How to overcome dissatisfaction

[Bhagavatam class at Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
I am sorry all of you had to wait. Actually, the devotee was supposed to come to pick me up. He neither came nor told me.
So, finally I came by some other way. Sorry about that. Now, in this verse, one of the most fundamental sections of the Bhagavatam is being described here.
The chapters 4, 5, 6 of the first canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam describe how the Bhagavatam originated. Jiva Goswami in the Satsang Darbhas says that the Bhagavatam is a very big book and how do we know what is the essence of the Bhagavatam. So, he gives various analytical hermeneutics, analytical logic to explain how to understand the essence of the book.
He says that look at the origin of the book. Where did the book originate from? So, this is one of the originating histories of the book. That Vyasadev compiled all the Vedic literature and still he was not satisfied.
And therefore he spoke the Bhagavatam. Or rather he was told by his spiritual master and he wrote the Bhagavatam thereafter. So, in this sense, this conversation is the seed of the Bhagavatam.
Because in this conversation what was missing in the earlier literature or what was not highlighted in the earlier literature is stressed. And what should therefore be stressed in the Bhagavatam is also stressed. So, now here specifically Vyasadev is contemplating that what is wrong? Vyasadev is dissatisfied.
So, he is dissatisfied even after having done a phenomenal amount of work. The kind of literary work he has done it would put even the best authors of today’s times to shame. Sometimes author writes one book, two books, five books, ten books, twenty books.
Some authors, few authors write maybe hundred books, hundred and fifty books, two hundred books. But what Vyasadev has done is phenomenal amount of writing he has done. The Mahabharata itself is hundred and ten thousand verses which is seven times bigger than the longest two longest poems in world history combined.
The Iliad and Odyssey are considered longest poems and both of them combined together multiplied by seven and still the Mahabharata is longer. So, he has written, done that kind of work and he has done it diligently. In this verse he is saying actually I followed my spiritual guides, I followed my disciplinary vows and still satisfaction is eluding me.
So, through this narrative the Bhagavatam demonstrates very graphically the insufficiency of piety and the necessity of spirituality. Piety refers to what in Sanskrit is called as Punya. Punya is doing good so that we will get good and spirituality is the transcendental level of reality.
So, most people who approach God they do so for utilitarian purposes not transcendental purposes. Utilitarian means what will God provide me? What is there in it for me? Transcendental means, ok, not just what is there in it for me, what is there at the material level of reality? What can God provide me at the material level? Whereas, transcendental means we approach God so that we can attain the spiritual level of reality. So, Krishna comes and plays his flute and he is inviting us just like he played the flute to invite the gopis to come to him.
So, similarly Krishna is playing his flute to invite all of us. But at the level of piety instead of accepting Krishna’s invitation that we come to his abode, we want, Krishna is saying you come to my abode and join my pastimes, participate in my pastimes, assist me in my pastimes. But what we want is Krishna, I want to perform pastimes here you come here and help me in my pastimes.
I want to do this, I want to do that, I have this plan, I have this dream, you fulfil this. So, now this is a utilitarian approach to God, to religion, to devotion. And unfortunately, this is where most people are at.
Of course, no, we would say that most people are in today’s world are going down to even a level below that. So, Prabhupada says that Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. These are four Purusharthas.
So, most people are interested in Artha and Kama. They are interested in money and worldly enjoyment. And if they can get it without Dharma, then they feel what is the need for Dharma? If they can get it without God, what is the need for God? So, many people, atheism and materialism and agnosticism is increasing because people feel that we don’t need God, we can get what we want without Him.
In fact, there is a school of thought which is widely spreading, it is called as apatheism. Apatheism means just don’t care whether God exists or doesn’t exist, it doesn’t matter. Say, what religion do you belong to? They say, none.
None doesn’t mean I am atheist, I just don’t care about religion. So, now this happens because people have a utilitarian attitude towards religion. And if whatever utility is provided through religion is got by some other means, then they feel what is the need for religion? So, religion starts becoming dispensable for people.
However, the Bhagavatam says that the utilitarian approach to religion is not the essence of religion. It is lower level religion. The Bhagavatam is a strong word, it is kaitava.
It cheats us of the full potential of human life. What is that cheating of potential? Suppose, we have got a million dollars and we need a good device, we need a phone. Now, a phone does not require a million dollars.
But, suppose we give a million dollars and we get a phone. And we got something which is important for us, but it is not worth a million dollars. So, if somebody took a million dollars from us and gave us just a phone, just a thousand dollars or something like that at the most, then we would be cheated.
So, similarly, the necessities of life are required for all of us. We need food, clothing, shelter, we need financial security, we need relationships. All this is necessary.
But, this alone is not what human life is meant for. Sri Prabhupada explains that these necessities of life are provided for in animals also. They also have their relationships.
They may not have currency, but currency is simply a means to fulfil the needs of life. And those food, clothing, shelter, they are provided for. So, these are necessary, but there is a difference between the necessities of life and the purpose of life.
The necessity of life is what we need for living with. Purpose of life is what we live for. Money is what we need to live with.
But money is not what we live for. There has to be some higher purpose to life. So, when in the human form of life, we use it simply to get these necessities, then we are underusing the potential of human life.
And if religion offers only these things, then we are underusing the potential of religion also. Religion, if it is used to get simply food, clothing, shelter, O father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, give us our daily bread. So, of course, some Christians explain that daily bread refers not just to physical nourishment, but spiritual nourishment also.
But the general understanding is it refers to our daily needs. So, then Prabhupada says, it’s good that they are going to God, but such a prayer shows more the love for bread than the love for God. And if we get bread from elsewhere, then why do we need to go to God? So, the Bhagavatam says that the necessities of life are not what we should be practising religion for.
Religion is meant for not the necessities of life, but the purpose of life. The necessities of life are such that if we don’t have them, it causes distress. If I don’t have food to eat, I’ll feel hungry and I’ll feel distressed.
But if I get food to eat, that itself does not free me from distress. I have a hundred other problems for me. So, the necessity means without it there is distress, but that doesn’t mean with it there is happiness.
The purpose is what actually brings happiness to our life. So, what is the purpose of life? That is what this section of the Bhagavatam is talking about. So, if I have a million dollars, is like our present life.
Yes, if I have a million dollars, I may spend some part of it to get a phone because I need it. Similarly, in our human life, some part of it we have to spend to get our necessities. We have physical necessities, we have emotional necessities.
These are required. But at the essence, we are souls. And the million dollar is meant for much more than just fulfilling our physical or emotional necessities.
The million dollar, which is the human form of life, is meant for fulfilling our spiritual necessity, which is the purpose of life. And what is that purpose? It’s interesting in today’s world, many people want to know, what am I meant to do in my life? What is the career that I should pursue? What is the job that I am meant to do? A couple of generations ago, people were simply concerned that I just want to get a job and have a good life. But now people are concerned, many people, especially younger generation, they want, what am I meant to do in my life? There is some talent, some ability, some contribution which I want to make.
So, now not many people are able to find out what is it that they are meant to do. Most people, whatever job they get, they just take that job, work at it and are living and move on with their life. Some people who are fortunate, they find out what is their passion in life.
The word passion, as we devotees use it, is different from the word as it is used in the outside world. We use passion to refer to the mode of passion. And we say, we should not be in the mode of passion, because it fills us with material desires.
And passion in bhakti is considered somewhat negatively. But in the outside world, the word passion is used very positively. We all should have a passion in our life.
It should be something which you want to do. What is it that you are driven by? What is it that you are inspired to do? So, somebody who is a famous author, they have a passion for writing. They constantly imagine, you know, this character, this dialogue, this story, these words, they have passion for writing.
Somebody may have passion for art. So, we need to have a passion, but we don’t have to be in passion. In passion means in the mode of passion.
We don’t have to be in the mode of passion, but we all need to have a passion. So, some people, they just love music. And then they can just get lost in the music.
For hours and hours they can spend in music. And that’s their passion. Now, everybody may, people in general may like music, but some people love it so much, they just get lost in it.
Same with respect to writing. So, this is what people think in a big way, discovering your passion. So, William Wordsworth was a famous author.
Once he wrote to one of his friends, he said, I spent my morning very productively today. I worked on my new poem. After breakfast, I put a comma in the poem.
Before lunch, I deleted the comma. And he considered that was a very productive use of his time. He was so absorbed in it.
Should this comma be there or not? So, people think that if this way we can find something which we love to do, we are absorbed in it, then our life is successful, our life is meaningful. Yes, we all, if we can find out what is our passion in life, what is it that we are talented at, what is it that we are good at, that is fortunate. This is basically working according to our nature.
The Bhagavatam talks about, chaturva and maya system, guna karma vibhagasha. So, guna and karma. Guna is our activity, guna is our quality, karma is our activity.
So, we could say this in terms of, guna means that which we are comfortable doing. When there is something, we have the quality to do that, that means internally we feel comfortable of doing it. And karma refers to external competence.
So, if there is something which is our passion, then we internally feel comfortable, this is what I am meant to do. And we are able to do it well. So, if we want to understand what is our nature, what is our passion, what is it that we are good at, what is it that we can best contribute to, we can look at, when we, when we are looking at various things in life, when we do various activities in life, we can look at what it is that we feel comfortable doing and what we are competent doing.
And in this way, we can find out what is our swabhava, what is the activity that we are meant to do. Now, some people are able to find it, some people take a long time to find it. Because we live in a world where many, most structures are distorted.
So, each of us may have to do inventory of our own lives to find out, what is it that I am meant to do. And if we ask the mind, is the job that I am doing right now, is the relationship that I am in, is the service I am doing, is this my nature? If we ask the mind, what is my nature? The mind will say, whatever you are doing right now, that is not your nature. Whatever you are doing right now, that is not your nature.
The mind will keep us dissatisfied no matter what we do. So, what happens? The mind always looks for the path of least resistance. So, even if we like to do something, even in the things that we like to do, there are going to be difficulties.
Nothing is easy in the world. One of my services is writing. So, some devotees, they say that, we go out for book distribution, we go out in the heat and the sun and the cold.
So, you just sit in your room and just write. A very easy life you have. So, I said, yeah, you can come and try it out.
You sit in one room and write for hours, it’s not that easy. There is an author who said, writing is very easy. He said, all that you have to do is sit in front of a computer and glare at the screen till drops of blood form on your forehead.
What that means is, sometimes people start writing and they just don’t get ideas. You get what is called a writer’s block. And it’s a problem.
So, the point I am making over here is, even there is something which we like to do, see, it is not that we will always like doing it. The mind is fickle and even what we like to do, the mind will make us sometimes dislike it. So, if we rely on the mind, we will never be able to do anything constructive in our life.
That’s why, even if we have to find our passion, find our nature, it is not that we will find it automatically. It is just that, whatever we are doing, we continue doing that and at that time we observe. This, I feel more comfortable doing this.
This, I feel not so comfortable. And over a period of time, through self-observation, by coming to the mode of goodness, we will be able to understand what is our nature and how we can best contribute. But, there is something more important.
There is how we contribute and there is to what we contribute. The two are different things. How we contribute means what we are doing.
And to what we contribute means for what we are doing it. Out of the ten top authors of the last century, top authors means they are considered the best by most critics. They won Nobel laureate, the Nobel prizes.
Out of the ten top authors, if you read their writings, very good writings. Out of ten top authors, seven of them committed suicide. Seven of them, not one or two or three.
Now, they loved writing. And their writing was good. But still, they committed suicide.
So, this is just one statistic. But the point I am making here is, that even if we discover our passion, even if we discover what we are meant to do in our life, still, there is no guarantee that will give us satisfaction. Because there is what we do and there is for what we do it.
The two are different things. Now, Vyasadev was here, he wrote phenomenal literature. But for what was he doing it? He was not directly glorifying the Lord.
And that’s why although he wrote so much literature, still, he was not satisfied. So, sometimes we think satisfaction will come when I discover my passion. Yes, discovering our passion is good.
But real satisfaction will come when we discover, not our passion, but our connection. Our connection with Krishna. That is the fundamental source of satisfaction.
If we find out if somebody likes music, and they do music, and they love it. But still, that is still material. And that cannot give enduring satisfaction.
What will give us enduring satisfaction is our connection with Krishna. So, we have the question when Vyasadev is satisfied, Vyasadev is dissatisfied, and Narada Muni comes to meet him. The first question that Narada Muni asks him is, Are you satisfied by identifying the soul with the body and the mind? It’s a very prescient, very insightful question.
Are you satisfied by identifying the soul, the self with the body and the mind? So, when people say you should discover your passion, find out what you are meant to do in your life. Well, what are they talking about? They are not talking about the soul. They are talking about the body and the mind.
If somebody is a great dancer, now, the dancing is a skill of the body and the mind. The body and mind are important. But the body and mind is not who we are.
We are the soul. So, if somebody finds their passion in life, if I am a dancer and I will dance, become a professional dancer, that is good. And the dancing will give them much more satisfaction than doing some other profession.
In other professions, they may be miserable, they may be miserable. In dancing, they will be relatively happier. But still, dancing alone will not give them enduring satisfaction.
For whom am I dancing? What is the purpose of my life? You say, oh, dancing is the purpose of my life. No, dancing is an activity which you are meant to do. That’s fine.
But for whom are you meant to do it? So, just discovering our passion is not the purpose of our life. It is discovering our connection. Discovering our connection means understanding that we are souls who are parts of Krishna and that we are meant to eternally connect with Krishna.
And to the extent we connect with Krishna, to that extent, we get eternal satisfaction. So, now, of course, discovering our connection with Krishna happens by the practise of Bhakti Yoga. To the extent we practise Bhakti diligently, to that extent we become connected with Krishna.
And even if other things are off in our life, even if our relationships are not so good, even if our profession is not so harmonious, even if our body and mind is not so healthy, these things can be tolerated and transcended if we are well connected with Krishna. That’s why as devotees, we need to focus primarily on our connection with Krishna. If we can stay connected with Krishna, then everything else will fall in place.
And the first priority is, let me connect with Krishna. And second priority is, okay, how best can I connect with Krishna? So, yes, we do want to understand our nature. We do want to understand what our body and mind are best suited for so that we can offer our best to Krishna.
Just like, say, if we have been given, if we found that we have got a house in inheritance. Say, some grandfather, grandmother, somebody has given us a house. And then we hear, oh, in that house, somewhere in the backyard, some treasure is buried.
Then we will be eager to find out where is that treasure. So that, we can use that treasure also. So, similarly, for us, we have the body and mind, and this body and mind has certain abilities, has certain limitations.
So, if we understand the abilities that we have, if we understand the strengths that we have, then this body and mind is like the inheritance we have got, we could say. And if we can discover our best, we can offer our best to Krishna. If we find out what is the buried inheritance, then we can use it for a good cause.
Similarly, all of us have different talents, different interests, different abilities, and if we discover them, we can use them. So, we can discover our best, then we can offer the best to Krishna. But more important than discovering the best that we have, is discovering the best that we are meant to live for.
So, first focus is on connection with Krishna. Second focus is on understanding how best I can connect with Krishna. Or sometimes, the second takes priority over the first.
That means, sometimes we get so materially dissatisfied, this is not right, this is not right, that is not right. So, in India, many young people who join the movement, they worry, they join in college, and they think, should I become a brahmachari, should I become a grahastha? And that thought occupies their mind so much, that it just makes them paralysed. In the western world, not so many people become brahmacharis, but often the dynamic that paralyses people is, okay, I want to form a relationship, I have to get married, whom should I marry? This is an important concern, but if that dominates our mind completely, then we let our devotion stop, almost, till we work that out.
No, devotion needn’t stop. The important thing is, if somebody wants to decide what ashram I am going to be in, somebody wants to decide whom I should marry, which spiritual master I should take initiation from, or even when we are serving, what is the service that I am meant to do? Every single one of these decisions is important. But the most important thing is, stay connected with Krishna.
If we keep serving Krishna, the way we can right now. So, through that, we are showing Krishna that I want to serve you. And if we show Krishna our firm intention to serve him, then he will give us greater facility to serve him.
And that facility could be the knowledge of the right ashram, that facility could be the knowledge of the best spouse, that facility could be the knowledge of who will be the best spiritual master for us, the knowledge could be what is the best service that we can do. All that will come secondarily, if we show Krishna right now through our actions, I want to serve you. So, the dāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam yena māṁ upayānti te.
That, with that, teṣāṁs tata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, when we serve Krishna with a favourable disposition, then Krishna gives us the intelligence of how to come to Him. So, it is true that Vyāsadeva, after writing all this, was dissatisfied. But Vyāsadeva still wrote it all.
He wrote the Mahabharata, he wrote the Puranas, because at that point, with his consciousness, he said, this is the best way I can serve humanity. He wrote that and then he felt, okay, this is not the best. There must be something more.
And then, because he was sincerely inquisitive, Nārada Muni appeared and Nārada Muni guided him. In fact, he himself got that intuition and what Nārada Muni spoke was an affirmation of that intuition. So, for us, whatever situation we are in, we maintain our connection with Krishna.
We keep serving Krishna. Yes, I have this problem, I have this indecision, I have this confusion. Okay, these are all there.
They are parts of my life. They are important parts of my life. But the essence of my life is, I am meant to serve Krishna.
And if we keep doing that, Krishna will give us illumination. Krishna will give us light. Okay, do this, do that.
So, basically, our mind tends to find, look at problems. Even when we are serving Krishna, Oh, you know, this is not working right, this is not working right. I don’t have the right facility.
I don’t have the right friends. I don’t have the right support system. I don’t have this, don’t have that.
Okay. Now, one definition of surrender is to do what we can with what we have now. There is a lot more we can do for Krishna if we have more facility, more support.
But that’s in the future. Surrender means, Krishna, this is the situation I am in. This is the health situation I have.
This is the relationship situation I have. This is the financial situation I have. In this situation, what can I do? So, surrender means to do what we can with what we have now.
And if we keep doing that, then that connection will lead to illumination. When our consciousness gets connected with Krishna through our service and our service attitude, then that connection becomes the channel through which Krishna gives us illumination. What are we meant to do? So, of course, we can spend some time to try to make each of these decisions.
If we are in the mode of goodness, we can deliberate calmly and decide. But the most important thing is that we stay connected with Krishna. So, satisfaction will come not just by discovering our passion, not just by doing the right thing in life, whether it is the right profession, the right relationship, the right things in life at the material level.
They are all important. But satisfaction will come ultimately by doing the right thing at the spiritual level. And the right thing at the spiritual level is to connect with Krishna.
And if we focus on connecting with Krishna, Krishna will guide us about how to do the right things even at the material level. So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how we can, what is the cause of dissatisfaction and how to rectify it.
So, this is one of the seminal sections of the Bhagavatam which defines Jiva Swami says what is the content of the Bhagavatam. So, the Bhagavatam here is saying that religion done for utilitarian purposes is cheating religion. If I use a million dollars to buy a phone, that’s, I’m being cheated.
So, we have the necessities of life. But the necessities of life are not the purpose of life. The necessities are what we live with, purpose is what we live for.
And if we use religion just for getting the necessities of life, and if we get the necessities from elsewhere, we’ll feel what is the need for religion. The purpose of religion, the religion is meant to be practised to not get our material necessities, but to get our spiritual necessities. That is, to get our eternal connection with Krishna.
And the material necessities are not just food, clothing, shelter. The material necessities, what people think nowadays is should discover your passion in life. Find out what is your talent, what is your gift and use that, then you’ll make a contribution.
And yes, finding our passion, finding out what we are good at is good. And to find that out, we can look at what we are internally comfortable doing and what we are externally competent at. And to find this, sometimes we may have to do self-observation or sustained period of time.
It’s not that one day suddenly it will be revealed. The mind will keep us dissatisfied even when we are doing the things which we like to do. Because the mind always wants the path of least resistance.
And even in things that we like to do, if we do it in a solid committed way, there will be difficulties. So rather than just relying on the mind, we just keep doing what we are doing and observe. Gradually we’ll learn what is the best for us.
But more important in discovering the right passion in life is discovering the right connection. I talked about how some of the best authors of the last century wrote phenomenal books, they ended up committing suicide. Why? Because just finding the right passion does not bring satisfaction.
What we are doing is important, but for what we are doing it is even more important. So what bhakti wisdom gives us is that ultimate purpose, the connection with Krishna. And if we stay connected with Krishna, then everything else will by Krishna’s guidance fall in place.
So when we have to make decisions in our life at a functional level, which ashram to choose, which spouse to choose, which guru to choose, which service to make as a life’s contribution. These are important decisions, but we cannot keep our devotion waiting for making decision. Just keep serving Krishna the way we can right now.
And through that service to Krishna, we show him our intention to serve and he will reciprocate by giving us more and more facility to serve. And that facility will be the knowledge of what best material situation we can have, for serving him. So rather than being dissatisfied, because certain material things are not working right in our life, we can focus on making the spiritual right in our life, by connecting with Krishna.
And that will be the basis of our enduring satisfaction. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Do you have any one question? Yes, please. You can tell, I’ll repeat. I’ll repeat, you can tell, I’ll repeat.
Thank you for a very nice class. When we are focussing on the connection with Krishna, and you don’t know the speciality, but what you’d like to have to serve Krishna, what activities would you recommend? Okay. So if we don’t know what is the speciality with which we can serve Krishna, so what activities are recommended? Generally, we just do what we are told to do by senior devotees.
Because the connection with Krishna, the basis of that connection is you could say subordination, obedience, discipline. So we are servants of Krishna and we are meant to serve. So if we initially, we are also a lot in the mode of passion and ignorance.
And it’s very difficult to understand what we are good at. So if we already feel this is what I want to do, that is good, we can tell. Whatever it is we like to do, we can tell.
But we also learn the principle of say disciplining ourselves, of subordination. And so we follow the instructions, do what we are told to do, and this will purify us. And as it purifies us, we come to the mode of goodness.
The more we come to the mode of goodness, the more things will become clear to us. So basically, doing sadhana bhakti as well as we can, chanting, studying scriptures, associating with devotees, and in associating with devotees, doing whatever service we can do. What means whatever service we are told to do.
We do that and while doing the services we are told to do, we observe ourselves. So by such observation, we will ourselves learn what is the best we can do. So there are two aspects to it.
If we are working in a company, if we got a job, we will do what the boss is telling us to do. That’s basically required if you want to even stay in the job. But at the same time, while working in the company, doing what the boss is telling us to do, we also observe ourselves and we think, what can I do by which I can grow in my career? If I learn this skill, then I can get this post also.
If I can get this skill, then I can do this also. So as devotees, we should be thinking, how can I become a better and better instrument in the hands of Guru for the service of Krishna. So for the service of Krishna, the more skills we can learn, the better it is.
So just as Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, that just as materialistic people pursue material success, it is the same spirit with which I want to pursue spiritual success. Not in the sense of being greedy or self-centred, but just as if we are working in a company, it is the company’s responsibility to promote us. Promoting us, getting a higher post, or getting more responsibility, growing in our career is our responsibility.
Similarly, our spiritual advancement is our responsibility. Now we want to grow spiritually, not so that people think that I am a great person, but that is I want to do more and more service to Krishna. So that same mood, at one level, we do what we are told to do, but at another level, we try to see how I can become more multi-faceted and how I can best contribute.
So if we have these both attitudes, see there is sometimes in bhakti, surrender happens in two ways. One is we surrender with dependence to Krishna. Whatever you tell me, I do that.
Second is diligence for Krishna. I use my intelligence to find out how best I can serve. That way, we can find the best situation for us.
Thank you very much. Pranthara Shrimad Bhagavatam ki… Shri Prabhupada ki… Gaur Bhakti Vrindaki… Sai Gaur Shrimanande.