Why are some people attached to godly things and some to ungodly things?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Krishna says, dao bhuta sargao loki is in daiva asura eva chala. There are two kinds of living beings, daiva and asura.
When he describes this characteristic, he first describes abhayam tatha samshuddhir in 16.123 and then he says abhijatasya bharata. Similarly, in 16.48 he says, nambo darpo vinaya ca krodha parushyam eva chala, ajnanam ca abhijatasya, partha sampadam asura, abhijatasya. So, these are born with.
So, basically, some people are born with godly inclination, some people are born with ungodly inclination. Now, why are we born like this? That is based on our past karmas. But Krishna says that even somebody who is born in a particular way, tasmat shastram pramanam te karyakaryam, they can also regulate themselves according to shastra.
Now, how much they can regulate themselves according to shastra, which particular directive of shastra they can follow, that will vary according to person to person. But our inclinations are determined by our past karma. So, different people get prone to be attached to different things based on the kind of karma that they have done in the past.
And we can say past not just in the past life, it is also in this life. So, this I will be speaking more in future class. But broadly speaking, our behavior, the way we act is determined by five factors.
One is our past karma, which we could say comes as our inherent characteristics, which comes as our genes. It is an oversimplification, but just to take it in terms of modern terminology. So, there is our past karma, then there is upbringing, then there is our association.
So, in the psychology, this is called as, they call it genetic determinism, it is called as, what is second word, genetic determinism, parental determinism and social determinism. That genetic determinism is, this is the way your genes are, that is inherited. Upbringing, our upbringing is determined.
So, you know, in my childhood, I saw my parents were always drinking, that is why I drank. My parents are alcoholics, so I became alcoholic. That is the upbringing is caused.
It is association. Sometimes the children may be brought up in very good environment, but they go to hostels, and their college campus and hostels, they get introduced to a world of sin. And then there, they become contaminated by that.
That is association. These are three factors, broadly speaking, our past karma, our upbringing and our association. Beyond these, although these three are there, the fourth factor is determined our actions, our upbringing.
All these three push us, they do not force us. So, this I will be talking later, the mind can only propose, it cannot impose. It can propose so persuasively, that we may just unthinkingly accept it, but it cannot impose, it can only propose.
So, these three are pushers, they offer the propositions. Our free will is always there, by which we can either choose to act accordingly or choose to act differently. And our fifth factor is Krishna’s mercy, divine grace.
So, divine grace can increase the potency of our free will, or divine grace can decrease the potency of the past factors acting on us. So, for example, for some of us, when we are practicing bhakti, say we have a particular attachment, and then at one particular point, the conviction comes, I am not going to do this. When devotees renounce or take to the renounced order, I am going to renounce the world.
So, what happens is, that kind of renunciation is the result of divine grace. When Sanatana Goswami surrenders to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he comes to North India to meet him, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he doesn’t appreciate, oh, you have gone through so much trouble and surrendered to me. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, the actions of the super soul are very crazy.
Although you have such phenomenal wealth, but by the mercy of the super soul, even in spite of all this, you have become detached. So, that conviction that comes, so that is like the boosting of our free will. So, these three factors are pushing us in the wrong direction.
Our free will is trying to push us in the right direction. So, Krishna’s mercy can come in terms of the boosting of the free will. This is what I am going to do.
So, sometimes we may, our own conviction is not very strong. Yeah, I want to do it, but yeah, Krishna is good, but Maya is also not bad. So, our conviction is not strong.
So, the Krishna’s mercy can come in the form of a very strong conviction. Our free will becomes, this is what I am going to do. The second installment of Krishna’s mercy can come also in the form of what is troubling us that stops troubling us.
So, we may all see that sometimes a particular desire has been coming, coming, coming and one day we just don’t feel the temptation. Like say somebody has been drinking tea for hours, throughout their life. As I tell you, Hare Krishna, suddenly you don’t need to drink.
It is not that you are resisting the temptation, the temptation itself stops coming. So, we can say the transformation happens in two ways. One is the conviction which boosts our free will.
And the second is the purification which weakens the impure forces within us. And both these are Krishna’s mercy. So, whatever be the particular attachments that we have, we all can combat it by using our free will properly and by accessing Krishna’s grace, by studying the scripture and practicing sadhana.
Thank you very much.