Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Hare Krishna I'm grateful to be here amongst all of you at the lotus feet of the Lordships. And I'll speak today on the Bhagavad Gita 15.15 On the theme Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him. Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him.
So the Bhagavad Gita 15.15 chapter states So in this verse 15.15 Krishna says that I am situated in the hearts of everyone. sarvasya chaaham sun means very close, I am situated, I am residing very close in the hearts of everyone. But From me comes knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness.
And then It is I who am to be known by all the Vedas. For I am the compiler of the Vedas. And I know their purpose.
So I'll talk about this in three parts. First I'll speak about understanding God and his nature in this world. Second is how we are presently turned away from God.
And thirdly how we can feel his presence. Normally when we observe the world around us, we are caught in our immediate needs. We want food, we want water, we want clothing, we want money.
So these are the things which occupy our minds constantly. And thus we don't normally think about God. We think about how will I get this, how will I get that.
However all of us human beings have a need to make sense of things. Just as we have a need for food or we have a need for water, we have a need for air. Similarly we have a need for meaning in life.
Meaning and purpose. All of us face problems in life and it's not that anyone likes problems. But what makes problems especially unlikable is if they are meaningless problems.
That means if I'm walking along a road and there's a thorn over there and the thorn pricks me. I'll be annoyed. I'll be irritated.
Why does this thorn prick me? Now on the other hand if I go to a doctor and I have some infection, doctor gives me injection. Then in essence in terms of the experience, the prick by a pin, by a thorn and the prick by the injection. They feel the same in essential experience.
But whereas the thorn prick will annoy me, the injection I will myself go there, even pay the doctor for the injection and take the injection. So we, for us, we don't just look at the content of the experience. We look at the context of the experience.
Content of the experience means what is it that we are experiencing. But context means how do we make sense of that experience. So if suppose we suddenly were told to carry 10, 20, 30 kg of weight.
Annoying. Why can't you find someone else to carry it? Isn't there any porter to carry it? So carrying huge weight seems irritating. But if we go to a gym and there we do a workout, there also we may carry weight, lift weights.
And in that sense also our muscles may pain. So here when we are suddenly told by someone in office or someone carry this weight, we will be annoyed. The experience of the strain for the muscles is the same in both cases.
But in the second case when we are going to gym to do a workout, we have a purpose. I want to experience, I want to get strength, I want to become strong, I want to have a good figure. So that purpose makes the pain meaningful.
So we can, the very nature of this world is we can't avoid problems, we can't avoid pain. It is going to be there. But what makes the pain unbearable is if it is meaningless and purposeless.
And if it is meaningful and purposeful, we can take up even great pains. So when a woman becomes pregnant, during the labor and during the delivery, there is a lot of pain. But you know there is a child going to come from it.
And that knowledge makes the pain meaningful. So we human beings go through various experiences, but we need a context within which to make sense of those experiences. If the context is lacking, then even small difficulties appear unbearable.
And if a context is present, even big difficulties can be willingly accepted. Normally, if somebody just pushes us also on a road, we might go, how dare you push me like this. But somebody has a patriotic sentiment and they are going to protect their country.
They might be wounded, they might be cut brutally. This is heroic. I am sacrificing my life for my country.
So one small push and a big cut on the body. Here the experience is much more painful. But the experience when it is meaningful, then it becomes bearable.
Not only bearable, we may even look forward to it. So the point I am making over here is that we without a broader context, in which we can make sense of what is happening in our life, we become prey to anything and everything. We just can't function.
We can't tolerate even small pains. And life also becomes unbearably miserable. So all of us human beings have a need for purpose and meaning.
And although this need is not addressed so much in our society, in our culture, it's not talked about, but it's a vital need. In fact, medical researchers have found out, I was just at a medical conference in America, so there's a lot of correlation being talked about in spirituality and health. And medical researchers have found out that people who have a strong sense of purpose in their lives, this is what I want to achieve in my life.
This is how I want to contribute in my life. This is what my life is meant for. Such people recover faster from sickness.
Sickness may come to everyone, but sickness is not simply a biological phenomenon. It's also a psychological aspect to it. So if our immune system is activated by a strong sense of purpose, then people recover faster.
So now, if we look at life, what is the meaning of life? We live, we grow up, we grow old and we die. If we were to look at our life or anyone's life, sometimes when we are watching a video, if we don't want to necessarily watch the whole video, so then we just fast forward it. Look at this, look at this, look at this.
Try to find some interesting scenes. Or suppose there is a suspense, a mystery novel, a mystery movie is there, some investigative fiction. Then we might just fast forward to the end to find out what happened at the end.
Who is the criminal? How was the criminal captured? So now, if we fast forward to the life, to the end of life, of anyone, the materialistic worldview, which is what most people have today, the materialistic worldview offers only one conclusion to life. Life has only one destination. That is the graveyard.
The graveyard. Now whatever we do before that, at the end, it's all over. In Italy there is a saying that at the end of the chess match, the king and the pawn go back to the same box.
In the chess match, the king is a big person, the pawn is small. But at the end, they go back to the same box. So similarly, if we look at life in fast forward, towards the end, what end is it? We struggle, we try to achieve things, we grow old, we lose things and we die.
We deeply need a sense of meaning in our lives. And we may create certain senses of meaning. One of the major reasons why mental health problems have become huge in today's world, it's not that people are suffering more than in the past.
In many ways, our lives are physically much more comfortable than in the past. But the traditional structures that gave meaning and purpose to people's lives, those are collapsing. The family is one structure, the society is one structure, religion is one structure.
All these gave meaning and purpose to people's lives. When all these are collapsing, for people, even small problems become big. The mind is often having very strong impulses within it.
That means, the mind can make a small thing very big. So, if somebody pushes us, how dare you push me, I'll push you back. And they push us, and we push them back.
And a small conflict can become very big. But, say if you are going somewhere very important, okay, you pushed me, let's move aside, I have to get to my destination. We'll overlook it.
So, a sense of purpose helps us to keep small things small. If you are driving and somebody cuts across us, if you are driving urgently for some important meeting, okay, we will annoy that the person cut across us on the road, but we will move on. But, if you are just fooling around driving here and there, and we are trying to enjoy our driving, and this person cuts us, how dare you drive across me, I'll show you.
And we may chase that person, and we may give them an earful, and they may give us an earful, and then we have a big altercation. So, when we don't have an overall sense of purpose, the mind will make small things very big. And when that happens, then the mind goes into a hyper drive.
And many mental health problems result because we don't have an overall context in which to see our experiences. So, if somebody's whole sense of life, their sense of meaning, their sense of purpose in life comes from, okay, you know, I want to have a stable relationship. I want to have a partner.
And if I have a partner, then that means my life is successful. And then if my partner rejects me, if there is some relationship, some problem in that relationship, then my whole structure of life collapses. If somebody thinks the purpose of my life is to earn money, I have financial security.
And then suddenly, you lose money. Stock market crashes or whatever happens, you lose money. Okay, what am I to live for? So, none of us can live without meaning and purpose.
So, we create some purpose for ourselves. But that purpose is often shattered by life. Somebody creates a purpose.
I want to become wealthy. But they lose wealth. It's devastating.
It's unbearable. They don't know what they're living for. So, we need to face problems in life.
We need a purpose for life that is bigger than the problem. If the problem is so big that that purpose appears permanently thwarted, then what am I to live for? One of my friends in America is doing his PhD in the post-retirement lives of sports stars in sociology. Sports stars, they become very famous, but their career peaks by 35-40.
Now, what happens to them after that? Often for them to come to terms with life without that fame, without that thrill, without that whole, excitement of the sports world, it's quite difficult. It's almost like beginning life afresh for them. And many of them are not able to do it.
So, many of them succumb to depression, addiction, and often their lives are very sorry. Not everyone. Some of them begin new meanings in their life.
But the point is that when we set up a purpose for our life, if that purpose is thwarted, then what next? So, it is here where a transcendental sense of meaning is required. It is here where spiritual knowledge gives us a purpose that will be bigger than the biggest problem that life may send our way. That purpose is the purpose of spiritual evolution.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that we are all souls. And as souls, we are part of the whole. That whole is known by different names in different traditions.
The Bhagavad Gita knows him by the name Krishna. So, we are souls who are parts of Krishna and we are on a multi-life journey of evolution towards Krishna, towards love for Krishna. This evolution is evolution in consciousness, evolution in wisdom, evolution in love.
Our consciousness is directed by two things. What we intellectually understand and what we emotionally love. Our wisdom and our love.
So, as our consciousness evolves, that means our wisdom increases, our love increases. And that means we move towards bigger and bigger things in life. So, the Bhagavad Gita explains that we as souls are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution towards love for Krishna.
And whatever we do in life, it is all meant to contribute towards the development of that love. So, without God as the ultimate purpose of life, life has no transcendent meaning. It has no deeper meaning.
And therefore, when God is rejected from the world, or God is neglected from the world or the world view of people, then people try to create some meaning for themselves, but when that meaning doesn't last, that means when that meaning is thwarted, then they don't know what to live for. So, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that बहुनाम जन्मनाम अन्ते ज्ञानवान मां प्रपद्धिते To come to the level of loving Krishna wholly, it takes many lifetimes of spiritual evolution. At the same time, every single moment in every single life can be a step towards Krishna.
So, the Gita gives us a vision of God who is all-interactive. When we say, why should I evolve towards God? Why should God be the purpose of my life? No, I can have different purposes of my life. I want to be a musician.
I want to be an artist. I want to be an engineer. I want this.
These are the purposes of my life. Why should God be the purpose of my life? So, the Gita explains, यद्यद्विभूतिमच्छत्वम् श्रीमदूर्जितमेवबा तत्तदेपावगच्छत्वम् मम्मतेजोंशसंभव It says that whatever is attractive in this world, it manifests a spark of Krishna's splendor. That means, whatever we set up as our purpose in life, there is something attractive because of which we set that as the purpose of our life.
But whatever attractiveness is there in it, somebody wants to become a sports player, somebody wants to become a cricketer, but the thrill in cricket that is there, जयोस्मिवेवसायोस्मि Krishna says, I am victory, I am adventure. So, the thrill that people experience in sports, that is actually an experience of Krishna. It's a glimpse of the experience of Krishna.
Some people love nature, they travel for hundreds and thousands of miles to go to some hill station to look at the beautiful scenery. So, Krishna says, the beauty of that scenery is a spark of my splendor. That means, there is definitely pleasure in looking at that scenery, but that pleasure is like a drop.
The pleasure of loving Krishna and experiencing Krishna is like an ocean. So, if Krishna becomes the purpose of our life, then that doesn't mean we reject all other purposes. Rather, we integrate those other purposes in the pursuit of Krishna.
And whatever pleasure we might get by any of those other purposes, we will get all that and more by becoming devoted to Krishna. So, somebody wants to be an engineer, somebody wants to be a doctor, somebody wants to be a lawyer, somebody wants to be an artist. These are all valid purposes of life, but they are not the ultimate purpose of life.
Okay, we want to become an engineer, but for what? What will you do after becoming an engineer? That is like one step in life. But what is the ultimate purpose of life? The ultimate purpose of life is to love Krishna and to experience Krishna's love for us. So, Bhagavad Gita tells us that whatever pleasure we may experience by doing anything, we can experience all that and more by loving Krishna.
So, that's why God is the ultimate purpose of our life. He is meant to be the ultimate purpose. And it's not that God is a destination to be achieved in the future.
Krishna is present right now in our hearts also. But we are not aware of His presence. Krishna is present in our hearts because He wants to guide us in our journey.
He wants us to turn towards Him. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to experience His love for us and thereby experience supreme happiness.
And when we understand that Krishna is not just a destination to be achieved. He is a realization to be got. Suppose, say, we are going from Brisbane to Perth to meet some very important person.
And you got an interview with that person. And you board a flight. And you go by the flight.
And then you get off. And then you go to the address and you knock on the door. And the door opens.
And then you see, the person there is the same person who was sitting right next to you in your flight. But you had never seen that VIP. So, you didn't recognize him.
So, for us, Krishna is like that. He is not just the destination at the end of the journey. He is also our companion during the journey.
He is also our companion during our journey. He is right now with us. But because we are so caught in so many other things that we don't perceive Krishna's presence.
He is in our hearts with us. But our consciousness is caught in externals. I want this.
I want that. I want that. So, Krishna is close to us.
But we are far away from Him. Like this person who is sitting next to the VIP. But, I am going to go and meet this VIP.
I am going to go and meet this VIP. That's what you are thinking. Don't pay any attention to the person next to you.
Now, as we go through life, we all set up certain goals for ourselves. I want to achieve this. I want to achieve that.
I want to achieve that. And some of these goals we achieve. Some of these goals we don't achieve.
But either way, satisfaction eludes us. That means, even if a particular goal we achieve, we get some happiness by that. But it is short-lived.
Today in society, there is a rat race going on. Now, everybody wants to go ahead in their life. But the problem with the rat race is, not that the rat race is very difficult to run in.
That is one problem. But the bigger problem with the rat race is that, even if you win the rat race, you still remain a rat. That means, nothing essentially changes.
Happiness always seems to be one pay raise away. One purchase away. One relationship away.
And that's how it stays always. That's how it stays always. No matter what all we achieve, if something more we achieve, then I'll become happy.
So, it's not that we are not meant to achieve things in the world. It's not that we are not meant to pursue things in this world. Growth is a natural feature of life.
All of us were unicellular organisms at one time. Now we have grown up to be beings with millions of cells in our body. So, growth is just natural to the body.
Similarly, growing socially, growing financially, growing relationally. That's all also natural to life. However, for growth to be healthy, it has to be proportional.
When cancer occurs in the body, cancer is also growth. But it is disproportional and destructive growth. One set of cells start growing so much that they start encroaching on all the other cells in the body.
And then eventually, that disproportional growth, if it does not stop, it can cause death. Similarly, it is not wrong to be attracted to the things of this world. It's just natural.
Okay, I want to achieve this, I want to experience this, I want that. But if you understand in the broader context that this, the attractiveness of this is coming from Krishna. And I can experience this in my journey towards Krishna.
Or I can, in experiencing this, go away from Krishna. So, if somebody loves music, it's not that they have to give up music. But what is it that is attractive about music? Attractiveness of music actually comes from Krishna.
So, Prabhupada was so inclusive in his explanations that he said in his book On the Way to Krishna that if somebody is an alcoholic and they are not able to give up alcohol, then if they think that the taste of alcohol is Krishna, by thinking like this, one day they will become great devotees. Not by drinking alcohol. But by thinking.
What is the speciality of thinking? That means their understanding. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that I am the taste of water, rasoham apsu kaunte. I am the taste of all liquids.
So, the taste of alcohol is also Krishna. So, that means, if we consider Krishna is here and the worldly objects are here. So, there are objects in this world which can attract us towards Krishna.
We can call them pro-devotional objects. There are objects in this world which are unconnected with Krishna. They are non-devotional.
And there are objects in this world which take us away from Krishna. They are anti-devotional. So, for example, music.
That is something which can be made pro-devotional. I like music. Somebody likes to read.
There are so many spiritual books to read. So, that is an activity which can be made pro-devotional. Somebody says that so, whatever it is that we are attracted to, pro-devotional, non-devotional, anti-devotional.
If we see that in connection with Krishna, then we can move towards Krishna. Now, if somebody says that, some people ask that actually if all attractive objects in this world are provided by God, their attractiveness comes from God, then I will just enjoy those objects. Why should I go towards God? Enjoying those objects, am I going towards God? Actually, it is like saying that in a multiple choice exams, all the alternatives in the exam come from the teacher.
But all the alternatives don't take me towards the teacher. All the alternatives don't lead to passing. There are some alternatives which take us in the right direction, some alternatives which take us in the wrong direction.
So, similarly, everything comes from Krishna. Even poison comes from Krishna. But drinking poison is going to ruin us.
So, whatever purposes we set in our life, if we see them in the light of our ultimate purpose of Krishna, all my heart is longing for happiness to be fulfilled when I learn to love Krishna. And to love Krishna doesn't mean to reject the world. It means to connect the world with Krishna.
So, whatever it is that I love in this world, how can I connect with Krishna? How can I use it in Krishna's service? When we have this attitude, then we will realize that Krishna is close to us. As long as we think, we don't either believe in Krishna or even believe in Krishna, Krishna is somewhere far away in the spiritual world. And I have this goal and I have this goal and I have that goal.
And that's how we live. Then Krishna doesn't seem very relevant. But if we understand that whatever I'm attracted to in this world, its attractiveness comes from Krishna.
Some people think, yeah, I believe God exists. He's happy there, I'm happy here. This is a very disconnected vision of God.
That means we are thinking that the things of this world and my happiness here has no connection with God. Or sometimes you think, okay, I want the things of this world and I want God to guarantee that I get all these things. Then I'll be happy.
But here also, we are having a disintegrated vision of God. The Bhagavatam describes Maya, means what? Maya means To think that anything is disconnected from Krishna and anything disconnected from Krishna is meaningful, is attractive, will give me happiness. That is Maya.
So when we see everything is connected with Krishna and then we see how it can take me towards Krishna, then that will help us to see our whole life as meaningful. I'll conclude with two examples of what I mean by our whole life will become meaningful and then we can have some questions. In our life, we have certain interests, in certain activities, certain objects, and then we have certain relationships.
In both of these, sometimes we may face problems. If I have a particular interest in something, if somebody has some talent, somebody has some talent in music, somebody has some talent in writing, somebody has some talent in organizing. Now, whatever it is that we have interest or talent in, if we do it in a mood of service to Krishna, then we get a bigger purpose for it.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, So he says, one who understands that the whole world comes from me and that I pervade all this world, they can worship me through their work. They can worship me through their work. Now some people oversimplify it and translate this as work is worship.
Now if work were worship, then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper. Now work itself is not worship. Otherwise a robber may say, my robbing is worship.
Now what Krishna is saying is, work is not worship, but work can be done as a worship. We can worship the Lord through our work. And how do we do that? That is through a mood of devotion.
We understand that I have some talents, I have some interests, but where have these come from? These have come from Krishna. Krishna pervades all this world. That means Krishna has given me the talents which I have in this world.
And let me use them in a mood of service to Krishna. So there can be a static understanding of bhakti and there can be a dynamic understanding of bhakti. A static understanding of bhakti means, bhakti means you go to a temple, you do some worship, you do some japa, and that is bhakti.
But a dynamic understanding of bhakti means that bhakti is actually a relationship with Krishna. And that relationship can be developed through every activity in my life. So when I am doing my job, that is also a way I am serving Krishna.
What we are is Krishna's gift to us. What we become is our gift to Krishna. What we are, we all have certain talents, certain interests, that is Krishna's gift to us.
And using those talents, using those interests, when we make some contribution in this world, that is our gift to Krishna. When Arjuna was practicing archery, he became the foremost archer. And that he became by his diligence.
And eventually, when the dharma yudha happened, he was able to use it in Krishna's service. So similarly, whatever it is we are doing in life, we do it wholeheartedly in a mood of service to Krishna. When we do that, then we get a bigger purpose.
If I think I am a writer, and my goal is to become a famous writer, then it may be that I may become a famous writer, it may be that I may not become a famous writer. Because in this world, not everybody attains success at the material level. So if I do my worldly activities only with a worldly goal, then if I don't get success, I will get frustrated.
Even if I get success, it will give some pleasure, and then something more I want. But if I see that my writing ability is actually a gift given by Krishna to me, to let me use in Krishna's service, let me do my work in a mood of service to Krishna, then we will do it well, because we are doing it for Krishna. But we won't become so dependent on the external success.
Even if that doesn't come, you see that, I did this in a mood of service to Krishna, and I am growing. So the world, when we set goals in the world, the world judges us by the results. And if the results don't count, what do we count for? In today's world, for many people, their self-worth is determined by their net worth.
Their self-worth is determined by their net worth. If you feel, oh I can't earn much, I am not a worthwhile person. But there are some professions which may be contributing a lot to society, but they may not involve earning a lot of money.
So when we have this bigger vision, that through this work I am serving Krishna, then we will see that, okay, even if I get success in this world, or I don't get success in this world, but still if I am doing it in a mood of service to Krishna, I will be growing towards Krishna. And Krishna will appreciate my service attitude, and my work done in a mood of service, and by that I will grow spiritually. And that ultimate purpose of my life will be fulfilled by my diligence.
Similarly, we have various relationships in the world. And in our relationships, sometimes we feel very close to some people. Sometimes we feel like, we feel some people to be unbearable.
There are two kinds of people. Some people bring happiness wherever they go. And some people bring happiness whenever they go.
So, all of us will have some people who just make us mad. And how do we go on in our life? Where we have such people who seem to be troubling us a lot. And sometimes we may be in a committed relationship, where it may seem that this is so miserable for me.
That is when, if we have a bigger picture, we see that my relationship is not only with this person. We have horizontal relationships in this world with each other. And we have a vertical relationship with Krishna.
And every relationship we can approach in a mood of service. That means, if I act in this relationship in a mood of service, whether this other person is acting properly or not, if I think that how can I serve Krishna in this situation, then we can grow through that situation, irrespective of how the other person acts. Suppose somebody is an attendant in a cloth shop.
And some customers, when they go to cloth shops, they want to see the whole cloth shop. They want to look at 100-200 clothes, and then they will not take even one cloth. So then the attendants have to look at, again put all the clothes in line, maybe have to iron them, wash them, do a lot of things to keep the clothes properly.
Now some customers, if they are known to be very nitpicky, very demanding, normally when a customer comes to a shop, the attendants want to attend to the shop. But if some customers come, all the attendants go away. Nobody wants to attend to them.
So there is a particular demanding, disagreeable customer, and the attendant is still very courteous. And the customer keeps finding fault, the attendant still stays courteous. Now the attendant knows that my salary is not coming from this customer.
My salary is coming from my boss. And there are CCTV cameras, my boss is watching. So if the attendant stays courteous, the customer may still not purchase anything.
But the boss will watch and the boss will say, you know how to deal with tough customers. You are a cool guy. Although the attendant may fail in making the sale, the boss may promote him.
You look after this whole wing, and you train other customers how to deal with, how to stay cool when dealing with tough customers. So similarly for us, when we have a spiritual vision, it's not just we and the other person. It's we, the other person and Krishna.
And therefore when we have this higher vision, every relationship becomes a way to grow spiritually. Irrespective of how the other person is acting, we act in the mood of service to Krishna. And that brings stability.
Because everybody goes through moods. I will go tomorrow, today somebody person is going through moods, tomorrow we may be going through some moods. So then, if we have this higher purpose, we won't get too disturbed by other people's moods.
In the Ramayana, when Bharata and Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna come back, and they find that Ram has been exiled, Dasharatha has died, the whole Ayodhya is in lamentation, they are furious. When they come to know that Mantara is doing this, furious with Mantara. Shatrughna is going through the palace and he sees Mantara.
She is bedecked with all jewellery. Kaikeyi has rewarded her profusely. And he gets so angry, he catches her, and violently starts shaking her.
You are the cause of the distress that everybody in Ayodhya is suffering. You deserve to be punished. So she starts screaming, calling to Kaikeyi for help.
Kaikeyi comes out of her palace and Kaikeyi tells Shatrughna, stop! Shatrughna pays no attention to her. Then Bharata comes over there. Bharata is Kaikeyi's son, so Kaikeyi tells Bharata, tell Shatrughna to stop.
Bharata doesn't even look at Kaikeyi, and tells Shatrughna, stop. He says, what you are doing with Mantara, so many times I have felt like doing it with Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi is shocked to hear this.
He says, but if we do anything to them, Ram will be displeased. And if Ram is displeased, what is the point of our life? We want him to come back. We want him to be pleased with us so that he will listen to our request and come back.
So there is a natural human emotion of anger, but Bharata and Shatrughna restrain that. When Bharata speaks this, Ram will be displeased. Shatrughna will calm down, calms down.
Let's go off Mantara. So similarly for us, when we see that higher picture, when we see that Krishna is in charge, how can I please Krishna in this situation? How can I act in this interaction in a way that will please Krishna? If we have that attitude, then that will bring so much stability in our contribution in the relationship. The other person may be unstable, but we can be steady and stable.
And that's how both in our vocations and in our relations, we can see Krishna as present. And we can see an opportunity to serve Krishna. Of course, all this will be possible only when we adequately connect with Krishna directly.
When we come to the temple, chant Hare Krishna, hear the philosophy of Krishna Bhakti, associate with devotees, that will infuse us with the necessary Krishna consciousness, the necessary attitude of service towards Krishna. Then we can carry it in our entire life. So Krishna is never far away from us.
Do you know how far Krishna is from us? How far do you think Krishna is from us? He's just here. He's inside us. Even a person who loves us very much, they hug us in the tightest of hugs.
Still that person can't come as close to us as Krishna is always. But we say, okay, but this is all theoretical. But I can't, I don't feel Krishna.
For us, Krishna is just one thought away. Krishna is just one thought away. If we think about Krishna, if we hear about Krishna, if we chant about Krishna, if we pray about Krishna, if we take darshan of Krishna, but through it all, we invest our thought in Krishna, then we can experience Krishna at this very moment.
And that thought of Krishna is what is cultivated, that is what is increased, that is what is nourished by the association of devotees. So Prabhupada started the Krishna consciousness movement for providing us a rich supply of thoughts about Krishna. This is the Krishna consciousness movement.
So the more we habituate ourselves to thinking about Krishna, by hearing about him, by worshipping him, by understanding his glories, then we will feel Krishna's presence with us, whether we are in the temple, or whether we are at our homes, or whether we are at our workplaces. Wherever we are, we will feel Krishna's presence and we will move onwards in our life journey. When I was in America, last time I had gone to America, at that time, as I was just entering into America, the security clearance I was going through, and suddenly I heard a loud alarm, and then before I understood what was happening, there were 5-6 American security people pointing their guns at me.
What happened? So one of them said, in your crutches, we got a high explosive alert. So we are going to, we want to frisk you now. And then one of them said, look at my crutches, what is there inside? He said, there is a crutch, nothing inside.
He said, we will have to break this crutch. I became a little alarmed. I said, if you break the crutch, then how will I walk? He said, that is not my problem.
Normally they are very courteous, maybe he had quarrel with his partner before coming to office or whatever. He was in a foul mood. So then I started getting alarmed.
I was just annoyed. I had entered in Boston, and then I had to go and catch another flight to go to another place. The connecting flight, I thought I will miss it now.
So then initially I was annoyed, but I started getting alarmed. When that happened, and they started saying that we will have to break your crutches. Then I started praying to Krishna.
And I love Bhagavanta verses and I often try to recite them. So at that time suddenly, the 18.61 verse popped up in my mind. Bhootaani yantra roodhaani mayaya Krishna says, I am guiding the wanderings of all living beings who are seated on the machine of material energy.
So I just started reciting this verse to myself. Suddenly, I felt as if I was looking at myself from above. I said, wait a minute.
Why am I so worried? I have travelled hundreds of times in different countries, different cities. So many times, so many things could have gone wrong. Krishna has seen me through all this.
If I consider I am a soul who has gone through many different lifetimes, then when we leave one body and go to the next body, we don't even know where we are going. But Krishna guides us. So Krishna will guide me through this also.
As this thought came in, suddenly I started feeling very calm. I said, Krishna, I surrender to you. Please guide me.
And then as I was speaking like this, suddenly another security person came over there, brought this person's box. He said, what is going on here? I will take care of this. So he went away and he said, he looked at my crutches and he said, what is there? He said, nothing is there.
I looked around, can we open this? And he said, yeah. I said, yes, you can open it. There is a screwdriver, you can open it.
And then he opened it and then he put some kind of prong inside it and pulling out. Something came out of it. He said, what is this? I said, what does it look like? He said, it looks like dirt.
Yes, it is dirt. So I pulled it out. It was dirt.
So what had happened, before I had gone to America, I had gone to Vrindavan. And when I had gone to Vrindavan, I had just gone to take some sacred water from Jamuna. And while I was near the Jamuna, the crutches have rubber paddings below.
So the rubber padding had come off. And then some of the dust from, some of the mud from Jamuna came out of the crutches. And then after that, when I had put new padding, that mud had stayed inside.
So, because the Jamuna is quite polluted, so the sedimented mud next to Jamuna had high metal content. And that had alerted the, caused the explosive alert. So then he said, what is this? This is mud.
He took it out, mud again. And he said, he looked at me and said, you know, cleaning your crutches is not my job. You do it.
Then, he closed the crutches and he left. So as I was leaving, at that time I thought that actually the dust of Vrindavan is actually an explosive. It is actually the ultimate explosive.
It will explode all our illusions, all our attachments. And it will make us attach to Krishna. So, at that time, I was in America alone in the airport.
But Krishna was just one thought away. And in this thought about Krishna, then somehow Krishna arranged. And something which could have just been either an uneventful event, uneventful occurrence if I had not gone through the security clearance and they had not detected anything.
Or something which would have been a very disturbing experience if I had got agitated or something. Somehow, by Krishna's mercy, it became a realization filled experience. So, similarly for us, whatever situation we may be going through in life, Krishna is just one thought away from us.
And that is a very empowering understanding. And by the process of bhakti, by taking shelter of Krishna, we can experience it at any moment in our lives. So, I'll summarize.
I spoke about how Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him. Started by talking about the relevance of God in our lives. But, although we are caught in immediate needs, what we also need is meaning and purpose.
When we face problems, it is the sense of meaning and purpose that helps us to face those problems. Thorn prick irritates us, but an injection prick, we accept it. Lifting heavy weights just randomly irritates us, but lifting heavy weights in a workout energizes us.
So, it is not just the content of the experience, but the context of the experience that determines how we see the experience. So, that context is determined by our broader worldview, by our philosophy. So, materialism offers us no context.
It says we live, we struggle, and then we die. It just makes life entirely pointless. But spirituality gives us a broader context.
It says that we are souls on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution. And we are meant to evolve in wisdom and devotion towards Krishna. Krishna is the ultimate purpose of our life.
We say, why should Krishna be my purpose? I have so many other things to do in my life. Yes, whatever other things we have to do, whatever attraction they hold for us, its attractiveness comes from Krishna. So, all the attractive objects of this world, they give like a drop of pleasure.
But Krishna is like an ocean of pleasure. Therefore, rather than simply getting attracted to these objects and pursuing them alone, we pursue them in the context of our relationship with Krishna, in the mood of service to Krishna. And then, through all these pursuits, we can be growing closer towards Krishna.
And talking about our vocations, we can work in a mood of service to Krishna. So, when we have this bigger vision, then even if we don't achieve something, we have success in our work, we don't get frustrated. Because we see that by my mood of service, I am growing closer towards Krishna.
Whether I get success at the material level or not. What we are is Krishna's gift to us. What we become is our gift to Krishna.
And in our relationships, sometimes some people may frustrate us. And that may make us very disturbed. But if we see that I am relating not just with this person, but I am relating with Krishna through this person.
Then I can grow closer to Krishna by acting in a mood of service in this relationship. Just like an attendant may be courteous to the customer because the attendant's goal is not just to reciprocate to the customer, but to please the boss. So, that focusing on our vertical relationship with Krishna will bring stability in our horizontal relationships.
And for all doing this, we need to practice sadhana bhakti so that we have that Krishna consciousness, that attitude of service towards Krishna. And for us, Krishna is always just one thought away from us. If we can just direct our thoughts towards Krishna, even in moments of danger or trouble, we will feel Krishna's presence, Krishna's guidance, and Krishna will see us through.
Thank you very much. Prabhu is a very prolific writer as well. We have got some of his books available.