Dhruva pastime analysis 1 – Everyone faces distress, the fortunate find the right direction – DHRUV acronym
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
So, today morning, we are discussing the dramatic and victorious conclusion of the past time of Guru Maharaj. Wherein, now, he is attaining the success that all spiritual seekers aspire for. That of attaining the spiritual world.
He has ascended the Vaikuntha aeroplane and is going through the airways showered with flowers and praises by the celestials as he attains life's supreme destination. And Krishna Prabhupada, in his part, explains how Guru Maharaj's body became transformed. So, when we say sometimes some great devotees go back in the self-same body, what it means is that the form in the material world and the form in the spiritual world is similar.
The body for functioning in the material world may be material. And the body for functioning in the spiritual world may be spiritual. But, as Guru Prabhupada said, the transmutation happens over here.
And thus, he is able to attain the spiritual freedom. And also, he says that how his mother directed him and does she also reap the benefit. So, the next 3-4 days, I'll be giving bhagavatam classes.
So, I'll go over this Guru Maharaj's pastime and draw some lessons that we can learn from it. So, I'll use an acronym centred on the character, Dhruva. So, I'll talk about D-H-R-U-V.
So, today I'll speak on D and depending on time, I'll go to H. So, in each of these, I'll talk about two aspects. Two which are related. So, D will be, the theme I'll speak today is distress and direction.
Distress is just a fact of life. The single thing that causes us to be unhappy is the belief that everyone else is happy. No other belief brings greater unhappiness in life than the belief in others' happiness.
Actually, distress is a universal fact of life. It is just inescapable. Shri Prabhupada in the Purport to 9.33 which is kim punar brahma punya bhakta rajyoshya sthatha anityam asukham lokam imam praka bhaja svama in anityam asukham lokam that this world is temporary and it is a place of distress.
kim praka bhaja svama Now that you have attained this world, Krishna says, worship me and go beyond this world. So, Krishna is not stressing this. He is just taking it as an assumed fact.
Something everybody understands. Even in the words we quote, maham vettir punar janmitu khala vishashvatam naapnamanti mahatmana samsiddhim paramam gathaham that by being devoted to me, the great souls attain the destination from which they do not have to come back to this distressful and temporary place. So, Krishna in both these two references 8.15 and 9.33 in neither of these references Krishna is talking about is not trying to explain or justify or highlight the fact that this world is a place of distress.
It is just a given truth. Just like say if we consider Melbourne in winter. It is a given that it is a cold place.
There is no need to argue it. There is no need to prove it. It is a self-evident fact.
So, even a little experience of life in the world helps us see that distress is universal. Everybody suffers. Some time or the other.
The form of distress may be different. The frequency of the distress may be different. But, distress comes upon everyone.
And in fact, almost all traditional world views by traditional I mean pre-modern world views, they accepted this fact that this world is a place of distress and we need to transcend this world. There is some other world beyond this which is our destination. The defining difference between the pre-modern world views and the modern world view is in this emphasis on some other world and complete emphasis on this world alone.
So, in the modern world view, the idea is some other world may exist or may not exist but this is the world which you want to make happy. And through technology at one level, a lot of comforts are provided. A lot of distress is mitigated.
But more than that, through technology at a much greater level, the illusion of comfort and happiness is created. Through technology, we see all over the world through movies, through ads, we see people with happy looks, smiling faces, smart. We start thinking, everyone is happy.
And we start thinking, I alone am unhappy. So, this idea that we alone are unhappy increases our unhappiness manifold. Now, this does not mean that we want others to be unhappy.
It is not that it's a misery loves company. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody should be miserable. All that, when it says misery loves company, it is used in a different context.
It says that when one person is miserable, they want to make others also miserable. That's not what we are talking about here. When we understand that everybody has to face distress in life, then we don't feel single-duct.
Suppose, say, it's cold and everybody is trembling. Everybody is getting warm clothes, everybody is coming prepared and everybody is combating that cold. Then we don't feel that bad.
But if we alone have got a disease like malaria and chills all over the body, then we feel much worse because everybody else is comfortable and we are uncomfortable. So, actually, discovering… Many people talk about democracy. Everybody, wherever there is autocracy, it should be removed and democracy should be brought about.
So, yes, establishing democracy may be helpful. There is one social critic who said that democracy is a terrible form of government. But it is the best among all terrible forms of government.
So, similarly, we can talk about democracy of misery. Democracy of misery means everybody has equal rights. So, everybody is equal in facing distress.
The form of distress can vary. And because of that, some people may feel, oh, those people are so much more happy. So, poor people may feel that wealthy people are happy.
And wealthy people may be more comfortable in many ways. But that comfort is not necessarily translated to happiness. They have their own mental distresses.
Huge amount of mental troubles. Statistically speaking, people who are in physical poverty do not commit suicide as frequently as those people who are in mental agony. That means we could say, suicide is caused because one feels life is unbearable.
And that means the people who are committing suicide, actually they are in greater pain than those who are not committing that. If physical poverty does not impel people to suicide as much as does mental agony, that means people in mental agony are also suffering enormously. It is said that technology is the art of distancing ourselves from the experience of reality.
What technology does is, it distances us to the reality of the world. It's very cold outside, but we use technology and we don't feel that cold. Okay, what are we doing after that? But then at the end of the day, we may be doing some functional, some important work.
And yes, if the cold is there, it's uncomfortable, we avoid it. But when avoiding reality itself becomes the purpose, like people play video games. Some people may be so lazy, they can't even get out of their beds.
And they think they're great heroes shooting down images on a video screen. So, in this case, what happened? They're denying reality. They're disconnecting from reality.
So, one reality that technology often disconnects us from is that distress is universal. And, if we just understand this point, yes, I am suffering, but everybody undergoes distress. I was in Canada, I was speaking with a devotee who's in psychotherapy.
He's telling me that for many years, he was doing a one-to-one psychotherapy. But recently, he has started group psychotherapy. Now, I said, you know, who would want to open their hearts to a whole group of people? Speaking to one person also, our problem is not so easy, not even confided.
He said, no, we have codes of confidentiality and nobody is meant to share what they've spoken over there. But he said, the advantage of group psychotherapy is that people get to hear each other's problems. As long as they're thinking, I alone am facing so many problems, then it's a big burden.
So, he said to me, after one session where it was very therapeutic, everybody opened their hearts. So, he said after that, if all of you had the option, all your biggest problems could be put in a pile in front of you and you could interchange. Would you want to interchange your problem with anyone else's? And nobody wanted to.
So, everybody in this world has problems. So, I was quoting Anitya Masukam Lokum. Prabhupada says, there are gradations in this world, such as wealthy, poor, intelligent, dull, good looking, not so good looking.
But, ultimately, this world is a place of distress for everyone. So, these gradations, these are differences which make a difference at the material level, at the immediate level. If I'm going to travel from one place to another, if I have money, I may travel in the economy class, in a premium travel.
Otherwise, I travel by economy. But, that makes a difference. But, ultimately, if the plane crashes, both people are going to die, isn't it? So, life is like a tube plane, ultimately.
Everybody is going to crash. So, distress was something which befell Dhruv Maharaj. At that time, it was simply Dhruv, a small boy.
And, distress can not only come upon us, it can come upon us in the most unlikeliest of settings. You know, child at home, protected by parents, just doing something very ordinary, just climbing on the lap of the father, to sit on that lap. Generally, when somebody comes to our house, we say, feel at home.
Feel at home means, feel comfortable. At home, we are protected, we feel protected, we feel accepted, we feel safe. So, Dhruv was at his home, and not alone at home, he was with his father.
The father is considered to be a protector. Mother, of course, is a protector. Parents are protectors.
So, he's with his father, with his family, and an ordinary event, like he's climbing on the lap of his father. And what happened? His stepmother pushed him down. And she spoke harsh words.
She said, unless you are born from my womb, you have no right to sit on the king's lap. That lap belongs only to my son. And, let me say, for Dhruv, what was the big deal? Okay, he wanted to sit on the lap.
He was pushed down from the lap. Why did he get so disturbed? Actually, our agitation is a function of our expectations. Our agitation, how much we get agitated, that depends on what is our expectation.
Now, if we come to a relative's place or a friend's place, at least we expect us to be greeted politely, to be offered some hospitality. If you're going to some strange place, we don't have that expectation. So, if a friend neglects us, if a relative rejects us, that will hurt us much more than if some stranger neglects or rejects us.
Because there, there is no expectation. So, for Dhruv, his father, he expected the father to be a fount of affection. And, when his stepmother, she pushed him off, and his father remained silent.
That hurt him unbearably. It is said that the harshest words of our enemies don't sting as much as does the silence of our friends. When we are accused of something, when we are being blamed, when we are being unjustly singled out, there will be people who are opposed to us, and they are going to criticise us.
That's just the way life is. And we expect that. So, the harshest words of our opponents, of our enemies, don't hurt as much as the silence of our friends.
Those whom we thought we could count on, they will support me, they will help me, they will stand by me. When they remain silent, that hurts enormously. So, for Dhruv, his father's remaining silent hurt him enormously.
He felt, this is my father, I am just sitting on his lap. How can he let me be pushed off and not speak anything? So, it is a natural child's expectation which is frustrated. So, for him, it was unbearable.
He cried. He ran to his mother. When children are small, they need a shelter.
If their father is there, mother is there. So, when his father neglected him, he ran to his mother. And, at that time, his mother had already heard.
Dhruv was so agonised, agonised that he didn't know what to do. He was dazed for a few moments. And then he ran to his mother.
Before that, a maid who had been there in the palace, she ran and told Sunithi what had happened. And Sunithi was mortified. And she knew she was helpless.
In her situation, she was not the favoured wife of her husband. And she knew she had to limit her truth soul. So, she consoled Dhruv.
And she said that I cannot help you. But Dhruv, he was a, he had the Kshatriya blood within him. And he felt, I have to set this wrong right.
And his mood was, you think that I am not sitting, worthy of sitting on the lap of the person who is sitting on the throne? I will get a throne bigger than your throne. And I will sit on that throne. So, that was the determination that crystallised within him.
When something bad happens to us, it leads to shock. It leads to fury. And then, what happens is important.
Even when Abhimanyu was slaughtered, Arjuna, when he came to know about it, he just collapsed. Devastated. He was overcome by grief.
That grief, which came from shock, gradually gave way to fury. But from that fury came something constructive. Fury led to his becoming determined to get back at the person who had hurt his, who had killed him, who had been responsible for killing his son.
That was Jayadhar. Jayadhar had not shot, not personally hit Abhimanyu, but Jayadhar had been responsible for separating Abhimanyu from those who were supporting him. So, this is where the direction comes into the picture.
Distress will come upon every one of us, but if we are properly directed, then the distress will lead to something constructive. If we are not directed properly, the distress will only lead to helplessness or to destructiveness. Helplessness means you do nothing except feel sorry for ourselves.
Destructiveness means we start hurting others. You hurt me, I'll hurt you back. But if we are directed properly, from distress can come something great.
So, Arjuna achieved the greatest victory of his life on the day following the distress. Sometimes it is asked, when we feel strongly, when we have strong emotions, should we act on our emotions or should we just neglect our emotions and not act? If we feel strongly about something, we can't not act. Our emotions often determine whether we act.
But our emotions shouldn't determine how we act. Our emotions often determine whether we act. This is terribly wrong.
This has to be corrected. So, it's only when we feel strongly about something that we will act on it. So, our emotions will determine whether we act.
But they can't be allowed to determine how we act. Because usually, under the grip of emotions, we act impulsive. And impulsive action is frequently destructive.
At the very least, it's not constructive. So, if we feel strongly about something, we cannot wish it away. We have to act on it.
But we have to act constructively. And that's what we acknowledge the emotion that we're feeling. And then, after acknowledging that emotion, we activate our intelligence to decide how to act on that emotion.
Not just do whatever the emotion impulses. So, in this case, Dhruva was fortunate enough that he got the direction of his mother. That direction was for him, he said, I cannot help you.
But I know who can help you. That is the Supreme Lord. He says, Lord Vishnu, he is the person who has given not only your father the kingdom, he has given even our ancestor Brahmaji his kingdom.
Whoever has any post in the world, they've all got it because of Vishnu. And not only he can offer you position, he can also offer you affection. He can offer you more love than what a million mothers like me can offer.
This is where somebody who has devotion also needs to have detachment. When we have affection for someone, sometimes we may help someone come to bhakti, we may help someone to grow in bhakti. And naturally a bond of attachment is formed over there.
That attachment can be spiritual because we are helping them grow on the spiritual path. At the same time, when we are helping someone, when we are guiding someone, at that time there is that mood of being the maintainer. Being the creator, being the maintainer.
And to acknowledge that there is something which I can't provide. Or that what I can provide somebody else can provide that better. That is not easy.
So for Dhruva's mother, say, okay, I cannot provide you position for that you go to Vishnu. But then if Dhruva goes alone to the forest, how is he going to live? She says, no, a child needs a mother's affection. Vishnu can offer you more affection than what a million mothers can offer you.
Sometimes when we get people to Krishna lotus feet, we become attached to them. This is my person. I brought this person.
Sometimes they may have certain needs which we may not be able to fulfil. And we need to be ready to hand them over to someone who can fulfil those needs. Ultimately, we are not fulfilling anyone's needs.
It is Krishna who is using us as an instrument to fulfil their needs. So when we get this direction, the right direction, okay, this distress has happened. What do I do in this distress? So that direction can come externally from spiritual guides, from our mentors, from our spiritual master, from well-wishing seniors.
And it can also come internally from the super soul. If we are practising bhakti diligently, on a regular basis during the routine course of our life, if we practise bhakti sincerely, then through that practise of Krishna that I want your guidance. I want to live my life in harmony with your guidance.
So if we show Krishna like this, then when distress comes and distress disorients us, discombobulates us, at that time, Krishna will reorient us. Krishna will guide us from within. In the Bhagavatam's first canto, chapters 4 to 6, describe the Narada Vyasa Samvad, the conversation between Narada and Vyasa which led to the manifestation of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
And there it is described how Narada, how Vyasa was dissatisfied even after composing all the Vedic literature. And then Narada Muni came and told him, Are you satisfied by equating the self with the body and the mind? You have not glorified the spotless glories of Hari. And that conversation inspired Narada and Vyasa Dev to compose the Srimad Bhagavatam.
But significantly, even before Narada Muni comes and tells this to Vyasa Dev, one of the last verses of the fourth chapter which is titled Appearance of Narada. Actually Narada appears only in the second last verse of that chapter. But the whole chapter is directed towards that appearance.
So in one of the third or fourth verses towards the end, from the end, Vyasa Dev himself gets the same intuition. Could my dissatisfaction be because I did not glorify Lord Hari? So, his intuition and his spiritual master's direction both harmonise. How does he get that intuition? Because he has been serving the religion.
And thus, he is given that guidance by the Lord. So when distress comes, the direction that we take will determine our destiny. When we become devotees, it is not that distress will stop.
Distress is simply a universal fact of life. Whether we are devotees or non-devotees, distress will come. If we are sick, whether we are under treatment or we are not under treatment, sickness means there will be some problems, some pain.
But if we are under treatment, then the sickness will inspire us to take the treatment more. The sensation of the pain when it comes, that will inspire us to take the treatment more. Similarly for us, as devotees, when problems come, that problem will inspire us to intensify our bhakti.
And by the intensification of the bhakti, we will be able to transcend the suffering. Not just transcend the suffering, we will be able to transform the situation. I'll speak more about this in tomorrow's class, but where I'll talk about how Dhruva Maharaj receives instructions from Narada Muni.
Bhakti has two aspects to it. That there is a world transcending aspect and there is a world transforming aspect. So, Dhruva Maharaj goes to Krishna.
Not because he wants to transcend the world. In fact, he rejects the instruction of transcending the world, but still he practises bhakti. And thereby he transcends.
He goes for transforming his worldly situation. I want a kingdom bigger than my father's. But what he gets, he gets that transformed situation, but when he gets it, his consciousness has transcended the situation.
What has happened there is, when he gets the kingdom, he tells, that he says, my dear lord, that because of wanting a kingdom, I came and performed austerities to you, to please you. But now when I've got you, I feel that the kingdom is just like a broken piece of glass. You, oh lord, are like a fulging priceless jewel.
So the important thing is, even when we are in distress, and when we are in distress, we feel I need a material solution to this problem. And yes, many distressful situations do require a material solution. Say, if I've got a fracture, it's not that I chant Hare Krishna and the fracture will get healed.
I can say Krishna can do anything, but a devotee's mood is not to demand Krishna to do everything for me. A devotee's mood is to serve Krishna, not demand that Krishna serve us. So we will have to do, at a practical level, we have to go and take a treatment, maybe do a surgery or whatever is required.
But, as devotees, we don't restrict ourselves to the practical solution. We focus on the transcendental solution also. That is, take shelter of Krishna.
At a practical level, the distress will come, distress will stay, distress will go. Again, distress will come, distress will stay, distress will go. It's like on the coast, waves will keep coming.
Waves will come, the water will rise for some time, the waves will go, water will recede. Waves will rise, water will rise, water will recede. So like that, distresses will come and go.
Distresses will come and go. This is what life is all about. But, if through those distresses we take shelter of Krishna, then it won't just be the same old story again and again.
One problem, another problem, another problem. Through each problem, our consciousness will be rising upwards towards Krishna. And having that direction of what is the best way to deal with this problem, that is vital.
That direction is what will enable us to transform not just the situation, but to transform ourselves. And when we transform ourselves, our consciousness rises more and more towards the level where ultimately as Dhruva Maharaj has attained Vaikuntha, we will also one day, by Krishna's mercy, by Shri Raghupath's mercy, have the consciousness elevated enough by which they can take us to Vaikuntha. So we don't just deal with the distresses at a horizontal level.
This problem, this solution. Yes, we have to deal with the distress at a horizontal level, but it's equally important to deal with distress at a vertical level. Vertical level means by raising our consciousness.
So that direction to raise our consciousness is what is very much missing in today's world. Everybody in today's world is focussing on material solutions to material problems. Yes, at a material level also problems need to be addressed.
But even more important is to raise our consciousness. And when we raise our consciousness, we may or may not get release from the problem. But we will get relief amidst the problem.
The problem may remain, but we will get relief amidst the problem. Because our consciousness will rise above. When our consciousness is fixed on Krishna, the painful stimuli will be there and it will cause pain.
But we won't obsess on it. I'll conclude with this point. Now we may have to live with pain, but we don't have to live in pain.
We may have to live with pain. Painful stimuli will come in our life. Suppose somebody has got a backache, back problem.
Pain, they have to live with that. Sometimes some problems like backache are, it's not curable, they're chronic. We have to live with it.
But just because we have to live with pain, it doesn't mean we have to live in pain. Living in pain means constantly thinking about that only. Even when the back is not paining, we think now, I'm going to get this pain.
Last time it came so bad, next time it will be worse. And even when the pain is not there, still we are thinking about the pain and so we are in pain. So what happens? Pain, if we consider our consciousness to be like a circle, pain can be a component of our consciousness.
It is there. We can't deny. Sometimes a relational issue might be there, some emotional issue might be there, some financial issue might be there.
So those will cause us pain. So pain will always be a component of our consciousness. But, if the pain becomes the container of our consciousness, pain is what we experience, then life becomes unbearable.
So that capacity to shift our consciousness from the painful situation to some higher purpose, that capacity is what is developed by our practise of bhakti yoga. When we want to practise bhakti yoga, it is not just to do some rituals, but it is to detach our consciousness from our material situations. To expand our consciousness so that we are not caught in being conscious only of the material things.
That we are conscious of the bigger picture. Because this problem is there, but Krishna is also there in my life. And, if I become conscious of Krishna, even if that problem doesn't go away, I will get relief by being conscious of Krishna.
So even if I don't get relief from problems, I can get relief amidst the problem. And this is the constructive direction that we can get from distress, if we take shelter of Krishna and practise bhakti. So, I'll summarise.
I spoke today about how this Dhruv Maharaj pastime is now moving towards its culmination with Dhruva ascending to the Vaikuntha in the spiritual aeroplane. And, I talked about Dhruv Maharaj pastime background in Dhruva. I spoke about D. Two parts.
What are the two parts? Distress and direction. Thank you. So, in distress, I spoke about how no belief causes as much unhappiness as the belief that everyone else is having happiness.
The misery is democratic. Everybody has problems. The form and frequency may vary.
Some people in poverty may have physical problems. People in wealth may have mental problems. Mental agony can make more people suicidal than physical poverty.
So, it's not that we want everyone to be miserable, but it's when we understand that I alone am not being singled out. Then misery becomes more bearable. So, how? When the context of Bhagavad Gita was spoken, Krishna did not have to explain to Arjuna that this world is a place of distress.
It's a given fact. Like the weather of Melbourne is cold. Like that, Krishna just mentions it in passing twice.
This world is stressful. Get out of it. So, this distress in this world is obvious if we look at the world with open eyes.
But, unfortunately, with technological advancement and the propagation of the modern world view, the idea that this world is a place of distress that is to be transcended, that has been exiled from the public mind, and people think this world is what is a happy place or it will become a happy place. So, technology is the art of distancing ourselves from the experience of reality. Through technology, we see how happy people are everywhere.
We think, oh, I alone am unhappy. So, once we accept that everybody is in distress, then we can deal with the distress constructively. And I talked about how distress can come in the unlikeliest of settings.
A child at home with a father is considered safe. But there, through heart-breaking rejection, and the harsh words of his stepmother interpret him as a neglect of his father. Our frustration, our agitation is a function of our expectation.
Now, for Dhruv Maharaj's mother, it was an act of devotional detachment that she recognised, I cannot provide you, therefore go to Krishna. He can provide you a bigger position than your father, and he can provide you greater affection than what I can provide. So, we, if we become possessive of the people whom we bring to Krishna, then we may become impediments in their spiritual growth.
Whatever is their need, we guide them towards where that need can be fulfilled. I conclude that the direction is, when there is distress, there'll be shock, there'll be grief, there'll be fury. But what after that? This is Arjuna, channelled his grief and fury constructively, so did Dhruva.
So, our emotions may determine whether we act, but they can't be allowed to determine how we act. The direction can come either from external spiritual guide, as it came for Dhruv Maharaj from Suniti, or it can come from the Supersoul, as it happened for Vyasadeva, and which is confirmed by Narada Muni. So, if we practise bhakti diligently during the rooting course of our life, we show Krishna we want to be guided, then Krishna will guide us in the midst of distress also.
And we can deal with distress horizontally by looking for a solution to the problem, which often has to be done, but we don't restrict our effort to that. We also work horizontally to raise our consciousness above the worldly situations. So, by taking the guidance of Krishna, we may or may not get relief from the problem, but we will get relief amidst the problem.
We may have to live with pain, but we don't have to live in pain if we learn to live in Krishna. We learn to absorb our consciousness in Krishna, that pain may be one stimulus within our consciousness, but it won't overwhelm us. And then the distresses will keep coming and going in life, but we won't be simply combating one distress after another, but rather we will be rising to raising our consciousness towards Krishna, where we ultimately go beyond this world of distress.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Okay.
So, for us, devotees, how often is it possible to channel our anger or hurt feelings in a constructive way? It's not a matter of digital logic, that it is possible or it is not possible. It's analogue. Quite often, we go through progressions.
So, sometimes there might be by default or on the edge. But as soon as we become aware of the wrong reaction, then we can do post correction. Say, somebody is a firefighter.
Now, even the most seasoned firefighters, when they see a huge fire, they may also be alarmed. They may also panic for a few minutes. But then, all their training, which has shaped their instincts, comes into the picture.
Okay, take this fire hose. Attack it from here. Attack the fire from there.
And they will swing in rotation. Now, when somebody is a very new firefighter, when they go to the fire scene, they will just get paralysed. They will drop the hose and they will be like, what can I do about this? So, now, that human emotion of shock, alarm, fear is natural.
But training means that that reaction doesn't last for long. So, as that new firefighter becomes trained, then, okay, that panic, that fear will be there, but it will recur faster. So, similarly for us, we all have certain default patterns of behaviour.
So, when a fire of distress, fire of problems comes up, somebody behaves in a way that seems outrageous to us, there may be the instinctive wrong reaction. We may snap at them. But, I shouldn't have done that.
So, check it at that. So, it's not that just because we can't have the right response right from the beginning, that doesn't mean we are going to have the wrong response. We can do the course correction as soon as we realise it.
So, another aspect of this is that as we become more self-aware, we become more introspective and understanding. These are the situations in which I tend to get agitated and to overreact. Then, we prepare in advance.
And, if we are prepared, then the possibility of responding rightly is greater. There is no certainty. We still respond wrongly, but the possibility becomes more.
Basically, if you consider inside us, there is the force which pushes us to act impulsively. And, there is another force which prompts us to act intelligently. So, this is the higher force.
We could broadly call this the force of the intelligence. This is the force of the mind. So, education and conviction strengthens the intelligence.
And by that, at least, when the mind pushes in some direction, there is someone to counter-push. If the education is not there, the conviction is not there, then we become angry and I think I am right to get angry. I was at a place and there was one devotee who was domineering everyone.
And, everybody was in big trouble. He was nitpicking and finding small faults with everyone. And then, when I was talking to the devotee, he said, if people did what I was telling them to do, I would not have to criticise them.
So, instead of acknowledging that his reaction is bad, he is blaming them only. So, then, there is no chance of rectification if one thinks the problem is only out there. Yes, others may be doing something wrong and that needs to be corrected.
But, correcting also has to be done in a proper way. So, the point I am making is, if the intelligence is not alert and strong, then there is no impetus to resist also when the mind pushes. So, anger comes and you get angry.
I think I am right to get angry. But, when the intelligence is strong, then, okay, I am getting angry. But, there is a way to express it.
This is not the right way. So, at one level, by regular hearing of scripture and by ourselves contemplating that scripture, the intelligence becomes strong and actually the resisting force within us becomes stronger. So, even if this force of anger comes up and makes us do something wrong, we will realise and we will correct ourselves first.
This is educational convention. But, the other aspect is purification. When purification happens, then this impulse itself weakens.
This impulse itself goes away. At that time, the right response becomes natural. All of us may have some pet food that we like, some favourite foods.
We may need to overeat those foods. So, then we may say, this is not good for me. I like sweets, but I am diabetic.
I can't eat so many sweets. So, the desire may come, but the intelligence is known. But, suppose some of us might have been eating meat maybe before we came to birth.
Now, when I train on a plane, if we see somebody else eating meat, then the desire doesn't come out. So, that is purification. So, if we start expecting right from the beginning itself that there should not be a wrong reaction on my part.
Or, there should not be a wrong emotion also on my part. That is unrealistic. The unwanted emotion will come and it will push us in a particular direction.
But, we can at least have a material strong by which we can push back. And, as you keep practising bhakti and you become purified, then that wrong emotion will also decrease. Any other questions? Yes.
Yeah. What advice would you give to people who are distressful? Who are not Krishna conscious? Yeah. If somebody is in great distress, but they are not Krishna conscious, they are from other cultures, how can we help them? A lot will depend on our relationship with them.
When people are distressed, more than solution, often what they want is understanding. How much trouble are we in? When life has hurt us, if somebody just hears us out, I have so much trouble. Even if there is no solution that is offered, still that unburdens us.
Because there is a physical dimension to the problem and there is a psychological dimension to the problem. The physical dimension is the actual problem out there. The psychological dimension is all our traumatic feelings associated with that problem.
So, when we share our hearts with someone and they hear us, then that psychological dimension decreases. It doesn't go away. That burden decreases.
So, one thing which we can do with anyone, if we have that relationship, if we have the time, is just give them an understanding ear, an understanding heart. No need to philosophise or trivialise their suffering. Just hear.
That helps a lot. And then, beyond that, how exactly we can help them if they are committed to their particular spiritual practises? Then we encourage them to practise that. Prabhupada had two broad approaches when he interacted with Christians.
Prabhupada did not interact so much with people of other faiths, such as Islam or others. Primarily, his followers were people who had been formerly Christians. So, if somebody had just been nominally Christian, Prabhupada would encourage them to practise Krishna Bhakti.
Chant Hare Krishna. It's universal that the same God who is being worshipped by Jesus, we are also worshipping that same God. But this is a potent means of connecting with that God.
And people experience that potency that sometimes some attachments which are very difficult to give up by chanting, we just give them up so easily. So, that potency is there. It is there for people to experience.
So, if they are not committed to their particular path, we can encourage them, not in a sense that you convert to our path. It is just there. This is a means to access higher consciousness.
So, I give the example that this is material consciousness, this is spiritual consciousness. And there are various ways. So, material consciousness is like a ground level.
Spiritual consciousness is like the first level. There are various ways to go from the ground level to the first level. So, when we are distressed, we need to rise to higher consciousness.
Now, which way we do that, that can vary. If somebody has an accessible path in their own tradition, which they are habituated, we encourage them to follow that. If not, then, this is the path which we have found beneficial.
You can try it. So, we don't have to phrase it in a way which seems like we are using their distress as a means to proselytise to them. That is not our purpose.
Our purpose is not just to increase the ranks of any particular institution. Our purpose is to raise people's consciousness. And if joining a particular institution helps them or following the guidelines of a particular institution helps them, why not? But that's not our focus.
Our focus is to help people rise to higher consciousness. So, if we have that attitude, we can say, okay, this person is here. From here, what is the best way out for them? And we encourage them to take that path.
So, stop. Okay. Okay.
Yes, Puneet. We have talked about distress and we also see that whatever distress we have, there are more distressful people around the world. And secondly, we also have some happiness in our life.
So, we can focus on happy parts of our life rather than focussing on distress and also say that I'm not all that bad after all. That positive mentality might help us to overcome the distressful situation and progress towards positive action. Yes.
Thank you. Yes. When there are distresses in our life, we can look at the positives, the happiness in our life and that can also help us become more constructive.
Yeah, it's vital. I said that when the mind the mind tends to count problems. This problem, this problem, this problem, this problem.
So, when the mind counts problems, the intelligence should count blessings. This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. But this is right in my life, this is right in my life, this is right in my life, this is right in my life.
So, when we see that, then it's much, much easier to actually face difficulties. In fact, I was in Wellington last week. We had a Sunday feast class precisely on this topic.
How to look for blessings amidst problems? So, broadly we can say three things. First is we make a habit of counting blessings regularly. All the things that are good in our life.
Then when problems come, we can go back. This is the blessing. So, there are general blessings which are valuable.
Then the second is when the problem comes, there are certain blessings which help us to deal with that problem. If suddenly I get a disease, terrible disease, and it's painful, but okay, you know, I'm young, I'm reasonably healthy, or I have health insurance, this disease is curable, there is a supportive community to help me. So, if the problem itself is too big and our mind is obsessing over the problem, then we can shift to okay, at least I have something with which to deal with the problem.
Then otherwise we feel that this blessing is unconnected. Okay, I'll just bless him, but his problem is there. When Parikshit Maharaj is cursed to die in seven days, at that time when Shukdev Goswami has come over there, he thanks them that this great crisis that has come in my life, it is by your blessings, by your gracious presence that I'll be able to go over this crisis.
So, he doesn't obsess over why was I so unfairly cursed. He looks for the blessing that is helping him to deal with that curse, deal with that problem. And third is that we even in that problem itself there might be some blessing.
That is very difficult to perceive at that time, but if we look back at our life, at the past, often the things that seem terrible, they open some new doors for us. So, then that requires patience. More than patience, not just passive patience, but faith that there is a higher plan to life.
So, in this way, if we look for blessings in general, look for the blessings that help us to deal with the problem and then look for the blessing that will emerge from the problem. Then we can have a positive disposition. Yes, last question.
Often times when we meet people visiting temple for the first time, they could be in great pain due to some very severe mental health problem or any other problem. But sometimes the pain is so great that they are not able to deal with the consciousness. So, they might come to temple, but it is very hard to preach to them or very hard to encourage them to take up some or any person's Krishna consciousness because that is what is told in their own way.
How do we make sure that we are giving our best in that situation? Yes. So, if somebody is in such great pain, they come to the temple for the first time and they are just not able to take up any kind of Krishna conscious practise. So, how can we best help them at that time? Yeah.
Sometimes, the best way to preach is to not preach. Yeah, there was when Prabhupada was staying, the devotees, early days of our movement, the devotees were staying in a building and it was like a two-part apartment, two-part complex. On the other side, there was an old lady staying.
And this old lady was always complaining, hey, these people, these cult people, they make so much noise and this and that. So, she was complaining to the local municipality authorities and all. And the devotees were having a lot of trouble because of that.
And for devotees, it's very convenient that anybody who opposes them, anybody who troubles them, they are demons. So, they said, Prabhupada, Prabhupada, Prabhupada came in and said, she's an old woman, she's a demon, she's troubling us so much. She's not allowing us to do kirtan.
She's complaining about it. So then, Prabhupada had gone for a morning walk and Prabhupada came back and instead of going back to the temple side, the centre side, he went to the other side. And he went and talked with that lady.
And it was typical old people talk. How are you? Where are your children? How is your health? And it was 15 minutes, 15-20 minutes, Prabhupada was talking with her. And the devotees were thinking, Prabhupada will talk about Krishna, chant Hare Krishna.
And Prabhupada did not speak even one word. And when he finished the interaction, he came back. And there was a big question mark on all the devotees' faces.
And Prabhupada just looked at them gently and said, sometimes, old people get lonely. And that makes them irritable. So, and Prabhupada left after that and then this old lady came back.
You are Swami? He is such a nice person. So, he stopped and dropped her opposition afterwards. So, actually, Prabhupada brought her closer to Krishna without speaking even one word about Krishna.
So, sometimes, we just we empathise with people where they are. Yes, as I said earlier, we just give them a, if we have the time, if we have the inclination, then we just give them an understanding part, understanding here. And that will be the time when just the relationship is developed.
That may not be the time when their devotion starts in the external sense of they started bhakti practise. But that is the time when their relationship with the devotee starts. Usually, bhakti begins with avjnana sukhrti.
Avjnana sukhrti means unknowing good deed. It's unknowing appreciation. So, if somebody meets a devotee and they feel, haven't a nice person? Haven't a nice person? Then, they may later come and then they may start practising bhakti.
So, it's like, say, if we are travelling by flight, the doctor is travelling by flight and the doctor meets some other person and the doctor talks nicely with that other person. Now, that person may not feel the need for the doctor right now. But, you know, I met a good doctor.
And later they feel the need and they will come to that doctor. So, just establishing a relationship at that time can be the beginning of their devotion. Now, having said that, that we need to be understanding and we need to hear, we also have to, at some particular point of time, recognise that everybody who is distressed may not be receptive for Krishna.
So, sometimes some people, they become very emotionally clenching. Just keep clinging on. Whenever they meet a devotee, all that they want to do is just download all the negativity that is there within them.
They want to download the negativity which is inside them, but they don't want to take any positivity from us. They will come and tell all the problems that they have, but if we tell them come for a programme, no, I don't have time. If that's what they are doing, then we cannot entertain that.
Ultimately, we want to help them and the way we can help them is by connecting them with Krishna, by helping them to raise their consciousness. So, they have to show some interest in raising consciousness. So, we, in the first interaction, we might just, as I said, be empathic, be there for them, try to understand them and develop a relationship.
And later on, they may become more receptive when they can hear about Krishna. But if they are not, if the only time they come to us is when they are in distress and they are not ready to follow the process of bhakti, then we have to understand that they are not yet ready for bhakti. We might just give them some prasad and just give them some more ajnaan sukhrti, but we will not spend time with them in that time.
Not all, not all distress will be an impetus for the practise of bhakti. It depends on a lot of factors. It depends on that person's receptivity, depends on that person's situation, it depends on the potency of the person who is sharing with them.
Primarily, it depends on that person's level in their spiritual evolution. So, if distress alone were the impetus for bhakti, all the people in hospitals would be chanting Hare Krishna. At the least, all the doctors would be practising bhakti.
Doctors see distress all the time. But no, it doesn't happen. So, distress can be a starting point for people to explore spirituality.
But for them to persevere, they need to have some kind of spiritual inclination. So, if they don't have, then you just create the foundation for that by giving them some agnyasa priti. Thank you very much.