Understanding Destiny (02)

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, let us continue our discussion on karma and destiny.
Now, one problem which people have in today’s world in terms of accepting the concept of destiny is that we see cause-effect correlation in the world. We see that causes produce effects. Why do we need to bring some other idea into the picture? So, accepting some unknown causal factor, it is simply a knowledge stopper.
That is the idea. So, in general, there was the Black Plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages. There are some people who had the belief that that plague was caused by some evil spirits, some witches, some dark eerie beings.
But this is by science. Science did not accept any supernatural factors involved. Science looked for natural causes.
And they found the natural cause, which was the rats were carrying some germs and through germs the plague happened. So, they said that you look for any immediate cause, find the cause and treat that cause, solve the problem. Why bother about believing in some supernatural cause over which you don’t have any control? So, yes, to the extent that immediate causes can be found and immediate causes can be addressed, they should be addressed.
And this is not just a modern idea. If you see, in the Vedic tradition also there was Ayurveda. The specifics of the model of the body in Ayurveda are different from what allopathy has.
But the principle is same. That, okay, why, what is the cause of disease? It is not said that every disease is caused by some, some, some hobgoblin or some ghost or some this or some that. No, the disease is analysed simply in terms of material causes.
If there is some imbalance in Kapha, Vata, Pitta. Specifics are different. The point is we look for a material cause for a material effect.
Okay, your stomach is upset, okay, you take this particular substance is less in the body, this person’s substance is more. Then take this, this, this to balance it out, you get well. So, yes, there are immediate causes and the immediate causes need to be addressed.
And it is not that the immediate causes are denied. As I said, Ayurveda accepts the presence of immediate causes and addresses those causes. But sometimes those immediate causes, they don’t explain, they don’t necessarily address things fully.
There is the correct and there is the complete. So, imagine if there is a billiards game going on. So, in the billiards match, say, if a ball goes into a hole.
Now, you could say what made that ball go into the hole? You know, this ball, hit this ball at this angle with this velocity with this momentum, and that caused this to move, this to move, this to move and that is how that ball went into the hole. So, that ball is going into the hole can be explained in terms of the laws of physics. But if you just expand the frame further, you see that that ball came and hit this ball, because of what? Because of the expert billiards player, who with the stick hit the ball at it.
So, the explanation in terms of the laws of physics and the explanation in terms of a personal agent, they are not contradictory, they are complementary. They are not contradictory, they are complementary. So, there can be multiple levels of explanation.
And just as the laws of physics explain how the ball went to the hole and the billiards player’s expertise determine explaining how the ball went to the hole, these two are complementary. Why? Because causality can be seen at multiple levels. Similarly, whatever happens in life, it can be seen at multiple levels.
So, yes, say, at that time there was a black plague. Now, let us consider a disease, say, like malaria. Now, what is the cause of malaria? Immediately, you know, it is a mosquito bite.
So, that mosquito has put some germs into our body, that is called causality. So, at an immediate level, we treat it by taking the appropriate medicines, which will remove those germs from our body. That is fine.
But now we could say that in the same house, there might be five people in the room. Now, why did only one of them get malaria? Actually, maybe that person had low immunity level. That is why they got malaria.
They might be eating the same food, they might be doing the similar kind of exercise, they might have similar lifestyle. But still, one of them gets malaria. So, the immediate cause as an explanation, it can be correct.
But just because it is correct, does not necessarily mean it is complete. Now, there might be some water spilled on the floor. And somebody just walks and slips and falls in the water.
And then they break their leg. Now, we may say that, you know, why did he break the leg? Because the water was spilled over. Yes, but somebody else might be walking in the same area.
And this person might be absent-minded, that person might also be absent-minded. But somehow, at that point, that person does not put the water on, put on the water, they put their foot next nearby. And they walk by unscathed.
So, the immediate cause, what caused the fracture? Your leg slipped in the water. It is true. It is correct.
But it is not necessarily complete. There is something more important. So, there is an immediate cause, which is, which we can analyze in terms of immediate visible factors, which science analyzes, which science tries to address.
And that kind of addressing immediate causes is there in, was there in Vedic culture also? We talk about Ayurveda. But we look at something more. That is beyond the immediate cause, the intermediate cause.
The intermediate cause is the law of karma. Or rather, it is primarily our own karma. So, why did that mosquito bite and cause malaria to one person in the house and not other people? That was because of karma.
Sometimes there may be like a epidemic of a particular disease. As there are five members in a family, three people get the disease. The other two don’t.
Sometimes it is the sickly people get the disease, but sometimes some sickly person doesn’t get and some healthy person gets the disease. So, it is, there is not just, the immediate cause is definitely explanation, but there is something more going on. The intermediate cause is our own karma.
So, karma and the immediate cause, they are not, they are not two contradictory explanations. Karma acts for the immediate cause. So, that mosquito could have gone and bitten anyone, but that mosquito came and bit me, because it is my karma to get malaria.
So, the immediate, so now, this is a second level causation. So, in our day to day life, we address things at the first level. And we are meant to address things at the first level.
Now, if there is water fall, water fall, spill on the ground, and there is a danger that somebody may slip and fall, then it is our duty, okay, clean away that water, dry that water, mop that water. If there is, if there is, you say, malaria epidemic, then make sure that mosquitoes are removed from that area. Make sure that some preventive prophylactic medicines are given to people.
We need to act at the immediate level. And that is, that is also one level of duty, which we need to follow. And not doing this duty can aggravate things.
But doing this duty alone is not enough. So, modern science primarily addresses things at this level. And in some ways, as compared to the recent past, as compared to the medieval ages, it could say that modern science capacity to address things at the immediate level is better than what was in the past.
Your eyes are losing vision, get a specks. You can address it at a immediate level. And where credit is due, it should be given, yes.
So, in terms of improving the addressing of immediate causes, yes, science does help. At the same time, the problem comes when it is claimed that science alone can solve all problems. But there are factors which are beyond this immediate cause of accumulation, and the intermediate level of causes.
So, there are some places in the world, in Japan, it is a very earthquake prone area. Now, through science, we can maybe predict when the earthquake is going to come better. We can build houses, which are made of material which will not cause too much damage when it collapses.
We can have better relief systems set up, that all that is good, that is a solution. But still, if the seismic plates of the earth, themselves, are unstable in particular areas, that is just beyond one s control. So, relatively speaking, we may extend our scope of control, but there are things more which are not in our control.
So then, why is it that so many earthquakes happen in that area? Why is it that Japanese people have to suffer through so many earthquakes? We understand that is there like a national karma. Different people, they are born in different areas by their own karma. Some places it is very hot, some places it is very cold, some places it is very stormy, some places it may be very earthquake prone.
All this is the result of karma. So, the immediate cause, if it can be addressed, it should be addressed. But acknowledging that there is something more to the immediate cause and understanding that that is because of karma, that is also important.
So, karma talks about an intermediate level of causation which is beyond the immediate. Now, one question may come up at this stage that we talked about the law of karma, what is the role of Krishna? What role does God play in it? So, sometimes people may equate God and destiny. Like I said, Sehwag, he said that God was on my side.
Actually, what he meant was destiny is favorable to me. But it is, it is actually God, God is not necessarily directly involved. Karma, we could say, is like a system of justice.
So, the king or the head of the state or whoever is in charge of justice system, they are involved. But they don’t have anything personal against anyone or for anyone. It’s the whole system is happening under their supervision.
Under my supervision, things are happening. So, that means the scientific explanation and the spiritual explanations, they are not contradictory. There are different levels of explanation.
So, God is playing a role, but his role is that laws of physics that are there, they are under his control. It is not said because we believe in God, we don’t believe in, we say that everything is happening simply by God’s will. Yes, but God’s will manifests through certain laws which are set up in this world.
And that God’s will is above them, that doesn’t contradict science. Let’s say Krishna lifts up Govardhan. Somebody asked, how can a small child lift up such a big, what about the law of gravity? Even if Krishna had to lift up Govardhan, he lifted up his tiny finger, how could he place his finger at exactly the center of gravity of Govardhan, so that he balanced the Govardhan properly.
Now, Krishna does not have to find the center of gravity, because he is the source of gravity. He is the source of gravity. The law of gravity works under his supervision.
So, when he wants, the law of gravity works. When he wants, the law of gravity can be suspended. So, miracles, especially when God is involved, miracles are not against science.
They are above science. Science operates at this level of explanations. And when God operates, he operates at a higher level.
And it is not that in the past people were superstitious or they came up with some stories like this. We see even in the Bhagavatam itself, in the Vrajavasis, they are also amazed. How did this little child Krishna lift up such a big hill? They also knew, this is unusual, this is a small child lifting up a big hill, does it happen? They also knew that it is a heavy object, it cannot be lifted.
But then, so their asking a question also implies that they also accepted the law of cause-effect correlation. Heavy objects, how can they be lifted? They may not have used the term law of gravity or gravity, but the understanding that there is material cause-effect, that is there also there. But then they were open to other explanations.
What are their explanations? And the Maharaj was asked, how did Krishna lift up such a big hill? He explained that, actually, Gargambola told me that Krishna is just like Maharaj. That, therefore, he will be lifted. Oh, yes, this makes sense.
So, they accepted that the domino is heavy to lift, but there are higher beings. If they intervene, then the normal may not happen, something extraordinary may happen. So, now what is, so Krishna, his intervention, Krishna is not, samoham sarva-bhuteshu na me dvishyosti na priya.
I am not partial to anyone nor am I envious of anyone. I am equal to all. So, Krishna is like the judge.
Now, Krishna is like a judge, what does it mean? That means, whatever is the action a person is doing, the person gets the reaction appropriately. Krishna supervises, but Krishna doesn’t have any personal, anything personal against or for you. It’s just neutral.
Udasi na vadasi nam. He is udasi. Udasi means he is detached.
Now, he is, he is disinterested, not uninterested. Now, disinterested means to not have any vested interests. To be uninterested means to not have any interest at all.
It is not that Krishna doesn’t care for this. Going back to say cricket, an umpire has to be disinterested, not uninterested. The umpire is not interested in the cricket match only.
And the baller bowls, the batsman is late before wicket. How is that? I was not looking at it. That is one of the reasons.
The umpire has to be interested in the game. But the umpire should not have any vested interest. The umpire should be disinterested, not uninterested.
So, like that, Krishna, he is interested. He cares for all of us. But it is not that he is uninterested, but he is disinterested.
In the same Bhagavad Gita, it says that udasi na vadasi nam. Krishna stays as if detached. The same Bhagavad Gita, which talks about Krishna’s detachment, also talks about Krishna’s involvement.
It says sarvasya caham hrudisanyam ishto. The same Krishna udasi na is also present in the hearts of all of us. So, Krishna does care.
Now, normally, when the law of karma operates, at that time, Krishna does not interfere. This action, that action. Now, Krishna is a cause also.
I think he is the ultimate cause of life. Now, this causality needs to be carefully understood. This is, there is, see the word cause has many meanings.
And if we, ultimately, there are terms and there are concepts. Concept is in the head. Terms are like verbal handles for the concepts.
So, we have to understand what is the concept that is in the head. So, sometimes, Krishna is the cause of everything. Krishna is the cause of people’s suffering.
Is Krishna the cause of all the bad things that happen to anyone, all the bad things that people do? The Vedanta Sutra again is the example. Actually, it does not have any partiality. So, what kind of cause is Krishna? It is like when the rains fall.
Without the rains, no vegetation will grow on the ground. So, in that sense, the rains are the cause of the growth of vegetation. But the rains are not responsible for the specific kind of vegetation that grows.
So, at some places, fruits may grow and other places, leaves may grow. Both growth happens because of the rains. But which growth happens where, that the rains do not determine.
That is determined by who has sown what where. So, like that, any action that produces result, Krishna is a sanctioning authority. But Krishna’s role is like rains in the growth of vegetation.
Krishna is not responsible for the specific kind of thing that happens to him. So, in that sense, Krishna is not the cause of our suffering. I talk about that there is a philosophical vision and there is a personal vision.
And the two should not be confused. I will talk about what it means, a personal vision. Sometimes the devotees may say that Krishna has come as a suffering.
But that is more to see that actually I can remember Krishna through his suffering also. It is not that Krishna gets some pleasure in causing us something. That is not the point.
It is our own karma which is coming to us as a reaction. But a devotee can remember Krishna and went through that. That is the inclusive vision of Krishna consciousness.
So, Krishna is not the cause of our suffering. No. If a devotee sees, like Parichit Maharaj says, Oh, Krishna has come as this snake bird is going to kill.
That is the exalted Krishna consciousness of Parichit Maharaj. But it is not that Krishna is the snake. Isn’t it? So, there is, that means, there is an objective philosophical reality and there is a subjective spiritual vision.
And I will give another example to illustrate this point. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, wherever he, when he was traveling towards Vrindavan, every forest that he saw, what did he think? What did he think that forest was? Vrindavan. This is Vrindavan.
Every river that he would see, he thought that is Yamuna. Every hill that he saw, he thought it is? It is Govardhan. Now while going from Jagannath Puri to Vrindavan, he passed through so many forests, so many rivers, so many hills.
Now where are those things Yamuna, Vrindavan, Govardhan? No, they are not. Now we know one of the mistakes of the conditioned soul is to, one of the defects of a conditioned soul is to commit mistakes. And God is free from the tendency to commit mistakes.
So, was Lord Chaitanya committing mistakes? When he is seeing this river to be Yamuna, is he committing a mistake? No, he is not committing a mistake. Because even though he saw that river as Yamuna, he did not stop there. He still kept going towards Vrindavan.
So, what it means is, when it comes to very exalted level of Krishna consciousness, material factuality is not as important as spiritual connectivity. And at the exalted level of Krishna consciousness, material factuality, what are the material facts? That is not as important as spiritual connectivity. How much one can connect elder to Lord Krishna? So, it is the exalted consciousness of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that he can see every mountain, every forest, every river as Krishna.
So, similarly, if a devotee sees all that, okay, somebody gets cancer, then Krishna has come as his cancer to help me to become more detached from this world, to become more attached to him. Now, it is not that Krishna gets some perverse pleasure in giving us cancer and making us happy. No, it is that devotee’s exalted consciousness that they are able to see Krishna even in that.
So, philosophically, Krishna is not the cause of all suffering. It is quite opposite. Krishna is the cure for our suffering.
When suffering comes, it is Krishna who will protect us, Krishna will cure us. So, Krishna is the cause in the sense that he is ultimately the sanctioning authority. And unless we understand these philosophical principles very carefully, we can make a complete mess of things.
So, sometimes we start blaming, because of God this problem is coming. It is not because of God. It is because of our own past karma, Krishna is allowing it.
Krishna is not out there causing this problem. Krishna is in here, helping us to deal with the problem. I will talk about Krishna’s role again towards the end of the seminar.
At this point, I would like to focus a little bit more on understanding destiny properly. I will give two examples. In the Mahabharata, when Vidura and the Kurukshetra war is about to take place, at that time, Vidura time and time again has been telling Dhritarashtra, stop Duryodhana from his suicidal course of antagonizing the Pandavas.
Otherwise, your whole dynasty will be destroyed. At that time, Dhritarashtra tries to use destiny to cover up his actions. He says, you know, if it is the will of almighty destiny that our dynasty is destroyed, then what can I, a tiny mortal, do to stop the will of almighty destiny? Now, this is called rationalizing.
Rationalize. Rationalize is spelling is R-A-T-I-O-N-A-L-L-I-E-S. Rationalize.
When we rationalize, we tell rational lies. What we are saying seems rational, but it’s a lie. It’s a lie.
So, we can use our intelligence to try to prove that which is wrong as right. You say, oh, it’s destiny, what can I do? But Vidura tells him, cuts through his illusions. Vidura tells him that, okay, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves.
Destiny determines what? The consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. Destiny determines whether the rains will come or not, whether the harvest will grow or not. But destiny doesn’t determine whether the farmer will plough the field or sow the seed or not.
That is duty. So, Vidura is telling, Vidura is telling Uttarahashtra that you have to do your duty. It is, yes, it may be the will of destiny and it may well happen that things may go wrong.
Vidura tells him, I may not listen, the war may take place. But are you doing your duty? Destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. So, going back to this earlier one, we had, remember, what are the karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala.
So, now that means that the phala, the result is determined by destiny. The karma itself is not determined by destiny. So, this karma plus daiva plus kala that leads to phala.
So, action, destiny, time, it leads to the fruit. So, now, what Vidura is telling is that destiny comes into play after we have done our karma, not before we have done our karma. After we have done our karma, if the result doesn’t come, then that is to be attributed to destiny.
But if I don’t do my karma itself, then I cannot say it’s destiny. If a child is not studying and the mother says, why are you not studying? You are failing your exam. That’s my destiny.
That’s not your destiny. That’s your responsibility. You have to study.
It’s a very striking incident in the 10th canto when Vasudev is trying to save Devaki. Kamsa, he has caught Devaki by her hair and he has got a sword in his hand about to lop off her head. And Vasudev is stopping him, trying to stop him.
And one of the arguments that Vasudev uses over there is that, oh Kamsa, if you are destined to learn, then you learn. What will you gain by committing a terrible bad karma? Or killing a woman? Kshatriyas are not meant to attack women physically. Even raise their hands against me.
What is to kill a woman? Or killing a woman? Killing not just a woman, but your own sister. And not just killing a woman and her sister, killing a woman and her sister on her marriage day, on her wedding day. Wedding day is a very auspicious time to do something sinful, like murder at that time, right? Now, this is one of the arguments he uses.
If you are destined to die, then destiny is going to happen. What will you gain by committing this terrible bad karma? Now Vasudev could have turned that argument around and he could have said, if Devaki is destined to die, then you are going to die. Why am I trying to stop Kamsa? Why doesn’t he do that? Because the point is, the emphasis is on karma.
That actually Vasudev was doing his karma of protecting his wife. And for furthering his karma of protecting his wife, he was using destiny as an argument. Whereas, what was Kamsa doing? Kamsa was actually giving up his karma.
Giving up his prescribed duty of protecting his sister and he was doing something different. So, at that time he is told, if something is destined to happen, it will happen. Why are you doing this terrible bad karma to avoid destiny? So, destiny is never meant to be a rationalization or irresponsibility.
It is never meant to be rationality or irresponsibility. We have to focus on what we are meant to do. So, for example, at this immediate level of cause, if we can help someone at the immediate level, if that is our position, if that is our capacity, then we are meant to help at that level.
Suppose, somebody robs a person and that person goes looking at him. I have been robbed. And the king says, it was your destiny that you robbed.
It may have been because of my own past karma that I have been robbed. But the king’s concern should be, what is my dharma? My dharma, my duty, what is it? It is to protect my citizens. That means I have to find the thief.
I have to retrieve the lost property, punish the thief. Now, sometimes it may happen that despite one’s best efforts, one may not find the thief. And then when things are beyond human control, when we have done our part and nothing works out, then we can say it is destiny.
But it is not that we are not meant to do our part and say it is destiny. So, if we understand this point that in all situations, our focus is on doing what is our duty. And we are not meant to judge people based on their past karma.
We are meant to interact with them based on their present situation. If the king starts thinking, oh this person must have done some bad karma because of which they have been robbed. If all of us started judging each other based on our past karma, there will be no compassion, there will be no sensitivity, there will be no caring at all.
If a baby is crying, do the mother think, oh the baby is crying because of past karma? Not at all. The mother should be thinking, what is my duty? My duty is to take care of this person. But sometimes, you know, despite giving the medicine, despite offering care, sometimes the baby just keeps crying.
Some babies cry a lot, some babies cry less. So now, if we are doing our duty and despite our doing our duty, certain things are not working out, then we can attribute it to past karma. Some babies are silent babies, some babies cry a lot.
So that kind of variation which is there, that may be because of past karma. But we have to focus on doing what is our part, doing what is our duty. Now again, the problem may come that we think that doing our duty alone will solve the problems.
One extreme is to think that, you know, my karma, nothing matters, it doesn’t matter, all that matters is destiny. The other is thinking that my karma alone matters, destiny doesn’t matter. Both are wrong.
So we deal with each other based on what is my duty? What should I be doing in this situation? And we act accordingly. So when we are going through our life, at that time, there are two concepts, there is detachment and there is irresponsibility. There is detachment and there is irresponsibility.
Detachment and irresponsibility are as different as day and night. Why are they different? Because detachment is, actually what it means is, I do my karma and after I have done my karma, I understand that the phalam is not in my hands anymore. Therefore, I am detached.
So detachment is after we have done our karma. Irresponsibility is before we do our karma. Before we do our karma.
When I started public speaking, I was given some, some devotee to the seminar. He gave some 10 point guidelines of how to speak in public. The last point was, depend on Krishna.
But only after you have prepared. If I don’t prepare at all and I say I am depending on Krishna, that is not dependence, that is irresponsibility. That is not detachment or dependence, that is simply irresponsibility.
So detachment is after the action. Irresponsibility is before the action. Irresponsibility is a weakness because we are not doing our part.
Detachment is a strength. Detachment is a strength because then we are not emotionally captured, we are not emotionally obsessed with things that are not in our control. I have done my part and now, you know, I gave the interview, I have paid for the exam.
Now whether I get the admission in the college, whether I get the job call or not, that is all in my hands. So let me move on with my life, let me do other things. So actually speaking, detachment makes us more responsible, not less responsible.
Because detachment means after we have done one thing, we can just move on to the next thing. We do the thing that we are doing wholeheartedly and then we just move on to the next thing. When we are attached, then what happens is we are doing thing B, but we are emotionally caught in three and then we are not available for doing anything.
So detachment actually makes us more responsible because it makes us available for whatever we are doing. And this concept of destiny can also help us to understand a famous verse from the Bhagavad Gita, 2.47. That you have a right to do your duty, but do not be attached to the results. Now again, this idea of do not be attached to the results can seem very antithetical to the modern ethos.
People say, dream the result that you want, keep your dream always in front of your eyes and think, okay, if you are an author, dream the book, when it is published, you will have it in your hands. Then that will inspire you to write. If you are working very hard to purchase your house, have a picture of your dream house in front of you and that will get you the commitment to work hard.
So this visualization, that it will be motivation. So now, when the Bhagavad Gita says, be detached from the fruits. When I say I am detached from the fruits, then what will inspire me to work? I have to be careful what the Gita is saying.
It is not being detached from the fruits. Krishna is saying, be detached from the fruits. He is not saying, don’t care about the fruits.
What is the difference between the two? The difference is that we understand our role in the overall schematics, that I can do this part of karma and I should do this way, but this phala is not in my control. So therefore, because the phala is not in my control, what I should be doing is just do my and be detached from the fruits. If the destiny is favorable, the result will come.
If the destiny is not favorable, the result will not come. And in this case, to understand again this difference, now there are results and there are goals and the two are different things. Results are what come after the action is done.
Goals are what are set up before the action is done. Bhagavad Gita is not saying don’t set goals. Every day when the Pandavas would fight in the Kurukshetra war, they would set goals.
Today, I will fight with this warrior. Today, I will defeat this phalanx. Most famously on the 14th day, Arjuna said to Kauvya, that I will kill Jayadratha before sunset today.
Krishna did not tell him, Arjuna, you forgot Karmanyeva Adhikaraste. Krishna did not tell him that. Krishna helped him to achieve and go.
So setting goals is not a problem. Caring for the results also not a problem. Actually, if you do work, you will care for the result.
You want the result, you go. But don’t, if you look at the third part of that verse, do not think that you alone are the cause of the result. It is a very profound verse, the fourth part of it.
Don’t think that you are the getu of the phala. You are not the sole cause of the result. Your role is there.
But there are other factors involved also. Last part is, don’t be attached to not doing your work. That means, let’s look at this verse from this perspective.
Karmanyeva Adhikaraste, you have a right to do your work. Yes, our karma is in our hands. Phala is not determined by you alone.
So don’t be obsessed with the fruit. Then, now why not be obsessed with the fruit? Because understand that you alone are not the cause of fruit. Don’t think that you alone are causing the fruit of your work to come.
Somebody said, if the fruit is not going to come, then why should I work? No, that’s your need. So, in that sense, the whole ethos of the Bhagavad Gita is to focus on that which is in our control. To focus.
Our actions are in our control. Focus on those actions. The results are not in your control.
Don’t obsess over them. The whole Bhagavad Gita’s focus is on empowering us philosophically and practically to focus on that which is in our control and to do that. So it’s actually, this detachment, as I said, it’s not going to make us irresponsible.
It will make us more responsible. Because once we understand what is our position in the overall scheme of things, we can act in a position more enthusiastically. This is what I can do.
This is what I’ve been doing. Now, I’ll drop two points and then we’ll have some question answers. Then we’ll have a break.
Then we can have the last part. Then we’ll have mostly question answers. So, a life, we can equate it with a tennis match.
In a tennis match, say, sometimes the player is serving and sometimes the player is receiving. Now, when the player is serving, that player has much more control, much more freedom. Now, where to serve? Deep in the forehand, deep in the backhand, right into the body of the receiver.
When the player is receiving, at that time the receiver has very little control. The receiver cannot decide, I am going to receive from the forehand. The ball is going to come on the backhand, you swing at the forehand, you just meet empty head.
So, the receiver has far less control. Basically, wherever the ball is going to come, just get the ball back into the court. Just touch the racket to the ball, get the ball back into the court.
Now, at the time of receiving, the control is very less. But still the control is there. Some amount of control is there.
When the receiver is able to receive, then ball comes back, we can continue the game after that. Now, some players are very good servers. Some players are very good returners.
So, now, in life, sometimes we are in the position of serving and sometimes we are in the position of returning. That means, sometimes, no, it is us to take initiative. We have freedom, we have opportunity, we have to take initiative.
Should I do this or should I do that? Should I go here, should I go there? Should I take this job, should I take that job? Should I develop a relationship with this person, should I develop a relationship with that person? Should I take a house here, should I take a house there? Now, when we are making major decisions in our life, at that time, we have a broad variety for choosing. Should I do this or should I do that? And that time, it is for us to take initiative. That if, when somebody is serving, at that time, if they are passive, as if they are returning, if they miss the opportunity, you know, wherever the ball goes, I will just swing the ball up and hit it.
No, you have to think, you have to take initiative. So, there are times in our life when it is for us to take initiative. So, when we are serving, we have to be very creative, very resourceful, take initiative.
But there are other times when life puts us in a situation where we are returning. There is, we are in very circumscribed circumstances. There is not much that we can do.
Say we fall sick and we are relegated to a bed for the next week. At that time, it is very little we can do. We cannot, we cannot go to office, we cannot go here, we cannot go there.
Our freedom is very much limited. But that does not mean even when we are restricted to a bed, then nothing will happen to us. Still, while I am in bed, I can choose what to do.
I can just wallow in self-pity. Why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? I can be resentful. Or I can say, okay, let me do something constructive.
We can read some books, hear some verses, we can introspect, we can pray. So, the, this, so basically, when I am talking about this example of receiving and serving is that, when I said that destiny controls some, there are some things in our control, there are some things not in our control. So, what is not in our control is determined by destiny.
But, you know, how much is in our control and how much is not in our control, that varies in different phases in our life. And that variation is determined by destiny. So, sometimes destiny puts us in a situation of serving and sometimes destiny puts us in a situation of receiving.
So, when I am going to choose a house, that time I am serving, here or here or here. But after I have chosen a house, then I may find, no, no, here actually public transport is not that good. Or here, it is too windy, or whatever it is.
Then I have chosen that house now. I accepted that I want to stay there. If I want to change the house and go down, that is a different thing.
But then I have, once I have chosen the house, accepted that I am going to return. Certain limitation has come up, I have to function within that limitation. So, when I am going to form a relationship with someone, I may have to choose, that okay, now should I form a relationship with this person, this person, this person.
But once we form a relationship, then that circumscribes to some extent. Then you do return, okay, this person, I did not know they had this weakness, or they had this condition, or they had this. Then I have to accept that and I have to move on.
So, a lot of problems come in our life, when we expect the freedom of serving when we are received. When life has put us in a circumscribed situation, we just resent it. Why is it like this? Even in the circumscribed situation, we are not completely in control, we still have scope.
Now returning is also a great skill. And there are some players who are match winners just based on their returning skills. They are not great servers, but they are great returners.
So, sometimes even in circumscribed circumstances, when we are limited by circumstances, those are the times also we might be able to grow. We might, within the limited circumstances, I can do this, I can do that. And then we can move on.
So, rather than resenting that I am put in this limited circumstance, we can say, what can I do in this situation? So, when we are returning, just focus on returning as green screen as possible. And conversely, when we have the freedom to serve, at that time, become passive. Whatever will happen, let it happen.
We have to choose, we have responsibility. We have to choose and we have to make decisions accordingly. So, basically, destiny does not control us.
Destiny may control or shape or determine the circumstances around us. And sometimes the circumstances are unfavorable, sometimes the circumstances may not be so favorable. But whatever circumstances we are in, we always have some freedom to choose.
And now, a returner, their freedom to play is very limited, but still they have freedom. Okay, I can return, I can return this way, I can return that way. It is limited.
I have to play on the backhand only. But in the backhand, I can have a lob in short, I can send it back, forward, whatever, there is freedom over there. So, now, the capacity to function within the situation that we are in.
Sometimes the situation is having a lot of freedom, sometimes the situation has little freedom. That capacity is our free will. So, destiny determines what happens to us.
Our free will determines how we respond. Okay, destiny determines what happens to us. So, whether I am serving or I am returning, that is determined by destiny.
But how I play, our free will determines how we respond. So, destiny may determine that, okay, I am born in a family where, say, my parents were uncaring, or, you know, I had a, I was in a school where there were all kinds of bullies in class, or this or that. In all of us, we go through life with many things which scar us.
So, that’s destiny. But how we respond to it, that is up to us. Our free will is always there.
And, but, we have all gone through bad experiences in our life. No, we can’t change our memories. The memories that have, the incidents that have happened, they are there, they have created certain impressions.
We can’t change our memories, but we can choose what we remember. Those memories are there. But whether I need to remember those memories, recollect them again, oh, you know, this person did this to me, that person did that to me, that person acted like that.
Do I have to remember them? We can’t choose our memories in the sense that memories, my memories I am referring to, or impressions are there in our mind. There is an incident happened, those incidents created certain impressions, they are there. We can’t deny that, we can’t dish that out.
And our memory does not come, computer memory has a delete button. Our memory doesn’t come with any delete button. Now, if anything bad has happened to us, that has scarred us.
The memory is there. But we can choose whether we remember that memory or not. We dwell on it more and more, when we feel victimized, we feel sorry for ourselves, we feel powerless.
But there are other things, in all our life, many bad things can happen, but some good things have also happened. So we can remember the good things in life. We can choose what we remember.
So I’m just giving this as an example of say serving and receiving. So we may be put in a situation where things are very limited for us. But even within that limited situation, we can decide what we focus on.
And to the extent we focus on the positive, we can create a brighter future for ourselves. And this is where Krishna Consciousness plays a vital role. I once gave a class on how free is our free will.
We say that we have free will. But actually, you may say, is our free will really free? If somebody is an alcoholic, they are addicted to alcohol. So can we really say that they are free to drink alcohol or not to drink alcohol? Actually, our free will never goes away.
Alcoholic also has a free will to choose whether to drink whiskey or wine. They have free will. It’s very limited.
By their indulgence, it’s become very limited, but it’s there. But what happens is that depending on how we use our free will, it can decrease or it can increase. So our free will is like a muscle.
Some of us, I say somebody has got paralysis. After paralysis, they can’t move. The doctor tells them, they can’t move their hand also.
Maybe that person is a big bodybuilder, could lift huge weights. And the doctor says, now you have to do exercises. What even exercise? I can’t even lift my hand.
What exercise can I do? He says, no. Can you lift your finger? Can you lift your finger? Yeah, I can do that. Lift this finger as many times as you can and then you exercise.
He says, exercise? What is this exercise? It’s moving your finger. No. For the person who has paralysis, just moving that finger a little bit, that is exercise.
And by that exercise, gradually what will happen? They will be able to move all fingers. They move their palm. Then they move their forearm.
Then they will be able to move their hand. So like that, in certain areas, because of our past karma, because of either our destiny or because of our own choices in this life, our free will may have become very restricted. But even within that, we have some free will.
Alcoholic may say, I can’t give up drinking. But they can, instead of drinking, they can say, two bottles a day, they can drink one and a half bottles, one bottle a day. Nobody can say that I have no free will at all.
Even within our situation, our condition situation, we can choose. And the more we use our free will properly, the scope of our free will expands. When we use our free will improperly, the scope decreases.
The alcoholic keeps drinking, keeps drinking. Then the capacity to not drink decreases. Their free will goes down and down.
But alcoholic says no, once, twice, thrice, four times. And what happens, their capacity to not drink increases. Their free will increases.
So our past determines the scope of our free will. But our present determines what we do within that scope. Our past determines, our past determines the scope of our free will.
But our present determines what we do within that scope. So in that sense, our past does not determine us in that. It determines many things about us, but we still have free will.
So like, I talked about serving and receiving. So Pranav Dhakar, some of us may be born with a sickly body. Some of us may be born with, I will not say attractive looks or whatever.
That’s like some amount of circumscription that is there. Some person may not look good. But even a person who doesn’t look good, if they have a smiling nature, that makes them look good.
A person may have a very good look, but they are constantly frowning. People feel scared of them. They are not very attractive.
So destiny may determine our face, but we determine the expression on the face. So there is always free will that we have. Our free will is there and within whatever situation we are there, we can choose.
And this capacity to use our free will properly, that is enormously increased by Bhakti. When we practice Bhakti, what happens is that when we connect with Krishna, that connection with Krishna empowers us. So yes, when we say we should become Krishna conscious, Krishna consciousness, we focus our consciousness on Krishna.
And that fixing our consciousness on Krishna actually frees our consciousness from being restricted by our circumstances. You know, some bad thing has happened to me. Somebody has insulted me.
Somebody has cheated me. Somebody has betrayed me. That’s just happened now.
But I can keep thinking of that person, being angry. Or I can direct my thoughts towards Krishna. I can become peaceful.
I can become calm. And then I can decide how to move on in my life. So the connection with Krishna, what it does is that when we direct our consciousness towards Krishna, it helps us to rise above our circumstances.
So our circumstances are like a carpet. The carpet is meant to be below us, not above us. If we are under the carpet, we feel suffocated.
I can’t breathe over here. So if our circumstances are above us, that means we are just conscious of our circumstances. Oh, this bad thing is happening.
That bad thing is happening. This is going wrong. That is going wrong.
What can I do? If we think that we are simply victims of our circumstances, then the circumstances are like a carpet that is above us. And we will get suffocated by that. But when we have Krishna to be conscious of, we understand that my circumstances are bad, but Krishna is bigger than this.
We become conscious of Krishna. And I am connected with Krishna. Krishna cares for me.
Krishna loves me. So what happens? The circumstances go below us. Circumstances are still there.
But we, by the connection with Krishna, have risen to a higher level of consciousness. And at higher level of consciousness, we get calmness, we get clarity. And then we can feel the circumstances better.
Another example to illustrate this. Say there is a two-story building. And in the ground floor, we use the word ground floor in UK, or is it level one? Ground floor, okay.
USA, America, we use level one, level two, something like that. So anyway, ground floor. And the ground floor, say there is no air conditioning.
So it is very hot. I feel the heat over there. But if you just rise to the first floor, in the first floor, there is air conditioning.
As soon as you come to the first floor, you get, you get a comforting coolness there. So our existence is two levels, material level and spiritual level. We have material bodies, we live in the material world.
We ourselves are spiritual beings. So at the material level, there will be problems, there will be sufferings. If our consciousness is at the material level, then we will suffer.
So the material level is like the ground floor with no air conditioning. The spiritual level is like the first level with the air conditioning level. So we cannot control the material, we cannot control material things much.
Bad things happen sometimes. When they happen, that is like the weather is hot. We cannot change the weather.
Weather is what it is. But we can rise to the first floor. We can raise ourselves to spiritual consciousness.
And when we raise ourselves to spiritual consciousness, we will find it. Even when there is suffering. Suffering is still there.
But because we are not caught, our consciousness is not caught in that situation, we don’t feel so much suffering. So the process of bhakti yoga is like the elevator that lifts us up from the ground floor to the So it’s like the holy name of Krishna is in the elevator. Not just for chanting, any process of bhakti.
Hearing, reading, studying scripture. It’s like the elevator. And when you practice bhakti, it’s not just an activity to be done.
It’s an activity to be entered into. You want to enter, you take our consciousness into the holy name. You take our consciousness into scripture.
You take our consciousness into the deity that you observe. You may be holding them. So then by that our consciousness can rise upwards.
When we enter into the elevator, the elevator lifts us up. When we enter into the elevator, like that when we enter deep into the emotional activities, we find our consciousness rising upwards. The consciousness rising upwards.
Then we find that even in that circumstance, there will be relief. There will be relief. So actually Krishna, he helps in many different ways.
And I’m not going to get into the zone of what Krishna does with our karma. I take away all the sinful reactions. But when he says he takes away, that does not necessarily mean that we won’t get the karmic reactions.
The karmic reactions will still come. But we are not simply under the law of karma. We are under Krishna’s jurisdiction.
And Krishna uses the karma in a way that is best for our growth. So we will not focus because the way karmic reactions come, that is gana. It is very difficult to understand.
What I am focusing on is that, okay, by destiny, certain sub things are going to come. And we really can’t know when a problem comes. Has Krishna minimized the problem or is the problem coming as it is or what it is? We don’t know.
So we’ll not get too much into that. So we can focus on, okay, whatever problems have come in my life, Krishna consciousness can help us to deal with those problems better. Because he absorbs them.
And absorption itself is a flaw. So in 2011, I had a bad fracture in my leg. I was having polio in my childhood.
In the same leg, I had a bad fracture. And then this very bad fracture, the doctor told me that you cannot travel anymore. At that time, I was traveling a lot in India in class.
So you cannot travel anymore. So I was feeling very stymied, perplexed what to do. So I was in the hospital.
And once I was in the hospital, I was giving a class on Skype. And when I was giving a class on Skype, some devotees in another place, I was speaking to the Lord Purnima coming. So at that time, I was speaking about the six opulences of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And it was an audio class. So then I just closed my eyes and started speaking. So I spoke for almost 15 minutes.
And when I opened my eyes, I saw there was a Skype call and got disconnected. And then I look at the phone, there was 20 missed calls. So the devotees tried to call me, but I just closed my eyes.
I was absorbed. So for a few words, I was irritated. I just wasted my time speaking for 15 minutes.
But then, you know, I tried to journal regularly. When I was journaling, I just struck me. Actually, when I was speaking about Krishna, I was happy.
I was absorbed, I was happy. So that was the time it struck me that actually for speaking about Krishna, I don’t need an audience. Even if the audience is not there, I can speak.
And that was what gave me an idea. And from that time onwards, I started doing question answers online. I started doing courses online.
This is all I realized that speaking about Krishna can be absorbed even if the audience is not there. That’s how I did the Bhakti Shastri course online in half an hour. Many courses I have done online.
So this whole avenue of online outreach opened for me after I was circumscribed material, physically. I couldn’t travel. I couldn’t travel and I was perplexed.
I didn’t know what to do. And even in that day, my initial reaction when I found the phone was that the Skype call had got disconnected. It was irritation.
But later on in introspection, suddenly that reaction came. And that opened a whole new avenue. So if we just have a desire to serve Krishna, Krishna will show us some ways in which we can serve.
So sometimes what happens, there is the form of service and there is the principle of service. The form of service means, this is how I want to serve. This is what I want to do.
There’s a form of service. And sometimes because of circumstances, some forms of service may not be there. If we are too caught up in that, you know, why am I not able to do this? Then we become very frustrated.
But if we see that, okay, there is a form of service, but more important is the principle of service. If I can’t serve in this way, there is some other way I can serve. Ultimately, I’m a soul.
I’m meant to serve Krishna, love Krishna, and thereby I’m better than Krishna. So just as the Ganga keeps flowing towards the ocean, and if a rock comes in the way, Ganga flows from the left, from the right, from below, from above, or it just erodes the rock anyway. The Ganga keeps flowing.
So if the Ganga were attached, this is the only way I want to go. Then the rock will stop it. The Ganga is attached to going towards the ocean.
It is not attached to a particular way to go towards it. So similarly, in life, if we become, even when we are serving Krishna, whatever we do, our relationships, our job, or whatever we are doing, we can see that there is service to Krishna. But if you become attached to specific forms, this is the way I want to do it.
Sometimes, still, we just bring a rock in the way. When the rock comes, we just can’t do anything. So if we are attached to a particular form of service, then we will get frustrated.
But he is under the principle of service. Principle is, I want to serve Krishna. Let me see, if this doesn’t work out, okay, what is going to work out? Let me do it.
And Prabhupada is the ideal example of complete flexibility about the form of service, total attachment to the principle of service, totally attached to serving Krishna, but totally flexible about how to serve. You can see how many things Prabhupada tried. First, he tried to run a business.
This business became very successful. Then I was able to support my speech in Master’s That did work out. He tried to, I started back to college.
And then people were not interested in medicine. A cow came and hit him on the road. He was knocked down, he was wound at one particular time.
Then he tried to help his godfathers in their mission. But they had no vision to expand it. He just restricted him too much.
Then he tried to open the door for devotees. And then what happened? The very people with whom he was working, some of them came together they just formed almost like a clique against him. The place where he was going to be the international headquarters, he was practically victorious.
Prabhupada decided, there’s more, there’s more. So eventually, he just, what did he do? Just, this didn’t work out. Let me do that, let me do that.
Let me just keep moving forwards. Let me just keep trying to serve Krishna. And eventually, he decided to come to America.
And when he came to America also, things were not easy for him. Firstly, he stayed with the Gopal Sanyal Gawad family, but then he found it not making him interested. Prabhupada came to New York.
He stayed at one place. But there, he was not allowed to preach. He was allowed to book interviews.
He went to another place. He stayed at that place. And there, the watchman only stored his typewriter.
Prabhupada went to another place. He kept trying in these things. So Prabhupada was asked, what is the best prayer that you can offer to Krishna? Prabhupada said, pray to Krishna to give me the strength to serve you.
Krishna, please give me the strength to serve you. So whatever situation we are in, we may not be able to do a particular service. But if we pray for the strength for service, then we will find a way to serve Krishna.
So the word destiny is sometimes used to say that, okay, what happens to us? It was destined to happen. We say that. Something just not in our control, but that is what happens.
Environment happens to us. But the word destiny is also used to the future. Some talented batsman is there.
And then that person becomes a famous batsman. He has fulfilled his destiny. So we use destiny also in the sense of achieving a bright future, a bright future, fulfilling one s potential.
So in that sense, if we consider destiny, now our destiny is in our hands. Now what happens to us right now, what’s going to happen to us in future, that may not be in our control. But ultimately, our future will not be determined by what happens to us.
Our future will be determined by how we respond to what happens to us. And even if bad things keep happening to us, if we respond to it, by becoming more and more shelter of Krishna, by becoming conscious of Krishna, then we will be growing spiritually. We will be growing spiritually.
And our destiny is, ultimately both are in Krishna s abode. That is the perfection of our destiny. All of our souls are parts of Krishna.
And while we are in this world, Krishna has given us certain talents, certain abilities, certain situations we can contribute in certain ways. So if we let resentment and negativity lock us up mentally, then we will neither achieve the next world s destination, nor make this world s contribution. But if we release our mind from our circumstances, yes, bad things will be happening, but let me focus on Krishna.
Let me think of how I can serve Krishna. Then in both ways, we will fulfill our destiny. By freeing our mind from our circumstances, by focusing our mind on Krishna, we will be able to bring out our potential so that we can make constructive contributions while we are in this world.
And ultimately, we will attain Krishna. In the 18th, I ll conclude on this point, the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, there are two verses which describe the life and death of devotees and non-devotees, of materialists and spiritualists. So it is described that just as a moth goes towards fire, some warriors enter in the mouth of the Virat-Rukh.
And secondly, just as a river moves towards the ocean, like that some warriors enter into the Virat-Rukh. So that means there are many warriors who die. But there are two different examples.
One of the prominent Acharyas in the Shri Nisampradaya, a prominent follower of Ramacharya is Vedanta Deshika. And Vedanta Deshika gives a beautiful commentary to this verse. He says that this, what does it signify? That the moth going into fire and the river going to the ocean.
The moth going into the fire is intentionally, whereas the river going to the fire is involuntary. That s what Valdimitra Upanishad also says. But Vedanta Deshika goes further.
He says, when a river goes towards the ocean, when a moth goes into the fire, the moth is destroyed. When a river goes to the ocean, the river is not destroyed. The essential nature of water remains the same.
And not only that, when the river is going towards the ocean, the river is watering all the land on its banks. All the land on its banks is being watered, is irrigated. So much flora and fauna grows over it.
So many life forms get nourished in the pond. So like that it says that devotees and non-devotees, they are all going to die. Mortality is the fate of everyone in this world.
But the devotees, they are like the river going towards the ocean. Devotees are serving Krishna in this world and when they die, they serve Krishna in the next world. If they are pure, they go back to Krishna directly.
If they are not fully purified, they go to some other place and continue to serve Krishna. The essential nature of water is not changed. It is not destroyed.
The water remains the same. So like that, when we flow towards Krishna, we don’t let anything impede us in our flow towards Krishna. We serve him in this life, and just as the water while flowing, it irrigates the land.
A devotee, when flowing towards Krishna, the devotee serves others, helps others come closer to him, helps others bring out their better self. So both in this life as well in next life, a devotee’s life and activities are auspicious both for oneself as well as for others. Because whatever we are destined in terms of the circumstances that we get in life, our destiny ultimately in the service of Krishna is supremely auspicious.
We can make positive contributions in life and we can attain the ultimate destination at the end of our life. So to summarize, I spoke about destiny and its relationship with karma. So I talked about how one problem which the scientific rational mind has with accepting the concept of destiny is that we see that there are immediate causes.
And yes, we acknowledge there are immediate causes, but we don’t restrict ourselves to those immediate causes. So the laws of physics can explain why a billiard ball went into the hole. It’s not a complete explanation.
The skill of the player is also another explanation. So like that, science can explain why somebody got malaria. There is a mosquito bit them.
Infectious germ is there in their body. That’s true. But why did the mosquito bite that person alone? It’s a correct but not complete explanation.
So there is an immediate cause, which if it can be addressed, it should be addressed, as I know it does. But then we acknowledge that there are further immediate causes, that is, one’s own karma. And when the immediate cause does not produce the, when the problem is not solved by addressing its immediate cause, then we understand that there is something more involved.
So the principle of, so science and spirituality are not contradictory, they are complementary. There are different levels of causation and Krishna acts at the ultimate level in terms of, he is a sanctioning authority. So Krishna is like an umpire.
He is disinterested but not uninterested. He cares for us. That’s why he is present in our heart.
But he is not the cause of our suffering. Sometimes scriptures say that it is, Krishna has come as a suffering and has actually exalted Krishna consciousness in the person. It’s not a philosophical reality that Krishna is causing suffering.
Just like Kepala Mahaprabhu sees every river as Vrinda, as Yamuna. So that’s, a devotee should be able to see Krishna everywhere. And even in suffering, this is an opportunity to go closer to Krishna.
But Krishna is not the cause of our suffering. Krishna is the cure for our suffering. And when we interact with each other, we function based on our dharma, not their karma.
What is my duty in this situation? So, when Dhritarashtra said that, if it is justly his will that our dynasty be destroyed, then Dhritarashtra said, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. Vasudeva told Kamsa, don’t kill Devaki. If you are just trying to die, you will die.
But he didn’t think that if Devaki is just trying to die, she will let her die. Because he was concerned about his duty. My duty is to protect my wife.
So, if you look at the Karmanyavadika Arasthe verse, detachment is after the action, it is from the fruits. Irresponsibility is before the action, towards our action itself. So, we are not, we are meant to be detached, not irresponsible.
And detachment actually makes us more responsible, not less. And what that verse is saying is, by recognizing that we alone are not the cause of the result, we do our part and we leave that which is not in our control to others. So, doing our part means that if somebody is, if a thief has robbed a person, the king has to do his part and try to retrieve the wealth.
If a baby is crying, the mother has to take care. But if the thief is untraceable, if the baby keeps crying, then we understand that things beyond our control, we can ascribe them to destiny. So, to understand how to work within the things in our control with the example of a tennis match.
Sometimes we are serving, sometimes we are returning. Sometimes we have freedom, initiative, and sometimes we are restricted in our choices. But in every situation, we do have some capacity to choose.
And by accepting that, okay, I am in a limited circumstance right now, and being willing to function, being skillful in functioning that, we can create, we can function and grow even through those limited circumstances. So, instead of resenting why I have a limited circumstance, why I have fallen sick, why I am bedridden, focus on what can I do while I am bedridden. And that capacity to free our free will from our circumstances, not let it be locked in our circumstances, that is enhanced by Krishna consciousness.
Our circumstances are like carpets, they are meant to be below us, not above us. If we are materially conscious, then the material circumstances can seem overwhelming. When we become Krishna conscious, we understand that actually I am a spiritual being and Krishna is a spiritual reality.
And both of us are above this material world. So, it is like a two-story building. We cannot change the weather, but we can rise to the higher story where there is air pollution.
Like that, by our destiny, we might get into difficult circumstances. We may not be able to remove the difficulties, but we can raise our consciousness up to Krishna. And that itself increases relief.
And then through that relief, we can get the calmness, the clarity to find out how best to act. And Krishna, He can remove our karmic reactions directly. But how Krishna does that, that is very difficult for us to understand.
So, we can focus instead on whatever karmic reactions are coming, how can Krishna help me to deal with that? So, Krishna is in here with us. The more we take shelter of Him, the more we can, we can find out how we are praying to Him for the strength to serve Him. We can be, we can be flexible in how we serve, but fixed in the purpose of serving.
And by that, by that combination of fixity and flexibility, we can move forward and grow in whatever situation we are in. Destiny determines what happens to us. Our free will determines how we respond.
And destiny in the sense of what we achieve in our life, that is very much in our hands. Because if we connect with Krishna, if we free our consciousness from our circumstances and focus on Krishna, then we will ultimately attain Krishna, which is the most auspicious destiny. And we also contribute during our life journey by doing whatever Krishna has, whatever talents Krishna has given us, by using them constructively.
This is a river, goes to the ocean and waters the territory around it. Like that a devotee contributes constructively in this life and attains the supreme destination at the end of this life. Thank you very much.
So originally we are planning to have one more break and then we will continue. I have another program which I have to go at 5.20. So can you just directly have question and answer if you have any now? Okay. So are there any questions? Yes, please.
What is stronger, your destiny or your life? Okay. So what is stronger? Is it our destiny is stronger or is our free will, our actions are stronger? If I am destined to be a millionaire, then is it that that destiny will determine the action that I do? Yeah, it s a good question. As I said that whenever we have any philosophical frame of analysis, the reality is always much more complex than any frame that we use for analysis.
So just like you have a map of the world. Okay, here is Canada, here is America. If you go actually, it is not that on the territory we have clear cut, this is the border, this is Canada, this is America.
Sometimes they have disputed territories. So the point which I am making is any system of classification, any system of analysis, taxonomy does not translate into reality directly. So when I said this is our actions are in our control, our destiny determines what, our free will determines what we do and destiny determines what reactions we get or what happens to us and how we respond is free will.
That is true at one level. It is also true that destiny can influence our actions also. Now it is our, we do have free will, but we are in certain circumstances pushed towards certain things and certain circumstances are pushed towards certain other things.
So although we are not forced, but we are pushed. Now we can counter push, but we are pushed towards other things at a simple level to understand. All of us have certain inclinations.
In the Bhagavad Gita is classified according to four varnas, Ram, Hanuman, Kshatriya, Vaishnav, some of us are intellectual, some of us are more martial, managerial level, some of us are more market type and this is basically an inclination. That is the way a person tends to act. So that is also driven by destiny.
So in that sense, we are not entirely free to choose our actions. We have some free will, some scope to our free will. So now there are situations when when by our destiny we are guided towards good choices, we are impelled to do certain things and this concept of destiny will actually for me one of the toughest concepts to explain, accept, not explain, accept.
Just before I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness, I had given my GRE exam and it was my dream to be a topper throughout my academic career and I was always among the top, but I was never the number one. We joined first, second, third, but never one, number one. And then when I gave my GRE, I got at that time 2350 out of 2400.
It was not only the first, I was the first in the history of my college. I was the first in the whole state of Maharashtra. So then, well after that I read Bhagavad Gita.
Everything is determined by destiny. I said happiness comes by, just as distress comes by destiny, happiness will also come by destiny. I said, no, if I had not worked, I would not have got those marks.
Obviously, I worked so hard. That’s why I got it. But over the years, I realized that I did work hard, but even when we work hard, there’s our frame of mind.
Sometimes the mind just goes so wide. In modern psychology, people talk about, they call it the flow or some high performance zone. Or in cricket, you know people say the batsman is in form.
The batsman is in form, you know any stroke they hit, it just goes to the boundary. Now, no batsman ever wants to be out of form. But they go out of form.
Now, out of form doesn’t just mean bad things happen to their umpire, move them out when they’re not out. No, they themselves are not able to bat properly. So now, why is the batsman sometimes in form, sometimes out of form? Even when the batsman is in form, the batsman is playing very well.
And that being in form is also partially related to how the batsman has practiced and disciplined and has skills. But there is, there is a tide to human affairs, which can just push us up. We have to be rowing, we have to be doing our part.
But when that tide comes, it just pushes us up. So sometimes when we are destined for some success, at that time, we are just pushed towards making those choices. I remember when I was giving the GRE exam, I was so obsessed with studying for that exam, that I would have those flashcards.
And when we’re crossing the road, you know, I would have one flashcard and memorize the word. And then by the time we’ll cross the road, I’ll take another card, memorize the word, then I’ll cross the next one. I have not been able to memorize Bhagavad Gita verses like that.
Although I tried, it was just, it was just at that time, when we are, we are destined towards some success. It’s like some power takes hold of us. It makes us do certain things.
So, yes, sometimes when we are destined for success, it is that we do work hard, there is no denying our hard work. But there is something else which seems to take control of us and enables us to do the right thing at that time. Our part is there in it, in doing the right things.
But there is something more than ourselves. So yes, if something is destined to happen, then this misery comes without our special endeavor. So, happiness also comes.
We endeavor specially, but we are almost like made to endeavor at that time. So yes, if something is destined to happen, then we will be inspired to do those things at that time by which we get that destiny. Does this answer your question? Yes and no.
I mean, in the sense that anybody who is successful in this world, they are, there has to be factors which are in their control and factors which are beyond that which determine their success. So, now we could say that ultimately nothing happens without Krishna s control. So, Krishna is involved in everyone s becoming successful.
But the important thing is how is that person seeing it. So, say somebody like Hitler, that person by past karma was meant to become a powerful head of state. But how they use that power, that is up to them.
The person can use that power to cause harm, to cause, to kill so many people. So, that means there is, see, one way of understanding is that all good qualities, all good things, they come from Krishna. But they don t, all good things don t take us to Krishna necessarily.
If somebody has, Hitler was a very great orator, he could electrify people with his speeches. So, Krishna says, all attractive things come from, everything attractive reflects a spark of my spirit. So, his oratory skill came from Krishna.
But his oratory skill did not take him to Krishna. He misused it terribly, misled people, misled himself. We get the current consequences of that.
So, yes, it is the tile of destiny which pushes us towards success. We can say that it ultimately comes from Krishna. Intermediately, it is just our past karma coming upon us.
But whether it takes us towards Krishna or not, that is most important. And that depends on what we do with the talents that we have, what we do with the success that we achieve. Okay.
Can someone be destined for failure? Well, failure is a multi-form word. What do we mean exactly by failure? Some of us may be in a particular vocation for which we are not really suited. So, somebody is an intellectual and they get into a business field.
But they may not really be successful in that field. They are not made for that. So, it is said that do not judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree.
So, if you are going to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will be a failure. But if you judge a fish by its ability to swim, it will be successful. So, we can say that by our destiny, we have a particular kind of psychophysical nature.
And that makes us more suited for certain things and less suited for certain things. So, that means in certain areas, we may not be successful. But that does not make us a failure.
As I said, failure is an event in our life. Failure is not our life. So, when we face failures, now we basically have various options before us.
We perceive we are in the same field, we change to some other field. Or we just keep doing the same thing again and say, oh there is a failure, we go to some other field. Now, what to do in that situation? That depends on our own circumstances, our own intelligence, our own inspiration.
Sometimes we feel driven to something, to do something, not just because it is our inspiration, our calling, but it is because the world glorifies, glamorizes that particular activity. That is why we want to do something. So, if it is social pressure that is inspiring us to, is impelling us to do something, then maybe it is not worthy.
We cannot say that somebody is trying for failure per se. We all have certain good, certain bad karma which we have to work out in this life. And some people may have more bad karma to work out in good karma.
But that does not necessarily mean that their life has to be a failure. Certain vocations may not work out in their life. Ultimately, life success is how we go towards Krishna.
So, A, we are taking shelter of Krishna. Even if our life is repeatedly a failure in the material life, if that failure makes us take shelter of Krishna, then that is the ultimate success. In Jatayu, he was killed.
That was a failure. But he was serving the Lord. And the Lord, He blessed him that, Lord of Om will last twice and He will kill him.
So, from the ultimate perspective, material failure between success is not the most consequential thing. We focus on Krishna, then and try to serve Him, then we will be guided how to make the best of whatever life hands to us. Is praying to Krishna a part of our karma? Yes, it depends on what we mean by the word karma.
Karma means, if we say that it is our actions. Yes, praying is an action that we have to choose. I can choose to pray or I can choose to defy God.
Yes, prayer as an action to choose, it is a part of our karma. It is what we should choose to do. At the same time, you can say, all of us, based on the past karma that we have done, we may have different degrees of inclination towards prayerfulness.
Some of us may be born pious, born spiritually oriented. Some of us may not be born so spiritually oriented. So, that, how much we are inclined to pray, that is a result of our past karma.
And if we are less inclined to pray, then we may need to associate more with those who pray regularly. And by their inspiration, we will also learn to pray. So, praying is like a part of the duty that we should be cultivating.
And so, the more we pray, the more we connect with Krishna. That’s up to our proper use of the heart. Okay.
Can we change the results of our karma by bhakti? I said that when you clap and others, we change this. Or is it just the relief that we experience? The Rajasic, in a mode of passion, the tendency is always to think in terms of or, this or this. That is the mental cause.
Spiritual consciousness is not or but and. It is this and this. So, in many fields, we just want, is it like this or is it like that? It is not.
You are simply going to put it in such simple categories. So, yes, Krishna s mercy, bhakti helps us in terms of relief that we get. But bhakti also helps us in terms of Krishna does alleviate our reactions.
Now, what does he do? He can do many things. He can minimize the reactions that we get. If we are meant to get a lot of reactions, he can minimize them.
Or he can, you could say, reschedule the reactions. That means we are meant to get certain reactions. But when we get some problem, that also matters a lot.
In cricket, it is said that, the players say that. Ultimately, if it is umpiring decisions are there, everybody gets bad decisions. And sometimes you are out and you are not out.
And sometimes you are not out and you are given out. So, in the long run, you could say it evens out. But then, in which match, what kind of decision you are given, that matters.
Maybe in the last over of a match, if you are given out and you are not out, that is going to matter much more. Then in the middle of the match, if you get out, many other batsmen were waiting to come in. So, you know, when, what thing happens to us, that also matters a lot.
So, if, say, it is a stormy weather, at that time, I am wild with anger at someone. I am driving rashly out of that anger. Then that anger and that weather, both coming together, creates far greater danger.
You are angry at one other time, and in the bad weather, there is another time. And there is not so much trouble. So, basically, Krishna is expert in dealing with our karmic reactions in a way that is the best for our good.
So, if he wants, he can remove the karma. If he wants, he can minimize the karma. If he wants, he can reschedule the karma.
If he wants, he can shield us from the karmic reactions. So, but the main point is that, yes, scripture, the bhakti literature, do talk profusely about how the practice of bhakti frees us from sinful reactions. Or not just the bhakti practice, remove the sinful reactions.
But then we also see that there are many devotees who go through some things. And as for the exalted devotees, we could say that it is not their karma, it is simply Krishna instructing us to do that. But it is not just exalted devotees who go through suffering.
We have other devotees also. If you look at the history of the bhakti tradition in India, especially when Muslim rulers were ruling, there are so many devotees who have to suffer so much problem. We went through it.
So, basically, if we start getting into the zone that Krishna will remove my karmic reactions, then every time suffering comes, we ask, why Krishna not remove my karmic reactions? So, what happens is, bhakti, the essence of the driving force in devotion is the mood of contribution, not the mood of expectation. If we have that mood of expectation constantly, then we never have stability in bhakti. Because you know, why is Krishna not doing this? Bhakti promises this, why does not happen? Why does not happen? Yes, Krishna will help us.
But if we think that that help means that there should be no, that I have chanted Hare Krishna, I have surrendered to Krishna, I should have no problems in my life. That is not going to happen. Even if Krishna made our life problem-free, that itself could become a big problem.
Why? Because if life becomes problem-free, why do I need Krishna? Our life is fine over here. Thinking that I do not need Krishna, that itself is a big problem. So, therefore, as Krishna does remove our reactions, but how exactly he does it, we do not know.
Because to know that Krishna has minimized our reactions, we have to first know this much was my reaction and this much was what I got. Therefore, it will be minimized. But we do not know this much.
All that we see is this much. Is this much what I am getting, is it a minimization or is it the full dose? We do not know anything. So, therefore, that can put us in too much in a zone of expectation, speculation, and frustration also.
Because we feel it should not be happening to him suddenly. So, we just focus on how can I best serve Krishna, whatever situation comes in my life. Translation? Yes.
When there is suffering and failure, is there a role for astrology to offer relief? When there is suffering and failure, is there a role for astrology to offer relief? Yes. And it is not that astrology offers relief. It is the practices that we do that can offer relief.
See, astrology is basically like a weather forecast. If I am going on a drive, I would like to know what kind of weather I want to experience. If I know that, that is helpful.
But if it is a stormy weather, the weather forecast alone does not help me to be protected from the stormy weather. It is what I do. So, basically, there is a whole complex set of interconnectedness by which our karmic reactions are orchestrated through certain agents.
And those agents are the personal predominating deities of certain celestial bodies. So, by knowing the position of certain celestial bodies, what kind of actions are going to, what kind of things are going to happen in our life, they can be roughly predicted, broadly predicted. So, astrology itself is a subtle and complex system of analyzing those causes.
Now, it is like I said that weather forecast tells us at this time this weather will be there. But ultimately, we have to decide what to do in that situation. So, astrology can give us to some extent some understanding of what we are going to face in our life.
And astrologers may sometimes tell us that okay, this is what you should, this is what you can do as a remedial measure for this, this is what you can do as a remedial measure for that. And sometimes we may get relieved by doing what astrologers are telling. The major issue, however, is that astrology is also a material practice.
It is not inherently spiritual. So, it is basically like when I have a disease, I take a medicine. The medicine can help me relieve the disease.
So, like that astrology can tell us in future you are going to face this problem. And then you can take this as a preventive measure for it or as a measure to counter or minimize it. The problem in today s world is that because astrology is also material activity and there are many people who are very materially motivated and got into it.
So, to know who is really good astrologer, that is very difficult. And we may just see the nature of the human mind is that it does not want to take responsibility. So, sometimes we may just abdicate our sense of responsibility to astrology.
So, astrologer told me do this, I will do it. Astrologer told me do not do this, I will not do it. Now, ultimately, it is for us, we are agents, we have to act.
So, we should always be thinking of responsible, rational, scripturally based decision making. And astrology can be another aid which we use in taking some decisions. Whether it can be helpful, but it can be harmful also.
Why harmful? Because sometimes some people just want to do certain things. There is one devotee who has written a book, How to Mess Your Life with Astrology. So, what happens is, somebody wants to do a particular thing.
And then they want to do a thing. They are in a marriage and they want to end that marriage. And they go to astrologer and say, just tolerate this, things will be better.
He says, no, no. They go to one astrologer, second astrologer, third astrologer. They go to 15 astrologers, still they tell, finally astrologer says, no, no, this marriage is not going to work, you break it.
And then they break it. So, basically what happens, sometimes astrology becomes a tool for rationalizing what we want to do. And then our mind can just make us go for a complete ride.
We all have to face certain levels of problems in life. And yes, in major decisions, if you want to consult astrology, that is good. But if we think that astrology is some trick by which I can avoid all problematic situations, it is not going to work.
So, again, it can become very, it be, as I said, if we use astrology as an aid for responsible decision making, then it can be helpful. But if we abdicate our responsibility for decision making, and just use astrology to just do whatever our mind is telling us to do, or do whatever the astrologer is telling us to do, then ultimately the astrologer is not going to get the karmic reactions for what we are doing, because we were going to get it. Sushila Prabhupada, in principle, did talk about astrology in the texts.
And there are astrologers who are, there is the horoscope is made, and it is described how he was such a glorious person. But if we look at the scriptures themselves, now it is not that at every single decision, it is not that they are just concerning astrologers. It is not that, you know, Arjuna has astrologer on his chariot.
Should I shoot this arrow? No. Okay, should I shoot this arrow? It is not like that. So, astrology, yes, it should be used that they decided to fight at Kurukshetra.
Kurukshetra was an auspicious place for fighting. They decided which day to fight on. That is, there is astrology that is used for that.
It is said that even Ravana used astrology to decide when he should kidnap Sita. You know, astrology can be used for such purposes also. So, Jatayu, what he did was, he fought and fought and fought.
And as the astrologer had told him that, and if you are able to kidnap Sita in this time, the kidnapping will be successful. If you are not able to kidnap her in this time, that will be unsuccessful. So, Jatayu fought and fought and fought and he was not able to take Sita out of that area till the time Jatayu was alive.
So, he was delayed. So, it was something like in the Vrinda period or something he kidnapped her. And then later on, who is that? A sage tells Rama that because she is abducted in that period, so you will be able to find her.
So, the point is that there is a demon also who can control astrology. They are doing demonic activities by that. So, astrology is very much a part of the Vedic literature.
So, Srila Prabhupada in his practical conduct of activities, he did not over depend on astrology. So, for major decisions in life, it might be helpful to control astrology. But it should always be an aid to responsibility, not a substitute for it.
Can karma be inherited? Can children enjoy the fruits of the good work of their parents? Yes, definitely. It is not exactly karma being inherited. It is rather the children who have done some good karma are born to parents who have good karma to give to their children.
So, it is a complex chain. But having said that, so that means the parents are say very responsible at their financial management and they save a good amount of money. So, they give good inheritance to the children.
Now, that is the parent’s responsibility to do that. At the same time, those souls who are meant to have that, they will be born in that family. So, if we are asking this question in the sense that should we do our duty responsible towards our children? Yes, we should.
But again, it is their karma. How to use that? So, there is this, we should always be doing our duty in the best possibility. At the same time, you know that every soul has their own karma.
There are some children who get a lot of wealth in inheritance, just squander it away. Because they just got the wealth so easily, they do not really realize its value. They just squander it away.
But rather than saying that karma is itself transferable, what happens is by our karma, we come into contact with certain people. But what is transferable is the culture, is the intelligence, the knowledge, the circumstances by which we can make right choices. So, some parents may have a lot of wealth to pass on to their children.
Some parents may not have so much wealth to pass on to their children. But the important thing is the parents, if they are setting a good example of how to use Lakshmi properly, how to see Lakshmi as the, as belonging to Lord Narayana, how to use her properly, then that culture in the children learn that and whatever they get, less or more, they will use it well. Now, happiness is not determined, is not so much determined by what we have, it is much more determined by what we do with what we have.
Now, people can have a lot of wealth and they can make themselves miserable with all that wealth. Some people can have less wealth and they can use it properly and they will be happy with that. Does it answer your question? Yes, sir.
Okay. So, if everything is determined by karma, then we can just let go of things and we can get relief. Emotionally, we can let go of things.
Yes, in material consciousness, we basically think of two alternatives, that things are in my control or things are out of control. But bhakti wisdom helps us to understand that things that are out of my control are not out of control. They are out of my control, but they are still in Krishna s control.
So, let me focus on doing that which I can do. Sometimes, the first thing which we have control over is our own consciousness. That means, somebody has hurt me terribly.
At that time, what do I do? That person has done that, it s hurting me, I can t do anything about that, that event has happened. But if my consciousness I control, I m thinking of that person again and again, why did he do that, why did she do that, why, why, why? It will simply make me frustrated. But if I control my consciousness directly towards that person, I ll calm down, I ll calm down.
Once I m calmed down, then I can think more objectively about the situation and then I can decide how to deal with that situation. So, letting go does not necessarily mean necessarily not doing anything about the situation. In different situations, we can respond in different ways.
Normally, when we think of letting go and surrendering to Krishna, the standard example is of Draupadi. When she was being disrobed, she just raised her hand and surrendered. So, now, before that, if you hear the whole pastime that Draupadi was trying to reason, Krishna had gambled himself, how could he have gambled me before when he was not his own master? And she is throughout trying to avert disaster.
So, is it that Draupadi was surrendering only when she raised her hands up and before that she was unsurrendered, before that she was rebellious? No, it is not like that. She was surrendering throughout. Her surrender was that she was she was reminding everyone else of dharma.
But at that particular time, when she realized that no one can help her, she just raised her hand and surrendered. So, that is one way of surrendering. She just let go of everything, just offered her consciousness, her heart to Krishna.
Now, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, surrender to me. And Arjuna says, yes, I will surrender to you. But how does Arjuna surrender to Krishna? Now, Arjuna does not raise his hands and surrender.
Arjuna raises his bow in readiness to fight. So, Arjuna’s surrender is in his readiness to fight, in his upraised bow. So, surrender can have different forms in different situations.
Actually, Prabhupada’s surrender was when he told Krishna, what does that mean? Prabhupada himself was planning so much, should I do this, should I do that, should I try this out, trying that out, trying that out. So, Prabhupada’s surrender was was not just raising his bow in fight, not raising her arms to surrender. Prabhupada was doing wherever the opportunity came, taking that opportunity to try this out.
Krishna made me dance. So, specific, so we do want to let go, but letting go does not necessarily mean not being ready. Letting go means putting first things first.
First thing is, it is our consciousness that is what we need to confront. Our consciousness we direct towards Krishna, we offer it to Krishna. Once our consciousness is offered to Krishna, thereafter we can wisely choose.
We will get the calmness, the clarity to choose, should I do this or do that, should I fight as Arjuna, should I fight as Arjuna, let go as Arjuna. So, basically when we face difficulties, we have three options. We change ourselves and tolerate the situation, act to change the situation or walk away from the situation.
It’s like when the Pandavas were subjected to atrocities, initially they said when they tried to burn, they attempted to burn, when Bhima was poisoned, Krishna told, don’t blow up the issue, just keep it in the family. They tolerated it, they tried to keep it, but eventually when Draupadi was dishonored, her little mind was crossed and they fought and eventually when Krishna departed from the world, he just walked away. Or sometimes, we also have this, basically we also have these three different options.
Sometimes there is some situation, you can’t change it, you just tolerate it, accept it. I’ll tolerate and continue. Sometimes you know, this person and the way they are acting, they are hurting me and they hurt others also.
Something has to be done, some action has to be done, I will say. So, maybe action. Sometimes you decide, oh, this particular problem is so I have better things to do, I’m not going to get involved in this, just move on.
So, if we have the attitude of service, then the attitude of service, Krishna will say, how can I test more years to this day? So, that way we can be guided towards making the right choice. Could you answer the question? How do we differentiate between good karma and bad karma? I told different things. Actually, there is good karma which is at a material level and there is ultimately good karma at a spiritual level.
Bad karma means, specifics are intricate, but bad karma, I could broadly say, is that which hurts us, hurts others. So, activities which are rich are such that they hurt us materially, hurt us spiritually, or hurt others materially, hurt others spiritually. Those are considered bad karma.
So, for example, there are the four regulative principles we follow, meat-eating, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication, these are examples of bad karma. Good karma are virtuous activities, say, giving charity, or giving charity, doing some austerity, doing some religious rituals, that s good karma. So, now beyond that is bhakti karma, it s called a karma, that is the activity which we do for Krishna s pleasure, for Krishna s sakes.
That brings no material interaction. So, broadly speaking, it is through scripture, by studying scripture and letting scripture orient our own conscience. We all have a sense of right or wrong, and when we clarify the sense of right or wrong, or guide that by scripture, then we learn to understand what is the action to be done, what is the action to be avoided.
There was one question which was asked to me during the break. So, it was about, when we take, nowadays there is cow product, cows, they are often subjected to violence, and cow milk is a product of violence. So, should we take such dairy products or not? In spiritual life, there are issues of principle, and there are issues of preference.
So, for example, chanting Hare Krishna is a matter of principle. Now, whether to sit and chant, or stand and chant, to walk and chant, that is a matter of preference. So, if issues of preference are made into issues of principle, then we become fanatical.
But yes, issues of preference means, this is how I think westerns try to do it. So, now, here with respect to milk, broadly speaking, traditionally milk has been very much integral part, the cow has been integral part of spiritual culture, and our milk is considered very sacred, very uplifting to the consciousness. And Prabhupada s books do talk a lot about the importance of taking milk.
So, that is the traditional reality. The contemporary reality is that, with the milk which is got today from the cows, it is, cows are subjected to often terrible torture and extortion. So, they are subjected to pain, and the more we take that milk, we are actually contributing to the system.
So, the best solution would be that we get milk from cows, which are treated more humane, which are treated more kindly. The devotees or people associated with devotees, they can come up and make Ahimsa milk. That would be the best solution.
And there are increasing number of places where this can be possible. This is being done. Now, where that is not possible, then even in the devotee community, there will be different kinds of people.
See, every tradition, it has, it has two connections. The tradition has to be connected to the past, every living tradition. The living tradition’s connection with the past is the, is fidelity.
This connection in the past, and its connection with its present, is its flexibility. Now, when it is connected with the past, then it represents the past and brings it to the future, into the present. But if it is connected only with the past and not with the present, then the tradition becomes not a living tradition, it becomes a museum artifact.
Because it is no longer relevant to the people around us. So, if the tradition is only connected with the present and not connected with the past, then what happens? The tradition does not remain a tradition. It just becomes an addition to the contemporary landscape.
So, there has to be a balance of fidelity which connects one to the past and flexibility which connects one to the present. Now, within the devotee community, there will be some devotees who will focus much more on fidelity than flexibility. This is what was done in the past and that is what we should be doing.
Whatever happens today does not matter. But then the other devotees will focus more on flexibility. Yes, it was done like that, but what is the effect on it today? It is not a good thing.
So, we have to be aware of the current reality and act accordingly. And for both these devotees, those who focus more on fidelity and those who focus more on flexibility, they all can find quotes from scripture, quotes from Shrila Prabhupada to support their positions. So, when there is no clear-cut siddhantic issue involved, there are two principles.
One is that we should take cows. The other is that we should not cause violence to cows. So, there are two clear scripture principles.
And now, which principle to give more importance to? That is a matter of preference. So, some devotees may feel inspired that, no, we have to take milk. That is what Prabhupada told, that is what we will take.
Yes, we know, but we do not want the violence. So, whichever, there is always scope for individuality involved. There is scope for individuality because ultimately we are all individuals.
So, we have that understanding that there is scope for individuality. When we use scriptural intelligence, we consult Shri Ramana Swami Shastra and then based on our intelligence, we decide what we should do. So, these are issues of preference and there is no need to go on a campaign for or against.
Whatever we are inspired to do, we can do.