Immigrating to the spiritual world

[Congregation program at Cary, North Carolina, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you very much Can someone do that? Okay, I will do it little faster. So at that time I thought about what all is required in the process of immigration And I have been thinking about it, contemplating on it. So, this is the PowerPoint which will describe the overall thought flow of what we will be discussing today.
So, basically, if we want to immigrate here in this world from one country to another country, what all are the considerations? So, broadly, we can have four considerations. First is the desire. The desire to go to some other place.
The second is, this desire is not enough. So many people want to come to America, but they have to be qualified to get there. The second is the qualification.
The third is, after we have the qualification, then we have to follow the required process. And while getting the qualification or following the process, there may be many obstacles. So, then we have to have the right attitude.
So, if we desire, qualification, process and attitude, there are four broad factors that will be involved in any kind of relocation. The same we can apply for immigrating to the spiritual world. Now, with respect to desire, It’s become very slow.
Actually, I would… What’s happening? Yeah, you can do that also. Here also it is there. Just go live from here also.
It’s become super slow. I don’t know why. Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare I think we’ll need to charge the laptop, because we’ll get discharged otherwise.
There’s a connection here. Just keep it here. Sorry about that.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Thank you. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Don’t reach either way. We need an extension.
Did it reach? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. We need some kind of table then. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Can we just put those books here some other day? Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Ram Rama, Hare Hare One more set please.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, For immigrating to the spiritual world we need the desire first of all. Now where would the desire come from? So generally say if somebody is living in some remote place cut off from the whole rest of the world, say in some tribal region in the heartland of India, they may not even know that there is such a big world out there. So the first step for getting any desire to go anywhere is to have knowledge.
And with respect to say going to a country like America, we can know from geography that okay a place like America exists. But how do we know first of all that something like a spiritual world exists at all? Is it just a fantasy of some people who, some religious people imagine that there is some better world? It could be but if we look at it in a more objective sense, we find that there is something existential within us which longs to live forever and to love forever. All the, among the movies and novels, thousands and thousands of which are written, most of them are about romance.
And most romance has within it the idea of we want to be happily ever after. Isn’t it? It’s a, this longing is deep rooted. If you look at the Bhagavad Gita, what it tells us is this world is dukkhaalem ashashvatam.
It’s exactly opposite. Happily ever after, dukkhaalem ashashvatam. It’s exactly opposite and yet we all long for something eternal.
And if you consider the world around us, there is nothing in the world around us that lasts forever. So where does this longing to live forever come from? If we consider again the example of a remote tribe, say somebody is living in a tribe in the deep heartland of India and there is no phone, no mobile phone, no internet over there. And a child is living over there and child comes one day to the mother and says, mom, I want a pizza.
Now, what will the mother ask? What is a pizza? Or even if she somehow knows from somewhere else, where did you hear about pizza? Isn’t it? So, if there is nothing in the environment that could trigger a particular desire, because there is nothing that will provide knowledge for that desire, then naturally the question will come up, where does this desire come from? So if we look at the world around us, nothing lasts forever. Even the huge mountains, they also have finite lifespan. Even giant skyscraper buildings, they also stay for a finite duration only.
And this longing for life eternal is not just some passing desire that we have. It’s a very deep rooted desire. So another example could be that, after this programme gets over, and then suddenly somebody finds, while cleaning up, a golden ring fallen over here.
You may look, okay, there is not many things golden in this room. So where did this golden ring come from? If something is out of place, in a particular place, then immediately the question comes, this must have come from somewhere else. There must be some other place where this thing is natural.
Maybe it is a gold ore, maybe it is a jeweller’s shop, maybe it is someone who has a lot of golden ornaments. It’s come from somewhere. So if you take these two examples together, of the desire for pizza, so if something is present which doesn’t come from its environment, then it must be coming from somewhere else.
So our longing for the eternal, in an ephemeral world, points to the existence of some other world, which is eternal. This is not a conclusive proof, but it is a reasonable inference. And if we see, this longing is universal across human culture.
A defining difference between the pre-modern times and the modern times was that in the modern times, people started rejecting the idea of some other world. In the pre-modern times, whether it was Europe and the Christian civilisation there, it was India, or whether it was Islamic civilisation in the Middle East, or the Native Americans in America, everybody had this broad understanding that this world is a place along the journey. As Jesus said, this world is like a bridge.
Don’t build your home on the bridge. So this idea that there is some other world beyond this world, which is where we are meant to go, that was universal in human culture. Anushala Prabhupada’s scholar-disciples, Dr. Michael Cremo, the Karmaprabhu, has written a book, Human Devolution, and in that he actually gives extensive research of civilisations across the world.
And this point is conveyed through actual source literature, source texts of different traditions. And we may say, but today people don’t believe in such a world. Yeah, that is at one level true, most people don’t believe.
But what has modernity done? As I said, the defining difference between the pre-modern times and the modern times was that in the modern times, people don’t believe, they don’t consider that even if it is there, it doesn’t matter much. The rejection or the negligence of some other world is the defining characteristic of the modern world. But how did this happen? Because the defining difference between the pre-modern and modern times is the development of science and technology.
And through technology, essentially, humanity, man, is trying to create a technological paradise. The whole idea is, in fact there is a whole field of modern science, it is called transhumanism. Transhumanism is the field which holds that actually humanity is suffering from universal problems.
The problems they say are old age, disease, birth and death. Now for them, birth is a problem in the sense they call it overpopulation. They are not talking about rebirth.
But still, they say that transhumanism is the scientific area of research by which scientists and technologists hope that in future, we will be able to remove all these problems. And then, this world will become an eternal world. In fact, the longing has been there in various forms.
Even today, scientists have preserved the brain of Einstein. So, they are hoping that in future when we find out how to revive people, then we will put that brain in some body and we will have Einstein coming back. There are some billionaires who have actually, in their will, use advanced technology to preserve their bodies in deep refrigeration.
That in future, therefore, somebody will come and when they find out how to revive, then I will be revived. And usually what happens, because there is one billionaire who did this and he actually put almost 90% of his fortune to perpetuate his own body for as long as it took. And then his success, his sons and all those who expected to get an inheritance from him, they actually went to court to argue that this is not possible.
So, this will is not valid and it should be broken and we should get all the money. So, the point is that this desire has not been rejected. This desire has not been rejected.
It’s just been directed in a different way. So, whatever religion, religious texts or traditional cultures pointed to a spiritual world at some other level of reality, we through science are trying to develop it through technology. So, essentially the desire for eternal life is something which is universal everywhere.
And at least we can say we can be open-minded. Maybe there is some world like that. Maybe there is some part of us which is eternal.
So, where does our longing for the eternal come from? It comes from our core. The Bhagavad Gita explains that that core is eternal. So, through logic with respect to the spiritual domain, about logic we can make some inferences.
But we cannot go beyond inference. If you want further knowledge, we need the appropriate texts. So, the Bhagavad Gita describes, It says that beyond this world, there is another world.
When everything in this world is destroyed, that part will exist as it is. And the Gita explains that we as souls belong to that world. And what is attractive about that world? It is not just that that place is eternal.
As I said, there are two distinct longings. We want to live forever and we want to love forever. So, these two longings, our longing to live forever points to our own eternality, points to something eternal within us which lives forever.
And our longing to love forever points to an eternal object of love. And the Bhagavad Gita explains that eternal object, there can be many eternal objects of love, but the supreme eternal object is God, is Krishna. The word Krishna means, One who is all-attractive.
This all-attractive is an interesting phrase. So many people are not attracted to Krishna right now. So, how can we say Krishna is all-attractive? Actually, when we say Krishna is all-attractive, what it necessarily means is that everything attractive comes from Krishna.
It doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will be attracted to Krishna. Why is that? If we consider the earth, all energy comes from the sun. Even electricity is basically recycled sunlight.
Even if we have fossil fuels, fossil fuels also will form because of sunlight long, long ago. All forms of energy come from the sun. But, one who doesn’t have that knowledge of the sun as being the source, they may think, oh, we want hydroelectric power, we want thermal power, we want nuclear power.
All these powers are there, but in the sense of science, they have all come from the sun. So, similarly, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is in 10.41, that everything attractive manifests a spark of Krishna’s splendour. So, whatever is attractive in anyone that we find, somebody may be very good-looking, somebody may be very brilliant, somebody may be very talented, somebody may be very wealthy, whatever it is that we find attractive in anyone, yes, they have that attractiveness, but that attractiveness is like a spark and Krishna is like the whole.
So, whatever pleasure we may get by connecting with someone, that pleasure and much, much more we can get by connecting with Krishna. So, the desire for the spiritual world is not just the desire for some place. Yes, that place is wonderful, but what makes that place wonderful is the person who presides over there.
And from both these points, our longing for eternal life and our longing for eternal love, both of them are fulfilled eternally in the spiritual world. The Bhagavad Gita describes, the Bhakti literature describes many pastimes of Krishna wherein he performs extraordinary pastimes, extraordinary reciprocations of love. When Europeans came to India during the colonial times, it’s 18th century round about, at that time, most of them were Christians and they had that idea of God as a, God as some stern being who sits on the clouds and judges people and then sends thunderbolt down on a sinful.
So, one of my friends is a judge and he has a passion for justice. Still he tells me that it’s a draining job. He told me if God had to be a, if God were a judge for all of eternity, God’s life would be very exhausting.
This is a very difficult job description. So, the Bhakti literature describes, yes, that God does oversee the world, but that is not what his primary activity is. In the spiritual world, he exists and with those who love him, he reciprocates love eternally.
So, when the colonials came to India and they looked at, they went to North India and they saw all these, they all saw these depictions in the walls of this sweet little, sweet looking boy with some white substance on his face, with a hand in a pot and they asked, who is this? He said, he is God. That idea of God, old man with a beard sitting on a cloud. God, what is he doing? So, he is stealing butter.
They got completely intellectually short circuited. It just didn’t make any sense. Okay, God, how can he be a small child? And why does he have to, how can God steal anything? And even if somebody has to steal, why steal butter? Of all things.
So, nothing could make sense. So, actually Krishna, he is God. But in the spiritual world, he does not delight in demonstrating his Godhood.
In demonstrating his Godhood. I am so great, all of you bow down to me. He actually subordinates his Godhood to his loving nature.
When required, he can manifest his Godhood immediately. But there are different devotees who desire to reciprocate love with him in different ways. And for that purpose, he manifests the appropriate forms.
So, for those who desire to love him in the maternal mood. So, for Yashodamayi, he manifests as a small child. And as a child, he acts as an extremely endearing child.
He will do all the things which will give his mother lots and lots to talk about, delight in remembering him, delight in speaking about him. So, he is, although he is small, see, God is not limited by his smallness. Although God is big, God is not stuck with his bigness.
Some people are very tall. When they are very tall, that height has an advantage, you can see above others. But if there is some small, lower roof is there, then you get stuck over there.
So, but you are tall and you are tall, you cannot become small afterwards, isn’t it? So, Krishna is bigger than the biggest, but he is not stuck with his bigness. Nor is he, when he becomes small, he is not limited by his smallness. In the Damodar Leela, we will offer Aarti at the end of our class today.
In that Leela, Krishna is a small child, breaks down two huge trees. Because he, his strength is not limited by his form. So, Krishna, in the spiritual world, engages in sweet, loving reciprocation with his devotees.
So, why does he steal? And why does he steal butter? Actually, his stealing is not immoral. It is transmoral. Immoral, so morality, immorality, transmorality.
Transmoral means it is above morality. Why? Because everything belongs to him. In fact, his mother and all the ladies in Vrindavan, when they churn butter, they all deem and desire to offer it to Krishna.
But when Krishna goes and tries to sneak in and steal it, that simply creates more excitement for everyone. The Gopis try to catch Krishna now, and Krishna runs away. And they say, we will make a plan and catch Krishna.
And Krishna outwits them. And sometimes they outwit and catch Krishna. And when they catch Krishna, Krishna makes such a sweet and sorry face.
They say, okay, you can go. So, he just endures himself to everyone by his actions. And then, why does he steal butter of all things? Actually, the heart is meant to be soft like butter.
So, when the Gopis churn the milk and the curd and gradually they make butter, the idea is that we also want to churn our hearts. So, Krishna stealing the butter is representative of Krishna stealing our hearts. So, Krishna, he is God who is extremely attractive.
And as that vision of God, if we understand the eternality of the spiritual world and the extraordinarily attractiveness of Krishna, that will create within us the desire to go to the spiritual world. So, now, again, the desire alone is not enough. Then we need qualification.
Say, people want to come from the rest of the world to America, but now it seems that the American government doesn’t want you to come. They say, just stay out. It wants people who are very qualified only to come.
So, actually, Krishna is not like that. Krishna already loves us. And his love for us is based not on who we are, but who he is.
What does that mean? He is like an all-loving father. He is Suhrudam Sarvabhootaanam. He is the well-wisher of all living beings.
One of the common adjectives used to describe Krishna is Bhaktavatsala. What does it mean, Bhaktavatsala? Yes, lover of his devotees. But Krishna is not just the lover of his devotees alone.
In the 7th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam in Prahalad, offers prayers to Vishnu. At that time, he says that, Krupana Vatsala Duss Ogra. He uses the word Krupana Vatsala.
My dear Lord, you are the lover, the benefactor of everyone. Krupana refers to people who are materialistic. Who are so short-sighted that they don’t think about life’s bigger things.
So Krishna says that he loves everyone. So it is he, his desire that we come to the spiritual world is actually our qualification. Our fundamental qualification.
But at the same time, his desire, his love for us, because of which he desires that we come there, that is a necessary qualification, but it is not sufficient. You say, why not sufficient? Because the spiritual world is not just, going to the spiritual world is not a matter of just relocation. It is a matter of redirection.
What do I mean by redirection? Can you go ahead? Ok, can you go ahead one more? Yeah, go behind. So actually, on the spiritual path, we are always unqualified. We are never pure enough to attain the spiritual world.
But by Krishna’s mercy, we are never disqualified. What is the difference? Unqualified means, we don’t have the qualification to do this. But disqualified means we are not allowed to do this.
We are not allowed to do it. It is not like that. Nobody is disqualified.
Some people, they say that, if you invite them to a temple, they say, actually, I am very impure. If I come to the temple, the temple will become impure. Well, that is like saying, if somebody is very dirty and they are stinking, and he says, there is a nice flowing river there, please take a bath.
He says, no, if I take a bath, the river will become polluted. Well, that might seem like humility. Oh, I am so fallen.
But it is not humility. It is actually, it is perverse form of pride. It is like saying that, I am so fallen, I am so degraded, I am so impure, that even God can’t purify me.
It is not like that. That means, it is just distorted understanding. We are unqualified.
Why are we unqualified? Because going to the spiritual world actually requires redirection of the heart. Suppose, somebody goes to, goes to a sports stadium. A sports stadium.
Where, say, here, you know, India, cricket is what everybody is mad after. In America, for many people, cricket just reminds them of an insect. So, maybe here, people are mad after baseball.
But suppose, whichever game it is. Say, we go to a baseball stadium. And everybody is cheering loudly.
Everybody is screaming and yelling. And we know nothing about baseball. Then, after a few minutes, what am I doing here? If everybody is interested in baseball, we have no interest in baseball.
We start looking at our watch. Maybe I want to go home, I want to watch some TV, I want to talk with my friends. Nothing to do over here.
So, similarly, in the spiritual world, everyone is loving Krishna. And everybody delights in talking about Krishna, in remembering Krishna. And if somehow, we do get to the spiritual world.
If we don’t have love for Krishna, we will be in the spiritual world and we will be asking, what is the stock price? What is the score of the cricket match? What is happening in politics? So, we will be out of place over there. So, it’s not just a matter of going to that place. To be happy there, to delight in the spiritual world, we have to have love for Krishna.
So, in that sense, the qualification is not something which Krishna imposes. Because you don’t have this, you can’t come there. It is rather without that qualification, going to the spiritual world will also not give us any satisfaction.
Yes, we will feel out of place over there, completely. Normally, nobody can go to the spiritual world without love for Krishna. But even if someone somehow gets there, like say, in the 9th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described how Durvasa Muni gets to the spiritual world.
But he is there, he is not interested in glorifying Vishnu. He says, please protect me from the Sudarshan Chakra. He goes there and he comes back from there.
So, as long as the heart is not desiring, is not filled with love for Krishna, going to the spiritual world will not give us much happiness. That’s why the qualification is that we have to develop love for Krishna. Krishna already loves us, but we need to develop the love for Krishna.
Then, when we have love for Krishna, then we can go to the spiritual world. So, if you consider now the process. Now, for the process, say, if you are going to come from India to America, you have to board a flight or you have to take, like Prabhupada came by a ship.
So, we have to take some means by which we can go to that place. Now, before we can actually follow a process to go to the spiritual world, we need to understand what the spiritual world is. We may have sometimes a map of the universe.
It is there in the Srimad Bhagavatam and other places. We say, okay, the material world is here, the spiritual world is here. Now, for the purpose of depiction, that is fine.
But, in reality, the spiritual world doesn’t exist at the same level as the material world. So, if we say, okay, this is India, above it is China or this is America, above it is Canada. So, it’s not like this is the material world, this is the spiritual world.
Just cross over the boundary and you get to the spiritual world. The spiritual world is primarily a level, it exists at a higher level of reality. There is physical reality, there is mental reality, there is spiritual reality.
So, to get to that level, get to that world, it’s not just a matter of geographical relocation. It’s a matter of elevation of consciousness. And, if that state of consciousness is there, then we can be in the spiritual world even now.
In fact, in 12.8 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, He says, if your mind and intelligence are fixed in me, then you are already living in me. You are already living in me. Why? Because it’s just a matter of consciousness.
If somebody is absorbed in Krishna in this world itself, they have no desires to enjoy this world separate from Krishna. Then they are what is technically called as Jeevan Mukta. They are liberated while even in this body.
There are two kinds of Mukti in this context. There is Jeevan Mukti and there is Videha Mukti. Videha means without the body.
So, at the end of our life, we leave this material body behind and then we go to the spiritual world literally also. But, even before that happens, if somebody is absorbed in Krishna, then they are already detached from the world and they are already having Jeevan Mukti. So, the process for going to the spiritual world centres on absorption in him.
Strive for absorption in Krishna. With our mind and intelligence, we try to remember Krishna. We try to absorb ourselves in Krishna.
And how do we absorb ourselves in Krishna? We say, okay, we come to the, maybe we come to some satsang, we hear some classes. That time we feel, maybe we are remembering Krishna. But then we have to take care of our family responsibilities.
We have to work. We have to earn money. And that time we have to think of so many things.
So, what does absorption in Krishna mean? Actually, for absorption in Krishna, we have to understand that Krishna is not just our destination. He is also our companion. Say, suppose you take a flight from India to come to America.
And in America, there is a contact, an acquaintance, a very important person whom you are going to meet over there. But say, if this was 20-30 years ago, when technology was not so advanced. We didn’t have any photographs of people also.
So then, we had never seen that person. And we sit in the flight, we come all the way to America. And then we, maybe we are going to meet some, we are going to get some education.
So we go to the university, we go to the professor’s door, and knock on the professor’s door, and then open the door. And we see that sitting there, inside the door, is the same person who was sitting right next to us throughout our flight. But because we didn’t know who we were looking for, so we didn’t recognise.
So similarly, Krishna as the Paramatma is present right now with us. Sarvasya chaaham rudhisannivishto. Sarvasya chaaham.
In the hearts of everyone, Krishna says, I am present. So He is our companion right now during our journey also. In fact, Krishna is closer than the closest person to us can ever be.
Even if the person who loves us the most, hugs us, the tightest of hugs, still that person can’t come as close to us as Krishna always is. So Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from Him. Why is that? Because our consciousness is turned away from Him.
Krishna is close to us, but when we turn away, we don’t cease there. We are looking at this world, and we are caught in this world. So sevonmukhe hi jivhadau svayam eva sphuratyadaha.
So by doing seva, by serving Krishna, unmukha, we have become vimukha from Krishna, our face has turned away from Krishna. But when we render service to Krishna, by that service we become unmukha, we turn towards Him. And when we turn towards Him, what happens by that? Svayam eva sphuratyadaha.
Krishna reveals Himself as a sphurati, as a divine revelation within us. So this striving for absorption, it means that right now, when we understand it. How do I remember Krishna? Understand Krishna is there with me all the time.
So when we face difficulties in life, when we face struggles in life, when we feel tempted or threatened in life, at that time we remember Krishna. Krishna, please help me. Krishna, I want to focus on You.
I want to love You. I want to serve You. That prayerful attitude itself can connect us with Krishna.
And there are two broad ways of cultivating absorption in Krishna. One is we could call it as exclusive devotion, the other is inclusive devotion. Exclusive devotion means we focus directly on devotional activities.
We chant the holy name, we do our japa, we come for satsang, we do our puja, we do some swadhyay, we study scriptures. So by all this, we focus directly on Krishna. But the very nature of our life is that we can’t do this constantly.
We have many other responsibilities. During that time, we understand that devotion is also inclusive. Inclusive means that whatever activities we are doing in life, we do them in a mood of service to Krishna.
So if we are doing our work, we see that the abilities that I have are gifts from Krishna. Paurusham Drishyam. This is Krishna.
Krishna says, I am ability in human beings. So what does it mean, I am ability in human beings? Actually, whatever abilities we have, we find that it’s not that we have those abilities constantly. Say in sports like cricket, some batsman might be a very talented batsman.
And one day that person is just hitting every ball with a flourish to the boundary. But the next day, that person just gets out over a straight ball. Can I say what has happened? He went out of form.
Now, what do you mean by out of form? Nobody wants to go out of form, isn’t it? So we see our own abilities are not always with us. Sometimes they are there with us and sometimes they are not there. Among all the scriptures, I connect with the Bhagavad Gita quite well.
So I have memorised quite a few verses. Sometimes people ask me, have you memorised all the verses of the Gita? And I have found without fail it happens. The day I say yes, the next time when I am giving a class, I forget a verse.
So actually, to have ability is a gift. To have ability is a gift. But to realise that we have ability, that is a greater gift.
Sometimes we may have ability, we don’t even know that we have those abilities. But to realise that our ability is a gift, that is the greatest gift. To have ability is a gift.
To realise that we have ability is a greater gift. But to realise that our ability is a gift, that is the greatest gift. So, we all, when we work in our particular field, at our particular jobs, we have certain abilities, certain intelligence, certain resources, certain talents which we are using.
So, when using those talents, if you remember, this talent, it is not that when I was born, either my parents or I did some programming in the womb by which I got this ability. It’s a gift that came to me. So then this gift has come from Krishna.
So even while working in the world, if we think that our abilities are given by Krishna to us, we can still be conscious of Krishna. Krishna says, Work in a mood of worship to me. Now, some people oversimplify it and say that work is worship.
Now, work is worship is good as an ethical principle by which we can infuse all work with dignity of labour. Don’t look down on any people. As an ethical principle, it is fine.
But as a philosophical principle, if you say work is worship, then the donkey will become the greatest worshipper. Donkey works so much. Now, work is not worship.
That is not the Bhagavata’s teaching. Krishna is not saying, the Bhagavata never says, karma hi puja hai, as is commonly thought. What it says is, svakarmana tam abhyarchu.
By your work, worship. So, work is to be done in a mood of worship. And that mood of worship comes when we understand that our abilities are gifts from Krishna and we are meant to use those abilities in a mood of service.
Similarly, our family responsibilities. Instead of seeing our family members simply as our family members, we see them as Krishna’s parts. And Krishna has entrusted their care to us.
And when we do that family responsibility in a mood of service to Krishna, that is inclusive devotion. So, Bhagavishnachikathapur is an example of how this inclusive devotion works. He says that suppose somebody is working at a job which is far away from their home.
They are staying in a different city entirely. While they are working there, they are practically dealing with their clients, they are taking care of all the logistics. But in their hearts, they are thinking that I am doing this for my family, for my children.
So, they are externally doing various things, but because of their affection for their family members, internally they are aware, all this is for my family. So, similarly, Bhagavishnachikathapur says that when we develop affection for Krishna, a devotee may be engaged in many different kinds of work in the world. But internally the devotee is absorbed in Krishna.
So, that recollection of Krishna comes primarily by our intention. As I am doing this in a mood of service to Krishna. And gradually as we keep doing it, then initially when we do something, say for the first time we speak in public, at that time we are so conscious, do I look good, how are people looking at me, what will people think of me, what is this place? We are so conscious of externals.
But if we develop a habit of public speaking, then over a period of time, the externals, we are aware of them, but they go to the background of our awareness. And we focus on, okay, what am I speaking? So, that content will come to the foreground. For many people, there is stage fright.
Stage fright means they are completely normal, but as soon as they get on stage, they get fearful. Why? Because they are so conscious of that stage, of the external. But for those who are regular speakers, then stage fright doesn’t come that much because they are not so much conscious of the stage, they are conscious of what they are speaking on the stage.
Similarly for us, in the initial stages of bhakti, Krishna may be in remote background of our awareness. People may be going, I have to do this job, I have to get this done, I have to get this, I have to do that. That’s true.
But if we keep doing bhakti, as I talked about exclusive devotion, that means we give quality time to Krishna and connect with him. By the practise of bhakti, our affection for Krishna develops. By our japa, by our satsang, by our swadhyaya, maam iccha aptum dhananjaya.
The iccha for Krishna, that develops. And then, as the desire for Krishna develops, then when we are doing inclusive devotion also, we are doing other activities, but our affection for Krishna, that will ensure that at the background at least, Krishna will be there in our memory. And gradually, as we keep doing this, Krishna will start coming from the background to the foreground.
And thus, we will cultivate absorption in Krishna. Those devotees who were with Srila Prabhupada, they told, just a few days ago, last week I was talking with His Holiness Giriraj Maharaj, he is working on a new book, and I was helping in some kind of reviewing and editing of the book. So, he is writing a book about Prabhupada in Juhu, how Prabhupada built the Juhu temple.
So, it’s a huge 800-page book. So, he was telling that, when he observed Prabhupada, whether Prabhupada was speaking with 4-5 people in his private darshan, or when he was speaking in a Pandal programme with 20,000-30,000 people. He says, when Prabhupada started speaking about Krishna, he had the same energy and enthusiasm.
Because, for him, the important thing was glorifying Krishna. So, that occasion, one is aware of, but that is not in the foreground of the consciousness. In the foreground is Krishna.
That’s how the absorption in Krishna comes. So, the process is, we strive for absorption in Krishna through exclusive devotion and inclusive devotion combined. Go ahead.
Now, what is the attitude we can have? Let’s say, sometimes we may feel that, oh, this is so, bhakti is so difficult. But actually speaking, if you see, that we have already come to Krishna’s lotus feet, in the sense that we have come in the association of devotees, we have started practising bhakti, and how did we get here? It is, if we see, there are many saints who leave the world in search of God. Many of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are also like that.
They left the whole world and they went across, travelling and searching for God. At least for me, I didn’t go searching for God. It is God’s devotees who came searching for me.
For most of us, it is like that. Somebody distributes a book, somebody invites us for a programme. And most of us come quite reluctantly.
So, if Krishna has got us so far, it is not because of any strong desire on our part. He has brought us so far in spite of ourselves. It is not because of ourselves, it is in spite of ourselves.
We practise, we are distracted in our devotion, we are half-hearted in our devotion. But still, Krishna has got us a long, long way away. Long, long way.
If you look at our life, say 20 years ago, 30 years ago and now, those of us who are practising bhakti, we see there is a significant difference in our life. And, you may say, I have endeavoured in bhakti. Yes, we all have endeavoured.
But, one test we can have is, how much have we endeavoured? Is that, sometimes when we feel like chanting, we chant. Sometimes we don’t feel like chanting, we just drag along inattentively. But, if we say that if we are working for our family or for our profession, when our boss asks us to do some work, we don’t tell the boss, aaj mood nahi hai.
I don’t feel like doing it today. We make our devotion so dependent on our moods. If I don’t feel like doing it, why should I do it? But, our job, we don’t leave it dependent on our moods.
So, why should Krishna get less from us than what our boss gets? And, if we look at our own life, we do give Krishna a lot less than what we give our boss. So, that’s why, it is in spite of ourselves that Krishna has got us this far. And, actually speaking, it is that Krishna has a plan and we have to cooperate with this plan.
So, actually Krishna will take us to the spiritual world, we just have to get out of his way. Get out of his way means, stop obstructing him. Stop diverting ourselves.
So, if we just practise the process of bhakti, he will take us all along the way. He has a plan for us and he is eager for us to come to him. So, that’s why, if we look at ourselves and think, Oh, I have so many attachments, I have so many doubts, I have so many distractions.
How can I practise bhakti? But, if we look at the world, we will get discouraged. But, if we look at Krishna, we will become encouraged. Yes, Krishna is with me.
It is Krishna’s potency that will take me. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita setting also demonstrates this. That, as long as Krishna, Arjuna was looking at the battlefield, he was looking at the world, he lost his will to fight.
But, when he turned towards Krishna and not just looked at Krishna but heard from Krishna, then his will to fight came back. So, similarly for us, in the world we live in, this world is the world of maya, of illusion. So, generally speaking, illusion comes through our eyes and illumination comes through our ears.
So, if we keep hearing about Krishna, we keep hearing illumination comes through the ears. So, we will understand Krishna’s love, Krishna’s benevolence and we will be able to move forward with a positive hopeful attitude if we just stay, if we direct our vision towards Krishna, that is through hearing. And the last part is that when we are practising bhakti, be not fretful or fearful, be faithful.
So, fretful means, oh, this went wrong in my life, that went wrong in my life, that person did like that. There are so many things which we can lament about. Sometimes, some people are so negative, they keep feeling sorry for themselves.
And when two or three people who feel sorry for themselves come together, then they have what is called a pity party. Oh, life is so bad, yeah, life is so bad, this happened to me, this happened to me, oh, this person did like that, this person did like that. And just by feeling sorry for themselves, they all go down deeper and deeper and deeper.
Yes, bad things have happened in our life. But if we are honest, good things have also happened in our life. There are some countries in Africa where the lifespan itself is around 40-45 years.
So, many of us are above that age. So, the very fact that we are alive means something good has happened in our life. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be alive.
So, yes, bad things have happened in the past, but good things have also happened. So, Krishna is so expert that even through our mistakes, his plan can work. Even if we have committed some mistakes, Krishna doesn’t hold those mistakes against us.
Krishna is like the ultimate GPS. If we are driving a car, and then the GPS tells us turn right, and we turn left. And then GPS says, get lost now.
No, GPS doesn’t do that. It says rerouting. It reroutes and tells us how to come back.
So, like that, even if in the past we have made some mistakes, some bad things have happened to us, Krishna’s plan can work even through our mistakes. So, that’s why there is no need to be fretful. Generally, we fret about the past.
And about the future, we may be fearful. What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? We can’t know what the future holds. But we do know who holds the future.
We can’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. वेदाहं समतितानी वर्तमानानी चे अर्जुना बविष्यानी चे भूतानी माम्त वेदन कश्चण Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 7th chapter that I know past, present and future. So Krishna, even if whatever comes in our life in the future, Krishna will be with us.
And he will guide us through. So all that we need to be is be faithful. Be faithful means we do our part in our service to Krishna.
We take small steps and Krishna will do his part. Krishna will take care of things. We have to do our part.
We have to serve. We have to endeavour. But we don’t have to worry about things that are beyond our control.
Krishna will take care of those things. When bad things happen in our life, at that time, rather than getting obsessed over them, Oh, what if this happens? What if that happens? Why did this happen? We can understand that through it all, Krishna is with me. And bad things happen to us, we understand it from a philosophical perspective, it is because of karma.
We all have a certain karma because of which bad things happen to us. But whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through.
So if we just stay devoted to Krishna, Krishna will take us all the way through this journey in this world, beyond to his eternal abode. So I’ll summarise what I spoke today. The theme of immigrating to the spiritual world.
I started by talking about how people’s desire to emigrate to another country, say to America, is often greater than our devotees, our desire to attain the spiritual world. So how can we intensify that? So we reflected four broad considerations. What are the first? What is required for going to the spiritual world? Desire.
Yes. So we talk about desire in two ways. One is as a logical inference.
We, everything around us is temporary, but still we have a desire for the eternal. Everything around us is, nobody lives forever, but at the same time we want to live forever and love forever. Just like an African child desiring a pizza, or we seeing gold on a stone floor.
This out of place desire points to some other place. So our desire to live forever points to our own eternality as souls. Our desire to love forever points to Krishna’s eternality as an all-attractive object of love.
And what logic points towards that scripture illuminates. Krishna is all-attractive. That means that everything attractive that anyone has, it is present in him.
Just like the sun is the source of all energy, Krishna is the source of all attractiveness. And by getting attracted to various objects in this world, we may get a little pleasure. But by getting attracted to Krishna, we will get eternal pleasure.
And Krishna in the spiritual world is not a judge punishing the wrongdoers. He is simply a lover who delights in the reciprocation of love with his devotees. That’s why he subordinates his godhood so that he can take a small baby-like form.
And he steals butter to simply steal the heart and endear himself to his devotees. And the qualification, that is the second part. So it is Krishna wants us to come.
So in that sense, a big part is already done. Krishna’s love for us is based not on who we are, but on who he is. He is not just Vakta Vatsala, but also Krupana Vatsala.
Simultaneously, if we do not love Krishna, then we will be out of place in the spiritual world. Everybody is like if we go to a sports stadium and we are not interested in the sports, we will feel out of place. So we need to develop love for Krishna so that we can be happy in the spiritual world.
And for that, we need to redirect our heart. So we may not have love for Krishna, we may not have purity like Krishna has. So we are unqualified, but we are never disqualified.
Krishna always wants us to come to him. And the third was desire, then qualification and process. The process we discussed, it’s not a physical relocation, but it’s a redirection of consciousness.
The spiritual world is not just a different region at a different location. It exists at a different level of reality. And the essence of that consciousness is absorption in Krishna.
So how do we cultivate that absorption? By a combination of exclusive devotion in which we do the bhakti activities by which our desire for Krishna develops. And then inclusive devotion in which we do our various activities. Whatever abilities we are using in those activities, we see those abilities are gifts from Krishna.
We work in a mode of worship to him. Our family responsibilities we do, but in the understanding that these are not my family members alone, they are Krishna’s family members. Just like a person staying away from home, thinks about the family while doing all the work.
Similarly, if we have developed affection for Krishna, then even while we engage in worldly activities, our intention will be our connection with Krishna. Through the intention, the recollection will happen. And as we keep doing exclusive devotion more and more, then Krishna will move from the background of our awareness to the foreground.
Thus our remembrance will become more and more steady and more and more deep. And the last part was attitude. So we feel Krishna is so far away, bhakti is so difficult.
But actually Krishna has got us so far in spite of ourselves. We hardly went out searching for Krishna. It is Krishna who sent his devotees searching for us.
And we are often half-hearted in our devotion. We leave it to our moods. We often give to Krishna far less than what we give to our boss.
But still Krishna has got us a long way away. So if we just keep cooperating with Krishna, then Krishna will take us all the way to the left. Krishna is not just far away as a destination, he is close to us as our companion also.
And if we start worrying about, lamenting about the past, then be not fretful. Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. Krishna, even if we have committed some mistakes, Krishna is the ultimate GPS who will reroute and get us to the destination.
And if we start fearing the future, we understand Krishna holds the future. So whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Any comments or questions? First, I want to get this clear. The exclusive is your japa, your meditation.
Japa, study of scripture, puja, the direct devotional activities. Along those lines, you mentioned that we have to get out of the way of Krishna, that we are obstructing. Can you maybe give some practical examples and say more about that? What does it mean to get out of the way of Krishna? I would say it’s two things.
First is that it is our mind which comes in the way of Krishna. It’s like, say, somebody offers us a delicious glass of sweet rice to drink. And then we put it to our mouth and we are drinking it.
But suddenly somebody comes and pushes our mouth. And the sweet rice all falls over our body, but we don’t get to taste any of it. So what is happening? The sweet rice is coming, but we are not able to taste it because it is not going into our mouth.
So similarly for us, Krishna is here, our consciousness is here. If we can just connect with Krishna, Krishna is releasable. But our mind comes along and pushes our consciousness elsewhere.
We are chanting Hare Krishna. What about this? What about that? What about that? When the mind distracts us, we don’t connect with Krishna. So when we say we have to get out of the way, that simply means we have to stop being so attached to the mind.
That whatever the mind says, we go along with that. And thus when Krishna is coming in our lives, we actually obstruct Krishna by going off with our mind. There is a Maharashtrian saint, Tukaram Maharaj, he was asked that, when we do namasparan, when we do japa, the mind wanders.
What to do? He says, let the mind wander. Why do you wander with it? So the idea is, it sounds very simple, but the problem is that we identify with the mind so much that we just get carried away by it. But if you become a little more introspective, if the mind is saying this, I don’t necessarily have to go along with it.
Then we will be able to better protect ourselves. So getting out of the way means making sure that the mind doesn’t come in the way of our connection with Krishna. Thank you.
Yes, please. I have one question. It’s been like a month or two months, we have it.
Me and my husband, we always talk about that question. Somebody told us, you have to introduce Krishna or Bhagavad Gita to other people too. And we ask them how, like how we represent the Bhagavad Gita to other people.
But we have to tell them, their God is good, but our God is… Krishna is the main God, right? How we can tell other people, like, this is the Bhagavad Gita, you read this book, this is everything. Like we know, we read the book, we know we have all the question and answer in the book. But how we can tell other people? Yeah, that’s a good question.
So how can we introduce the Bhagavad Gita to other people? Generally, we have to recognise where people are at. And we have to look at what their needs are. And based on that, we present the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom accordingly.
So, for example, if I go to companies, then they are not interested in religion and God. In fact, they want to be secular. So there, we present the Bhagavad Gita as a book on mindfulness, on managing our mind, on learning to manage our emotions, our impulses, our mind.
And the Bhagavad Gita talks extensively about the mind. So if we can manage our mind better, then we can connect with people better. So then we can present Krishna not as a religious God, but as the object of meditation.
So we can talk about the Bhagavad Gita as a book of mindfulness and meditation, which helps us understand our mind. If we are talking with parents, we can talk about how the Bhagavad Gita can help us to form good impressions on our children. We all want our children to grow up to be good citizens.
So reciting the Gita, understanding the Gita, by that you can pass on good impressions to your children. If you are talking to people who are already devoted, as you said, to some other God, then we have to have an inclusive understanding. It’s not that there are many Gods.
There is one God. And it is not that if they are worshipping some God and we are telling them to worship another God. They are not shifting their devotion.
They are simply evolving in their understanding of devotion. So Prabhupada would say that, he would talk about Krishna Bhakti to even people who were from a Christian background. He didn’t say, I have come here to convert you.
He said that generally, if you consider some people who are nominal religionists, born in a Christian family, say, or born in a particular religious tradition, but they are not actually practising much. So for them, Prabhupada would say that this, the Bhagavad Gita gives a systematic knowledge of God and you can connect with God much faster by understanding the Bhagavad Gita. So it’s like, for those who are already on a spiritual path, there is the bottom of the mountain and there is the top of the mountain.
And there are different paths up the mountain. We don’t say that this is the only path. But this is the path which we have found especially effective.
The test is, does our consciousness arise? Do we become more attached to the spiritual? And do we become less dependent and more detached from worldly infatuations? If that is happening, then we are on the progressive spiritual path. And if somebody is already committed to a particular religious path, then you can say that this can give you a broad understanding of spirituality by which actually you can practise your spiritual tradition better. So Prabhupada would say that a Christian can become a better Christian by studying the Bhagavad Gita.
So we are not talking about converting people horizontally from one religious tradition to another tradition. The purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to elevate one’s consciousness from being materialist to becoming spiritualist. So according to people’s interest, we can connect.
If somebody has lost a loved one, then we can tell them about how your loved one is not lost actually. They are eternal. They are still living.
And how the soul lives beyond death, that you can understand from the Bhagavad Gita. If somebody is very discouraged in their lives, then we can talk about how Arjuna was discouraged out of the Gita. But by the end of the Gita, Arjuna became encouraged.
So Arjuna’s Gandiva bow, which he had put aside, that can represent our enthusiasm, our determination. And we might just put it aside. I can’t fight.
I can’t do it. But the Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge, if you understand, just as Arjuna became enlivened and picked up his bow in readiness to fight, similarly, we can also by understanding the Bhagavad Gita, when we understand our own eternality, when we understand God’s love for us, then that becomes a source of inexhaustible energy for us. And thus, we can again become enlivened.
So the Bhagavad Gita offers us the broad map for life. And then we can understand by studying the Bhagavad Gita where we are and how to progress forward in our life. I gave it to somebody, like the Bhagavad Gita yesterday.
And she was like, same thing you said, somebody lost some loved one, right? And the same thing happened with her. And I don’t know if I said right or wrong, I told her, don’t read this book as a religion. Just start reading and you’re going to have all the answers, whatever.
Because she’s really upset because it’s been months, she’s crying all the time at work. And yesterday I took the Bhagavad Gita and I told her, I said, I don’t want you to change your religion or anything. Don’t think this is a religion book.
Just read as it is. You’re all the answers in this book. Just read it as an answer book.
I don’t know if I said right or wrong. It’s very good, yeah. There’s a large number of people who identify themselves as SBNR.
This is spiritual but not religious. I feel bad, I said it’s a religion book. No, see how it is.
Can we say that Bhagavad Gita is not a religious book? It depends on what you mean by the words. Certain words acquire certain connotations according to context. So the word religion somehow has acquired a narrow, has a negative context in today’s world.
It refers to narrow-mindedness, bigotry, violence, superstition. So people have all those ideas when they use the word religion. Whereas when they use the word spiritual, they have open-mindedness, willingness to experience something higher in life.
And it just has a very positive connotation. So now if you look at the Bhagavad Gita’s mood overall, it does give us a broad understanding of the nature of reality. And then it gives us an understanding of the various paths to navigate the territory of reality.
So in that sense it’s a spiritual book. Now is it a religious book? Yes, it is definitely a religious book in the sense that it is followed by, primarily by the perfections of a particular religion. But actually if you consider the Hindu tradition, there was a court case in the Indian Supreme Court.
They tried to define what is Hinduism. Because they had to decide whether a particular group of people are Hindu or not. And then the broad Hindu tradition is so inclusive that the Supreme Court came to a conclusion that anybody in India who is not a Christian, a Muslim, a Jain, a Buddhist, an atheist, a Parsi, that is a Hindu.
So actually the Bhagavad Gita is very inclusive that way. So according to context if you say it’s not a religious book in the sense that it is not a narrow-minded book. It is not a book that will foster bigotry or violence.
Yes, you had a question? I was just wondering if you can give some tips to this identification of this mind. It is very controlled by the modes of nature. So sometimes the modes are overtaken.
How do we remain persistent? How do we identify the mind? Because the modes carry us away. Yes, it’s true. And I will give a disclaimer.
I also identify with my mind. It’s a universal problem. But broadly I would say there are 3-4 things which help.
One is that identifying what are the broad patterns in which the mind distracts us. Although the mind may distract us in many ways, but there are broad patterns. Say if one thing goes wrong and the mind starts telling a sorry story, everything is going to go wrong, life is rotten.
And then what happens, the mind starts making us feel pessimistic or depressed. So then what we can do is, it’s one very good, very easy or very effective way to distance ourselves from the mind is to treat the mind like another person. Treat the mind like another person.
That means say, if in our life some people are very pessimistic, they always speak negative. Now as soon as they start speaking negative, what do we do? We don’t get carried away by the negativity. If we are in a close relationship with them and we can’t just walk away, then we’ll hear them but we won’t get carried away.
We’ll try to console them, we’ll try to encourage them. So what we need to do is, as soon as the mind starts telling, oh life is terrible, then we can just say, now the mind has started the self-pity story. Or the mind has started now the resentment story.
The mind has started the greed story. The mind has started whatever. We can actually identify the typical stories which the mind tells.
And then, whenever that story starts, at that time we’ll be able to catch it. Okay, this is the mind starting the story. So, a further step with this is, that whenever we feel any emotion, I’m feeling angry.
You’re saying that, just put, the mind is saying, I’m feeling angry. The mind is saying, I’m feeling angry. It’s a simple exercise but if you do it, it actually is quite effective.
I sometimes, if I’m travelling from one place to another, and I start feeling very tired. I just can’t do anything, I’m tired. The mind is saying, I’m tired.
Oh, the mind is saying. Does the thought actually regenerate some energy? And then don’t just say it in the mind. Because, what is said in the mind will be carried away by the mind.
Just speak it aloud. Don’t have to proclaim to everyone. Just verbalise it.
The mind is saying, I’m tired. Oh, okay. Now, we can’t wish away what the mind is saying.
But we can process it. Okay, sometimes we may be tired but still we have some capacity. I can work for some more time.
Sometimes we may be so tired that we just have to take some rest, take a break. That’s fine. But generally, when any thought, desire, emotion comes up within us, we tend to, we think I have only two options to deal with it.
Either express it or repress it. Say, I’m feeling angry, either I express the anger or I repress the anger. But we have a third option.
That is process. So, as soon as we can identify, the mind is saying, I’m angry. Then, it is like somebody else is telling, I’m angry.
Then, okay, what happened? Please tell me. Then, when they hear it, okay, then this is, then we can, after they hear it and we discuss with them, we help them process it. So, just by putting this, the mind is saying, what happens by that? We can process it.
That’s the, yeah. Okay, that’s a separate question. I’ll come to that later.
But one last point I would say. Third is that, in general, we can try to create some kind of pause button for ourselves. The mind operates on urgency.
The mind gives urges. You know, you have to do this or you have to do this right now. And saying no to the mind is extremely difficult.
But if we can do something which absorbs our consciousness, channels our consciousness. So, when we feel something, some urge coming up, we chant Hare Krishna a few times. If we like some kirtan, just hear that kirtan for a few times.
Or if we have read some verses in the Bhagavad Gita or some wisdom quotes, we keep them ready with us and read them. So, get something by which you can pause. Pause yourself.
Even just breathing deeply. Going out for a walk. Just working out the energy within us.
That can also help us. So, we have to find out what will work as a pause button for us. And once we develop that pause button, we’ll find that distancing ourselves from the mind will become much easier.
And now, what about the super soul speaking within us? It’s very difficult to know when some voice comes within us, who is speaking. Is it the mind? Is it the intelligence? Is it the ego? Is it the super soul? What is it? So, generally the reliable way to process this is, don’t worry about where it is coming from. Focus on where it is taking us.
Where it is taking me. That means if I act this way, if somebody says, this person is so irresponsible. I have to give this person peace of my mind.
That will put them in their place. Then they will learn. Now, we may feel that actually, it’s very very dangerous to think that we are doing God’s work on his behalf.
That means, we yell at someone. Why? You know, you deserve to become humble and I am making you humble. That doesn’t work like that.
So, generally, rather than thinking of that our particular desire or impulse or whatever is coming from Krishna or the super soul, we should think that, don’t worry where it is coming from. Focus on where it is going to take me. And if, by our intelligence, by our experience, we understand that yelling at this person is going to make things worse.
Or indulging in this impulse is not going to improve things. Then, better pause yourself. Thank you.
Yes, there is a question behind. Hare Krishna. I have an extension to Mataji’s question.
She was asking how to explain to others. So, if we meet a Shaivite who strongly believes that Shiva is the supreme, do we need to explain to them or just keep quiet and wait for them? What is the problem? So, if we meet somebody who is a Shaivite, a worshipper of Lord Shiva, do we explain to them or just offer them our good wishes and move on? We have to be clear about our purpose. Our purpose is to elevate people’s consciousness.
Our purpose is not to just convert people to become our followers or even to increase the ranks of a particular organisation. Now, different people are at different levels in their spiritual journey. And based on where they are at, they will have different levels of receptivity.
So, the first thing when we connect with anyone is that we need to give them the conviction or at least the openness, the inclination, the indication that we are their well-wishers. If they start feeling we are proselytisers, we are out there to convert them to our form of worship, then their defences will close down. So, we need to basically give them a positive experience.
So, if somebody is a worshipper of Lord Shiva, we can focus more on the principle that they are religious and they are worshipping. In today’s world, how many people actually worship any higher being? Most people are materialistic today. So, if somebody is already devoted, that is also a very significant sign of their piety and their receptivity to broad spirituality.
So, even if there are 99% difference between us and another person, we should start with the 1% commonality. If we start with 99% difference, then there is no chance of connection. So, if somebody is worshipping Lord Shiva, appreciate them that they are pious, appreciate that they are devoted and then tell, generally speaking, if we connect with them at a personal level, that means we just appreciate them as human beings, appreciate their piety and we may tell them based on their interests that yes, the Bhagavad Gita is a systematic understanding of the whole spiritual journey.
You can join a Bhagavad Gita class. Please come here. You will get a systematic understanding of what we are doing.
So, we have to first create faith in them and then at the right time, the particular faith that they may have, that may need to be re-examined. We can’t start that journey at the first interaction itself. When Shri Prabhupada came to India, and this is, I was mentioning about Giriraj Maharaj books, I have been talking extensively with him.
When Prabhupada came to India, at that time, whether it was 1960s, before he left for America or 1970s when he came back from America with his western followers, Indians themselves had not changed dramatically. And even in 1970s, not many Indians became dedicated followers of Shri Prabhupada. So, Prabhupada encouraged them to become life members.
And almost every Indian that Prabhupada went to, connected with, they went to their homes, they all had their altars. And they had their particular set of various images in their homes. Prabhupada would not comment on that.
Prabhupada would just speak Bhagavad Gita, speak Krishna Consciousness and he would give them his books and he would encourage them to come to temples. And gradually by that, many of them became more and more favourable and some of them became more committed. So, if we get into an argument, Oh, you know, Shiva is not supreme, Krishna is supreme, then we may just actually antagonise them.
One is that they may quote this scripture, that scripture, we quote this scripture, that scripture. And we can, based on scripture, try to establish certain points. But for many people, the object of worship is not an object of logic.
It is more an object of emotion. So, that’s why if we try to use logic, it’s like a wrong weapon. It will hurt them.
It will not transform them. So, therefore, the important thing is that we connect them with them at a personal level. And after connecting with them at a personal level, we find out how we can best serve them.
If we antagonise them too much and they become offensive to devotees, Oh, devotees are such fanatical people, then what is happening? These Krishna devotees, they are actually committing offences to Krishna. Offences to Krishna’s devotees. And we are damaging their spiritual prospects by that.
If worse still, they think, Oh, you know, this religious path is very complicated. Some people say this is God, some people say that is God and better I’ll not get involved in this. And then they become atheists by that.
Then what have we done? We have done disservice to them. So, our purpose should be to encourage them to rise higher. So, how we can do that? That we will have to see according to time, place, circumstance.
Not disturb people’s mind, Krishna says. Just engage them in a way that they will get gradually elevated. So, and if we don’t make it an issue, most people don’t make it an issue also.
That means, if you see, broadly speaking, Indians are more interested in worship than the object of worship. They are more interested. That means they will go to a temple and they will close their hands and pray for five minutes.
And they will come out and ask you. Then they will ask you, who is there on the altar? So, the act of worship for them is more important than the object of worship. And no person who is from an Indian background will usually say that Krishna is not God.
It is only when we tell them that only Krishna is God, that is when the problem comes up. But that doesn’t have to be told initially. That can evolve gradually.
So, if we just connect with people and help them to appreciate Krishna Bhakti, appreciate the philosophy and gradually they will evolve. What we need is intelligence and patience. We can’t expect to, our agenda should also be pure.
We shouldn’t have an agenda that I want to convert people. Our agenda is that we want to help people rise in their spiritual journey. And for some people, it may be that they are not yet ready for worshipping Krishna.
And they are worshipping Shiva. Shiva is also a great devotee. And he will also guide them upwards.
So, there are stories where those who worship Lord Shiva purely, they became devoted to Krishna. There is a story of Vallabhacharya. Vallabhacharya used to worship both Shiva and Krishna.
And one day in a mood of great devotion he worshipped Lord Shiva. And then Lord Shiva appeared in front of him. He says, what do you want? And because he had such an intense devotional experience, he says, give me that which is dearest to you.
Give me that which you think is the best for me. And when he prayed like this, Lord Shiva blessed him and gave him a form of Lord Krishna to worship. So, we shouldn’t think that they are misled and we have to get them on the right track.
It is that Lord Shiva is also their guide. And if they are very confused and if they themselves bring the issue, is Krishna supreme or Lord Shiva supreme, then you can pray to them, you pray to Lord Shiva, please guide me forwards. And Lord Shiva will guide them.
There are devotees in our movement who were worshippers of Lord Shiva. And they prayed to Shiva, please guide me. And as they got that understanding, that intuition, and now they are devoted to Krishna.
So, we don’t have to see that I, in my small interaction with them for a few minutes or a few hours, I am going to convert them. We have to see that there is a bigger plan and I am just one aid in their journey. So, let me aid in the best way possible for them.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. So, please stop here. So, thank you very much.
So, we have a few books here. I have brought many of my books in the past. This time I have got a new book.
This is Wisdom from the Ramayana. There are 19 incidents from the Ramayana which are narrated. And then Practical Lessons, Wisdom from Ramayana on Life and Relationships.
So, if somebody who is normally very good behaves in a terrible way, how do we respond to that? If somebody speaks hurtful words, how to respond to that? Why do sometimes in good people misunderstandings happen? How to deal with that? And when we face difficulties in life? When to leave things to destiny? And when to work ourselves to endeavour to resolve those things? All these are described in this book, Wisdom from the Ramayana. And this is also a new thing. This is Gita Wisdom through Quotes.
This is a 365 quotes based on the Bhagavad Gita. I have a website called Gita Daily where I write everyday on the Gita. I have been writing for about, since 2011, 7 years I have been writing everyday.
At that time I started it by, I found that there are preachers who write everyday on the Bible. There are people who write everyday on the Quran. And millions of people would like to get some daily wisdom into their inboxes or by messages.
But there was no one writing on the Bhagavad Gita. So I started that about 7-8 years ago. And I found at that time that even among Indians there are millions of Indians who get a daily Bible.
Not because they are Christians. But it is because nobody is giving them something daily on the Gita. So since then we have this Gita Daily going on.
There are almost 800,000 followers on Facebook. And those of whom you give Gita to or you want to connect them with, you can encourage them to subscribe to GitaDaily.com. And it is a short 300 word article everyday. And there is an audio and a video also with that if people prefer not to read but to hear.
And you can connect people with this wisdom of the Gita. And by reading these daily practical application messages, they feel more inspired to apply the Gita in their lives and to study the Gita more also. So these are 365 quotes inspired by the Bhagavad Gita.
So some of what I spoke in today’s class. Whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through. So quotes like that, these are all there in this book, in this 365 quotes.
And they are on topics like nourish yourself, nourish your devotion, nourish your relationships, and work-life balance, positive attitude, power of letting go, emotional maturity. On these topics these quotes are there. And this is also something which you can keep on your desk, even in your office.
And you cannot preach to people in your office. But people may simply see their quote and they want to read more about it. And each of these quotes, if you want to know more about it, you just search for this quote on GitaDaily.com. You will get a full article explaining the quote.
And of course there are other books also. This is Gita for Daily Enrichment. The 365 articles based on the Bhagavad Gita.
Which are explaining Gita’s application one day of the year. Every day per year you have this. This is Idle Worship or Ideal Worship.
This explains a common question, why do we worship stone images? Through conversation, it describes even western traditions, why they have so much antipathy to idle worship. And how their antipathy does not actually apply to the Bhagavad Gita. That’s explained.
Then here we have My Little Bhakti Companion. This answers practical questions that devotees have. If somebody has hurt us, how is it practical to forgive them? Why do our desires suddenly change from spiritual to sensual? And if I want to chant but I find chanting boring, what can I do about it? These kind of questions are answered.
This is for a corporate audience. If you want to give a Bhagavad Gita, connect people with Bhagavad Gita. This is 10 Leadership Sutras based on the Bhagavad Gita.
How Bhagavad Gita can be applied in the corporate world. And we also have this Minded, Minded is 64 Reflections of the Bhagavad Gita on 7 verses that deal with the mind. And if you want a full set of the books, that’s also available at a concessional rate.
You can have that also. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
So after this class, there’s no words to express how wonderful the class is.