mind-bogglingly large. And these people are physically free, but psychologically, they are bound.
They may go here, they may say, I can go here, I can go there, I can go there, I can go there. But what happens? They can’t go very far. That desire drags them.
And wherever they go, they have to seek, they have to crave, they crave for that object and that craving pulls them down. So the search for impulsive pleasure ends in compulsive bondage. It becomes compulsive, it becomes bondage.
So what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that which tastes like nectar in the beginning will taste like poison in the end. परिणामे विष्यमिव, it is like poison in the end, like nectar in the beginning, I can eat what I want, I can drink what I want, I can watch what I want, I can touch whatever I want, I am free. But what we call as freedom is actually misleading.
There are two kinds of freedoms. There is freedom for and there is freedom from. Our culture today glamorises the freedom for.
Whatever I want to do, I should be able to do it. I want that freedom. Yes, freedom is a good thing, but we have to see the result of that freedom.
The whole idea that we want freedom so that we can pursue happiness. But if there is a kind of freedom that actually deprives us of happiness, then that is not really freedom. So what I mean by freedom for and freedom from.
Say those two students were passing by on the same path to a school, say they are brothers. And one of them says, no, I am not going to take drugs. Others say, I want to be free.
No one should tell me what I should take, what I should not take. The second person wants the freedom for taking drugs. But the freedom for taking drugs leads to the addiction to drugs.
So when we talk of freedom only in terms of freedom for, I want to do what I want to do. Then we often end up bound. The other student may say, no, okay, I am not going to do this.
You are being deprived, you are not enjoying. But actually that student has got freedom from the desire for drugs. The student just passes by.
The other student, whenever they pass by, they think, should I take it, should I not take it? Should I take it, should I not take it? Even if they decide not to take it, still there is so much mental energy that is expended in that inner battle. But somebody decided, I am not going to take it, what happens to them? They are free from that desire, free from that craving, free from that addiction. And being free, so freedom from is also an important form of freedom.
So when in spiritual life we are told to follow certain disciplines, don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this. Sometimes it may feel very restrictive, why can’t I do this, why can’t I do that? But the point is, those are not for deprivation. They are for protection.
The regulations that are there in spiritual life, they are not for deprivation. If we define freedom only in terms of freedom for, why am I told not to do this, why am I told not to do that? But they are actually, if we understand freedom from, then by not doing those things, we are protected from a lot of trouble. So we need to redefine freedom, not just as freedom for, but freedom from.
So we all have impulses. And the more we feed the impulses, the stronger we become. And what most people call as freedom today, that is the freedom to act on their impulses.
That is what they call as freedom. But when we insist on the freedom to act on our impulses, we lose the freedom to act according to our intentions. Because as the impulses become stronger and stronger, then we just can’t think of anything apart from the impulses.
If Newton had been a food addict, as soon as he had seen the fruit falling, he would have eaten it. Couldn’t have thought of anything else. So the more we define freedom only in terms of freedom for acting according to our impulses, then we lose the freedom for acting according to our intentions.
So freedom from our impulses enhances the freedom for acting according to our intentions. So freedom is not such a simple concept. And in spiritual life, it is not that we are being restricted.
We are being facilitated to go towards higher pleasures. So this is about simple sensual pleasures. Even at the material level, if we want to achieve something worthwhile, even for that we need to resist our impulses.
Say for example, if some researcher finds something, for example Edison, he found how a bulb works. How did he do that? Hundreds, thousands of times he tried various experiments. This doesn’t work, this doesn’t work, this doesn’t work.
And finally he found a formula that works. So even in material life, if a person is impulsive, they cannot even achieve anything materially worthwhile. Or to speak of spiritually worthwhile.
Even achieving something materially worthwhile requires the subordination of the impulse to the intelligence. So the Bhagavad Gita says that the fulfilling often lies beneath the demanding. The fulfilling, that which is fulfilling, that lies beneath the demanding.
That means something is very difficult to do. We pass through the demanding phase, only then we get to the fulfilling phase. So somebody who practises, who is an expert at music, they don’t just become an expert at music overnight.
They practise for hours and years. And it is not easy. Even if somebody likes music, it is not that every time when they go for a practise they enjoy the practise.
Sometimes they also feel, I don’t want to practise, it is too much. But then they perceive it. It is demanding.
But then they give an excellent performance. And that is so fulfilling. The fulfilling lies behind the demanding.
And unless one goes through the demanding phase, one cannot come to the fulfilling phase. This applies even in material life. Why is that? Because for doing anything well, we need to train our bodies.
We need to train our minds. We need to train our faculties. And this same principle, that the fulfilling lies behind the demanding, this applies in our spiritual life also.
The Bhagavad Gita says, यत्तद अग्रे विशमिव परिणामे अमृतोपमं तत् सुखं सात्विकं प्रोक्तं आत्मबुद्धी प्रसादजम् In 18.37 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that, that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the end. This means that when we are striving to serve Krishna, why should we serve Krishna? Because we are, at our core, spiritual beings, souls. The soul is eternal and the soul longs for eternal happiness.
There are many different kinds of pleasures, but the highest happiness comes through love. We want a big house, a big car, a good phone, we want good looks. We want all these because we hope that these will make us more lovable.
And when I have all these things, then people will love me. However, when we get these things, then people love those things, not us. People love the wealthy, not their wealth.
So people love the wealth, not the wealthy. So actually speaking, yes, if we want to fulfil our longing for love, we don’t have to go outside to get more things. We need to go inside to understand who we really are.
Fulfilling our love by going outside to acquire more and more things. That only leads to frustration because people love those things. But fulfilling our longing for love by going inside to understand who we really are.
That helps us understand that I am a soul. I am eternally a part of Krishna. And Krishna already loves me.
So it is not that I have to find someone who will love me. Already Krishna loves me. I just need to redirect my love towards him.
And the whole process of Bhakti Yoga is meant to redirect our heart from the world to Krishna. That doesn’t mean that we reject the world, but it means we put Krishna first. We put Krishna first.
We connect with Krishna and when we connect with him, in loving devotion, we at our core as souls are eternal, Krishna is eternal. And our love for Krishna can also be eternal. And thus we can find lasting happiness.
So this process of redirecting our love from the world to Krishna, this is a demanding process. Because the mind will again, I want this pleasure, I want that pleasure, I want that pleasure. But actually that pleasure will always be at best an anticlimax.
Little pleasure will be there, afterwards it’s over. It will never live up to its promise. So to drag our mind away from worldly pleasures and to fix it on Krishna, it requires effort.
It is demanding. But when we do it, then the result is profoundly fulfilling. When we become connected with Krishna, when we become absorbed in Krishna, then the fulfilment that we experience in that connection, there is nothing that can compare with it.
Sukha Taram Aparam Naja Tu Jaane Hari Charan Smarana Amrute Na Tuliyam It said that Sukha Taram Aparam Naja Tu Jaane I don’t know any happiness that can compare with the happiness of Hari Charan Smarana Amrute Na Tuliyam The happiness of remembering Lord Hari. Because when we love someone and we remember that person, we feel joy. Krishna is a supremely lovable person.
When we remember him, we feel the greatest joy. This is what saints who have redirected their love from this world to Krishna, they tell us. There is no happiness in this world that can compare with the happiness of loving Krishna.
So this process of redirecting our love from the world to Krishna, it is demanding. But like anything worthwhile in the world, at the other end of demanding lies the fulfilling. So the impulses are, I want to enjoy this, I want to enjoy that, I want to enjoy this.
But the intelligence will tell us, all this, it is a temple. It will give little pleasure, it will cause misery afterwards because it will bind me. With my intelligence, we resist the impulses and we focus on Krishna.
We focus on Krishna and in that connection with Krishna, we experience the greatest joy. So if we are purpose-filled, purpose-filled means, my purpose is to move closer to Krishna, to redirect my heart from this world to Krishna. Then when the pleasures come, the pleasures won’t distract us.
Why is that? Because we will understand that suppose somebody is going on a path and they know at the end of that path they are going to meet some relative, some grandfather, grandmother who has left a big inheritance for them, say a billion dollars. And along the way, if they see, oh, there is a dollar coin falling over here, a ten dollar note over there, a fifty dollar note over there. They won’t chase after all those notes.
These notes are going to take me away from the path at the end of which there is a billion dollars waiting for me. But if they don’t know that there is a billion dollars at the end over there, then wherever they see, oh, there is a dollar coin over there, I chase after that. Oh, there is a ten dollar note over there, I chase after that.
There is a twenty dollar note over there, I’ll go after that. So seeking a pleasure-filled life means wherever I see a note, I start chasing after that. But seeking a purpose-filled life means that we focus on that one billion dollar treasure that lies at the end of our journey.
Not after these small notes that are here and there. So the worldly pleasures, there is some pleasure over there, but they are like small dollar bills. Spiritual happiness that comes by loving Krishna is like a billion dollar treasure.
And if our eyes are not fixed on that billion dollar treasure, then we feel, why should I lose this? Why should I lose this? Why should I lose that? But if our eyes are fixed on that and chasing this, why should I lose that? So why should I lose a billion dollar for just a dollar or ten dollars? So that way, by our intelligence, by studying scripture regularly, understanding spiritual wisdom, we will have our priorities clear. If I can get this, that is fine. But the more important thing is that if along the way I get this, I’ll take this dollar note.
But I won’t leave my path to get this dollar note. I want to stay on the path to getting the billion dollars. Even at the material level, the process of bhakti is inclusive.
That means it doesn’t tell us we have to reject the material to get the spiritual. It tells us that we put Krishna first. And after putting Krishna first, we connect everything else with Krishna.
So we all have certain talents, we have certain interests, we have certain abilities and we are meant to use them properly. So we do this in a mood of service. Krishna says, He says, by your work, you can worship that Lord.
And by worshipping that Lord through your work, you can attain perfection. So Krishna is saying that whatever work we may be doing, according to our nature, we do that work in a mood of worship to Him. So, I conclude with this point that what we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. What we are, it is God’s gift to us. All of us are unique.
Everyone of us is made different. And there is a purpose for that. All of us can make our own distinct contributions with our talents, with our interests, with our specific set of talents and interests combined together.
That is God’s gift to us. Unfortunately, when we are just pleasure-filled, our goal is simply pleasure, then we are always comparing. Oh, this person looks better than me.
And therefore, I don’t have such good looks. This person has more memory than me. This person has better strength than me.
This person has more wealth than me. And then, by such comparison, we don’t focus on what we have. But, if you understand, what I have is what I need for my spiritual growth.
So, what I have is what I need for my spiritual growth. If God had wanted me to be someone else, He would have made someone else. It is not that I have to become like someone else.
God wants me to become the best me. He doesn’t want me to become someone else. So, what we are is Krishna’s gift to us.
Simple example to illustrate this. Say, after this programme, we are having prasad. So, not saying we have prasad, but suppose we have a special kind of prasad.
That is, everybody will have different items in their plate. So, you will have a different feast, she will have a different feast, I will have a different feast. So, I go for the prasad, and I have delicious items in my plate.
But, I am looking at what has he got, what has she got, what have they got. I have my feast. But, instead of looking at the feast I have, I start looking at who else has.
And what happens? I feel dissatisfied. So, this is how we stay perpetually dissatisfied in material life. We all have our gifts.
But, instead of discovering our gifts, instead of developing our gifts, instead of making our contributions, we look at what others have. And, often in society, certain things are glamorised. Good looks are glamorised, good memories are glamorised, or whatever things are glamorised.
And, if we don’t have those, we always start feeling sorry for ourselves. But, if you understand, what I am is God’s gift to me. And, what I have is what I need for making my contribution, for my spiritual evolution.
Then, that self-acceptance is the foundation for self-development. Self-acceptance is the foundation for self-development. I am the only resource that I have which I can develop.
So, if I am resenting what I am, how can I develop myself? If I am simply craving, why am I not like that? How can I develop myself? So, this self-acceptance comes when we see life from the perspective of the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is to love Krishna, to serve Krishna, and to attain Krishna. If our life is pleasure-driven, I want this pleasure, I want that pleasure, all of us will find that we have certain limitations which will prevent us from getting certain pleasures.
I can’t get this because I am not like this. I can’t get this because I am not like that. But if our purpose is to serve Krishna, we have what it takes to serve Krishna.
And in this way, we can march forward. So, even from the material perspective, from the spiritual perspective, having the purpose of serving Krishna will help us to connect with Krishna, to love Krishna, and to attain highest happiness, eternal happiness. But even from the material perspective, once we accept my purpose is to serve Krishna, then here in this world also, we will be able to contribute better.
Because we will see what talents I have, what interests I have, and what I am is Krishna’s gift to me. What I become is my gift to Krishna. So, let me bring out my best.
I don’t have to bring out someone else’s best. I have to bring out my best. And in that way, even in this world, we can make worthwhile contributions.
we can make worthwhile contributions. Because we are not driven by our impulses even at the material level. Oh, this feels good.
This person has this quality which is so nice. I want this. This person has this thing which is so nice.
Why don’t I have it? We are not driven by impulses like that. We are driven by our intelligence. This is what I am, and this is what I need to be.
So, let me bring out my best. So, when we accept ourselves, when we focus on serving Krishna, then that enables us to bring out the best within us. All the negativities, all the fears, all the inferiorities that check us from bringing out our best, they get removed.
And in this way, our best comes out. And in this way, our best comes out. Just as Arjuna became the best archer in the service of Krishna.
Similarly, we can bring out our best and make worthwhile contributions and make worthwhile contributions while progressing towards the supreme satisfaction beyond this world. So, I will summarise. I spoke today on the topic of Seek not a pleasure-filled life.
Seek a purpose-filled life. So, somebody going on a road to a particular destination, if they just keep going wherever they see good sights, then they will not get to their destination. Like that, in our life journey, if we just keep going wherever we get some pleasure, then we will not attain lasting happiness.
then we will not attain lasting happiness. So, when you talk about pleasure, I explained that the terms we need to understand. Terms are like verbal handles for concepts which are like intellectual.
So, pleasure is a term and the concept is we all want happiness. So, when you use the word pleasure, I am using it primarily for material pleasure. So, material pleasure is something which if we keep seeking, we will be distracted.
By our very nature, we seek happiness. But we need to seek happiness at the spiritual level. How do we understand the difference between material and spiritual pleasure? Material pleasure is we are all living beings are driven by impulses.
Impulses to eat, to sleep, to mate, to show off their power. We human beings are also driven by those impulses. But we have the capacity to subordinate those impulses to the intelligence.
Like scientific progress, Newton discovered gravity that was because he subordinated the impulse to eat to the intelligence. What made this fruitful? That intelligent question. Like that, in any field of life, we progress when we subordinate the impulse to the intelligence.
And we human beings need to subordinate our impulse to the intelligence. If we don’t do it, then because we have developed consciousness, we seek more pleasure than what the body can offer. And when we seek that more pleasure at the bodily level, we injure the body.
Like humans alone suffer from obesity as a morbid condition. All living beings eat, but we overeat so much that we hurt ourselves. And when we seek pleasures at the bodily level, materialistic culture makes us believe that because we don’t have good enough sense objects, that’s why we are not enjoying.
But even if we got the best objects, we would not enjoy, we would not be happy because the limitation is there in our body’s capacity to enjoy itself. Even if we owned a 7-star hotel, how much we could eat is limited by our stomach’s capacity. The Egyptian pharaohs tried to use painless formatting pills, but they simply injured themselves.
So, not only does material pleasure, this impulsive pleasure not satisfy our search for happiness, it also binds us to misery. The impulsive by repeated indulgence becomes compulsive. The student who takes drugs once, twice, thrice eventually is bound by that desire.
So, initially they may take drugs to get high, eventually they start taking drugs just to feel normal. So, taking drugs does not give pleasure, not taking drugs causes misery. The invisible rope that is bound them to the drug.
We have abolished physical slavery, but we have adopted extensive psychological slavery in today’s world. And to break free from this slavery, we need to redefine freedom. Freedom is not just freedom for, it is also freedom from.
When we say freedom for, that often is freedom for acting on our impulses. And that simply makes us bound. But freedom from means, freedom from acting as per our impulses.
The student who has decided not to take drugs, so much mental energy in yes, no, yes, no to drugs is saved. And the student can do better things. So, freedom from the impulses provides freedom for the intelligence.
Freedom for acting intelligently. And with our intelligence we understand that I have a longing for eternal happiness. I at my core am eternal and when I find an eternal object for love, that alone will give me eternal happiness.
So, in this world we seek pleasure in various things, in various relationships. At best, it can offer us temporary pleasure. At best, it is an anticlimax.
So, we need to redirect our love from the world to Krishna. This is demanding. But at the other end of the demanding lies the fulfilling.
So, when we become connected with Krishna, through love, that will bring life’s supreme satisfaction. And not only does bhakti provide spiritual satisfaction, but it also provides material satisfaction. How? Because materially, when we are always comparing ourselves with others, we stay dissatisfied.
But if you understand, what I am is God’s gift to me. Then that brings self-acceptance. What I have is what I need for my spiritual growth, for making my contribution.
That self-acceptance, like accepting, I have a feast, somebody else has a different feast. But my feast is also delicious. So, focus on enjoying one’s own feast.
Like that, when we do, that self-acceptance enables us to become peaceful, not dissatisfied at the material level. And then we bring out our best. The negativity, the inferiority, the anxiety that blocks us from bringing out our best is removed.
And we can contribute constructively. Only when we are purpose-filled. If we are pleasure-filled, whatever material we lack will dominate our mind and we will feel miserable.
But if we are purpose-filled, my purpose is to love and serve Krishna. And in this world, I will serve Him with what I have been given. That way, we can be satisfied in this life as much as is possible.
And ultimately, when we attain Krishna, we get eternal happiness. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So, are there any questions? Yes, please. Just one detail. You mentioned one verse at the end of your class that there is no pleasure from there to remember Krishna.
Yes, that pleasure is from the Mukunda Mala Stotra by Kulashekhar Maharaj. Kulashekhar Maharaj is a great saint. He has written a set of verses called Mukunda Mala Stotra.
So, that is the worst one. Any other questions? If you want to write down on chips, you can send chips also in case you hesitate to ask directly. There are some excellent books here.
If you want to acquire any of these. By reading books, I am just reading, but I am not actually studying the book. I am just reading and going through it.
So, how can I study and learn the scripture rather than just reading? What can I do? So, how can we study scripture rather than simply read them? What is it that makes a difference? What we can know depends on what we know. This is the basic principle in knowledge acquisition. What we can know depends on what we know.
Now, say some uneducated villager comes to a stock market exchange and this graph is going down. Everybody is panicking and this person says, some line has gone down, why are you so panicking? So, when they don’t know anything about graphs, when they don’t know anything about economics, even seeing the graph going down doesn’t make any sense. So, what we can know depends on what we know.
So, when we study scripture initially, it is often very difficult to connect with scripture. Not because scripture itself is difficult to understand, it is because our knowledge of what scripture is saying is so limited. That’s why in initial stages, we learn much more by hearing than by studying.
So, we associate with devotees, we hear classes and then we understand enough so that we can understand scripture. So, what we can know depends on what we know. So, initially, it is always good to hear classes and by hearing we can learn.
And if you want to study a specific book, then we can try to find out if some devotees, some spiritual teachers have actually spoken on that book. Now with internet available, we can get classes from different parts of the world also. So, whichever book we want to study, we find out if somebody has given classes on that subject.
And if we find out a spiritual teacher who has given classes which we can connect with, which just makes sense to us, then we read the book and we hear the class on that subject. So, we read Bhagavad Gita verse, we hear a class on the Bhagavad Gita, that verse and we try to correlate. And that way our understanding will deepen.
And gradually, as our knowledge increases more and more, then when we study scripture more, we will be able to connect more, we will be able to understand better. So, Srila Prabhupada wrote his books and also, even when devotees were very young, 2-3 years old in the moment, that time he told them, you should give classes. Why? Because by those classes, given by living people in front of them, people can ask questions, people can understand.
And that is also the oral tradition is vital for knowledge dissemination. There is a written tradition. Written tradition is usually for more intellectually minded people to go deeper.
The oral tradition is what primarily starts and stimulates our spiritual understanding. We do need to study the books. The books are our basis.
At the same time, the understanding of the books usually comes much more by hearing. So, if we hear regularly, we can understand much better. Yes? Very logical question.
Talking about regulations, in spiritual life, like right now, people are following the regulations. At some point, there has to come a that actually happens. Okay.
So, right now, we are all practising regulated devotion. So, how will it transform into spontaneous devotion? There are two basic things involved in spiritual growth. One is insight and the second is taste.
First, when we start practising spiritual life, what we get is insight. I am not a body. We get some intellectual understanding of this.
Seeking for lasting happiness beyond this world. This is insight. And this insight is what will keep us moving on the spiritual path in the initial stages.
Jiva Goswami is one of our prominent Acharyas and he says that there is the sadhaka stage and there is the siddha stage. Sadhaka is the seeker stage. Siddha stage is the seer stage.
So, at the seeker stage, what keeps us on the spiritual path is our buddhi, our intelligence, the insight. At the seer stage, what keeps us on the spiritual path is our priti, our love for Krishna, our taste for Krishna. So, at our stage, we need to constantly seek insight.
And with that intellectual understanding, even if the mind goes here, the mind goes there, we bring it back. We focus it on Krishna. This is regulated practise.
By such regulated practise, gradually our tastes change. The mind is like a child. A small child thinks playing is the most serious activity in the world for the child.
You just want to play, play, play. When a child grows, it is not that the child starts playing. The child doesn’t start hating the childhood toys.
But as the child grows, the child outgrows those toys. There are better things to do in life. Those toys are there, but there are better things to do in life.
Like that, as we grow spiritually, we outgrow worldly pleasures. It is not initially sometimes we may hate worldly pleasures. They are distracting us from our spiritual life.
But hatred is quite a negative phenomenon. We don’t have to hate anything in this world. Just outgrow them.
Those pleasures are there. But life is meant for something bigger. As we grow up spiritually, we start getting more and more attracted to Krishna.
That’s how the taste develops. How exactly does this taste happen? To understand this, let’s say there is a wall. On that wall, somebody has written graffiti.
There are two ways to remove the graffiti. One is, we scratch it out. The second is, we overpaint it.
Both these ways are ways in which the graffiti can be removed. Like that, the soul, which is what we are, the soul has natural love for Krishna. But the soul is covered by worldly graffiti.
It is covered by craving for this, longing, hankering for that. All these worldly pleasures are covering it up. So when we are practising bhakti, we are essentially overpainting our mind.
We are exposing ourselves to Krishna more and more from different directions. As we expose ourselves more and more, these Krishna conscious impressions start forming on our mind. When we take darshan, when we do kirtan, when we attend satsang, when we sing, when we behold the Lord, when we hear spiritual wisdom, it is not just intellectual.
This is actually impressional. The impressions are being formed inside us. And those impressions are like overpainting.
And what will happen? The spontaneity with which we are attracted to sense objects. The mind is basically like a machine. It is a mechanical device.
Whatever we do repeatedly, the mind gets attached to that. So if we keep doing devotional activities repeatedly, that repetition itself will lead to attraction. It is a psychological principle.
But beyond that, repetition is like overpainting by which repetition leads to attraction to Krishna. That is a psychological principle. But beyond that, two more factors are involved.
The second factor is that when we are repeating, we are actually not just repeating any ordinary sound. We are repeating the sound of Krishna’s name, which is all-purifying. So what happens? The contact with Krishna, He is all-pure, and He purifies us.
So it is also like, at one level we are overpainting, but at another level, whatever graffiti was there, that is also getting erased because Krishna purifies us. So bhakti itself brings pure impressions, but whatever impure impressions are there, they also get cleansed out. So purification also leads to the natural attraction of the soul towards Krishna.
The soul has that natural attraction, and through purification that moves further. Third thing is also there is revelation. Revelation means, Krishna is all-attractive, and Krishna reveals His attractiveness to us more and more as we keep practising bhakti.
Sometimes when we come and take darshan of the Lord, sometimes when we chant in kirtans, we sing in kirtans, sometimes we feel some extraordinary pleasure, some deep kind of thrill. It may not last, but sometimes it comes. When it comes, we understand, this is a glimpse I am getting of what lies ahead for me.
And we just keep persevering. That revelation, when it comes, it just conquers our heart. The revelation is also coming gradually when we get these glimpses of spiritual happiness.
But as we keep practising bhakti, a revelation will come, and Krishna will conquer our heart. At that time, the worldly pleasures, there will be no need to resist them. Now the worldly pleasures seem attractive, and we have to use our intelligence to resist them.
So now at that time, the force with which we are attracted towards worldly pleasures, at that time with that force and more, we will be attracted towards Krishna. So now what happens is, even when Krishna is there, we are attracted to sense objects. Then even when sense objects are there, we will be attracted to Krishna.
So through this process, three things, the repetition leading to attraction, through the purification that comes by contact with all attractive Krishna, and through the revelation of Krishna, the purification that comes by contact with all pure Krishna, and the revelation of all attractiveness of Krishna, by all this, our taste changes from this world to Krishna. But to persevere in this, we need to act at the level of insight and intelligence. Even if I am attracted to worldly things, with regulation, with discipline, I focus myself on Krishna.
And as our taste changes, then we naturally, organically rise from regulated devotion to spontaneous devotion. Does it answer your question? Is revelation analogous to mercy? Yes, it is. But mercy comes in many ways.
Even the opportunity to practise bhakti is also mercy. Even the association of devotees is also mercy. And the taste that we get in remembrance of Krishna, the taste that we get in remembrance of Krishna, that is also mercy.
So we could say, revelation is one of the highest forms of mercy. It is not the only form of mercy. Even among the millions and billions of people, we are the few who have got the opportunity to practise bhakti.
प्रम्हाण्ड ब्रह्मिते कोन भग्यवान जीव। गुरु कृष्ण पसादे पाए, भक्यिलता बीच। There are, by the mercy of the Lord and the spiritual Master, there are few souls, fortunate souls, who get the opportunity to practise bhakti. So, just that opportunity is also mercy. But that revelation, we could say, is one of the highest forms of mercy.
Does it answer your question? Do any of the Matajis have any questions? Yes, go on. You mentioned that when we are practising bhakti, our minds get disconnected. When we are doing something, we have a real connection with what is happening.
If we have a job, if we have something to do, if this is something real, then why do we get disconnected? Maybe we have something real inside, but we don’t have something tangible to connect with. So how do we make this more connected? Let me see if I have understood your question. When we are trying to connect with Krishna, there are real objects in this world, which distract us away.
And they are real concerns, the practical issues which we have to deal with. On the other hand, when we connect with Krishna, there doesn’t seem to be anything tangible with which we can connect. So how can we reconnect with Krishna and not be distracted by the world? Is that your question? Actually, at our stage, connection is essentially a process of reconnection, a continued process of reconnection.
We will get disconnected from Krishna, again reconnected. We are disconnected, we again connect. Now when a plane is going from one destination to another, tomorrow I am going from Montreal to Toronto, 90% of the time, the plane is off course.
Because there is a wind pressure, there is an atmospheric condition, there is a momentum of the plane, the plane is off course. What gets the plane on course, what keeps the plane, what ensures the plane reaches the destination is reorientation. The pilot or the autopilot, whatever it is, it reorients.
The wind makes the plane go up, reorient. Like when we are driving a car. In the car, a little bit we move the wheels, it comes back on track.
Again we move the wheels, it comes back on track. So like that, our spiritual journey also, disoriented, again we reorient. Disoriented, again we reorient.
That’s how we grow in our spiritual life. And that is why periodic spiritual association is required. Regularly.
So once a week we come to temple for programmes, or whatever frequency it is, we come in the association of devotees. That reminds us, this is also important. Because the nature of the world is that it will make us feel, this is important, this is important.
The way illusion works, the way the forces of illusion, maya works, is different for materialistic people and for devotees. For materialistic people, maya makes you think, spiritual, stop, this is just nonsense. Don’t bother about it.
But for devotees, what maya does is, the forces of illusion, they say, spiritual, it’s important, but this is urgent. This is urgent, and this is urgent, and this is urgent, and this is urgent. And in that way we stay caught in the urgent, and we never make time for the urgent.
But when we come in association, remember, this is important, I have to make time for it, this is also urgent. So that reorientation happens when we come in association of devotees. So similarly, that is maybe we come weekly once, or whatever frequency it is.
But coming periodically in association is very important. And even in our day, if we have a schedule by which we make time on a regular basis, so I get disoriented, so every morning I do some spiritual practises. Then that reorients me.
I’ll go off track, I come back on track. So when we are going off track, it’s just that I’m going this way, I go on this way. Now again, I come back this way.
Again I go off that way, again I come back this way. And that way we keep moving forward. Now as we keep practising bhakti more and more, what happens is, initially Krishna is just in the background.
That, oh yes, Krishna is there and I have to serve you. But as we keep practising bhakti, Krishna starts coming in the foreground. We start perceiving Krishna’s presence more and more.
Because what happens? We are getting purified, we are focussing more on Krishna. It’s like anything we do new for the first time. Say we speak in public for the first time.
We are so self-conscious. How I’m looking, how my hair is combed, how my tilak is, how my dress is. We are so self-conscious of other things that we forget what I’m going to speak.
But if we start speaking regularly, then okay, how I look is important. But what I’m speaking is more important. So the externals go in the background and the essence, what I’m speaking, that comes in the foreground.
Similarly, as we keep practising bhakti, we are aware of both. We are aware of Krishna, we are aware of the world also. When we keep practising bhakti more and more, Krishna starts coming more and more in the foreground.
So Vashila Prabhupada, whether he was speaking to two people in a private darshan, in a private meeting with people or whether he was speaking to 20,000 people in a big programme, Prabhupada would speak. Prabhupada was speaking about Krishna for Krishna. He was just as enthusiastic.
He was speaking for Krishna’s pleasure. So we also, as we keep practising bhakti, Krishna starts coming in the foreground. And when Krishna comes in the foreground, the disorientation that is happening, that starts becoming lesser.
You get disoriented, immediately you come back. So we’ll get reoriented faster and faster and faster. And the disorientation will be lesser and lesser and lesser.
And as far as tangibility is concerned, yes, we need to find out what tangible objects in spiritual life can connect me with Krishna. Quickly. In the Bhakti Samhita, the word is used, Uddhipan.
Uddhipan means spiritual stimulus. Just like we all have particular sense objects which captivate us. We may have some movie songs.
If we hear immediately, our mind starts fantasising. We may have some sports. As soon as we start watching, I just want to do this.
So like that, we all have certain metal objects which very quickly trigger our emotions, which capture our consciousness. So like that, we all will have some spiritual objects which immediately trigger our emotions, which capture our consciousness. For some of us, it may be just taking darshan of the favourite deities.
For some of us, it may be hearing Hare Krishna kirtan in a particular dhun. For some of us, it might be just hearing the classes of a particular devotee. For some of us, it might be reciting verses.
So whatever it is that quickly connects us with Krishna, we need to, while practising bhakti, keep observing and finding this thing. Whatever it is that quickly connects us with Krishna, we cherish that as a spiritual sense object. we cherish that as a spiritual sense object.
Just as there are material sense objects, there are spiritual sense objects. And the particular spiritual sense object that quickly draws our consciousness towards Krishna, that is what we should cherish. And we keep that available for us always.
Maybe as a picture of the deity, music, shlokas, whatever it is. Or sometimes it might just be some quotable quotes. We hear some nice quotes, nice thoughts, write them down, keep them in our phone, whenever we start getting agitated, just read.
So we find out some tangible manifestations of Krishna conscious wisdom or Krishna conscious culture or Krishna himself ultimately and we keep them readily accessible. That way, when the disconnection happens, the reconnection can happen faster. So essentially, connection with Krishna is a process of continuing reconnection.
And that continuing reconnection can happen by repeated practise of bhakti periodically in external association of devotees, by regularly doing our own sadhana, by purification by which Krishna from the background comes to the foreground and by exposing ourselves more and more to our particular uddhipan, the particular sense objects that immediately connect us with Krishna. Does that answer your question? Thank you very much.