Is satisfaction a brahminical virtue that is impractical for kshastriyas and other varnas?

Transcript

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And a second question about we, our instinctive desires are related to our impulsive desires. A Brahmana can cultivate satisfaction, but a Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra cannot.
No, it’s not necessarily like that. What is required for the satisfaction for a Kshatriya will be different from what is required for a Brahmana. But Kshatriya is also meant to cultivate some amount of satisfaction.
So, when I was in America in January, I gave a series of classes on understanding what is our kota. What is our kota? Tena bhunjeetha maha-durga-tattva-suddhana. So, Isha Bhuja says, take what is your kota and don’t go beyond that.
Now, how do we know what is our kota? So, the metaphor that I used was of food. That food is essential for survival. But how much food who need, that will vary from person to person.
Some people may have very strong digestion. They may need a lot of food. In fact, Bheema is glorified as Vrukodara.
Vrukodara means one who has a very voracious appetite. You may say, is that a praise or is that an insult, you know, to say somebody has a voracious appetite. But he is glorified for that.
There is a name given for him for that. So, just as different people will have different need of food. Now, how much is the need, whose need for food? That is something which one has to individually decide.
We’ll consult others, but we have to decide. So, it’s like the basic point is when we are practicing bhakti, food should not become a competitor to Krishna. Now, what does that mean? Then, if I eat too little, then, if I am fasting, I am chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, I am chanting Krishna Krishna externally, but my mind is chanting Prasad, Prasad, Prasad, Prasad, Hare Krishna, Prasad, Prasad, Krishna Krishna, Prasad, Prasad.
So, what is the use of that chanting? Better take some food and then come and chant. So, if we eat too little, then the food becomes a competitor to Krishna. On the other hand, if we eat too much, then we become too attached to the food, we become infatuated by the food, again the food becomes a competitor to Krishna.
Because they are crazy, when will I get this, when will I get that, when will I get that? But, if we take food, what is needed for our body, and it’s not wrong to take delicious food also, but just take it in proper proportion, then the food serves our body, serves our mind, then we move on towards Krishna. The food, if it becomes a competitor to Krishna, either because of too little or too much, then it is a problem. Krishna says, that one who eats too much, or eats too little, can’t become a yogi.
So, we can use food as a metaphor for material things, in general. So, different people may say, need different levels of material comfort, or financial security, or social harmony, or say, relationships. So, that’s just their need.
So, for some persons, some people who live in a rural setting, all the time, for them, they don’t need much comfort. But for somebody who has lived in comforts in cities throughout their life, if you tell them to go and live in villages, sometimes that itself, that itself may cause so much agitation, that, that absence of material comfort becomes too much of a problem for them to focus their mind on Krishna. So, say for example, when it’s hot, all of us sweat.
But some people sweat too much. Some people don’t sweat so much. So now, if somebody is sweating too much, and they need a fan, for them to chant Hare Krishna, if there is no fan, they are feeling so uncomfortable, they can’t chant.
Somebody else, they don’t need a fan. They can just, okay, sweating doesn’t matter. So then, the point is, okay, if you need a fan, you can use a fan, but continue chanting Krishna.
So somebody, maybe have a body more resistant to cold. Some people’s body is less resistant to cold. So with respect to food and temperature, it’s easy to understand that different people will have different needs.
But with respect to, say, financial security, with respect to relational security, with respect to material comforts, these may be, these can also be different for different people. And whatever is needed, we have to, that has to be taken care of. If it is not taken care of, then people will be very agitated.
Some people, for them to practice bhakti, they need a certain amount of financial security. And they have that much security, then they can focus on bhakti. Some people, Krishna will take care of things.
Now, it’s not necessary that the first person has less faith in Krishna and the second person has more faith in Krishna. It may be, it can also be that, the first person is a person whose need for security is greater. For the second person, the need for adventure is greater.
And what they are calling as dependence on Krishna is actually their sense of adventure. It’s not necessary, it can be spiritual advancement, we don’t want to judge others. But I’m saying that, even in material life, there are, psychologists talk about risk compatibility.
They say, people who can take, who have a tendency to take a lot of risk, they go into business. People who don’t want to take so much risk, they may go into jobs. So, that is just an individual nature.
So, somebody who has a greater quotient for taking risks, they may take more risk for Krishna. They may appear to be more dependent on Krishna. But that’s not necessarily out of spiritual advancement.
Just as, we say that, somebody has more intelligence, somebody has less intelligence. Intelligence is one opulence of Krishna. And we, as soul, get some of Krishna’s opulences based on, based on our past karma.
So, somebody has more intelligence, then they may be able to do more intellectual services for Krishna. But their intelligence is not necessarily a sign of their spiritual advancement. It can be, it need not be.
Now, with respect to, say, wealth, or with respect to looks, it’s easy to understand. Somebody looks very attractive, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are spiritually advanced. We easily understand that.
But with respect to knowledge, maybe, may not be. And it becomes most problematic with respect to renunciation. Renunciation, at one level, can be because of our practice of bhakti.
Vastudeva, Bhagwati, bhakti, yoga, prajna, janayati, asha, vairagyam, jnanam, jaya, raitukam. The practice of bhakti can lead to renunciation. But at another level, you also understand that renunciation is also an opulence of Krishna.
And renunciation can also be a result of past karma. So, some people, there are people who just, you know, stay single throughout their lives. They have no spirituality.
And not that they are having affairs or anything like that. Just stay single. So, they are renounced.
But that doesn’t mean they are spiritual. So, by our past karma, we all may be endowed with different levels of renunciation also. So, somebody who is more renowned than another person, just as wealth, if somebody has a lot of wealth, then they don’t have to worry so much about earning money.
And they can use that wealth in Krishna’s service. Or the pursuit of wealth doesn’t distract them from Krishna’s service. Similarly, somebody has renunciation, then that is a tool, resource which they can use in Krishna’s service.
But renunciation itself is not necessarily a sign of spiritual advancement. It can be, but it need not be. So, that’s why different devotees, based on how much renunciation they have from their past karma, may have different amount of needs.
And accommodating those needs is not considered pandering to the soul. So, the point is, whether by doing a particular activity, does my mind become more peaceful so that I become more focused on Krishna? So, you know, peacefulness of mind can come in two ways. One is just purely by absorption in Krishna.
But the other is, when our material situation is not too agitated. Let’s say, if we are sick and there is pain. Now, at that time, if there is no cure for the pain, we may helplessly call out to Krishna.
And we may really take shelter of Krishna at that time. But, you know, that is not the way we can lifelong take shelter of Krishna. You want a certain level of health.
When the physical health is reasonably good, then the mind is not so irritated or agitated by bodily pain and focus on Krishna. Similarly, there is a, just like the soul is a particular body. Soul is a particular society also.
Soul is a particular environment also. The soul has these three coverings. The bodily, the social and the environmental.
And we all need a certain level of harmony in the soul’s coverings. The physical, the social and the environmental. So, some weather is just so difficult for people to bear.
They are constantly agitated. They may need to emigrate to some other place and then they can practice bhakti. We don’t just want to keep traveling from one place to another.
We are talking about the principle that our peacefulness of the mind can come ultimately by absorption in Krishna. But circumstantially also, if there is too much agitation, then we can’t be focused on Krishna. In modern psychological terms, we talk about comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone.
So, we don’t want to be in a comfort zone where we are seeking only for peace at the material level. We want some amount of peace at the material level so that we can focus on spiritual practice. So, we want to be in a stretch zone.
In panic zone, we are overwhelmed by the problematic situations around us and we can’t do anything. So, what comprises a stretch zone and what comprises a panic zone and what comprises a comfort zone? This will vary from person to person. And each of us has to find out what is the need that we have by which we can practice bhakti.
So, somebody may be satisfied by eating one chapati. Somebody needs five chapatis. So, for a person who is eating one chapati, two or three chapatis may be excess.
They will be satisfied with chapati. For somebody who is eating five chapatis, seven or eight chapatis are excess. So, what is it that is required for satisfaction will vary from person to person.
But the principle that we shouldn’t crave beyond what is our need, what is our need, that is universal. So, we have to have this recognition that we cannot apply one formula for everyone at the material level. Spiritual level, everyone wants to love Krishna.
That’s the ultimate aspiration. But materially, different people will need different things. Materially, it is that the shoe that fits one leg bites another leg.
So, similarly, one situation may be like a stretch zone and you feel excited to be in that situation. For somebody else, it is a panic zone. I can’t be here.
So, we have to accommodate different people’s different needs and each of them with their own sincerity and honesty find out what is the level at which they can be satisfied. And then they love Krishna. Do you want to ask a question?