Is our definition of happiness depriving us of happiness – Having, Doing, Being

[Congregation program at Chicago, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Okay. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I will be speaking on the topic of is our definition of happiness depriving us of happiness. I will speak on Bhagavad Gita 2.66 2nd chapter 66th verse.
It states So Krishna says in this verse that if we are not properly connected, if we are not properly situated we cannot have a steady intelligence. Nor can we experience proper emotions. If our emotional state is not steady, we can’t have peace.
And then it concludes with a rhetorical question. That if there is no peace how can there be happiness? Peace at least a basic peaceful disposition is foundational for experiencing anything else. So right now you are sitting and you are hearing this talk.
Suppose the floor were filled with ants and the ants are biting and ants are creeping on the body. Now it will be impossible to focus on anything else. So there is something which is foundational which is essential and after that everything else can be built on it.
If somebody is sorting their table or cleaning their room putting everything, tidying everything but below there is earthquake What can the tidying of the room do if there is earthquake below? So the state of the mind is foundational for experiencing happiness. So we all have certain definitions of what will make us happy. If I get this, if this happens in my life, if this works out right this is what will make me happy.
And these definitions of happiness which we have they drive our entire life. And often these definitions they drive us in directions which take us away from happiness. So the definitions of happiness that we may have can fall into three broad categories.
The Bhagavad Gita analyses all of existence and especially our own consciousness, our own way of thinking and living in terms of three categories. They are called in Sanskrit as gunas. So these are modes of being, the way we live, the way we think, the way we perceive and the Bhagavad Gita uses three words sattva, rajas and tamas.
Sattva is associated with contemplation, observation, analysis. Rajas is associated with action, movement, doing. And tamas is associated with delusion, with intoxication.
So I will put this in three short words and that will be the three broad definitions. So we can have being, doing and having. Being is associated with sattva.
Doing is associated with rajas. And having is associated with tamas. So our definition of happiness can come from our being, our doing or our having.
I once saw an ad it was an advertisement for a car and it said you are your car. So you are your car. So when I read that I thought in Sanskrit the word for ego is ahamkar.
If you change it slightly you can make ahamkar. Ahamkar I am my car. So now certainly at one level we could say yes the kind of car a person drives that can make a statement about who they are, what their financial level is, what economic bracket they belong to.
Yes. But a person’s life and a person’s state of well-being and happiness that is not determined just by the kind of car that they drive. So when we equate our sense of self-worth and self-identity with our possessions then that is the state of tamas.
So now this being, doing and having, these are present in everyone. Even a person who is driven by possession. I want to possess a car, I want to possess a house, I want to possess this.
Even that person is also doing something. And that person is also someone, their being. So being, doing and having is present in everyone.
But where do we conceive our happiness as coming from? If we conceive that our happiness is coming from having then that idea is an idea in tamas. In a state of a state that is very distanced from ourselves. Sattva is being.
It is close to us, it is who we are. Rajas is doing. It is a little further away from us because we are acting in the world.
Tamas is further away from who we are because it is possessing. Now if we consider from another perspective how much control we have over things. Who we are, we have the maximum control over that.
What we can do that we have some control. What we have on that we have the least control. Say suppose somebody is a doctor.
Now that is who they are. Now depending on their health, depending on, if sometimes the doctor is not healthy also, then they may not be able to do medical work. They are still a doctor but being able to do is not always in our control.
But a doctor, how big their clinic is, how big their home is, how much possessions they have, that is dependent even more on factors beyond their control. So, having, doing and being, these are three broad categories we could say which are associated with our existence. And when our happiness comes primarily from having, then that subjects us to a lot of unnecessary anxiety and misery.
Now having things is important. When we are functioning in the world, we need a home, we need food, we need clothes, we need various facilities for functioning in the world. But what we live with is different from what we live for.
What we live with is the tool for living. The car that we have, that is a tool, that is what we live with. What we live for is the purpose of our life.
If the doing and the being aspect are neglected, then a person may have a huge house. But that huge house will only provide the privilege of a larger space in which to feel lonely and unhappy. It won’t lead to happiness.
It is not that having a larger home can’t make you happy. But that it is a facility. And how we use that facility is based not just on having but on doing and even more on being.
So when I was 20-25 years ago, when I was a student in India, I was studying my engineering. At that time, I was driven by the idea that I will become happy if I can possess the tag that I am a topper. Now I was always among the top students in my class.
But I was never the topper. I was sometimes second, third, fourth. Sometimes I was joined first.
But I was never the first. And that was the dream that was driving me throughout my student life. And I started studying engineering in one of the top colleges in India.
And while I was studying there, that was the time in my third year, I gave GRE for coming to America. And since my childhood, I liked English language. One of my hobbies was just picking up a dictionary and memorising words.
So generally, Indians do quite well in mathematical ability and analytical ability. At that time, GRE had three parts, 800 marks each. So most Indians find the linguistic part a little more difficult.
So when I gave my GRE, because my language was quite good, at that time out of 2400, I got 2350. And I was first, not just in my college, but I was first in the history of my college. I was first not just in my college, not just in my university, but in the whole state of Maharashtra.
So at that time, I was jubilant, so happy. In sports matches, when somebody wins a match, they go Yahoo! So all that kind of thing, I celebrated. And after just a few hours, I realised that just looking at the mark sheet doesn’t really make me happy.
It is only when some friend, some relative, some will come and congratulate me. That is when I feel happy. And the way it worked out, at that time was, three of my friends, one after another, forgot to congratulate.
Actually, it had become such a big news that they had put it on the college notice board, the main notice board in the canteen which we had. There, they had put it. So almost the whole college knew that I had got the marks.
So this friend, they thought everybody knows, they also know, why congratulate? So somehow, when the first person didn’t congratulate, I was a little annoyed. And the second person didn’t congratulate, I felt agitated. And when third person didn’t congratulate, I was angered.
So the emotion was going further, from annoyance to agitation to anger. And then, somehow, by God’s grace, that when I go through some difficult situations, sometimes I get a conceptual out-of-body experience. Out-of-body experiences are special experiences that some people have when they are near death.
And sometimes they see themselves from outside the body. So a conceptual out-of-the-body experience means, let’s say, I’m sitting here right now, but I look at myself from above. We as human beings have this capacity to look at ourselves.
So at that time, as I was just about to speak something to my friend, it was a little embarrassing. It’s when you want to be congratulated, but you can’t actually ask, why are you not congratulating me? So I was just angry. I didn’t know what to say.
And at that time, suddenly, I felt as if I was looking at myself from above. And it struck me. Hey, wait a minute.
For so many years in my life, I was dreaming that if I just become a topper, I’ll become happy. But I have become a topper now, and I’m not feeling happy. Rather, I’m feeling more agitated.
Instead of being happy, now, I have become more dependent for my happiness on others. Earlier, I could just interact with people and go on with the business of life. But now, I have become so dependent on others for my happiness.
So, is this really happiness? So, that experience shook me to the core. And it made me re-examine the purpose that I wanted to achieve in my life. And fortunately, by Krishna’s mercy, while I was in that introspective stage, that was the time a friend who had just started studying the Bhagavad Gita, he came and told me about the Bhagavad Gita.
And I started reading it. So, for all of us, we are most of the times in our life driven by certain definitions of happiness. And just like a horse, when it is driven, often there are blinders put on the horse so that the horse can’t look here and there.
If the horse starts looking here and there, the horse will get distracted. So, our definition of happiness puts blinders on us so that we can’t think of anything else. This is what I want to achieve in my life.
If I get this, only then I’ll be happy. But sometimes, while we are moving through life with these blinders, on us sometimes those blinders come off. Sometimes we get some experiences which make us question what am I actually doing? Is this what I want to do in my life? Is this what I want to do with my life? And if at those times when the blinders are temporarily open, if at that time a ray of spiritual knowledge comes in, then our whole life’s trajectory can change in a more auspicious direction.
So, at that time when this friend gave me the Bhagavad Gita, I started reading it and then I came in the 6th chapter to a verse 6.22 which says that So, Krishna says that when we have attained that state of spiritual trance, of samadhi, of absorption in the supreme spiritual reality in Krishna, when we have attained that state, two things happen. Yam labdha, having attained it, having attained this, we feel that there is nothing more to be gained. And yasmin sthito, once we are situated like this, even if great distress comes in our life, we will not be disturbed.
So, Krishna tells over here what I felt at that time, this was the real definition of success in life. Achieving something, after achieving that, there is no more craving. I have to get this, I have to get this, I have to get this.
There is no more craving. And secondly, having attained that, we get an inner fortitude, inner strength by which we can withstand distress. The Bhagavad Gita does not make a utopian promise saying that there will be no more distress in your life.
Achieve something and there will be no more distress in your life. No, that is never going to happen. There is going to be distress.
But we can develop an inner shield, an inner strength by which we can tolerate the distress. So, this again was another epiphany, another illuminating moment for me. So, this idea of having certain things, whether they actually make us happy, this is a question which we need to ask ourselves.
And maybe after this session when you go back home, you can explore in your own life. There would all be something which we thought, once I have this, it will make me happy. So, having is one definition of happiness.
Now, within having, there can be many things. It might be, I want to have a big house, a big car, a great phone, I want to have this, I want to have that. We all have certain ideas which are culturally created.
If you were living a few hundred years ago, people, nobody knew about cars. Cars didn’t exist. So, today, in today’s world, people think, I just need to get a car.
If I get a fancy car, then I saw another advertisement once, it said that it was a young man driving a car and there was an attractive young girl looking adoringly at him. And in the background, there was another young man glaring at him. And the advertisement was, buy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes.
Now, this is such a sad level of enjoyment. It is not even enjoy the car. It is enjoy the envy in someone’s eyes.
It is such a unsteady level of enjoyment because tomorrow, if your neighbour gets a better car than you, then there is no enjoyment in the car at all. In fact, the neighbour will enjoy the envy in your eyes. So, our cultural situation, our culture, our media, they all propagate certain conceptions of happiness.
And we uncritically accept them. Now, whenever we see some advertisements, we often know that, okay, all that is promised is not really going to be there. But still, if we have something like a sceptical filter within us, but this sceptical filter blocks certain things but it allows certain things to come inside.
So, somebody may show that, oh, if you drink this particular wine, it is so enjoyable. Now, we have a sceptical filter which says, no, this wine is not going to make me happy. Forget it.
So, I don’t want to drink. So, we are sceptical about certain promises of the world, certain promises that the world makes about what will make us happy. But we are gullible about certain promises.
And we need to evaluate to convince ourselves that, do I have any experience of how having does not lead to happiness. It is not that having is bad. Having may be essential.
But the idea that having will bring happiness, that idea is deleterious. It is harmful. It is misleading.
So now, beyond this, we could have the idea of doing. So, associating with these three words, it is having, doing and being. I’ll talk about the positives.
As I said, having is not bad. But what we have, what is our attitude towards it? So, here we need to associate having with contentment. No matter how much we have, there’ll always be people in the world who have more than us.
And if we don’t learn contentment, if we don’t learn to be satisfied, we will always stay unhappy. If we don’t learn to look at what we have instead of looking at what we don’t have. If we don’t learn this, no matter what else we do in our life, we’ll never become happy.
The Bhagavad Gita talks about austerity in the 17th chapter. And there it states austerity of the body, austerity of the mind and austerity of speech. So, in austerity of the mind, it states that we all need to cultivate satisfaction.
manah prasada saumyatvam maunam atma vinigraha bhavasam shuddhir tyetat tapo manasam uchyate That we need to cultivate our satisfaction as an austerity of the mind. Normally, austerity tapasya means that we feel naturally inclined to do something but we decide I’ll not do it. Yes, yesterday was Ekadashi.
So, many of us were fasting from particular foods. So, we feel like eating those foods but although we feel like it, we don’t do it. So, that’s physical austerity.
So, fasting is a physical austerity. So, when satisfaction what does it mean when it is a mental austerity? We often think of satisfaction as an emotion. I’m feeling satisfied, I’m not feeling satisfied.
Yes, satisfaction is an emotion but satisfaction is not just an emotion. Satisfaction is also a decision. Decision means in every situation in life, there are some things which we have and some things which we don’t have.
And if we choose to look at the things that we have, we will feel satisfied. If we choose to look at the things that we don’t have, we will feel dissatisfied. So, when we say satisfaction is a decision, that is a decision to look at what we have instead of looking at what we don’t have.
Suppose, after this programme there is Prasad. There is no suppose, Prasad is there. But suppose, but suppose there is a programme after which there will be a special feast.
And the feast is that everybody has special items in their plate. So, we are having delicious items in our plate but what is in my plate is different from what is in your plate and what is different from your plate. Now, I can eat the feast on my plate and savour it but if I keep looking, what is in his plate? What is in his plate? As I keep looking at that although I have delicious food with me I will not be able to enjoy it.
So, similarly in our life, we all have a plate and there are good things in our plate also. But, if we keep looking at what is there in others plate, we can never be satisfied. So, with respect to having, the healthy attitude is contentment, which comes by focussing on what we have instead of what we don’t have.
Now, with Rajas, what is associated is doing. So, when we are in Rajoguna, at that time, the first thing is what am I doing? And then, from that, it may go towards who am I? or what am I possessing? So, this is somewhat better. Some people are super active.
Just do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. Tell them to sit peacefully. As soon as they sit peacefully, their mind stops being peaceful.
Their mind is wild and mind makes them go wild and if this becomes steady, they become peaceful externally, their mind’s energy becomes even more. Mind goes even more wild. So, in such a situation, how we see what we do is important.
Generally, in today’s world, if we tell anyone, be contented, be satisfied. The whole consumer economy in the world runs on consumer dissatisfaction. If customers are satisfied with the phones that they have, nobody will buy the new version of the phone.
And the most consumer products, they run because they are able to make customers dissatisfied with whatever products are there already. So, now, with respect to, so generally the idea is, it’s not just with respect to the consumer economy, but the whole idea in the professional world today is that should never be satisfied. People think that satisfaction is the poison for ambition.
And ambition is what will help you to grow in life. Now, it’s not necessarily like that. We can be satisfied with what we have and still we can be ambitious.
Ambition does not require dissatisfaction. In fact, if dissatisfaction is the fuel for ambition, then no matter how much we succeed in our ambition, still dissatisfaction will stay with us. Why? Because if we associate ambition with having more and more and more.
So, we think that, okay, if I have more, I have more, I have more, then I’ll become happy. But, our unhappiness is not coming from what we don’t have. Our unhappiness is coming from our attitude of looking at what we don’t have.
And no matter how much we have, there’ll always be things that we don’t have. Suppose somebody thinks oh I want wealth and wealth will make me happy. Then, I want to be the wealthiest person in my family, in my generation.
My brothers, my cousins I wanna be the wealthiest. Then I wanna be the wealthiest person in the history of my family. I wanna be the wealthiest person in my community.
I wanna be the wealthiest person in my district. I wanna be the wealthiest person in my country. I want to be the wealthiest person in the world.
I want to be the wealthiest person in the history of the world. And as we keep pursuing this, we become history. This is just an endless journey.
It is. So, if we think that ambition will be driven by dissatisfaction, then no matter how successful we are in our ambition, we will always have dissatisfaction. So, satisfaction comes by looking at what we have.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t seek what we don’t have. But we focus on what we have. And so, people think that if I am dissatisfied, then I will do more.
But that is not the only motive for action. Action can be motivated by dissatisfaction. Or action can be motivated by contribution.
So, when we act, we can act so that I will get this. Or I will act so that I will do this, so that I can contribute this. So, contribute this means, say, if somebody is an artist, somebody is an author, somebody is a software engineer, somebody is a teacher, whatever particular profession we may be in.
Now, in every profession, there is something that is our contribution. And there is something that is our remuneration. What we give and what we get.
So, if what we are doing is motivated primarily by what we are getting, then that doing will keep us dissatisfied and distressed. And we will become very unsteady. Oh, maybe if I do this, I’ll get more.
Maybe if I do that, I’ll get more. If I do that, I’ll get more. But if what we are doing is motivated by a spirit of contribution.
How can I make a solid contribution? How can I increase my contribution? The universe ultimately is reciprocal. Now, if we give, we will get. We may not always get in exactly the same way that we expect or desire.
We may get in a different way. But if we focus on contributing, then there is a greater sense of control for us. If somebody is a teacher and that person thinks that I want to be the highest paid teacher.
Well, that depends on so many other factors which may or may not be in our control. Most of the time they are not in our control. But somebody decides, I want to teach the best that I can.
Let me bring the maximum value to the contribution that I am doing. Then that helps us to focus again on what is in our control. So if I think my doing is simply a tool to having, then if I don’t have, then there is no happiness.
But if my doing is a tool to being, let me do, let me act in such a way that I can be the best teacher I can be. If I am a parent, instead of thinking that my children should become like this, that is not in our control. But what is in our control is, let me act in such a way so that I can become the best parent that I can be.
So if our doing is motivated by contribution, then that brings a further steadiness in our life. We will still do our best. Actually we will be able to do our best in a much more focused way.
Because if we are doing for having, then we are always worried, will I have this or not have this? If I am not having it, what is the point in doing this? So we will be distracted, half-hearted and agitated if we are doing simply for having. But if we are doing for being, to be who we are meant to be. Then that is a much more healthier approach to action.
So in Rajas, in this mode, we are concerned primarily with action. And we think action as a tool to position. But action can be a tool to realisation, to become who I am meant to be.
Then going further, there is sattva. The word satt means existence, vo means to be. So to be who we are meant to be, that is sattva.
So in sattva, the focus is on being. Now the Bhagavad Gita gives this whole analysis a spiritual foundation. It explains that we are all at our core souls.
The soul is a non-material particle of consciousness. And every soul is a part of the supreme soul of Krishna. So being means understanding that I am a soul who is a part of Krishna.
And as a soul, I have a particular body-mind. And I have a particular set of positions in this world. So the soul is here.
Around the soul is the body-mind with which soul can do certain things. And then by doing certain things, the soul can get certain things. So being refers to the soul.
Doing refers to the body which the soul has. And having refers to what one can get using that body. So if we consider the soul is who we are.
That is what is in the most our control. To be who we are meant to be. To do certain things, yes we can do.
But sometimes we are able to do, sometimes we are not able to do. Say I am a speaker, right now I am speaking. But tomorrow if I get a sore throat, I will not be able to speak.
But still if I understand that I am a soul and I am a part of Krishna and I am speaking as a service to Krishna. Then I can still be situated in my identity that I am still a servant of Krishna. Even if I can’t do the particular activity of speaking right now.
If I think of possessing and I think that I should speak in such a way that hundreds of people come for my talks. Then how many people will come for any programme, that is not in my control. Sometimes many people will come, sometimes not many people will come.
Sometimes many people will come. Generally I found that people’s interest is very difficult to understand what will make people more interested. Sometimes there is a large crowd, hundreds of people, thousands of people are there and the talk is going on.
Sometimes everybody feels that the talk is for everyone else. Because there are so many people in the audience. So everybody feels that talk is for all these other people.
But when there is a small group, then everybody connects more. Okay, speaker is speaking to me, I am here, I am thinking. So sometimes just the sheer quantity may not in any way relate to the quality.
The quantity of the audience may not relate to the quality of the attention. But if the conception is the success of speaking is based on having a large audience, then that is not in the speaker’s control at all. So everything that we do in our life, the doing, being, doing and having are integral aspects.
But what is the foundation? So I started by talking about, अशान्त से कुता है सुखम् So we talked about how if the earth is quaking, tidying your room makes no sense. So for people who focus on having, I have to have this, I have to have that, I have to have that. But they have not worked on their doing or on their being.
Then even if they have something, it is not of much use. It is. Most people dream of having a lot of wealth.
As in Australia, I met a devotee who is an inheritance attorney. When inheritance is passed on, they said now the government is seriously considering making laws and many parents when they pass on their inheritance to their children, they have strict strictures of how much inheritance the children can spend per year. The parents may give a huge house to the children.
Now the children say, if they are teenagers or they are young, they may get into some habit, they may be drinking, they may be having drugs or they may be just squandering money and gambling or whatever. There are so many ways in which money can be just squandered. So there are many cases where the parents were phenomenally wealthy and the children within just a few years just squander all the wealth and the children end up on the streets with nothing.
They were living in mansions, they were owners of mansions and they are homeless. So what happened over there? This having was there but the having was without proper doing and without proper being. They were not doing anything, they were not making any contribution, they just inherited everything and squandered it all away.
So if we focus on the foundation, the foundation for having is doing. If you focus on, oh I want to have this, I want to have that, people will tell us, you do your job well, if you keep doing your job well, you will grow and you can possess things, what you want. The foundation of having is doing but the foundation of doing is being.
If we are situated in inner security, in proper understanding of who we are, then that will give us stability. So I associated having with contentment. Associated doing with contribution.
Do so that we can make a contribution and being is associated with connection. To be, we are not just isolated beings. We are souls who are parts of Krishna and the sattva has two aspects, sattva and shuddha sattva.
In sattva, we live in harmony with ourselves. We understand, these are my strengths, these are my limitations, let me work with whatever I have, whatever resources I have, let me work with who I am. So in sattva, we come to harmony with ourselves.
In shuddha sattva, we come to harmony with Krishna. In shuddha sattva means purified state of existence. In that purified state, focus on, okay, whatever I have, my connection with Krishna is most important.
We have many connections in the world, we have connections with people in the world, those are horizontal connections. And we have a vertical connection with Krishna. So this vertical connection with Krishna is our only eternal connection.
All other connections, they are important while they are there, but they are not everlasting. So this vertical connection can bring a supreme stability in our life. What we have may change.
What we do may change. Who we are, that will never change. No matter how many things go wrong externally or even internally in terms of our body’s health or our mind’s emotions, but still we remain souls who are parts of Krishna.
And the process of bhakti yoga is meant to connect us with Krishna. And when we connect ourselves with Krishna, we understand that Krishna has a place and purpose for us in the world. All of us are meant to make a contribution in the world.
All of us are meant to attain a destination that is eternal beyond this world. So the Isopanishad, which is one of the most prominent Upanishads, it says that, ओम् पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमदच्चते पूर्णस्यः पूर्णमादायः पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते It says the absolute truth is complete and perfect. And whatever emanates from that absolute truth is also complete and perfect.
That means that we are souls who are parts of Krishna. So Krishna is perfect, we are perfect. And the world is also perfect.
The world is also an emanation from Krishna. That means that there is for each one of us a place and purpose in the world. That we don’t have to search, Oh, I have to grab this, I have to possess this, I have to become like this.
No, if we just be who we are, if we just realise who we are and become who we are meant to be, we will find our place and purpose. And we will have stability during our life journey. And we will have an eternal destination for our life journey.
Beyond this life. So this being is what the process of Bhakti Yoga focusses on. Bhakti Yoga is not about rejecting having or doing.
But it is of prioritising properly. So when we do our sadhana, when we do our chanting of the holy names, when we do our swadhyaya, we study scriptures, when we come for satsang like this, when we do our puja, all this is not just a religious ritual. It is actually meant to help us realise who we are.
It is meant to remind us who we are. So at our core, we are indestructible. No matter how many things go wrong in the world, but still we remain indestructible.
We remain secure. Krishna is with us and in our relationship with him, there is security. And with that inner security, when we realise it, then we act.
Then we have. Then both our actions and our possessions will be used in a way that will increase our happiness. So our definition of happiness, it doesn’t always have to deprive us of happiness.
If the definition is correct, then the definition can give us direction, the right direction for our pursuit of happiness. And ultimately, by living in harmony with ourselves and living in harmony with Krishna, we find our place and purpose in life. And by our connection with Krishna, we get the inner calm, the inner clarity by which we can understand what is my contribution to it.
How can I contribute best in my relationships, in my profession, in my various activities that I am doing. How can I best contribute? And how can I be content with what I have? How can I find, cultivate satisfaction? All that will come to us when we become situated in who we are, in our understanding of who we are, in realising who we are. If we are in a new place, I’ll conclude with this example, that if we are in a new, if we are going to someone’s house and we are staying in a new place, it’s a big place, and we are not able to find any light anywhere.
Even if we go into one room, we look around and our phone is discharged, we somehow find one light. But that light only illumines that room and sometimes some rooms have faint lights at night. And when you go to the next room, you have to find another light.
We go to the next room, it’s a big place, next room we have to go, each room we have to go, we have to find one, one light. But suppose we know where the master switch is. At one switch we turn on, the whole house becomes lit.
Wherever we go, there is light. So, practising Bhakti Yoga and connecting with Krishna is like turning on that master switch. Seeking happiness through having or doing is like turning on small, small lights.
That will give us some happiness, but it will be very short-lived. It will be there for some time, it will be gone. When I got a GRE score, I was happy, but it was very short-lived happiness.
So, Krishna Consciousness is the one switch that lights everything in our life. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, mat-cittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi mat-prasāda-darśase. If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.
This is the light that can guide us throughout our life. Whatever situations, whatever difficulties, whatever obstacles, whatever adversities come in our life, with Krishna by our side, we can march through everything. So, whenever we are feeling unhappy, then that is often because we have associated our happiness with having something.
And we don’t have it, that’s why we are not feeling happy. But that having, it may be desirable, but it is not essential for our happiness. So, if we recognise, okay, this is my definition of happiness.
Is this really valid? Do I really need to let that definition of happiness define me, control me? If we situate ourselves in a relationship with Krishna, then we understand that Krishna has a place and a purpose for us. Whatever difficulties we are going through, they will be there for some time. The difficulty is the uncertainty in our having or our doing.
If we see that simply as a deprivation, oh, so many problems in my life. But if we see it as an opportunity for realising, okay, who am I really? What am I meant to do? So, if we see the instability in our having and our doing as an impetus for focussing on our being, then that instability will actually give us greater security, greater wisdom in our life. And in general, in sports, there are winners and there are losers.
The winners are happier, but the losers are wiser. The winners are happier, but they are so caught in happiness, yes, we won. The losers learn more, okay, this I could have done better, this I could have done better.
Losers are wiser. So, sometimes in our life we will be winners, sometimes we will be losers. So, when we find that we are losing something in our having or our doing, we can see that as an opportunity to become wiser.
That, what is it? Who am I really meant to be? So, when we are down to nothing, when things seem to be going wrong in our life, our positions are uncertain, our positions are uncertain, our profession is uncertain, so many uncertainties are there. When we are down to nothing, then Krishna is up to something. When we are down to nothing, Krishna is up to something.
What is he up to? We do not know in specifics, but he is helping us to realise who we are meant to be, to focus on our being. And by focussing on our being, we can find happiness with whatever we have and with whatever we are doing. And we can make a positive change in both if we have the security in our being.
So, I will summarise. I spoke today on the topic of are our definitions of happiness depriving us of happiness? There are lot of concepts, so I will try to repeat here. I talked about how our definition of happiness can be associated with our having, our doing or our being.
Having is associated with the tamo guna. The modes are subtle forces that shape things in the world and they shape our conceptions. So, one definition of happiness is associated with having.
And I talked elaborately about the problem with this. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, अशान्तस्य कुतः सुखम् that if we are not peaceful, how can there be happiness? Whatever else we do, if insects or ants are biting us, even if we are doing something enjoyable, we can’t enjoy it. If we are tidying a house, but if the floor is quaking, tidying is useless.
So, what is foundational has to come first. What is subsequent has to come later. So, in having, doing and being, foundational is being.
But when we are in tamas, at that time, having becomes foundational. Doing becomes secondary and being becomes tertiary. And the problem with that is, what we have is never in our, is frequently not in our control.
And even if we get what we have, there will always be others who have more. Having what we, having it may also not lead to happiness. Like, I got the experience when I had that tag that I am the topper.
But it only made me dependent on my happiness, dependent for my happiness on others. So, happiness, so, with respect to having, we need to cultivate. I talk about three Cs with each of these, having, doing and being.
With having was? Yeah, contentment. Contention is, yeah, contentment is, yeah, contentment is being satisfied. So, I talked about how, satisfaction is the austerity of the mind.
Satisfaction is not just an emotion that we feel, but it’s a decision that we make. And the decision means, instead of looking at what I don’t have, which is what the world is going to show us. I talked about how advertisements create dissatisfaction within us.
So, instead of looking at what we don’t have, we focus on looking at what we have. Instead of looking at what is there in other people’s plates, we focus on savouring what is in our plate. And then will this lead to lethargy, lack of ambition? Not necessarily.
Ambition can be fuelled by dissatisfaction. But if that is the case, then no matter how much we achieve, we’ll keep looking at what we don’t have and we’ll sentence ourselves to perpetual dissatisfaction. Even if somebody by ambition gets a vague house, but that will only provide him the privilege of being lonely and unhappy in a huge space.
So, we can act, we can have ambition that is motivated not by possession, but by contribution. Doing we associate with contribution. So, if we are contributing in whatever role we are, in our profession, in our relationships, immediately there may not be a return for it.
But eventually there will be a return. If somebody wants to be the best, most paid teacher, that may be difficult. But if somebody wants to be the best teacher they can be, that is much more in their control.
In general, when we focus, the more on the things that are in our control, the more we can make a positive change. And then lastly, I talked about being. Being means that we are souls who have a particular body-mind and we, by Krishna’s arrangement, we have a place and purpose in us.
We don’t have to have something or do something to acquire, to have something out of the way or do something out of the way. If we just focus on understanding who we are and contributing accordingly, we will find our place and purpose. And thereby we will find contentment.
So, when we face difficulties in life, instead of becoming disheartened, says, winners may be happier but losers are wiser. If the losers focus on learning. So, if we focus on, if there is insecurity, uncertainty in our having or our doing, then if we see that as an impetus of focussing on our being, that vertical connection with Krishna, He is eternal, we are eternal.
He is indestructible, we are indestructible. Our connection with Him can also be eternal and indestructible. That can give us the stablest foundation by which we can bring positivity into our doing and into our having.
So, we don’t have to give up doing or having but we have to have the right priority. When we focus first on being, then on doing and finally on having. And if in our having or doing we seem to be losing things, then we can gain solace by contemplating that when we are down to nothing, Krishna is up to something.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Are there any questions or comments? Yes. It’s a nice class. I don’t know where to start but one thing which is still not resonating well with me is ambition in contribution.
So, how do I really relate it in my life? So, suppose we are having a bhakti moksha which is, I can relate to contribution. So, does it mean that now I should be ambitious to have 20 people instead of 10 people or 30 people? Is that kind of ambition we are talking of? How do we put in right perspective ambition for contribution? What exactly does ambition for contribution mean? You say if we are doing a bhakti moksha programme, a spiritual programme, then is it that we want more and more people to come? That is the ambition? Not exactly. Sri Srila Prabhupada is our paradigmatic example, is our ideal example of how to practise bhakti in today’s world.
So, Prabhupada had great ambition. Even when he had nothing, just came with 40 rupees from India, but he had dreams of having big big temples across the world. So, certainly Prabhupada had ambition.
But it was not that Prabhupada was dissatisfied. Even when Prabhupada was an unknown Swami walking on the streets of New York, what attracted people to him was his sense of contentment. He was so happy.
He was so happy glorifying Krishna. He was speaking about Krishna, writing about Krishna, worshipping Krishna, offering bhoga to Krishna. He was happy in that.
He wanted to do more also. So, there can be the sense that ambition for contribution means that I want to do more for Krishna. But in whatever we are doing, there are some things in our control, there are some things not in our control.
So, we focus on the things that are in our control. So, if we are doing a programme, we can focus on making sure that we have the best content that we present in the class, the best that is possible for us. We have a good culture in the community that we are building, so that people who come there feel welcomed, feel warm, feel wanted over there.
And if we have certain attempts means for publicising, we publicise also. So, in any situation, when we focus on contribution means that we focus on what is in our control and try to maximise that. And there are things which are beyond our control and that we leave it to Krishna.
So, surrender is in both ways. Surrender means at one level to leave to Krishna things that are not in our control. But surrender also means doing wholeheartedly the things that are in our control.
So, surrender can have these two expressions. There is a diligence for Krishna and there is dependence on Krishna. So, diligence for Krishna means we do to the best of our capacity.
At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna doesn’t surrender to Krishna by raising his hands, independence. He picks up his bow in readiness to fight. So, as a warrior, fighting expertly was in his control and he was diligent in doing that.
So, diligence for Krishna is how Arjuna surrenders to Krishna. But even when Arjuna was surrendering like that, there were times when things were beyond his control. When he had taken a vow that he will avenge the death of Abhimanyu by felling Jayadrath by evening of the 14th, he fought diligently.
But the Kaurava troops in the last movement just crowded in. So many warriors and soldiers came that he was completely blocked. So close yet so far.
So, at that time, there was dependence on Krishna. And Krishna miraculously intervened, covered the sun and then he was able to shoot Jayadrath. So, for us, when we talk about contribution, we focus on the diligence for Krishna in the things that are in our control.
And we cultivate the dependence on Krishna by doing our sadhana bhakti. Swadhyaya, our japa, all this is meant to help us cultivate the dependence on Krishna. That mood that what is not in my control is not out of control.
It is in Krishna’s control. And Krishna will make things work out for the good. Does this answer your question? Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes? I have a question that what if you in your life, like what if I want something and so is it correct if you want something and you are doing for it, is it still happy or is it still called happy bhakti? If you want something and we are doing something to get it. So, if you want something and we are doing something to get it. So, is that having centred or doing centred? Okay, centred is a different.
Okay, I understood your question. So, is it having or doing? Okay. Basically, when we are living beings, we are conscious beings, to have desires is natural.
So, when we see different people have this person has this toy, this person has this phone, this person has this dress, we naturally have desires. And then we may do certain things. Say, if there is a drama competition in your school or writing competition and you want to get the first prize.
And then you are doing something for it. You are learning to act nicely, you are learning to write nicely. So, if somebody just desires to get that thing without doing anything.
Somebody thinks, oh, I want to win the first prize in the fancy dress competition. But they are not even getting a good costume. Then, there is no point in that.
So, just wanting something, I want to have this, but you are not doing anything. That is not good. That will lead to only frustration and daydreaming.
But sometimes we may do the best that we can. We may dress up, get a good costume, do everything nicely. But still sometimes we don’t get it.
So, we may be doing for having. But even if we don’t get it, we should know that actually as you are, Krishna is in your heart and Krishna loves you. And Krishna has a plan for you.
So, even if this one thing doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean it is terribly wrong. Sometimes some things work out, some things don’t work out. So, if you want to have something and you are doing something for it, that is good.
But even more fundamentally, if you see this in a mood of service to Krishna. Krishna, I want to do this, so that I can do this in a mood of service to you. I want to become a nice singer.
You have given me some ability, so I want to sing nicely. I want to act nicely. Maybe in future if I learn to sing nicely, then I can sing some songs of Krishna.
I can do some dramas for Krishna if I can learn to act nicely. So, if you think that if I am a student, I want to be a good student because I want to do it in a mood of service to Krishna. So, if I have that understanding that even if that doing does not lead to having.
I do it, but still I don’t get it. But what will happen is if we do it in a mood of service to Krishna, we will go closer to Krishna. And we will still have satisfaction even if we don’t get it.
And as we move closer to being who we are, then we will be able to do also more positively. And we will be able to have things also more. So, doing for having is good.
But doing to serve Krishna, to be who we are meant to be, that is the best. And by Krishna’s plan, whatever we are meant to have, we will get it in the course. Thank you.
Good question. Yes. Happiness is not an emotion, it is a decision.
Yeah. Okay. Where should we draw a line? Like, okay, this thing is not a plan of Krishna, no matter how hard I try.
Because the more we don’t have a plan, there will always be a place where we need to set boundaries. Okay. Good question.
So, where do we set a boundary if we say that satisfaction is a decision? We may be endeavouring to say do something and have something. But then, should we just keep doing it even if I don’t get it and think that Krishna has a plan and Krishna will give it to me later? Or should I just understand that this is not meant to be and move on to something else? Or just be contented with what I have right now? Yes, there is no black and white kind of categorisation in this. But broadly, the one defining thing is that nothing except our relationship with Krishna should be the defining thing for us.
So, we all have various desires and those desires can have different degrees of intensity. So, for somebody getting a big house, that might be just their driving desire. They just can’t give it up.
For somebody else, okay, if I have it, it’s good. If I don’t have it, it’s not such a big deal for me. So, we can’t have a one size fit all formula that at this point you have to be satisfied.
It’s like food. We can’t have a universal standard. Everybody should eat this much food.
Now, each person’s metabolism is different. Each person’s need for food will be different. But every one of us can overall make out.
Now, this is too little for me. This is becoming, I am over eating now. So, that requires introspection.
Now, of course, people who are around us, observing us, they can also tell us if we have some good association. You are doing too much austerity. Don’t eat so less.
It will not be good for your health. This is too much. People may tell us also if we are good friends.
So, it’s generally introspection and association. So, what applies to food also applies to our doing and having. So, if, say, if we are pursuing something and that pursuit is for something which is a very deep rooted desire for us, then maybe the best way to deal with the desire is to keep pursuing that, get that and then move ahead in life.
Something which is more of a circumstantial desire. People say this is good. I also think this is good.
But that is not something so deep rooted. Even if I don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. So, the example of food I gave for the point that individually we have to make the decision.
And what we have to make the individual decision is which is the boundary for what. So, A, I want to earn more money. But what all am I ready to do to earn more money? See, growth is natural in life.
All of us were just one tiny cell in our mother’s womb. Now there are millions of cells in our body. So, that one cell has grown.
So, growth is natural. However, cancer is also growth. But cancer is a growth that is disproportional and destructive.
So, when our normal body grows, the different parts of the body grow proportionately. And that helps in the person becoming, person growing. So, if one desire becomes obsessive for us and for that desire we start neglecting everything else in life.
Then that desire is becoming cancerous. And then we have to say that, okay, this may be an important desire for me, but other things are also important. So, in a sense of proportion, I may focus more on this, but I have to have a sense of proportion.
So, generally in companies, I was speaking a few months ago in Google. So, there also this topic came up as ambition and dissatisfaction. So, they are explaining that generally when does ambition become greed? The word greed, generally we understand we should not be greedy, but we should be ambitious.
So, when does ambition become greed? So, when ambition makes us cross ethical boundaries. When ambition pushes us beyond ethical boundaries, then it becomes greed. Krishna says, dharma aviruddho bhuteshu kamosmi bharatarshu.
Kama is desire. It can refer to sexual desire, it can refer to desire in general, it can even refer to ambition. But when ambition makes me give up dharma, ambition makes me flout dharma, then when kama makes me give up dharma, then it becomes evil, it becomes destructive.
So, if while pursuing our particular desires, if the desire is very important for us, even then we make sure that we have a sense of proportion. That I don’t neglect my morality for that, I don’t reject my morality, I don’t reject my spirituality. We have a sense of proportion with which we pursue it.
Then that pursuit can move on and we may ourselves, if we do introspection, we can decide that okay, this is important for me, so I’ll pursue it. And then okay, I may pursue this, I’ll pursue this course of action for the next six months or one year, no matter how many reversals I get. And then after that I may decide, okay, this has not come for one year, what does this mean? Does this mean that this is not meant to be or does it mean that I am meant to pursue further? So, we can pray again, we can introspect.
When Prabhupada was trying to share Krishna Bhakti, almost for 40 years in India, he did not get any results. So, Prabhupada kept trying, but he did not keep trying the same thing. He kept trying different things at different times also.
So, I feel if we do introspection and if we have association, that means we don’t just get driven by our emotions, but we calmly reflect and get a sense of proportion to introspection. And then we have some close trusted friends, mentors who can guide us. They can help us to think more clearly when our mind becomes fuzzy.
Then through introspection and introspection and association, we can maintain a sense of proportion while pursuing our ambition. Is the answer your question? Yes. Thank you.
Prabhu, I have one question. When we are complete, how can that be nullified or nullified? Okay. What drives us? After being complete, still what drives us? Okay, yes.
So, if we are already complete, then how can that be nullified? And if we are already complete, then what will drive us? Yes, there are two kinds of completeness. There is independent completeness and there is dependent completeness. What does that mean? For example, my hand.
The hand is complete and perfect for its purpose. For holding things, for touching things, for feeling things, for picking things, the hand is perfect. But if I try to use the hand for thinking, I can’t do that.
So, the hand is perfect as a part of the whole. It is complete. Completeness has to be seen in context, not in isolation.
Completeness has to be seen in the light of the purpose. So, purpose means the hand is meant to serve a particular function within the whole to which it belongs. So, if the hand becomes disconnected from the body, then the hand can’t serve any function.
It will just look like a hand, but it can’t serve any purpose. So, a phone is a very useful device for making phone calls. And occasionally the phone has also a facility for sending messages.
But if tomorrow I decide that I want to write my new book on a phone, and I am typing, typing and it is so messy, and I think this phone is useless. Why did the person design a phone like this? Well, the phone was not designed for writing a book. We can use it incidentally for writing some things.
So, the utility of a phone, the value of a phone has to be seen in the light of its purpose, its primary purpose. Secondary purpose also it may serve. But the perfection of the design of the phone, the completeness of the phone’s design has to be seen in the light of its primary purpose.
So, similarly, we are parts of Krishna. And our completeness is in our connection with Krishna. The hand is physically connected with the body.
Our connection with Krishna is not physical. It is through our consciousness. So, when we become disconnected from Krishna, we feel dissatisfied.
So, actually speaking, we are eternally parts of Krishna. So, we are never in the ultimate sense disconnected from Him. But in our consciousness when we become disconnected from Him, then we feel dissatisfaction.
So, because we are dependent complete, not independent complete, so when the dependence means that we are connected with the whole. So, when that connection is no longer there, then that sense of completeness is no longer felt. That’s why we feel incomplete or dissatisfied.
And what is the motivation for doing something? Our completeness is not static. It is dynamic. The hand is complete for doing the function that the hand is meant to do.
Similarly, we are complete in our relationship with Krishna. So, there is the completeness, there is action that is done because the state of completeness is a state of dynamic connection. So, it’s not a static isolation.
So, we act so that we stay connected with Krishna. We be so that we be connected with Krishna. We have so that we can connect with Krishna.
So, all being, acting and doing are all meant to help us connect with Krishna. And that connection is what gives us wholeness. So, the motivation for action is maintaining that connection and then sharing that connection with others.
Say, a person who is hungry may go to a hotel to get some food. And if a person is a beggar, he must wait outside the hotel. Maybe somebody after some things remain at the hotel closes, I’ll get some food.
Now, somebody who has cooked a lot of food and they are full themselves. They may also go to a hotel and see outside the hotel if there is someone to whom they can distribute the food. So, both are acting.
The first is acting out of sense of incompleteness. Oh, I don’t have food. I want food.
The second is not acting out of sense of incompleteness. Second is full. The second is I have so much food, I want to share that food with others.
So, for us, when we act in our relationship with Krishna, it is not with a sense of incompleteness that we want to overcome. Yes, at present, because our connection with Krishna is not there, so we do feel a sense of incompleteness. And we act to connect with Krishna so that we start feeling more and more complete.
But in the purified stage, we are connected with Krishna and we act to share that completeness with others. Does it answer your question? Thank you. The exact meaning of consciousness is for Krishna consciousness.
Does consciousness is related with mind or with intellect or with spirit or with combination of all these things? Okay, good question. So, what is consciousness exactly? Is it related with the mind, intelligence or the spirit? Okay, the word consciousness has two distinct meanings, but I’ll focus on one meaning first and then move to the next meaning. So, consciousness refers to the capacity to be aware.
So, we could say that, say this is a light bulb and from there light is coming out. So, consciousness is like the light coming from the soul. इधासर्वकतम्शोक्षनाकाशन्नोपलिवित्ति In 13.33 and 34, Krishna used two examples to explain how consciousness exists.
So, he says, one example he uses about the sun. The sun is at one place, but it spreads this light everywhere. So, consciousness comes from the soul.
The soul is the radiant particle like the bulb and from which consciousness is coming out. Now, the consciousness is the light that comes out, but consciousness is also the seer of what is shown by the light. Because the consciousness is not like a bulb alone.
Suppose say, if a person is walking in dark with a torch, then the torch, the light coming from the torch is coming from that person. But then that light is also, the person is also observing. So, consciousness refers to both the light that illumines things and consciousness also refers to the observer who sees what is illuminated.
So, now, the body is here, the mind is here, the subtle body is here and the soul is here. So, the subtle body which involves the mind and the intellect both, intelligence both, they are coverings of the soul. And then beyond that, there is the physical body and the physical world.
So, when the consciousness comes from the soul outwards, it is filtered and directed by the mind and the intelligence. Say for example, right now, we are having the stock, but within our minds there might be the thought, it’s going too long, I’m hungry now, when will we have food? So, the consciousness is coming out, but the mind is directing, what will be there for food, when will I get the food? But then the intelligence is there, this is quite interesting, I want to understand this. So, the intelligence is driving back to the speech.
So, we could say that, say there is a torch, the torch light is coming, but if there is a wind moving, the wind may move the torch in this direction, torch light in this direction or the torch itself may oscillate, and then the light will flicker accordingly. So, like that when the soul’s consciousness comes out, the mind and the intelligence, they both direct the consciousness in different ways. And depending on who is stronger, the consciousness will be pulled or directed in that particular direction.
So, the mind and intelligence, they are not the source of consciousness, they are the channel by which consciousness comes out. So, I use the word that there is root and route. So, the soul is the root of consciousness, the mind, intelligence, they are the route of consciousness.
And as far as when we use the word Krishna consciousness, what that means is that there we refer to our consciousness is directed towards Krishna. So, we may be doing various things, we may be doing our jobs, we may be doing our family responsibilities, but we do it in a mood of service to Krishna. And especially we cultivate Krishna consciousness by doing the activities that direct our consciousness towards Krishna.
So, for example, when we do japa, when we hear the Bhagavad Gita, when we take darshan of Krishna, these are activities that directly connect our consciousness with Krishna. So, that’s how we can become Krishna conscious. Thank you.
Shall we stop here? So, thank you very much for your attention and participation. Hare Krishna!