How to effectively study and apply the Gita

[Congregation program at ISKCON, Crawley, UK]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
chanting chanting Hare Krishna Krishna I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today and I will speak on the topic of how to effectively study and apply the Bhagavad Gita so I will speak on 16.24 in the Bhagavad Gita chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting therefore chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting tells us the purpose of scripture.
The purpose of scriptural study is to give us guidance for proper action. When we go through life, we all need some kind of guidance. Right now I came from London to Crawley.
Now we used a vehicle, a car and we used a map. Generally whenever we want to go anywhere or do anything, there are two things that we need to know. The sadhan and the sadhya.
The sadhan is the means. What is the method that I am going to use? And sadhya is what is the goal that I want to achieve. So if you want to travel from one place to another, how am I going? By car, by bus, by plane.
And where exactly am I going? So if we consider life to be like a journey, for life also we need to know these two things. Sadhan and sadhya. What is the ultimate purpose of life? All of us are ultimately looking for happiness.
And we look for happiness in many different ways. If we consider in today’s world, what is most people’s idea of happiness? Of course, different people have different ideas, but people want to relax and enjoy. What do most people do? Sorry, go on holidays.
Take a break. But what do you do after? In the break, what do we do? Shopping. That’s true.
What is most people’s idea of enjoyment? What is the intoxication? That’s true. If you consider, what is the form of enjoyment on which people spend huge amounts of money? Or let me put it another way, which enjoyment providers are paid the most in today’s world? Entertainers. Yeah, isn’t it? Entertainers.
Entertainers can be movie stars or even sports stars. People, you know, a surgeon who can cure a broken leg doesn’t get even one tenth of as much as a person who can kick a ball with a leg. So actually entertainers get phenomenal amounts of money.
Currently in India, the IPL is going on. And these cricketers, 50 days of playing, they probably earn more than what most people earn in 50 years. So now when people are ready to pay so much for entertainment, now it means that they feel entertainment is such a great need.
What we value reflects our values. If I’m ready to pay for something a lot, that means I consider it very important. So why is entertainment considered to be such a great need? If we consider whose need is the entertainment? Is it a physical need for survival? No.
Nobody is going to die because of not having TV to watch, isn’t it? Then whose need is it? It’s not the body’s need. The mind’s need, yes. The entertainment industry has also been called as the boredom industry.
A survey was done of people in the western world, the first world. They found that on average, 5% of the time people are happy, 5% of the time they’re unhappy, and 90% of the time they’re bored. So our routine life seems so boring that we want some break from it.
And entertainment offers us that break. So we all want happiness. And in today’s world, people think happiness means, oh, there’s one cartoon I saw.
There’s a survey done. What is your conception of heaven? Different people were asked. So I said, 24 hour television.
That was the conception of the 24 hour television is always there. Now it is available. But if you could have nothing else to do, just watch TV 24 hours a day, I think that’s heavenly.
So now here, what exactly is going on? At a physical level, we have our needs, especially in the first world and in the westernised world, more or less taken care of. Not many people have immediate threat of starvation. But there is an immediate and almost constant threat of mental agitation, mental distress.
And this distress at the mental level, we try to combat by seeking pleasure. And one way we seek pleasure is through entertainment. So the Bhagavad Gita also begins with a setting in which Arjuna is overwhelmed at the mental level.
Physically, he’s young, powerful, trained, chivalrous, heroic, the foremost archer of his times. And yet, even before a single arrow is shot, he puts aside his bow. With his mind afflicted by grief.
So the warrior who could not be defeated by any other warrior was defeated by his mind. And he put aside his bow. I can’t fight.
And at that time, the Bhagavad Gita’s message is spoken. So at one level, Arjuna is overwhelmed because of the thoughts going on in the mind. Now we could go into the specific why he had those thoughts, why he had that emotional breakdown.
But beyond the specifics, the principle is the power of the mind over here. And at that time, Arjuna asked the question to Krishna, He says, I’m bewildered and I ask you, Krishna, I’m asking you, this is 2.7, Dharma. What is Dharma? The word Dharma has many different meanings.
Sometimes it’s translated as religion, but Dharma comes from the root Dhruv, that means sustain. So Dharma refers to the order that sustains existence. So there is some underlying order to the world which sustains existence.
And when we understand that order and harmonise with it, then our existence also becomes harmonious. So Dharma refers to what am I meant to do? How am I meant to act in life? Suppose sometimes kids see some dramas and a kid has prepared a very nice drama. All the rehearsal has been done and all the dialogues have been memorised.
And then that kid goes on the stage and starts acting. And everybody is looking strangely frowning, mocking. What’s going on? He’s completely caught in playing his role, but everybody seems to be disapproving.
Then he realises he’s actually in the wrong drama. He’s playing his play well, his part is playing well, but he is in the wrong play. His play is later and he’s barred into another play.
So, you know, before we play our part, we need to know which play we are a part of. So which play we are a part of, we need to know that. And the word Dharma refers to when we understand the overall order of things, then we understand, OK, which play am I a part of? What part am I meant to play? This question is what makes the Bhagavad Gita universal.
That Dharma Samudha Jita. What is Dharma? All of us get this question. What am I meant to do in my life? It can be a general question about the long term trajectory of our life.
You can also have specific decisions in our life. Should I take this job or that job? Should I stay here or there? This or that? Now, we all have to take decisions in our life. And what is the right course for action for us? That guidance is what Arjuna seeks in the Bhagavad Gita.
And the whole Gita is a guidebook for practical action in the world. So when we want to apply the Gita, the focus has to be on understanding what its essential message is. So Arjuna was broken down at the level of the mind.
And when he’s broken down at the level of the mind, it is at the, it is he needs solace and relief, not at the physical level, but a higher level. Krishna does not tell Arjuna anything about how specifically to fight the war. There is no talk about battle strategies.
Some people in today’s world become very uncomfortable when they hear that the Gita is spoken on a battlefield. People are paranoid about religious violence in today’s world. So I have a whole separate class on this.
But essentially, if we look at the Gita, look at its context, the content and the consequence. The context is that the Gita is a part of the Mahabharata where the Pandavas are subjected to one injustice after another, after another, after another. And yet in spite of that, tolerating it all, still they are mocked and disrespected and derided.
And not only that, the atrocious ruler who is so brazen as to want to dishonour a honourable woman publicly, that person is still in rule. And that person cannot be allowed to rule for the well-being of society. So the Bhagavad Gita’s context makes it very clear that war is never the first choice.
The Pandavas try everything to avoid the war. So sometimes you say, I had done everything humanly possible, but it’s not working out. The Pandavas did everything humanly possible and everything divinely possible also.
Krishna himself went to Shantinath and still nothing worked out. So the Bhagavad Gita is not talking about war as a first course of action. It’s not endorsing war per se, just acknowledging that war is unavoidable in certain situations.
But more importantly, if you look at the content, the Bhagavad Gita hardly ever contains, not hardly ever, it doesn’t contain a single description of any war strategy. And even the content, if we see, out of 700 verses, there are barely a dozen verses after the first chapter, which talk about fighting. And the whole 18th chapter, there is no mention of war.
In fact, after the 11th chapter, from the 12th to 18th, the last six chapters, there’s no mention of war at all in the Gita. So the Gita stresses not on the war. Its content is about the right course of action.
And Arjuna, we see the consequence also, Arjuna doesn’t say, I will fight the war in the end. Arjuna says, karishe vachanam tava, I will do your will. So the Gita’s essential message is not the message of violence, nor is the message of silence.
It is a message of transcendence. Transcend the worldly situation and act in a way that is in harmony with God. At that particular time, Arjuna needed to fight.
But fighting is not the message of the Bhagavad Gita, essentially. The message of the Bhagavad Gita is that we should harmonise with God. What is dharma? What is it that we are meant to do? We are meant to act in a mood of loving service towards Krishna.
So if you consider that the way I’m going through this till now is, the Bhagavad Gita is a guidebook for action. And the essential action the Bhagavad Gita tells us is that we are meant to act out of love for Krishna. Then I talked about, so in everything there is a context and there is a content.
Arshila Prabhupada would say there are the principles and there are the details. So the context is important, but the context is important because it tells us about the content. So the Gita is not calling everyone to fight the war.
The context is simply describing what was the time when this happened. The essential content is about dharma, how to act in life. So there are people who sometimes they don’t understand the difference between the content and the context.
So if you are studying the Gita and we get caught in peripherals in the Gita, then we will miss out on its essential message. So what do we mean by peripherals? The Bhagavad Gita describes a setting which is very different from ours. It’s a cultural setting.
So it’s a social setting, intellectual setting which is very different from ours. And we live in today’s world where we are afflicted in various ways. If you look in western religions, the prominent image of God was that of a provider, a cosmic provider.
O father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Give us a daily bread. The Prabhupada appreciated this prayer because at least people are going to God.
But he said this prayer reflects more our love for bread than love for God. So he said if you start getting bread from elsewhere, we’ll stop going to God. And that is what has happened.
More people feel that I can get life’s things without God, then what is the need for God? In the Vedic context there are four purusharthas, dharma, artha, kama and moksha. So Prabhupada writes in the first canto of the Bhagavatam, if people start getting artha and kama without dharma, then they feel dharma is not needed. If they can get wealth and enjoyment without religiosity, they feel what is the need for religiosity? So many people, especially from the time of the German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche and others, they have been predicting the death of God.
In fact, one atheist recently gave a talk, why hasn’t God died till now? So they felt that whatever religion was providing to people, that science and material progress can now provide. So there is no need for God. And therefore religion and God will die.
But curiously, all over the world, religion has shown itself to be remarkably resilient. Many people are still practising religion. But especially in evangelical churches in America, God has been rebranded.
The prominent image of God that emerges is not God as the cosmic provider, but God as the cosmic therapist. You go to God and you’ll become peaceful. Your mental problems will go away.
You’ll be emotionally healed. So the idea is that what is the distress that people are suffering? That is what people need addressing. And the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t have to position God like that.
Actually, Arjuna is already in distress. And Krishna guides Arjuna how to come out of that distress. So the Gita explains that our existence is of three levels.
Body, mind and soul. It’s like we have the hardware, the software and the user in a computer. So today’s science and technology has progressed enormously in terms of improving the hardware, in terms of giving us abandoned facilities at the physical level.
Comforts that were unimaginable even a few hundred years ago are commonplace now. Fast cars, planes, air conditioning and so forth. And although we are so comfortable, somehow at the mental level we are not happy.
We are distressed. So we could say people are comfortably distressed. They are comfortably unhappy.
So why is this happening? Because the Gita says that we need to address all aspects of our being. Arjuna, at the start of the Gita, after he’s asked about, Next verse he says, Krishna, in this situation, no amount of material prosperity will make me happy. नहीं प्रपश्यामे मापनुद्या जे चोकमुच्छोशनमिन्द्रियानाम् अवाप्पे भुमावसप्तनम् रुध्धम् राज्यम् सुराणाम अपिचाधिपत्यम् Even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth or even I win prosperity like that of the king of the heavens, still the grief that is burning me from within will not go away.
So he is talking here that physical prosperity can’t counter mental agony. There are two different levels of reality and there are two different needs. Suppose we are very thirsty and somebody gives us a lot of food.
Eat this chapati, eat this rice, eat this halwa, eat this puri. I want some water. No, eat this chapati, eat this puri.
It all will be delicious, but no amount of food can substitute for the need of water. There are two different needs. So what has happened in today’s world that we have abundantly provided for the physical level, but the mind is distressed.
Now, of course, we may say we are provided at the mental level also. We are provided entertainment. But it’s curious that no matter how much entertainment is being provided, still people are not happy.
That the more entertainment is being provided, the more entertainment is needed. And we consider for the distressed mind, entertainment is like a painkiller. If somebody is sick and in pain, we may give them painkiller and they get some relief.
But it’s temporary. If somebody keeps taking only the painkiller, the result is that the disease keeps growing internally and then they need more and more dosages of painkillers. Because the disease is worsening.
So if you consider entertainment, say among Indians, cricket is immensely popular. In British also, cricket is there. So in the past, cricket means, you know, we had five-day cricket matches.
But now, because it’s five days, it’s very boring. So let’s heighten up. So increase the dose of the painkiller.
We had one-day cricket matches. But then one day also, that also dose is not enough. So increase it further.
Then we had T20 cricket matches. Then they say, okay, this is good, but we want something more. So actually, sometimes there is crossbreeding of plants.
So this plant, look, this fruit looks very good and this fruit tastes very good. So you can crossbreed them so you can get both. So India had two prominent brands of painkillers.
One is cricket and the other is Bollywood. So about a decade ago, both of them got married. And their child was IPL.
So it’s all about trying to provide more and more entertainment. Now there is a proposal that they want to have T10 cricket. These 10 over matches.
Why? Because it’s painkiller. No matter how much you have, it’s not enough. Now when people go to watch movies, most of the time they take something like popcorn to eat over there.
Now why is that? It’s not that three hours is unbearably long time. It’s not that you would starve in three hours. But the whole idea is everything on the movie screen is imagined.
Something has to be real. So the point is that actually for the mind, entertainment doesn’t offer anything lasting. It offers some relief, but it is temporary.
What we need for getting internal relief is not entertainment, but enlightenment. So Arjuna is telling I can get many, many physical facilities for enjoyment. But that’s not going to be enough.
What I need is Prachamitvam Dharmasamodh Chita. I want to know who I am. I want to know what is the purpose of my life.
I want to know what am I meant to do in life. Life gives us problems to everyone. Actually problems is not something that anyone likes.
But we all can bear problems and pains if they are purposeful. You can see they are serving some purpose. If we have some disease and doctor tells us take an injection.
Then we will voluntarily go and put our hand in front and take the injection. But if we are at home and somebody has just kept a needle carelessly and our hand rubs against it and it bleeds. We have no idea why do you keep it like this.
Now actually the prick might exactly be the similar. But here this prick seems purposeless. Whereas that prick was purposeful.
So problems are not essentially the problem. Problem is something which everyone goes through. But when the problem is purposeful and through that problem something is going to result.
We see that it has some purpose to it. Then the problems become bearable. Unfortunately in today’s world it doesn’t tell us about any ultimate purpose of life.
And when we are not told any ultimate purpose that doesn’t mean that we live purposelessly. We all set up our own purposes. We say oh I want to become an engineer.
I want to become a doctor. I want to become a millionaire. I want to become this.
I want to become that. It’s good to have goals. It’s good to have some direction and ambition in life.
However these goals they have two problems with this. When you set up purpose like this the first problem is some of these purposes may just not be achievable. Somebody wants to become a champion athlete and they get a physical injury by which they just can’t do it.
They can no longer be an athlete after that. And secondly these purposes are many times not really fulfilling. Even after we get them.
What next? When people dream about achieving this, achieving that, achieving that. When Sri Prabhupada came to America the hippies were a peculiar generation of people who from birth had everything that most people dream about. Their parents were wealthy, they were comfortable and they had all those things.
They felt what’s more in life. So when we set up our own subjective goals in life they may give us some drive. But they won’t provide us fulfilment even if we achieve them.
About 25 years ago when I first was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita. Some devotee asked how did you come to Krishna Consciousness? Well actually I have not yet come to Krishna Consciousness. I’m still struggling to.
But I did come to the Association of Devotees and that was because I was frustrated with success. I was frustrated with success means that since my childhood my dream was I wanted to be a topper. And I was always among the toppers.
Second, third, fourth, sometimes joint first but never the first. So all the exams that I gave somehow I never came the first. So that was my dream all the time.
And finally during my engineering I appeared for GRE for going to America. My maternal uncle used to live in America and he had his own company. He wanted me to come and inherit that company.
So I gave my GRE and since my childhood I loved English. One of my hobbies was just I would pick up dictionary and memorise words. So for most Indians it is the English language test that they find difficult.
So when I gave my GRE, I got at that time 2350 out of 2400. So I was not just first in my college. I was first in the history of my college.
I was first in the whole state of Maharashtra. And when I got the results, I was like yahoo. I was elated.
But after some time I realised that there is no happiness in looking at the mark sheet. It is when people congratulate you. Oh you have done so well.
Then you feel some happiness. Now somehow it happened that three of my friends, one after another after another, forgot to congratulate me. It was not that they were ill-intentioned.
Everybody knows about it. Everybody is congratulating you. They just overlook it.
And first time it happened, I was annoyed. Second time it happened, I was irritated. Third time I was infuriated.
How can you do this? Then suddenly it was as if I had an out-of-body experience. Not literally, but looking at myself from above. Wait a minute.
I studied so hard. I got these marks. I thought all this was supposed to make me happy.
But instead of becoming happy, I have become more dependent for my happiness on others. Earlier I could just meet others and interact normally. But now when I meet them, unless they appreciate me, there is no happiness.
So I said something is missing here. That tomorrow I might give another exam. I might crack it again.
But again the same thing will repeat. So is there some happiness which is not dependent on externals? That was the question that made me enquire about spirituality. That’s how I discovered the Bhagavad Gita.
In the Bhagavad Gita, 6th chapter, 22nd verse, Krishna says, yam labdha cha param labham manyatena adhikam tatha yasmin sthito dhukta khena gurunapi vichalyate He says, yam labdha, having achieved this, there is nothing more to achieve. Yasmin sthito, and being situated in this way, no distress will trouble you. This I felt was the real achievement.
And what is this yam labdha Krishna is talking about? He is talking about inner absorption in him. When we have love for Krishna and we become absorbed in him, then that gives us a happiness that is supremely fulfilling and that happiness is inalienable. Nothing external can take it away from us.
So sometimes we feel frustrated because our desires have not been fulfilled. And this frustration because of unfulfilled desires, the frustration because of unfulfilled desires is distressing. But even more disorienting is the frustration after the fulfilment of desires.
So if I dream of something and if I get it, and after getting it, there is nothing great about it. So what am I to do in my life after that? I dream, oh, I will achieve this. I want to climb on this Mount Everest and plant my victory flag over there.
You climb up the Mount Everest, about to plant the victory flag and you find there is a big valley over there and you sink into that. So we achieve success and if at that time we find it’s not really all that fulfilling. This is not what it was all made out to be.
So that can be very disorienting. So for many people, when they achieve the success and they find it is not fulfilling, then they simply set up another goal at the same level. There is a rat race in society today.
And the problem with the rat race is not that all of us have to keep racing so fast. The problem with the rat race is that even if we win the rat race, we still remain rats. That nothing essentially changes.
When Arjuna says that even if I achieve heavenly prosperity, I’m not going to be happy. My grief is not going to go away. What is he saying? That actually the emptiness which is inside me cannot be filled by external possession.
So the mind needs some higher shelter. There are different needs for different aspects. Just like food and water are two distinct needs.
Similarly, we have a physical side, we have a mental side and we have a spiritual side. Physical side needs are to be taken care of. The mental side, our mind, its ultimate need is an enduring source of happiness.
An enduring source of peace, an enduring source of joy. And the Bhagavad Gita tells us that enduring source of peace and joy is Krishna. If you look at our own lives, our greatest need is not just food or clothing or shelter.
These are important, they are necessary, no doubt. But there is a difference between the necessities of life and the purpose of life. There is a difference between the necessities of life and the purpose of life.
What is the difference? Necessities are what we live with. Purpose is what we live for. If the necessities are not there, it is a problem.
If food is not there, it leads to distress. I was in America and there was one social justice activist who had come there. He was a humanitarian worker and he was saying, so many people are starving, what is the use of discussing this spirituality business? I said, yes, we are also working to help starving people.
We have midday meal, we have food for life programmes. But at the same time, let’s turn your argument around. If starvation is the cause of distress, are all the world’s well-fed people happy? No.
The well-fed people have their own problems. So food is a necessity and there is no denying that it is a necessity. Money is a necessity in life.
But the necessities of life are not the purpose of life. Not having necessity causes distress. But having the necessity doesn’t bring happiness.
Having the necessity, okay, it brings some temporary relief from distress, which you may call as happiness. But after some time, what next? If I’m hungry, I need food. And when I get food, I feel relief.
I may even feel joy. But what next? I want more. So the same people who say that, oh, you know, you should feed the poor people.
You should do this. Why do you do that? In India, a few years ago, there was a couple of movies, just satirical about religion. There was OMG and there was PK.
So I wrote books about responding to the questions that were raised in those movies. So OMG, re-answering the questions and GK for PK. So GK was three levels, general knowledge, God knowledge and Gita knowledge.
So the questions that were raised in the movie PK, I’ve answered over there. So but one point is that they say, you know, poor people are starving and still you want to go and worship God and spend so much money on God and do so much religious stuff. Well, OK, poor people are starving.
But then why are you making a movie about it and getting people to pay money for the movie instead of paying money for the movie, let people go and use that money for feeding the starving people. You don’t do that. So the same people who talk about poverty stricken people being afflicted, they are ready to spend phenomenal amount of money for fulfilling their perceived need for entertainment.
The amount of money that is spent on IPL, the whole business, that money can feed every single starving Indian for an entire year. Why not stop IPL and do that? They don’t do that because if you know entertainment is a need and it has to be fulfilled. So the point I am making here is that we all have different needs and there are some things like there’s a necessity of life, but the necessity is not the purpose of life.
We may say entertainment is also necessary. Life is so stressful. I need some break.
Fine. Entertainment is a necessity. But again, entertainment is not the purpose of life.
What is the purpose of life? That purpose is what the Bhagavad Gita tells us. The Bhagavad Gita tells us that we are souls who are eternal parts of God and the soul longs for love. The soul longs for happiness.
So the mind, its most fundamental need is a satisfying object of thought. In today’s situation, today’s world, the mind doesn’t have any satisfying object of thought. There are so many objects which are titillating.
They promise pleasure, but actually they end up causing more agitation. So we want some pleasure, most of the entertainment. I get some pleasure by the entertainment, but the problem is in that entertainment, usually there is a lot of sensuality depicted, a lot of worldliness depicted and all that increases the lust, the anger, the greed within us.
And it ends up making our mind more restless. During that time we may enjoy, but actually what happens, the forces that agitate the mind, they increase even more. And if we think of ourselves, if I am distressed, this thought is causing me distress, what can I think about which will free me from the distress? If we are cold, we may put a comforter around us.
If we are distressed at the level of the mind, what will we do? We will try to think of something which will free us from distress. But is there any object of thought that actually enduringly frees us from distress? Entertainment, it acts like a painkiller. It does, oh I have this problem in office, this problem at home, this problem here, this problem there.
But what after that? I watch the entertainment for some time. After I come back, all the problems are still there and the mind is further fuelled with agitation. I was at a mental health care centre in America, New Jersey.
And there I was talking to those mental health care providers and one of them was telling that how people are so emotionally vulnerable in today’s world. We all want some shelter, some satisfaction and we all set up some purpose for our life. So he was telling, so the one person there was a suicide intervention counsellor.
If somebody is about to commit suicide, then the suicide helpline, they call. And they hear something sensible, something inspiring, they may not commit suicide. So he was telling me, he was, this girl called him.
She actually committed suicide and then called him. Not that, she took the poison pills and then she called him. Fortunately, there was an ambulance nearby, they took the ambulance and she survived.
So they found out, why did she call, why did she try to commit suicide? That she was in a relationship with a boy and she called this boy. And that boy didn’t pick up her phone. And just because of that, she committed suicide.
And you say, what is this? Why? Because so many times you don’t pick up her phone. But what happened was, inside her mind, there is a whole story going on. Maybe he doesn’t pick up the phone because he doesn’t love me.
Maybe he’s with someone else. Maybe he has left me. And maybe in future also people will leave me.
Maybe I’ll always be alone. All my friends will be in happy relationships. I’ll be alone.
They’ll all have pity on me. What is the use of being in such a pitiable life? Better let me end my life. So from one stimulus of just an unanswered phone call, one can attempt suicide.
So what has happened over here, that this person, this girl, she had made the purpose of her life having a relationship. And when that, having a relationship with this boy, when that purpose is thwarted, what is the point of life? So I talked about when we set up a subjective purpose for ourselves. One problem is that that purpose may not fulfil us even if the purpose is fulfilled.
Say I may become a topper, but I find it’s not fulfilled. The other problem is sometimes that purpose may not be fulfilled below. I want a relationship with someone, but that person doesn’t want a relationship.
What do we do with that? So when we make our own subjective purposes, the driving purpose of our life, the defining purpose of our life, sometimes some purpose may just not be fulfilled. That’s just the way the world is. So that’s why we can set up our own purposes, our own goals in life, but we need an overarching purpose of life.
And that overarching purpose is love for Krishna. When we learn to practise bhakti and focus our heart and soul on Krishna, fix our mind on Krishna, Krishna is the supremely satisfying object of thought. When we fix our mind on Him, whatever situation we are in, we can be peaceful, we can be joyful, we can be purposeful.
mat chittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi mat-prasādāt tariśyase Krishna’s relating point of view in the Bhagavad Gita. If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. So the essential message of the Bhagavad Gita is that learn to fix your mind on Krishna.
Fixing the mind on Krishna doesn’t mean that you just forget everything else and think about Krishna. It means that whatever we do, we infuse it with the thought of Krishna. I’ll conclude with this point, then you can have questions if there are any.
Vishwanath Chakrathakur explains that what does thinking about Krishna always mean? He says, suppose there is a person who has a job which takes them away from their home. They are staying at a different place. And when they are staying away from their home and their family, they may be involved in their business, they may be dealing with different customers, different clients, talking this, talking that, sealing this deal, persuading this.
Externally they are doing all those things. But internally they are thinking, I’m doing all this for my family. My spouse, my children are there.
I’m doing all this for them. So he says, similarly, a devotee engages in various activities in the world. But devotee internally understands, I’m doing all this for Krishna.
So that internal connection with Krishna is what gives us security. So the process of Bhakti Yoga does involve chanting the holy names, coming in the association of devotees, hearing about Krishna. All this is meant to establish a strong internal connection with Krishna within us.
And when Krishna becomes the overarching purpose of our life, then whatever else we do, okay, I’m in this relationship, but I’m in this relationship not just for this relationship. I’m in this relationship because through this relationship I want to serve Krishna. Now I’m a husband, I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I’m a father, I’m a son, I’m a daughter.
All these relationships are important. But they are all means by which I can serve Krishna. We all have different careers.
All these careers are ways by which I can use my God-given abilities for doing a positive contribution. So they are also ways in which I can serve Krishna. So if in a particular career or in a particular relationship, some obstacle comes up, then we won’t get totally devastated by that.
Because yes, this particular purpose is not being fulfilled. But my long-term purpose, my ultimate purpose is to serve Krishna. Even if this doesn’t work out, let me move on.
Bhakti is not just about chanting Hare Krishna or coming to a temple. Bhakti essentially is about reconceptualising our identity and our purpose. Reconceptualising our identity and our purpose.
It means I understand first and foremost, I’m a servant of Krishna. My purpose is to serve Krishna. Secondarily, as a servant of Krishna, I may be an engineer, I may be a husband, I may be a wife, I may be this, I may be that.
These are all roles in the service of Krishna. Because they are in the service of Krishna, I will do them responsibly. But they don’t define me.
When the mind has this overarching purpose, then the mind becomes peaceful. Then the mind becomes joyful because it stays connected with Krishna. So Arjuna, at the start of the Gita, he was defining himself as a member of the Kuru dynasty.
You see, how can I fight against them? And that caused my identity crisis because if I don’t fight against them, then they are going to kill my other family members. If I fight against them, then I’m going to kill these family members. So as long as his identity was, I’m a member of the Kuru dynasty, his purpose was, okay, I should protect the Kurus.
But which set of Kurus to protect now? But then the Bhagavad Gita reconceptualised his identity and purpose. Bhagavad Gita told him, Arjuna, your identity is you’re a stone, part of Krishna. Your purpose is to serve Krishna.
And in serving Krishna, you’ll do best benefit to both the sides. So when we thus reconceptualise our identity and purpose, then we will find that the Bhagavad Gita’s message is dramatically empowering. It can help us to face difficulties which normally we would find very difficult to face.
It can give us a sense of purpose and energy which no other goal can give us. Krishna Prabhupada was 70. 69, at that age, he went abroad.
Most people, they set some goals in life. When a child is small, they say, I want to become the president of America. And then the child goes, okay, you know, I’m a citizen of UK or India, I can’t become the president of America.
Okay, then I want to become the wealthiest person in my country. Then, as life starts, keeps beating them, beating them. Yeah, I want to become the wealthiest person in my family.
By the time they graduate, if I just get a job, that is good. So what happens, life’s reversals, they keep beating us down. Krishna Prabhupada had so many reversals.
He tried to start multiple businesses, none of them worked out. He tried to write a Bhagavad Gita and somebody just disposed of his Bhagavad Gita as garbage. He tried to run the back to Godhead magazine and nobody was interested.
A cow came and hit him and knocked him down. He tried to start a league of devotees. He just couldn’t.
Because the very people who were supporting him turned against him and evicted him from that place. He tried to work with his Godbrothers, but they had no vision. They did not give him any scope to expand the outreach.
Finally, when nothing in his life had worked out, he said that I want to go to America. Sumati Moharaj ji, who was Sindhia Steamship owner, she sponsored Prabhupada to go there. She told, Swamiji, you are so old and America is so cold.
How will you live there? But Prabhupada said, nothing is going to happen. I am going there for fulfilling the mission of my spiritual master. So Prabhupada, he had this tireless energy because his purpose was to serve Krishna.
And eventually Krishna reciprocated by giving him extraordinary results. So that energy which enabled Arjuna to pick up his bow and become ready to fight, that energy is available to each one of us if we internalise the message of the Gita. Life will give us adversities.
But if we have our spirituality strong, then we will get energy that is beyond adversity. We will get a purpose that the world can never thwart. We will get an identity that the world can never steal from us.
And ultimately, we will get a joy that nothing can ever match with, nothing can ever take away from us. So I’ll summarise. I spoke today about understanding, applying the Gita’s essential message.
So I discussed, the Gita is essentially telling us, learn how to act. Karya karyavastu. Arjuna also asks, what is duty? Prichyamitvam dharmasamodh cheta.
I said, before we can learn, before we play our part in a play, we need to understand which play we are a part of. So we all have set up a play in our mind. We have adopted identity and we have given ourselves a purpose.
And that is the play. This world is a play in which I want to be an engineer. I want to be a doctor.
I want to be this. I want to be that. But that is not who we essentially are.
Our existence is three dimensional, body, mind and soul. So modern science and technology has progressed substantially to provide us comforts at the physical level. And while people thought that, some sceptics and atheists thought that God and religion will die out and science provide whatever God is providing.
But what it turned out is, science and technology are not able to provide us inner relief. And that’s why God is now re-conceptualised, not as a cosmic provider, but as a cosmic therapist. But the mind also is provided for in today’s world through entertainment.
But although people are ready to pay huge amounts for entertainment, still they’re not peaceful. They’re not joyful. Entertainment is like a painkiller.
The more we take it, the more we need it. So what is the real medicine? It’s not entertainment, but enlightenment. What does enlightenment mean? It means understanding our identity and our purpose.
So today’s education does not give us any ultimate purpose for our life. You choose your purpose. But the problem with a self-assigned purpose is twofold.
Sometimes some purpose is just not fulfillable. Life may frustrate us. And then we just don’t know what am I living for.
Like a person who thinks this relationship is my whole life. That relationship gets frustrated and we become suicidal. Or sometimes we set up a purpose, we achieve it, but then it turns out to be unfulfilling.
So frustration because of unfulfilled desires is distressing. But far more disorienting is the frustration that comes after the fulfilment of desire. Like I became a topper, but I found nothing great about it.
So our self-assigned purposes, they can either sometimes not be fulfilled or sometimes they may not provide fulfilment. So we need to know what is the overarching purpose of life beyond our subjective purposes. And that the Bhagavad Gita says is that we are souls who are parts of Krishna.
And our innermost need is for a connection with Krishna. The mind needs most a satisfying object of thought. Enlightenment provides some titillation.
But by infusing us with lust, anger and greed, it actually increases our agitation. So it is not the solution. Enlightenment means that we understand that Krishna is our Lord.
We are meant to fix ourselves on Him, consciousness on Him. So when we re-conceptualise our identity, first and foremost, I am a servant of Krishna. Then I may be a husband, a wife, an engineer, a doctor, whatever else.
And our purpose, first and foremost, is to serve Krishna. And through our profession, through our career, through our relationships, they are all meant to be in the service of Krishna. So even if a particular identity is threatened, a particular purpose is thwarted, still our eternal identity and eternal purpose stay with us.
And thus when we connect with Krishna based on our eternal identity and eternal purpose, then that gives us a peace and a joy that nothing in the world can ever steal away from us. That can give us energy that can help us to overcome whatever obstacles may come our way. Arjuna was overwhelmed at the level of the mind.
And he told at the physical level, I can’t be satisfied. No matter how much I gain, just like if you get food, but you need water, it won’t work. So what Arjuna was given was the vision of devotion.
And he picked up his bow with readiness to fight. Similarly, Prabhupada, by his devotional identity and purpose, was able to overcome extraordinary obstacles and work tirelessly, even his old age, to share Krishna’s message all over the world. And whatever adversities we may have, if we have spirituality strong within us, then we will get the purpose by which we can go beyond all adversities.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes.
Thank you very much. Especially over the last few years, we hear a lot of, what is the Krishna consciousness? What is the Krishna consciousness? Obviously, we want to work to please Krishna, but something may not be within the purview of our karma. And I guess we can’t use Prabhupada’s example, because Prabhupada was a pure devotee, and he was directly in contact with Krishna.
So Krishna was reciprocating with Prabhupada. But in our case, it’s not the case. How do we know when we are over-endeavouring? Okay, good question.
So when we also want to achieve something in our life for pleasing Krishna, but when do we know that we are over-endeavouring? Some self-help teachers tell us that you can just achieve whatever you want if you set your mind on it. Prabhupada defines intelligence in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita purport that intelligence means to see things in their proper perspective. So yes, we want to achieve a particular thing in our life.
It’s a deeply held dream. We can pursue that. But if pursuing that means that I’m disrupting and destroying everything else in my life, I’m losing my sense of perspective, and it may not be so feasible.
In India, many people dream of going to IIT. And yes, you can study and go for IIT. If they don’t clear for one year, they may give again another year.
But suppose somebody spends 10 years trying to get into IIT itself. Well, IIT itself is 4 years. You spend 10 years in getting into that, that’s not worth it.
So if you have a sense of perspective, then we can decide that, okay, I tried to do this, and I tried as much as I could in the situation, and it’s not worked out. Okay, let me try something else. Even Srila Prabhupada was fixed in purpose, but flexible in process or flexible in practise.
His purpose was to serve Krishna, share Krishna’s message. But he tried so many things. Sorry, I just wanted to add something extra bit.
So the other point that a lot of motivational speakers would say, someone like JK Rowling, who wrote one of the most famous book, Harry Potter. So she wrote so many novels that were a failure. But on like the 13th attempt, it became a success.
So how would we be able to explain that? I got the question. Yeah. So if somebody says famous authors, they wrote again and again, and then they got success eventually.
So I would say that there is, there are multiple definitions of success. If we do something, which is according to our innate nature. Some people, a person is a Brahmana.
They are intellectual. They need to do intellectual work. And any endeavour that we do, we want results in it.
It is just natural, human nature. But there are some endeavours, we just do them because we like them. So when we act according to our nature, then we want the result, but even doing it gives happiness.
And then if we are doing it and not getting some result, but if we just take the world out of the equation, say I’m doing this, I’m happy doing this. Say there are some people who just love writing. And when author writes, he says, my joy is not in being read.
My joy is in writing. But we start comparing with the world. Oh, this person, this author, this many books are sold.
This author, this many books are sold. Oh, my books are not sold enough. Then they get insecurity.
But if there is something which is overall in harmony with our nature, then just doing it gives satisfaction. And then if you keep persevering, eventually the result will also come. So here, when to persevere and when to change track? To understand that, I would say there are probably three factors.
First is, why am I doing this? Is it because the world glamorises this and therefore I think I should also do this? Everybody says, oh, a person who becomes an IIT graduate, everybody praises them so much, they get so much prestige. So I want to do it. So if my inspiration or motivation for doing this is more external than internal, it is not that I personally love being an engineer, but I like the glamour of it all.
And if that is not working out, then I might decide, okay, this is not really needed for me. So we can look for where that goal has come from. Has it come from outside in or has it come from inside out? Inside out means that this is what we feel happy doing, even if we don’t get the result.
We naturally would like to have the result. But some jobs, if we work according to our nature, we just love doing them. So we look at where the whole desire has come from.
Second is, while doing it, while pursuing it, am I happy or am I getting irritated because I don’t get it? Suppose there are two kids, their mother is going to take them out to a circus. And it’s a two-hour drive to go to that fair or circus or Disneyland or whatever, amusement park. And one kid, he’s just constantly peering out of the window, looking at the wall, asking, are we there? Are we there? Are we there? The other kid wants to enjoy the ride also.
Look at this garden, look at this mountain, look at this. Now, after one hour of travel, they come to a place where there’s a complete traffic jam. Just can’t go ahead.
Now for the kid whose whole purpose is only to go to the amusement park, the whole trip is a waste. For the other kid, oh, I enjoyed the ride. So similarly, for us, if the goal is external, if the goal is only externally driven, then we don’t enjoy the ride at all.
Because our whole purpose is getting there. And then if we are not able to get there, we become irritable, we start blasting others, we start criticising others. We, we can’t be peaceful ourselves.
With respect to Srila Prabhupada, even when he was, he had no success, when people met him in America, the hippies, they said, he was happy. It’s not that all the reversals and the, we could say, failures that he got, they made him bitter. He’s happy serving Krishna.
So we can look at where that, where that ambition has come from. We can look at our own disposition while we are pursuing that. And thirdly, we can look at our own endeavour.
That means that sometimes we may say, oh, destiny is, this is because of, this is not meant to be. But we also have to check whether we are doing things right. Maybe something I can improve, something I can tweak.
I can do this, I can do that. And if we find that within the situation, I have endeavoured enough and somehow it’s not working out. Then we may decide that, OK, this is not what I want to pursue.
But sometimes with respect to writing, it’s that, OK, one character, one character doesn’t catch the people’s imagination. Another character might catch people’s imagination. So it’s that, it’s not that the endeavour is lacking.
It’s just that creativity has to come at a particular time. So we may say keep trying, but it is not necessary that keep trying means just keep doing the same thing again and again. To tweak, you know, maybe I need to try this, maybe I need to try that, maybe I need to try that.
So if we look at where the ambition comes from, we look at what is our disposition while we are pursuing it. And we look at our endeavour, how we are, what we are doing to improve ourselves. Then based on that, we can decide whether this is something which I need to persevere or I need to change course.
OK, thank you. Yes, yes. OK, so could it be that one’s belief system is holding one back from succeeding in life? Could be.
It’s one thing, however, many of these self-help books, they often make the mind into God. The mind into God means if you just have the power of intention, you can achieve anything in life. Now, the scientific worldview was very reductionistic and it removed the mind from the picture.
Let’s talk about the world of physical interactions. But the mind and its attitudes play a huge factor in endeavours working out. So in many self-help books, they go to the other extreme.
These make the mind into God. But the mind is not God. Sometimes we may endeavour to the best of our capacity, but it may just not work out.
If I decide I’m not going to grow old, they say old age is just a state of the mind. Well, yes, old age is a state of the mind. If I think I’m old, I’m old, I’m old, I’ll become sickly.
But old age is also a fact of life. What I could do at the age of 30, I cannot do at the age of 70. Now, if I’m always thinking I’m 70, 70, 70, then I will not even be able to do what I could do at 70.
So it is old age is a state of mind, but old age is also a fact of life. So the reality is not just a state of the mind. There is a state of the mind and there is a fact of life.
Both you have to consider. So sometimes it could be the state of the mind which is impeding us. And if that is the case, I need to do some introspection to find out what exactly am I thinking.
So generally, if you have a spiritual self-understanding that I’m a soul, I’m a part of Krishna and ultimately Krishna has put me in this place and let me do the best that I can. So that connection with Krishna can help us to overcome many of the negative belief systems that are there within us. But it is not always that.
It’s only the belief system that holds us back. So sometimes the results depend on factors beyond our control. I was just in Canada fortnight ago in Calgary and there the whole economy has gone down because everything was dependent on oil and oil prices have crashed.
And they say in Canada that if somebody sneezes in America, someone gets a cold in Canada. That’s how the two economies are dependent on each other. So now it’s just that so many people lost their jobs and it’s not a matter of belief system.
It’s just the economy has gone down. So yes, even that time one can have a positive attitude and persevere. But certain things may not work out.
So there is the mind is a reality and the state of the mind does have a real effect. The attitudes within the mind do matter and cultivating a positive attitude is very helpful. It’s vital also, but it alone does not determine the result.
There are factors beyond the mind which also shape the results. And sometimes we just understand, OK, this is not meant to be. And we move on to some other course in our life.
OK, thank you. Yes. So just on that point as well, so there’s over-endeavouring and then how do we relate that to quota? So it could be one could be over-endeavouring in certain aspects, but then when do you know when the quota is enough? OK, so the Ishwapanishad talks about you should not endeavour for more than your quota.
So how do we know what is our quota? Actually, take what is ordained for you. Don’t take more than that. The quota is not something which is a which is a pre-fixed thing.
It’s like food. Now, how much food is the right quantity for us? Can we standardise? Everybody should eat three chapatis. Well, somebody might be satisfied with one chapati only and somebody might eat ten chapatis.
The important thing is not how many chapatis one eats, but important thing is what one does after eating. So if after eating we get the energy to do a lot of good amount of work, that is good. But after eating, we are so tired that it takes energy just to digest the food and you can’t do anything else.
Then maybe that’s over-eating. So basically, how do we know what is the right quantity of food for us? The food doesn’t become a competitor to our normal work. If I eat too less, then what happens? When I’m doing some work, I’m thinking, I need to eat more, I need to eat more, I need to eat more.
Conversely, if I eat too much, then again I can’t work. I just feel like sleeping or then I start developing a craving. And when will I get more? When will I get more? When will I get more? So the right quantity, Only one who can become a yogi who doesn’t eat too much or too little also.
So basically, with respect to wealth, with respect to position in society, with respect to possessions, we all have a natural aspiration to grow. And growth is just a normal condition of life. All of us were unicellular organisms in our mother’s womb.
Now we are just big people. So the body grows. But there is also a growth that is disastrous.
And that is the growth of cancer. Cancer cells also grow, but when they grow, they destroy everything around them. So there is proportionate growth that is healthy.
And there is disproportionate growth that is disastrous. So if we are pursuing, say, success in our career, improvement of our finances, our position in society, if that growth is proportionate, means that growth is accompanied, we are having good relationships, we are maintaining good health, we are having time for our spirituality, and it’s a proportionate growth, that is good. But if one thing becomes everything, Krishna says, when we make one thing into everything, that is characteristic of the mode of ignorance.
So work is something which you all have to do. But workaholism is where work becomes everything for the person. So broadly speaking, if whatever we are pursuing, it doesn’t compete with other important things in our life, and it leads to proportionate growth, then we can say that’s within our quota.
But if we are pursuing one thing, we start ruining our relationships, we start ruining our health, we start ruining our spirituality, then that is where we are going beyond our quota. Thank you. Yes? Welcome, yeah.
We develop more and more love towards Krishna, but we actually become increasingly more compassionate. Because, you know, and also, you know, we have Narasimha Kaur says, So actually, you know, the thing is, is that we have this discussion about, you know, we have to link to Krishna, and it builds up to kind of like, you know, that philosophy is not the answer to actually bringing that satisfaction. But when you actually come closer to Krishna, actually you become more compassionate.
So I just wanted to kind of really draw you out on that point, that actually what’s happening is, is that if you go to India today, you go to Vrindavan, there are a lot of temples which are just criminal based. It’s a huge income source. People are going to Banke Bihari temple.
There’s buckets and buckets. It’s kind of like the fifth wealthiest temple in the whole of Vrindavan. And yet Vrindavan is in, I think, the most sorry state.
And devotees, even devotees, we go to Vrindavan, and we go and buy all these plastic things, like clippers and God knows what else, and that is directly fuelling pollution into the Yamuna river. And we, because we are Krishna conscious, we want to do everything, you know, putting Krishna first. We’re going there, we’re doing all these things, and there’s no consciousness behind it.
So that’s actually a big problem, not just with a lot of things, but within our own kind of movements of devotees and things as well, is that we have to be more introspective on what the actual teachings are and reflect on how that is. Because another thing is we’re not a Hindu movement either. You know, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu comes to save people who are really fallen.
Nityananda Prabhu, Jagannatha, they are like, you know, completely, by that time, outcast by society. And there’s no caste in Bhakti also. Whereas this kind of whole idea of like, oh, developing philanthropy and everything… Just help me process what you’re saying.
Can you just put it into context? Yeah, to put it into context is that you mentioned that, you know, actually, a lot of these people are out there doing this work of philanthropy, self-help, guidance, all of these things. But the idea is to culminate all of these things and come to Krishna consciousness. But what I’m also trying to add to that, what I’m trying to draw you out in this argument, is that actually when you become more Krishna conscious, you actually become even more conscious of everything connected to Krishna.
And it’s there in the Isha Vasha principle. OK, good point. So that we may at one level minimise or say that philanthropy is not the answer or say environmental consciousness or self-help is not the answer.
But at the same time, when we become conscious of Krishna, then we become conscious of all these and we do this also. Yeah, that’s true. There is basically two ways of looking at these activities.
If we consider self-help, if we consider environmental friendliness, eco-friendliness or we consider philanthropy. Now, broadly speaking, we could say that these three involve some amount of the mode of goodness. To think about the environment, to think about people who are starving and to think about one’s inner world, not just chasing, chasing, chasing out there.
Think about it. It requires some level of goodness. And for people who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, to be introspective enough to think about goodness, it is good.
So I would say the green consciousness, the vegan movement, the whole culture of yoga in the West, all these are signs of the mode of goodness coming up within the West also. So this is positive. So now both the Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad Gita are spoken in a context where the student or the candidate is being raised from goodness to pure goodness.
Arjuna is in goodness. He is told to rise to pure goodness. Parikshit Maharaj is already a virtuous person.
But he is told now just give up everything and focus on Krishna. So because that is the original context in which these books are spoken, so often the limitations of goodness are what are highlighted. But goodness also has its strengths.
And they are also highlighted in other parts of scripture. So for example, if you consider philanthropy, Maharaj Shibi, Maharaj Nantidev, they are ready to sacrifice their own food to give it to others. So it’s not that that is wrong.
It is just that if there is a competition between goodness and pure goodness, between philanthropy and Krishna, then we will choose Krishna. But however, it doesn’t have to be like that all the time. We can have Krishna and have philanthropy.
We can say Krishna is philanthropy. We can Krishna is self-help. We can Krishna is environment-friendly consciousness.
And if we do that, it’s very powerful. When Shila Prabhupada appeared here in the West, the whole mood was revolution. Just reject everything and just strive for something else.
The hippies, it was said, they were rebels without a cause and rebels without a cause. It’s rebelling against everything. But Prabhupada gave them a philosophical direct orientation for the rebellion.
Yes, all this is in substantial surrender to Krishna. In today’s world, the mood is not of revolution. In today’s world, the mood is of contribution.
Okay, you have your ideology, you have your philosophy, you have your spirituality. What does it contribute to my life? What does it contribute to the world? Tell me that. So that’s why in today’s world, if we want to communicate with people, we cannot use that revolution or rejection model.
We need to have engaged spirituality. So as you rightly said, when you talk about spirituality, our spirituality should actually make us more inclusive, not more exclusive. So it’s not sometimes many devotees feel we are surrendered to Krishna or we are surrounding Krishna and everybody else is in Maya.
So we live in what you could call as self congratulatory isolation. We pat ourselves on the back. We are devotees and everybody else is non-devotee.
Now, we may be devotees, but actually we may be functioning in the modes of passion or ignorance. And there will be people who are not devotees, but they may be in goodness. So they may be actually from the functional way of living in the world.
They may be more green, environmental conscious. They may be more conscious about other people’s sufferings. And they may be more actually trying to help people.
Now, we may know how best to help people, but we have to do our part. So, yes, whichever field we are in, we need to infuse Krishna consciousness in it. Having said that, we all have our particular inspirations within bhakti.
The bhakti umbrella is very, very big. So that means some devotees may have a zeal for environmental consciousness and they spiritualise it. Some devotees may have a zeal for philanthropy.
Some devotees may have a zeal for self-help and that kind of thing. Now, all this is good. All this is where you can spiritualise.
But at the same time, we have to understand that these are particular applications of bhakti. And not everyone will be equally inspired to do that. So, for some people, the green consciousness doesn’t come in their mind.
It’s not that they are deliberately being irresponsible. It’s just that this doesn’t come in their mind. There’s a difference between being insensitive and being desensitised.
If I want to talk with someone, I’ll tap them on their shoulder. And they’re just not turning around. Tap them again and again.
They’re not turning around because maybe they’re paralysed over there. They don’t feel the touch only. So, insensitive means to not care.
Desensitised means to not have the sensibility to care. So, for example, some people, they may come first time in a kirtan and they may pick up kartal and start playing. Now, they’re musically desensitised.
So, they’re playing all the kartal wrong. And they’re so desensitised that they don’t even know that they’re playing it wrong. And they are in bliss playing kartal and everybody else is in agony.
What are you doing? So, what has happened over here is some people may just be desensitised. So, many times relationship issues come up because we think that somebody is insensitive. But they are simply desensitised.
Some people are very cleanliness conscious. And some people, as soon as they enter a room, it’s like they bring a storm with them. And then you ask them, you know, why do you keep things unclean? Oh, are they unclean? I didn’t notice.
And it’s not that they are irritating us. It’s just that they don’t notice it. Now, this can be worked on and they can try to become more aware.
But for some people, it’s just naturally they are aware of it. I’m a writer and I try to be very careful about words. So, even when I go to a temple, my eyes always go to the notice board and I look for spelling mistakes in notices.
And sometimes, I don’t know, maybe Indians in India, they use English mostly as a functional tool. But often they massacre punctuation. Sometimes I tell them, you know, the spelling is wrong.
Everybody understands. Why don’t you understand? So, rather than correcting it, they just blame me. Why are you so fault-finding? So, what has happened is, for them, that sensibility only is not there.
So, the real challenge in bhakti is that to have a passion in bhakti is good. Not passion in the sense of mode of passion, but passion in the sense of inspiration. To have a passion, you know, I want to make a difference in this field.
I want to contribute in this field. To have a passion is very good. It’s a blessing.
But an equally needed blessing is to not become judgemental about those who don’t have that passion. So, there might be some devotees who would just not be concerned about the world. Just want to come to the temple, chant Hare Krishna and they are just, in a sense, oblivious to what is happening in the world.
We may say that may not be the best devotion, but still they are devotees. They are practising bhakti. Now, if they can be infused with consciousness and other things, that is good.
But if they can’t be, that doesn’t mean that they are bad people. So, we definitely want to educate and have a more engaged version of spirituality for everyone, of bhakti. But some people may just not appreciate that kind of engagement.
So, we let them be. And we need to find out those devotees who are like-minded. And they can understand us, they can share our passion and then our bhakti will flourish.
Even in devotee association, if we don’t get like-minded association, we’ll find even devotee association very unsatisfying. Not just unsatisfying, we’ll find it agitating. So, we need to look for like-minded association and there we will blossom in our bhakti.
Thank you. I’m just conscious of the time. We can stop whenever you want.
We could probably go all night like this. No, not like that. All of you also have to go.
But if there’s one or two questions, we can discuss more. Yeah. Any of the Matajis have questions? I was in America.
So, as a temple, they told me that, you know. After every question for Prabhu, there’s a question for Matajis. So, I have become a little more conscious of that now.
I don’t know how to articulate the question. But the essential question I’m trying to ask is basically, in terms of Brahmins, so, we obviously have, you know, Isfahan is quite a young society, 50 years old. So, we’re kind of only in the second, third or fourth generation.
Going forward, how is it that we recognise what to look for in a Brahmana? Because in my personal experience, and correct me if I’m wrong, I see people who are Brahmanically inclined in the sense of beauty, worship and cleanliness and mode of goodness. But they may not necessarily have the ability to guide or cultivate knowledge. So, I see different qualities in different people.
Sometimes you see all the qualities in one person. So, what is the most important quality for a Brahmana? Is it to be able to guide or is it to be able to be situated in having qualities like mode of goodness? Okay, good question. So, if we want to be Brahmanical and we want to share this movement in future generations also, some people may be Brahmanical through deity worship, but they may not be so much into guiding others.
So, some people may have the capacity to guide. So, what is the kind of Brahmanical leadership that we need? Different people have different natures and each person has to find out how best they can serve Krishna. So, we could say that whether one is Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, we all have particular tendencies.
Some people like structure and order. Some people like adventure and excitement. And not just like in a superficial sense.
That’s their need. Some people just need. How are you going to do this? One, two, three, four.
Just structure and plan everything. Some people, let’s do it. Things will work out.
Now, both people are just different natures. And it’s not that one is right or one is wrong. Those who have structure and order, sometimes they also need some adventure.
And those who have adventure, they also need some structure and order. So, basically, those who need structure and order, they, Brahmanical people who are like that, they will want to do activities which are more orientated with structure and order. So, deity worship.
There is not so much unpredictability in deity worship. But those who are meant to be sharing Krishna Bhakti out in the world, meeting new people, answering questions, facing Karpiyam Puri issues, it’s an adventure. Okay, this issue has come up.
How do you present Krishna Bhakti in this light? So, both kind of people are required and each has to find according to their nature, how best they can serve. Having said that, Sri Prabhupada also stressed that for sharing Krishna Consciousness, we need Brahmanas with a Kshatriya spirit. That means, if somebody is just purely Brahmanical, they will just, they will write books, they will give classes.
Whether people come or not, it’s up to them. There is a famous spiritual teacher who lived in the Himalayas. And somehow one of some prominent people from America, they became his disciple.
They came to know about him, became his disciples. And they made him famous. So, a journalist, this was 1960s, around the time when Prabhupada was there.
So, at that time, a Time Magazine journalist went all the way to the Himalayas to meet him. This is Swami. And he said, you know, you have all this wisdom.
Why don’t you come to the world and share it with others? He replied, right, when a person is thirsty, they go to the river. The river doesn’t come to thirsty person. People who want knowledge, let them come to me.
And that was one attitude. Sri Prabhupada had another attitude. Prabhupada had the mood of Jagannath.
People don’t come to the temple, Jagannath goes out to them. That was the mood of Nithyananda Prabhu also. Go to every people’s house and knock on their doors.
So, now for us, the Brahmana with a Kshatriya spirit means, at one level, we want knowledge. We want to cultivate knowledge and share knowledge. But we also want to make sure that it is reaching others.
And we may have to create the necessary infrastructure by which it will reach others. So, Prabhupada said that Krishna Consciousness Movement is spread by organisation and intelligence. The organisation and intelligence is not the substance of Krishna Consciousness.
But organisation and intelligence is the medium by which Krishna Consciousness will reach others. A simple example is, suppose I come to give a class. But I am so absorbed in my subject that I am not even aware that the mic is working or not.
And the whole audience is straining to hear me. Well, I may be speaking and I may be relishing what I am speaking. But is it reaching others? So, a person who has a mic system is an easy example to understand.
Nobody will be so absorbed. They will not check whether the mic system is working or not. But this is an example.
There is relishing the knowledge. And there is also creating the necessary infrastructure by which knowledge can reach others. And not just knowledge, even culture.
Now, we want to chant and dance. Some devotees may chant and dance Kirtan anywhere. But some devotees need a proper place.
We can do street Kirtans. That is good. But we also need a place, a temple where we can do the Kirtans.
And then for that we have to create a temple. That is the infrastructure which we have to create. So, generally creating infrastructure is a Kshatriya activity.
Sharing knowledge is a Brahmin activity. So, there are both dangers are there that we do focus so much on sharing knowledge that we don’t create an infrastructure. And then people don’t have the system by which, people don’t have a facility where they can actually receive that knowledge.
The other extreme is we get so caught in creating infrastructure that we have no energy left to share knowledge. Many places when I travel, the whole, all the devotees come together and build a big temple with many deities. And then they have such a big loan and they are constantly caught in how to raise money, how to raise money.
But then, one temple leader was telling me that I was doing more teaching and sharing of Krishna Bhakti before the temple was built than after. All the people are coming now to the temple. But now, we just don’t have, we don’t have, we have so much worried about the finances.
So, here what happened? We got so much caught in the infrastructure that the purpose was lost. So, we don’t want to be just Kshatriyas. We don’t want to be just Brahmanas.
We want to be Brahmanas with a Kshatriya spirit. So, what that Kshatriya spirit will mean will vary according to time, place and circumstance. Say for example, in today’s world, a major way to reach people is through online.
Through the internet, through digital media. And then creating a good online presence, that’s infrastructure. I mean, say somebody is a Brahmana, I am not interested in that.
That’s fine, but then it has to be done. That is the language through which people are communicating. So, either we need to have Brahmanas with Kshatriya spirit or we need to have Brahmanas and Kshatriyas working together.
Both understanding their role and cooperating. So, traditionally if you see the world’s religions, how have they spread? It is by this combination of Brahmana and Kshatriya. Buddha was a great teacher, but Buddhism spread when Ashoka took it up.
Till that time it didn’t spread much. Now, Kshatriya was not the person who was sharing the knowledge. Kshatriya was creating the facility for sharing that knowledge.
Even Jesus, he was not so well known during his times. After his crucifixion he became well known. It was only several centuries later when the Roman Empire adapted Christianity.
Then that is the whole Roman Empire’s infrastructure was used for sharing. In Indian history, if you see again, Chanakya was a Brahmana, Chandragupta was a Kshatriya. And they are the people who could say to some extent reinstated, re-established Vedic Dharma in India.
This combination of Brahmana and Kshatriya is required. And if it is in the same person, that is great. If it is not, then there has to be synergistic cooperation with both understanding their roles.
Does this answer your question? So, thank you very much. Shila Prabhupada Ki Jai! Gaur Bhakta Vrinda Ki Jai! Jai Gaur Prananda Ki Jai! It’s great. Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu Ki Jai! I’ve got a really exciting announcement to make.