Learning to not go up and down with life’s ups and downs – Gita 02.54-57

[Bhakti Shastri class at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I am grateful to be here to discuss about the Bhagavad Gita, which incidentally happens to be my favourite book. So, we will be discussing, as mentioned in the section, last section of the second chapter, 2.54-72. This takes a lot of time, in the sense that the way I, I have a whole series of 108 lectures in the Bhagavad Gita, which I take at least 7 minutes per verse.
During an hour I cover about 7, 6 to 7 verses. So, I will do an overview of these 18 verses. And I will talk about some application points, which these verses point towards.
Now, in the overall context, the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is, Prabhupada titles it as Contents of the Gita Summarised. And in this chapter, Arjuna is first indecisive. And he says, I don’t know whether I should fight or I should not fight.
In 2.6 he says, I am not sure which is better. Should I fight or should I not fight? And that indecision leads to inaction. So, in 2.9 he says, Therefore, I will not fight.
So, he says, I need to know what is the right course of action. In 2.7 he says, I want to know what is Dharma. Dharma is basically the natural order of things.
And the actions that harmonise us with the natural order of things. And Krishna answers from different perspectives. First he tells Arjuna from 2.11 to 2.13, that actually, we are all not the bodies, we are the souls.
So, therefore, if you are lamenting that you are going to kill your opponents, they are anyway going to die sooner or later. So, what is important is that we can never avoid death. But what we can do is, by doing our duty, we can rise to a consciousness beyond death.
So, focus on doing your duty. Don’t lament about death. And then from 2.31 to 2.37, he talks about how, by doing your duty, if you win, you will attain heaven.
If you win, you will attain the kingdom of this world. If you lose, you will attain heaven. Because you will die as a martyr in a royal battlefield.
And from 2.38 onwards till 2.53, Krishna talks about how one can work with detachment. He says that the purpose of working is not just to elevate oneself to heaven, but to rise beyond material world, to go beyond all material attachments. And in that connection, he talks about how, when we work with detachment, then there is no entanglement.
Arjuna had multiple apprehensions about why we should not fight. One was, how can I kill my loved ones? So, Krishna answers that we are not killing them because they are eternal. Then Arjuna has the fear that, but what about, you know, I will be doing karma, I will be doing karmic bondage by fighting in this world.
Krishna says, if you work with detachment, you will not get bondage. And in that connection, he describes the person who is free from illusion. And he talks about in 2.52, He says that person is free from all illusion.
That person is fixed in spiritual conscience. That person is not disturbed by whatever the world presents. That person is situated in yoga.
Now, when Arjuna is hearing all this, Arjuna at the back of his mind is thinking, if this person is so transcendentally situated, would such a person fight a war? This person is completely free from illusion, completely situated in spiritual consciousness. So, would such a person fight a war? And to get an answer to that question, he asks, what are the characteristics of such a person? So, that is, the verse starts from 2.54. So, do we recite verses or how do we do it normally? So, 2.54. What is the language of such a person? Samādhi sthasya keśa, One who is situated in that elevated spiritual consciousness of samādhi. How does a person speak? How does a person sit? How does a person walk? How does a person move about? Now, the Bhagavad Gita is a Gita.
Gita means it’s poetry. And there’s a fundamental difference between prose and poetry. It’s not just that words rhyme at the end of a line of poetry.
The mode of communication in prose is direct. You speak in sentences. The mode of communication in poetry is often indirect.
Poetry is considered beautiful when there are metaphors, there are figures of speech, there are literary ornaments. And that’s what enhances the beauty of the poetry. So here, if you consider this question literally, how does a person sit? How does a person walk? What is the language of such a person? This, it may not seem immediately relevant.
Especially, how does a person sit or how does a person walk? Clearly, Arjuna is not asking about some fashion model, how does a person walk on a ramp? So, what is going on over here? So here, our Acharya has explained, Vande Vidyamaya says that bhasha, it’s a pragya-sikha bhasha. Bhasha at one level means language. But he also says, if you go to Sanskrit, bhasha means bhashyate iti bhasha.
We use language to describe. So, he says, what is it that we describe? We describe the characteristics of things. When you say, somebody has gone somewhere and a person comes back, how was the experience? Now, they may use language to describe, but what do they describe? The characteristics.
Okay, the trip was boring, the trip was enjoyable, the trip was adventurous, whatever. So, he says, siddha pragya-sikha bhasha. Here, bhasha refers not so much to language as to what is described by the language.
That is characteristics. So, what are the characteristics, the symptoms of such a person? And then further he says, how does the person speak? Now, speech is not just, he’s not asking about the fluency of speech. It’s not that this person has this accent or that accent.
What he’s asking is, normally our speech represents how we respond to the world’s ups and downs. That means sometimes, you know, some bad things happen and some people just start grumbling and ranting and crying. So, we respond to the world’s ups and downs by our speech.
So, he’s asking, how does he speak? That means, how does he respond verbally to life’s ups and downs. And, kimasiddha, how does the person sit? Kimdrajit, how does the person walk? This means that sitting is basically representing inactivity or focused, not just passive inactivity because when we are sleeping, we are also motionless. We are inactive, but we are not doing anything.
However, when we are sitting, we are physically inactive, but still we are doing something. So, sitting represents the state of focused sense control. Focused sense control.
When I sit, for example, right now we are sitting, I am speaking, you are hearing. So, what is happening is, our senses in that sense are not very active. But, it’s focused.
So, how does one sit means, how does one control one’s senses. And then, vrajit, how does a person move about? That means, now life is not just about being inactive. Life requires us to be active also.
So, with controlled senses, how does a person act in the world? That is what he is asking. And, these four questions which come in 54th verse, they are answered from 55 to 72. So, now the analysis of this division is given differently by different acharyas.
But, broadly speaking, the first verse, 55, is an answer to the first question. What is the characteristic of a person? 56 and 57, the two verses are answering the next question, what is the language of such a person? 58 to 63 is answering, how does such a person sit? And then, 64 to 72 is answering, how does such a person walk? That means, how does a person engage oneself? And, broadly speaking, if we look at people, we look at them from different perspectives. If a doctor looks at a person, doctor may look, okay, this person’s nails are discoloured, means he has got anaemia.
This person looks overweight, or this person looks underweight, or whatever. We all look at people from our own perspectives. So, from a spiritual perspective, what we look for is, how much is a person spiritually connected? And, that is the context of the discussion going on over here.
So, here, when Krishna starts to answer this question, so, the first thing he says is, in 2.55, Prajahat Yada Kaman Sarvan Parthama Nogatan Atmanye Vatmana Tushtyam Sthita Pragyastha Docchate So, he says, the defining characteristic of a spiritually advanced person is, a person rejects external pleasures concocted by the mind. Prajahat Yada Kaman, the mind says, come on, eat this, watch this, touch this, enjoy this. And, the Bhagavad Gita is very precise.
It is not saying that he rejects all external activities. Rather, the external drive for pleasure, concocted by the mind, that is what is rejected. And, we all need pleasure.
So, where does such a person get pleasure? Atmanye Vatmana Tushtyam Inwards, by understanding one’s spiritual identity, by relishing one’s spirituality, a person gets happiness. Srila Prabhupada explains that, what is the difference between a materialist and a spiritualist? He says, materialist is one who seeks pleasure externally. And, spiritualist is one who seeks pleasure internally.
So, Krishna is saying, the characteristic of a self-realised person here is, Atmanye Vatmana Tushtyam That is, such a person seeks happiness within. And then, in the next two verses, he describes, even when a person is seeking happiness within, even if a person is spiritual, they have to face life’s ups and downs. So, how do they face life’s ups and downs? That he describes, He says, As a person, even when distress comes, a person doesn’t get rejected.
And, when joy comes, the person doesn’t become elated. Sukheshu Vigatas Prabhu Vitarag Vaya Krodha Being emotionally unmolded in material things, a person is situated like this. Such a person is spiritually evolved.
Such a person is situated in a high spiritual consciousness. Now, how does this work out? Is this simply being, living like a stone, feeling no emotions? When good things happen, you don’t feel any joy. When bad things happen, you don’t feel any sorrow.
Is it that, to be spiritually advanced, you have to just become unemotional? Like, become unfeeling, like a stone? No. Krishna is acknowledging, that sometimes good things happen, sometimes pleasurable things happen, sometimes unpleasant things happen. He is not denying the reality.
He is saying that, Dukha will come, Sukha will come. But, one doesn’t get buffeted by it. One doesn’t go up and down with it.
It’s an example to illustrate this. Let’s say, a person has come to know that, they have some grandfather or someone who has passed away, and that person has kept a big inheritance for them. Say, 5 million dollars, they want to get.
And now, they are here, and they have to go here, to their ancestral house, and there they are going to get it. Now, while they are going along the way, so, they see along the way, there is a 5 dollar note lying on the ground. And they look at it, and as they try to go towards it, the wind comes and starts moving the note away.
One step forward, one more step forward. Now, if that person has no money, that 5 dollar note will seem like a big thing, and he will keep chasing it. That person thinks, actually, there is 5 million dollars waiting for him.
So, then, this 5 dollars doesn’t matter so much. So, whether one gains 5 dollars, or, if on the other side, some thief comes and steals it from their pocket, and they have a 5 dollar note over there, which that person takes away. Now, they will not run after the thief.
I have to get there. I have to catch this thief. I have to get the money.
And, especially if they understand that, if they are going to get that inheritance, it’s time bound. You have to reach that house in a particular time. If they reach it, then they will get the inheritance.
Otherwise, they will lose it. Then, the value of what they are going to get, and the time sensitivity in getting it, what happens is, because of that, the 5 dollar loss, or the 5 dollar gain, doesn’t matter so much. It is a loss, and it is a gain.
But, it doesn’t matter in the light of what they are looking for, or what they are going to get. So, similarly, a spiritually evolved person, understands that at the spiritual level of consciousness, there is unlimited happiness awaiting us. And, when they are on the progressive spiritual path, towards that happiness, that is much, much more than 5 million dollars.
And, whatever pleasures we may get at the material level, they are like 5 dollar gains. Whatever pains we may get, they are like 5 dollar losses. So, for those who don’t have 5 million dollars, the 5 dollar is a big thing.
But, for those whose eyes are fixed on the 5 million dollars, the 5 dollars don’t matter so much. And, that’s how the spiritually advanced person, the spiritually focused person, doesn’t get shaken so much. Yes, there is distress, there is joy.
But, the person doesn’t get agitated. Either way. Because, their vision is fixed on something much higher.
Vita, Raga, Bhaya, Krodha. So, Raga, Bhaya and Krodha. Raga is attachment.
Bhaya is fear. And, Krodha is anger. These three are the primary modes, in which we deal with things in the world.
Say, we want to develop a relationship with someone. We get attached to that person. We are always thinking about that person.
When will I meet that person? What will we do together? How will our relationship go? That’s attachment. And, sometimes, if we get scarred in some relationship, then we get angry with that person. Krodha.
How could that person do like this? How dare he? We are obsessed with that person. Anger is there. And then, somehow, if we get rid of that relationship, get that person out of our life, even when we want to form some other relationship, there is Bhaya, there is fear.
What if I am burnt again? What if I am betrayed again? What if I am hurt again? So, basically, at the material level, we go through these three emotions. We are attached, we are ever angry or we are fearful. In all these three cases, we are still in material consciousness.
So, Vita, Raga, Bhaya, Krodha. All these three phases of material consciousness, the spiritual seeker avoids. The advanced person avoids.
And in this way, it stays fixed in spiritual consciousness. So, this is internal. And next verse, as I said, 56 and 57, these two verses are answering the question, how does a person speak? So, before describing how a person speaks, Krishna answers, how does a person experience internally? And then, in the next verse, He says, how does a person respond externally, through words? So, first, He says that a person doesn’t become happy on getting good or does not get unhappy on getting bad.
Now, in this verse, Krishna says that he does not praise when he gets good and he does not criticise when he gets bad. And Prabhupada explains in the parpot over there that the material world means there is always going to be some disturbance. Interestingly, Prabhupada says over there that some disturbances are bad and some disturbances are good.
But they are both disturbances. So, he says that a devotee does not get disturbed. So, a devotee does not praise too much, does not criticise too much.
Now, why is that? That’s because the devotee is purposeful. There is a higher purpose in life. If we come into a room and we are searching for something specific, we just look where it is and go there, pick it up and come out.
We are just coming into the room without much purpose and we look, oh, this room is decorated so nicely. Or we say, hey, this room is so dirty, so disorderly. So, when we don’t have a purpose, then we get too caught in praising or criticising.
But if we have a purpose, then everything is centred around that purpose. And the higher purpose of spiritual growth helps a devotee to not take material situations too seriously. Either in terms of getting delighted and praising them or getting dejected and criticising them.
So, Vishwanath Chakradhakar gives an example that he says that there were in the past mendicant saints who would go from house to house and beg for alms. So, he says such a mendicant might sometimes be given very good food by someone. And somebody might just give no food or some very spoiled kind of food.
So, the mendicant, on getting good food, doesn’t praise and say, oh, may there be profuse blessings to you. And on getting bad food, he doesn’t say, you will be cursed. He is equipoised.
So, after describing this, now Krishna starts answering the third question. The third question is, am I going too fast or something? I am okay. However, you would like to.
Because I don’t know how you take the classes. Would any of you like to comment or ask any questions or whatever? I just like this. Thank you so much for that story of elucidating this idea of how it is that the devotee is not disturbed by loss or gain, but having some distress because of that higher goal.
And how you reiterate it. Because this point Prabhupada makes in the Purports about frustration. It is for want of an ultimate goal.
So, I am wondering how, because we are at a music festival and we are hearing a lot of crazy things. But there is this conception amongst the New Agers about how whatever it is, that’s what it is. And this idea of confining yourself.
So, in New Age spirituality there is the idea that we should live in the present and experience the present. So, if there is pleasure, there is pain, we just accept that. But if we just think of something in the future, some happiness we will get.
Then are we trying to escape from the present reality? There are two different things. There is living in the present and there is living for the present. We also live in the present, but we don’t live for the present.
Living in the present means we are aware of what is happening. So, devotees are also conscious. We live in the present, but our goal is not just in the present.
We live for something higher. We are living for Krishna. We are living for attaining Krishna.
So, being in the present and being purposeful are not necessarily contradictory. Because, that purpose is achieved by how we live in the present. That means that if we say in the future we will become absorbed in Krishna, we will develop love for Krishna and thereby we are going to experience great happiness.
But how are we going to come to that level of absorbing ourselves in love for Krishna? That will depend on how we are living right now. So, a devotee is aware of the present. And Prabhupada explains how a devotee sees the present joys in the present phase.
When the joys come, the devotee says, Krishna, you are so kind to put me in a comfortable situation so that I can serve you better. And when distresses come, a devotee thinks that these distresses are there, just my own past karmic reactions are there. But Krishna has kindly minimised them.
So, a devotee is aware of the present, but a devotee’s awareness is not limited to the present. So, we see the present and we see the present as the womb of the future. As the womb, the means by which the future is going to manifest.
So, as if somebody is only thinking about the future and using daydreaming about the future as a means to escape from the present. Then that is undesirable. The characteristic of daydreaming is that one is not doing anything practical right now.
One is only fantasising. But that is not the process of bhakti. We do have a glorious future which we are aspiring for.
But we aspire for it by how we act in the present. So, yes, be here now, as they say in new age, that’s fine. But, be here now for what purpose? There is a purpose to life.
And that purpose is that we want to experience Krishna’s presence now and we want to experience Krishna’s presence more and more in the future. So, when I was talking about say, the 5 rupee gain or loss and 5 crore gain eventually. The 5 rupee gain or loss is basically experiencing material phenomena in isolation.
That means, I just get some food, oh, it’s so delicious. I get some food, eh, it tastes so bad. I’m just experiencing them in isolation.
But a devotee may also experience, this food is so delicious. But the devotee thinks this is actually food offered to Krishna. This is Krishna’s mercy manifesting.
So, we experience the present, but we don’t just our experience is not just limited to the material phenomena that we are experiencing. We see those material phenomena in connection with Krishna. And therefore, because we see the connection with Krishna, the material phenomena itself does not matter that much.
It’s not that we are blind to it. It’s not that we are denying it. But it’s that we don’t allow that to dominate our consciousness.
So, in spiritual life, we give attention to the present. But we don’t give monopoly on our attention to the present. Monopoly.
Monopoly. How do you pronounce it in American? Monopoly. Monopoly.
Okay. We don’t give monopoly on our attention to the present. We are aware of the present, but we understand that Krishna is the master of the present, the past and the future.
So, Krishna is present in the present and Krishna will be present in the future also. So, by being conscious of Krishna, a devotee sees material ups and downs in context without getting too elated or too dejected. Any other questions? Not a question, just a reflection.
I was appreciating. Characteristics of spiritual growth is that our fault-finding tendency decreases. In the 16th chapter, Krishna says, one of the characteristics of the godly is a Vaishyanam.
They are averse to fault-finding. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that everybody acts according to their nature and therefore, the wise person neither praises nor criticises. People are simply acting according to their nature and it’s all temporary.
So, it’s like, I don’t know how it is in America, but in India, sometimes we go in crowded trains and the trains may not be very clean. The train may have a mess over there. Now, if in the train there is no fan, it’s very hot.
Now, if I’m in the train, if I want to be there for half an hour, one hour, it’s not that in that time, while I’m trying to catch the train, I’ll go and buy a fan and fix a fan over there. I don’t need to do that because I know that I’m just for a short time over there. So, many of the inconveniences that we face in life, we just understand that they are temporary and then they transition.
We are going somewhere else, which is a better place. Then we don’t get so worried about it. Generally, being in the present is romanticised in today’s world.
But there is a problem, if we are too caught in the present, then sometimes the present can be really gloomy. Then at that time, it is only the understanding that this present is temporary, that’s what enables us to move forward. If a patient is in terrible pain, and then they just be in the present.
The present is miserable at that time. So, what helps the patient to tolerate is, this present pain is temporary. I have to move forward.
The patient understands that I’m being healed, I’m under treatment, I’m being healed, so I can tolerate. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita, what we discussed earlier, ताम सितिख्ष सोभार्ड टोलरेट and tolerate because आगम आपाईन ओनित्यस that whatever is happening is temporary. So, we have to live in the present in the sense that the present is what we pass through.
But we don’t have to live for the present. The patient is not living for the pain that they are experiencing right now. The patient is going through the pain, but the patient is living for the healthy state that is going to come in the future.
And that healthy state is what enables the patient to not become too bogged down by the present pain. So, till what point do we tolerate? Let’s say, if worms are eating our body, and we still think that this is our opportunity to tolerate. See, the same Bhagavad Gita that talks about telling Arjuna to tolerate, ताम सितिख्ष सोभार्ड that same Bhagavad Gita is also spoken to get Arjuna to fight.
तस्मात्तमुत्तिष्ठ यव्तुषयो लभस्व जित्वाशत्रं भुञ्श्वराज्यम् संगृत्तम् Therefore, arise and fight and attain victory. Defeat your enemies. So, Krishna is not telling Arjuna all these Kauravas are so vicious, they have committed so many atrocities, just tolerate it all.
No. So, tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance is not the supreme virtue. The supreme virtue is Dharma.
Ultimately, Dharma cultivates in Bhakti. So, for the purpose of our practise of Dharma, for the purpose of doing our Bhakti, while doing it, we need to tolerate. But if sometimes, the circumstance prevents us from practising Bhakti itself, if the circumstance stops us from doing service itself, then tolerating that means that we are not doing our service.
So, tolerance is for the purpose of doing our service. Tolerance is basically to keep small things small so that we can focus on big things. But, if tolerance means we don’t do any big thing at all, then that is not tolerance.
That is impotence. And that is not what the Bhagavata recommends. For example, at one level, Bhakti Sannyasi Thakur said that if we go for doing some programme, then nobody comes.
He said, speak to the walls. And he said that. And when Prabhupada was trying to share Krishna Bhakti in India, not many people were interested.
And what did he do? He didn’t keep speaking to the walls. He came to America. Isn’t it? And he found serious people here.
And then he took those serious people back to India and people took him seriously also. So, Prabhupada could have said, Oh, nobody is taking me seriously. I have been speaking for 40 years.
This is an opportunity for me to develop tolerance. He did not see that. His focus was doing service to Krishna.
Now, while doing service to Krishna, while he was, say in America, sometimes when he was giving a class, people would just behave in all kinds of strange ways. Suddenly, people would ask questions. Suddenly, people would get some drug-induced highs and they would start blabbering some things.
But Prabhupada tolerated. And Prabhupada was staying with Gopal and Saliha Garwal in Butler, Pennsylvania. At that time, he was pure Vaishnava, but his food was in the same fridge where there was meat.
And they recognised this is not proper but they didn’t have any other fridge. They said, Swamiji, sorry about this. But they don’t think about it.
It’s alright. It’s Prabhupada tolerated. So, tolerance means basically that we don’t let small things distract us from the big thing of our service to Krishna.
But if the big thing of our service to Krishna itself is stopped, then we have to make changes. So, broadly speaking, whenever any difficult situation comes in our life, there are three options we have. One is, we change ourselves.
Second is, we change the situation. Third is, we walk away from the situation. And we see the Pandavas did all these three at different times.
First was, when the Kauravas tried to poison the Pandavas, when the Kauravas tried to poison Bhima or they tried to burn them alive through arson, Yudhishthira told them, this is a family matter, don’t bring it in public. So, they just tolerated it. But then eventually, when the Kauravas tried to dishonour Draupadi, and then they showed no remorse, no desire for reconciliation, then the Pandavas acted to change the situation.
They fought a war for that purpose. And eventually, when the Pandavas were ruling the kingdom, they were ruling and eventually they came to know that Krishna has departed from the world. Then they walked away from the situation.
They also renounced the world. So now, all three situations, just changing ourselves, changing the situation, and walking away from the situation. All three can be dharmic actions.
It depends on what is the best way we can serve Krishna at that particular time. So, sometimes, it’s just something which we are a little troubled by, we tolerate it. In some cases, there is something seriously wrong, we need to act to correct it.
We can do that in the mood of service. And when we walk away also, walking away is different from running away. When we run away from a problem, our mind is still caught in that problem.
This is so troublesome. I just want to run away from this. But when we walk away, that means we understand that I have better things to do in my life.
And because I have better things to do in my life, therefore, I will not stay boggled in this. And I walk away from it. So, tolerance is basically to ensure that we stay focused on our service to Krishna.
And while being focused on our service to Krishna, when some incidental problems come up, we just tolerate them. Does this answer your question? Yes. So, if a rat is chewing on our food while we are having Prasadam, should we just tolerate it? See, the Chaitanya Chavitambul describes the incident of leper Vasudev, who had worms on his body.
And when the worms would be there, and they would fall off, he would pick them up and put them on his body. They are getting their food. Now, often in the Chaitanya Chavitambul, especially in scriptures in general, they describe certain principles through extreme examples.
Now, the extreme examples are not the standard. The extreme examples are meant to dramatically illustrate a principle. Just like in the pastime of Ajamil.
Now, he chanted the name of Narayan once. And he was saved from the jaws of death. Now, what is the conclusion of the Bhagavatam from this? Does it say that all of us can also do all kinds of sinful activities and at the time of death we chant Narayan? No, that is not what the conclusion is.
That is an extreme example of the Lord’s mercy. And the Bhagavatam’s conclusion over there, what Shukadeva Swami says, and Prabhupada also says in his purport is that, if Ajamil chanted once and that too unintentionally and he was benefited so much, then if we chant lifelong and we chant with the intention of referring to calling Krishna, then if the Lord was merciful to Ajamil, then will he not be merciful to us? He will surely be merciful. Therefore, we should… So, the extraordinary example of mercy is not meant to be treated as a standard process for getting mercy.
We have to follow the standard process. And the extraordinary examples are meant to reinforce our faith in the standard process. Similarly, there can be extreme examples of tolerance that are given.
But they are not the standard. The standard is that we do whatever is required for our service to Krishna. So, Prabhupada was quite particular that when the devotees were serving him, he would sleep in a mosquito net, especially in Mayapur and other places where mosquitoes were there.
And Prabhupada was particular that there should be no mosquitoes inside. If they bit him, they would just distract him. And inside the mosquito net only he would wake up early and he would start doing his translations, his commenting.
So, Harisharipuru writes one time that so many mosquitoes came inside, he had to get all the mosquitoes out. Swap it and get it out. So, Prabhupada, he could have said that I can tolerate the mosquitoes.
He would have tolerated. But the point was he had to do something more. His goal was not just to tolerate.
So, in our case, we have to see that the body is what we need for our service to Krishna. And for the service to Krishna, we have to take care of the body. So, tolerance is not meant to be made a supreme virtue where we unnecessarily hurt ourselves.
See, tolerance doesn’t mean that others trample us and we just accept it. Tolerance simply means that we have our sense of perspective, that this is temporary, this is just temporary, that is much more enduring. So, I would not let this temporary come in the way of the enduring.
So, now in this case, if a rat is biting, I just flip the rat away and I move on. That is something just temporary. I have to take care of my body.
But suppose somebody has to go and reach in a particular place. And in that place, that place is just for the rats over there. There is no other place to stay over there.
So, that is just unavoidable. So, it’s not that tolerance doesn’t mean that we don’t try to change anything at all. That way if we start saying, we can just go to any limits.
A small baby is crying and the mother will say, let the baby cry. Maybe we will learn to tolerate pain by that. No.
Where will be all humanity? Where will be any love? Nothing will be left. Somebody, some devotee is sick. Instead of helping that devotee, the sickness is teaching tolerance.
So, no need to go to the doctor. No need to take any medicine. Just be sick.
No. Our focus should never be on simply tolerance. Our focus has to be on dharma.
So, when a baby is crying, the mother should not be thinking whether the baby is learning tolerance or not. The mother is thinking, what is my dharma? If a devotee is sick, we should not be thinking, I have to teach this devotee tolerance. In this situation, what is my dharma? My dharma is to do Vaishnava seva, to try to serve a devotee.
But while doing our service, if some unavoidable difficulties come, then we tolerate those difficulties and we move on. Any other questions or comments? There is a difference between being tolerant and being passive, right? Very much. So, is there a difference between being tolerant and being passive? Yes.
As I said, tolerance is so that we can focus on doing our dharma. Passive means we are not doing anything at all. A tolerant devotee is first and foremost a devotee.
Devotee means the devotee is focused on Krishna. The devotee is absorbed in Krishna. And we can look at Parikshit Maharaj’s example.
When he was cursed by Shirdi, at that time he was tolerant. He said, okay, I got this curse. I will renounce the world now.
But he was tolerant. But was he passive? No. He renounced the world.
He went to the banks of Yamuna. He sought out the sages. He understood what is the supreme principle of dharma.
And he started practising that. And that same Parikshit, while he was a king, he saw that Kali was performing atrocities against a cow and a bull. And at that time, he had picked up his sword and was ready to punish.
So, in both cases, his purpose was, he wanted to follow dharma. So, when he was actively acting as a king, then he was assertive to punish wrongdoers. That was his dharma.
But when he decided that he has been cursed, he doesn’t want to counter, then he decided, his tolerance was that he did not try to counter curse the Brahmin boy. He did not try to take revenge against the family. He accepted it.
But even when he was tolerant, he was still very purposeful. You want, okay, now I have only 7 days. How best can I use those 7 days? So, passivity is in the mode of ignorance.
Tolerance is in the mode of goodness. Passivity comes because I just don’t have the energy to do anything. I either don’t have the energy to do anything, I don’t have the intelligence to do anything.
So, passivity is lethargy, it is apathy, it is negativity. Whereas tolerance is that because I have something much more important to do, so therefore, this small thing, I will neglect it. So, the difference is clear.
It is a very big difference. Externally it may appear the same, but internally the consciousness is very different. So, is retaliation in the mode of passion? It can be, but not necessarily.
If you see in the 18th chapter, Krishna talks about the qualities of the four varanas. So, in 18.42, he talks about the quality of a brahmana. So, there he talks about tolerance, forgiveness, peacefulness as the quality of a brahmana.
And the next verse itself, 18.43, he talks about how he says So, he says, what is the quality of a kshatriya? He says, if there is a fight, the kshatriya does not run away from the fight. There are days when there is a strong fight. So, you see the almost opposite qualities.
Non-violence, forgiveness, peacefulness is the quality of a brahmana. And fighting unflinchingly is the quality of a kshatriya. So, what does this mean? That different people have to perform different roles in society.
So, as per the role that we are meant to perform, as per the dharma that we have to do, we may have to act in different ways at different times. So, tolerance can be in the mode of goodness and retaliation can be in the mode of passion. But if one is actually taking assertive action, that need not be in the mode of passion.
That can also be in the mode of goodness. So, when the Pandavas fought the Kurukshetra war, they were not fighting that simply to take retaliation against the Kauravas. They were not fighting only for revenge.
If their goal was revenge, then they would never have proposed a peace pact before the war. And a peace pact was such an accommodating term that they said, just give us five villages. The fact that they were ready for that means that they were simply interested in doing their dharma as kshatriyas.
So, they fought not to get even, not to take revenge, but to establish the rule of dharma. To remove the dharmic people from being the rulers. Or they would make the whole society irreligious.
So, when there is assertive action against someone, retaliation done just to get even with someone, that is in the mode of passion. But assertive action taken need not always be in the mode of passion. Assertive action may be taken for the purpose of establishing dharma.
But Krishna himself says that he designs to He says he designs to destroy the hegemoniac. Why does he destroy? Because they are irredeemable. They are just not going to change.
They have to be destroyed. So, that is not at all. When Krishna is acting, obviously, that is not in the mode of passion at all.
So, assertive action, if it is done for the establishing of dharma, then that is also in the mode of goodness. If it is done with the mood of pure service to Krishna, then it can even be transcendent. So, how is forgiveness related with the modes of material nature? Forgiveness is basically the means by which we don’t let the past come in the way of the present.
In the past people have hurt us and that hurt is still there. But we don’t let the past come in the way of the present. So, broadly, when somebody has hurt us, there are three broad alternatives.
One is that if that person who has hurt us, they apologise and that’s just a one-off event. This is something under the spur of the moment or whatever. Then we forgive and just move on at the end of the chapter.
But this is in the mode of goodness where we recognise that life has to move on, I have to move on in my doing of dharma, in my practise of bhakti. So, I just close the chapter. Now, sometimes we may, in the mode of passion, basically, we may still I have to get even.
In the mode of goodness, we are ready to put the past behind and move on. In the mode of passion, we just keep a track of all the wrongs that they have done. We are looking for opportunity.
So, when we are doing that, basically, we are still letting that person dominate our life. And what are we doing? We are just holding the negativity within us so that we can pour it out on that person sometime in the future. But even if we do it or we don’t do it, that negativity is going to hurt us more.
So, that is in the mode of passion where we want to get even. So, we are basically thinking, how can I get back at this person? But in the mode of ignorance, we simply feel powerless. We simply feel helpless.
We get consumed by self-pity. We conceive of ourselves as victims. There is this whole phenomenon of self-martyrdom.
Oh, the world is so bad. People are so bad. They are all hurting me.
I am so miserable. So, one simply wallows in self-pity. So, if the hurts of life simply make us passively, lethargically just feel sorry for ourselves, that is in the mode of ignorance.
But if the hurts of life make us want to vengefully get back at the other person, that is in the mode of passion. If the hurts of life, we close that chapter and we move on in our life, then that is the mode of goodness. Now, in the mode of goodness also, we have to be cautious.
Not every situation, not every wrongdoing is simply going to end by forgiveness. As I said, if it is a one-off event, person once did something wrong and they have apologised and they rectify them. So, then we move on.
But sometimes that person has done something wrong and they do it once, they do it twice. What is that saying? No, no. What is that? Fool me.
If you fool me once, shame on you. If you fool me twice, then shame on me. Basically, what it means is that if a person keeps continuously fooling us, cheating us, hurting us, and if we keep letting them do that, then we are simply being foolish.
then, that person is repeating that pattern. We have to differentiate between forgiving and trusting. Forgiving is for the past.
Trusting is for the future. Forgiveness can be given, but trust has to be earned. So, okay, this person did something wrong and I am not going to obsess on it.
Let’s say somebody has stolen some money from us. Somebody has stolen some money from us. And then, it troubles us.
Okay, the person says, sorry, I did this. We forgive them. But then, if after that we entrust our whole treasury to them, and then they steal it away.
That’s our stupidity. So, we may forgive them, but we need not trust them. We have to see how they conduct themselves.
We keep some safe distance, and then let them show by their actions whether they are really repentant, whether they are really a poor man. So, we withhold trust. And then, if they act properly, gradually we give the trust.
So, first is we forgive, and just end the chapter, move on in our life. Because it is a one-off incident. The other option is we forgive, and then we observe, withhold trust.
And if that person really rectifies themselves, then they can come back again to the level of trusting. The relationship can become normal. But sometimes, the person may just not even be, what you speak of being willing to rectify, sometimes the people don’t even know that they have done wrong.
They don’t even acknowledge that they have done something wrong. Then, at that time, we just have to take some assertive action. Cut off the relationship, or depending on the gravity of the crime, when you have to take some wrongdoing, you might have to take some assertive action, some restorative justice.
And even in that, we can have forgiveness as an emotion. That means, I am not going to hold the hurt against you. But, if you are not corrected for this, then you will repeat this.
You will hurt other people. You will hurt me, you will hurt other people, and ultimately, if you consider the law of karma, you are going to hurt yourself. So, we may pursue legal or corrective action against that person, but we can do it without a vengeful attitude.
We can do it for the purpose of Dharma. For the purpose of protecting others, protecting the community, eventually protecting ourselves, and ultimately protecting that person. In the same Bhagavad Gita, in the 11th chapter, where Krishna tells Arjuna, now arise and kill your enemies.
Asmātmukteśa yeśod abhasva. Jitvāśatruṁ bhūṁ śvarājyaṁ samrūptam. In 11.33, he says, arise and conquer your enemies.
The same chapter, 22 verses later, in 11.55, Krishna says, Madhkarnaṁ karmaṁ paramaṁ mad-bhakta-saṅga-varcita nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu yaḥ samāvaiti pāṇḍava. Krishna says, that act without animosity towards anyone. Nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu.
So, Krishna is telling, those are enemies, kill them. But then the same Krishna is telling, act without animosity towards anyone. That means what? You are not killing them simply because they are your enemies.
You are killing them because they are destroying Dharma. So, do it as a duty. There is no personal vendetta against them.
But rather, it is our duty to establish the rule of Dharma. And so we do it. So, we can have forgiveness as an emotion, even in the third case.
That means you don’t hold the resentment. You don’t hold the grudge. Forgive me for what wrong we have done.
But, there is a pattern over here. And unless some corrective action is done, then you will keep repeating it. See, punishment has ultimately many purposes.
One of the purposes of punishment is that society should see that wrongdoers, they just cannot, they have a licence to do wrong. So, they have to be seen that wrongdoers are punished. Similarly, though society also has the important principle that order has to be maintained.
So, I may not be… I may forgive at a personal level. Prabhupada writes in the 2nd Canto Purport that non-violence can be, especially for Kshatriya rulers, it can be a strategic policy. But it is not necessarily a principle.
Kshatriyas have to fight. So, at individual level, in one-to-one relationship, we may forgive. But if somebody is in an official position in a government, then they have to maintain the rule of law.
And sometimes they may have to punish. So, even that punishment can be in the mode of goodness if it is done for the service of Dharma rather than for a vengeful attitude. Does it answer the question? Enlightened person, we saw how the… what are the characteristics in terms of what are the symptoms and then how does such a person speak.
And then from 2.50 to 2.63, Krishna will talk about how does such a person sit. That means, how does such a person control the senses. So, I will just explain that principle briefly.
Krishna talks about… First, he says we need external regulation. He says… One should withdraw one’s senses from the sense objects. But then he says that alone is not enough.
Even if we do that, the desires will come and they will overpower us. Therefore, we need positive engagement. We need to fix the mind on Krishna.
2.61 is… Fix the mind on Him. So, whenever we have to… Say, we have some habit which we want to give up. We have some conditioning which we want to overcome.
So, there is… We have to work at 3 levels. The 3 levels are… Regulation, Conviction and Purification. So, regulation means at an external level If, say, I will give you an example.
If there is an alcoholic and that person wants to give up alcohol. Now, if that alcoholic’s house is right next to a bar, then no matter how much alcohol makes a reservation, I will give up alcohol. Suddenly, the desire may come up and they get caught.
So, they have to be serious. If their friends are all alcoholics, then they may have to change their friends to some extent, at least. So, without external regulation, no resolution can be maintained.
We need some amount of external regulation. If I am thinking I want to diet and then I keep all kinds of fatty foods around me ready to access, it’s going to be very very difficult to diet. So, our will power is a finite resource.
Our will power is not infinite. And the finite resource has to be used productively. If my will power is constantly going, should I do this, should I not do this, then my will power gets spent simply in deliberating what I should not do or should I do this or should I not do it.
But our will power is meant for something much more constructive. It’s like a student who wants to study and then the student says, ok, there is this sports match going on, I want to watch that. Should I watch that, should I not watch that? Now, the student may succeed in not watching it also.
But then, the mind is gone in that and no study has happened. So, the point of the student is not just to not watch the cricket, not watch the sports match, the point of the student is to study. So, regulation, the student decides, ok, the next 3 hours I have to study, so I’ll just block the internet and focus on studies.
So, what happens by this? Then, just that regulation minimises the distraction. So, Krishna says the first principle is regulation. So, regulate the senses.
Then the second principle he says is buddhi is very important. The buddhi is lost, the intelligence is lost, everything is lost. So, second is conviction.
Conviction means we ourselves need to be convinced why I should not do this. So, sometimes we decide, no, I’m going to give this up. But then, the mind says, you know, actually it’s not that bad.
Doing a little is ok. And then we start thinking like that, and we answer, and we say, yeah, doing a little is not bad, you know, I’ll just do a little. And if I am myself not convinced about it, then this temptation comes a little bit, and we get caught by it.
That’s why studying scripture and nourishing our intelligence is very important. Then, even when the mind starts tempting, even if the world starts tempting, even if we have regulation, regulation doesn’t mean that no temptation will come. Even with regulation, temptation is going to come.
And to reject that temptation, we need conviction. Why I should not do this. And then beyond that, the third principle is purification.
So, purification means the desire itself goes away. The desire itself no longer troubles. And we can all experience that the process of bhakti does purify us.
So, say, maybe most of us might have been eating meat before we started practising bhakti. But after we start practising bhakti for a few years, if we see somebody eating meat, hardly we feel tempted. Although we might have been eating meat before, the desire itself will disappear.
So, basically regulation means we don’t let the object stay close to us. Conviction means we are determined to say no to the object even when that object allures us. Purification means the object no longer allures us.
So, the more we become connected with Krishna, the more we become absorbed in Krishna, we will come to the level of purification. Before we can come, we need regulation and conviction. Thank you very much.