When faced with problems how to decide how many solutions to try out?

Transcript

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How do we know how much control do we have in this situation and sometimes we may try unlimited options so is it that we pray to Krishna, we surrender to him and then we also do something practical I would say surrendering to him and doing something practical are not two different things doing something practical is also a part of surrendering to him like Arjuna he surrenders to Krishna at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna surrender to me Arjuna says I will surrender to you but after surrendering what does Arjuna do he picks up his bow and is ready to fight so even doing something practical can be a part of surrender and sometimes not doing anything practical can be a way of avoiding surrender sometimes I may have something practical to do but then I just keep chanting and chanting should be a way to we are praying to Krishna please engage me in your service sometimes chanting can be a way of escaping service oh I am so busy chanting I am dependent on Krishna depending on Krishna is fine but how much are you diligent for Krishna to do something so I would say that we don’t have to think in these binaries there is surrender to Krishna and there is practical action practical action can also be a part of surrender so as far as how much we can we know how much control we have over a period of time we by observing ourselves come to know our capacities and especially if we have a broad picture of life every single thing can be done unlimitedly if I have to prepare for a class I can say no if I am not well prepared how will I give a class how long do you need I need a full life time to prepare I can there are so many books to read how much do I remember I can just go on if you see in life how do we act practically this much time I have for doing this activity and as well I can do in this much time I do it so basically with respect to dealing with issues also with problems how much control do I have that means how many options do I try out we have to have a broader picture of life in a broad picture of my life how important is this it is important but how important so for example if I have fear of losing my job I have to work to get my job but then is it that I want to stop eating stop sleeping because of that no I have to do that yes even if I lose my job I will get something after sometime so I may decide that ok if I have this possibility I will lose my job so then everyday I will spend one hour looking for it and in that whatever I can work out I work out so the we may restrict the level of control we have to a particular level of time this much time I can devote for dealing with this issue sometimes some issues become emergencies and then we may just put everything else but broadly speaking we have to if we have overall understanding of our life then we see where this particular thing fits in that priority and then we can decide how much effort to put in something so studying philosophy and especially seeing life through Shastra Chakshu helps us to get this big picture Sri Prabhupada writes in the 10th chapter Buddhir Jnanam Sammoha 10.4 intelligence means to see things in their proper perspective this is more important this is less important this is ok so that perspective if we get by studying scripture then we know how much to endeavor in what activity and apart from that the other thing is when we want to know how much control we have it’s life is to some extent it doesn’t come with any guarantees there is no guarantee that whatever decision we are going to make is going to be the right decision but that does not necessarily mean that we have to be committed to a wrong decision it’s often we do course correction if say if I decide to go in this direction but I find I am going in this direction I find out one of my friend is a pilot he told me that 90% of the time when a plane is flying it’s off course but actually it is the pilot or the airplane mechanism gets it back on course so like that we may decide at one particular point that I am going to make this work no matter what happens but then we try once, twice, thrice and we feel this is not working now sometimes stopping a particular endeavor may be quitting and sometimes we may think of quitting as failure but sometimes stopping a particular endeavor might just be walking to something better so we have to again do course correction, I tried this course of action so I decide I am going to make this work I am going to get this right I try once, twice, thrice, four times I spent a due amount of time it’s not worked out let me try something else so there is for a devotee there is constancy of purpose but there is flexibility of method so my purpose is always to serve Krishna and my purpose is to have more resources to serve to have better facilities which I can serve to do more service whatever it may be, my job, my family, whatever it is but it’s all service to Krishna and then we have the constancy of purpose but flexibility of method this doesn’t work out, try something else Prabhupada was like that he was trying to preach in India, he tried to start a magazine it didn’t work out he tried to help his godbrother, that didn’t work out he tried to run his own business and get a lot of money which he could give to his spiritual master, that didn’t work out he tried to himself go and meet people and do classes, that didn’t work out so well he tried to go to Jhansi and start League of Devotees, that didn’t work out so many particular methods didn’t work out but purpose remained the same so basically if you have that understanding that this is my purpose and with that sometimes I may try this method if it doesn’t work out, I will try some other method so that we don’t have to be attached to a method, we have to be attached to purpose and then sometimes I may try a lot to control something and then it doesn’t work then I move forward and I let go sometimes I may just let go too much and I say no, there is something which I can do in this situation so the example, actually this is a part of a series of seminars I have on destiny and karma so something which is by destiny something just happened to us we have very little control over that, but we also have free will to act, so basically I compare, in that seminar I compare life to playing a tennis game, tennis match when we are playing tennis sometimes we are serving and sometimes we are returning now when the player is serving that player has a lot of freedom I can serve on the other player’s backhand, forehand right into the body, at a low height, at a high height, lot of freedom is there and the person is returning a very little freedom, wherever the ball comes, that’s where I have to get my racket and get the ball back into play so now if the person is in a position of returning and that person wants the freedom of serving you know, I will swing my ball back, racket wherever I want then you just meet air over there the ball will go somewhere else so like that sometimes life puts us in the position of receiving we have very little control, so basically whatever comes at us, just get it back just keep that ball moving just stay in the game, like that but sometimes we are in the position of serving so at that time we have to take initiative this is what I am going to do so basically we are practically observing our situation, how much control do I have right now and we shouldn’t see necessarily lack of control as a failure or presence of control as a success even when I am serving I have to serve well only when I win the game even when I am returning that doesn’t mean I have lost so basically a lot of lot of problems come when we try to return when we are meant to serve and we try to serve when we are meant to return so basically if you just observe our life, sometimes in the Bhagavatam it is said that many times it is, say for example Bali Maharaj, he tells even Krishna and Vishnu himself tell the Devatas that time is not favourable for you now so this is not a time for you to fight, just make a truce with the demons and this is the time when you are not in control, when you are basically returning, just do what you can and later on when they fight so sometimes we may have to adjust what we do according to time and place so by observing the way things are going in our life, we can all fight only we cannot deal with unlimited number of issues also so if there are four big problems coming in my life at the same time, then I am going to deal with this one problem, this is where I am going to focus my energy, I am going to exert my control over it, other three I will just defend it do whatever little I can over there that way you can practically decide