How can we practically apply – don’t be angry with the instrument of your karma?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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by that. Thank you. When we are facing a different situation, can we see that as with the mood of This is my own bad karma coming to me.
Like Prabhupada said that don’t be angry with the instrument of your own karma. Can we just see it as Krishna’s mercy and deal with it? Yes, definitely. We will say that.
That is a very elevated spiritual vision. And if we can have that, we can avoid a lot of aggravated harsh feeling. Aggravated negative feeling that comes.
And that is Now in general, whenever we face a troubling situation, there are three broad options we have. One is that we change ourselves and tolerate the situation. Second is, we change the situation.
We change the other person or change the situation. Third is, we walk away from the situation. Now all three can be valid responses.
When we say that something is the instrument of our own karma, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are not meant to do anything. It’s just like, say, okay, I’ve got a disease. That’s because of my past karma.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m not meant to take medicine. Ayurveda is a whole well-developed branch of knowledge. We are to take medicines.
So basically if you look at the Pandavas, they exhibited all these three responses at different times. Initially when Bhima was poisoned or the Pandavas were burnt, they attempted to be burnt in Varanagadh. What they said? Yudhishthira told, don’t publicize this.
Don’t complain. Just tolerate it. Keep this in-house conflict in-house.
So he basically changed himself. Somebody tries to poison us, we’ll feel so angry. Somebody tries to burn us, we’ll naturally be angry.
But they tolerated. Changed themselves. But then eventually when Draupadi was disrobed, attempted to be disrobed, a particular line was crossed.
And Krishna tells Arjuna, taam siddhiksya swabhara He says, tolerate. But the same Bhagavad Gita is also telling, tells Arjuna, fight. So Krishna is not telling Arjuna, tolerate the injustices of the Kauravas.
He’s telling, fight. So there are some situations where we need to change the situation. And we need to act.
But we act not by impulse. We act by intelligence. So that means sometimes we understand that the suffering is coming because of our past karma.
At the same time, we have to choose an appropriate response. So, say if a thief has robbed someone, now the person who has been robbed, they go to a king. And suppose the king says at that time, don’t be angry with the instrument of your karma.
It’s your karma, that’s why you’re robbed. Okay. It may be my karma because of which I was robbed.
But the question is, what is the king’s dharma? The king’s dharma is to maintain law and order. So, when, the point is that when we are talking about karma, the important point is that we don’t have knee-jerk responses. We have wise responses.
So, second response could be that we change the situation. Sometimes some situations need to be changed. So, Prabhupada, we see that sometimes, say, when he was in America and he was living with the Mayavadi, at that time, you know, he was still not allowed to speak which was yoga studio.
So, Prabhupada just tolerated it. Tolerated it at that time. But, when, when he was having his own movement and then something would go wrong, Prabhupada strongly take action.
If some mismanagement was happening, Prabhupada would send some other person, himself go there. When the Juhu land was being taken away, Prabhupada did not, was being swindled away. Prabhupada did not think that this person is simply giving us, is giving us our own karma.
Prabhupada fought for Krishna. And then, in some situations, we may just walk away from the situation. Walk away means, I have better things to do in my life.
I will not get involved in this. When Krishna departed from the world, the Pandavas walked away. So, like that, Prabhupada, when he was in Jhansi, at that time, he started League of Devotees and then there was a whole political clique against him and that which is going to be the headquarters of his movement, he was practically evicted from there.
Now, Prabhupada had the legal documents by which he could fight a war. But Prabhupada said, it’s not worth it. He said, we walked away from it.
So, we have to choose, we understand that, when we see the other person as an instrument of our own karma, that means, that prevents us from becoming too resentful or hateful towards that person. That protects us also from the mentality of being victimized. When we face a problem, we become hateful.
This person is like this, this person is like this, this person is like this. Or we feel sorry for ourselves. This goes wrong, that goes wrong, that has gone wrong.
We feel sorry for ourselves. I’ve seen things as coming from our own karma, it helps us to avoid these two negative responses, either resenting people or feeling sorry for ourselves. At the same time, we have to decide what is the appropriate response in that situation.
And the basis for that appropriate response is, what is my dharma? So, if something is an important thing for me, something is my service and somebody is interfering with my service, then I may have to fight. Sometimes, we may just walk away from this. Because I have some other service to do and I don’t want to fight over this issue.
So, it’s all if we have a sincere service attitude towards Krishna. And that is the mood of the Tenukampam verse. You know, Krishna, I am a servant.
So, we will know at that time, how best we can serve. And that way, we can ensure that our response is a response that connects us with Krishna. So, in some situations, just accepting, this is what has happened, I can’t change it.
So, Krishna, I accept it. This has happened because of my past karma. I accept it.
Please, let me engage in your service. That way, we can avoid negative emotions and focus on the positive activity and the positive attitude of service to Krishna. Thank you for that comment.
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