We are defined by the questions we ask – in life in science and in spirituality
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
So I am grateful to be here amongst all of you. I must be thankful to Mr. Ratnakumar for inviting me here. And I try to serve you and all of you by speaking something on the Bhagavatam today.
Seek his blessings. So I will speak on the theme today of what defines us is more our questions than our answers. We are defined more by our questions than by our answers.
This is the starting of the Srimad Bhagavatam where the sages who are assembled at Naimisharanya are asking various questions to Suta Goswami who has just come there. And there is a series of questions, in fact this chapter is called questions by the sages. There are six questions which are asked.
And in this particular verse they are asking the question that there are so many different scriptures, so many different duties given to the scriptures. Bhoori Bhoori Bhoori Brahmani that there are many different scriptures, many different directions given to the scriptures. So it takes a long time to study all this.
Shrotavamyani Bharadashyam. Therefore please summarize. The sadhvatarasya prasadam samudritya vayi.
Mani ishaya. Mani ishaya. Mana is mind.
Isha is to control the mind. So mani ishaya means to one who controls the mind. But mani isha also refers to a thoughtful person.
It's significant that thoughtfulness requires the capacity to control the mind. Now our awareness goes in a hundred different directions. Right now when I am sitting I can be aware of how all of you are looking at me.
I can be aware of what I am thinking. I can be aware of the sound over there. But if you want to think seriously, think deeply, we need to focus.
So often our thinking is like scraping the surface at hundred places. Even if we know that there is gold buried somewhere, we need to dig at one point deep to get the gold. So that is what concentration does.
Concentration goes beyond the surface, takes us deep. But when the mind is not concentrated, when we don't have control over the mind, the mind wanders over a hundred subjects without getting understanding of any subject. So mani ishaya.
So they are saying over here, O Suta Goswami, you have control over your mind. Therefore you can penetrate, you can go deep into the scripture and summarize. Now summarization can also be done from different perspectives.
So from what perspective do they want the summarization? bhruhi-bhadraya-bhutana We want that summary of scripture by which people's well-being will be promoted. And what kind of well-being? yen atma-suprasiddhati By which their hearts and souls can be fulfilled. And this question and similar questions like this define the Bhagavatam.
That what can satisfy the innermost core of our being? What can, as Prabhupada says, the atma is different from the body. yen atma-suprasiddhati In fact, almost the same words will come in one of the most important verses of the Bhagavatam which comes in the next chapter, 1.2.6 where savai-pumsam paro dharmo ato bhaktir dhoksh je ahai tu ki ahatiya pratyata yen atma-suprasiddhati So atma-suprasiddhati The same two common words come there also which are coming here. The Bhagavatam will tell that it is pure love for God which will satisfy the heart.
At this point they are asking this question. What is it that will satisfy? So what applied in the Vedic context in the past? The Vedic texts are a huge body of knowledge. Estimates are there are about one lakh lakh verses.
What is this? One lakh is Indian denomination. So it is how much? 100,000? Yeah. And then so one lakh lakh will be what? So it is how many billion? 1000 billion? 100? Yeah, 100,000 to 100,000.
That is 100 billion. So it is a phenomenal amount of verses. 10 billion? Yeah, 10 to the power.
That is true. I was just asking how many billion. I think it is 10 billion.
So there are 10 billion verses in the Bhagavatam, in the Vedic literature. And there is another verse which says that there are many scriptures and that there is sometimes each verse has many different meanings. I had gone to meet one of my friends who is in the Madhva Sampradaya and he showed me a big book like we have our big Bhagavatam volumes.
So it is like a big Bhagavatam. As I said Bhagavad Gita it was. I thought oh Bhagavad Gita is such a big thing.
And then I saw Bhagavad Gita chapter 1. It was one chapter of the Bhagavad Gita with commentaries by around 10-12 Acharyas. So like that, like we have 12 volumes of the Bhagavatam. Like that they had this big 18 volumes of this Bhagavad Gita.
One volume per chapter. So Bahushastram, Bahuveditavyam. There is each scripture and each verse in scripture can have many different meanings.
And then on top of that, as we will mention in the future, there was an Alpashchakalaha. We have very little time. Bahuvashchavighnaha.
That and there are many obstacles internally and externally for us to understand the essence. And therefore, Tatsarabhutam Upasitavyam. Therefore it is, we should focus on the essence and try to internalize and apply that essence in our lives.
So today most people are not aware so much of the Vedic scriptures. But just as the Vedic scriptures were encyclopedic in scope, huge, today there is another kind of overload for us. There is information overload which comes from the media, which comes from the internet, where there is so much we can know about each subject.
And that's why whenever we study, even in today's world, scholars or teachers say that our study should always be purposeful. What am I looking for? If I start looking at a newspaper to find something interesting, I will spend a whole day trying to find something interesting. But if I decide, okay, I want to know some headlines, I want to know this subject, I can go, I can look at it and I will finish my work.
So we need to be purposeful in our study. And what should be the purposeful? Even when we study scripture, the Bhagavatam itself is thousands and thousands of verses and it discusses many different subjects. It discusses psychology, it discusses cosmology, it discusses physics, it discusses chronology.
Now all this is important in its own way. At the same time, there is a purpose of the Bhagavatam. And that purpose is given in these verses.
These verses are called by commentators as the Seminal Verses. Seminal Verses means, this is Seaman leads to the formation of a new living being. So Seminal Verses are those verses we describe from which a whole book emerges.
So here, Atah Sadho Atrayatsaram, please tell us what is the essence? And he will ask several questions in this connection. He says, first of all, what is the essence of all scriptures? And he will ask, this question will go from generic to specific. From generic questions is that, okay, what is the essence of all scriptures? What is the best duty for all human beings? What is the ultimate purpose of life? I am paraphrasing the question though.
And then there is some understanding that actually the ultimate goal of life is related with the ultimate reality. And then the question, what is the nature of the ultimate reality? There is an understanding in the Vedic context that the ultimate reality, the absolute truth descends to this world. Then why does the ultimate truth descend to this world? And then when it descends, what does he do? So like this, the questions are moving from generic to specific.
From what is the purpose of life to what does God do? And we see the procreation of the Bhagavatam is also like that. It starts with philosophy, describing who we are, what the purpose of life is. And as it moves to the 10th canto, it focuses on what does God do? And again it goes like a circle and culminates with what should we do? What is our duty? What does God do? And ultimately, okay, if you understand this is what God does, then this is a loving exchange between God, which God performs in the past.
What can we do to enter the existence? So in that sense, the Bhagavatam's questions are the driving engine for its own flow. Vishwa Prabhupada writes in a later purport in the Bhagavatam that actually all living beings are asking questions. And researchers have found that if monkeys are kept in a cage with a wall and there is something on the other side of the wall, the monkeys jump and jump and jump to try to find what is on the other side of the wall.
If they have some food, they will eat the food. But after they have eaten the food, they are curious. What is there on the other side of the wall? So curiosity is an innate feature of the living being.
Actually, where does this curiosity come from? Where does this urge to know come from? This comes from our very core. The Atma is Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is eternal, it is conscious and it is joyful.
So we see these three features reflected in our very living beings. In our living, we see that we all want to live forever. We want to know.
We want to know more and more information. And we want to be happy. Sat-Chit-Ananda.
All of us, if we see, these are the three things for all living beings. How can I live on? How can I live healthy? How can I live as long as possible? And I want to know, okay, is this food good for me? Is this food bad for me? Should I do this exercise? Should I do that exercise? And ultimately, how can I be happy in my life? So, we consider existence, that is Sat. We want to exist.
Then there is exploration. We want to explore. Okay, what is around me? And ultimately, we want ecstasy.
So existence, exploration and ecstasy. Sat-Chit-Ananda. These are the features that drive our life.
Ecstasy. Ananda. Ecstasy.
We all want happiness in our life. Ananda. So, we all ask questions.
And the questions that most people ask, or most living beings ask, are related with food, sleep, sex and defense. Where can I get food to eat? Where can I sleep tonight? Animals, they are constantly searching. Ants are constantly searching.
And that is not necessarily bad. In the Bible, an ant is given an example of an industrious living being. It is working hard constantly.
So it has to get food for survival. It is searching for that. It is good.
Because we all need these for survival. However, when we come to the human level, our consciousness has the capacity to expand. We will naturally ask these questions.
Yeah, we do need food. We need defense. So, now everybody is asking, is the hurricane Irma going to come to Gainesville or not? Is it going to hit this part of the world or not? So, there is an inquiry which is actually going to be there.
It is fine. This inquiry is related with defense. Of course, it is related with food also.
Whether we have enough food or not. Whether we have enough supplies or not. But these are functional inquiries.
So, if we see, we human beings have a higher intelligence. And with the higher intelligence, either we can make lower inquiries in somewhat better ways. Or we can make higher inquiries.
Say, a dog living here will not be so much worried, oh, hurricane is going to come. Of course, even dogs also seem to have some kind of sixth sense. Especially with respect to earthquakes and natural calamities, they seem to sense that something is going to happen.
But they are not doing conscious inquiry. It is more like a subconscious feeling of discomfort or as we say, portent of danger which they get. But we human beings can inquire.
So, where is this inquiry to be directed? Ultimately, all of us are, everybody, whether it is in the material field or in the spiritual field, when people inquire, the inquiry is for the purpose of existence, exploration and ecstasy. We all want happiness. So, last year I had been in Cambridge University.
I was invited to speak on science and spirituality. So, while going to Cambridge, we went by the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling, either in front of him or on him, whichever version of the story you want to believe. Of course, it is a descendant of that tree, not exactly the same tree.
But that tree is like a pilgrimage place for scientists. They get inspiration. This is where Newton so brilliantly thought of it.
And he came up with the theory of gravity just by observing a tree fall, a fruit fall. Now, yes, it was inquiry. Fruits have fallen thousands of times and if a monkey had been sitting there, instead of Newton, the monkey would have just picked up the fruit, eaten it and gone on its way.
Most human beings would have also done the same thing. It was to Newton's credit that he asked the question, what makes this fruit fall? What makes this fruit fall? And his answer to that, he came up with the theory of gravity. So, science is actuated by the spirit of inquiry, by asking questions.
What makes things happen? However, as science progressed, it adopted a particular methodology, which can be called as naturalism, methodological naturalism. So, within this methodology, science decided that we will look only for natural explanations for natural phenomena. That means that God is considered to be supernatural reality.
So, Newton himself believed in God. But when he was asking the question, why the fruit fell? He did not think of the answer, God made the fruit fall. Ultimately, it's true.
Whatever happens is by God's will. But at that particular point, he wondered, what is the material mechanism by which the fruit fell? So, science started focusing on this aspect. What we want is the material mechanisms by which the world works.
And as this started happening, and he started getting more and more answers, through looking for material mechanisms, for explaining the material world around us, that started giving more and more power. That started giving more and more confidence that we could understand the world and we could control the world. Now, Socrates, in the western world, he said that knowledge is virtue.
Knowledge is virtue. That is, knowledge is demonstrated by how much virtue a person has developed. This is very similar to what the Bhagavad Gita also says in 13.8 to 12, when it defines knowledge in terms of qualities.
Aman, it's a myth. Humility, pridelessness, self-control, tolerance, like that. It gives 20 qualities.
But Francis Bacon, one of the pioneers of the empirical method of science, he redefined knowledge. And he said, knowledge is power. Now, there is, when we say knowledge is virtue, knowledge is power, what is the big difference? It can be similar, but his thoughts were very different.
When we say knowledge is virtue, that means our knowledge should help us to develop virtue internally. We should become more and more virtues. But when knowledge is defined as power, the idea was, he was talking about scientific knowledge, which will give us power over the outer world.
And that's what all our technology is about. Now, through our mobile, we can just press a few buttons and summon information from any part of the world. We can call anyone, anywhere.
So we have definitely got power. But the nature of the human mind is that when it gets caught in one thing, it becomes oblivious to another thing. Just like a person is watching a movie, and they get caught in watching the movie.
Then whatever is happening around them, they start becoming oblivious to that. So like that, the human mind, as it focused more and more on asking questions about material reality. What makes things happen? How can I control this more and more? Then this obsession with material reality brought an obliviousness to spiritual reality.
The more we started focusing on, okay, what is the material explanation for this? How can I control this? How can I control that? Then we started becoming more and more negligent of spiritual reality. And not only negligent, ultimately, from that negligence came rejection. So science is not intrinsically atheistic.
Science is operationally non-theistic. Science is not intrinsically against God. But operationally, it is non-theistic.
It does not consider God as an explanation. God may exist, may not exist. Science is operationally non-spiritual.
It looks for material explanations for material phenomena. But from operational non-spirituality, people started extrapolating to ontological non-spirituality. Ontological means there is nothing non-spiritual at all.
The material reality is all that exists. Carl Sagan is a famous scientist and he wrote a CV, a very famous TV series called Cosmos. And right in the beginning he started by saying, the cosmos was all that exists, is all that exists and will all that exist.
Now this is not a scientific statement. This is a philosophical statement. And this is coming from his own philosophy of naturalism.
There is no scientific way to prove that the cosmos is all that exists. There is no scientific way. How can you prove? That means if I have a flashlight which can see only inside this room and I am looking only inside this room and I have told, like science as I said, it looks for material explanations for material phenomena.
That means if something is stolen in this room, I assume that the thief has to be inside this room only. I am not going to look for anything outside this room. So if I have closed the doors to everything outside this room, if I am looking only inside this room, then how can I say anything about whether anything exists outside this room or not? Isn't it? If I have assumed operationally that I am going to look only what is inside this room, then I have no right to make any statements about what exists outside the room.
So operationally science says we look only for material explanations for material phenomena. So then ontologically science has no right to make any claim. So this room is like material world.
It has no right to make any claim about whether anything exists outside. But why we are talking about all this right now in this section is that although the inquiring spirit is very much there in today's world and often scientists make fun of religion that people just believe blindly. You don't ask questions.
We are the people who ask questions and get answers. But actually, yes, there are two misconceptions. Scientists do ask questions, but they ask questions within only a particular frame of reference.
And therefore, if they make any statements beyond that, then that is not their science speaking. That is their ideology speaking. Scientists are not prohibited from having their ideologies, but they should not make their ideology appear to be science.
It is not science. And as far as so the inquisitiveness of people has been largely directed towards the material realm. So material realm means people are asking, so when is the next iPhone coming out now? When a new iPhone comes, thousands of people, what are the features? Millions of people are just inquiring, inquiring, inquiring.
But what is happening? The inquiry is in one sense, the inquisitive spirit is intensified, but it is also restricted. People ask only questions about material things. Nothing about anything spiritual.
And the tragedy again is that the material doesn't fulfill the human heart. Yes, we may get some titillation for our senses. We may get some gratification even for our minds.
A few years ago, there was a famous American comedian, Robin Williams. He committed suicide. Just recently one more comedian I think committed suicide.
So now a comedian committing suicide, people committing suicide is common. But comedians committing suicide is a little jarring. Because normally when we see somebody who is a comedian, we think oh this person must be very happy.
He makes us laugh, so he must also be happy. But then if a comedian commits suicide, that means he is so unhappy that he couldn't continue living. So why is this happening? And he was very famous, very successful, very wealthy.
So actually, the ability to make jokes is simply a material ability. It has got nothing to do with inner happiness. Just as, you know, some people, you know, if there is a small child in the family, some relatives come.
And the relatives may… For Vaishnavas, their humor is the expression of their happiness. So just like if a child is… If a small child is there in the family, the relatives may come and the relatives may tickle the belly of the child. And the belly is tickled and the child may laugh.
Now when the child laughs, that laughter is not happiness. Although it appears similar to the laughter that may emerge when a person is happy. This laughter is superficial.
This is not happiness. If this tickling could produce happiness and all of us want to be happy, then the quest for happiness can simply be equated with the quest for a perpetual tickling machine. Just get a tickling machine.
Whenever you want to be happy, tickle us. So we laugh at the idea of tickling being equated with happiness. But unfortunately, most of what the modern materialistic culture provides us is simply tickling.
It can be physical tickling to the belly. We see images, we see videos, we see movies, we watch sports. This is just another kind of tickling.
It can be mental tickling, sometimes it can be an intellectual tickling. But it is all tickling. And it doesn't satisfy the heart.
So that's why this kind of inquiry, it is about not our core, it is about our periphery. We are souls, around the soul there is a body, there is a mind, there is an intelligence. And tickling all of these can also provide some pleasure.
But that doesn't fulfill the heart. So that's why although science has progressed significantly in terms of technological advancement and we have gadgets which even a few decades ago people would not have even imagined or would only have imagined them. Still, overall, people are not happy.
Denmark is, according to some surveys, the world's happiest country. Of course, these happiness surveys are very subjective. But it came first in the world happiness survey.
But then it is among the top three in the countries per capita which consume antidepressant pills. So, you know, I claim I am happy. I claim I can't live without antidepressant pills.
So what is the real happiness? So if we want real happiness, then we need to inquire about our core, who we are. So scientific knowledge is useful in today's world, even essential in today's world, for operational purposes. If I have to travel from one place to another, I may use Google Maps.
If I have to fly, I may book a flight using the internet. But as far as our heart's journey towards happiness is concerned, scientific knowledge will not be of much help. For that we need Bhagavatam.
And the Bhagavatam tells us that the soul at its core is spiritual. And the soul has a relationship with the whole. The whole is called Krishna.
And it's when we learn to love him purely that our heart will find the best fulfillment. That of course is an entirely different subject. But the point which I am focusing on in today's class is that actually our questions define us.
So if our questions are about how can I find happiness through material things, then they define me as a materialist. I may be a very intellectual materialist, but still I am a materialist. If my question is about how can I find happiness by realizing who I am spiritually, that is what makes me spiritual.
So there are, in the broad Vedic context, this question of how do we become happy, the questions about existence, exploration and ecstasy, they are answered through three broad strands of thought. There is karma, there is jnana and there is bhakti. So karmis are the people who follow the path of karma for gaining material happiness, for gaining happiness basically.
Now what is the path of karma? Actually karma simply means we try to improve things at the material level. By doing actions in this world, we try to improve things. And we hope that that will make life happy.
So karmis are those who try to make things happier, better at the material level. Now Philips has a slogan, let's make things better. So that's a quintessential karmic slogan.
That is the idea of karma. Jnana is the opposite. That we understand even if we try, no matter how much we try, it is only going to lead to misery.
Those even material, even in the modern times, those thinkers who have penetrated a little bit beyond the glamour of scientific progress, they recognize this reality. Now Frederick Miescher, we know him most famously for his God is Dead proclamation. He was a profound pessimist.
He said that existence is misery. Best is to have never been born. If at all you have been born, best is to die young.
As another existentialist philosopher, Albert Camus, he said that life is miserable. Therefore, the only philosophical question worth asking is whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow. And he wrote volumes of books in which he said don't commit suicide today.
Now the problem is that at one level they are not wrong because existence is misery. So these thinkers, they are you could say some kind of distorted versions of Jnanis from the Vedic religion. Jnana is the path where we understand that this world cannot be made better.
So the only way life can be made better is by detaching ourselves from the world. So karmis try to make life better by making things better. Jnanis recognizing that things cannot be made better just reject the world.
They reject the world and they think to the extent we can become disengaged from the world, to that extent we can avoid distress. And maybe we can get some happiness also. But so karma is the path of entanglement in the world.
And Jnana is about disentanglement from the world. And interestingly although science is involving a lot of intellectual thought in understanding the mechanism by which things work, still science technically speaking is not Jnana, it is karma. Why? Because science is also driven by the hope of making things better in the world.
Traditionally whenever people would get Jnana, knowledge, that would lead to Vairagya, that would lead to detachment from the world. But in science the Jnana is primarily for the purpose of finding better ways to enjoy the world. So Jnana leads not to Vairagya but to Raga, to attachment.
So more ways to enjoy the world, more hopes, more fantasies for enjoying the world. So karma is one way, we try to make things better. Now this is not entirely wrong.
Even in the Vedic path, Vedic times there is Ayurveda, if your body is not well, take medicine and cure yourself. There is yogic exercises which are meant to make things better. So karma is not to be rejected, we have to act on this world.
Jnana is also not to be rejected. There are some things in this world that are good to be detached from, good to stay away from. Say, if somebody understands that drug addiction is bad, I don't want to explore that, there is no entanglement in that.
But the Vedic thrust, it takes us beyond karma and beyond Jnana to Bhakti. Bhakti is God-centric. Both karma and Jnana are actually world-centric.
In karma we want to enjoy the world and in Jnana we want to, we fear that the world will cause us suffering so we want to avoid the world. But in Bhakti we focus on God. We focus on God.
And then what is the approach to the world? We use the world. In the service of God, in the pursuit of God, in trying to realize God. So you could put this as, Karmis romanticize the world.
Oh, they have a romantic notion. Oh, if we just make this adjustment, that adjustment, we make this breakthrough, life will be happy. Karmis romanticize the world.
Jnanis demonize the world. This world is such a place of misery. The search for happiness is the cause of unhappiness.
That is the Jnani's idea. Whatever you look for happiness, that will make you unhappy. Therefore, don't look for happiness.
So Jnanis demonize the world. But Bhaktas utilize the world. We don't romanticize, we don't demonize, but we utilize.
So, even as devotees practicing Bhakti, we will be defined by our questions. What are the questions that we ask ourselves? There may be many people who come to the spiritual path, but if they come, after coming, initially we have some spiritual inquiry, but after coming we settle down to basically a comfortably pious life in Bhakti. And again our questions become, what is there for Prasad today? So, while practicing Bhakti also, our questions become connected with the body.
As devotees also, we will have financial insecurities, we will have health problems, we will have relational issues, and these have been practically dealt with. But these cannot be allowed to become our defining questions in life. Why did he do this? Why did she speak like this? Yes, you know, whether it is devotee community, non-devotee community, this is always going to happen.
There are going to be misunderstandings, there are going to be people who behave unreasonably, there are going to be things which go wrong. But our purpose is not just, why did he do like that? Why did she do like that? Why is Krishna trying to teach me from this? How can I go closer to Krishna through this? So, even in the devotee community, if our questions are not spiritual, how can I go closer to Krishna? If I don't have those questions, then I will not make much spiritual advancement. In devotee community also, nowadays with internet, there is so much possibility for gossip.
Oh, this devotee did like that, this person had this problem, that person had that problem. So, you know, if we just want to ask who has what problem, then the whole material world is there for that. Why do we need the devotee community for that? Our goal is, how can I go closer to Krishna? So, even in devotee community we can get lost if we start asking the wrong questions.
Yes, there are many things wrong in the devotee community also because the devotee community is in the material world. But there is something right out here. That right thing is that, we can get answers to the ultimate questions if we seek those answers.
And so, the Bhagavatam through this verse, it actually not only will answer these questions, but also gives us a spirit of what kind of question we should be asking. So, if we are asking, while practicing bhakti, while living in the devotee community, asking spiritual questions. How can I come closer to Krishna? How can I share Krishna with others? Then all the other irrelevant, unimportant details, they will just fade into the background and will march steadily towards Krishna with the same undistracted focus that later on, that the sages of Namishar and Nihar demonstrate.
In cutting through all distracting things, all superficial things, they focus on Krishna. And they will become absorbed in Krishna. And similarly, we too can also become absorbed in Krishna.
Prabhupada had that single-pointed focus. There were so many things wrong in India, so many things wrong in the Gaudiya Math. But Prabhupada did not get entangled in that.
He was focused on sharing Krishna's message and Krishna's science and seer. And now we have a wonderful movement all over the world where you all can seek Krishna and can find Krishna. I spoke about, we are defined more by our questions than by our answers.
So the Bhagavatam here, the sages are asking that there are so many scriptures, what is their essence? What is the essence that will bring about good for all human beings? So there are many scriptures, many interpretations of the same scripture also. So we have an information overload in the Vedic times and in the modern times. So we need to be purposeful in our study.
And our purposefulness is determined by the kind of questions that we ask. So the soul is Satchitananda. From its very nature, it asks questions about existence, how can I exist, how can I know more, exploration and ecstasy, how can I be happy.
In modern science, these questions are restricted to the material realm. Science looks for material explanations for material phenomena. And within this conception, knowledge is defined as power, the capacity to control out of things.
That is fine, but then with this obsession with the material, there is obliviousness to the spiritual. So science is like a closed, science view of the world is like a closed room. It has no idea of what exists outside.
But what resides inside this can only dilate us, it cannot satisfy us. So even with the best gadgets, with the best technology, we don't get fulfillment. It's like tickling.
Tickling the body, tickling the mind, tickling the intelligence. But we need fulfillment. For that we need spiritual questions.
Questions about who I am and what will actually fulfill me. So these questions can be answered either through the path of karma, which means that by making things better in the world, there will be happiness. By the path of dhyana, by just detaching ourselves from the world, there will be happiness.
Or through the path of bhakti, by connecting with the source of the world, there will be happiness. So bhakti is about not romanticizing or demonizing the world, but connecting with the world. And within the devotee community, we need to, by practicing bhakti, choose the questions that drive us.
Not what problem, who has, what is this, what is this for food, what is for that. How can I move closer to Krishna? With this driving question, no matter how many distractions come in our life, we will march towards absorption in Krishna. And therein we will find inatma-suprasiddhati.
Our heart will find a deep sleep. Thank you very much.