Lessons from Hanuman’s devotion to Rama 4 – How Hanuman provoked to deter Ravana from war

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Bhāsindhupya eva ca patitānāmbhāvṛdyo vaiṣṇavidyo namo namaḥ jai śrī kṛṣṇa jai tanyāprabhu nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa Thank you for coming today on the sacred occasion of Ram Navami and today I’ll speak on the incidents where Hanuman does something where we can see the contrast between Hanuman’s attitude in the service of Lord Ram and the attitude of Rāvaṇa in defying Lord Ram. In the evening class I’ll talk about the miraculous aspects in the Ramayana and how these miraculous point to something special, point to a calling of the human heart. At this stage if you consider Hanuman and Rāvaṇa and now Rāvaṇa is the villain, the chief villain of the Ramayana and Ram is the hero but Hanuman is no less heroic than Ram in many ways.
When Hanuman is acting in heroic ways in the service of Ram at that time he confronts Rāvaṇa on multiple occasions. The first encounter between them happens in Lanka. Of course Hanuman sees Rāvaṇa earlier when he is abducting Sītā but the encounter happens in Lanka.
Now first time when Rāvaṇa is fast asleep after a night of revelry at that time Hanuman is going through various houses and there he sees this giant being. Now Rāvaṇa has the capacity to also change his forms. So he has ten heads but sometimes he can manifest in a one headed form also.
So when Rāvaṇa is seen at that time Hanuman is just basically at that time looking for Sītā just on the guard to watch out that Rāvaṇa should not be alerted. But later on when Hanuman is arrested, Hanuman when he is in Lanka at that time he basically has the first mission is to find Sītā. The mission was basically a search mission.
It was not a search and recovery mission. Just search. But he decided to find Sītā.
Ram had given him some more mission. Give a message also. Don’t just search for it.
Give a message. And he gave a message along with the segment. And it was not just a message giving information.
It was giving assurance. He did that. Then he as a trained warrior knew that soon a war is going to take place.
Kshatriyas, they don’t back out from conflicts if they are necessary. In the Bhagavad Gita in 18th chapter when Krishna talks about the characteristics of the four varanas, 18.41-43, at that time he says one characteristic of the Kshatriyas is that if there is a fight, they will not run away from the fight. Now that does not mean that they will go out of their way to create a fight.
We will see both in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Although there is a terrible war that takes place, in both cases, the side of the virtuous, Ram first in the Ramayana and Pandavas in the Mahabharata, both of them try their best to avoid war. Now, we know that there are four ways in which the conflicts can be resolved.
Saam, Daam, Bhed and Danda. So Saam means, we basically say, both of us have common interests. Why should we fight? Daam means, okay, this is what you want.
You take this. Let’s avoid the conflict. Bhed is, basically, you try to create dissension in the opposite camp.
So that, okay, somebody is, once we see that some person is just intractable, they are just not going to change, they are not going to agree to a peace, then try to see if there are others who will agree to peace. And that way, avoid, minimise the conflict. So that Saam, Daam, Bhed, that doesn’t work, then Danda.
Now, in the case of Ravana, it was most likely that nothing else was going to work. He had a history of being demonic. And, in fact, the Ramayana tells, especially in Uttarakhand, how he terrorised people all over the universe.
His attempt to abduct Sita was not just a first. So, in today’s language, you would call Ravana as a serial abuser. So, he had a long track record of just disrupting things, devastating things.
And, so, it was unlikely that there was going to be peace. But still, Hanuman decided that let us try for peace. Now, how do you try for peace? Generally, if an enemy is very powerful, then, at that time, Ravana, he had got some understanding of the power of Ram.
Because Ram had single-handedly defeated, destroyed all the army of Ravana and Janasthan. So, at first, Ram could not believe that anybody could do this. But, then he remembered that, actually, I don’t have any immunity against humans.
So, then he sobered down. That’s why he decided to use a backhanded strategy by sending Maricha ahead and then conspiring to abduct Sita. So, Hanuman decided to deliver two things.
A demonstration of his power and a stern warning to Ram. So, in Hindi we say, laato ke bhoot baato se hi maan. So, those who are adamant, they don’t just learn by words.
So, words have to be spoken. But Hanuman decided that first he will act through his actions. That’s why, after he finished talking with Sita, he went a little bit away from there.
And that Ashok Vatika, which was there, he just started disrupting it. And the guards came there, they tried to stop him and he just destroyed all of them. Then he sent a battalion of powerful guards who were just not just… There are guards also of different levels.
There are guards for a garden, there are guards for the palace, there are guards for the court. So, like we have different people who have different levels of security also. State security or whatever.
So, like that, he sent a troop, a battalion of some of his best warriors. And there was a big gate over there. So, when Hanuman went across to Lanka, he did not carry any weapon with him.
Because that time when he was leaping across, even if he has a mace, the mace would be an added burden. He just wanted to fly light. So, then there was a big gate over there.
What Hanuman did was, he just broke the gate and took out a bar of the gate. He just took that in a giant form. Now, the gate was what they had used to protect.
But now the gate was broken down and the part of the gate was made into a weapon. The demons, they had never seen anything like this. They were shocked.
They kept attacking again and again and just destroyed everyone. Then, this is a blunder which Ravana does again and again. He keeps underestimating the power of his opponents.
I discussed earlier about how there are three modes of material nature. Goodness, passion and ignorance. In ignorance, we underestimate our own power.
We think, things are so bad, I can’t do anything. In passion, we overestimate our power and we underestimate the power of the opponents. So, then he sent his own prince, Aksha.
He sent one after another. Six different deputations he sent, but all of them were destroyed. Then he sent his own son Aksha.
Aksha was a great hero. He fought and fought and fought. He knew very celestial weapons and he attacked Hanuman.
Hanuman was wounded in different parts of his body. As he was getting wounded, Hanuman was just chanting, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram. He was shrugging off all the weapons.
And Hanuman started flying in the sky to get away from Aksha’s weapons. And Aksha kept chasing him, chasing him. Hanuman had a strategy.
Hanuman did not have weapons. So, he knew the best way he could catch Aksha would be by surprise. So, he was flying away, flying away, flying away.
Now, Hanuman had been blessed by the Devata so that his body was like Vajira. So, even when weapons pierced him, they did not injure him severely. Some injury, but not severe.
So, Aksha, he was in his chariot and he had mystic power. So, his chariot could also fly in the sky. So, through that chariot he was just coming, closing in on Hanuman, closing in.
And as he just came very close, at that moment, Hanuman suddenly slipped down. That means, he was flying and suddenly it goes down. It doesn’t land.
So, he slipped down and the momentum of Aksha’s chariot was so fast, he tried to change course, but he went straight ahead. And as he went ahead, Hanuman just came back from behind, caught Aksha by his hair and hurled him round and round and round and he had his bow and arrow, but he couldn’t do anything. He was just being hurled round and round and he hurled him down.
And Aksha met his end. When Ravana heard this, he was infuriated. Who is this who dares to kill my son? So, at that time, he finally looked at Indrajeet.
Indrajeet was burning in indignation. He simply went back down. And Indrajeet used all his weapons, but none of them were able to fell Hanuman.
They enjoyed Hanuman, but Hanuman kept fighting. And finally, he decided to use his Brahmastra. Long ago, Brahmaji had also given a blessing to Hanuman that my greatest weapon, Brahmastra, it is indefatigable.
That means, it cannot be countered if it acts. But, it will have its effect on you, but not for long. There are some weapons.
Now, we know that when Parikshit Maharaj was attacked with the Brahmastra by Ashwathama, the Brahmastra is a weapon. Sometimes people say that it is the weapon of Brahmaji. It is not exactly the weapon of Brahmaji.
Brahmaji is normally considered to be a Brahmana. So, he doesn’t usually fight. In emergencies, he will also fight.
Now, Brahmastra can sometimes be considered to be the weapon of Brahmaji, but primarily, it is associated with the weapon of Brahman. It is not Brahmaji, it is Brahman. That means, Brahmastra is considered to be the supreme weapon.
So, it is a weapon. So, there is Indra’s Vraja is there. There is Yama’s Vaash is there.
Like that, there are people who have different weapons. But normally, we don’t see Brahmaji fighting very much. Occasionally, there might be a confrontation, but Brahmaji is more of a Brahmana.
So, Brahmastra can refer to Brahmaji, but primarily refers to the weapon of Brahman. That means the foremost weapon. So, now Brahmaji has the power by which he can bestow it to someone.
So, because he is a devotee of the Lord, so, he has that power to access that supreme weapon and he can bestow that weapon to people. If he bestows the weapon, then some people might think this is his weapon. That’s why the word Brahmastra can refer to Brahma’s weapon or the weapon related to Brahman, both ways.
But anyway, the point is Brahmastra is indefatigable. So, that’s why when Vishnu comes in and he saves Parikshit, that is considered a great miracle. Brahmastra is discharged to someone, that person, unless they have another Brahmastra to counter it, their death is almost certain.
So, in this case, Indraji specifically decided that he didn’t want to kill Hanuman because he wanted to find out who is this person who has come and disrupted him so much. Because normally, if warriors are fighting a war, then they know the who’s who, who are great warriors, where. It’s like, to give a mundane example of say cricket.
Now, top cricketers know who are the good cricketers in which party. Suddenly, some player, unknown player is playing very well. You want to know who is this player? This unknown monkey has suddenly come into Lanka and is devastating everyone.
So, Indraji decided that we have to catch him. That was the plan which Ravana also had in mind. Indraji executed it.
So, he used the Brahmastra to stun Hanuman, to capture Hanuman, to have him tied up but not killed. And then, Hanuman also knew. So, Brahmastra just folded his hands and accepted the bondage that happened by that.
Now, neither Indraji nor the Rakshasas knew that the bondage of the Brahmastra on Hanuman was temporary. So, they thought that we have captured him now and started dragging him through the streets to humiliate him. Hanuman was just tolerating all that horrible and physical lashes by remembering Ram.
And he was fixed in the service of Ram. He was observing, learning. One of his purposes was to learn about the enemy’s strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses.
So, he was doing that. He said, nowadays, if you work in companies, people, they want not just to fulfil the expectations but exceed expectations. So, what was Hanuman doing? He was exceeding expectations.
He had already done his service but he wanted to do more service. So, he was observing the enemy ranks. And then finally, he was taken to the court of Ram.
And now, Ravan considered it beneath his dignity to talk with a mere monkey. So, he told his commander, he had Prahastha and others. He says, question him.
Interrogate him. Who is he? What is he doing here? So, at that time, Hanuman saw Ravan for the first time. And such was Hanuman’s devotional vision.
The first thought he had in his mind was, what such a powerful person. If he had been virtuous, he would have become a great protector of even the gods. So tragic that he is vicious because of which he has become the enemy of the gods.
So, one of the characteristics of a great devotee is that they see the potential for devotion in everyone. In different places in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about how the advanced spiritualists see the spiritual in everyone. So, even in Ravan, Hanuman saw the spiritual potential.
Of course, that spiritual potential was covered with so many negative conditionings that in this lifetime, it is almost impossible to uncover that spiritual potential. But still he saw. If he had been virtuous, he would have been such a great devotee.
He would have done so much service for the Lord. This was Srila Prabhupada’s vision also. When he came to America, he went to the hippies.
And when he was going, he was staying in the main city, New York. And when he decided to go to the Lower East Side, people told him, that’s a very dangerous place. It’s a very degraded place.
It’s not a place fit for you. So, Prabhupada told him. Prabhupada’s mood was, at what place is fit for me? He said, the place where I can do service for Krishna.
That is the place that is fit. Srila Prabhupada was asked, traditionally, hermitages were in the forests. Very serene, peaceful places.
So, he says, when you are building temples, why are you building temples in the middle of the cities? Traditionally, also in India, you see temples. Some temples are on top of mountains. They have to climb up a long way and go up to the mountains.
Especially, celebrated temples. They are not in the heart of the cities. Some places, like Srirangam, the whole town has been built around it.
Prabhupada was asked, what is the best place for a temple? So, Srila Prabhupada said, that a temple is like a hospital. So, the place where there are the most sick people, that is where the hospital should be. Similarly, the place that is the most materialistic, where people are most in need of spiritual knowledge, that is where the temple should be.
So, Srila Prabhupada was very pragmatic in his presentation of Krishnamurti. So, he saw the potential for spirituality even among the hippies. He said, okay, that place is degraded.
The people may also be degraded, but at least they are spiritually inclined. And he saw that spark of spirituality covering up, although it was covered by many, many other things, but he saw the spark primarily. So, Hanuman also, he saw that spark was there.
And then, Hanuman just decided to play along over there. He wanted to get a size of the various warriors in Ravana’s court and see who is who. So, he decided to play along.
Then Prahastha asked him, Oh, monkey, why have you disrupted the gardens of Ravana? Actually, that was his favourite garden. It was called Ashoka Vatika, but when it was destroyed, it became Shoka Vatika for Ravana. So, Hanuman said, Actually, I am a monkey.
I was hungry. So, I just wanted to eat some fruits. So, while plucking some fruits, some branches fell down.
And when the branches fell down, at that time, some guards attacked me. So, to defend myself, I attacked them. More guards attacked me.
So, I attacked them again. I simply acted according to my monkey nature. Now, he had acted as such a great hero.
Hanuman has this blend of gravity and playfulness. Sometimes, he is very brave and very sober and very devoted and very heroic. And sometimes, he is almost like a monkey, you could say.
He is a vanara. Vanara, in the Ramayana, is a hierarchy described of various beings. Sometimes, you may say, oh, they are just monkeys.
They are not monkeys. The vanaras are actually celestial apes. There are different species.
And among those species, the vanaras are considered to be higher than humans. So, in the hierarchy of power, which they have, the vanaras are more powerful than humans. Now, not all vanaras may be at that level.
Among the leaders of the vanaras, they had intelligence and power more than humans also. Some of the monkeys who were assisting them, they may be ordinary monkeys also. So, in this case, he acted as if he is just an ordinary monkey.
And he said, ok. Then, Prahastha was enlamplust by this. Then he said, ok.
But why did you come here in the first place? So then, Hanuman decided to leave. He says, I am a messenger of the son of Dashrath, Ram. I am a servant of Sugriva.
And Sugriva is in alliance with Ram. He says, I am a messenger and I have come to deliver a message to Ravana. So, then he said, what is your message? Hanuman now completely changed his role.
A messenger of Ram deserves to be treated with honour. He says, first give me a seat. Then I will tell the message.
He says, you are a disrupter. You will not be given any seat. So, what did Hanuman do at that time? He just expanded his tail.
Normally, the king sits high up and everybody has to look up at the king. But what Hanuman did was just enlarge his tail so long that actually his seat became higher than Ravana’s. What was Hanuman doing over here? One says it by appearance, he is just provoking Ravana.
But he is not simply provoking Ravana. He is actually demonstrating to Ravana the prowess of Ram. And the prowess of the servants of Ram.
So, actually speaking, there are times when sometimes devotees speak in a way that appears to provoke the opponent. Just like when Prahlad is asked by Hiranyakashipu, what is the source of your strength? He says, I have been able to defeat everybody in the universe. But you are not even hurt, you are not even scratched.
He says, what is the source of your power? Now, he could have said simply. He could have given any answer. But what did he say? The source of my power is not only the source of your power, but the source of the power of the one who is the source of your power.
That means you got the power from Brahma. You got benedictions from Brahmaji. But where does Brahma get his power from? It’s from Supreme Lord Vishnu.
That is the source of my power also. Now, it may appear as if he is just being insolent over here. But he is not being insolent.
His point is, because if you see this whole series of verses that he speaks over there, later he says, actually, Vishnu is the friend of everyone. If you think that Vishnu is your enemy, that is simply because you are controlled by your mind, which is uncontrolled. And that uncontrolled mind sees the world in terms of friends and enemies.
And that’s why you are seeing Vishnu as your enemy. If you learn to control this uncontrolled mind, then you will see Vishnu as your friend. He is not your enemy at all.
So, Hiranyakashipu had this competitive vision, where he thought that, yes, I am powerful, Brahma is more powerful than me, and Vishnu is also very powerful. So, from Brahma, I can get a lot of power, then I can defeat Vishnu. Sometimes we may have this vision that there is a hierarchy of beings.
Like I said, humans are so powerful, then Vanaras are so powerful, Devas are so powerful, Rakshas are so powerful. And like that, we may have a conception of a hierarchy of beings. And in them, topmost is God.
So, God is the greatest, strongest of all beings. That may be one understanding. And now, sometimes, for comparative purposes, this may be told.
For example, it may be said that, say, Brahmaji has 50 qualities, Brahmaji has 50 qualities, Shiva has 55 qualities, Vishnu has 60 qualities. That kind of analysis may be given. But we also know that the Lord has infinite qualities.
As Ramacharya says, अनन्त गुड़ संपन्य Anant Narayan is innumerable qualities. So, this sort of analysis is done for a particular purpose. But, ultimately, God is not simply the best of all beings.
God is the basis of all being. Everything that exists, exists because of Him. नतदस्ति विना यच्यान यच्यापि सवभोताना बीजम् तदहमर्जुना Krishna says in 10.39 that nothing can exist without Me.
All of existence is sustained by My existence. So, that means that when Prahlad is telling Vishnu, that Vishnu is the source of the strength of everyone, he is telling, don’t have this vision that God is your competitor or you can be God’s competitor. God exists outside the scale of competition.
Whoever exists in the competition, all of them get their power because of God. So, sometimes if you think, okay, there are 100 powers, it means God exists number one. Then, Hinayakrish was thinking, if I become number one, then I can displace Him.
Just like, say, in tennis, there are different players. One player is number one. Somebody else gets more points and you displace him.
So, what Hanuman was doing was similar to what Prahlad was doing. Actually, you should understand that the Lord’s power is so great that it doesn’t fall in your scale of power. So, you just outside it completely.
So, now, when he just became so tall, he said, oh, Ram was furious. He said, oh, insult monkey, what is your message? Then, Hanuman became very grieved. He said, Ram is the most powerful of all beings and yet he is so virtuous that to carry out the order of his father, he left his kingdom.
He is so powerful that by his prowess, he can destroy not only Ravana, not only all of you, he can destroy all of Lanka. But still, he does not desire violence. He simply wants Sita back.
If Ravana returns Sita, then all hostilities will be forgotten. If he does not, then all of Lanka along with Ravana will be destroyed. This message was infuriating for Ravana.
Although, on one side, Ravana had already seen the power of Hanuman. Because Hanuman had destroyed so many of his warriors who had already been undefeated. But still, he just could not tolerate the idea that anybody would challenge his authority in his own court.
So, he said, this insolent monkey, he has not only destroyed our gardens, but he has insulted us. He should be killed. At that time, Vibhishan intervened.
Vibhishan said, a messenger should never be killed. So then, Ravana was still very angry. He said, he is not a messenger.
He has not acted like a messenger. He has actually attacked us, he has destroyed us, he has killed our soldiers. He is not a messenger.
He deserves to be killed. So Hanuman again went back. But I am a monkey.
It is their turn to eat. That is why I fought back. So, Ravana was perplexed.
He did not know what to do. Then, at that time, he said, monkeys are very proud of their tale. So, let us burn his tale.
Now, while Hanuman was talking like this, Hanuman could sense that the bondage of the Brahmastra had been released. So he could have escaped right now. But, he decided to give one final demonstration.
Of power to Ravana. So, now, Hanuman, there is a thin line being between fearless and being reckless. Fearless means, even when there is danger, one still pursues the course of action that is required for achieving one’s goal.
But reckless means, one doesn’t consider problems. One doesn’t consider dangers at all. One just rushes full-heartedly into danger.
So, we all need to be fearless. We all face dangers in life. I need to be fearless.
But we don’t have to be reckless. The difference between the two is in terms of the mode we are situated in. In the mode of passion, we become reckless.
Actually, to be fearless requires a certain level of mode of goodness. Even a warrior, if they are fighting a war, and they are fearless, they are not just in the mode of passion. If they are simply in the mode of passion, they would not be able to follow war codes.
They would just do whatever it took to defeat their enemies. So, fearlessness means that there is the awareness of the danger, but there is awareness of a purpose bigger than the danger. It’s not that… To be blind to danger is not fearlessness.
To be blind to danger is foolishness. If there is danger, we have to be aware of the danger. Just like if some people are just climbing up a mountain, then mountaineering can be… especially if you want to go high up to the Himalayas or some other mountain, it’s dangerous.
So, if one has fear, one will not be able to climb up one. I’ll not go. But if one is reckless, then they will not check whether they have enough oxygen with them, enough food with them, their ropes are strong enough or not.
They’ll not check at all. And Hanuman went into Lanka, he had the confidence that he was serving Lord Ram, that he was equipped by the benedictions of the gods, which he had remembered because of Jambavan’s blessings, Jambavan’s words, that he had the confidence that he could enter and he could come back. And he had the big advantage that his enemies were constantly underestimating him.
In fact, later on in the war, at one particular point, when Ravana entered finally into the fray, he was devastating the armies of Ram, the Vanaras. So, at that time, Hanuman marched to confront him. Hanuman just took all the arrows of Ravana and they just came right up to him and slammed him with both fists in the chest.
And when he slammed him in the chest, at that time, Ravana just fell back and he vomited blood through his mouth, through his nose, through his eyes, through his ears. So, Ravana was shaken completely. But he was a warrior, so he recovered immediately.
And then he said, Oh, monkey, your strength is very great. Hanuman said, My strength is lamentable because you still live. And then he covered his face to hit him again.
Ravana realised that I cannot take another blow. So, he just ducked the blow. And then, he changed his form, got away and then he attacked Hanuman.
So, by that time, Ravana also understood Hanuman’s strength. Time and time again, Hanuman demonstrated his strength and Ravana recognised that I have to defend myself. But at this point, the Rakshasas were continuously underestimating his strength.
So, when they decided to set fire to his tail, they had no idea what they were doing. So, we see this theme in the epics again and again, that whenever those who are demonic, they try to persecute the devotees. And the very tool they use for persecuting the devotees, that is what turns and hurts them the most.
In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana tries to poison Bhima. When he poisons Bhima, it throws him into a river. And through that river, he goes to the abode of Varuna.
And there, he is given some celestial drink by which his body becomes even more powerful. So, he emerges stronger. Similarly, when the Kauravas try to burn the Pandavas, the Pandavas flee.
In one sense, they are temporarily impoverished, dispossessed, helpless. But it is only because they are wandering at that time that they arrive at the swayamvar of Draupadi. And when they win the hands of Draupadi, then Drupada becomes their ally.
At that time, there were two formidable kingdoms. One was the Panchala and the other was Kuru. Krishna, of course, the Yadus were very powerful.
But the Yadus were in the ocean, in Dwaraka. And they were not directly involved in conflicts. So, when the Pandavas got Drupada as their ally, at that time, the whole equation changed.
Because till then, they were simply orphans dependent on the mercy of the Pandus. So, they had well-wishers in Vidura and Bhishma. But Vidura and Bhishma were often sidelined by the combination of Dhrashtra and Duryodhana.
But once Drupada came on their side, and then Drupada would be concerned. His daughter, if she is hurt. Then, when Bhishma told, that now is the opportunity for you to actually win back some trust, some credibility among the people.
Because everybody understood, how would that big palace burn so suddenly. All the citizens, they suspected the Kauravas were responsible for it. And Bhishma told, I feel ashamed of going in public.
Because I can see the scorn that people have towards me, that I was responsible for the killing of my own grandsons. So, he said, now redeem yourself. And give their kingdom back.
So, Dhrashtra did not have any virtue over there. But he still had some basic political sense. And he gave the kingdom back.
He gave half of the kingdom. Again, he gave Khanda to them. But the point is, every time the Pandavas were persecuted, the very tool that was used for their persecution, turned to give them strength.
Similarly, in this case, when the Rakshasas decided to set fire to Hanuman’s tale. So, at that time, Hanuman just decided to tolerate it. So, he had enough, you could say, Kshatriya fortitude, by which he could tolerate that pain.
So, the tale burning, now how would the tale burn? The tale is a physical part of the body, you can’t burn it. So, they put cloth on it, and they put oil on it, and they put ghee on it, and they set it on fire. So, it was a long, long, it took some time for them to set it on fire.
And now, this was the most exciting thing that was happening in Lanka. Because never before had any enemy penetrated into Lanka. So, what was happening was, there was a running commentary of what was happening going on everywhere.
They were, guards were watching and they were telling others. So, now, there was Vibhishan’s wife. She was there with Sita.
And she told Sita that Hanuman has been arrested. She was telling everything. And Sita was praying.
And then, she is of course, she is also the goddess, supreme goddess of fortune. But she is also in Vrindavan, she is in the human pastimes. So, at that time, when she heard that they are going to set his tale on fire, she prayed to Agni Deva.
He says, if or when if I have done any piety, please in return to this piety, let the fire not hurt Hanuman. So, Hanuman was feeling his tale burning and suddenly, that burning sensation disappeared. He looked back and saw that it was all on fire.
The tale was on fire. Now, there are some diseases when people just lose the sensation of pain. When that happens, it’s very dangerous.
Because pain alerts us to danger. Now, in this case, he was not feeling pain, he was protected. But that increased the danger for the Rakshasas.
So, he let the tale burn fully. And the Rakshasas are watching jubilee. There is an insolent monkey.
He is getting punished. And they are thinking, why is he not squirming? Why is he not screaming? The body is burning. Then, he should be in intolerable pain.
He is just watching. Hanuman was just playing along. He didn’t show anything.
And then, when the tale was fully on fire, you can imagine, it was a long tale, which had a throat that was higher than Ravana’s. And for that, they had to set it on fire. They had to get a lot of cloth, lot of oil, lot of ghee.
So, Hanuman was so intelligent that he used their own resources to burn their own kingdom. So, he let it all set on fire. And eventually, the result was, finally, when the whole tale was on fire, so at that time, he just said, Jai Shri Ram.
And he just jumped up. The Brahmastra had already become power. And the Rakshasas turned.
All this time, they were always caught unexpected. Caught nothing. So, they thought, he is shackled, he is going to burn.
But he just jumped up. And right in front of them, he just jumped out of the court. And then, he went and just stood on one tall building.
And his long tale was just going down. And it was all on fire. And things started catching fire.
And the Rakshasas were so shocked. Just look around. First, they didn’t realise the danger of the fire.
They were just surprised. How did Hanuman escape? Indrajit was shocked. Brahmastra, what happened? They were just shocked.
And then, as that house caught fire, Hanuman just jumped over to the next house. And they were just still so stunned that they realised what was happening. They ran forward to try to extinguish the fire.
But Hanuman, the fire was so big, it started spreading everywhere. Ravan was sitting all this time, majestic. So, he just jumped up.
And he says, Stop that monkey. But how do you stop? It was huge. His tale was huge.
He just couldn’t do anything. In English, there is a word, trailblazing. Trailblazing means somebody goes along a path on which no one has gone.
Say, somebody is going by a bike or something. And they go so fast by the bike to the forest that the bike, the leaves and other wildlife that is there, it just catches fire. So, trailblazing.
That means, you set a new trail. You just blaze the trail. Everybody can see, Oh, this is the path you have gone by.
So, Hanuman’s path through Lanka was trailblazing and taleblazing. His tale was on fire and wherever he went, he set that area on fire. The whole of Lanka was stuck with panic.
And Hanuman’s strategy was, at this point, intimidation. Intimidation. Get the Rakshas to recognise that they are unnecessarily provoking a formidable enemy.
In this way, his purpose was to deter to deter the enemy from war. In general, war is never a pleasant affair. But there are different strategies that can be used to minimise warfare.
So, one is, sometimes some people say, Oh, there should be no violence. We should only have peace. It’s true, we should have peace.
But, you see, even the United Nations which wants peace, often they have to use peacekeeping force. So, peacekeeping force means what? To keep peace, you have to use force. And force means violence.
So, violence is sometimes just necessary as a fact of life. It’s never a desirable thing. But sometimes it’s just essential.
So, deterrence means that we, by showing our prowess, deter the other party from taking any foolhardy action. So, relatively speaking, now there is a lot of concern of nuclear weapons being activated. There is our friend in North Korea who is being provoked and who is himself provoking also.
In general, if you see, when the nuclear weapons, the weapons of mass destruction were developed, at that time there was a great fear that the whole world may come to an end. Like nowadays in schools, you have these drills to prepare kids if a gunman comes into the schools. So, in the 1960s and 1970s when the Cold War was going on, there were nuclear drills which would happen in schools.
Oh, the bad Russians, they come and attack us. This is what you should do. So, there was great fear that these weapons of mass destruction may be used.
And yes, that is a fear even now that is there. But in general, if you know that the opponent also has a terrible power, then that acts as a deterrence. So, if you see in the last 10-15 years or the last 30-40 years, apart from the major war that happened in the Middle East where nobody had nuclear weapons, the major powers have not fought major wars.
India-Pakistan or even India-China, they have not had full on conflicts because both sides have nuclear weapons. So, that leads to deterrence. If we attack, of course there is a Cold War that is happening below the level where one party tries to sabotage the other party.
But there is no head-on confrontation. So, when the weapons are developed, nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction are never a good thing. But sometimes in a bad situation, they may be what is necessary to prevent the escalation to a worse situation.
So, of course, if everybody gives up nuclear weapons, that is the best. Because even now there is a fear that these weapons may fall in the hands of some foolhardy person. So, as long as there are at least some people who have some level of sobriety, that if we destroy them, they will destroy us.
We don’t want to be destroyed, so let’s not destroy them also. But if somebody says, I don’t care, I will destroy you, even if you destroy me. Those people, if they think like this, they are mad.
Mad means what? They say, mutually assured destruction. So, deterrence, if the enemy has some level of intelligence, then deterrence works. If you show your prowess, and by showing your prowess, then what happens? Then they say, this is very powerful, I cannot fool around with this machine.
So then, they may continue hostility, but it won’t be open hostility. So, Hanuman, what was he doing? By devastating Lanka like this, by spurring the enemy, his purpose was to somehow or other, get the message into Ravana’s thick head. That, by provoking Ram, he was inviting destruction.
Hanuman, in this way, although in one sense, he was provoking Ravana, but actually he was not provoking Ravana. It was Ravana who had originally provoked Ram. By abducting Sita.
So, it was Ram, Hanuman was basically, you could see it as a counter-provocation, but not counter-provocation, it was deterrence. To show him how powerful Ram’s forces are, therefore, get him to see some sense. And it actually happened.
Not only, you know, he actually showed dissension in Ravana’s camp. As I told you yesterday, when he was about to depart. He just towered above Lanka in his giant form with his tail blazing behind him.
And then, he shouted out in a thunderous voice. He said that, I am the smallest of the servants of Ram. If Ravana doesn’t return Sita, then hundreds of monkeys stronger than me will come and destroy Lanka.
So, the whole point of this was to create dissension. So, he had tried to make him see sense, that had not worked. So, Bheda.
So, he had given a glimpse of his prowess, so that he could show dissension. Actually, there were two, three other Rakshasa generals who supported Vibhishan when he opposed Ravana. But Ravana was completely maddened.
He was maddened by lust, he was maddened by arrogance. He just couldn’t see sense. And of course, he had other warriors who fuelled his false ego and continued his illusion.
But, when Hanuman went to Lanka, he did all that could be done to fulfil Ram’s mission. It was, he delivered the message to Sita, he reassured Sita, took a message from her, delivered a message to Ravana, he made it very clear to all the Lanka Vasis, what is to it that is wrong that Ravana is doing, and what would be the consequences if he continued in this course of action. And in that way, everything that he could do to fulfil Ram’s purpose of getting Sita back, he did that.
If Ravana was going to do it peacefully, he had got ample reason to do that. If he was not going to do it, then, he had given ample demonstration to create dissension in the Ravana’s ranks. And in this way, Hanuman came back successful.
The same tail which was burning all this time, it was destroying Lanka but it was not hurting Hanuman even a little bit because Sita’s prayers were protecting him. Before jumping off Lanka, he dove into the ocean so that he extinguished the tail. And then he jumped back onto the border wall of Lanka and as he leapt up, as he leapt up with such force that that border wall itself crumbled into the ground.
And then he flew back shouting Jai Shri Ram! Jai Shri Ram! So, Hanuman and his heroic adventures in the service of Ram demonstrate how not only the devotee do something heroic in the service of the Lord but the Lord empowers his devotees. And even when adversities come, at that time those adversities will turn into opportunities. Maha vipatthau samsaare yaha smareta madhusudana vipatthau tassi sampatti itiaha shankara So, Lord Shiva is telling that in the life of the devotees also Maha vipatthau samsaare great calamities may come but if yaha smareta madhusudana if in those adversities we remember the Lord madhusudana at that time, vipatthau tassi sampatti that vipatthi will become sampatti that will become a source of prosperity that will become a source of strength So, in our life different difficulties will come and these difficulties will sometimes break us some will hurt us, some will break us also The soul, the body is breakable but the soul is unbreakable However, the soul’s spirit, the soul’s morale that can be broken at times So, we may be broken, we may be disheartened but if we stay fixed in the service of the Lord then the very places we were broken we will heal and they will become our strongest places If we go through difficulties and then if we take shelter of the Lord and we find that actually yes, Krishna does give shelter but Krishna actually does help me go through these problems and if I stay sheltered in Krishna not only do I solve the problem but actually I grow stronger in my faith that this Krishna bhakti is for real Krishna’s shelter is for real then that very experience which would have been a very painful experience for us that very experience becomes our strongest experience because that experience becomes the basis for our faith Now, it may not happen immediately For the Pandavas, there was a period when they were in the forest and at that time it seemed as if evil had won and good had been defeated So, it took time and they didn’t know it at once that they were going to go to Draupadi’s chamber and they went to Draupadi’s hand but they persevered faithfully they persevered faithfully eventually it turned out that they became stronger So, Hanuman also did not go into Lanka with the plan that I will use my tail to burn Lanka He just went in with the firm intent to fulfil his Lord’s mission As opportunities emerged, he tapped the opportunities and when his tail was being set on fire he did not know that Sita was going to pray and his tail was going to be protected he did not know that this tail he could use it but all this emerged So, if we face adversities the adversities, it’s not that the adversities will not come in a devotee’s life but when the difficulties come, when the adversities come at that time we may not even know what to do how to deal with the situation Krishna Prabhupada writes in a purport that a devotee may be perplexed but a devotee is never discouraged perplexed means that I don’t know what to do discouraged means I don’t feel like doing anything So, we may also be perplexed because sometimes life may just put us in situations I have to do this, do this, nothing seems to be working So, what should I do? So, when we are perplexed, at that time we shouldn’t become disheartened Krishna, I don’t know what to do, please guide me So, Prabhupada says that it is said that intelligence means to know what to do when you don’t know what to do What does that mean? That means that there are times when with our intelligence we just see no course ahead So, this is what happens to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita at the start In 2.6 he says All the courses of action that I see ahead of me they just lead to frustration He says, if I kill my opponents I’ll have to live with the stain of the blood of my loved ones If I don’t fight them then they will kill me and they will kill not just me, they will kill my loved ones on this side If we just decide not to fight at all we will have to live as beggars we will be living in disgrace that we fled from the war because of fear So, none of the courses of action are good for me I don’t know what to do So, what does he do at that time? Next verse is He surrenders to Krishna 2.6 he says, I don’t know but intelligence means to know what to do but we don’t know what to do So, what does he do? He surrenders to Krishna So, if we just pray to Krishna Krishna, please guide me There are many channels for our consciousness to go ahead with We have our work, we have our health, we have our family All these are channels through which we function in the world and sometimes some channels just get blocked That means our job, nothing is moving forward Our health, we are doing something but the health is not improving We have some relationship where we are doing our best to try to resolve it but nothing seems to be moving forward Sometimes some channels get blocked and that’s just the way the world is Difficulties come in life and difficulties when they come that means they block certain channels Now, unfortunately when some channel in this world gets blocked we let that block our channel to Krishna also We start thinking that Oh, this problem is not getting solved We are praying to Krishna, Krishna please solve this problem Nothing is getting solved and then when we make our relationship with Krishna conditional to the solution of that problem then we start feeling Krishna is not helping and we start thinking what is the use of praying to Krishna and when we start thinking like that then our channel to Krishna also gets blocked What is the use of bhakti? What is the use of praying to Krishna? Krishna is not helping me at all But, it is not that Krishna is not helping us It is that Krishna sees further ahead than what we see and He knows better than us what is best for us So, if a particular channel in our life is blocked then we say Krishna please guide me what I should do We say also that Krishna I feel that this resolution is the best If this person just understands this, if this happens like this If this medicine works, if I get this job or whatever it is We can pray to Krishna for that But, we don’t make our relationship with Krishna conditional to the fulfilment of the prayer Like Krishna, this is what I feel is the best But, let thy will be done, not mine Jesus in the last evening before He was crucified He knew that next day great danger is going to be fallen So, He prays that Oh father let the cup pass At that time when somebody would be killed They would be given a cup of poison Normally, there would be a hamlock and you are told to drink it You drink it and you die So, Socrates was poisoned like that He was killed like that Now, crucifixion is an even more cruel way of killing Because the poison simply goes into the body and you die But, here the nails are hammered into somebody’s body It is extremely painful So, crucifixion was worse than what should be expected But, anyway He said let the cup pass But, then He concludes Oh, let thy will be done, not mine So, similarly for us When we have a particular problem And we feel there is a particular solution to the problem We surely pray to Krishna for that solution But, we don’t demand that solution Prabhupada writes that a devotee desires But a devotee doesn’t demand If we say we should desire only Then it will become very impersonal It will become very inhuman If this is a problem, I feel this is a solution In desire But, we don’t demand If we demand, then what happens? Then our connection with Krishna gets blocked Because we feel Krishna is not fulfilling my request Not answering my prayer But, if we say that Krishna can answer prayers In ways different from what I can conceive You see, in all these incidents The Pandavas couldn’t have conceived what was going to happen Hanuman couldn’t have conceived how things were going to work out good But, they did work out good So, if we pray to Krishna Krishna, I am your servant Please give me the strength to serve you Then, the very situation Which would have been the worst situation for our life Actually, that will turn out And that will become the basis for our faith Because I had such a big problem And I pursued in the bhakti And Krishna worked it out Not only did I emerge stronger from it But, my faith emerged stronger from it So, then, that way Mahavipatthau samsare Yavasmaretamadhusudana Vipatthau asya sampatthi The vipatthi will become sampatthi for us The same fire-turtle, burning tail That would have been a search of great pain for Hanuman Became the source of his greatest heroism His greatest service to Rama So, I will summarise What I spoke today I spoke about Hanuman’s adventures in Lanka And we contrasted Hanuman and Ravana’s disposition When Hanuman came to Lanka He wanted to do all the service that he could do So, he exceeded expectations First, he delivered the message Reassured Sita, got a message from her But then he decided that He had to do his best To either inform Rama of Ravana’s strength Or inform Ravana of Rama’s strength By which, Ravana would be deterred So, when he started provoking He was not simply provoking by destroying his garden Or by challenging Ravana’s promise He was actually trying to give him a message When Prahlad told Harinakashipu that The source of my strength is the source of your strength Source of the strength of your strength also Source of the one who is the source of your strength also The point was, don’t see Vishnu as a competition God is not just the best of all beings He is also the basis of all beings Everyone’s strength comes from him So, when Hanuman He acted the way he did He was not being reckless He was being fearless He had confidence in his power to go in and come out So, he had that big advantage that Ravana always kept underestimating his opponents Especially Hanuman in this case So, because he just was so proud of his own strength So, Hanuman used He used, among the studies, Sam, Dam, Danda and Bheg He used Danda and he used Bheg He used Danda in the sense that he Devastated Lanka First he devastated the Ashokvatika So, that it became Shokvatika And then later on, he devastated Lanka by burning So, throughout it all, Hanuman was oscillating between playful and grave And the same tale which Ravana tried to burn To torment and humiliate Hanuman That same tale, Hanuman used to burn all of Lanka So, whatever adversities come in a devotee’s life Life will break us But if we take shelter of Krishna Then the very places where we are broken Those places are where we will become the strongest But that is what happens if we stay fixed in the service of the Lord Discussed in Pandava’s example also The Bhima being poisoned, they being burned alive All those incidents led them to becoming more powerful We see, I didn’t go into this, but Srila Prabhupada He faced so many difficulties in India But, what happened when he came to America? He faced difficulty, but eventually when he was successful He was spectacularly successful So, Hanuman saw, initially, even the potential in Ravana If he had been a virtuous person Srila Prabhupada saw the potential Even in those who were very degraded, the hippies So, a devotee sees the good And is not blind to seeing only the good He sees the reality also Hanuman saw that Ravana is very antagonistic So, he tried to speak to him in the language that would make sense to him That is the language of power But because of his arrogance and lust That language didn’t make sense Then Hanuman spoke in a language that would make sense to others To create dissension So, Hanuman was not provoking He was deterring He was using deterrence to minimise To try to do everything possible To avoid the escalation to a full-blown war But eventually, when that happened Ravana Hanuman would teach Ravana And all those who supported Ravana the lesson For us, as devotees We will face adversities But if we take shelter of the Lord, then That which is adversity Will become the source of our spiritual prosperity Thank you very much Hare Krishna Are there any questions or comments? Is it good to exceed the expectations due to fear? For example It’s been 18 years I am a student 17 years I have worked more than the required hours Just to keep my job Due to fear Now I got promoted I don’t have more work The work is less I get the pay and I feel I am not working properly 17 years is long like anything But right now Every other Friday I get You are not working at all All these years with the fear of job I was working, working, working I don’t know what to do I have a problem Yeah So, if If we have been exceeding expectations Because of fear of loss Loss of job, that’s why we are working very hard Now we all go through different situations in life And we respond with the best of our intelligence in those situations So when there is insecurity There is a natural human tendency to Want to create as much security as is possible So we have to Have A sense of perspective That means that in our life There are certain things which are more important Certain things are less important And within that also Sometimes some things may become more important Temporarily So If we have an overall sense of Perspective, what is more important What is less important Then we can accordingly Adjust how we function So, for example If We have a reasonable amount of financial security If we have a Reasonable level of position Professionally Then At a particular point We decide that this is This is good enough And now if I have this If I have more time Then let me use it for devotional service Generally when we are in When Generally we all have a significant amount of Mode of passion So We cannot wish away that passion That we have to use it somehow or the other So In many ways We may complain that In companies I have so much work to do But when There is no work to do we don’t know what to do That’s what happens to us And we feel empty because of that We can’t just stay peaceful and contemplative Because we have to work With the reality of where we are If we had goodness then we could have Studied scripture and relished devotion Or done something more contemplative We have certain level of goodness But we don’t have a lot of goodness Even I I read and study A lot of time but I can’t just study I have to speak, I have to write After studying the knowledge I have to do something with it Those of Brahmanas They may just sit for hours together I have asked one senior devotee When we write How do we evaluate How do we evaluate the success of writing for Krishna Normally if you see If you are doing preaching We see how many people are coming for a programme How many people are becoming devotees But you cannot correlate between writing and Somebody becoming a devotee Because we write one book somewhere We go to different places We don’t even come to know what is the result So another devotee told me Krishna is glorified, that is your success Now I appreciate the transcendence Of that answer But that is not something practical for me I have passion within me And that devotee is at a very advanced level Krishna is glorified, that is enough Yes, I want Krishna to be glorified But I want to see some result in this world also And that is also a part of Our mission in this world Prabhupada was told by his spiritual master That if nobody comes For a programme, just preach to the walls When the walls have ears, they will hear And you will be purified Krishna will be glorified But then Prabhupada Could have kept preaching in India to the walls Prabhupada came to America Because Prabhupada also wanted External results In the service of the Lord So generally speaking When the mode of passion is there in us At that time We need something tangible to do So sometimes our jobs Create the tangible task for us If that is not there Then we have to create some task for ourselves Now how do we do that It may be At the material level Sometimes people take up some other job Just because they feel that job is not so challenging Or they may try to People create self-created duties Because in the mode of passion You can’t stay peaceful I have to do this, I have to do that So The mind is so The mind is so Cunning Or you say So Cunning is not the right word Mind is in some way So merciless That It If we don’t have enough to do The mind Makes you do something, do something, do something And then come on, do this, do this Do this, do this The mind makes us do many things And then it complains, why are you doing so many things So It’s just either way Whatever happens You tell the mind, I wanted to relax What relax, do something in your life Then you start doing How many things, you know You don’t get any break You ask the mind, what do you want I want to keep you miserable So The nature of the conditioned mind is That it will not be satisfied In any situation Even if we went to paradise Where everything would be wonderful The mind will say, yes But It will find some reason to be dissatisfied So At one level, we have to understand that If we just keep doing engagements According to the mind’s impelling In no state Then it will be satisfied But at another level, we also have to understand that If the mind has a particular If we have the mode of passion within us We can’t wish it away I can’t suddenly come to good things So the broad path That the Bhagavad Gita tells us is It tells Arjuna that You are a Kshatriya You cannot act like a renunciate Arjuna is telling Krishna that Maybe, why should I fight against my relatives I’ll just go into the forest and live like a mendicant So Krishna tells Arjuna No, you can’t do that In 18.60 he says We are all bound by our nature He says, even if you say You don’t want to fight You will not be able to restrain In the commentary he says over there that Krishna is telling Arjuna That now you are saying You will live like a mendicant In the forest But mendicants need charity So there is a difference The mendicants, they ask The Kshatriyas, they take Kshatriyas take taxes They are meant to take On behalf of the government If you ask for charity And somebody says, no, I will not give you charity Then immediately a sword will come out How dare you say no to me And that Will be inappropriate for you Because you are not You are not in the vocation of Kshatriya This is your Kshatriya nature Act according to that But, two verses later he says How do you act according to it He says So he says in 18.62 that You surrender to the Supreme Lord And by surrendering to him You will become peaceful, you will become purified You will become ultimately liberated So we don’t work For our nature We don’t work against our nature We work with our nature For Krishna For serving Krishna Working for our nature means The mind says, do this, do this Get this job, get this position Buy this, buy this, get bigger, bigger This goes on and on In the mode of passion Happiness is just One step away One One increment away One purchase away One relationship away Just one step away But That is the way it stays always So If we work for our nature Then we will just stay forever in passion And we will never be satisfied But if we work against our nature Suddenly trying to come to goodness It won’t work also So we work with our nature For Krishna That means we try to Try to find out Some stimulating, challenging Service for Krishna So some significant responsibility Bhakti Is not just chanting Hare Krishna, going to temple Attending classes All this is important But bhakti is also about Doing adventurous things in Krishna’s service So Prabhupada was asked That If the whole world became devotees Then how will the world run If everybody starts chanting Hare Krishna So Prabhupada answered differently at different times But Prabhupada at this particular point He said that If you think that bhakti means only chanting Hare Krishna And not doing anything Then you have not understood what is bhakti He said look at Arjuna, look at Hanuman They were chanting They were devotees But they were doing extraordinary things also Now Prabhupada himself He wanted people to chant Hare Krishna See anyway people are doing a lot of things But they are doing it for their nature And that is keeping them entangled So Prabhupada’s primary emphasis was We have to get people to chant Hare Krishna But that is not the only thing to be done Prabhupada had his disciples Do devotional service in adventurous ways This matter One senior Prabhupada’s disciple She was at that time just an 18 year old mataji And she, Prabhupada came back in 1968 From India He had fallen sick And he had gone there, the rest of them came back So when he came back to New York At that time the devotees had a globe, had a map of the world over there So Prabhupada Talked with all his disciples He says all of you You take one one country Go there and deliver that country So Most of them had never gone out of America also So then One of the matajis she asked Prabhupada what about us girls We are not boys or girls We are souls, servants of Krishna You also take one country So Now Prabhupada How was he able to These young disciples that he had They had tremendous passion So Prabhupada by his compassion Engaged them so that That passion could be used in Krishna’s service So similarly When we have to serve Krishna There is the direct activity of bhakti which we have to do But we also have to see bhakti As inclusive So we find out some service that we can take up For Krishna Which will be stimulating for us Which will be challenging for us And then we use our passionate nature in Krishna’s service That way So what it could be You may have to talk with other devotees Look at the broader society And then Find out what can be done But there are many different ways in which Krishna can be served Krishna can be glorified So we have to use our creativity That’s important I was in one place And there was this devotee couple They are telling that child He is just a small child, 7-8 years old But he is brilliant at robotics He can make robots And he has won a national level award And he is going to an international level competition So he is brilliant But they are telling that he is just We try to get him to temple He is just not interested All the time he is in robotics So then I told him that What do you I started talking with that boy He says Last time we made a robo That could If a truck comes on Whatever crates in the truck The robo will carry So like that We made different models So I told him that would you like to make something unique Which nobody else will make He said what He says you can make a robo of Krishna and Arjuna Speaking the Bhagavad Gita Initially I said no Then he started thinking about it I told him no matter What competition is there We are sure nobody else will make something like this Heroes will be unique I told him yeah that makes He became thoughtful And then He just went away After that he came back He told his mother What is taught in the Bhagavad Gita He became intrigued by that idea So basically So We have a circle of interest And we have a certain conception of what Krishna Bhakti means And sometimes we feel This is not that interesting But actually Krishna Bhakti Circle is not just finite There is a very clearly defined circle Of what comprises Krishna Bhakti In the sense of direct devotional service In the sense of indirect devotional service Or the expanded domain of devotional service Can practically be unlimited So we can do many many things In Krishna’s service So if we can find a way to channel our passion Then we don’t have to Again just to fulfil that passion Go into a Excessive materialistic environment Where we just have to work harder and harder But we have that urge to do something We can find a way to do that for Krishna Ok Thank you Yes So Rama is usually considered Very good king or great king And he is also a great devotee Of Shiva If we talk about the devotees of Shiva Ravana’s name comes He is one of the greatest devotees Of Shiva, Ravana So because of just one mistake That we made in his life Of having False feelings That one Sita That created that in his heart Because of the failure That was his failure And that failure Destroyed him So how can we identify the failures Like that in our lives So that we don’t get testified Ok So there are two questions actually over here Was Ravana just Was a good person, a good king Who just made one mistake That destroyed him One of our devotees Was distributing books in South India And there was one person He says I am a member of the RPC He says what is RPC He says Ravana Protection Committee He says what is this They said Actually Ravana was a very good person But these Rama devotees They have spoiled his good name So we want to protect his good name Somehow unfortunately What has happened is that There have been false lines created in India By the propaganda Of those who want to divide India So when the Britishers came to India They were very small in number So they couldn’t possibly rule India So they created This whole idea of an Aryan invasion theory Which said that there were some Great people, Aryans Who came to India And they civilised India And How did they serve their purpose They said Actually those same Aryans came to Europe also And we are the descendants of same Aryans So just as our ancestors came and helped you We are helping you now So Their idea was that They created this division between Aryans and Dravidians And they identified with the Aryans Now of course what happened in Europe Everybody started claiming We are the Aryans So eventually Hitler claimed that we are the Aryans And that’s why Hitler had that swastika As a symbol but he had the inverted swastika Swastika wanted auspiciousness for everyone He wanted inauspiciousness for everyone Except Except his own race So Now When the Britishers Now again among Britishers not everybody was born Not everything that they did was bad There were also people in goodness, passion and ignorance But prominently They worked in a way to Make Indians Willing captives They didn’t have the capacity to use force For a long time So now One of the ways they decided to create a division was that Aryans and Dravidians And Later on Now if you see Christian missionaries that are there in India They Have started identifying themselves with the Dravidians And they say Actually the original Dravidians who lived in India Before the Aryans came Their faith was very similar to Christians And This is how they are infiltrating South India And they are converting So what has happened is They have redefined the Ramayan As a conflict between Aryans and Dravidians They say Ram was an Aryan prince And Ravan was a Dravidian Dravidian king And in that way They have created Identification with Ravan So those who identify with Dravidian cause They identify with Ravan And they say Oh anyway in India there is always this conflict with North India and South India Little bit tension is always there So They have aggravated that And they have polarised it according to religious lines That’s why there is a lot of propaganda That Ravan was actually a good person Now Historically speaking they can’t deny the fact that Ravan abducted Sita But then they say That was just one mistake he made But if you look at the Ramayan itself It describes that Before that He created havoc in many many places He went to heavens And there was a celestial Nymph Rambha He violated her forcibly Then he tried to similarly Persecute Vedavati And in fact even Many of the queens that he had They were forcibly abducted So He was He was a good person who did one bad thing He did many many bad things And His Abducting Sita was the last straw So It is good to see Virtues even among bad people But then If you want to see completely You have to see their evil qualities also See in general nowadays People like to Take traditional narratives and twist them around To see from a new perspective So It’s not just like this So There are many people who have used Ramayan In a way to Tell their own stories So I would say that Ravan He had some virtues qualities But even these virtues qualities were Not Such that they could overcome His vices Some people say that he did not He did not violate Sita That is true but there is a curse When he had violated Rambha Then Rambha’s husband Manigriva had said that if he ever tries to Violate a woman again after this He will be killed So because of that although Sita was with him He did not violate Sita forcibly So Ravana had Lot of lust, lot of arrogance As far as his devotion to Shiva is concerned It was actually Very utilitarian Utilitarian in the sense that First he Worshipped Brahma Got a lot of powers from Brahma And then he went around Breaking havoc all over the universe Trying to demonstrate his prowess And then he came to Kailash And he came to Kailash At that time he decided that I will demonstrate my prowess And he put his hand Under Kailash and tried to shake it up And Lord Shiva, the Devatas They actually don’t walk on the ground They have the capacity to walk To float above the ground So we say Lord Shiva stays on Kailash He doesn’t have to sit on Kailash He is floating above Kailash So when Kailash started moving Shaking, Shiva was sitting With Parvati and Shiva just touched his foot to Kailash And as soon as his foot touched To Kailash, Kailash just came down And then Ravana With his twenty hands was lifting up Kailash Demonstrating his His hands started getting crushed And when his hands were getting crushed At that time he used all his power But when he couldn’t do anything Then he just started praying to Shiva That’s when he wrote what is called Ravana Sutti It’s not praise of Ravana but it’s praise by Ravana So that’s quite a well known set of verses Which he wrote, which are used To glorify Shiva So he did glorify Shiva wonderfully at that time And Shiva became pleased One of the names of Shiva is Ashutosh He becomes pleased very quickly So he did Please Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva Worshipped, he worshipped Lord Shiva And Lord Shiva benedicted him also So when he recognised How powerful Shiva is He initially thought Brahma is very powerful So from Brahma he got some powers But then he worshipped Shiva and he got more powers from Shiva So he worshipped him Primarily to get power It was not Simply out of Not any kind of selfless devotion It was for him Devotion was a means To increase his own power So ultimately if it’s a devotion Or religion It should lead to Transformation of character Somebody says I am a great devotee But then That person is ruthless That person is cruel Then that is really not That is not really Great devotion That is great worship That may be done But worship may be done simply as a tool To increase one’s own power And one’s own prestige Krishna Sarkar wrote this in 16th chapter 17th verse When he says that Some people He said They do yajante They don’t do yajna of naam They do yajna for naam They want to do yajna So that they can show to the whole world How big, how great I am In India Sometimes this happens People want to build bigger and bigger temples Hanuman Deity I have this big Hanuman Deity I want to have this big Hanuman Deity So now it’s good to have Big temples and big deities But what is the consciousness That is being done In India, especially Maharashtra Ganesh Utsav is very big So one time They invited me to speak at Ganesh Utsav And when I went there Normally If your temple is there You have some songs about In praise of that particular deity going on But in front of this Ganesh temple Bollywood songs were going on So I asked This is Ganesh Utsav He says why are you having Bollywood songs He says Oh Ganesh is Bhakta Vatsal Whatever is Bhakta’s love He loves that also This is completely twisted understanding of Bhakta Vatsal He loves his devotees And his love for his devotees is that he elevates the devotees Not that love for devotees means He comes down the level where the devotees are So So People sometimes have quite a distorted understanding Of what worship is So Ravana’s worship He might have done great worship of Shiva But it was very greatly self-serving kind of worship And secondly As far as Ravana making one mistake that ruined him Yes And we may also make mistakes like this In general Mistakes Don’t happen overnight Even when a mistake happens Suddenly There is a background to that And there is a Sequence to that also That means Like in the case of Ravana It was not just one action He had done many many actions before that If we consider say Ajami It was one mistake He was just walking along He had gone for the service of the law For a dharmic purpose To get some firewood for the fire Sacrifice Along that he saw something Now that scene That was just unavoidable It just happened incidentally And those thoughts also kept replaying In his mind again and again And sometimes some stimuli we see Something happens just provokes us quite a bit So then That was we could say unavoidable But after that what did he do? After that he came back And Not only did he want to associate with That prostitute But he actually rejected his wife For that purpose He rejected his parents for that purpose That is a brahmana If a brahmana is rejecting his parents And rejecting his wife Then who will want to cause such a brahmana To do some priestly work in their house Then nobody would cause it And he had no other way to earn So he started robbing, stealing Now In this case the first mistake In terms of his seeing Was unavoidable But later on When he was rejecting his wife When he was rejecting his parents Surely others would have given him some advice This is wrong we should not do it His own conscience would have spoken Something to him So at that time He could have avoided it So its many times that One mistake may just be unavoidable Or rather the first mistake May be unavoidable Because sometimes circumstances just come in And they pressure us Or circumstances allure us in such a way That we get overwhelmed But When our intelligence awakens So when the desires come and attack us The desires don’t attack us 24 hours a day They come With sweeping speed They attack And they make us do something wrong And then they go away after that They may come back again But its not that intensity of the desire stays all the time So after those desires have come and gone What do we do? Do we try to rectify Or do we try to cover up? We can try to rectify We can try to cover up Or we can try to justify Actually what I did was not wrong So if we see Something similar happened to Sugriva He had been living in the forest He was a royal prince Suddenly he became homeless He just was deprived So when he came back He got caught in sensuality So much so that he forgot That he had to serve Lord Ram And then Lakshman came And Lakshman was furious to see him Engaging in such a rivalry Ram was in agony In separation from Sita But then as soon as Sugriva understood Its a big mistake on my part As soon as he was reminded He took that reminder and reformed himself So broadly speaking We can try as much as possible To avoid dangerous stimuli But we can’t We don’t know in this world From where danger or temptation may come But after the temptation comes After the desires Wave comes and attacks When our good sense comes back What do we do at that time? So the first mistake may sometimes be unavoidable But after that we do a second mistake A third mistake A fourth mistake That is what makes things unconscionable That makes things too bad Beyond rectification So what happens is The mind makes us fall down And say for example I will fast on Ekadashi And then Its too much pain I can’t fast Then I decide Let me take water I am not fasting Why water? Let me take food also Why simple food? Even I am not fasting Let me take opulent food And then the whole principle of austerity gets lost So what the mind does is It makes us fall down And then it says Now you have fallen down Now fall down completely So That is the time When we can protect ourselves That is the time when we can say no Its like say simply I am walking on the streets And say some water has fallen So I slip and fall Now that slip and fall was unavoidable But if I stay fallen That is avoidable So similarly For us sometimes we may slip Sometimes we may fall But we can get up And what will help us to get up is If we have spiritual association around us Because At spiritual association we will have to come back on track We will have to behave in a proper way And especially if we have Very good association Somebody whom we really trust Then we can tell them what happened And we can’t tell that to everyone Because people may just spread the word around That we are troublesome Unnecessarily But if there is somebody who is very close Whom we can tell them And we know that they will not reject us because of that Then what will happen is They will tell us You can do this to avoid this in future You can do this to rectify this So Mantra she poisoned the mind of Kaikey Kaikey could have chosen not to hear mantra But she heard Atleast what she could have done is Instead of simply acting on mantra’s guidance She could have consulted someone else She didn’t do that at all So she couldn’t just Even if she couldn’t stop hearing mantra She could have atleast heard from someone else Similarly when our mind is acting like mantra Telling us do this, do this, do this Before we act on it Initially we might just do one thing But before we Take matters beyond limits When our good sense has come back At that time it consults someone else So spiritual environment itself Can bring us back on the right track And within that Close spiritual association Can also help us To rectify what we are doing Otherwise we will simply want to Either justify or cover it up And then that will perpetuate the wrong What is that you know Cheat me once I am a fool Cheat me once Shame on me Cheat me twice, cheat me thrice Sorry, cheat me once That’s shame on you You are such a scoundrel that you cheated me But cheat me twice, cheat me thrice Then it’s shame on me Why am I letting myself be taken on a ride like that That means one mistake is wrong But is excusable But repeatedly the same thing is happening Again and again and again That means I am simply being taken on a ride over there So I shouldn’t let others Just take me on a ride like that So that’s scoundrel thing Taking that thing around When the mind cheats us once The mind is a rascal, it cheated But if I get cheated twice, thrice by the mind And mind is not a rascal, I am a rascal Because I am giving in to the mind repeatedly So by having spiritual association Spiritual environment and spiritual association We can protect ourselves From being carried away by the mind’s Bad ideas We will stop here Thank you very much Thank you very much Prabhu For narrating such a wonderful Heroic pastimes of Ram, Bhakta and Numan And On this day of Ram Navami We all pray that whatever lessons we have Learned from Lord Numan in the last Couple of days, couple of sessions