Understanding how Krishna is everything and controls everything even amidst worldly sufferings

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Montreal, Canada]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So, this is Krishnamadbhagavatam where Yamaraja is beginning his instruction to the Amadhutas. They suspect that because their order has violated, probably there is some controller superior. And Yamaraja is saying, yes, there is one supreme controller who is other than me.
And I will focus on two points in this verse that the Lord pervades all of existence like just like threads pervade the whole cloth, like threads. And then secondly, just as an animal is controlled by a rope through the nose, like that the Lord controls the whole cosmic manifestation. So, Krishna’s pervasiveness and Krishna’s controllership.
These two things we will try to understand today. Now, firstly, there are various levels at which we may approach. We may perceive a God.
The atheists think there is no God. The polytheists think that there are many Gods. The monotheists think there is one God.
The monists think that I am God. The devotees understand that there is only God. The difference between ordinary monotheists, like say in the Christianity and Islam, they have understood there is God and I am here.
So, there is a very rigid differentiation between us and God. Now, that is true. But actually, Vasudevah Sarvamiti Samatma Sudurlama.
That Vasudev is everything. God is everything. That means there is only God that exists.
Ahaṁ evāsaṁ evāgare nānyat sattva-sattvaraṁ. In the Chaturthi Bhagavatam, in the very first verse it is said that I alone existed in the beginning, I alone exist now, and I alone will exist in the future. The Lord is telling.
Now, I alone, Jiva Goswami explains. What does it mean? It means that Krishna includes all his energies. So, God alone exists means that we, we also exist obviously, but we are not isolated beings utterly disconnected from God.
We are also parts of Krishna. This table, this floor, this city, everything is energy of Krishna. Everything is connected with Krishna.
So, in the ultimate sense, the highest understanding is that God alone exists. And we exist of course, but we exist as his parts. So, to conceive that anything exists separate from God, to see anything as having meaning in its existence separate from God, that is māyā.
rūte arthaṁ yat-pratiye na pratiye icchātman tam vidyālātmano māyā yathā bhāso yathā tam ahaṁ. To think, oh, this thing is so attractive, it will give me pleasure, let me go and get it. That itself is illusion.
That thing exists, that thing is attractive, but to see it disconnected from Krishna, that is illusion. So, just as a cloth, the cloth, especially if we have, the cloth is essentially nothing but threads. Threads which have gone horizontal, especially in the past when cloth was woven, this would be even more obvious.
Initially, we just start with a pile of maybe threads, and we just pull it, thread it horizontally, vertically, and after that we get a cloth. And once we get a cloth, we may not even notice that actually this is made of threads. But the cloth has nothing but threads in it.
Now, when the threads come together in a particular pattern, then they have different shapes. They call this, okay, a kurta, this is a sari, this is a dhoti, this is a trousers, whatever it is. But ultimately, all these names are there for particular objects which have particular uses.
But essentially, they are nothing but the threads which have gone otamparotam, which has gone horizontal and vertical. So, just as the cloth is ultimately nothing but threads, similarly, everything that exists is nothing but God. Now, this has to be carefully understood.
There is pantheism. Pantheism is the idea that everything is God. Now, the Bhagavad Gita is not saying sarvam vasudevati.
It is saying vasudeva sarvam iti. That means it is not saying everything is God. It is saying God is everything.
What is the difference between the two? Everything is God means everything is worshipable. It is not that we start worshiping this wall, we start worshiping this table, we start worshiping the streets. We understand that everything, because God is present in everything, because everything is God’s energy, everything is connected with him.
So, in that sense, God manifests through everything. So, we see when in the famous past time, that when soon Narasimha Chaturdashi is coming, when Hiranyakashipu asks Prahlad, where is your Vishnu? He says he is everywhere. So, then Hiranyakashipu asks, is he there in this pillar? So, of course, if he is everywhere, that means he is in this pillar also.
And then Hiranyakashipu goes and smashes that pillar. And then out of that, a deafening sound comes and Narasimhadeva emerges. And then Lord Narasimhadeva delivers Hiranyakashipu and delivers Prahlad.
Both of them in different ways, but it is a deliverance for both of them. But now, after Narasimhadeva emerges, you know Prahlad has said that Narasimha, that the Lord is everywhere, he is there in the pillar also. Prahlad does not go and garland the pillar.
He goes and garlands the Lord. That is the difference. There are pantheists who say everything is God.
So, their idea is that God has no self-existence beyond everything. And this, whatever it is you want to worship, you can worship. That is not our understanding.
It is not Sarvam Vasudevaiti, not that everything is God. Rather, God is everything. That means God pervades in everything.
God manifests, God can manifest through everything. Everything is God’s energy. But at the same time, God also has his self-existence.
And in his self-existence is where we primarily worship. We do not go about worshipping tables and chairs and trees and stones and things like that. We recognize they are also energy of God.
In that sense, they are also connected with him. But the point which I am making here is that the vision that Krishna is only far away up there in the spiritual world and I am struggling and suffering here in the material world. It is not that God is somewhere up there.
God is there right here, in here. He is with us closer than the closest. Even if a person who loves us embraces us very tightly, still that person cannot come as close to us as Krishna always is.
So, Krishna pervades all of existence. Krishna is closer than the closest. He is always that way.
This means Krishna’s all-pervasiveness, it is meant to help us understand that Krishna is not remote and inaccessible. Krishna is very proximate and very accessible. So actually, there is an understanding that everything is God, that is called as Pantheism.
But the idea is, people say there is no need to worship any particular form because God is diffused in everything. He is in the mountains, he is in the sky, he is in the wind, he is in the rivers, he is in everything. That is not our understanding.
God also has a self-existence beyond all these things. So, in that sense, if there is an English equivalent to our understanding, the Bhakti understanding is called as Pantheism. Pantheism means God is everything and God is more.
God pervades all of nature, but God exists beyond nature also. So, here the emphasis is being made that you are thinking, oh Yamadutaji, that this is my jurisdiction, that you are accustomed to me, Yamraj, as the controller. But my jurisdiction is limited and even in my jurisdiction, the Lord is still in control.
He has simply given me some power. He is pervading everything. So, that is He pervades everything.
He is all-pervasive and this means that He can be accessed everywhere. Krishna is not just the God of the temple. He is the God of the office.
He is the God of the home. He is the God of the traffic. He is the God of the airways.
He is the God of space. He is the God of everything. And as devotees, we can pray and connect with Him anywhere.
Srila Prabhupada left the place where Krishna was directly manifested, Vrindavan, and came to America, where apparently Krishna was not manifested. Once Srila Prabhupada was going for a morning walk. At that time, the devotees normally would take him to some scenic place like a park or a lake.
One day, they just lost the way and they took him to some ghettos. So, it was a very unclean, dirty looking place and the devotees became apologetic. Sorry Prabhupada, we lost the way.
We came here. Prabhupada says, can’t you see? This is Vaikuntha. This is Vaikuntha.
What do you mean Vaikuntha? Prabhupada said, what is Vaikuntha? Where Krishna is glorified, that is where the Lord manifests. That is where I reside, and that is Vaikuntha. So, Prabhupada was there, the devotees were there.
Prabhupada is glorifying Krishna. There also the spiritual world can manifest. So, Krishna does have His personal existence, but Krishna’s personality does not imply His remoteness or inaccessibility.
Just like say, there is the head of state of Canada. That person is sitting in some place, in some place, and for us, it’s very difficult for him to meet, for us to meet, because he is far away, one particular place. So, Krishna has His personality, but the personality does not imply inaccessibility, because He is not just far away.
Krishna is also there pervading all of existence. He is there in our heart also. This is about Krishna’s pervasiveness.
And the second point is that Krishna’s controllership. So, here it is again, just as an animal may be controlled by a rope through its nose, like that all living beings are controlled. So, now this has to be again carefully understood.
All of us have been given different, all of us have inherently free will. As souls, Krishna has made all of us in such a way that He has given us free will. So, sometimes people ask, okay, if God is supreme, if God is good and God is all good and all powerful, why doesn’t He stop the evil that is happening in the world? Couldn’t God have stopped the millions of Jews from being killed during the Holocaust? Couldn’t God have done this? Couldn’t God have done that? So, there are some people think that, you know, I saw once a humanitarian relief organization, their slogan.
Some, nowadays, atheists are also becoming very aggressive. What happens is that because religious, some religions are fanatical and those fanatical religions come very much in the media. So, there are some atheists also have become hardline and they also become fanatical.
They say religion is the cause of evil and religion should be removed. So, there is one humanitarian organization which has its slogan, God in double quotes. God sends calamities, we send relief.
So, God causes earthquakes, we provide relief. God causes tsunamis and we provide relief. So, this is the way they are portraying God as the villain.
Now, this is, I will explore further how this is totally wrong, but one way is that we see God as causing everything. So, the bad things happen, that is also God is caused. Another is, okay, God may not be causing it, but why does God stop it? Couldn’t God stop the Holocaust from happening? Couldn’t God stop these things? If God can’t stop, if he is the cause of all these bad things, then how is he good? Or if he can’t stop all these bad things from happening, if he can’t stop these bad things from happening, then how is he controlled? So, we have to understand the example which is given here itself, that when a rope is used to control an animal, that means the rope has a particular length and that much the animal has freedom.
Now, if an animal is tied, if a bull is tied to a pole with a particular rope, then the bull can move around within that rope, within the circumference of that rope’s length. So, if that bull is ferocious and some person comes within the range of that circumference, that bull may go to them. The bull is controlled, but still somebody has gone in the area of the bull.
The bull’s control is not unlimited. It is limited, but still the control is there. So, similarly, Krishna is the supreme controller.
We are all controlled, but at the same time, we all have freedom. Inherently, by our very nature, we are all being given freedom. So, Krishna does not, although he is God, he does not intrude on our freedom.
He never takes away our freedom. That is the arrangement of God. So, by his supreme controllership, he has chosen to give us control over our consciousness.
That means he has chosen to give us free will. So, our free will is by the Lord’s arrangement under his control. And now, how much we can exercise our free will, that is determined by our past karma.
So, just like some bulls, they may be tied with a very short rope and they can move very little. Some bulls may be tied with a long rope and they can move quite a bit. Like that, all of us, based on our past karma, have been given some Kshetra.
Kshetra means field. We could say the area of control. In the Bhagavad Gita, in the 11th chapter, in the 13th chapter, there are two terms.
There is Prakriti and there is Kshetra. There are six subjects that are discussed over there. So, Arjuna asks about six things.
Prakriti, Purusha, Kshetra, Kshetrajna, Jnana and Jnana. These are all technical terms. But suffice it to say for us, there is Prakriti and there is Kshetra.
Prakriti means material nature in general. And Kshetra is the field which refers to the specific area within material nature on which we have some control. So, for example, I have control over my body.
That is my Kshetra. You have control over your body. That is your Kshetra.
Each of us have a certain level of control. So, ant has a very small body. It has a very tiny level of control.
An elephant, it has a huge body. It has much more control. So, now our area of control is determined not just by the physical size of the body that we have, but also the resources that we have with that body.
So, some people might be actually very small in size, but they may have tremendous speaking power. So, Hitler was not a physically formidable person, but he had extraordinary physical power. Sorry, not physical power, verbal power.
He had extraordinary power of speaking. Unfortunately, he used it in a disastrous way for poisoning the whole German country against Jews and against many other people, but he had that speaking power. So, that speaking power was also a result of his past karma.
And by that, so basically our area of influence is determined by the kind of gifts that we have and the way we use them. So, some people may have managerial power. They know, okay, you do this, you do this.
They can just understand how to get people to do things and whom to tell what to do. They have that knack. Some people may have financial power.
They are physically again small in size, but they have a lot of money. So, basically, whether it is money or speaking ability or managerial ability or say political ability or whatever it is, all these determine our scope of control. We all have free will, but how much the free will can enable us to control things? That is determined by our Kshetra.
And our Kshetra, our field of control, we could say, is determined by our past karma. So, within the jurisdiction, within the law of karma, which is under the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the ultimate controller.
The law of karma is what he uses for controlling things. So, it is not that Krishna has to be personally involved at every moment in managing every single thing. He has set up systems.
The law of karma works and based on that, different people have been given different areas of control. So, now, within their area of control, they may choose to do good, they may choose to do bad. And that is by their free will.
So, that Hitler, say, killed almost 6 million Jews. Now, is that something which Krishna wanted? No. Krishna doesn’t want bad things to happen to anyone.
Krishna is surudham sarva-bhutana. He is the well-wisher of all living beings. But there are some people, like Hitler in that particular case, who misuse their free will.
And based on their past karma, they have been given a particular jurisdiction, a particular scope for executing their free will. So, if they misuse their free will, then that is their problem. The suffering that happens to people, it is not because of God.
It is because of these people misusing their free will. And now you may say, but what about people who are innocent? Why should they suffer? Yes, there is a further thing over there. That, you know, whatever happens to us, it’s a result of our past karma.
So, the people who suffered, they had done some past karma because of which they had to suffer. And Hitler became the instrument for them to cause the suffering. But the important thing is to understand that God is not the cause of bad things happening.
So, when we say Krishna is the controller, yes, he is the controller. But he has given free will. And based on karma, he gives different people different areas within which to use the free will.
One time, Sri Prabhupada was giving a class. And suddenly, some person got up and started shouting at Prabhupada. You are doing this, you are doing that, you are doing that.
Prabhupada just stayed silent. That person just got spent and walked out of there. And Prabhupada continued his class.
And after that, devotees asked Prabhupada, Prabhupada, you know, he spoke so nastily. Why didn’t you do anything? Prabhupada replied, no, they asked, why did he speak like that? Why did that person speak like that? Why was he so angry? Prabhupada replied, I don’t know. Krishna allowed it, so I accept it.
Now, you know, in this world, how people will behave, you just don’t know. So now, Krishna does not, there is a difference between Krishna’s desiring or wanting and Krishna’s sanctioning. So, Krishna does not want Hitler to kill people.
But if that is what Hitler desires, then Krishna sanctions it. Why Krishna sanction? Sanction means allow. What is Krishna allow? That is the free will which you have been given.
And now, if this is the way you have, by your free will, you have certain influence, certain area of control, and this is the way you want to act on it, you can act on it. And you will get the consequences, no doubt. The way we act, that is karma, and that will give us consequences.
But based on our past karma, we are allowed to assert a certain jurisdiction of control in which we can act. And based on how we act, we will get reactions. But when people do bad things, you know, it is not that Krishna wants those bad things to happen.
This people doing bad things is called as moral evil. Moral evil means people can act morally, people can act immorally. So, if God is good, and God has made all living beings, then why do people act in such terrible ways? Why is there moral evil if God is supremely moral? There is moral evil because Krishna is fully in control, but Krishna has given people free will.
And free will means some people can choose to act morally, some people can choose to act immorally. And when people act immorally, then there will be consequences for them eventually by their karma, but for others who are there in that time, they may also have to suffer at that time. So now, this is a moral evil.
Another evil which is there is called natural evil. Natural evil means no human agency is involved, like say earthquake occurs, or a tsunami occurs. Now, what is that? That is natural evil.
There is no people who are choosing to act morally, nature seems to be acting in ways that hurt us. So, natural evil is actually a result of moral evil. That means people who have acted immorally in the past, people who have done some bad karma in the past, through natural calamities, some reactions come to them.
Again, it is not Krishna who wants us to suffer. It is we. Basically, within this world, there is action and reactions, that is the pattern.
And depending on how we act, we get the reactions. Depending on how other people act, they will get the reactions, but in the intermediate, the way they act, that will also have consequences on others. So, Krishna, why I am talking so much about this is that when we are practicing bhakti, we have to have a proper understanding of things, that Krishna is the controller, but that does not mean Krishna is the cause of our suffering.
Krishna is the cure for our suffering. If we take shelter of Krishna, no matter whatever big suffering might come in our life, when we take shelter of Krishna, then we can, by taking shelter of Him, by remembering Him, by absorbing our consciousness in Him, we can experience relief, no matter how much suffering comes. So, in this world, there is suffering, but the suffering is not because of God.
The suffering is in spite of God. It is like the suffering in this world. Suppose, consider a hospital.
In the hospital, suffering is not because of the doctor. Suffering is in spite of the doctor. The doctor’s purpose is not to cause the suffering.
The doctor’s purpose is to cure the suffering. Similarly, Krishna is not causing the suffering here in this world. Krishna is here to help us heal from suffering.
And when problems come in this world, so when in a hospital, suddenly a patient is there and things become complicated, some complication happens, the condition becomes worse. If we see in a hospital, suffering is present, but suffering is not the purpose of the hospital. The purpose of the hospital is healing, healing so that the patient can be discharged and can go home.
Similarly, suffering is present in this world, but suffering is not the purpose of this world. This world is like a hospital. What is the disease we are suffering from? Our consciousness is misdirected.
Instead of loving Krishna, we are loving temporary things in this world. And that misdirection of our consciousness, the attachments resulting from that, they are the cause of our suffering. And Krishna is there to heal us of our suffering.
Krishna is there to help us redirect our consciousness from the world towards Him. And to the extent our consciousness becomes attracted to Him, to that extent, we will get relief even in this world. If you see the famous verse which talks about how this world is a place of misery, 8.15 in the Bhagavad Gita.
We often quote this verse to say how this world is a place of misery. That’s what the Bhagavad Gita says. It’s temporary.
But still, if we consider the stress of the verse, it stresses what? It stresses that those who worship me, they will not come to this miserable temporary place, but they will attain my abode. So, the focus of this verse is not on that this world is a miserable place. That is just an assumed fact, a given fact.
The focus of the verse is that by practicing bhakti, we can become free from misery. So, when we understand this point, Krishna is there not as the cause of suffering. He is the cure for suffering.
He is giving us the process by which we can become cured. And whenever we face struggles, whenever we face problems, now sometimes a devotee in their deep Krishna consciousness, they may feel, yes, actually Krishna has come as the suffering to remind me of Krishna. So, Parikshit Maharaj says that Krishna has come as this curse to detach me from material existence and to help me focus wholeheartedly on him.
That is his exalted Krishna consciousness. The curse was caused simply by the short-tempered behavior of this son of a Brahmin, Shringi, who cursed Parikshit Maharaj, you will die in seven days. That curse was caused by whom? This person is short-tempered.
Now, considering going this backward, what I said is, all of us have free will. So, Shringi, the person who cursed Parikshit Maharaj, he has free will. And by our past karma, we all have been given some power, some area of control.
So, he was born in a Brahmana family, that means he had done some past good karma, by which he has been given the power to curse. And by his misusing that power to curse, he cursed Parikshit. And then Parikshit had to suffer a death in seven days.
So, now Krishna, now in a sense, we could say that what happens, Parikshit is seeing that what has happened is bad. And he suddenly will curse to die. But he sees it positively.
He says, this is a way by which I can go closer to Krishna. I can focus wholeheartedly on Krishna. When we understand this, then we see that sometimes bad things happen in our life.
And it is not that bhakti means we have to somehow imagine that everything that happens is good. If we get a fracture, if a loved one passes away, you know, if somebody gets Alzheimer’s, now all these are bad things. So, it is not that everything that happens is good.
When a person misuses their free will and they abuse someone, that is not good. It is bad. They are misusing their free will, that is bad.
Everything that happens is not good. But everything that happens can be for good. There is a difference.
It is a bad thing, but it can be for good. If we respond properly by taking shelter of Krishna, then Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So, Parikshit Maharaj was cursed.
That is unfair. It is a bad thing. But Parikshit Maharaj responds to it, let me take shelter of Krishna.
That made it good. By taking shelter of Krishna, he transcended material existence and became liberated and attained Krishna’s abode. Similarly, when we understand that Krishna’s controllership means that Krishna is always available for me as the cure for my suffering.
So, as a cure for my suffering, no matter whatever happens, He is there. And now sometimes the cure for the suffering may take time and some problem may stay for a long time also. But if we take shelter of Krishna, that problem won’t trouble us so much.
Because our consciousness will be absorbed in Krishna. Just like say outside it is very cold. Now we may tremble because of the cold.
But if we come in a room where there is a heater, then we feel comfortable. We feel warm. Outside it is cold.
Once we come inside, we feel warm. Similarly, as long as we are conscious of worldly things, we will feel agitated. But as soon as we bring our consciousness and fix it on Krishna, that’s like coming inside a heat-conditioned room.
We feel relieved. We feel comfort. We feel cozy.
Now this does not mean that outside temperature has become nice. Outside temperature is still a problem. But inside we are safe.
Like that, this world there will be suffering. But as long as we are attached to the world, compulsively thinking about the world, we will be agitated. But if we bring our thoughts to Krishna, we will get relieved.
Oh my! Just think of Lord Hari, of Lord Nandanandana Krishna. By thinking about Him, we will become free from fear. In this way, actually Krishna is always there to help us find relief from misery.
How exactly that relief manifests in this world, that will vary according to time and circumstances. Sometimes the problems may last for a few minutes, sometimes they last for a few hours, sometimes few days, sometimes few years, sometimes an entire lifetime. But if we take shelter of Krishna, you know, Krishna lasts longer than the longest problem.
So if we simply think of how long this problem has been there, we feel, oh you know, where is Krishna? He will not help me. But Krishna lasts longer than the longest problem. And if we focus on the problem, we feel, oh why is this problem not going away? We focus on Krishna, we will see that throughout this problem, Krishna is giving me shelter.
And in that shelter, I can find relief. And Krishna’s controllership is not that Krishna will take away the free will of other people. The Pandavas, they suffered terribly because of the Kauravas atrocities.
Krishna was always there with them. But that didn’t mean that the Pandavas didn’t suffer. The Pandavas suffered.
But what was the relief that Krishna provided to the Pandavas? He was there in their hearts, always giving them shelter internally. Externally, they went through bad things. Nobody tells Draupadi, after she was disrobed, that whatever happened is good.
No, her being dishonored was a terribly bad thing. But good came from out. What was the good that Krishna can bring good out of even the bad? What was the good? That her own exalted devotion by which Krishna manifested and gave her shelter, that manifested.
For the world to see, the whole world could see how Krishna protects His devotees and how a devotee surrenders to Krishna even amidst the greatest difficulty. And thus, Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So when we are facing problems in our life and we may start feeling, I am free to Krishna, please free me from this problem.
So we may think, is Krishna not in control? Somehow Krishna lost control of things. Or is it that Krishna doesn’t care? Krishna is not really that good? No, it is not either. Krishna is all good and Krishna is on all fours.
And Krishna has a plan for our spiritual growth. And as a part of that plan for our spiritual growth, sometimes we may have to go through some difficulties. That’s what is required for redirecting our heart from this world to Krishna.
If we stay focused on Krishna, taking shelter of Him, eventually the plan will work and we will become healthier, we will become happier. Just like when a patient is in pain, the patient may go to call a doctor, please help me. Now the doctor knows, okay, the disease is complicated.
It may take some time to be cured. The difference between a devotee and a non-devotee, I’ll conclude with this point, is not that a devotee’s life is painless and a non-devotee’s life is painful. Actually, devotees and non-devotees, both lives are, there are going to be pain in this world.
But the devotee is on the path to recovery. The non-devotee is on the path to aggravation of the disease. How is that? There are two patients in hospital and say both of them are sick, are in pain.
One of them has not been diagnosed, don’t even know what the disease is and therefore no treatment has been given or something has been tried out this or that or that whatever. The other patient has been accurately diagnosed and the treatment has been prescribed. So now at present, both of them may be in pain.
But their situation in terms of their future is entirely different. For the person who has been undiagnosed, the pain and disease is going to worsen, the pain is going to worsen. Whereas for the person who has been diagnosed, the pain is going to decrease, they are going to get healed.
So for devotees, we are like the diagnosed, the patient who has been diagnosed and treated. Even if there is pain right now, we understand that we are under Krishna’s control. He is the best doctor.
We are the safest ants. And even if there is some pain, yes the pain may seem to be going, problem may seem to be going on for a long time. But Krishna lasts longer and from the perspective of eternity, whatever problems we may face during this lifetime, actually they are very small.
And by focusing on Krishna and focusing on connecting with him, the problems will become more and more tolerable and we will be able to take more and more shelter of Krishna and find relief and joy within that. And for taking shelter of Krishna, we need to understand Krishna’s controllership. He is not the cause of our suffering.
He is the cure for our suffering. So I will summarize. I spoke today on two themes, understanding Krishna’s pervasion and Krishna’s controllership of the world.
So just as a cloth is essentially nothing but the thread is going horizontal and vertical. Similarly, the whole cosmos is ultimately nothing but God. Everything.
So God is everything. Vasudeva Sarvamiti. Atheists think there is no God.
Polytheists think there are many God. Monotheists think there is one God. Monists think that I am God.
But the devotees understand there is only God. And we are all parts of God. Everything that exists is the energy of God.
To see anything disconnected from Krishna is illusion. To see everything connected with Krishna is reality. So that Krishna pervades everything.
Krishna is everything but everything is not Krishna. What that means is we don’t worship everything. Prahlad did not offer garland to the to the pillar.
He offered garland to Lord Narasimhadeva who emerged from the pillar. So that God is everything doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have his self-existence. He has his own personal existence.
But also his personality decreases accessibility. He is eminently accessible to all of us because he is present within us. Closer than the closest person can be in our own heart.
So Krishna, how is he the controller? People say that Krishna is the cause of suffering. That means he is not good. Or Krishna allows suffering to happen.
That means he is not strong enough to stop suffering. But it is neither. Krishna’s controllership is such that he has given all of us free will.
And with that free will we are given, we are past karma, certain jurisdiction on how much we can control. So some people by their past karma may have a huge jurisdiction to control. And if they misuse their free will now, they can do bad things.
That is moral evil. Although God is good and everybody is a part of God, but they may do bad things because they have free will which they misuse. And those who suffer because of the misuse of such free will, it is not God who is causing their suffering.
It is these people who are doing the bad things. And the people who are getting at the receiving end, we understand that they also have done something bad in the past because of which they are getting reactions. So natural evil refers to that when people do moral evil, sometimes nature acts in ways by which they suffer.
That is simply a reaction to past moral evil. And God is, whatever situation we are in, although suffering happens, God is not the cause. He is a sanctioner.
He allows people to do that based on their free will. And as far as when we are at the receiving end of suffering, Krishna is there within our hearts to help us find relief. So Krishna is like a doctor in a hospital.
Suffering is not because of him, but in spite of him. And the more the patient follows what the doctor is saying, the more the patient’s suffering will decrease. Like that, whatever situation we are in, no matter how big the problem we are facing, if we take shelter of Krishna, then just like outside may be cold, inside a heat-conditioned room there is comfort.
Like that, when we think of this world, there is suffering. When we focus our thoughts on Krishna and how we can serve him, there is relief. So the diseases, we are attached to worldly things.
The cure is to become attached to Krishna. And Krishna is like the doctor who is helping us to be healed. So everything that happens is not necessarily good, but it can be for good.
So people may misuse their free will and do bad things, by which we may be victimized. And that’s a bad thing. It’s like Sringikarikar’s Parikshit Maharaj.
But it can be for good if we take shelter of Krishna more. So like that, by seeing that Krishna is not causing this, but Krishna is here to comfort me, to protect me, to shelter me. Whatever happens, we can come closer to Krishna.
And the difference between a devotee and a non-devotee is not whether their life is pain-free or painful. It’s whether they are on the path to recovery or not. Devotees, even if they have pain now, they are going to be free because they are like a diagnosed and prescribed patient.
But whether non-devotees, in their diagnosis, no prescription. This is going to worsen. So our problems may last for long, but Krishna outlasts all problems.
Our struggles won’t be forever. We and Krishna and our love are forever. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? Okay. Okay. So Prabhupada said Hitler was a gentleman.
So how do we understand this? There are many places where Prabhupada says Hitler was a demon. And the number of places where he says that is much, much more. But what Prabhupada says in a particular context is that he had weapons of mass destruction, which he did not deploy.
In that sense, Prabhupada said he was a gentleman. So Prabhupada’s focus was always on transcendental principles. And he could even see the good in bad people.
Like among hippies, traditional Brahmins would have seen, oh, they are so degraded. Prabhupada saw the spark of spirit, a spark of spiritual inquiry even among them. He found that.
So Prabhupada had the capacity to see the unexpected in different people. Now Prabhupada did not say that what he did was good. He was saying that he had certain weapons which he did not use.
And in that sense, he could have caused far more destruction. But he did not cause that. But in many places, he says he was a demon.
He gives a list of demons. Prabhupada talks about Hiranyakashipu and Ravana. And in modern times, he talks about Hitler.
So that one statement has to be seen in the light of what Prabhupada has said about him totally and in light of Prabhupada’s overall teachings. So how does our free will reconcile with the science of astrology? See, astrology is essentially like weather forecast. So the weather forecast will tell me whether it is going to rain today or it is going to be snowy or it is going to be warm.
Now, based on that, I can appropriately choose my actions. You know, I can take either warm clothes with me or I can drive slowly if it is going to rain, whatever. So sometimes not being aware of the future can make things worse.
You know, I just drive very fast and it is raining, it is slippery and I skid off, I meet the accident. If I am driving slowly, I will not. So astrology does not determine what we do.
It only tells us what are the general pattern of things that may happen in the future. And then we can respond appropriately. So just like weather forecast helps us to prepare for the future, like that astrology can help us to prepare for the future.
Astrology does not take away our free will. All that it tells us is, based on our past karma, by our destiny, certain kinds of things are going to happen for us and we can be prepared for that. Yes, Hansi.
Which punishment are you talking about? In hell or which punishment? Hell. Okay. Yeah, so if the law of karma causes punishments here, then why is it that there are leaf planets described in the Puranas? See, the reactions to our past actions come in different ways.
Some reactions come on this planet itself. Some are to, as we can say it, human beings. Some reactions come in hench plants.
Some reactions come in lower species. So basically, the soul is in a particular body and the body is, sorry, the soul is in this material world. It is covered by three coverings.
There is a body, there is a society and there is nature. And the soul tries to get pleasure through all this. Through the body, we try to enjoy the senses.
Through the society, we try to form relationships. Through nature, we try to control and enjoy nature. Now, all these three, through which we try to get pleasure, they also cause trouble.
Now, karmic reactions can come through all three. That means, in the situation that we are in, we may get suffering. Sometimes we may be taken to an entirely different situation, like a hellish planet and there we are given suffering.
Or sometimes we are taken to another body, a lower species. Even among dogs, we will see that sometimes somebody, some dog is pet dog, which is so pampered. And a street dog, which is attacked.
So even among dogs, why is one dog enjoying another dog suffering? And dogs, they don’t have the philosophical intelligence. Otherwise, they would also ask the question, why do bad things happen to good dogs? And they don’t have the intelligence to philosophically ask that question. But we see the diversity even in animal species.
Some animals live in a place where, say, abandoned food and water is available. Some animals live in places where it’s very scarce. So why is that? So karma acts in the human platform in this world.
Karma acts in the animal world. Some souls may get their karmic reactions by going to lower species and some souls may get some karmic reactions in the hellish planets. So the karmic reactions are distributed in different ways, in all these different ways.
In this world, in this body, in this world, in lower species and other worlds. Yes, go on. Yeah.
I was wondering about, there’s one situation where there’s a police that want to become lawyers. So who would know whether it’s going to work out or not? So why would he, he doesn’t make any mistakes. Why would he, why would he not discourage them? What’s the benefit? So Prabhupada encouraged devotees to try to form a political party and run for elections.
They formed a party called In God We Trust in America. So would Prabhupada not know that in future that particular endeavor would not be successful? And if it is not going to be successful, then why did he engage them in that? And what was the spiritual advancement in that, if it is not going to be successful? Prabhupada was always very clear that he said, I am not God. I am the servant of God.
And Prabhupada, in the way he functioned, never claimed omniscience. Prabhupada did not claim that I know what is happening in every part of the movement. Prabhupada would ask the devotees to send reports.
And based on the report that were sent, Prabhupada would respond accordingly. And sometimes if devotees gave an incomplete or incorrect report, and Prabhupada gave a particular response, and other devotees told him, this is like this. And Prabhupada would amend his orders.
So for example, when devotees were told that, Prabhupada came to know that the devotees, and then for distributing books, they are returning back, they are wearing western clothes and they are returning back to their hippie ways. And Prabhupada said that, no, there is no need to wear western clothes. Just wear dhoti kurta and go out and distribute books.
And then some devotees who were distributing books, they became very concerned. They said, if you are wearing dhoti kurta, it may alienate people. So they said that, Prabhupada, no, it is not that devotees are becoming hippies.
When they are going out to distribute books, they are wearing respectable clothes, not like the hippie kind of wear. They are wearing respectable, formal clothes. Then that is okay.
I thought that this wearing clothes like hippies is the way of you will return back to hippie, and I don’t want that. So my point is, Prabhupada never claimed omniscience. It is either in terms of geography, nor in terms of chronology.
Geography means he did not claim that he knows whatever is happening all over the world in this moment, nor in terms of chronology, that he knew what will happen in future. So Prabhupada’s surrender to Krishna was that he knew, he had confidence that Krishna’s desire, Lord Chaitanya’s desire, that the holiness spread all over the world, that will happen. But specifically how it will happen, that Prabhupada himself did not know.
He never claimed. That’s why when we see in his famous song, when he comes on Jaldutha, the ship which brought him to America, he says, my dear Lord, I don’t know why you brought me here. He says, my dear Lord, you are very merciful to me, to this fallen soul that you brought him here.
But I guess you must have some purpose. Otherwise, why would you bring me to this terrible place? Most Indians who come to America won’t think America is a terrible place. They will think India is a terrible place.
Now I have come to America, wonderful place. But Prabhupada sees from the spiritual perspective, America is a terrible place. There is so much rajoguna, so much tamoguna, so much materialism.
Prabhupada says, I guess, anumane, I guess that you must have some purpose. So Prabhupada said, Krishna, just make me dance, make me dance. That means, whichever, wherever an opportunity opened up, Prabhupada would go there.
Prabhupada would use his intelligence, use his spiritual vision and decide whether to take an opportunity or not take an opportunity. And even in Prabhupada’s own life, sometimes some things worked out, sometimes some things didn’t work out. Prabhupada wanted to complete the 12th canto translation Bhagavatam.
Now that Krishna had some other plan and Prabhupada departed from the world after completing 10 cantos, around 14 chapters. So it is just because a desire is expressed by a pure devotee or a plan is sanctioned by a pure devotee, does not necessarily mean that it will be materially successful or that it will be materially successful immediately. Now we could say that was Prabhupada’s plan to translate Bhagavatam not successful.
Well, that’s an incomplete vision. The more complete vision is Prabhupada’s plan succeeded through his disciples. He translated the Bhagavatam and he empowered the disciples to translate the remaining Bhagavatam.
So his desire was fulfilled, but not necessarily in the same form, in the exact form where he did it himself. So like that, the desires of a pure devotee may or may not manifest immediately and they may or may not manifest in the exact same form in which the pure devotee wanted that. So our understanding is that if we are endeavoring to serve Krishna, that endeavor itself purifies.
So Krishna, the world sees results, Krishna sees the efforts. If we are making sincere efforts to serve Krishna, we will become purified. So even if a particular instruction offered by Prabhupada does not work out to be successful, but the devotees who endeavor to fulfill that instruction, they will be spiritually advanced by that.
Now what to speak of Prabhupada’s desire being successful, even Krishna’s desire may not be successful. When Krishna went as Shanti Doodh, Krishna went to canvas for peace to the Pandavas, to the Kauravas, to Duryodhana, he offered a peace proposal and Duryodhana rejected that. So in this world, some souls when misusing their free will, can thwart God’s plan.
Can they? They can thwart God’s plan by God’s plan. That means God allows them that much power. Okay, this is what you want to do, you can do it.
If Krishna had not given Duryodhana that power, that plan, he would not have been able to thwart. But he did thwart at that time. So that means Krishna has some higher plan.
And at the material level, not everything that is desired, even by a devotee, will necessarily manifest immediately in the exact same form that was desired. But as long as we are endeavoring to serve, we will get purified irrespective of whether the external results manifest or not. So of course, we also need to use our intelligence so that we serve in a productive, in a particular form of service, results are not manifest.
In a particular place, books are not getting distributed. Just our effort to go there and distribute books, that is purifying. But we are going for purification, not just for our purification, we are also going to benefit others.
Bhakti Sahasranath Tagore said, if nobody comes for programs, you preach to the walls. But still, that does not mean we just sit at our home and speak to the walls. You know, we go to places where people are expected for programs.
But if for a program people don’t come, we don’t get disheartened, we preach. So there is the element of surrender that even if the results don’t come, I will continue my service to Krishna. But there is also the element of intelligent endeavor, where we try to endeavor in such a way that the results can manifest.
So Prabhupada started the movement in America, but eventually, he saw that his followers were able to carry on the movement in America. So he came back to India and he focused much of his energy in India. His spiritual master had told him to preach in the West.
And he did that. But he felt that if the spiritual culture is to spread all over the world, there has to be some place where it can manifest in a powerful way, in a vivid, transformational, powerful way. And he felt India still had some reservoir of, some remnant of that spiritual culture.
And so he concentrated his energies largely on India. So that means the devotees, as devotees, we serve the spiritual master’s instruction. At the same time, we understand the purpose of a particular service.
And we use our intelligence to see how that purpose can be best fulfilled. Sometimes that purpose may not be fulfilled by doing service in a particular way. Sometimes it may be fulfilled by doing that service in some other way.
So our purpose is to serve Krishna. And that purpose will never be thwarted, even if the results of that service don’t manifest in this world. Does that answer your question? I think, can we talk one-to-one? It’s quite late, isn’t it? You want me to take this question? Okay, quickly.
So like when I say, sometimes it can be difficult to tell, like, if somebody else is going to get some inspiration to do something, she, like, it doesn’t relate to what I, how I do it. So I noticed automatically in my mind certain situations, like, how to help them or how to not do something. Okay, that’s a good question.
So sometimes somebody may be inspired to serve in a particular way that doesn’t make sense to us, that we don’t feel inspired. So we may start picking faults with what they are doing. And related to your question yesterday, sometimes when you say Prabhupada also spoke very strongly using the word fools and rascals.
So we may also think that, you know, we should, following Prabhupada, we should speak like that. Yeah, I would say that in general, we have to know that Krishna is bigger than our intelligence. And that means sometimes Krishna can inspire other devotees to serve in ways that that doesn’t make sense to our intelligence.
So if somebody is doing something that doesn’t make sense to us, it is the best thing to do is try to understand. Try to understand. Now, often we talk about people instead of talking with people.
Talk about, you know, he’s doing like that, you know, she’s doing like that. And we just start a culture of gossiping. But if somebody is doing something you don’t understand, you just go and ask them.
Not in a judgmental way, but in a humble, inquisitive way. Prabhu, Mataji, this is what you are doing. I saw this.
What does it mean? What is your plan? What is your inspiration? What is your understanding? We try to get some understanding from that. So better not to just spread a culture of gossip, of prajalpa. That is the first thing.
If what they say doesn’t make sense, you can ask some senior devotee who understands them and who understands us. They may be able to explain to us. And if that also doesn’t happen, then we can report to some authority and tell them this is what is happening.
And it’s between the authority and them whether something is to be done or not. They may feel that, okay, this devotee is doing something okay. I don’t bother about it.
If they want to do something, they will do something. We don’t have to bother too much about it. We have to see that, broadly speaking, when we are in a movement, you know, lead or follow or get out of the way.
We lead and do a project if we can. If we can’t, we follow someone who is doing something wonderful. Or somebody else is doing something.
We don’t feel like following. We don’t feel like leading. Just get out of the way.
Let others do what they are doing. If they are doing something wrong, Krishna is in control. Krishna will guide.
Krishna will correct. We focus on doing our service to Krishna. And as far as Prabhupada’s strong speech was concerned, Prabhupada had many advantages you don’t have.
Prabhupada had a purely compassionate heart. Prabhupada had age. Prabhupada had tremendous foresight.
No, we don’t have that advantage. Any of those actually. We don’t have that much compassion.
For us, many times when we criticize, it’s out of ego. It’s not out of compassion. And we don’t have that level of foresight.
At least, I don’t have. And we don’t have that kind of age and maturity, which people will naturally respect. So, when somebody, a strong statement is made, Prabhupada sometimes is fools and rascals.
The point is, there is underlined is compassion. And it is like, see, people have some misconceptions and those misconceptions have to be corrected. But for those misconceptions, for people to give those misconceptions, they need to have some faith in us.
If they don’t have faith in us, if they don’t have respect for us as authority or as a learned person, then when we tell them something that this is wrong, then they start simply labeling us as wrong. You are wrong and they become hostile to us. So, it’s only when they have some misconception and we have some understanding of how it is wrong.
If they accept as an authority, then they will reconsider their opinion. Otherwise, they will not. So, it’s like when people have misconceptions, they have to be cured.
That is like doing surgery. Surgery requires causing pain. But surgery has to be done only by very qualified person, a surgeon.
And even a surgeon does not just do surgery. Surgeon gives anesthesia. So, that means, first of all, we have to be spiritually qualified to correct others.
And the anesthesia is actually the loving relationship we have with that person, the trust that they have in us. It is only when they have trust in us, then they don’t become so hypersensitive to what we speak. And then when the surgery is done, even then, after that pain medicine is to be given to help them deal with it.
Surgery is a very serious thing. It cannot be done casually. So, if you have to correct someone, you have to do it, first of all, when we are qualified and when there is a loving, trusting relationship.
That is like the anesthesia which minimizes the pain. Now, some surgeons in emergencies may do surgery without anesthesia. Like say in a war, where a patient is, where a soldier is dying, or sometimes you say a woman is pregnant, she’s already in pain.
And the pain is already so much that some surgery, that surgical pain doesn’t sound much for the soldier or whatever. There is no other alternative. So, surgery without anesthesia is an emergency procedure.
And some doctors can do it well, but that is not the standard process. The important thing is not to do surgery without anesthesia. The important thing is to heal the patient.
So, whether it is strong speaking or soft speaking, the important thing is transformational speaking. That people become attracted to Krishna. By our strong speaking, they become alienated from Krishna.
And it’s like we have made the patient worse. And that’s why, if we are not able to understand what someone is doing, let them, we report to some senior devotee if we want. Not in a complaining way, just in a reporting way.
And leave it between them and that devotee or between that devotee and Krishna. And we move onwards in our service