When life doesn’t make sense – Karma, time and free will

[Bhagavatam class at New Govardhan, Murwillumbah, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So today morning we continue our discussion on this topic of trying to understand why bad things happen to good people. And here is an example of something which can be utterly inexplicable.
That what we are seeing here is that the Pandavas are virtuous as well as powerful. So and Yudhishthira Maharaj is very religious and pious. Bhima is very powerful in terms of physical strength.
Arjuna is extremely powerful in terms of archery. And beyond that Krishna is himself in them. And yet they are experiencing so many distresses.
So why would such a thing happen? How do we make sense when senseless suffering comes in our life? So I’ll speak this class in three main points. The first class will be that karma is meant to extend our capacity to explain why things happen, not explain away. Second point will be that intelligence means to place things in the most constructive context.
And the last point will be that philosophy is always meant to serve the purpose of compassion, not of condemnation. So let’s look at these three points. That karma, the philosophy of karma is meant to help us make sense when things normally don’t make sense.
So one of the commonest and often considered strongest arguments against God’s existence is what is called as the problem of evil. That if there is a good God, why does evil exist in this world? And why do especially bad things happen to good people? And commonly, especially if you say, I mean, small children are born with terrible diseases and people who are completely innocent suffer terribly. So the reasoning goes that if God existed, then such things would not happen.
And because such things happen, therefore God doesn’t exist. That’s the problem of evil used to reject the existence of God. However, we could look at the foundation of this argument.
As the foundation of this argument is that good people or good, good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people. We may ask why? What do you mean why? Good things should happen to good people. Isn’t that natural? But why? What do you mean why? If everything were working simply by unguided natural forces, then we should not expect any correlation at all.
Anybody will do anything and any result will come. Why should good actions produce good results? And why should bad actions produce bad results? The foundation itself has this foundation for the argument of the problem of evil is that there has to be a correlation between our actions and results. But within a materialistic or atheistic worldview, what is the basis for this foundation? If everything is ultimately just subatomic particles moving around according to impersonal forces, then it’s all just particles moving around.
We are nothing ultimately. We, our existence and the whole world around us is just particles moving around endlessly and aimlessly. And why should there be any correlation between the kind of actions that we do and the results that we get? So, this correlation itself requires some explanation.
And it’s interesting that even science functions based on this assumption that there is correlation between cause and effect. A few years ago, I was invited to Cambridge to speak. So, when I was going there, we passed by the same tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling.
Now, when he saw the apple falling, some people say it fell in front of him, some people say it fell on him, on his head. Either way, when the fruit fell on him, he asked the question, what made this fruit fall? And it was his brilliance that from such a common observation, he inferred a theory of gravity. But still, the point is that his very question begs a question.
When he asked the question, what made this fruit fall? That means there is a presumption over there that fruits do not fall just by random, that there is some cause effect connection in the way things happen. And if nature were simply working on unguided forces, by unguided forces, then why should there be any cause of a connection at all? So, the very fact that there is a cause of a connection, for Newton, it was clear that there was a, there is a divine intelligence, which had orchestrated things. And that is how there is a cause of a connection in nature.
So, without accepting that there is a cause of a connection, we cannot even have science, because science tries to discern how things behave, how things function. And for that, they wanted to infer laws. So, both in science, we assume that there is some kind of cause of a connection.
And not only science, but even our day to day behaviour. If somebody comes home and they got a scar on their face, or they got a black eye, immediately the family members will ask what happened? No, I just got the black eye. What? What happened? You get into a fight with someone, oh, yes, the black eye came by itself.
No, whenever we see an effect, we presume there is a cause for it. So, now, just as in science, sometimes, some causes can be easily understood, some causes may take more time to understand. But cause effect connection itself has no rationale within an atheistic worldview.
So, therefore, now, when we see cause of a connection, normally, a student does not study very well for the exam, and a student does poorly. Normally, somebody does not eat unhealthy food, and then they fall sick. So, we do see a correlation between action and reaction in our day to day lives also.
And there are times when this correlation is not seen. And it is because we do see a correlation between action and reaction, that is why we expect it. And that is why when it does not come, that is where the problem comes.
So, the problem of evil would not exist, if evil were everywhere 100%. It is because normally, we see action, reaction, correlation, and sometimes when it is not there, that raises the question. So, then this is where the understanding comes in at Kala, Kala is time.
That sometimes, some actions may have delayed reactions. Sometimes, that delay may go over multiple lifetimes. And that is why somebody might do something bad now, and they might just go on smoothly in their life.
But eventually, they will get the consequence. And somebody might be doing very good right now. But they might have some problems coming in their life.
Because of something bad they have done earlier, either in this or in a previous life. Say for example, somebody might have got a lot of inheritance, and they’re squandering money like crazy. And there are people who struggle to barely put food on their table every day.
And they see these people squandering money recklessly. Now, as long as they have that stockpile of money, they can squander it. But eventually, it’s going to get exhausted.
They will be doing nothing to earn money, they will simply spending money, and they might seem to be very comfortable and happy. But it’s not going to last. Conversely, say somebody has taken a lot of bad loans in the past, or somebody’s parents had taken loans, and now they have to repay the loan.
That person is working very hard, managing their money very carefully, doing everything very responsibly. And yet, their credit rating may be very low. And yet, they may be squeezed.
They will be living in great difficulty. Now, the responsible financial management that they’re doing is good. But its results may not come immediately because the past mismanagement may be having its effects right now.
So just like we can have with money, we can have with karma. So, karma is basically meant, the philosophy of karma is meant to extend the frame of reference so that we can explain things constructively. So that we can make sense of things when they don’t make sense.
That means, when somebody is doing good and still is getting bad results. So why is that? Somebody could say there’s no cause of a connection at all. But that’s not the way scientific research is done.
That’s not the way we function in our day to day life. Sometimes, however, despite our best intelligence, we can’t figure out why is this happening like this. Then we expand the scale of reference to understand that something might be there from a previous life.
So somebody might have done some bad karma in a previous life. And because of that bad karma, they may be going through a bad phase right now. So karma is meant to extend our scale of reference so that we can make sense of things that normally don’t make sense.
This was the first point. Any reflections or questions about this? So I’ll move to the second point now. The second point was that intelligence means to place things in the most constructive context.
What do we mean by this? Every single thing can be placed in different contexts. Say for example, right now I’m giving a class and I start coughing. Now that could just be because maybe there’s a cold wind over here.
Or that could be because I’ve got some throat issue. That could be because maybe the weather of this place doesn’t suit me. That could be because I have a congenital defect because of which I am very prone to respiratory tract infections.
That could be because I have an overall sickly body and some terrible things keep happening to me. Now when somebody gets, now somebody gets a, say, somebody starts coughing. Now at that time, if that person starts thinking, my body is so sickly, I’ll never be able to do anything in my life.
Well, that’s not a very constructive context to place that cough in. Okay, you got cough now, maybe take some pill, take some warm water, do something and continue. So the same cough could be placed in very different contexts.
So we need to put that coughing in the right, most constructive context at that time. Now each of these could be true at their own levels. Yes, it could be that the weather doesn’t suit me over here.
It could be that I have a sickly body. But is that context helpful right now? If that context is not helpful, then placing it in that context is not very useful. Many times when people get depression, that is, it could have many different reasons, but in specific, but in general what happens is, people take the smallest of incidents and put them in the broadest of contexts.
That means, say, I was in America and I was giving a talk on spirituality and mental health. So there were different people who were speaking how they had mental health problems and how they dealt with them. So there is a girl who was telling, she was working in a uni, she was studying in university and she was also, to get some money by the way, working in a hotel, restaurant, waiting on tables.
So one day she was carrying a glass of water to serve to a customer and the glass of water slipped from her hands and fell down. And she said, just that thing made her think, I can’t even carry a glass of water. What am I going to do with my life? And just a simple glass of water falling triggered a depression.
She said, come on, so many people may have, of course, water might slip from our hands for so many different reasons. But she ended up taking it very personally. Oh, I can’t even carry a glass of water, that means I am good for nothing.
Now this is placing that incident in a very destructive context. It is very destructive for one’s confidence, for one’s morale. So intelligence means to place things in the most constructive context.
So similarly, in this purport, Prabhupada is saying that if something is beyond our control, then there is nothing to lament. So this is very, I’ll read the sentence, you can repeat after me. There is nothing to be lamented when a matter is beyond the control of any human being.
I’ll repeat, there’s nothing to be lamented when a matter is beyond the control of any human being. So what does this mean? Sometimes we may do our best and still bad things may happen. And if at that time we start beating ourselves up, why did this happen? Why did this happen? Why did I do this? Well, there are times when we do need to take responsibility.
But there are times when we have to put aside responsibility. Well, I didn’t do anything wrong. We could say, okay, I might have done something in the past because of when this is happening.
But right now, there is no use of me beating myself. So this is what unfortunately Yudhishthira Maharaj was doing. Yudhishthira Maharaj was feeling guilty that because of me, this bloodshed happened.
This war happened and all these deaths happened because of me. It was not because of him. It was in spite of him.
He tried his very best to avoid the war. But the opponents were incorrigible. They were recalcitrant, obstinate.
And finally, the war had to take place. So it was beyond his control, beyond the control of any human being. So therefore, the point is don’t lament.
So now, of course, there are often things in our control and we need to do our best. But sometimes despite our effort, things go wrong. So now what does this mean? We put things in the most constructive context.
So if, say, we prepare for an exam and then we do our best and we study and somehow we don’t clear that exam. Now that could be because if we had not studied properly, then that is one thing. But if beyond our control, say in that particular year, maybe the other students who competed or who appeared were very good.
Although we got good marks, they got far better marks than us. Then there’s nothing we can do about it. Or if we prepared for the exam or just before the exam, we felt sick and that’s why we couldn’t perform well.
Again, that’s not in our control. So many times when we start beating ourselves up for things which are not in our control, we end up becoming dejected. We become disheartened.
So the philosophy of karma helps us to put things in their proper context. So what is because of a mistake that I have committed right now? And what may be because of something which is not in my control? So all of us, for every one of us, in every situation, something’s in our control and something’s not in our control. And to the extent we focus on that which is in our control, we can make some difference.
And to the extent we focus on the things that are not in our control, we make ourselves feel helpless. And now the philosophy of karma is not meant to make us feel guilty that whatever you are suffering, it’s because of your own past mistakes. That is not the point of karma.
The point of karma philosophy, when somebody is suffering, the point is not to induce guilt. The point is to just gain some acceptance. Okay, why is this happening? This doesn’t make sense.
See, broadly speaking, there are two extreme ways in which you could look at things. One is that everything is in my control. And the other is nothing is in my control.
Now, the idea that everything is in my control is in the mode of passion, rajoguna, where we overestimate our capacity. And the other is nothing is in my control. That is in the mode of tamoguna.
So in some ways, nowadays, it will almost become. So the rajas and tamas, passion and ignorance are very close to each other. And most of the world is in these two modes.
So we often oscillate between these two modes. Sometimes we think, I am going to conquer the world. I saw one poster, you know, I was going to conquer the world.
But I woke up late today. Somebody think I want to conquer the world but they can’t even wake up on time. So the distance between what they’re aiming for and what they’re able to do is so great that it’s just a cognitive dissonance.
It’s useless. So now, often, we have grandiose ideas of what I can do. We overestimate our capacity.
And then when things don’t work out, then there’s the other narrative that comes. One is the narrative of controllership. I am the controller, I am the conqueror, and I’m going to conquer whatever I see.
And then when the conqueror narrative doesn’t work in our life, we shift to the other narrative. The other narrative is the narrative of victimhood. This person betrayed me.
Oh, this happened in my life. Oh, life is so terrible. And many people now actually try to gain sympathy and attention by portraying themselves as victims.
Like the victimhood narrative can actually garner a lot of sympathy for people, but it doesn’t solve problems much. Yes, all of us have had bad things happen in our life. All of us have had people dealing unfairly with us.
Now, going beyond these two, the narrative in the rajas is that everything is in my control. Narrative in tamas, in passion and in ignorance, in ignorance it is nothing is in my control. Beyond that, in goodness, the understanding is there are some things in my control and some things not in my control.
And how much is in my control and how much is out of my control that will also keep varying continuously. So, I had to find out in this situation, how much is in my control and do my best. And in this situation, what is not in my control, let go.
So, when we are trying to do our best, and we face some terrible difficulties, which are just not in our control, then intelligence means to place them in the most constructive context. Okay, a bad phase is going on in my life. Let me just, let me see what I can do in this situation.
Let me just survive this bad phase. And when the bad phase gets over, then at that time, okay, take initiative and move on. So, a simple example to illustrate this is, say, a tennis match.
In a tennis match, sometimes the player is serving and sometimes the player is defending or now receiving rather. So, when the player is serving, the player has much more control, where to hit the ball, the forehand, the backhand into the body, what height, what speed, the player has much more control. And the player who is defending at that time, that player cannot control, that player may be very good at the forehand, but if the ball comes in the backhand, the defending player has to play from the backhand.
So, when the player is receiving, the player has to work under very constricted circumstances. Wherever the ball comes, I have to get the racket on the ball and get the ball back in play, back into the court. Now, during that phase, if the player starts wanting to play as if I am serving, okay, I want to serve on the forehand, I like the forehand, but the ball comes on the backhand, the player hits on the forehand.
Yes, you lose helplessly. However, the player would not have to keep returning constantly. Eventually, the player’s time to serve will also come.
So, similarly for us, time keeps changing. Sometimes time, kala, may put us in extremely constrained circumstances. So, at that time, we just have to accept this situation, there is very little in my control, let me do what I can.
And afterwards, okay, now there is more in my control, let me take care of it. So, this is, now why are things out of my control? That is because of time, the time is unfavourable. And why is the time unfavourable? We could say, yes, it is my own past karma, because of which these things are, so many things have gone out of my control, or so many things out of my control are turning out to be unfavourable.
But even if things turn out to be unfavourable, my attitude does not have to become unfavourable. Let me do the best that I can. So, this is where karma philosophy is meant to help us place our present situation in the most constructive context.
What can I do right now? So, for example, say if I am giving a class. Now, when I am giving the class, you could say that I am serving, I can choose what topic I speak, I can choose what next example I give. But after the class, if there is a question answer session, then I am returning, I cannot control what question who is going to ask.
So, now, if I do not prepare anything for a class, and then I come to the class, at that time I ask audience, what do you want me to speak on? Now, I might do that, audience may not have idea, we thought you are prepared, no, no, I will speak whatever topic you want. But in that time, how well I will be prepared, I do not know. If I am going to give a class, I have to come prepared, that is the time when I have to take initiative.
And I have to prepare, let us say I am serving, more is my control, I do the best. But if somebody asks a question whose answer I do not have, and then, okay, this is the time when I am returning, maybe I need to prepare a little bit more, I will ask somebody else who knows better than me, and I will give the answer. Sometimes, some service might just be unreturnable.
I might not be able to answer some question. But if at that time, if I take that, and put it in a destructive context, oh, actually, this sharing spiritual knowledge is very difficult. People ask difficult questions, and I cannot answer, and I get embarrassed, and I feel useless, better I will not speak on it.
But that is a destructive context. So, for each of us, whenever any negative emotions start coming up within us, because of something negative happening in our life, we have to see, in what context is our mind putting it. And if you can put it in the right context, okay, this is not in my control, somehow this has happened, let me accept it and see, focus on what is my control.
So actually, in that sense, the karma philosophy is empowering, because it helps us to accept what is not in our control, as the reactions to our past karma. It also helps us to focus on what is in our control, because it is we who make our destiny. It is we, by our choices, we create the future for ourselves.
So, this is the second point, that using karma philosophy, we intelligently place things in the constructive context. Any questions or comments about this? You can speak, I will repeat it. Okay, yeah.
So, how do we really, how do we really have free will, when we are existing within the ocean of karma? It is a good example of ocean. We are in an ocean, and in the ocean, many different waves may come. And sometimes a wave might just toss us from one place to another.
So, you might be working at a job in a particular place, and suddenly the job transfers. So, we lose that job and we get a job, we do not get a job in that place, we have to go to some other place. That the wave has come, we may not want to shift, that wave has come and it has thrown us somewhere else.
So, like that, sometimes some waves come and they toss us here and there. But we are not just helpless in that ocean. There are times when the waves are strong, there are times when the waves are not that stormy, and we can keep swimming in a desired direction.
So, the ocean example itself is a good example to illustrate that there are things, there are times and things which are completely beyond our control, like a stormy wave. But there are times when we can go in a desired direction. So, there is this, always this dynamic tension between our free will and our destiny.
And the broad way to understand this is that what happens to us is destiny, how we respond to it is freedom. So, when a wave comes in my way, that is destiny. Now, what I do in that wave, sometimes I can do very little.
Sometimes I can barely just let myself get tossed away with the waves to keep above the water. Sometimes I have to exert myself and I can keep moving despite the wave. So, it depends on how much we can do.
But we do have free will. And our capacity to use our free will increases to the extent we can dis-identify ourselves with matter. Not mis-identify, but dis-identify, distance ourselves from it.
So, as long as I think I am this body, then if, say, my body gets some injury, gets some fracture, gets some disease, then I feel as if my whole life is over. Because without the body, who am I? What am I? But if I understand I am a soul, I am different from my body, okay, this body has certain limitations, but I as a conscious being am different. And within the limitations of this body currently, what can I do? So, to the extent we distance ourselves from the body, to that extent, it is like we are in the ocean, but we have risen slightly above the ocean.
Say, we have got a boat. So, knowledge becomes like a boat, especially spiritual knowledge, becomes like a boat and that gives us a little more control. And then if we connect with Krishna, we connect with Krishna by practising bhakti, then that becomes like the boat is anchored to something far bigger.
And when the boat is anchored, then the waves may hit, but still the person in that boat may not be swept away that much. So, for us, if we grow, as long as we are in rajas and tamas, in the modes of passion and ignorance, our free will becomes very, very less, just tossed about by the waves. But when we come to goodness, then we start becoming more capable of using our freedom.
It is like when we are in the mode of passion and ignorance, our only goal is, okay, where is this ocean looking nice? Where is this ocean peaceful? Where is this ocean smooth? I want to go there. If I go there, eventually after some time, waves are going to come there also. But in goodness and beyond, we start understanding, maybe there is some land beyond the ocean.
I want to go toward that land. So, we get a spiritual purpose. And as we start becoming more purposeful, then we can resist the stormy waves more and more.
So, what happens to us is destiny. How we respond to it is our free will. So, you could say, is our free will controlled? Our free will is not controlled.
The area over which we can execute our free will is controlled. Like a player who is returning serve and a player who is serving, both of them have free will. But the area over which the player who is returning serve can control, use the free will is very limited.
Wherever the ball comes, that is where they can hit it. Or the player who is returning can get disappointed, oh, anyway, I am not going to hit this ball. He will not even try also.
So, our free will is never lost. But the area over which we can exercise the free will changes. The Bhagavatam gives the example, the Bhagavata gives the example 9.6 that, yatha aakashya sthito nityam vayu sarvatra go maha tatha sarvani bhutani mat sthanityo padharya Just as the wind is situated in the sky.
The wind is free to move up, down, left, right, but it is situated in the sky. So, like that, we are situated within the broad purview of God s will, of destiny. So, thank you.
So, let me go to the last point now. So, the first point I spoke was that karma helps us to make sense when life does not make sense by extending our frame of reference. Now, intelligence means, second point was that intelligence means to place things in the constructive context.
So, when things are in my control, I do what I can. When things are beyond my control, I accept it as an unfavourable phase in my life. Now, the last point is that karma philosophy is always meant for the purpose of compassion, not condemnation.
This is extremely important to understand because sometimes the karma philosophy can make us very insensitive. When a person is suffering, at that time, our focus should be on how can I help this person? It is practically never in scripture have I seen anywhere somebody who is suffering and other people go and tell that person, you are suffering because of your own past karma. Nowhere.
When, say, if we see in the Mahabharata, when Draupadi is dishonoured, there are demoniac people who try to disrobe her. Nobody tells her, you must have done something terrible in your past. Maybe you are a demonic person and you try to disrobe somebody in your past.
That is why this has happened. No. At that time, the focus is on this is a terrible thing and it should not have happened.
So, the point is, for us, karma philosophy should not make us hard hearted, thinking that people are suffering because they deserve to suffer. No, the point of karma is that all of you want to make sense of why things are happening, but our focus has to be on what we can do. And normal civilised conduct means that we look to things from this life’s frame of reference normally.
Say, there is a traditional kingdom and a thief comes and robs from a citizen. And then the thief goes and complains to the king. And then the king says, oh, actually, you are robbed because of your own past karma.
Now, that is ridiculous. The king has his own dharma. There is karma and there is dharma.
Dharma is duty. Dharma has many different meanings. One meaning is duty.
So, what is the king’s duty? The king’s duty is to maintain law in society. And if the thief has robbed a citizen, the king has to take the responsibility to go and to protect, to recover. Now, if it happens that despite the king’s best efforts, still, the thief is not caught or that stolen property is not recovered, then that citizen may think, oh, maybe it was because of past karma that this was lost.
So, this life’s system of justice is to be extended, not replaced, not supplanted. In this life, there is accountability and each one of us is accountable. So, if somebody is on a cold night, takes 10 ice creams, and next morning they wake up with a terrible throat, God will speak.
Now, if they got a terrible throat, is that because of the past life karma? No, not past life karma, it is past night karma. You don’t need a previous life explanation and this life explanation is there. So, basically, karma is meant for compassion, not condemnation.
If somebody is suffering, I tell them you are suffering because of your own misdeeds. Then what are we doing? We are condemning them. And that is never the purpose of karma.
Yes, our purpose is compassion. How can I help this person? If we start, again, going back to the previous point of placing things in the most constructive context, if we place things in the wrong context, say there is a newborn baby and the baby is crying. Now, if the mother thinks, oh, the baby is crying because of past karma, that would be ridiculous.
What would happen to maternal affection? What would happen to maternal care? The baby has to find out, mother has to find out, why is this baby crying? Oh, let me fondle her, let me care for her, let me feed her. And then take care of it. Take care of the baby.
So, the point here is that the idea of the philosophy of karma should never make us hard hearted, thinking that people are suffering because of their own mistakes. Sometimes it is beyond our capacity to help others also. Then maybe the best way, the only way we can help them is by our prayers, by our good wishes.
But if we start thinking that people deserve to suffer, that will make us very hard hearted. Our purpose is to help people make sense of things so that things can be rectified. So, a part, one part of such rectification, of such improvement is also education.
Just like say, if somebody has got, if somebody has eaten too many, as I said, ice creams, and they have become, they got a terrible throat issue. If we are a doctor, our first purpose is to help them get relief from the immediate pain. But then you also have to tell them, if you eat ice cream like this, it will be terrible for you.
But if a patient goes to a doctor, and the person is having a terrible throat, and the doctor says, you ate so many ice creams yesterday, you suffer now, I won’t treat you. And the doctor will be feeling in their duty at that time. Now, if the doctor only treats the patient, the patient goes back and the next night again they eat, again take many ice creams, again they come back.
And the patient, doctor doesn’t tell the patient only, that you are getting this because of your ice cream. Then the doctor is doing a disservice. So, both ways there can be a disservice.
One is, if we don’t treat the immediate issue, we don’t help at the immediate level. But the other is, if we don’t talk about the deeper causes. So, for us, the teaching about karma is meant ultimately to help us come closer to Krishna, to help people deal with that situation.
And this point of coming closer to Krishna, I’ll talk in tomorrow’s session. So, but here, the point is that we talked about two frames of reference. One is the immediate cause and effect, and other is the karmic cause and effect based on previous life’s karma.
So, sometimes, if things don’t make sense by the immediate cause and effect connection, then we look for a remote cause and effect connection. And then, based on that, we can accept, this is how it has happened. But if something can be dealt with at the immediate cause and effect level also, we try to deal with it ourselves and we help others deal with it.
So, with respect to Yudhishthir, in his situation, at the immediate cause and effect level, he just could not do anything. He had tried his best to avoid the war, but Duryodhana was bent on fighting. And therefore, the war had to happen.
And here, Bhishma is telling that you, in your own life, have suffered so many times. And this is because of unfavourable time. So, when time becomes unfavourable, rather than resenting at the world, why the world is so clever, cruel, or resenting at ourselves, why are we not able to do things? Just accept that this is a phase I am going through.
Let me tolerate this phase and it will end. And one good thing about this world is that everything is temporary. So, the good things are temporary, but the bad things are also temporary.
And that is why, if one guiding principle we can have is that, never make permanent decisions based on temporary situations. Or not just temporary situations, never make permanent decisions based on emotions triggered by temporary situations. There are temporary emotions which come by temporary situations.
And we take permanent decisions by that. Some decisions can be irreversible. Somebody gets disheartened, so disheartened that this went wrong, this went wrong, this went wrong.
Let me end my life now. That is an irreversible decision. The depression that they are experiencing right now is reversible.
The situation might also be irreversible. So, never take irreversible decisions based on reversible situations or reversible emotions. So, those, you may say, I do not have the power to reverse this.
This is how the way my life has been. Yes, it may have been like this for some time, for a long time, but it is a dark phase. The dark phase is not permanent.
Now, even when we are going through darkness, we may think that this darkness is like a dungeon. But the darkness, no darkness in life is like a dungeon. It is like a tunnel.
And if you keep walking, the dark phase will end. So, why the dark phase has come? If it does not make sense for us, that is when we understand, okay, it is because of my past karma, because of which time is unfavourable. So, by understanding this role of time, we can actually tolerate the dark phases in our life, knowing that they are not dungeons, but they are tunnels.
And we keep walking with Krishna s grace, with faith in Krishna, with the attitude of service to Krishna, keep walking, and then we will get out of that dungeon. We will get out of that tunnel sooner or later, and we will come to light. So, I will summarise.
I spoke today on this theme of, continuing this theme of why do bad things happen to good people. And today’s focus was primarily on how we need to place things in the right context to move forwards. So, the first point was, the karma philosophy helps us to make sense when things do not make sense.
The problem of evil is seen as a big problem for belief in God. But the problem of belief exists because we have this presumption that there should be an action-reaction correlation. But why should there be a correlation at all like this? If everything were unguided natural forces, then there should not be any reason for scientific laws to exist, or even in normal laws, good things happen to good people and bad to bad people.
So, it is because there is a correlation between action and reaction, between cause and effect. That is why when that correlation is not there, we get the question, why is this happening? So, karma philosophy helps us make sense of it by expanding our frame of reference. That okay, the cause effect is not just from this life, it is from previous lives.
Somebody is squandering money, but still they are luxurious, because they have a lot of money from the past. Somebody is saving every penny, and still they are struggling, because they have a lot of debt from the past. So, we expand the frame of reference to make sense of the present situation.
And this is how karma helps us to make sense. And the second point I said is that intelligence, karma is meant to equip our intelligence to place every situation in the most constructive context. So, if one thing goes wrong in my life, say if a glass of water slips from my hand, and if I start thinking because based on that, I am good for nothing, there is a destructive context to put it.
Sometimes we work very hard, but still results do not come. If because of things that I am, because of that, I think I am meant to be a failure in my life, that is also placing it in a destructive context. So, Prabhupada says that there is nothing to be lamented if there is when a matter is beyond the control of any human being.
So, karma philosophy helps us to understand that there are things which are beyond our control. And what is beyond our control is shaped by the time that we are going through, the phase of time, which is the unfavourable phase may come as a reaction to our past karma. So, if a player is returning serve, at that time, they have very little control on where the ball comes, they do not have to resent that, just do the best at that time.
Sooner or later, your turn to serve will also come. So, sometimes when the free, when the area over which we have control is very less, we just accept it and do the best that we can. There are two narratives which are prominent in today’s world.
One by the mode of passion is controllership. I can do whatever I want. And other is victory mode.
So many things are wrong in my life, I cannot do anything. But beyond this is in sattva, the mode of goodness, where we are ready to assess what is in our control and what is not and do what we can and accept what we cannot change. And the last point I made was that we need to, that the philosophy is meant to serve the purpose of philosophy.
And the purpose is compassion, not condemnation. If somebody is suffering, we are not meant to tell them you deserve to suffer because of your past karma. You have to consider what is our dharma at that time.
The principle of karma is meant to extend our normal system of justice, not replace it. So, if there is, if you can make sense of if something from this life’s perspective has gone wrong, then it is wrong. And we need to empathise with somebody who is suffering from that perspective.
And as a part of the education, if talking about a bigger, previous life perspective can help the person understanding, then we can talk about it. Just like a person who is suffering from terrible cold because of eating too many ice creams, the doctor needs to treat immediately, at the same time also explain, this kind of eating will be unhealthy. So, the immediate and the remote can both go together.
And lastly, I concluded by talking that whenever we are going through a dark phase in life, that may seem to never be ending, we should not take irreversible decisions based on reversible emotions induced by those temporary situations. No matter how dark our life seems to be, that darkness is not a dungeon, it is a tunnel. If we keep walking, it will end and we will come to light.
And by having faith in Krishna and trying to serve Krishna, we can keep walking and soon come to that light. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Any one question quickly? Have you minimised the impact of having consequences for what you are doing? You are taking shelter, which you should experience immediately. What is the best approach to feel that this is the time to surrender more, to seek shelter, or just be okay about it? Because we have the knowledge. So, if we are going through a bad phase, should we just surrender to Krishna or feel guilty? Or how should we go ahead? Broadly, there are two main things.
One is that our attitude towards Krishna, the other is our attitude towards ourselves. We do not want our attitude towards Krishna to ever become negative. Krishna is not the cause of our suffering.
The principle of karma helps us to understand there is a cause other than Krishna for us. Now, we could say that that particular suffering coming at that particular time is by Krishna’s plan. That is okay.
But Krishna is not the cause. It is. So, we have to always maintain a positive attitude towards Krishna.
Krishna is not the cause of our suffering. Krishna is the cure for our suffering. And even if some terrible things are happening in our life, if we can take shelter of Krishna, if we can remember Krishna, if we can connect with Krishna, we can get relief even amidst those terrible things.
Because our mind becomes absorbed in Krishna and the magnitude of the suffering becomes lesser by that. And secondly, our attitude towards ourselves. Now, guilt is good if it deters us from doing the wrong again.
But if that sense of guilt makes us disheartened, then that is very unhealthy. Ultimately, we are our only resource. Whatever change has to be made in our life, it is we who have to make it.
Even if it is to take shelter of Krishna’s mercy, it is we who have to do it. So, we are our only resource. And if this resource gets damaged, then there is no other resource for me to change myself.
That’s why we have to handle ourselves with care. We don’t want to pamper ourselves, but we don’t want to damage ourselves by constantly beating ourselves. So, Prabhupada explains that if we don’t take Krishna’s shelter, even Krishna can’t help us.
So, we have to recognise that we should never become disheartened. I might have done many bad things. I might have many bad tendencies also right now.
But at my core, I’m a soul. I’m part of Krishna. I’m pure.
So, we want to acknowledge whatever bad we have done. But that doesn’t make us bad. If we start losing hope with ourselves, if we start losing hope in our potential to change ourselves for the better, then that is extremely dangerous.
So, we need to keep a positive attitude towards Krishna and a positive attitude towards ourselves. By that, whatever situation we are in, we can overcome it. I’ll talk more about this in tomorrow’s class.
Thank you very much.