How to transform our heart 2 – Vritrasura’s dramatic transformation

[Bhagavatam class at Charlotte, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, today we continue our discussion on the pastime of Uttarasur and his transformation from demoniac to extraordinarily devoted. Yesterday I talked about, in the first part of this session, how within our consciousness there are conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels of levels or layers of experience and impressions that we have. Conscious is what we are aware of.
It’s like what is on the computer screen or where our flashlight in the room is focused. The subconscious is what is the data in the computer but which is not yet opened. So, it’s like the various things in the room on which the flashlight is not there.
And the unconscious is like the hidden files in the computer, like the things under a trap door in a house. So, our actions normally are shaped by the conscious and the subconscious. The unconscious also shapes but it’s at a very very subtle level which is often not visible.
And in this life when we act in particular ways, it could be our mentality could be shaped by the birth, by the samskaras from the previous life, by the kind of parents from whom we are born and also from the kind of upbringing that we get. And then beyond these three factors which shape our upbringing, there are also three other factors. There is, as we grow up, the kind of association we have that also shapes our behaviour.
Then there is also the kind of, still apart from all these we have our free will. And how we use our free will also determines the nature of our actions. And beyond them ultimately is Krishna’s grace.
So, Krishna’s mercy can manifest and change things in a dramatic way. So, these various factors, the factors from the previous life, the pura samskara, the factors from this life, that is the janma and the lineage and the upbringing along with the association, they all push our free will in particular ways. They push but they don’t force.
And we can, we always have the capacity to counter-push so that our free will can actually be used to resist some of those influences. Sometimes all these three, four influences can act in one way. Say, somebody was an alcoholic in the previous life.
Now they are born in an alcoholic family. And they grow up seeing their parents drink alcohol. And then even when they grow up, the locality in which they live, everybody is drinking alcohol.
So then, previous and this life’s factors all combine together to push them in a particular direction. That is to drink alcohol. So, when Krishna’s mercy comes into the picture, Krishna’s mercy can act in two ways.
One is that by his mercy we can, our free will gets more power to push back. When we are pushed in a particular direction to resist or to push back, our free will’s power increases. Say, if a boulder has to be pushed uphill, then if the boulder is very big, then it will push us down.
It will roll over us. But if we become stronger, then our capacity to push increases. And conversely, if the boulder keeps becoming bigger and bigger, say it is a mud boulder or a snow boulder, snowball, and it’s accumulating more and more mud or snow and growing bigger, then also pushing it will be difficult.
But if it becomes smaller, then pushing it will become easier. So, Krishna’s mercy can either increase our capacity to push by making us stronger. Krishna’s mercy can also come by decreasing the size of the boulder.
The boulder here I am using to refer to all the factors from the previous life, from the previous life as well as this life till now. Now, here we are using one boulder which is pushing us down and we are pushing it up. But there may not be one boulder like that.
The boulder example is simply for simple understanding. Yesterday I gave the example also of an ocean in which there may be different currents and different layers. So, we see that the previous life and this life, the previous life, not the previous life’s whole life for Uttarasur, but the previous life’s curse and this life’s birth and this life’s upbringing, even this life’s association, all of them were pushing Uttarasur to act in demonic ways.
And when he sees Indra discouraged, he actually is still very angry. And he first speaks according to his demonic nature and he says, Oh Indra, you wretched person, you are actually a killer of your own brother, you are a killer of your guru and you are a killer of, you are a killer of my brother, you are a killer of a brahmana, you are a killer of my guru, of your guru because he had killed Vishwaroop. He said, therefore, I will punish you and I will kill you.
So, he says over here, this is text 15, 6, 11, 15. योनो अग्रिजस्यात्नविदोद्विजातेर् गुरोरपापस्यचदीक्षितस्य विश्रभ्यखट्गेनशिराम् विश्यचत् पशोरिवाकरुणः स्वर्गकामः So, you killed him like an animal, slaughterer might just slaughter an animal ruthlessly without caring for the animal at all. So, पशोरिवाकरुणः, heartlessly, without a करुणः, you killed him.
For what? स्वर्गकामः. Then he says, therefore, I will kill you today and I will attain peace for your having killed my brother. I will take revenge for that.
And then he goes on and says that I will do a yagya to Bhairav with your head and the heads of all the gods who have the audacity to fight by you, by your side, instead of fleeing away in fear. We see in the Vedic context, even the demons are not totally godless. Even the demons understand that they have to worship some higher beings by which they get some power.
So, they just don’t believe in Vishnu as a supreme being and that’s why we have Ravana worshipping Shiva, Hiranyakashipu worshipping Brahma and here he is saying that I will perform a yagya to Bhairava. Now, this was the plan even of Jarasandha as well as of Bhaumasura, Arkasura. Many of the Asuras in Krishna Yuga also had this plan that they will perform some yagya.
So, here although he is performing yagya, that yagya to a devata is not done out of piety. There is some level of piety in it, but it is done simply to increase one’s power by using the demigods as almost like a mechanical tool for gaining that power. Earlier I mentioned how yagya can be like a weapons, is not a weapon manufacturing unit, but a warrior manufacturing unit.
Similarly, he wanted to perform yagya to increase his prowess. But as he is speaking like this, now Vritrasura also has mystic powers and he knows that Indra has got a particular astra, a vajra, not his own ordinary, his own vajra. Indra is famed for his thunderbolt which is itself very powerful.
But Indra has got something more. Indra has got a vajra made from the body of Dadhichi and that has been given to him as per the plan of Vishnu and he knows that he is going to die due to that vajra. So, after he is exhorting him, after he is castigating him, saying him that you are a killer and therefore you deserve to be killed and you will be killed, he speaks in, actually he says that, actually when he says that I will perform yagya to Bhairava, he does not even say that I will use your head.
I will use the head of the devatas who stand by you and I will perform a yagya to Bhairava with their heads and he says your body, I will just, I will kill it, I will destroy it and I will throw it to the vultures. You are so sinful that your body doesn’t even, your head doesn’t even deserve to be offered to Bhairava because you are the killer of a brahmana. So, here he is impassioned with anger.
Now, but suddenly he says that his mood changes. This is text 18 and then text, from text 18 onwards his mood changes. So, he says, text 18, Normally when a warrior is fighting, warriors know at the back of their minds that they can die at any moment.
In today’s world, let me say, a bullet may come and may knock them down or kill them down, kill them or in the past an arrow or some other missile may knock them down. But generally when the warriors are fighting, they actually speak to praise their own strength and to minimise their opponent’s strength. And this way in war a major factor is intimidation.
War is not just a physical confrontation, it is also a mental confrontation. The person who is mentally stronger, their spirit will stay stronger and that person will be able to fight longer as and when it’s necessary. So, generally warriors do not show any weakness, especially when they are confronting the other person.
They express full confidence that I am going to send you to the abode of death. So, till this point, till text 17, Pratharasura is speaking like a typical demon. And then suddenly in text 18, here his mood is in, If however, Hare, so Hare refers to King Indra.
Kulishena Veera, that if, like there is a Trishula, so Kulishena refers to here the thunderbolt. If you are thunderbolt, oh hero, Veera, if you kill me, If you cut off my head and destroy my army, Tatranjano Bhutbalim Vidhaya, then I will Bhutbalim Vidhaya, I will offer my body as a sacrifice for the benefit of all living beings. Bhutbali means sacrifice.
So, I will offer it as a sacrifice and then Manasvinampadraja Prapatsya. And in this way, I will attain the dust of the Manasvis. The dust of the lotus feet of the Manasvis, padarajam.
So, Manasvi here refers to great sages like Narad Muni. Now, he doesn’t mention the word Narad Muni explicitly, but it’s understood from his previous life. Because Narad Muni and Parvat Muni were the two sages who instructed him.
So, he’s thinking, I will attain the dust of their lotus feet. I will attain their association. Now, this is a sudden change.
Indra himself is startled by this. What is going on over here? And then, now he says, not only does he say that, he entertained the possibility of his death, but then he goes ahead and he starts encouraging Indra, exalting Indra. Sureshakasmanahino shivajiram purhasthite vairinimaiyamogham ma samshayistha na gadevavajrah sa nishvalakrupanarthevayachanah So, he says, ma samshayistha, don’t have doubt that na gadevavajrah, that just as your gada was foiled, this vajra will also be foiled.
sa nishvalakrupanarthevayachanah, don’t think it will be like a, if somebody goes and asks money from a miser, then all that one will get from a miser is misery, not money. The miser will reject, will scorn, will deride, and such an appeal, the achana is itself useless. But that is not the case, that is not only the case with you, O Prince.
Because, I am going to, because this is amogha, this is infallible, the vajra which you have got is infallible. Sureshakasmanahinoshivajram, therefore, O Suresh, O King of the Gods, Suresh, why are you hesitating, why are you not throwing your vajra? Do not think that it will not work. This is extraordinary, normally a warrior would tell the opposite warrior, that your weapons are not going to work.
He is assuring him here, instead that your weapon will surely work, it is infallible. Why would anyone give the opponent the faith that their weapon will work? Generally, when wars take place, there is something called deterrence. Deterrence means that, if you do this, then I will do this to you.
And because of that fear, the other person will not do that. If you see in the last 30-40 years, we have not had major wars. Although there are major conflict zones, say India-Pakistan had wars in 1960s, 1970s, but by the 1990s, both India and Pakistan have developed nuclear weapons.
And nuclear weapons act as a deterrent. Even there had not been any major conflicts between, say, USSR and USA after the cold wars, because nuclear weapons act as a deterrent. Now, I am not supporting nuclear weapons in any way.
All that I am saying is that, deterrence is an important factor. Deterrence comes by awareness of the opponent’s fearful power to retaliate. So, based on that, an opponent may torment a little bit.
There might be some below-the-surface, invisible or low-visibility conflicts might go on, but a full-scale war won’t break out. Similarly here, normally, in order to deter the opponent from fighting wholeheartedly, one speaks about the power of one’s own weapons. And one minimises the power of the other’s weapons.
But here he is exhorting, he is encouraging his opponent and assuring him that your weapon will surely have power. Now, how do I say this? Why is it going to work? नान्वईश्यवज्रस्तवशक्रतेज्यसा हरेर्दधिचेस्तपसाचतेजितः तेनैवशत्रुम्जहिविष्ण्यंत्रितो यतो हरेर्विजयश्रीगुणास्ततः So, this Vajra is not driven by your power, like the Gadha was. So, he is telling him that if it’s your power fighting against my power, I will be victorious.
But it’s not your power fighting against my power. It is Vishnu’s power. हरेर्दधिचेस्तपसाचतेजितः It is by Lord Hari’s arrangement.
On top of it, there is the Dhikhi’s power with it. So, तेनैवशत्रुम्जहिविष्ण्यंत्रितो So, therefore, he uses the word twice. Here the word Harer refers to Lord Hari.
And विष्ण्यंत्रितो, this is arranged by Vishnu. यतो हरेर्विजयश्रीगुणास्ततः And again, he uses the word Hari, third line also. विजयश्री Wherever there is Hari, there will be Vijaya over there.
So, here we see the manifestation of his Krishna consciousness. Initially, he is looking at the confrontation in horizontal terms. Horizontal terms means that he is looking at this person is supposed to be a God, but he has acted in such an ungodly, brutal, vicious way.
And there is a natural enmity between the gods and demons. That is at the material level it is there. On top of that, he has acted in a demonic way.
He has killed my brother. It’s interesting that Vritrasura feels this filial fraternal brotherly affection, although he has never seen Vishwaroop. Vishwaroop died before he was born.
But he understands that I have emerged from the same father, Tvashta. So, he still feels that anger towards him. That is the nature of, we could say, family affection.
That even the relatives whom we have not seen, even relatives we have passed away before we have taken birth, sometimes our life may be devoted to taking revenge on their behalf. That’s how vendetta wars go on generation after generation after generation. Your grandfather did this to my grandfather.
Therefore, I will do this to you. Your grandfather did this to me. And then my uncle did this to you.
But then your father did this to me. And now I’ll go on. This will go on.
So, although he has not even seen Vishwaroop, still he is desiring to kill the killer of Vishwaroop. So, this is at a horizontal level of consciousness. You versus me.
But then his consciousness shifts. He doesn’t say you versus me. He says beyond you to Krishna.
And this is a consistent theme of the Srimad Bhagavatam which we could succinctly put as focus not on the wrongdoer, focus on the ultimate doer. Focus not on the wrongdoer, focus on the ultimate doer. Parikshit Maharaj does not focus on Shringi who has cursed him to die.
In fact, after the first canto, there is practically no reference to Shringi at all. Parikshit Maharaj is not feeling no resentment. Why did this boy curse me for such a small thing? But he just focusses on the ultimate doer.
That is Krishna has some plan and let me just serve him and surrender to his plan. This, looking at Krishna, this is we could say vertical vision. So, the horizontal and the vertical, we are normally aware of both things.
And there are situations where we serve someone and we serve Krishna through that person also. Say, we have family members, we take care of the family, take care of them. And they also become spiritually inclined, they also start practising bhakti.
Then our horizontal and vertical relationship both work together, both work in parallel. But sometimes they may not work in parallel, sometimes they may work in opposition. When this happens, one has to be extremely cautious not to give up the horizontal whimsically for the vertical.
But here, he is not giving up, he is going to lose. So, when he is about to lose the horizontal, he does not keep trying to hold on to it. Just as Parikshit Maharaj also did not hold on, he just lets go.
So, what happens, how does this transformation take place? The Bhagavatam does not explicitly indicate any change in terms of the narrative flow. It is within the conversation of Mritrasur that two, three verses he is speaking as a demon, out to kill the natural antagonists of the demon, the devatas. But the next moment, he is actually speaking as a devotee.
And we will see in subsequent verses, like when I said don’t focus on the wrong doer, focus on the ultimate doer. We will see Mritrasur’s focus shifting. 21st verse, he says that he is still speaking to Indra.
But then, from the 22nd verse till the 27th verse where the chapter ends, he, although he is in the battlefield, although he is facing his opponent, he stops speaking to his opponent. He starts speaking to Vishnu. Actually, he becomes, so first there is a conversation, then there is a reflection.
Reflection means he stops really speaking to himself, he stops speaking to Indra. Although he is speaking aloud, he is almost like speaking to himself while incidentally addressing Indra. And then he starts addressing the Supreme directly.
So, text 22 describes his more introspective mood now. पुम्साम् किलैकान्तधियम् स्वकानाम् यासं पदो धिविभुव उरसायाम् नरात्यत् द्वेश उद्वेग आधेर् मदः कलेर् व्यसनं संप्रयासह So, he says, पुम्साम् किलैकान्तधियम् स्वकानाम् So, those people who are एकान्तधिय, who are wholeheartedly devoted to Lord Vishnu, स्वकानाम्, they are Vishnu’s own people, they are recognised by him. These are my people, these are my devotees.
And यासं पदो धिविभुव उरसायाम् He doesn’t give them the property which might be available in this world, on the earth, in the heavens or in the lower planets, उरसायाम् because such things only bring anxiety. नरात्यत् द्वेश उद्वेग आधेर् It brings envy, it brings anxiety, it brings intoxication, it brings conflict. मदः कलेर व्यसनम् संप्रयासः All these come up because of it.
He doesn’t give that. Then what does he do? Then, amazing verses here. This is very similar to Kunti Maharani’s verse where, let the calamities come.
He doesn’t pray that let the calamities come, but he describes how the calamity is also a mercy. त्रैवर्गिकायास् विघात् तमस्मत् पतेर्विधत्ते पुरुशस्यशक्र ततो अनुमेयो भगवत् प्रसादो यो दुर्लभो किंचन गोचरोन्य So he says, त्रैवर्गिकायास् त्रैवर्ग, त्रीवर्ग, we know there is अपवर्ग. अपवर्ग means the liberation, going beyond the categories of material pleasures.
But before अपवर्ग there is त्रैवर्ग. त्रैवर्ग is धर्म, अर्थ and काम. So त्रैवर्गिकायास् विघातमस्मत् So normally people worship God, their idea of success is धर्म, अर्थ, काम.
But here he says, this aspiration विघातमस्मत्, the Lord destroys this. And पत्तिर्विधत्ति पुरुशस्यस्यशक्र Oh, Śakra, just consider, this is what the Lord does to our devotees. This is our Lord पत्तिर्विधत्ति, so अस्मत् means our.
Our Lord is such that he never give this, he actually destroys the plan of his devotees to get this. He disrupts it, विघातम, he ruins it. तत्तो अनुमेयो भगवत्प्रसादो So when this is disrupted for someone, then I understand that this is भगवत्प्रसादो, this is actually the mercy of the Lord.
But most people think, what kind of mercy is this? This is not mercy, this is cruelty, this is catastrophe. And then he says, oh Indra, don’t worry, you are not going to get this kind of mercy. यो दुर्लभो अकिञ्चन गोचरोन्य This is a very rare kind of mercy which is given to अकिञ्चन गोचर, those who are unalloyed devotees, those who are having no desire except the desire for Krishna.
There is a famous verse which Krishna also speaks to Yudhishthira and which Prabhupada felt was happening to him in his life. यस्याह मनुग्रहणामि हरिष्येतद्धनम्शरिः तो जनम् दुख्ख दुख्खिता That one loses everything and everyone, one loses wealth and one loses people in one’s life and in such a person has no one except Vishnu to take shelter of. So here, Vitrasur is recognising that he is going to get a special mercy of the Lord, that mercy which is not ordinarily available to anyone.
And then from here onwards, on the 24th was there a very celebrated prayers of Vitrasur where he desires to offer his whole being to the Supreme Lord. अहम् हरे तवपादईक मूलदासानुदासो भवितास्मिभूया मनस्मरेतासुपते गुणाम्स्ते गुणित्वाकर्मकरोतिकाया He says, my life, air, my breath, my words, my body, my everything, O Lord, I want to offer to you in a mood of service. So here we can clearly see that his vision has now shifted.
It is not even reflection that is incidentally being addressed to Indira. It is now direct appeal to the Lord. So by this time, Vitrasur has gone completely into Krishna consciousness.
He is practically not aware of the presence of Indira. He is not even aware of being on a battlefield. He is absorbed in the Supreme Lord.
So this transition from external consciousness to semi-external, semi-internal consciousness, to you could say internal consciousness. Internal doesn’t necessarily mean that he is thinking in words. He is actually looking upwards over there.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was describing three kinds of consciousness at different times like this. Sometimes we are vaguely aware of externals. Sometimes we are fully aware of externals.
Sometimes you would be utterly unaware of externals. So Vitrasur is transitioning from external consciousness towards internal consciousness or from we could say horizontal awareness to vertical awareness. From awareness of the wrong doer to awareness of the ultimate doer.
For all of us, this is very instructive. And I’ll talk about that as a conclusion. But before that one point, how does this transition happen for Vitrasur? As I said, the Bhagavatam itself, it only describes the transition.
It does not describe the causes or the mechanisms of the transition. So in the case of Bali Maharaj also, he is initially acting like a charitable person. Acting at the level of Punya, giving charity at all costs.
But then suddenly we see in his talks, he changes to the level of Bhakti where he wants to offer everything to Lord Vishnu. So this transition actually happens by the mercy of the Lord. The circumstance, some circumstance can act as a trigger.
If normally we are caught by the hope of material pleasure or the fear of material trouble and these two are the primary factors that keep us moving in material consciousness. Material pleasure doesn’t necessarily have to mean sensual pleasure. It can be pleasure of the ego, it can be various kinds of pleasure.
So it is that pleasure that keeps driving us on. I’ll get this, I’ll get this, I’ll get this, I’ll get this. Or it may be the fear of material trouble that this will go wrong, this will go wrong, this will go wrong.
But there are times which come in our life when the fear of material trouble becomes so overwhelming or rather the material trouble becomes so overwhelming that one realises that there is just no security at the material level. Normally when we feel that there is something in our control we try to, we keep trying to do something or the other. But sometimes we face a situation where we realise that there is just nothing in my control, nothing that I can do.
So when the material adversity becomes overwhelming or when a very big crisis poses itself, presents itself in front of us at that time that becomes an impetus, like a trigger for us to stop looking at ourselves and our endeavours, our capacity to endeavour also and to look upwards towards the supreme. Or sometimes we may get the material pleasure that we have dreamt of and after getting that pleasure we realise this is nothing, this is anticlimax. What is the point of seeking this? What is the point of getting this? It’s of no use.
And that, that realisation may also prompt us to change our process, to change our consciousness, to change our way of thinking and look upwards. So for Rutrasur, the sight of Indra’s Vajra, which is not Indra’s Vajra actually, it is the Vajra given to Indra, that reminds him of Vishnu and as soon as he is reminded of Vishnu, from that sight of the gift of Vishnu reminds him of his previous life which was devoted to Vishnu. And that devotion, it’s triggered, it is awakened.
And once it is triggered then it takes over. So the Samskara, the Bhakti practise that we have done, that lies in the remote background of our consciousness. Just like sometimes if we have some container of water, a tank of water or a small pond of water, then suddenly we might see some bubbles coming up over there.
Those bubbles come from maybe some fermentation or some action that is happening at the bottom of the well or lower layers of the lake. From there it comes up. So similarly here, in this case, some trigger from above causes the impressions from the unconscious to suddenly surface.
And they surface from the unconscious to the conscious level. And then that is where his consciousness becomes fully absorbed. So from external to reflective consciousness to internal consciousness.
That journey happens because what is there in the unconscious, it comes to the subconscious and then it comes to his full conscious awareness and just starts surfacing up. So actually it is in this sense that whatever Bhakti we have performed, that is never lost forever. It may be covered because by our this life’s upbringing, by our this life’s choices, certain impressions may be formed on our conscious level of reality.
And those impressions may obstruct the growth of our devotion. What to speak of growth? Even the manifestation of our devotion may be obstructed. But when, this is simply at the surface level, and when that surface level is disrupted by some devastating situation, then what is below starts manifesting.
But that situation is not the cause of the manifestation of the devotion. Situation is simply the trigger. Sometimes you may hear some stories about, say some devotees, they were some proper disciples or some other senior devotees, very serious in practising Bhakti and then they get cancer.
Then they leave the practise of Bhakti or they become lax in their practise and then they get cancer. And when they get cancer, then they suddenly become serious. Some devotees and they say that, you know that, maybe if I am not serious about my Bhakti, maybe if I get cancer then I will also become serious.
Now, cancer is not the producer of devotion. It is the mercy of the Lord which causes us some samskara from the past which we have done, that to manifest, inspire us to transform. And that’s what is the cause of devotion.
Otherwise there are millions of people who get terminal cancer and other terminal diseases. They don’t become devotees at that time. So, for a devotee, the mercy of the Lord is such that the devotee is able to break free from resentment, from revengefulness and focus on the divine.
And thus, Dhritarashtra becomes transformed because he completely focusses on the divine. And eventually when Indra, exhorted by Dhritarashtra, cuts off his head, actually the cutting off his head is his external event. Even before that, Dhritarashtra has become absorbed in Vishnu.
And Vishwanath Chakradhakur explains that Dhritarashtra, because of his internal absorption in Vishnu, already has attained Vishnu. And Indra is devoured by Dhritarashtra through his open huge mouth. And Indra from inside Dhritarashtra’s body works, because he is protected by the Vajra, he doesn’t die.
He works from inside the body to, he is protected by his kavach actually, by the armour. He works from inside the body to cut off Dhritarashtra’s belly and come out. And that’s when to the world it appears as if he has been victorious, as if.
But even before that, Dhritarashtra has been victorious because Dhritarashtra by his absorption in Vishnu has already attained Vishnu. So for all of us, when we are practising bhakti, when certain people do something wrong to us, we have a choice of being either resentful or revengeful. Why did this person do like this to me? How dare they do like this? If they do like that, I will show them what I can do.
Or we can see their action as an impetus for shifting the focus from the wrongdoer to the ultimate doer. That doesn’t mean we completely neglect the wrongdoer. We may have to respond appropriately, which means sometimes we may have to take the disciplinary action also, like the Pandavas did against the Kauravas.
But the Pandavas were not obsessed with taking revenge against the Kauravas. Otherwise, if that had been the case, they would not have proposed the Shanti Doodh proposal, peace message. But they proposed that because they were focused on the ultimate doer.
When they fought the war also, they fought it not so much to take revenge as to serve Krishna and assist him in his purpose of establishing Dharma. During the day-to-day practise of our sadhana bhakti, as we strive to become conscious of the ultimate doer more and more, through our japa, through our shravan, through our puja, by this, as we strive to become conscious of the ultimate doer more and more, then even in the routine course of our life, we won’t be obsessed with the immediate doer, the wrongdoer. But our consciousness will shift to the ultimate doer.
And then we will respond in a mood of service to the ultimate doer. In the mood of service to the ultimate doer, sometimes we may just tolerate and forgive the wrongdoer. Sometimes we may decide to take some action against the wrongdoer also.
But our consciousness won’t be consumed with the wrongdoer. Our consciousness will be elevated to the ultimate doer. And we will act in the mood of service to that ultimate doer.
And thus, we will grow spiritually through even the negativities, distresses, injustices that we may face at the hands of others. So, Vitharasura attains the supreme victory. Whereas, Indira gets only a transitional victory.
Transitional victory is he wins the battle. He wins the battle, but Vitharasura wins the war against illusion. Sometimes when we have an argument with someone, at that time, our love for Krishna should raise us above the need to win every argument.
Sometimes our ego feels the need. I have to prove that I am right and you are wrong. But if we are devoted to Krishna, if we have security in our relationship with Krishna, if we are confident that what I was doing was well intentioned, it was rightly done.
But if somebody has some issues with that, if we feel inspired that way at that time, then we may decide this is not a battle I want to fight. So, we may say that there is a question of right and wrong. Yes, but ultimately we have to see that there is right and wrong at the horizontal level and there is right and wrong at the vertical level.
That at the horizontal level Indira was wrong to have killed Vishwaroop like that. But Vitharasura did not focus on that. He focused on what was right at the spiritual level.
And that was he chose that course of action which will enable him to rise towards Vishnu. So, we may also, we at least should not, needn’t be driven by the need to prove the other person wrong and prove ourselves right. We can be driven by the need to move towards Krishna.
And sometimes for moving towards Krishna, sometimes for serving Krishna, we may try to argue and prove that we are right and the others are wrong. But that need not be the driving need for us. We can focus not on who is right in the horizontal argument, but we can focus on what is right in the vertical progression.
Sometimes we may willingly accept defeat in an argument, but by that we may attain victory in the ultimate purpose of life. And this dynamic of defeat at the horizontal level and victory at the vertical level is what the Bhagavatam demonstrates repeatedly and especially dramatically through this pastime of Vitharasura. I’ll summarise.
I spoke today about the dramatic transformation of Vitharasura, how it happens. So, I quoted some passages from the Vitharasura pastime wherein initially he is acting like a typical demon, determined to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of Indra and determined to perform a yajna to increase the power of the demons, his own power, a yajna to Bhairava. But as he is doing this, suddenly at one particular moment his consciousness changes.
He moves from addressing Indra to telling him that I’ll kill you to addressing Indra that you can kill me, have confidence. Normally warfare is not just a physical warfare, there is also mental warfare. So, normally Kshatriyas intimidate their opponents by expressing confidence in their own prowess and by deriding the power of the opponents.
So, by this there is a deterrent element by which the opponent may not become excessively aggressive like nuclear deterrence can prevent a full scale war from happening. And then talked about how Vitharasura’s mood changes. Then from encouraging Indra, he starts just reflecting internally about the glories of the lord and the lord’s inconceivable form.
That that lord destroys the aspirations for dharma, artha, kama, which is what Indra is aiming for. Indra is dreaming about. But he says such is the mercy that is not given to everybody.
It’s given to those who are purely devoted and he reveals himself to be purely devoted by shifting his consciousness entirely towards the lord. So, I talked about Krishna’s mercy. It can come in two broad forms.
If the boulder is pushing us down and we are trying to push it up, the boulder can become weakened. The boulder refers to our samskaras from the previous life, our genealogy in this life, our upbringing in this life. And Krishna can also increase our strength to push it up.
That means our free will which can counter push all these influences. Now, sometimes these influences which are forcing us, some of them may be spiritually positive, some of them may be spiritually negative. So, for Vitharasura, most of them were spiritually negative.
That’s why he is acting demoniac. But there was a spiritually positive influence from his previous life’s devotion. And that manifested when there were extremes at the material level.
Normally, we work in material consciousness with the hope for pleasure or with the fear of trouble. To get the pleasure or to avoid the trouble. But sometimes the pleasure, we get it and we find it’s pointless.
And then we start looking for something higher. Or sometimes the trouble just goes on and on and seems irresolvable. And then we look for something upwards.
What can I get? What can I do? So, the situation, however, is not the cause of the devotion. The situation is simply the trigger. The mercy of the Lord which activates some past samskara, bhakti samskara, that is the cause.
Just like water suddenly ferments from the bottom of a pond upwards. And a devotee prays not so much for the calamity, the devotee may do that, the devotee actually prays for the mercy. And for us, when we are practising bhakti, when we face external problems, especially problems in terms of somebody troubling us too much, then instead of staying in horizontal consciousness and becoming resentful or revengeful, we can shift to vertical consciousness and try to focus on how best we can serve Krishna.
Focus not on the wrong doer, focus on the ultimate doer. The test of our devotion is that we are not driven by the ego’s need to prove ourselves right in every argument. We are ready to just put some argument aside, even if we are right, if that is what is right for our spiritual growth.
And Vritrasura, although defeated materially, defeated in the battle against Indra, emerges victoriously in the war against illusion. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Is there any one quick question? Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Thank you.
Prabhu, could you explain the horizontal and vertical positions that you have mentioned? Okay. What are the horizontal and vertical that I mentioned? The horizontal and vertical, they simply refer to our relationships in this world and our relationships beyond this world. Say for example, the way we interact with each other, one jiva interacting with another jiva is horizontal relationship.
But the jiva interacting with Jagdish, with the Supreme Lord, that is the vertical relationship. So we are mostly caught in, you did like this to me, therefore I will do this to you. But if we can shift our consciousness, okay, this person did like this to me, but what is Krishna trying to teach me through this? And how can I serve Krishna in this situation? Then we are focussing on the vertical, focussing on the mood of service to Krishna and striving to serve Krishna through that situation.
Does it answer your question? Yes, Prabhu. Thank you. Okay.
Any other question? Yes, Mataji. Hare Krishna Prabhupadaji. Pranam.
Thank you so much Prabhu. Prabhu, I just want to know that Gita Sura is, in the beginning it is Devonika. He was Devon and then he got, suddenly he got that, we saw his devotional attitude.
Which means in the devotee’s case, also in certain time when they develop that kind of, some devotees who have, you were telling, because he had some dukriti in previous life and he suddenly started remembering Lord Ramani and, you know, to survive with Ramani. So, can for devotees also it happen that suddenly? Yeah, that’s true. So, is it for a devotee, for Uttarasur, was it because of his offence that he was covered over? And then, when that offence period expired, then that’s how his devotion manifested? Yes, that’s true.
See, for everything that happens, there can be multiple levels of explanation. Say, if somebody gets malaria, we could say that this person got malaria because the mosquito bit them and some microbes infected that person. But now in that same house, there might be so many people staying.
Did the mosquito bite only this person? Now, we may say that actually, no, no, no, but, you know, everybody has different immunity levels. But sometimes two people, if you measure their immunity levels, they may be exactly similar also. But still one person gets malaria, others don’t get malaria.
So, it is that there is also some purva karma involved. And even when cure is happening, two people may take the same medicine, but they may not get cured in the same time. One person may get cured in 2-3 days, another may take 2-3 months to get cured also.
Particular kind of disease is there. One disease may lead to another disease or it may lead to some complication. So, we usually say that karma is the system of action and reaction, which is true.
But it is not a simple system. It is not that action A will lead to reaction B. Action A can be combined with the reactions to past actions and then it will lead to reaction B. So, it may be that this life’s action and previous life’s action may combine together to give a particular reaction. So, if an ordinary person say overeats sweets, they might just feel sleepy for some time.
They might just gain a little weight. But if a diabetic person eats sweets, for them they might get a severe health attack by that. So, it is that their eating sweets is not the only factor which is causing the situation.
It is the overall health of the health condition also. So, similarly we can look at multiple layers of explanation for things. So, yes, it was definitely the offence which had covered him over because of which he had to get a demonic body.
But the point I was making here is that what brought about the transformation. Parvati did not say that for a particular duration this curse will remain and then the curse will go away. Like Nalakuvar and Manigreev, for them, Narada Muni specifically promised them that Lord Krishna will deliver you.
That Krishna will deliver you in the future when you are living as trees. There also he did not say, but there we can see Krishna acting specifically and bringing out those trees, the Yama-Larjun trees and that’s how Nalakuvar and Manigreev delivered. But there is no such specific statement made with Parvati.
So, we can look at a circumstantial level and circumstantial level actually we will not see any sudden change. But what we do see is that when he is in that final fight, his consciousness suddenly shifts from Indra to Vishnu. And we can trace this back to his previous life.
So, what offences do is, offences basically they block our access to our own devotion. It’s like there is a poor person who has no money at all. As a wealthy person who has a lot of money, say in the treasury, but they lost the key to the treasury.
Or somebody has a credit card, but they have lost the code of the credit card. And they have the money, but they can’t access it. So, like that what offences do is, the word offence is related with the word fence.
Basically, there is a fence of proper behaviour. When we transgress that fence and go out and behave improperly, especially we behave maliciously trying to put down some person. Then that is when, when we violate that fence, then what happens is, the fence which is initially a protector for us, like for Sita, the Lakshman Rekha was the protector for her.
But then when she came out, then Ravana abducted her and took her to Lanka. And Lanka became like a fence for her. It was surrounded by the oceans and she just couldn’t go anywhere.
So, initially the fence that protects our devotion, that protects us from sin, if we violate that through offence, then that offence changes the nature of the fence so that we become fenced out of our devotion. So, we get trapped somewhere else in a particular consciousness that our devotion, our own devotion is no longer accessible to us. But when that offence is, when the right time comes, then actually we become aware and then we move beyond the offence.
We move beyond the result of the offence. So, we were looking, if we have committed some offences also, we don’t know about what we may have committed in the previous life. But we can look at the circumstantial situation and we can look at what Uttarasura did and we can try to do that.
So, we can try to raise our consciousness from the horizontal to the vertical. Does it answer your question? Yes, Prabhu. For that we need Krishna’s mercy.
Yes, we need Krishna’s mercy but we also need to make our endeavour. Now, Uttarasura could have stayed consumed by Indra. So, when something prodded him from within, you know, raise your consciousness towards Krishna.
He did that and that’s how he was elevated. Okay, thank you so much. Prabhu, I have one question regarding yesterday’s class.
The last question. After this question, we will stop then. Thank you.
Yes, Prabhuji, you will help with my last letter to him. Yes, ma’am. Please go ahead.
Okay, okay, Prabhuji. Prabhuji, you were telling sub-consciousness and consciousness and then this in your yesterday’s class. My question is regarding what you were telling, the samskara.
And then from samskara, I wanted to ask regarding this. They brought some samskara from the previous, I mean, some kind of things in previous life and they will learn from this life. I just want to know, while the discussion in the kids growing Krishna consciousness, I mean, how we can keep the basic interest in Krishna consciousness? Because you were telling, the main thing, they will only get some kind of karma to go further in Krishna consciousness.
But how we can create that interest? That is the only issue. Yes, it’s external, you were telling external activities, physical activities depend on the, what we take out parenthesis and then internal consciousness, they will get from their previous life. Yes, you were telling? No, internal consciousness is shaped by previous life as well as this life.
It is not that one is, I was saying that consciousness is shaped by both externals that we have as well as the internals. It is not just this or that. It is this and that.
So, as far as our children are concerned, how can we give them devotional impressions? Yes, there are various samskaras. But more important than the samskaras is the overall culture and conduct. If we ourselves are devoted to Krishna and our children see that we are affectionate towards them and our devotion makes us better parents, makes us more loving, more kind, more understanding, more caring for them as parents, then they will remember that.
Even if in the teenage the hormones start rising within them and they drag them in this or that direction, they will come back in the right direction eventually by the impressions. Generally, one living being can influence another living being only in three broad ways. Enlightenment, encouragement and engagement.
Enlightenment means we can tell, give knowledge of this choice will lead to this consequence, this choice will lead to that consequence, that choice will lead to that consequence. That’s enlightenment. Then there is engagement.
Engagement means, ok, if this is the path you want to, this is the path that is good for you, how can you practically go along that path? Now, if you want the kids to practise bhakti, children to practise bhakti, now they cannot come and, normally some of them may come and hear classes for adults, but they need some forum for themselves also. Something where maybe they can do drama, they can do some kirtan, they can hear classes at their level, they can get their level of association. It’s some kind of facility for them to practise.
So, we need engagement, enlightenment and encouragement. Everybody needs to be positively encouraged in the practise of bhakti. If our interaction with them is only, do this, do this, why are you not doing that, why are you not doing that? Then that is quite discouraging.
If they do even some small thing in bhakti and we encourage them for that, then that is how they will move forward. So, if we are doing these three things, we are doing our part. Enlightenment, engagement, encouragement if you are providing, then we are doing our part and then each soul is a soul with free will and sooner or later each soul will turn towards Krishna.
So, we can facilitate that from our side, but we don’t have to become overly attached and we don’t have to become insecure and if our children are not taking up bhakti, we shouldn’t think of that as a personal failure. Because then we may pressurise them too much to practise bhakti. And our own insecurity cannot be the basis for anyone else’s spirituality.
Our own insecurity means what will people think of me, what will the devotee community, others think of me if my child doesn’t become a devotee. And that insecurity, if because of that we pressurise our children to become devotees, then they will catch it that we are not really concerned about them so much. We are concerned about our own reputation.
So, everybody goes through various stages in their spiritual life and not everybody is ready to take up spiritual life immediately. Even when 5000 years ago the pious culture was there, even at that time most people would live pious lives. Even at that time devotees were rare.
So, now Kali Yuga is the age of adharma. It’s not even the age of punya. So, now we cannot expect to change what is the traditional order of things and expect that everybody whom we come in contact with through relationships or through associations will take up bhakti.
So, each soul is at their own level of spiritual evolution and they will take up gradually. So, we keep the door open for them and they will walk through the door at the right time. If not immediately, if not consistently throughout their life, there might be some time they go off track but soon they will come back because the impressions will be there and the impressions will draw them back to Krishna.
Thank you very much. Pranth Raj Shrimad Bhagwatam ki Jai. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.
Gaur Bhaktavrinda ki Jai.