When life hurts 1 – when a small mistake causes huge problems – Parikshit M pastime analysis

[Talk at ISKCON Silicon Valley, San Jose, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
The urge for water, thirst for water, he cursed, he garlanded Shri Vishwamitra Shiva with a snake and he was cursed to die in seven days. Punishment has to be proportional to the crime, not to the outrage felt by the crime, that’s why it was disproportionate. But what did he do? He took shelter of Krishna.
He did not beat himself up for the wrongdoing, nor did he resent, why is this happening to me? So we discussed about how we normally think that action leads to the reaction, the result. This can happen but there is much more over there. There is karma and phala but in between what is there? Daiva and Kala.
Yes. So the farming as well as the procreating example. And then I talked about how karma and phala, they are related in a complex way.
In between we could say there is a water tank with an inlet and outlet but from the inlet to outlet there can be multiple connections. Some are direct, some are winding and some may be hugely winding. So for us we just do action and we get a result and we think this has produced this.
But when destiny is unfavorable then our small mistake, small negative action, that leads to a big reaction because our action becomes like a trigger. So when we press a trigger, at that time depending on what is the nature of the gun and the bullet within it, it might be harmless, it might hurt slightly or it might hurt fatally. So similarly, our action is like the trigger and depending on destiny the results may vary.
And then I discussed about the relationship between destiny and Krishna through the past time of Drona and Duryodhana trying to arrest Nishtha that Krishna is the lord of destiny. So at one level destiny is like a material mechanism, like the principle of law of gravity. Whatever actions we do, we get the results.
But at another level we understand everything happens by Krishna’s will. So as devotees we see that even if destiny is acting, it is acting for my ultimate goal. And we see how we can take shelter of Krishna more.
So we try to look for the correlation between action and result as much as possible. That is the use of our intelligence in Krishna’s service. But we need our intelligence in Krishna’s service we also need humility.
Humility means to acknowledge sometimes that I don’t know and I can’t know. So when we don’t get answers, when things don’t make sense, then we change the question from why to how. Not why is this happening but how can I serve now.
And once we shift we will find there are opportunities to serve always. Even if we can’t be grateful for all situations, we can be grateful in all situations. By looking at what are the opportunities for us to serve Krishna in that situation.
So Parikshit Maharaj was practicing inclusive devotion when he was a king but when he was cursed then he started focusing on exclusive devotion. Completely focused only on hearing about Krishna. So this way we can make sense to some extent when small mistake leads to terrible result.
Rather than blaming some unfair destiny we see it as ultimately meant for our good. And we don’t blame ourselves and beat ourselves down also because we understand that we need to forgive ourselves to give ourselves to Krishna. We are our only resource.
So if we beat ourselves up then we have nothing we won’t be able to offer anything to Krishna. We are the offering and we are the one who is meant to give the offering. So therefore blaming ourselves means continuously beating ourselves up.
Accepting responsibility means acknowledging and then correcting ourselves. Even if we have committed mistakes, Krishna is still our lord and guide. Krishna is like the ultimate GPS.
No matter how many wrong turns we take, He is still there to reroute and get us to the destination. By focusing on Krishna and how we can serve Krishna, we can find our way even through darkness, even through difficulties, even through mistakes to ultimately attain His shelter. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.