Can ambition and devotion go together 1 – How happiness-distress are fixed and how they aren’t
Hare Krishna so today I will speak on the topic of can devotion and ambition go together I will speak this in two parts today and tomorrow and I was in New Jersey and there I had been I had gone to the house of one of the tech innovators in America he has made some software by which he has expedited security clearances at the airports won some national awards in America also and he is quite favourable to bhakti people in general who are very successful in one field they presume that they will be successful in other fields also so he also studied the Bhagavad Gita and he had an understanding of the Gita that actually everything is done by God and that we have no free will to think that we have free will is an illusion when we give up this illusion then we attain liberation so we had a I gave a class and then we had I spoke 45 minutes and almost one hour 45 minutes after we had a long discussion and at the end he said actually Swamiji Swamiji knows that what I am saying is right but because there are other people here not so spiritually evolved that's why he is speaking according to their level so anyway so I was making various points over there if God is controlling everything then that would mean that all the people who hurt themselves are we hurt by God person becomes alcohol addict it is God making them alcohol addict if everything is done by God person commits suicide it is God who is making them commit suicide if we do bad karma it is God who is making us do bad karma and then he is giving us punishment for doing bad karma that would mean that God is a sadist sadist is a person who gets pleasure in causing pain to others scripture tells us that actually we should do certain things and not do certain things yathva shastra dhaanottam karmakartamiharasi 6.24 Krishna says that that therefore with shastra understand what is right and what is wrong and act accordingly otherwise you will not be able to otherwise you will give inauspiciousness upon yourself that means Krishna in his commentary both in Bhagavad Gita as well as in Vedanta Sutra he says that if all of us were rogues controlled by God then if we had no free will that would mean that actually we would have no that scripture itself would become meaningless because why tell someone do this and don't do this if we don't have the capacity to choose if we are already bound so then after that our devotee asked me another question he said that what exactly is this time so he is quoting that we have this verse that just as happiness just as distress comes of its own accord without our trying for it similarly happiness will also come and happiness is ordained by Deha Yogi by the contact of the body so does that mean that what does this actually mean happiness and distress are fixed for us so then one aspect further extension of this is when we say the number of breaths that we have our life span is fixed so the number of breaths that we are able to take in the body is fixed so then the question may come up why should doctors try to save a dying person in the past if a person had a heart attack they would die now we have CPR and defibrillators back in America in the airports every airport there are defibrillators everywhere so if somehow a person gets a heart attack at that time use a defibrillator and save the person's life so sometimes it is a matter of moments there is a devotee who works in works in emergency health care he told me I know that it is a matter of moments few moments before we reach a person when they got a heart attack we can save them but few moments later we can't save them so how do we understand that the number of breaths are fixed so I explained to them that we cannot take one statement from scripture in isolation the same tradition which tells us that ok the number of breaths are destined that same scripture is also given rise to an entire body of knowledge called Ayurveda and the very meaning of the word Ayurveda is the knowledge that expands that increases our life span in both quality and quantity so if our life span is already ordained then why have a branch of knowledge that actually is meant to increase life span so now in scripture if we just take one statement and don't look at the broad picture we can actually misunderstand scripture so if we say that happiness and distress are ordained now what does this practically mean so the thrust of this verse whenever if you see the context every statement has a particular context and we have to look at the context to understand what is the intent of the verse if we look at the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna this world is and at the start of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna is he is in tears he is in tears and Krishna doesn't tell Arjuna oh this world is so you have realised this world must stay looking you are distressed stay distressed this is how you realise this world actually Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita so that he can become free from the distress so distress is a feature of the world distress is not the purpose of the world what is the difference between feature and purpose just like in a hospital distress is inevitably there pain is there but the hospital is not a torture chamber where pain is inflicted intentionally on people pain will be there in the hospital but the purpose of the hospital is to help people relieve themselves of pain similarly pain is not the purpose of the world so if we do not understand the context in which statements are made then we may misunderstand them so if somebody is in great distress at that time somebody has lost a loved one preaching actually means we should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted comfort the afflicted means those who are in distress if somebody has lost a loved one then great agony then great insecurity great fear we tell them at that time actually all relationships are temporary if you have lost this loved one all your other loved ones are also going to die that would be violence at that particular point at that time you tell them yes no beyond all the relationships we have in this world we have eternal relationship with Krishna Krishna is with you in your heart Krishna is with your loved one in their heart wherever they have gone you pray to Krishna Krishna will give you strength you pray to Krishna and then Krishna will help you help your loved one wherever they are so if we afflict the afflicted we are doing a great disservice so if somebody is very proud I am so happy I am so successful I am so powerful they are comforted oh you are so wonderful you are so successful ok Prabhupada would say to Americans you are young you are healthy you are wealthy but how long is it going to last it's temporary look for something higher when I was in Alachua in Florida I met Ambarish Prabhu Ambarish Prabhu is Alfred Ford he is the great grandson of Henry Ford so he said when he met Prabhupada for the first time generally people are enamoured because he is so wealthy Ford is a big name Prabhupada he is the great grandson of Henry Ford and Prabhupada looked at him deep into his eyes oh so you are the great grandson of Henry Ford where is he now so at that time Ambarish was telling me that time I realised that I am a saint Prabhupada was not impressed by my wealth Prabhupada was reminding me that Henry Ford earned so much wealth but he has gone somewhere and his wealth is left behind so this is an example of you know Prabhupada did not exactly afflict him but reminded him of what is eternal so there is philosophy and there is purpose of the philosophy if we do not understand the purpose of a philosophical point we can completely misapply it so if happiness and distress are distinct then a simple question can we do something right now which can increase our distress if it means that we can't increase our happiness can we increase our distress obviously we can isn't it if I eat a dozen ice creams on a cold night the next morning when I wake up with a horrible throat and a horrible respiratory tract that is not because of destiny that is not because of my past destiny that is because of my past stupidity past means previous night stupidity so our actions in this life can easily increase our distress so if somebody drives drunk on a road in America, I don't know how much it is in India but America, driving under intoxication is a very serious crime people lose their licence and losing their driving licence in America is like losing your freedom it's like losing your feet because in most places there is no public transport so if you don't have a car you just can't move out much so people fear that so even if people go for a party where they are going to drink drinking may be an activity in the mode of ignorance but even then there is some goodness if there are 5 people going for a party then they say you know this is your night of sobriety in this night you should not drink because you have to drive us back so you do this austerity this time in the next party I will do the austerity laughing so actually speaking that that is a great fear now if somebody drives drunk and then they hit a tree and injure themselves or they knock someone over and hurt them or even kill them now was that death straight? we don't know but certainly we can know that if they have been driving soberly that accident may not have happened so very clearly we all can do activities which can increase our distress if without looking at the road carefully I just run into the street and then a vehicle knocks me over that is our destiny Prabhupada explained this once when the devotees when they were doing book distribution sometimes devotees think that because we are practising bhakti whatever we are doing is transcendent so they thought that we are going for distributing books for Krishna's service so we don't have to follow the speed limits so they drove super fast one of the devotees he runs a driving school for devotees in America so he has a slogan when you drive above the speed limit Krishna leaves the car laughing so these devotees drove very fast and they were doing book distribution and they met with an accident and two of them actually died this was many years ago, almost 40-45 years ago so then the devotees asked Prabhupada did they die because of destiny? Prabhupada enquired about the situation they died because of their irresponsibility because of their irresponsibility so if our actions in this life can increase our distress then the distress and happiness go together in this world then can our actions in this life increase our happiness also so let's look at what this means we are talking about the topic of ambition and we all may have certain ambition I want to achieve this, I want to achieve that I want to do research, I want to get this job I want to go here, I want to go there and you may think, ok if my happiness and distress is this kind, why should I strive for anything whatever happiness I am supposed to get, I will get that which is true in one way but I will explain how it works very true and how it is not true in detail at one level if we consider that from our past karma certain actions and certain reactions, certain actions good and bad have been done and that has created a stockpile of karma so that stockpile is going to come upon us so if we envision karma to be like a big water tank so the water tank itself is our Sanchit Karma there are broadly four different kinds of karma there is Sanchit Karma, Sanchit is accumulated karma that is all the karma that we have done in the past which is accumulated together then there is the karma that we are doing now which is called as the Agami Karma or the Kriyaman Karma Kriya I am doing right now so the way we are acting, that is also creating karma so now if in this water tank, say water is going in from one side, water is coming out from other side so there is the water that is going in is the Agami Karma the water that is coming out is in two categories you can call it the Prarabdha Karma and the Aprarabdha Karma Prarabdha Karma refers to the things that are more or less settled in our life that are set already in our life so for example, we are born with a particular kind of bodily complexion we are born in a particular family which has a particular financial level we are born in a particular country we are born with a particular IQ level so this is if we are going for a journey we get a particular car this is like the car, so Prarabdha Karma refers to that which is more or less given and which stays throughout our life one major instalment of karma which shapes our whole life doesn't determine entirely but it shapes significantly and the Aprarabdha Karma refers to those karmic reactions that are going to come to us during the course of our life say if this is my life journey this is the point of birth, this is the point of death so for this journey I get a vehicle sometimes when people want to drive long distances if they are visiting they may hire a car so you hire a car say from for going from Florida to New York say it's a one or two days drive two three days drive, you take a car for that much time, then for that much time your car is already paid for it now you could choose a Fiat you could choose a Mercedes, you could choose something in between whatever, that car is what we have now when we are going along that route we also get some weather forecast, here you are going to get a storm, here you might get some snow here there is clear weather so like that the prarabdha karma determines what the car that we get and the weather forecast refers to the aprarabdha karma the kind of problems that we are going to face in life so not just problems some privileges also, some good things, some bad things what are going to happen to us they are shaped by the destiny, but at the same time we have free will I might be driving in clear weather but if I drive recklessly I might meet with an accident I might meet with an accident and that is not ordained that is simply because of my responsibility so now complicating this picture further if I consider, this is the I said the karma tank we could say water is coming in from here, water is coming out from here, but things are not that simple it is not necessary that our present reactions the results that we get for our present actions they can come either from the present actions or they can come from past actions or they can come from a combination of both what do I mean by this normally if if I say if I have diabetes and if I eat sweets with a lot of sugar in them and then I fall sick is that because of my past karma no it is because of my present karma, recent karma so if the present action can explain a present reaction there is no reason to go back to a past action is this clear if a present reaction can if a present action can explain a past action so a present action can explain a present situation that we got ourselves into a present reaction, then there is no need if I eat healthy I stay healthy if I eat fatty I become fat so this is normal straight forward correlation and we all function according to this but by our past karma sometimes this correlation doesn't work it can happen in two ways sometimes some people they just eat very little food but their bodies are so sensitive that little food imbalance here and there they fall sick or their body bloats up, they become very fat they become very unhealthy and some people they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt they eat anything and everything still nothing happens to them they stay healthy they stay fit, they stay slim they are just eating anything why is that eat healthy you will be healthy this person is eating crazy and still they are healthy so that means by past karma the first person is meant to have a sickly body in this life and therefore a small indiscretion in eating leads to a lot of problems but the second person by their past karma they are meant to have a healthy body and even if there is a lot of indiscretion in their eating still there is not much reaction so the past karma can intervene intervene in terms of determining when and in what magnitude the present action will bring its reaction the present action will lead to a reaction but sometimes it may not come immediately and sometimes it may come immediately and disproportionately also immediately and disproportionately in driving they say never look at your cell phone but many people while driving try to do multitasking they look at their cell phone and most people can get away with it but sometimes I was in America, one devotee is a traffic cop so he was telling that about a case that happened there was this young man who was driving his car and there was a soccer game going on over there so something happened and he had this mobile and the update was coming and he looked and something sensational happened, he started looking there and in that moment somehow the car went out of control and there was a passerby he was a bright student in an Ivy League University he was put in jail he lost 5 years of his life because of that so now when they say just looking at a cell phone it's bad, but it's not that bad but sometimes the karma may be such that a small indiscretion can lead to a huge reaction and sometimes a big indiscretion may also lead to a small reaction nothing happens or not much happens so basically it is our present and our past karma both combined in varying ways to determine the situations that we may face sometimes we may just speak a little bit to someone can you do this? can you do this? and they just blast out at us you are so nagging you are so demanding, you are fault finding what happened? we hardly did anything but this person has such a big reaction so probably they were going through something in their life maybe one thing went wrong, second thing went wrong third thing went wrong so they were just like a volcano was about to explode and our words just removed the lid from the volcano and when the lava came out we just happened to be there so now so the point I am making here is that things are not so simple that our past karma alone determines everything in our life our present actions along with our past actions combined together lead to the situations that we face and that's why it's vital for us to focus on our present actions and this brings us to the point of there is karma and there is dharma karma means whatever karma we have done in the past for which we are going to get reactions dharma refers to our duty so if we consider say if everything happens by past karma in the Ramayana Sita is abducted by Rama at that time does Rama think because of Sita's bad karma she must have been abducted he doesn't think like that he thinks what is my dharma nobody goes further and says Sita must have been a demon in a previous life and Ravana must have been a maiden and Sita must have abducted Rama nobody thinks like that so that idea if we say that those are cow slaughters those who slaughter cows they will become cows and the cows will become slaughters and then they will kill the cows well then we can say all the cows who are being slaughtered today they were cow slaughters from the past so let them be slaughtered now simply the karma coming upon we don't say like that isn't it we say that no these are cows by nature's arrangement they are given some special body and Krishna loves cows we are meant to protect them as much as we can so basically karma if it is not understood properly it can make people very very insensitive and you know I mean I studied a little bit about how conversion is happening in India a lot of conversion is happening in north east as well as south India many places actually so there are different ways even the Christians were converting there are tamasic way they are converting rajasic way they are converting and there are one of the strongest arguments is this that Hindus have no sense of social justice that means Hindus believe that among them those who are suffering they are suffering because of their past karma and that's why they don't have a sense of charity and none of this is true actually that's why they think that people were lower caste by their past karma they are born in lower caste and that's how they are meant to stay they say you come to us we give charity we are given by compassion we don't have any understanding of you are sinful anything like that so of course they have an understanding that everybody is sinful and that's a peculiar understanding because their understanding is that Adam ate the forbidden apple and because of that sin has passed down to all of us like a genetic defect that's a peculiar understanding but the point which I am making here is that karma if it is not understood properly it can make us misapplying our own lives and misapplying others lives also so just as we can increase we can do things in this life which can increase our distress if somebody does something impulsively you do thought before doing something and somebody says I want to buy a big house and then they don't think how am I going to manage the debt of this house how much I want to pay they buy a big house and then life long they have to work to simply pay the mortgage for the house that is as Prabhupada says self created beauty or self created misery so just as by our actions in this life we can increase our distress similarly by our actions in this life we can also increase our happiness how does this happen simple is the Bhagavatam talks about the principle of Varanashram Varanashram is not so much about dividing people into their into certain into four castes the essence of Varanashram is to engage people according to their nature all of us by our past karma and present upbringing have a particular psychophysical nature we have a particular set of interests we have a particular set of likes and dislikes and these are what will drive us primarily so to the extent we work harmoniously with our nature to that extent we will get happiness material happiness but happiness so if a brahmana does intellectual work that's what will satisfy a brahmana if a vaisya gets the opportunity to plan how to earn money ok do this do that that's what will give them some zeal in life if a brahmana is to talk to a vaisya work the brahmana will be miserable and a vaisya is told to do brahmana work the vaisya will be miserable what is this? it will just not work so the body that we have to the extent we understand its nature and we work in harmony with that to that extent we will be materially in a harmonious situation but material happiness the word material is just too broad a category in material happiness there can be sensual happiness so when the bhagavatam says by the contact of the body there is a certain pleasure ordained that simply means let's say a cow it is ordained to get pleasure by eating grass if a cow is given flesh it will not eat it, if it is made to eat it it will not get any pleasure in that we human beings by our body there is a certain set of food that we are ordained to eat if we start eating grass we won't be able to enjoy grass so deha yogena dehina means that by the kind of body that we are ordained the kind of food that we eat is fixed similarly sexual pleasure a man will be attracted to a woman a human being will be attracted to another human being but a human a snake will be attracted to a snake of the opposite gender a snake will not be sexually attracted towards a human being and a human being will not be sexually attracted towards some other species some other species so in this sense the body determines the set of things that will give us sensual pleasure so deha yogena dehina but in the human body we also we are not just stuck to bodily consciousness beyond bodily consciousness there is also higher consciousness higher consciousness means that we can get intellectual pleasure so a we can get artistic pleasure so if a person is meant to be an artist and they work according to art they work artistically they will get joy over there but if they don't work artistically they will be miserable so to the extent we understand our sabhava, our nature we will be able to work and we will be able to get some material happiness and if we don't work harmoniously according to our nature then we will get material distress nature doesn't necessarily mean specifically a varna nature basically means a set of activities so for us to understand ourselves is important understand ourselves as soul and understand ourselves as body and mind this is where ambition comes into the discussion I will discuss more about ambition in tomorrow's class also but at this point I will make three points about ambition first is that as long as we are in the mode of passion we can't suddenly give up that mode of passion say if in the mode of passion I want to achieve targets I want to meet deadlines I want to do this, I want to do that you want externally driven targets then Prabhupada when he had his early disciples who were hippies he gave them targets distribute books they had a sense of adventure come on let's distribute books and that mode of passion he channelled in Krishna service for them but if he had told them you go to Vrindavan and chant 64 rounds they couldn't have done it just able to do Prabhupada engaged them the way they could there are some devotees who couldn't even chant regularly 64 rounds so Prabhupada engaged them at whatever level they were at some devotees just wanted to do big things for Krishna organise big festivals meet big people introduce them to Krishna Bhakti get them to meet Prabhupada and Prabhupada was not harping on them you are not chanting, you are not chanting Prabhupada is engaged, encouraged them just do the service that you can so Prabhupada, that means there are two things wherever people are we engage them there and from where people are we encourage them to rise up both things are there it's just if the person cannot rise up that doesn't mean that they are bad or they are to be rejected where people are engaged in there and we encourage them to rise up but if some people are not ready to rise up then we should be able to engage them there also we don't have to make them feel guilty and reject them sometimes people at a particular level will be able to do more service than at a higher, apparently higher level say for example when I talk about these levels we can say that so Prabhupada when he was in America becoming a devotee meant more or less moving into the temple because the devotees were young and they didn't have much family support most of them had left their families and also they, the culture Hare Krishna was not known at all so the culture was quite alien and hostile so at that time becoming a devotee meant moving into the temple when Prabhupada came back to India at that time Indians were not interested in moving into the temple Indians were very proud oh our culture these foreigners have adopted so they had that mood of cultural nationalism and Prabhupada tapped that among his con leaders from the first generation there are very few Indian disciples of Sri Prabhupada who were introduced in India and who became dedicated devotees the mood of India at that time was just we have to make our country great let's prove how our country is great so those people they simply wanted to prove how our country is great and Prabhupada engaged them at the level of cultural nationalism so Prabhupada introduced the programme of life membership and Prabhupada actually at that time made it into such a prestigious programme I was at one VIP's house and he told me that they had a nameplate and in that nameplate ok I had this degree, this degree and it was ISKCON life member so he considered that to be a life a prestigious thing, a life membership of ISKCON ISKCON meant what? basically two things people would give some donation to the temple and second would be they would get some Prabhupada's books and then they would come to the temple and stay in the temple so having the books and having the facility to stay in the temple meant that they had the facility to rise up if they wanted to but the life members didn't make any commitment to chant a particular number of rounds didn't commit to follow the regular principles, can't they? Prabhupada engaged them at that level and many of these people who became life members were hugely influential and when there were some code battles at some places because some people wanted to cheat ISKCON of the land especially in Juhu these are the big people who helped ISKCON and these people Prabhupada engaged them so where people are Prabhupada engaged them there and from where they are encouraged them so some people based on their past karma are at a particular level in their life and if we try to push them too much to rise to a higher level they will just feel choked they will feel choked I can't do this so at that time they have to be encouraged to act at the level they are at when Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that I long for the day when high court judges will be wearing tilaks now what does he mean? one thing he means is he is not expecting everybody to become a devotee renunciate he is expecting people to be so professionally good that they rise to posts as respectable high court judges and in general in the outside world devotion is so much respected somebody wears a tilak then that is considered no problem at all you are a devotee, good people you are a devotee, that's nice so actually how would somebody come to the level of becoming a high court judge obviously they have to work hard they have to have a passion for the work of being a judge become magistrate and rise to that level of being a high court judge so there are as devotees there will be some devotees who will just move into the temple and will focus on direct devotional service in a very intense way and there are others who may not be able to practise at that level but sometimes they may be able to do more service because they may be able to have greater influence in the outer world so one example is Joy Harrison after Srila Prabhupada he is probably the person who spread the holy name the most millions and millions of people actually were introduced to the holy name through him and Prabhupada never asked him to move inside the temple and become a full time devotee whatever you are you do it add Krishna into it and even that he had to do very cautiously what happened was that initially he started adding Krishna in all his songs and he was a hugely popular musician so he had a big concert in Madison Avenue or somewhere and there in that concert he just started telling people chant Hare Krishna and the whole audience started booing him because they had come there expecting to hear music from him so to understand the gravity of that event let's compare something contemporary say there is India Pakistan cricket world cup final and say India's top cricketer say Virat Kohli has become a devotee and India lose the cricket match and then after that in the post match interview what happened why did we lose the match actually it doesn't matter all this is temporary everyone should chant Hare Krishna can you imagine the kind of anti preaching that would do if somebody is a cricketer they are expected to perform as a cricketer if you are a good cricketer apart from that you talk about your Krishna that's ok but if you do that in place of your cricket performance it will be horrendous so people who are in a particular George Harrison he met Prabhupada after this incident he told Prabhupada for every one person that I am getting closer to Krishna I feel I am sending 100 people away from Krishna so many people are becoming hostile then Prabhupada told him that use your intelligence achieve a balance and then after that he went and he became what you call as a plain clothes devotee that means he stopped exhibiting his devotion so publicly and he may be able to write 5 songs out of 10 songs in which one song would be having Krishna other songs would be of the same genre which he was writing earlier so what happened by this people felt he has been a part of Hare Krishna phase in his life and he has passed over that phase now he has come back to normalcy but he would introduce Krishna in his songs and many people became attracted by that the point I am making over here is that some people can actually have greater influence in their particular area than if they just leave their area and come towards Krishna so each of us has to find out how best we can serve Krishna and ambition when we talk about ambition what does it mean that if we have a particular set of talents say if somebody is going to become a high court judge it requires a lot of hard work and application to get to that level they must have some passion see the word passion when we use it we use it in the sense of the mode of passion but there are words which have positive connotations and negative connotations so the word passion now has quite a positive connotation also its like the word pride normally we think of pride as something bad but actually now pride is considered to be good lets say a team has lost a cricket series lets say the 5 match series they have already lost 3 matches the series is over but we will play for pride we will play for pride means at least we will play so that the word pride is used in the sense of honour we don't want to lose in a dishonourable way we will at least win one match so nowadays in the outside circles the word when we use the word pride the equivalent word which is used is arrogance so pride can have quite a positive connotation so the word passions also when we use it we refer to the mode of passion but passion can also be referred to something which we feel driven to do a painter has a passion for painting a singer has a passion for singing Arjuna as an archer had a passion for archery and that's how that was one reason why his name was Gudakesh all day he would learn about archery from his teacher and practically all night without sleeping would practise archery so he had a passion and that passion was what drove him in his life now of course he used that passion in Krishna's service but Krishna did not tell Arjuna you give up your archery and you become a mace fighter no it was his archery he served Krishna through his archery so our material side is not to be rejected it is to be connected with Krishna our material side means we have certain talents we have certain abilities we are meant to make a contribution using those talents and to the extent we understand this to that extent we will be able to flourish in bhakti flourish in bhakti means that whatever we are talented in whatever we are gifted in whatever is our area of interest then we should be able to we can naturally absorb it and if that is what we are doing for Krishna then we will be able to do it very well so there are certain things in which we all get absorbed easily so some people do scientific research they use that research now they say how can I use this research in Krishna's service ok even if we don't get into directly the area of research which is spiritually orientated but if that is what we are doing do it wholeheartedly because that's how we will be able to get ourselves absorbed and then eventually even if that area of research can't be connected with Krishna actually what we can connect with Krishna is that we achieve some success we achieve some position and then we use that position to glorify Krishna somebody in a respectable position is practising bhakti that itself attracts so many people to bhakti people get impressed by that so basically being half-hearted is not being transcendental you know oh I have got this studies to do I have got this job to do it is mundane yes it is mundane but when we have to do it do it wholeheartedly why? because ultimately whatever situation we are in it is by Krishna's arrangement and Krishna has a plan for us through that situation also so do it wholeheartedly and the mood of the Bhagavad Gita is that by your work worship the lord so Krishna doesn't tell Arjuna you give up your archery and worship me rather through your archery you worship me in ending point 46 he says that lord from whom everything has come and that lord by whom everything is pervaded access that lord, worship that lord through your work that means the Bhagavad Gita tells us our talents and interests are gifts of Krishna Krishna says in 7.8 of the Bhagavad Gita I am ability in man that means our abilities where do they come from? they are Krishna's gifts to us which we are going to use in his service and by using them we can make a contribution for Krishna's service so this we can do it sometimes through directly devotional ways sometimes we can do it through indirect devotional ways what does that mean? in 2015 I first went to America and after I came back from America so many of my relatives called me and they said now your life is successful so maybe 20 years ago before that when I had the opportunity to go to America I didn't go they said your life is doomed now you wasted your life but when I was in America somehow when I was supposed to go to America I had got admission in 3 universities I was corresponding with 3 universities to go over there and then in the last 3 years I have gone and spoken at all those 3 universities so where I was originally supposed to go I did go over there but not as a student I went as a speaker over there now in Krishna's service so I had an interest in writing I had an interest in speaking and somehow by Krishna's arrangement that interest was huge in Krishna's service so for all of us how our particular interest will be used in Krishna's service that is something which we have to find out but the important thing is we can't wish away our interest we can't wish away our talents we can't wish away the particular things which we feel connected with rather than wishing them away we try to connect them with Krishna the more we do that the more we will flourish in Bhakti because we will express ourselves and be what we are meant to be certainly now this raises a common question about how to understand what is our talent or what is our nature and that I will talk about tomorrow in detail but here the important thing is the principle the principle is that by working according to our nature by trying to find out what our interest is, what our talents are and using them in Krishna's service we will get some satisfaction whether it is material or spiritual it is most likely a combination of both but that is what will sustain us as we move towards Krishna this is material consciousness this is spiritual consciousness to go from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness is a long journey it can take a whole lifetime sometimes it can take many lifetimes also and while we are going from experiencing material happiness to experiencing spiritual happiness along this journey also we need some happiness the taste of pure spiritual happiness takes a long time to come so what is the happiness that we will get along the way yes we do try to get more taste in hearing chanting and remembering Krishna but we can do this best when we do it in connection or in harmonisation with our nature so whatever a person is meant to be an artist and they become an artist for Krishna then is the pleasure they are getting from that artistry material or spiritual it will be it will be you could say a combination of both initially most of it will be material because that is their nature so initially they start off I like to paint, you tell me to paint about Krishna I will paint about Krishna also I like to write, I will write I like to write anything, you tell me to write about Krishna I will write about Krishna also but gradually as the connection with Krishna has been established then initially 99% of the pleasure 99% of the pleasure might be material but then as the connection with Krishna starts happening more and more they get some pleasure some satisfaction then in that working according to their nature the pleasure, the Krishna component starts increasing and then from 1% of Krishna component it becomes 10%, then 20%, then 50% and over a period of time as their connection with Krishna becomes stronger and stronger then what they are doing will not be as important as why they are doing it for whom they are doing it and that's how their activity will become entirely spiritualised so similarly for us when we strive to serve Krishna so our ambition, if we think of ambition in terms of recognition, I want to become famous I want the whole world to praise me that kind of ambition sometimes may be successful, may not be successful but if you think of ambition in terms of making a contribution I want to do something worthwhile now generally how do we know what is our nature there are many ways but one thing is if you are doing something according to our nature we love to do it whether we get the result for it or not that means there are some authors one author I met when I was in America he is not a devotee but he is famous he said that more than the pleasure of being published and being read for me it is the pleasure of writing I just love to write of course every author will want to be published every author will want their books to become best sellers but when we are doing something according to our nature we don't depend so much on the results the results come wonderful they will come in due course but even if they don't come just doing it itself gives pleasure because it is just according to our nature so when we do it that way we do it for making a contribution if the world gives me recognition well I am good if the world doesn't give me recognition let me do what I can just the fact that I am engaged according to my nature that will give me satisfaction so when we have an ambition to make a contribution in harmony with the particular area of our interest then we will move forward in our life and we don't have to think of that as mundane this is the way I can connect with Krishna different people connect with Krishna in different ways and this is the way I connect with Krishna so when we connect with Krishna according to the gift that he has given us not only do we progress spiritually but also while progressing spiritually we make contributions materially which give us some satisfaction and which also help us to do things by which we can attract others to Krishna so I will summarise and then we can have some question answers today and some tomorrow so I spoke about how can ambition and devotion go together so in that I spoke initially on the concept of destiny is our happiness and distress fixed so we discussed how we can increase the distress that we experience by our irresponsible thoughtless actions somebody if they drive drunk somebody if they overeat somebody if they are careless they can increase their distress so the present situation that we face in our life they are determined by a combination of our present actions and our past actions so our past karma is conceptually a karmic tank then the total karma is the Sanchit Karma the action that we are doing the Agami Karma the reaction that we have got in terms of the body that we have that is the Prarabdha Karma and the thing that we are going to experience during the course of our life some of them are fixed that is the Aprarabdha Karma so when we act properly then we don't aggravate the situations otherwise if a person tries careless they may even meet an accident that is not because of past karma that is because of present karma so just as we can increase our distress by our careless actions similarly we can increase our happiness by our careful actions what do we mean by increase our happiness what is the meaning of fixed happiness then fixed happiness means that in a particular body the kind of sense objects that will give happiness to that body that is fixed but we human beings especially souls who are in human bodies our happiness does not come only from the sensory level there is mental, there is intellectual more refined artistic there are various pleasures that we can also experience so if we work according to our nature according to our interests and our talents then there is some material happiness that we get and if we work contrary to them then we get distress so when we are trying to practise Bhakti at one level we just want to transcend the world but at another level we also are in this world and we have to be engaged in this world so we want to we want to encourage each other to rise to a higher level at the same time we want to engage where we are like Prabhupada encouraged devotees to become full time in the West but he engaged Indians to become life members also and serve with their cultural nationalistic mood so when we study the philosophy we have to see it in the context of the philosophy the purpose of the philosophical point taking one point in isolation can lead to misunderstanding or misapplication ultimately the purpose of all philosophy is to inspire us to practise dharma to do our duty and our duty, spiritual duty is to connect with Krishna and material duty is to work according to our nature to worship Krishna according to the kind of abilities and interests he has given us when we do this then we also get happiness which is a combination of material and spiritual and that sustains us as we move towards the ultimate spiritual happiness pure absorption in Krishna and doing our inner inventory so that we can find out how best we can serve Krishna is also a service to Krishna and to the extent we work according to our passion to the extent we can gain satisfaction, make contribution as we progress in our devotion. Thank you very much Hare Krishna Are there any questions or comments? Thank you very much for letting me class regarding this happiness and distress being fixed there are two cases in Bhagavatam which talks about Krishna wanting a son and it was not there in his account he went out of his way to get one and then it had turned out that whatever happiness quota he got extra the same amount of distress also he got at the same time same holds true for Anga also it was not in his account to have a son but then still he went out of his way and got a son and he was happy but then the amount of distress was also proportionate so if you see in that way even if we go out of our way we may get additional happiness but then the same amount of distress is like a coin we get a head sign of a coin and a tail sign also is that right? Good question So we see that Anga and Chitraketu in the Bhagavatam they went out of their way to get a son but then they also got distress because of that yes there is definitely as I said if we go just as we can do actions by which we can increase our distress so happiness and distress are two parts of the same coin similarly we can do actions by which we can increase our happiness so if a person has a child they take care of the child the child grows up to be a nice responsible person they get happiness in the relationship if they neglect that child that child becomes alienated that child becomes a rebel child they get distress now if they have been neglectful in their nurturing then that is not destiny so yes we don't have to go out of our way to fulfil a particular material desire but we don't have to go out of our way to deny our talents to deny our needs to deny our interests also so growth is natural to the body all of us were just one tiny cell in our mother's womb now there are millions of cells in our body so body is constantly growing growth is natural similarly growth in all walks of life is natural growth emotionally, growth psychologically growth socially, growth physically growth in our talents this is the natural part of living but cancer is also a form of growth however when certain set of cells develop cancer and they start growing then that growth is disproportionate and destructive so when one thing starts consuming our mind so much that we start neglecting everything else for that then we lose the sense of proportion say for example when people become workaholics when they think of nothing except their work then that kind of obsession is disproportionate that kind of mania, I want wealth at all costs and they neglect their family, they neglect their spirituality they neglect their morality in earning money that will be like cancer, that will be destructive so going out of our way to seek something means seeking disproportionate growth that will be cancerous but going along the way means that we just do things according to our nature and by nature's way we get certain pleasures one more question regarding this we have responsibility of action when we see the case of Sridhar Swami when that child was born he thought that no, just like the lizard will go take care of itself so he will take care of the child similarly in Prabhupada's life where he was there is a section where it comes that he had daughters to marry, sons to marry and wives to take care and he told them I will give you a magistrate, we don't want to marry Prabhupada made up his mind he sold Bhagavad Gita for TVC Prabhupada said, this is it if I am right about it, I will say God will take care now also God will take care simply these are responsibilities for a higher purpose, Krishna purpose same with Sridhar Swami also so this is acceptable because this is true on the principle of they worship both the Pranams so that's how Krishna understood for any other cause if they had done if anyone does like that then there is a simple reaction for that so if we neglect our responsibility for a higher cause like Sridhar Swami or Prabhupada did that is good, if they do it for any other cause then we will get karmic reactions yeah there is a principle that we have our material responsibility and we also have our spiritual responsibility the ideal situation is both of them go together sometimes the two of them don't go together then we may have to in emergency situation choose a particular responsibility as higher naturally we may have to do that at the same time later on when Prabhupada became big and Prabhupada came back to India, his sons came and told him that we are facing a financial difficulty so Prabhupada made an endowment for them so the devotee's mood is not to neglect worldly responsibilities but the devotee's mood is to not let worldly responsibilities come in the way of service to Krishna so that's in a particular ashram but then that same Sri Prabhupada when he was just married and soon after that he met Bhaktsan Sri Dhakur at that time he did not think now I should renounce now God will take care at a particular time he chose that so in Sridhar Swami's life also at a particular time he chose to renounce so that these examples of dependence on Krishna are meant to inspire us inspire us also to achieve a similar mood of devotional determination but does that mean necessarily we replicate those actions exactly maybe, maybe not we have to see our situation our spiritual inclination our spiritual dedication so here I am not talking about responsibilities in my class, my point was that we all have a particular nature and we have to work according to that nature sometimes we hear that ultimately to become pure we have to come to a mode of goodness so is it true? and if it is true then how to go from our if we have a passionate nature how to go from that like keeping along with our passionate nature how to go to a mode of goodness is it that we have to come to the mode of goodness ultimately to go to transcendence then how can we work according to our passionate nature and still go towards goodness it depends on what you mean by goodness and what you mean by passion Kshatriyas are in the mode of passion but Kshatriyas can also be pure devotees the Pandavas are pure devotees but still they are still Kshatriyas so they were practising pure devotion in the Kshatriya occupation which by nature is the mode of passion so how does that work out pure devotion is transcendental Kshatriya occupation is the mode of passion so ultimately there is intention and there is execution the intention becomes pure devotional but the execution will be according to the particular kind of body that we have Prabhupada was in India at one time and there is a Hindu Mahasang over there so the leader of that Hindu Mahasang came to meet Prabhupada he heard a lecture of Prabhupada and after that he said Swamiji you pronounce Sanskrit verses in a very Bengali way so Prabhupada said what can I do I am a Bengali so Prabhupada was a pure devotee his devotional intention was pure but because his body was Bengali the words he would speak could be in the Bengali way only so it's not that pure devotion is meant to dramatically change the body it is pure devotion changes our intention so Kshatriya when they are in the mode of passion they will work and they will do the Kshatriya duties with a lot of consideration of honour and prestige and power and pleasure of course within the boundaries of Dharma but those will be very important considerations for them but as the Kshatriyas rise more and more in devotion they will do those same activities but they will do it with a more and more pure intention so Kshatriya has to fight when Arjuna was fighting Mahabharata was shooting not taking Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna he was not chanting Hare Krishna at that time his heart was devoted to Krishna but he was focused on his service and that service required passion so we if we have passion we may not wish away that passion but through our devotional connection we will keep that passion under regulation so the passion will be a part of our life but passion won't be the sole driving force of our life if we are doing sadhana bhakti that means at least for that period of time we are regulating the passion if we are cultivating a transcendental goal for our life that means overall our life is going to be directed in the mode of time towards Krishna the way we function will vary according to person to person so as we keep practising bhakti steadily we will move towards higher consciousness in our interior consciousness in our intention in our execution it may change, it may not change we don't have to become judgemental some devotees might be initially very gruff rough and tough and then as they practise bhakti they become gentle, soft spoken some devotees after years of practise still they may be rough and tough and gruff but they are rough and tough and gruff for Krishna so whether the particular way the body functions whether it changes or not that's not as important as for what purpose the body is being used what time is the next class 10 minutes yeah so like is it material out of it is so exploited in nature and then sometimes somebody uses it as an enemy for Krishna it will be misused like like like today now the education system is also like that it's been leading by the many Kali minded people leading by? Kali minded people Kali minded people ok exploited what do you mean by exploited like because because it is not leading to Krishna means they are like for money they want they want to use like for money purpose somebody PhD professor research for for money or company so what is the question how in this question how because we have to use our intelligence use our talent for Krishna so when today's environment is very money minded very exploitative how do we use our talent in Krishna's service the world is what it is and even the Krishna consciousness movement is also part of the world so as we grow in our bhakti we will find that in the Krishna consciousness movement there are different kinds of people and those kind of exploitative people you will find in the devotee community also and you will have to learn how to manage them also so it's not that somehow by becoming a devotee we can escape the nature of this world the nature of the world is what it is and when we live in devotee community devotees also come from that world only so now some devotees may rise upward some devotees may not rise fast that much so the problems of the material world will be there in the devotee community also but in the devotee community there is a devotional solution just like if there is an epidemic outside the city there is an epidemic and in the hospital also there are people who are sick with the epidemic but in the hospital there is a process for curing them so the focus is on curing now as far as people being money minded that's always been throughout history in the past when the Vedic literature was there at that time also most of the Vedic literature is about is Karma Kanda which is about Dharma, Artha and Kama a prominent western scholar when he first read the Rig Veda he said this is the most materialistic religious book that I have read in the world what do you mean by materialistic religious book it's all talking about you do this and you get this you do this and you get that so materialism this is a material world so materialism is simply a fact of life and we can't wish it away of course there is a difference that there was in the past some amount of material piety there is some amount of fear of God the understanding that God is watching me even when no one else is watching me this understanding is one of the most powerful civilising forces in human history but when people don't believe in God then that civilising force is removed then then people start acting not just materialistically but often viciously viciously in the pursuit of money so in the outside world also if you see there are people in goodness, there are people in passion there are people in ignorance very prominently people are in passion many are in ignorance but there are people in goodness also so if we decide to work in the world then we try to associate more with people in the mode of goodness the important thing is we find our way towards Krishna how best can we serve Krishna in our particular situation if it is by focussing directly on Krishna Bhakti that's wonderful if it is by engaging our talents in the world in Krishna Bhakti that's also fine how to do that? that the devotees who are actually practising Bhakti in the world they will guide us about that that's something which is a practical detail it's not that you are the first person trying to do it there are thousands and thousands of devotees all over the world and they are all doing it most devotees our movement is mostly a congregation movement all over the world and each devotee is finding the best way in which they can find a balance between applying spiritual principles and living with the realities of the material world where is the mic? sometimes we don't know our interest of this and if we are able to perform very well during this course of time then we may engage ourselves in some other work or activity I'll talk about this tomorrow this is a topic I want to talk about yes Tapaswamy here Krishna Bhakti Varnashrama but after the series of verses when he talks about he starts accepting it as alright and there in the transmission of it comes pure devotees and then Varnashrama also comes is that Varnashrama? so is Varnashrama different from pure devotional service Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first says this is external when he is told about Varnashrama and then later when he talks about how to practise Bhakti he says stay where you are and practise Bhakti so is sthane sthita same as Devi Varnashrama? it's a matter of priority when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is talking about that Varnashrama is external what that means is that we may work according to our position but in the traditional Varnashrama the idea that Krishna is the goal of one's life that may not be very clear there are brahmanas of different kinds in the Mahabharat in the Ramayana it is described that when Ravana would go to fight against Ram there were brahmanas performing yajna for Ravana so there was yath dhanas there were particular kind of brahmanas who would do worship for him so it's not necessary that somebody is working according to Varnashrama we are working for Krishna Devi Varnashrama is the idea of that whatever Varna we are in we can serve Krishna accordingly from their situation now whether this Devi Varnashrama historically existed ever or it is a conception which our acharyas have envisioned to implement that is something which is open to discussion because traditionally if we look at the history even at the time of Maharaj, even at the time of the Pandavas or at the time of if we look at the Ramayana when Lord Ram goes to the forest he talks with many sages and many of the sages are impersonalists when Pandavas go to the forest he meets many people, they meet many people who are shaktas, who are chaiwites so many people of different varieties and even Bhagwatam itself says that Shamik Rishi was an impersonalist so there is a wide panorama of people existing even when the Vedic culture was there even at the time of the scriptures so especially when special kings like Parikshit or Yudhishthir or Ambarish, when they were ruling they would have infused everyone with the mood of pure devotion and at that time we could have said whatever varanashram was there was a Dahi Varanashram, but whether it was always existing throughout history that may or may not be so so when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying Iha Bahaya, he is saying that just doing one's varanashram duties for Krishna's pleasure that is not bhakti that is not pure devotion but be where we are, focus your life on glorifying Krishna on hearing Krishna's glories so it's a matter of priority I am here and from here I will do the work for Krishna that's one thing so the second is wherever I am, it doesn't matter my life is for Krishna so in the first case the priority is my material situation and then from there I serve Krishna and the second case the emphasis of sthane sthita is not to do varanashram duty, it is don't bother too much about changing your material situation focus on glorifying Krishna that's the stress of that verse one last question then we will continue tomorrow I have two questions first question is like you were saying that we should do according to our nature or whatever we are learning to do but it may be due to certain conditions we have to do something that is not according to our I will talk about this tomorrow this whole question about nature and working I will talk about it tomorrow second question is is it right time to choose that word as tomorrow we will talk about this tomorrow thank you for very enlightening class when we are talking about engaging our nature when we read proper books it's many times visible like when Krishna is also telling and he is giving step down like levels however sometimes I personally feel that sometimes when it is spoken it becomes quite forceful and forceful in the sense means like nature we don't we keep it aside and then we many times we just use certain very key words which help us very much and many times we surrender so so what I am trying to say is that whenever like the classes are given so is it that we want the audience to come at the highest level and then maybe in personal interaction exactly how we ok good question so Prabhupada in his books just talk about say working according to nature but then we also speak forcefully often to inspire people to surrender to Krishna so is it that in public we talk about the principles of surrender and then in personal counselling we accommodate people according to their level yeah the principle here is that the mind chooses the path of least resistance the mind chooses the path of least resistance so if we offer people encouragement at the level they are sorry if we offer people engagement at the level they are they will just stay there only and they may never rise one of my uncles he said he used to tell me I believe in God, he is happy there I am happy here this is a good example of piety leading to complacency so one believes in God but one doesn't think that one has to devote one's life to God so basically certainly everybody needs to be prodded so that they can rise upwards Prabhupada says in one lecture he says that Prabhupada he pushes a lot Prabhupada says yes my spiritual master pushed me I will push you we are a pushing movement so we all need to be pushed no doubt about it and it is often the philosophical classes which talk about the principles of pure devotional service that is what helps us to push that is what helps us keep moving so talking about the principles of pure devotional pure devotional is definitely important at the same time there are three situations here the person at this level we want them to rise to this level now some people can rise immediately to that level some people try but they find that this can't then we should be able to engage them at that level if we keep pushing them when people are not ready to move forward what will happen is they may well get alienated it's it's a little dicey how pushing works sometimes pushing can push people towards Krishna sometimes the same push can push people away from Krishna these people are too pushy I don't want those people so how it will work we don't know so basically that's why in principle we want everyone to rise to higher and higher level of devotion and we also want to rise to higher level of devotion at the same time we don't want to reject people if they can't rise so as I said from here people can rise here or people can stay there and serve Krishna and people may go away from Krishna so we should be able to speak in such a way that people who want to rise or who have the inclination and capacity to rise, they rise but people who can't they don't feel so pressured that they go away it's like say imagine we are going to a new place and we are doing Harinam Kirtan over there we have got a place where we have opened a small centre and we are doing Kirtan and we keep the door open and some people just come in and they join the Kirtans some people stay at the door and they look in what is going on come in, come in I will stay here and watch come in, come in now we open the door for some people to come in and if they refuse to come in BANG we slam the door in their face and we don't have to do that they are not ready to come in ok from there itself they are watching the Kirtan they may not join the Kirtan but they are at least getting purified by that so opening the door for people to come in means we talk about the higher principles of devotion by which we encourage them to rise higher but when we open the door for people to come in, if they don't come in we don't have to slam the door in their face that means we don't have to make them feel guilty because they are not rising at a higher level we don't have to make them feel you are insincere, you are this, you are that ok, you want to be there be there also, we accept that now we may not spend that much time with those people, if those people are coming in we may spend more time we will reciprocate with people based on their interests so we basically have to have a multi-level approach where we definitely talk about the highest level but at the same time we also learn to accept people at the level where they are at some people can be pushed and pushing works to get them higher for some people pushing doesn't work so after some time you just understand this person is at this level, it's ok it's ok if that person is at that same level and they can do a huge amount of service for Krishna sometimes just being at that level so that's how there has to be a multi-faceted approach we do talk about the principles of pure devotion but we can talk about them in a descriptive way rather than a prescriptive way that means basically in the western world this is how outreach works, outreach can be done in three broad ways descriptive, normative and prescriptive prescriptive means this is what you are meant to do in the western world it has become post-modern India has also become post-modern post-modern basically means that nobody accepts authority the idea is that ultimately all authority claims are power claims you just want power so they don't want to accept any authority so if you say this is the thing you should do a simple example of how the post-modern mind works say if a couple is married together for 25 years they have some programme for young couples who are getting married we have been married for the last 25 years and anybody who divorces is a sinner and is going to go to hell and they will say you go to hell we don't want to hear from you none of you should ever divorce who are you to tell me that the same couple says we would like to share how we make the marriage work oh yeah please tell us so normative means this is right and this is wrong prescriptive means this is what you should do and this is what you should not do descriptive means this is what we do and this is why we do it so the descriptive way works for people very much oh this is why you are doing ok this makes sense let me also try this out so basically for some people especially some people who have come to a level where they can accept authority where they have been they have some training in submission the prescriptive may work some people who accept Shastra as authority for them normative may work ok this is Shastra this is right this is wrong but for most people they may not be at that level then at that time the descriptive way why do you chant Hare Krishna this is the reason why we chant Hare Krishna we explain that therefore you should chant Hare Krishna as soon as I start doing that I want to know what you are doing I will do it at my peace so basically we have to for those people who are to be encouraged to come up you might sometimes use the prescriptive and normative way of speaking that is required but for some people that doesn't work they just use the descriptive way and they take what they can and they move at their pace so thank you very much Vishwa Prabhupada ki Jai Gaur Bhaktam ki Jai Bhai Gaur Premam Deo.