The search for pleasure is often the source of the greatest trouble

[Congregation program at Sacramento, California USA]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today in Sacramento.
And I will speak on the topic of the search for pleasure is often the source of the greatest struggle. Sure, sure. Will it turn around like this? I think we just have to put this down.
Okay, good enough. Yeah. So, I will speak on the basis of Bhagavad Gita 18.37 and 38, which talks about the nature of pleasure.
So, 18.38 states that, विशेयिन्द्रियसं योगा दियत्तदग्रेयं रितोपमं परिणामे विशमिव तत्सुखं राजसंस्मितं That which tastes like nectar in the beginning, but tastes like poison in the end. The pleasure that comes from the contact of the senses with the sense objects. That is pleasure in the mode of passion.
And in contrast, in the previous verse, Krishna talks about pleasure in the mode of goodness. He says, दियत्तद्ग्रेयं विशमिव परिणामे रितोपमं तत्सुखं सात्मिकं प्रोक्तं आत्मभुद्धी प्रसादजं आत्मभुद्धी प्रसादजं There is another kind of pleasure which actually helps us to grow towards spiritual understanding. And that tastes like poison in the beginning, but nectar in the end.
Last year when I had come to America, I had gone to a university. So there I was talking with one student who was just becoming a serious devotee. So he said when he just came to the age of 18, he got a huge inheritance from his grandmother.
It was something like a million dollars or so, big inheritance. And his mother was alive, but his mother’s mother and his mother, they didn’t get along well. So when his grandmother passed away, she did not give any inheritance to her own daughter.
She gave everything to her grandson. Now, this boy, as he was got into 18, around the age of 17, late 17, he started getting into drugs. And when he got that inheritance of a million dollars, that he just, that was the worst thing that could happen to him.
At one level he had drugs, he was getting into drugs, but now when he got so much money, in one and a half years, he squandered the old inheritance on drugs and everything else associated with drugs. And finally he had some intelligence by which towards the end of it, the last inheritance that he had, he used that to get himself admitted to a rehabilitation center. And somehow by Krishna’s arrangement, there he met a devotee.
And then through that devotee association, the devotees were working in some kind of rehabilitation program. So then he started practicing bhakti. So now, normally, if we see, youth is considered time of pleasure.
Money is considered a source of pleasure. And of course, many people who take drugs, they obviously take drugs because they think that it is a source of pleasure. Now, people who are, people who become older, they often try to do various things to try to become young.
So these three things, youth, wealth and drugs, all these three are considered to be sources of pleasure. But these three combined together and got him into terrible trouble. So in this world, many of the things that we think will give us pleasure, they in a sense become the source of trouble.
Generally, when people become addicted, nobody thinks that or plans that I will become addict. They just want to have a good time. They want to enjoy, they smoke, they drink.
There’s a British author who said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a hundred times. I give up smoking, but smoking doesn’t give me up.
So when we get into something, we think I’m just going to do this for my pleasure. But then that catches us and that binds us. So why is it that when we look for pleasure, that is often the thing that causes us trouble.
Addictions are often extreme example of how the search for pleasure gets us into trouble. But the same principle can apply in many different situations. In general, in this world, when we do something seeking pleasure, quite often that thing entangles us, that thing binds us and then it gives us trouble.
At a broad level, Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, Purusha prakati stho hi, bhoom te prakati jan gunan karanam guna sangosya sad asad yoni janmasu. In 13.22 in the Bhagavad Gita, this verse is considered by samacharyas as the bija vakya of the last six chapters of the Gita. Bija is the seed.
One of the central metaphors in the last six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita is that of an upside down tree, which Krishna mentions in the 15th chapter, first verse. urdhva moolamadhah shakam asvattham prahur avyayam chandam syasya paranani yastam vedasavedavet This is upside down banyan tree where its roots are upwards and its shoots are downwards. So now this tree, its seed is described in this verse, 13.22. What is this verse? Purusha, the soul, prakati stho hi, gets situated in material nature.
Why? Bhoom te prakati jan gunan. Because that soul desires to enjoy the products of material nature. Paranam guna sangosya.
And because of that association, sad asad yoni janmasu, that soul experiences good and bad in various species. An example to illustrate this is, say, a child decided to watch a horror movie. Child is sitting peacefully at home, comfortable.
Mother is nearby, the father is also there. Child is comfortable and secure. But a child turns on a television set and then starts watching a horror movie.
And as different kinds of scary things are seen on that horror movie, child is trembling, shivering, screaming, crying. There is no need for the child to get into all that, but it is the desire to enjoy watching that movie that led to all these distressful emotions coming upon the child. Normally some movie is a horror movie.
It is told in advance. It is a horror movie. And some people, they are so desperate for some kind of stimulation in life, that they want to be thrilled by fear.
And so they watch it. But suppose some movie is advertised as a romantic movie. And then somebody goes to watch it and it is told as a romantic comedy.
And then it turns out to be a horror story which is a tragedy. So some people go with a particular mindset to watch it and think, what is happening over here? So our life and our intelligence in the material world is like this. We get into things, just like a child gets into watching a movie thinking this will give me enjoyment.
But that causes entanglement. That causes distress. So similarly, just as a child gets caught in a movie, we get caught in various things.
And when we get caught in those various things, then that entanglement is what causes the distress. Maybe a few months or a year ago, there was this cricket tournament, champions trophy. And India was expected to win.
India was doing very well. And there were these finals with Pakistan. And India lost very badly.
So after that, one boy came and told me that three nights I was not able to sleep. He says, how could India lose? How could India lose so badly? Now the match, I think it happened in England at that time. And this boy was in India.
And the match is over. The players have gone on with their life. But for him, his mind is caught in that.
How could India lose? How could India lose? How could India lose? So often our distress is caused not just by the situation. It is by how our mind responds to the situation. That means, I am talking about two different things.
The soul is here. The external situation is here. And here is the mind.
So when a child is watching a movie, what happens is, it is a horror movie. And the child gets his consciousness into that movie with the hope of pleasure. And then as the movie turns out to be something else, that causes trouble.
But in some situations, there is a trouble. India played a match and lost the match. But that trouble is now over.
And that displeasing event is over. But even after the displeasing event gets over, the mind keeps replaying it. How could this happen? It could be a cricket match.
Or for us it could be some event that happens in our day-to-day life. Somebody insults us. Somebody neglects us.
How could he do like that? How could she say like that? It just keeps replaying, replaying, replaying. And then that causes us distress. Generally speaking, frustration is a function of expectation.
If we meet someone and we expect them to pat us. And then they slap us. Hey, what happened? When we expected some affection and then suddenly we got some anger over there, that shocks us.
If we know somebody who is hostile to us, and we know that that person may insult us or hurt us, then we are prepared for that. We steal ourselves to that. But when we are expecting something and then we get something opposite, that hurts us much more.
So, in general, the mind gets us into situations promising us pleasure and the situations end with trouble. And even when this trouble comes, the mind keeps replaying this. Either the promise of pleasure or the delivery of trouble.
And in that way, the suffering becomes more and more. Addicts are physically speaking just as free as you and I are. But they are not mentally free.
Their mind is constantly replaying, eat this, drink this, smoke this. So, because of that, they get caught. And the mind is what transforms our situation from the promise of pleasure to the delivery of trouble.
And how is the mind able to do this? Or why does the mind do this? The mind is not intrinsically our enemy. The mind is circumstantially our enemy. What does it mean intrinsically and circumstantially? Say, if this is a place where two people are staying.
And this is their office. And in between there is a bar. Now, one of them has never drunk, has lived a sober life.
The other is an alcoholic, who has drunk many times and is habituated to that. The first person will just pass by the bar and go to the office, maybe even without noticing that there is a bar over there. He will go straight to the office.
Second person, as soon as they pass by the bar, maybe I can drink. I can just take one drink. No, no, I want to take one drink.
I need it right now, I must get it. So, all this agitation will go on in the mind and that will pull, pull that person. They may resist, they may not resist, but still the torment of the agitation will be there.
So, in this case, for that person, the mind is acting as an enemy, distracting them from their work to something else. Now, why is the mind acting as an enemy? It is. Why is the mind acting as an enemy for this person and not for the other person? That’s circumstantial.
This person has been drunk before many times, and that impression is formed in the mind. And when that impression is formed, then the mind naturally goes in that direction. Suppose we are living in a house with a wooden floor, and if a huge object, bang, falls on that floor, then that floor itself may get tilted.
So, the floor was horizontal, but now it has become tilted like this. And thereafter, if water falls on that floor, water will naturally flow in this direction. Now, there is nothing that we can do at that time to prevent the water from flowing in that direction.
The water is naturally going to flow. Of course, we can do something. We can create a restriction, we can push the water back.
But in itself, the water will flow in that direction. So, similar is the impact of impressions on our mind. Our mind is like the floor, and when we do some activity repeatedly, and especially if we do the activity with a lot of investment of our emotions in it, then our mind gets inclined in this way.
And once it gets inclined, then our thoughts flow naturally in that direction, even if we don’t want them to. Suppose an alcoholic is trying to give up alcohol. Still, because of the past indulgence, the mind’s floor has become inclined that way.
And naturally, the thoughts will go in that direction. So, the mind is circumstantially our enemy, in the sense that, based on what we have done in the past, based on what kind of impressions we have created in the mind, accordingly, the mind will pull us, our thoughts in particular directions. And the same applies to fear also.
Different people are afraid of different things. There are phobias in which, it’s almost biological and uncontrollable, people just feel strong fear of certain things. When these fears come up, when these phobias come up, at that time, the mind just becomes fearful.
And somebody else will say, don’t be so afraid of this now, but it’s just a biological reaction over there. So, sometimes it may not be a biological reaction, sometimes it may just be psychological. But still, some people may be just very afraid of dark.
Some people may be very afraid of financial insecurity. Now, everybody wants some financial security. But for some people, if some upheaval happens, they just become enormously agitated.
Others, they’re also affected, but not that much. So, fear is also a reaction. Worry is a reaction.
And for some people, if their mental floor is inclined in a particular way, then for them, fear and worry may be much greater than for other people. So, the mind, by being inclined in particular ways, subjects us to particular emotions. And those emotions can become very forceful.
So, this is one way where the mind causes us trouble is that it puts us to go in some directions which will promise us pleasure. And then those situations lead to complications which lead to trouble. But there’s another way in which also we get into trouble, where the search for pleasure ends up in trouble.
And this is somewhat subtler. Prahlad Maharaj, in the 7th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, while offering prayers, Narasimhadeva says, यस्मात्प्रियाप्रियवियोग्दसञ्योगजन्मः चोकाग्धिनासकलयोणिषुदहियमानः दुखवुशधम् तदपिदुखमतद्धियाहम् उमान्भ्रमामिवदमेतवदास्ययोगम् So Narasimhadeva is telling Prahlad, please ask for some benediction. What do you desire? What do you want? Tell me.
I’ll give it to you. So he says, my dear lord, what can I ask from you? In this world, there can be things which are priya and things which are apriya. That which is pleasurable and that which is displeasing, pleasant and unpleasant.
So most of us want sanyoga with the priya and vyoga from the apriya. We want union with that which is pleasant and separation from that which is unpleasant. But unfortunately the opposite happens.
We get union with the unpleasant and we get separation from the pleasant. And because of this, यस्मात्प्रियाप्रियवियोगसंयोगजन्मा The whole life goes away. शोकागनिनासकलयोणिषुदहियमानः All living beings are burning in the fire of lamentation.
And further, दुखवुशधम् तदपिदुखम् That if I try to get rid of the situation, the medicine that I try to get for it is, it aggravates the disease. In fact, the cure is worse than the disease. तदपिदुखम् अतद्धियाहम् Now my intelligence is awakened, oh lord.
मुमान And therefore, ब्रह्मामी In trying to seek the pleasurable and avoid the unpleasant, I have just been wandering now. But now what I want to do? वदमेतवदास्ययोगम् My dear lord, please guide me. How can I serve you? दास्ययोग How can I connect with you in a mood of service? So here, there is the mind’s tendency to seek pleasant things.
Which impels us to act accordingly. But there is another tendency of the mind to avoid unpleasant things. And many times, when people say watch TV, it is not so much that what is going on TV is so enjoyable.
It is just that what is going on in life is so boring. That I need some stimulation. It is, the mind has a tendency to want to avoid anything which is unpleasant.
And this tendency to avoid the unpleasant stems from our notion that everything unpleasant is unwanted and it should be avoided. So we all, when we can feel distressed in various ways, sometimes we just feel lonely. We are in a situation where there are no people around us, or there are people but they don’t care for us, or we can’t connect with them.
Or sometimes we may feel misunderstood. Sometimes we feel depressed. Sometimes we feel rejected.
Sometimes we may feel just disheartened. So all these negative emotions are a part of the normal flow of life. It’s not that these emotions should not naturally, should always be there.
But just while going through life, these will come. And just like say if you are going along a road, while driving some parts of the road, maybe places where it’s very cold, some places it’s very hot. So if you just keep moving forward, the place where it’s hot will come for some time, it will go.
The place where it’s cold, it will come, it will go. But say if I’m going along this path, and it’s a very hot patch over there. Nowadays of course we have cars with air conditioning, so we don’t feel the heat.
But say if we are going earlier, the heat is unbearable. And not being able to tolerate the heat, I just change my path and try to go wherever the heat is not there. I may end up going far away from my destination.
And say in that process, in trying to avoid that heat, I go down some road and end up in a high crime area. And there I get mugged and I get robbed. In many cities, there are some areas, if we go there and we are robbed, and if you go and complain to the police, the police will say, why did you go there? Even we don’t go there.
So in this case, the desire to avoid the heat actually gets us into much more trouble. So for us, the tendency to avoid the unpleasant, that makes us do things which get us into further trouble. There is this notion in the world nowadays, that happiness is the natural state of being.
And if we are unhappy, that means something is wrong with us. The whole world is filled with images that, oh, there are so many happy people, advertisements, how many advertisements are going to show people who are morose, depressed, sad. They show that, okay, you are depressed, but take this product and now you become happy.
And then we take the product and we don’t become happy. And then we start thinking, because the propaganda is so powerful, normally if we take a product which promises that we’ll become happy and we don’t become happy, we start to become suspicious, something is wrong with this product. But when the propaganda is so forceful, we start thinking something is wrong with me.
If this product made them happy, why is it not making me happy? So in this way, the cultural propaganda are two things, where we are shown as if everybody is happy. And on the other hand, we are shown also that actually, to be unhappy is almost like having a character deficiency. Why are you not happy? You should be happy.
So because of this, we try to somehow get rid of feelings of unhappiness. And in trying to get rid of feelings of unhappiness, we do actions which cause greater unhappiness. So I feel lonely.
And many times when people are trying to give up some bad habit, they have relapses, not so much because they love that particular activity. Somebody is giving up smoking, giving up drinking, giving up drugs. It’s at one level, the craving for that is strong.
But it’s not just that, that is enjoyable. It’s that when life gives them some difficulties, at that time they gravitate towards, this is where I’ll get rid of. I can’t tolerate this distress.
If I feel lonely, if I feel distressed, if I feel rejected, then I gravitate towards that for relief. So the search for pleasure can be in one sense, in the sense of positive things which give me enjoyment. But a search for pleasure also can be in terms that, oh no, I can’t tolerate this difficulty.
I can’t tolerate this negativity. And because of that, we rush into something which promises us pleasure. But again we get into bigger trouble.
So many times if somebody is an addict, there is, I was just in one city where I met one devotee who was earlier addicted to something. And that devotee had joined a 12 steps group. Alcoholics Anonymous is there, which helps people who have got into alcohol to get free from it.
So like that now there are many things. The Alcoholics Anonymous was one thing. Now there is something called Foodaholics Anonymous.
People who are just compulsively attached to eating. Or of course they can be compulsively attached to not eating also. There is some people who are very figure conscious.
And because of being so figure conscious, they just can’t eat and they get eating disorders because of that. So now there are people who are addicted to smartphones. So many things people get addicted to.
So anyway, so what this devotee was telling, their experience they were sharing from this Alcoholics Anonymous, they say actually only the first step out of the 12 steps is directly about the addiction. The remaining 11 steps are about attitude. The addiction is simply an activity that one is doing.
But we just, I will give this up. That is not enough. We have to have that resolution.
But underlying the attitude we have to deal with. So for example, if somebody was drinking, because they were feeling lonely. And then drinking helped them to hang out with the crowd.
It made them feel high. And it helped them to get rid of that loneliness. Then even if they make a strong resolve, no I am not going to drink next time.
But then next time when they feel lonely, again they will be pulled towards alcohol. So often our cravings are unhealthy expressions of healthy needs. The need for company, the need for friendship, the need for connections.
This is a healthy need. But when an alcoholic is starting to crave for alcohol, that craving for alcohol is an unhealthy expression of a healthy need. The healthy need is the need for company.
But the unhealthy expression is the need for alcohol. So the mind somehow, in a very deceptive way, associates company with alcoholism. And when it associates it that way, changing that, that means, okay, I can overcome my loneliness in some other way.
I can make some other friends. And I can be in their company. And to be in their company, I don’t need to drink alcohol.
So in psychology there is a phenomenon called as Pavlovian behavior. Alexander Pavlov was a pioneering psychologist. And he did some experiments on dogs, which to some extent are extrapolated to human beings also.
There are lots of posters. It’s okay. Some entertainment.
So what this researcher did is, he had some dogs, and whenever the dogs were going to be given food, he used to ring a bell. And they ring a bell, and the dogs would immediately get alert. Oh, we are going to get food.
And then they are given food. And then after that, as he kept doing this repeatedly, in the dogs’ minds, the getting of food became associated with the ringing of the bell. And thereafter, whenever he would ring the bell, even if there was no food nearby, and he was not going to provide food, still the dog’s mouth started secreting saliva.
Saliva is normally secreted when we see food. But in their minds, because they had associated the ringing of the bell with the provision of food, just the ringing of the bell created the secretion of the saliva. So there is A is the provision of food, B is the secretion of saliva.
Normally there should be a straight correlation between A and B. But in this case, they had brought in C. That is the ringing of the bell. So A, B and C were happening, A, C and B were happening together. But in this case, he removed B, which is the original connection.
But there is only A and C. As soon as there is the ringing of the bell, there is the secretion of saliva. So in this way, the mind by habit can misassociate one thing with another. It can misassociate the ringing of the bell with the provision of the food.
So similarly, if in our mind, if the alcoholic in the mind, alcoholism, drinking alcohol is associated with relief from loneliness, then even if actually taking alcohol doesn’t give relief from loneliness, in fact now they may be in a different social circle, and in that social circle, people look down at someone who drinks alcohol. But still, in their mind, they associate that way. And by that association, they get misled.
So the mind’s inability to tolerate unpleasant situations, that makes us gravitate towards certain actions, which we presume will be pleasurable, but they end up being troublesome. So how do we, when we make a willpower, I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do this.
The negative resolutions are often not very effective. I’m not going to drink, I’m not going to oversleep, I’m not going to do this, I’m not going to do that. Sometimes it may work, but if by that indulgence, by that habit, some deeper need is being served, unless we understand what that need is, and serve it in a healthier way.
Some people just get into compulsive TV watching or net surfing, or something like that. Now that may be, I don’t want to waste so much of my time. And they may resolve also.
But if they get bored, and in their mind they have associated, say, watching TV with getting relief from boredom. So as soon as boredom comes, that’s what they will go towards. So unless they find a healthier way to either deal with the boredom, or to learn to tolerate the boredom.
If they don’t do that, they will not be able to get rid of it simply by raw willpower. So when we decide to do something and are not able to do it, and we end up doing something which gets us into trouble, then we just beat ourselves up. Why am I so foolish? Why did I do that again and again? But it’s not just a matter of being foolish.
It is, ok, we could say it is foolishness, but foolishness is not just the indulgence. The foolishness is an inability to perceive the need that is being served by that indulgence. And as long as that need is not served in a healthier way, we will relapse into those things.
So quite often, our desire to get pleasant sensations, or our desire to avoid unpleasant sensations, both of these can get us into trouble. And how do we overcome them? I’ll conclude with this point. As Prahlad Maharaj says, Please guide me how to perform your devotional service.
So, in the Bhagavad Gita, in the second chapter, 70th verse, Krishna talks about a very striking concept. So the last word over here is kamakami. So it’s a very interesting compound word.
Literally the translation would be desirer of desire. So do not be a desirer of desire. What does it mean? The metaphor is used over here just as rivers flow into an ocean, but the rivers don’t disrupt the ocean.
Similarly, desires flow into a spiritually advanced person, but they don’t disorient such a person. So again, this is something intriguing. Normally, we think of desires as flowing outside from us.
I see something tasty, oh, I want to eat it. I see something attractive, I want to see it. So desires normally flow out from us to the objects.
But here Krishna is talking about desires as rivers flowing into an ocean. So that means the word desire can be used in two senses. One is the temptation coming into us.
And if the temptation attracts us, captivates us, then what will flow out from us is intention. So nakamakami, do not be a desirer of desire. What that means is do not let temptation transform into intention.
Do not let temptation transform into intention. From outside the stimuli will come, but one who does not indulge in it, that person will… that person will actually attain peace. So imagine if instead of an ocean, there is a small puddle.
And if a river flows into that puddle, the puddle will get completely wrecked. There will be total disruption over there. But if there is an ocean, the ocean is so big that even if the river flows into it, not much disruption will happen.
The ocean will simply accommodate it. So similarly, our consciousness, if it is like a puddle, then when some stimuli come in, they will disrupt us completely. But if our consciousness is like an ocean, then we will be absorbed.
Then even if some stimuli come in, we will be able to tolerate it. So the process of bhakti is meant to transform our consciousness from being a puddle to becoming an ocean. How do we do that? By invoking the presence of the Lord, who is an ocean of happiness.
सब सुख सागर सब गुण आगर The Lord is the reservoir of all qualities, is the reservoir, is the ocean of all happiness. So to the extent Krishna is invoked in our consciousness, to that extent we will find that our consciousness will become more immune to disturbances. We all will experience that if we have chanted nicely, heard some good classes, and we have some strong connection with Krishna, then if somebody disturbs us, somebody neglects us, somebody hurts us, we don’t overreact that much.
Because we have some internal contentment, we have some internal strength. But if we are not very Krishna consciousness, if our mind is already empty, we are feeling, we are running spiritually empty. At that time, somebody disrespects us, somebody neglects us.
Boom! There’s an explosion. How dare you do like this? If we are internally satisfied, if we are connected with Krishna, satisfied in Krishna bhakti, when some temptation comes, we are able to say, no, I don’t need it. But when we are not internally connected with Krishna, then when the temptation comes, we say, yes, just go towards it.
So the reverse can be of desires, the reverse can also be of insecurities, of fears. The reverse will flow in. But to the extent we can make our consciousness oceanic, by connecting with Krishna, to that extent, we will be able to tolerate this.
We will be able to overcome this. If we said, oh, why am I feeling so bored? Why am I feeling so depressed? Why am I feeling so lonely? Everything, you know, I have to get rid of this boredom. I have to get rid of this depression.
I have to get rid of this loneliness. In trying to get rid of that, we will end up doing things which will get us into further trouble. But okay, this is there.
It is there for now. But let me focus on connecting with Krishna. Once I connect with Krishna, this will go away.
Sometimes it may not appear as if it is going away. Then we just have to persevere. We persevere steadily, cultivating absorption in Krishna, then that will be addressed at its root.
Suppose we are going from our home to our office for an important appointment. And along the way, we see somebody whom we just don’t like. We don’t want that person to be there.
I told that person to go away. And we see that person. Now, if we go and start talking with that person, we may go and talk because we either feel angry and we want to give them a piece of our mind.
But even with that intention, we start talking with them, we get diverted. We talk with them. And they talk back and we talk and we get caught.
And we don’t get our important appointment. We get late and that causes greater trouble. Sometimes if we are going for something which is very important, and then we see somebody over there, along the way.
So we might just nod at them and keep walking. If somebody nods and keeps walking, that means they are not interested in talking right now. So, what happens similarly for us, if we feel depressed, if we feel bored, if we feel irritated, okay, I am feeling irritated right now.
This feeling of irritation, this feeling of boredom, this feeling of depression, it is there within me. Just nod at it and move on. If you try to get rid of it, no, I should not.
I am a devotee, why should I feel depressed? I should not be feeling depressed. But if you try to battle with that emotion, that emotion is like talking with some unwanted person. You get entangled in it.
So, if sometimes some unwanted emotions come up, rather than trying to get rid of them, we just move onwards in our Krishna Bhakti. And that way, we will find that gradually they will get overcome. So for us, the source of the ultimate pleasure is our connection with Krishna.
And nothing is worth being distracted from it. na praharishet priyam prapya no dhrijet prapya ca priyam sthira-pudra-sammuram brahma-vidyam manistah Krishna says that do not get elated when you get something pleasant, and do not get dejected when you get something unpleasant. But be fixed in spiritual knowledge and in spiritual pursuit.
So, it’s interesting, Krishna doesn’t say that you just become dead into your perception. He says some things will be pleasant, some things will be unpleasant. He’s not saying that you have to deny.
You should not find this pleasant, you should not find this unpleasant. He says, yes, some things will be pleasant, some things will be unpleasant. But don’t get into it too much.
Oh, this is so nice, I want this more and more. And I’ll forget my purpose. Oh, this is so bad, I’ll just somehow get rid of this.
And again we forget our purpose. So, if we’re going along the road, we meet someone who’s a friend. Hey, we’ve been meeting for such a long time, we start chit-chatting with them, hanging out with them, and we forget our importance.
If we meet someone whom we don’t want, why are you here? And we start wrestling with them, pushing them, trying to get rid of them, again we miss out. So, Krishna says, in life’s journey, sometimes the pleasant will come upon us, the unpleasant will come upon us. So, don’t try to embrace it, don’t try to reject it.
Just move on. When we do this, then by this, we will come to a level where, bhaya-sparsheshva-sattatma-vindatya-arthamanyat-sukham-sabrahma-yoga-yuktatma-sukham-akshaya-mashnute Next verse, Krishna says that, one who can be in this way detached from external sensations, be they pleasant or unpleasant. Such a person can turn inwards and connect with Krishna.
And in that connection with Krishna, sukham-akshaya-mashnute, there is imperishable happiness that is experienced. So, I’ll summarize what I spoke. I talked about how the search for pleasure is often the cause of the greatest trouble.
I started by talking about 18.38, Krishna says, that which tastes like nectar in the beginning, tastes like poison in the end. So, the example of this, boy who got into drugs. So, youth, wealth, and drugs.
All three promise pleasure, but the combination got him into huge trouble, where he had to go to a drug free addiction center eventually. So, addicts, they think that objective addiction will give them pleasure, but that causes them trouble. Like a child who watches a horror movie, thinking that I’ll enjoy, but then gets into misery.
Life often promises that it will be like a romantic comedy, but it turns like a horror movie that is a tragedy. So, at one level, life will give us unexpected situations, unpalatable situations. At another level, the unpalatable situations that life gives upon us, our mind keeps replaying them again and again.
Why did she do like that? How could he have done like that? And that way, our mind aggravates our sufferings. The mind promises us pleasure and then gives us trouble. Our frustration is a function of our expectation.
Conversely, the mind also doesn’t want unpleasant sensations. And in trying to get rid of the unpleasant sensations, we try to do some activities which get us into trouble. So, an alcoholic may be drinking, not just because they are so crazy for alcohol, but also because they find themselves lonely.
And in their mind, they have associated company with alcoholism. Just like the Pavlovian dogs, they associated food with the ringing of the bells. So, sometimes our cravings are unhealthy expressions of healthiness.
And those cravings to overcome them, just willpower is not enough. We have to find out what is the need that is being, we are mistaking this need to be served by this activity. So, when we learn to address that need in a healthy way, then we will be able to overcome.
So, when alcoholics are to help to be given up alcohol, one step is giving up the alcohol. But the 11 steps remaining are all about changing the attitude, understanding one’s needs and getting them addressed in a healthier way. Otherwise, just like a floor has become inclined because of the impact of a heavy object, like that our mind gets impressed with certain things and naturally our thoughts and desires will go in that direction.
So, when we understand our core need and address it in a healthier way, then the craving will automatically fall by and we will be able to get rid of it. And ultimately our deepest need is Krishna. So, when we are practicing Krishna Bhakti, connecting with Krishna, that is like transforming our consciousness from a puddle to an ocean.
If we are empty within, then both desire and fear will agitate us. So, Krishna says, na kama kama, do not become a desirer of desire. Don’t let external temptation transform into internal intention.
So, even when unpleasant sensations are there in our life, rather than trying to avoid them, we just focus on connecting with Krishna. Then that connection will give us satisfaction. So, if we are going for an important meeting, we don’t get caught in talking with somebody who looks pleasant or we don’t get caught in trying to push away somebody who looks unpleasant.
Just focus on moving towards the meeting. So, if we focus on moving towards Krishna steadily, then that will both help us get the supreme happiness within and that will ultimately get rid of the unpleasant sensations. So, to the extent we get rid of, we go beyond external sensations, to that extent we get, we get inner happiness which is unending.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? So, the mind keeps pulling us away here and there. How to control that? See, firstly, the mind is just doing its job.
The mind is searching for pleasure and by its past experiences, it has come to know that nothing gives lasting pleasure. So, okay, the mind gets caught, I want this. And after sometime, I want that, I want that, I want that.
The mind is just seeking new stimuli because it knows no stimuli gives lasting pleasure. So, even if the stimulus which gives lasting pleasure, Krishna himself comes, the mind says, I want something else. So, it’s just a creature of habit.
It’s propelled by momentum. It doesn’t stay at one place for long. So, it’s like, sometimes when people, when they are watching TV, they’re surfing channels.
And when you’re surfing, at that time, even if something good comes up, if one is caught so much in surfing, just keep moving forward, oh, that is a good channel, then come back, come back, come back. Okay, I want to watch this program. So, like that, for us, the mind has got such a momentum, it just keeps moving forward.
One to another to another. Even when it comes to Krishna, it doesn’t stay over there. So, at that time, Krishna says that, in 6.26, that, यतो यतो निष्चरति वनस्चंचलमस्तिरम् तस्ततो नियम् यहिता दात्मन् नियवश्यम् नियति says, that the mind may stray away, but let it not stay away.
It will go off, but bring it back. And it may go off again. But just the effort to bring it back, whenever it goes off, that will increase two things.
First, our own understanding that we and our mind are different, and that we need to control our mind. So, that inner self-awareness will increase. And because we are not just bringing the mind to some neutral object, we are trying to bring it to Krishna, our effort will please Krishna.
And Krishna will attract us and that will empower us to control the mind. So, if you say, mind is here, I am here, Krishna is here. Mind goes off, I try to bring it back to Krishna.
It goes off, I try to bring it back to Krishna. By this repeated endeavour, first thing is, I start understanding that, clearly that I am different from my mind and I need to discipline it. Otherwise, we just get carried away with the mind.
Most people don’t even understand that the mind is something different from which I have to control. This increases our self-awareness. And secondly, because we are trying to focus on Krishna, Krishna becomes pleased by our endeavour.
And then he attracts us. And he empowers us to fix the mind. So, the repeated endeavour is required.
But repeated endeavour in a purposeful way. Purposeful way to try to connect with Krishna. So, if you find that this is the circle of Krishna Bhakti, the circle of what our mind likes.
You can find some intersection in there. This is what my mind also likes and this is what is in Krishna Bhakti. Then, relatively speaking, with lesser resistance, the mind will stay over there.
Suppose we like music. Suppose we like reading. Suppose we like decorating.
So, whatever thing which we like, we encircle, we bring that in the circle. We do that more and more or we make that readily available to us. And in doing that, the mind will not be so agitated.
And then, through that, the mind gets a taste of Krishna Bhakti. And then that taste will move to other things. So, if I like to read, I like philosophy.
Hey, this is very interesting. So, we may not like to chant, we may not like deity worship, but we like philosophy. So, at least do that regularly and the mind starts getting it.
Oh, okay, this is good. And because the philosophy is about Krishna, the philosophy is about the holy name, the philosophy is about deity worship. So, gradually, we will start getting connected with that also.
That’s why the operating principle is, येन केन प्रकारेन मन कृष्ण मेशेथ. Somehow or the other, fix the mind in Krishna. Somehow or the other means, whatever works for us, whatever is the way in which we can combine our, we can find the intersection between our mind circle of interest and the circle of Krishna Bhakti, institute ourselves on that and from there move towards Krishna.
Any other questions or comments? Prabhupadaji, make sure I understood what you said, Prabhupadaji. You said that the mind, for Prabhupadaji’s question, you said, the mind is running away because it has never tasted pleasure and it always realizes the pleasures that are fleeting and it’s trying to run away to find. If that is correct, then how do people, shooters in Olympics and how do they focus in that for a long time and they are able to do, knowing that there is no pleasure at the end in such activities, how do they do it? Okay, good question.
So if I say that the mind is very restless and it doesn’t stick to anything because it doesn’t believe that there is any pleasure anywhere, then how do people who are very disciplined in a particular activity, say Olympic shoot, archers or shooters, focus on one point? Yes, when I said that the mind does not believe that any object gives it pleasure, that doesn’t mean that the mind is going to abandon its search for pleasure. The mind is very convinced that pleasure is there somewhere and it is going to pursue that. And depending on the kind of exposure that mind has had, the mind develops certain beliefs that this is what will give me pleasure.
And to the extent that conviction becomes strong, to that extent a person will be ready to pay any price for it. So for somebody who is shooting and is trying to say become an archer, if I can just hit the bullseye in that Olympics match, I’ll get the Olympic gold and then all my dreams will be fulfilled. Then I’ll be happy.
That belief is what drives them at that time. However, for most people they are not able to achieve it and that’s why they are dissatisfied. Some people they are able to achieve it and then it turns out to be an anticlimax.
There was a famous tennis player, he wrote his autobiography, he said that his dream in life was to become the world’s number one tennis player. And then he became world number one and then he said, it is still late now, he said, so what? That means a computer loves me. A computer somewhere based on its ranking has decided that I am the best player in the world.
What’s so big about it? Now of course, he didn’t give up that idea. What I really want in my life is that I should, in tennis there are these grand slam tournaments. So if somebody can win all the four grand slams, they are considered very special.
So I should achieve that. So he just, his one goal turned out to be disappointing, but he set up another goal. That’s how material life is.
That we somehow based on our situation get some conviction, if I do this, this will give me pleasure. And even if we get it and we don’t get the pleasure, somehow the mind finds us some other object. That will give me pleasure.
And if we set up some goal, which we believe will give us pleasure, then we are ready to work very hard for it. In the case of, say, trying to chant and focus the mind on Krishna, somehow we don’t have that conviction that this will give us pleasure. And that’s why when the mind wanders, we are not ready to get it back.
The soul does have the capacity to control the mind. And as I say, people who achieve something material, they do have a certain level of control of the mind. But the important thing is not just the capacity to control the mind.
The important thing is the purpose for which we are controlling the mind. So somebody controls the mind so that they can get more wealth, so that they can get more power. They’ll get that, but that purpose will not give them satisfaction.
That’s why bhakti is not just about controlling the mind. Bhagavatam gives the example of how Hiranyakashipu controlled his body and mind so much that he is performing immense austerities. And even Brahmaji said that even the great sages, a guru can’t perform austerity like you do.
So it is that even while controlling the self, the self may be under the control of illusion. There is actually activities of self-control. Hiranyakashipu was fasting completely, but still he was under the control of illusion.
So it is what defines a person is not just their capacity to control the mind and senses. What defines a purpose is the purpose of their life. The purpose for which they are trying to control their mind and senses.
Sometimes the sadhakas may not be able to control their mind and senses because the conditionings may be too strong. But if the purpose is strong, then eventually that control will come. And the purpose is what will enable us to steadily move towards Krishna.
Thank you. Yes. So sometimes based on our past impressions, we tend to judge someone, a person or someone.
And we judge based on our impressions. But actually the person is not that. He can be something different.
He can be something higher, very higher. But because of some karma he is going to this life. But in reality he can be a great yogi.
So how should we not judge someone? Based on our experience, we judge someone in a particular way. But they may be very advanced. How to avoid this judging? Generally, we observe certain things.
And based on observation, we observe certain actions. And based on those actions, we ascribe certain motivations to people. And the motivation that we ascribe to them, that is based on our preconceptions of them.
If we see somebody eating a lot, this person is a glutton. But if we like that person, or if I want to speak about somebody else over it, such a glutton. If I overeat, I was hungry.
If we see somebody sleeping a lot, such a lazy person. If we also sleep a lot, I was just tired. So what happens? When we see an action and we ascribe a motivation, generally if we like someone, we are charitable in ascribing that motivation.
And if we don’t like that person, then we are uncharitable. We will actually ascribe a negative motivation to that person. So all that we have seen is the action.
But what motivation we are ascribing, that is based on our inference. So if we just learn to separate the facts from the feelings. The fact is, okay, this person is overeating, this person is oversleeping.
But the feeling is, this person is useless. We have some negative feeling about them. That negative feeling may be true, it may not be true.
So when we see somebody doing a particular action, and we judge them. So now to some extent of functioning in this world, we do need to discern. This person, I can count on this person.
This person, I am not sure whether I can count on them. So discerning is required for us. But discerning is done from a platform of caution.
Whereas judging is done from a platform of superiority. I am so good, this person is so bad. Suppose, say, we want some important message to be conveyed to someone.
I will look at this person. If I tell them, will they be able to send it or will they forget it? So now this is, last time I gave it to them, they forgot. I can’t give it to them.
This is discerning. But if I move from this and say, this person is so irresponsible. And then we make a label which we ascribe to that person.
That is where we judge. So we can’t deny the facts. We observe something which is questionable.
And we can’t even deny our feelings. I feel annoyed with this person. They forgot it last time.
But when we bring the facts and the feelings together and arrive at a label, that is where it becomes a problem. I can accept the facts, I can accept the feeling. But I keep them separate.
So, you know, I can’t trust this person now because they did like this. But if I say, this person is untrustworthy. Then what I am doing is, I am conflating, mixing together the fact and the feeling and arriving at a value judgment.
So that is where it becomes a problem. If we learn to avoid ascribing a motivation to people’s actions. Then we can be cautious.
Last time I spoke a secret to this person, this person just revealed it to everyone. So I cannot tell them any secret. But that does not necessarily mean that person is a backbiter.
If I label a person as something, that is where I am judging. But if I objectively observe, and then I also, that situation creates a feeling, I acknowledge that. But I don’t mix the two and arrive at a judgment.
Then we can avoid the judging mentality. And especially if we are interacting with someone regularly and we have some negative perception about them, then it is good to try to associate with someone who has a positive perception about that person. And then we will see, why does this person think so good about this person? And then instead of again evaluating through a filter, maybe these two people are just there in some racket together, they are just flattering each other, scratching each other’s back.
No. Maybe this person is seeing some good which I don’t see. So by hearing from someone who sees something positive in that person, we can also see that positive.
So that way, by avoiding to combine facts and feelings, and by trying to hear from somebody who can give us an alternative perspective, we can avoid the judgmental mentality. Krishna says that, characteristic of the godly, of those of godly nature, divine nature is that they are averse to fault finding. So to the extent we can also avoid delighting in finding faults with others and labeling others, to the extent our godly nature will also manifest.
Yes. Okay. Yeah.
Okay. Good question. So if I say that the search for pleasure, it leads to trouble.
But it is also said that our nature is pleasure seeking. So is that observation simply that we are pleasure seeking? Or is that also a recommendation that we should seek pleasure? Yeah. Now if I mention the title, search for pleasure is often the source of the greatest trouble.
It’s not always. It is ultimately we are souls who are seeking pleasure. But presently, because of the misconceptions within the mind, the search for pleasure gets misdirected along channels which lead to trouble.
So, let’s say I am lost over here. And this is my home. If I am lost, I don’t want to go back home.
But if I take a road which is not going to take me towards home, it’s going to take me further away from home. My intent is I want to go back home. But I take a road which takes me further away from home.
So similarly, for us, we want pleasure, we are searching for pleasure. But the roads that our mind presents us for pleasure, they often lead to trouble. So we need to choose the road which will actually lead to pleasure.
And the paradox is that when we are going along that road, sometimes we may not be getting pleasure. Sometimes it may appear as if we are actually losing pleasure while going along that road. So therefore, the scriptures often say that, that we stop seeking pleasure.
Prahlad Maharaj, that same section says also, if you want to be happy, stop looking for happiness. That doesn’t mean we can just deny our pleasure seeking nature. What it means is that whatever are the default pathways to happiness that our mind has defined, stop going after long-term.
And Prahlad Maharaj also says, My dear lord, please guide me how I can serve you. So the service, the devotion to Krishna, when that is established, then there will be the greatest happiness. So 5.21 which I quoted, it starts with that become detached from external sensations.
And then that same verse which is telling us become detached from sensations. That verse concludes with One will get unlimited happiness. So Krishna is saying become indifferent to happiness.
And by that you will get unending happiness. So what it means is that become indifferent to the paths that you have defined or that you are concealing will lead to happiness. And stay fixed in the path of connecting with Krishna.
And so once we connect with Krishna that will give us the supreme satisfaction. To the extent we focus on connecting with Krishna, even if this gives me pleasure, if this does not give me pleasure, still I will keep connecting with Krishna. If we have that attitude, then our pleasure seeking tendency will be ultimately fulfilled.
Does this answer your question? Yes, Hare Krishna. Yes, Madhavi. I understand that, you know, mind has, but oftentimes we see that what role do anarchists have to play? So to give an example, I don’t want to be an anarchist.
And I understand that, you know, I am acting endlessly or anything. And sometimes I can control my actions or my speech or my emotions, but oftentimes the anarchists overpower. How do we understand and how do we deal with it? So what role do anarchists play? Suppose we don’t want to be envious but we just become envious and sometimes we act enviously, sometimes we are able to restrain it.
So yes, I said anarchists are like conditionings. So it’s like the tilting of the floor. So if the floor is tilted, the water will flow in that particular direction.
And all of us or each of us may have particular conditionings which may be of different depths, different strengths. So the same process of bhakti, for somebody, for them the envy goes away very easily. For somebody else it just doesn’t go.
That doesn’t mean necessarily that one person is practicing bhakti more sincerely and other is not practicing more sincerely. It can be that and we should explore whether I am doing something not properly, improperly, but also it could be that just for us the conditioning is deeper. So two people have a rash on their body.
One of them applies an ointment and the rash goes away. The other person applies the ointment, the rash is not going away only. Same ointment is there but in their case that wound is maybe deeper.
So it may take longer to heal. One important point is that the ability to overcome the anarthas alone does not define our devotion. What defines devotion is the purpose of connecting with Krishna.
Sometimes because of certain conditionings it may be extremely difficult to overcome some anarthas. But even with that anarthas we can connect with Krishna. Yes, I become envious of so and so.
I will have to deal with that envy in whatever way I can. But I will not give up my connection with Krishna. So sometimes the capacity to overcome an anartha is something which some people have more by their past karma and some people have less.
Krishna has six opulences. Beauty, wealth, strength, fame, knowledge, renunciation, like that. Now each of these opulences, when the jiva gets it, when we get it, even a small quantity, that is a result of past good karma.
Somebody is very beautiful. They are having one of the opulences of Krishna and that is because of their past karma. Somebody is very wealthy.
That’s also a result of their past karma. Now beauty and wealth are resources that can be used in Krishna’s service. Somebody looks good, they attract many people and through that attraction they can bring people to Krishna.
Somebody is wealthy, money they can use in Krishna’s service. But just being beautiful or just being wealthy is not a sign of spiritual advancement. Nor is it being poor or being not good looking, that is a sign of lack of spiritual advancement.
So this with respect to beauty and wealth we can understand very easily. But renunciation is also an opulence of Krishna. And so some people may, by their past karma, be blessed with that opulence of renunciation.
And some people may not be blessed with that. So just like a person doesn’t have to go out of their way to get wealth so that they can practice bhakti. Similarly, we don’t have to go out of our way to get renunciation so that we can practice bhakti.
Yes, if we have wealth, we could practice bhakti more peacefully. We have renunciation, we could practice bhakti more peacefully. But even if we don’t have wealth, we will keep practicing bhakti.
Similarly, even if we don’t have renunciation, we still keep practicing bhakti. So the battle against temptation is a part of the war for devotion. But it’s only one part.
Sometimes we may lose a particular battle, but still we may end up winning the war. But sometimes we equate the battle against temptation, the battle against narthas, with the war for devotion. And then if we lose this battle, we think, oh, I lost my devotion itself.
And if we think I’ve won this battle, I think I’ve won the war. But one of the greatest ironies of the last century was that the one person who was responsible for killing maximum people was Hitler. Hitler was a vegetarian.
He didn’t kill animals. And there are thousands of people who would kill animals for food. Were they worse than Hitler? Or was Hitler better than them? No.
Hitler was a murderer of human beings. But it just happened. For whatever reason, he had that idea that I should not eat meat.
So that’s, okay, that one quality is there. But what about the overall life? So we focus. Now, we as devotees, renunciation can also come because of devotion.
So vairagya can come by the practice of bhakti also. And that’s why if somebody has vairagya, we shouldn’t just say, that’s just because of your past karma. Maybe it’s because of their sincere devotion that they got that vairagya.
We can’t know. But if we are not able to get that vairagya with a particular thing, no need to get too worked up about it. Just focus on practicing bhakti.
And we can try to minimize the exposure to the stimuli that causes the envy. We can’t avoid it entirely. But we can minimize it.
And Duryodhana, Duryodhana naturally had envy within him. But when he went to the Pandavas Rajasuya Yajna, at that time, for him practically the worst position was, the worst service was the service of getting gifts from everyone. Because that’s where he would see everybody, they are getting so much.
If it had been some other service, that would not have been so bad for him. So maybe he could have avoided that service. But even if he couldn’t avoid it, that was what was given to him.
But everybody else left after that. Bhishma left, Drona left. But he chose to stay on.
He says, I want to see this Maya Sabha which they have got. I want to see what all facilities they have got. That was suicidal.
Already there is so much envy within him. And what is he going to get by seeing the details of the Maya Sabha and all the opulences? It’s only going to increase the envy. So if he knows that I have got envy, then better not let me expose myself to stimuli which will aggravate the envy.
So his having envy was a problem. But his exposing himself to stimuli which aggravated the envy, worsened the problem. And worse of all, he is having an association of people like Shakuni, who gave him ideas about how to destroy those whom he was envious of.
That was the worst thing for him. So like that, the Anartha is not just a problem. The Anartha, when we act in a way that provokes that Anartha further, that is a problem.
If we associate with people who further make us act on the Anartha, who give us ideas about how to act on the Anartha, not act to get rid of the Anartha, but to indulge in the Anartha, then that becomes a bigger problem. So sometimes we may not be able to avoid the presence of the Anartha, but we can avoid the provocation of the Anartha, we can avoid the association that leads to the provocation of the Anartha, and we can focus on practicing Krishna Bhakti. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
We will stop here. One more question? Yes. Is there time? Okay, what do you have? It is a very silly question, sorry.
Last week there was a speaker, Shila Prabhupada disciple, he said that the reason, in relation to your points about the mind and distractions, he said that in our history there are lots of great gurus and swamis who have fallen, and he said it is because they got affected by demonic forces, external demonic forces. And he said he has done research on it and he is very confident about it, but he does not want to talk about it. So I just was curious about the last thing.
Okay. So the question is that, did some of the leaders of our movement, when they fell away, was it because they were affected by external demonic forces? In general, once we go into the realm of proposing certain non-verifiable causes for certain actions, it goes into the realm of speculation. We do, as a matter of philosophy, accept that there are demonic forces, that there are ghosts, there is a whole paranormal world that is out there, but whether specific actions are to be ascribed to that.
So once, one devotee was becoming very lusty, and he wrote to Prabhupada. He says, Prabhupada, I am feeling very lusty. I think I am haunted by a ghost.
And Prabhupada replied, there is no ghost. You are just weak. Chant Hare Krishna.
So Prabhupada, he accepted, he talks about ghosts as really existing. But as devotees, we don’t have to jump to ghostly explanations. So it could be that sometimes when we are fighting, when we are practicing bhakti and inspiring others to practice bhakti, so it could be that the forces of the illusion, they may attack some people in a sustained way.
And sometimes they may use some demoniac forces also for that. But it is speculative. And ultimately, even if it is demoniac forces, what are we going to do? Does that mean that now we are going to do some special rituals to try to get rid of the demoniac forces? Ultimately bhakti is the strongest way, even if there is a demoniac force, bhakti is the strongest way to get over the demoniac force also.
In general, the human mind looks for some easy explanation. There is a tendency which is called as scapegoating. Scapegoating means, okay, why is this problem there? Because of this, because of this, because of that.
So in general, there are no bad solutions, there are no easy explanations. Yes, every person who has had difficulty in their spiritual life, if you look at their background, there are certain situations, certain agitations, they made some mistakes, there is some providence by which they were put in certain situations. So it’s all a combination of various things.
If we can learn something from it, that is good. But if we move on in our bhakti, by ascribing such things to paranormal forces such as demoniac spirits or whatever, we, the tendency is that either we secede responsibility saying, what can I do? I am haunted by a ghost. Or it could be that we hand over power to those who are claiming like this.
Oh, you are saying I am haunted by a ghost? That means, you know, you please guide me how to get rid of this ghost. And that way, basically, either we are giving up our responsibility to act properly or we are handing our responsibility over to them, you take care of. Ultimately, it is Krishna who is going to take care of us.
And we have to practice Krishna bhakti diligently. So in some cases, it may be that such a thing has happened. And there are, on a specific case basis, one may have to evaluate that.
Some people just get haunted by ghosts. And that is, basically, it is a possibility. Or sometimes some demoniac spirits may, whatever, come.
But that is not the explanation that we jump to by default. If we look at our first generation, never before in the history of the world has there been such a big gap between the founder of a religious movement and the first generation. Gap in terms of age, in terms of maturity, in terms of spiritual advancement, in terms of scriptural knowledge.
So in terms of, if we look at the history of religious movements, the Krishna conscious movement was actually a recipe for failure. Because normally, most movements, after the founder depart, they collapse. And especially if a movement has such a big gap between the founder and the successors, then it is set up for collapse.
The fact that the Krishna conscious movement has survived, and not only survived, but has expanded in many ways, that indicates that there is not just people’s anarthas that are acting, there is also Krishna who is acting through them. And there are at least some people who are channeling Krishna. And through them Krishna is acting and transforming people’s hearts.
So we don’t deny that anarthas are present. We don’t deny that people with anarthas are present. We don’t deny that if people don’t deal with their anarthas properly, disasters can happen.
But we don’t need paranormal explanations when normal explanations can explain. So it’s like, if a patient calls a doctor, doctor, my stomach is upset. Morning the doctor, patient calls, doctor, first question he’ll ask what? What did you eat last night? Isn’t it? The doctor, if we start ascribing something, some distant explanations, we will just lose all sense of practical responsibility.
If a thief robs a citizen, and the citizen goes to the king, so I’ve been robbed. And the king says, oh, you were robbed by your past karma. Well, okay, I may be robbed by my past karma, but what is your present dharma? Isn’t it? Your present dharma as a king is to protect me.
So what you can say is that if the citizen had taken all precautions to prevent getting robbed, the king had proper administrative systems, and still the citizen was robbed, the king tries to recover the wealth, but still the thief eludes, then we can say by your past karma you are meant to be robbed. But when there is an immediate explanation, then there is no need to go towards some remote explanation. So, if there is some water falling over here, and I slip and fall.
Why did I fall? Is it because there is water? Now you could say that, okay, why did somebody else not fall in the water? Why did I only slip and fall in the water? That is, okay, that is because I have some past karma because I slipped. But I also need to wipe away the water. I need to make sure that I don’t spill water like that over there.
Isn’t it? So in general, normal explanations is what we take for. So even with respect to karma where we accept that there are previous life causes, but if there is an explanation based on this life, we don’t go to the previous life. We focus on this life explanation.
When the this life explanation is not enough, then we go to a previous life explanation. So, sometimes the previous life and this life may work together in combination also. It’s not necessarily this or this.
But the point is, we don’t have to discount this life’s explanation and go to some previous life explanations. So, in the case of some Vaishnavas having some problems, I think there are abundant this life explanations are available. So, that’s why we don’t have to jump to such paranormal speculation.
Thank you very much.