How devotion and dedication can transform our life into an adventure

[Talk at Radha Krishna Mandir, Cambridge, Canada]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, I’ll speak this in three parts. I’ll talk first about why there is a need to transform our life. The second is, what are the resources we have to transform our life? And third is how devotion can help us to better tap whatever resources we have.
Is there a big echo coming from behind, I think, but you can hear, isn’t it? So, broadly, there are two kinds of people in the world. Some people are wise and some are otherwise. And it is not just that some people are wise and some are otherwise.
We ourselves are sometimes wise and sometimes otherwise. We sometimes surprise ourselves by some of the good thoughts that we have, some of the good advice we give, some of the insights that we get. And sometimes we shock ourselves by the kind of things we speak, by the kind of things we do.
And we seem to oscillate between being wise and being otherwise. So, when we are wise, we are our best friends. But when we become otherwise, we can become our own worst enemies.
So, when we say, we talk about transforming our lives, the whole world wants progress. And progress is often thought in external, often financial terms. I want a better car, I want a bigger house and things like that.
Now, these are important, but these alone don’t determine our happiness. There is, what we experience in life is determined not just by what externally we have, the possessions that we externally have, but also the consciousness that we have internally. So, our thoughts, our desires, our either purities or impurity or impurity, all that affect our experience of life.
Every one of us, in whatever situation we are in, there are some things which we have and some things which we don’t have. And no matter how wealthy, how powerful, how famous we become, there will still be some things that we have and some things that we don’t have. And often people think that the way to happiness is to get more and more things, to move things from the category of things I don’t have to the things I have.
And yes, growth is natural in one sense. That’s just a part of who we are. We naturally want to grow.
However, if we consider this is a category of things I don’t have, this is a category of things I have, and no matter how many things we move from this category to this category, things I don’t have to things I have, if our habit, if our mind’s tendency is to keep looking at what we don’t have, then no matter how much we have, we will never be satisfied. So, satisfaction comes not just by increasing our possession, but also by changing our disposition. Our possession means how many I can shift from I don’t have to the I have category.
But disposition means what do I habitually look at. If we are habitually going to look at the things that we don’t have, then no matter how much we have, there will always be things that we don’t have, and that will keep us dissatisfied. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna in the 17th chapter, in the 16th verse states, manah prasada samyatvam maunam atma-vinigraha bhavasam shuddhir tyetat tapo manasam uchyate tapo manasam So, this is austerity or discipline of the mind.
And what is the discipline he said? Manah prasada, satisfaction of the mind is a discipline to be cultivated. Now, we often think of satisfaction as emotion. I’m feeling satisfied.
I’m not feeling satisfied. Yes, satisfaction is an emotion, but it is not just an emotion. Satisfaction is also a decision.
That means, if I look at all the things I don’t have, dissatisfaction will naturally result. If I look at the things I have, satisfaction will result. So, satisfaction is a decision means, when Krishna is saying, discipline your mind by cultivating satisfaction.
What he means is, make it a habit to look at the things you have and appreciate them. And not just crave for the things you don’t have. A simple example to illustrate this.
Say, suppose after this talk, there is prasad. Is there food? Some kind of food? Yeah, thank you. So, there’s no suppose that food is there.
But suppose there is a special arrangement by which everybody is going to get a special dessert. Somebody gets halwa, somebody gets shrikhand, somebody gets basundi, somebody gets baklava, somebody gets pedas, like that. Now, all of us have got a dessert in our plate.
But instead of looking at the dessert in my plate, I look at what is in your plate. And I look at what is her plate. And I look at what is his plate.
And what will be the result? Dissatisfaction. So, instead of, when Krishna is saying, cultivate satisfaction as a discipline or satisfaction is a decision, that means, savour what is in your plate. Not crave for what is in someone else’s plate.
When we all want to be happy, we all want to be satisfied. Now, to be happy is possible. But to be happier than others is impossible.
Because what happens? Two reasons, why is it impossible to be happier than others? Because we often overestimate how happy others are. We often look at the things that people have, or maybe that person has a bigger car than me, that person has a better job than me, that person earns more than me. And so we associate those things with happiness.
And when people have those things more, we think that they are happier than what they actually are. So, now the two distinct things over here. Now, money, home, possessions, all these are needed, no doubt.
But there is a difference between what we live with and what we live for. Money is what we live with. For example, example to illustrate is, if you have a car.
Now, if we have a car, obviously we need fuel for the car. Fuel is what we drive with. But fuel is not what we drive for.
If you see a neighbour just coming out of their house and rushing fast toward their car, hey, where are you going? He says, I’m going to put fuel in my car. Okay, after that, where are you going? No, then I’ll go to the next gas station and I’ll put fuel over there. Oh, really? Okay, then after that, where will you go? Oh, then I’ll go to the next gas station.
No, but where are you going? I’m going to put fuel in my gas, fuel in my car. That would be stupid, isn’t it? So, fuel is of course essential. But fuel is not what we drive for.
It is what we drive with. So, similarly, money is important in life. But it is what we drive with.
Not what we drive for. So, now, there have been many studies done by psychologists and economists about the correlation between wealth and happiness. And here wealth is basically the things which we drive with.
It represents that. So, what they have found is that if people are below the poverty line, if people are struggling to live, then their happiness increases with their wealth. So, if somebody doesn’t even have food to eat, they don’t have a home to live in, then getting a home, it brings so much peace of mind.
It gives so much relief. So, the graph increases. The more money we have, the happier we become.
But that’s only up to the point where our basic needs are taken care of. And after that, there is no correlation between how much wealth a person has and how happy they are. After that, happiness is determined not by what we live with, but what we live for.
What are the values driving our life? What is it that gives meaning and purpose to our lives? At one level, we can say we all want happiness. And we all have particular definitions of happiness. But happiness in itself can be at multiple levels.
And happiness is often not a worthwhile goal to pursue. We say, obviously, I want to be happy. How can happiness not be a worthwhile goal to pursue? But consider, let’s consider, how many of you like humour? Does anyone like humour? Does anyone? Almost everyone, isn’t it? Anybody who will say, I don’t like humour will say, what’s wrong with you? We all like to have a good laugh.
But imagine, if tomorrow morning somebody told you, from today onwards, you have no financial responsibilities, no family responsibilities, no job to do, from morning to night, for the rest of your life, just watch comedy shows. And now, would we be happy? You know, maybe for a few minutes, maybe for a few hours, we can watch comedy. But after that, I want to do something, isn’t it? So now, comedy leads to laughter.
And we can say, laughter is happiness. But we don’t just want happiness. What we want is meaningful happiness.
And comedy, after some time, it just becomes meaningless happiness. And meaningless happiness becomes meaningless. After some time, the happiness decreases, and what remains is just the meaninglessness.
So, if we pursue only happiness in our lives, then, often, say, somebody says, I just want to watch TV, I just want to watch sports, I just want to play video games, and that will make me happy. But that won’t make us happy. Because that is not any meaningful happiness.
Now, conversely, on one side, we often think that we want happiness, and we don’t want trouble. We don’t want problems. We don’t want pain, which is true.
Again, nobody wants suffering for suffering’s sake. But, actually, life unavoidably brings suffering upon everyone. The Bhagavad Gita says that one of the characteristics of this world is, it is Dukkhalaya.
It is a place where misery is unavoidable. So, Krishna says in 8.15 in the Bhagavad Gita, that this world is a place of distress, Dukkhalaya. So, now, if my conception of life is, life is meant for pleasure, life is meant for enjoyment, life is meant for happiness, and then, some situation, some phase comes in my life, where there is no happiness at all.
Then, I may start thinking, what is the point of living? If pleasure, where the sole purpose of our life, pleasure is too fragile to sustain us through life’s troubles. Because there will be some phases in our life, when there is no pleasure at all. Say, we lose our job and looking for a new job, we come to a new place, or we lost a loved one.
Then, life will put us through phases, where there is no pleasure available. And how do we go? So, the point I am making is that, I started by, we are talking about how we can find happiness in our life, and why we need devotion and dedication for that. I said, people think happiness will come by possessions.
But then I said that, unless we change our disposition, learn to look at what we have, and what we don’t have, instead of what we don’t have, we can never be happy. And then, we say, if I look at what I have, but then, I want the things which are enjoyable more and more. But it is not just enjoyable things that bring happiness.
That’s like working with fuel. Like living for fuel, rather than living with fuel. Driving for fuel, instead of driving with fuel.
So, if we seek pleasure alone, pleasure is not meaningful. That’s like constantly watching comedies. Pleasure is not lasting.
So then, what will bring meaning to our lives that can sustain us throughout our lives? And that is where devotion and dedication come into the picture. We are not just physical creatures who can be satisfied with just abundant supply of food and safety and sensuality. We are spiritual beings who need a sense of purpose and a sense of progress.
Purpose means, what am I doing in my life? Like, if I put fuel in my car, but where am I driving? I need to have something meaningful that I do in my life. And secondly, I need to be able to move tangibly in that direction. I have often spoken at mental health conferences on, say, addiction and on spirituality and mental health.
So, one of the things I often speak is that in today’s world, there is so much mental health, distress at the mental health level. Now, of course, it is a complicated phenomena, but broadly speaking, our mind starts eating us, whether it is through worry or through depression or through anxiety disorders or whatever. Our mind starts eating us to the extent these two things are absent in our life, purpose and progress.
Purpose means, is there something meaningful that I can pursue in my life? And not only purpose, but progress. If somebody has like a, you know, 14-year-old teenager’s fantasy, I want to become the next billionaire of the world. And that is, how are you going to progress towards that? So, a sense of purpose and a sense of progress.
That is what we primarily need. So, the Bhagavad Gita offers us a worldview that provides us both of these things. It explains that each one of us is a soul and the soul is on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution.
And in this journey of spiritual evolution, all of us can gain happiness to the extent we evolve. Now, what does evolve mean? Evolve means, we grow in our capacity to learn and to love. We grow in our capacity to learn and to love.
It’s like a small child. For the child, the most valuable thing in the world is his or her toys. Now, we as we grow up, we may play with some childhood toys and we may have some fondness for them.
But they are not the most valuable thing for us. So, as we grow, we evolve. I can learn many more things.
I can love bigger things in my life, bigger people. So, we grow in our capacity to learn and love. And as this grows further, there are many things in the world which are worthy.
However, all these are temporary. And there is one reality that is eternal. That is, we as souls are eternal and the soul has an eternal relationship with God, with Krishna.
So, the purpose of life is to help us develop our vertical relationship with God. That is a relationship which is eternal. And He is the source of all happiness.
The word Krishna means, One who attracts everyone. The word Ram means, One who is himself happy and one who gives happiness to others. He is Ram.
And this supreme being, Krishna Ram, He is already present in the hearts of each one of us. And if we can turn our vision to Him and connect with Him in devotion, then that can give us inner satisfaction. And that inner satisfaction is the basis of a steady and meaningful life.
So, devotion is what connects us with God. Devotion connects us with Him inside our hearts. And through japa, through puja, through satsang, through swadhyay, through all these limbs, when we connect with the Lord, we start experiencing increasing inner happiness.
And this inner happiness is something which is inalienable, which can never be taken away from us. When I was, about 25 years ago, when I was studying my engineering, at that time, it was my lifelong dream. I wanted to be a topper.
Is the word topper used over here? Topper means one who tops in their class. So, I was always a good student. So, I was second in my class, third in my class, sometimes joint first.
But I was never the first. That was my lifelong dream. And then, when I was studying my engineering in one of the leading colleges in India, at that time, I gave the GRE exam for coming to America.
I had a maternal uncle who had his own company in America. And he wanted me to come, he didn’t have any sons, so he wanted me to come and inherit his company in America. So, I gave GRE and I was quite good in English.
One of my childhood hobbies was just to pick up a dictionary and memorise the meanings of words. So, because of being good in English, at that time, out of 2400, I got 2350. So, I was not just first in my class, I was first in the history of my college.
I was first in the whole state of Maharashtra, which has several millions of people. So, that was like all my dreams come true. I was so happy.
But then, after some time, it struck me, just looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give much happiness. It is only when people come and congratulate, that’s when you get pleasure. That’s when you get some happiness.
And then somehow it happened that one after another, three of my close friends forgot to congratulate me. It was, the whole college knew about it. And they thought everybody knows what is there to congratulate.
So, when the first friend forgot to congratulate, I was annoyed. And the second friend forgot, I was irritated. When the third friend forgot, I was infuriated.
But, it looks pathetic to ask someone, why are you not congratulating me? So, I could very well do that also. And somehow, for me, at critical moments in my life, it’s almost like I see myself from above. So, right now, I’m sitting here.
So, at that time, we can conceptually look at ourselves from above and understand our situation. So, at that time, as I was getting so angry with this friend for not having congratulated me, I looked at myself from above and said, Hey, wait a minute, what’s going on over here? You thought that becoming a topper, coming first will make you happy. But instead of making you happy, this has made you more dependent for your happiness on others.
Earlier, you could just meet with your friends and talk with them. But now, when you meet with them, you are so needy. So, where is the happiness? So, that was a, you could say, a negative eureka moment.
In the sense that, one of the definitions of happiness that I had cherished throughout my life, it was just like a balloon that had been pricked. And that was the time when I started exploring more about self-understanding. And that is when a friend gave me the Bhagavad Gita.
I read the Gita and there in the sixth chapter, a twenty-sixth verse, twenty-second verse spoke to me very strongly. This verse is, So, Krishna says, He is talking about the state of samadhi, of spiritual absorption in Him. And He says, if you attain that state of spiritual absorption, He says, if you attain this, then you will never crave for anything more.
This will satisfy you so much that you won’t crave for anything more. And secondly, He says, Even if distress comes in your life, distress will not disturb you. So, it struck me at that time, whatever goals I had in my life, will achieving any goal satisfy these two criteria? By attaining something, will there be that I won’t crave for anything more? At that time, I was in India, I said, if I come to, if I go and study in America, even if I top it, if I do very well in American University, then there is always something more I’ll crave for, something more I’ll crave for.
And there is no guarantee that what we possess will protect us from distress. In fact, the more wealth we have, the more distress we will be in if we lose that wealth. Of course, if we become that much attached to that wealth.
So, what Krishna is telling us is, I’m going round in a circle to the earlier point of disposition, looking at what we have instead of what we don’t have. So, if we can train ourselves to look at what we have, that is, ultimately, we have the presence of God within us. And he can make us fully contended.
He can make us fully satisfied. He can make us internally enriched, irrespective of what all other things we have externally. So, this is why devotion is important, because devotion helps us to see inwards at what we have and gain satisfaction.
However, a question may come up, does that mean, okay, I just look inward, think of God and don’t do anything in the world? No, that’s a devotion and dedication. See, God wants us to connect with him. But that is not the only thing that he wants.
God wants us to connect with him and contribute in the world. In the Bhagavad Gita 8.7, Krishna tells Arjuna that you remember me and you do your duty in the world. Arjuna was a warrior.
So, he was a martial guardian of society. He had a duty of protecting people from aggressors. He said, you do that also.
So, there is inner connection and there is outer contribution. Outer contribution means each one of us has been given certain talents, certain abilities, certain resources. And using those resources, we all are meant to make a contribution, do the best we can.
So, we have family responsibilities, we have professional responsibilities, we have hobbies. Now, all these, they don’t have to be rejected, but they have to be connected with our devotional purpose. So, the abilities that we have are actually gifts from God.
Our abilities are not just our own abilities. I have written about 25 books. So, writing is one of my major services.
I was recently interacting with a very prominent award-winning author. And he was telling me how in the 20th century, out of the top 10 authors, those who are Nobel laureates or their books are considered to be among the biggest classics, out of the top 10 authors, seven of them committed suicide. Now, of course, again, suicide is a very complicated phenomena.
But if you look at their life history, what happened is that they wrote a book that took the whole world by storm. And then they became celebrities. And then after that, when they tried to write their next book, they just couldn’t get anywhere to that level.
And that just tore them apart. He says, now I’ve attained this standard. And if I cannot be at that, people will, the critics will pan my book, people will laugh at me, how will I live? And that possibility that they couldn’t perform, that afflicted them so much that they became mentally disturbed.
And eventually, they ended their lives. So, what happened over here? The point here is, our abilities are not just our abilities. Our abilities are gifts coming from a higher source.
And if we think this is my ability alone, and I am going to make a mark on the world, and I’m going to shake the world with my ability. If we have that much ability, and if we have that much fortune, we might be able to do it. But that ability will not always stay with us.
If you consider sports like cricket. So, then the best of batsmen sometimes goes out of form. No batsman wants to go out of form, they just go out of form.
Their ability is not just their own ability. Yes, it is there, but not only there. It is a gift manifesting through them.
And to the extent we have this understanding, if we are grateful when ability manifests through us, then we can be graceful when ability stops manifesting. Yes, I’m a channel, and I’m grateful that I’m a channel. I’m grateful that I can sing well, I can speak well, I can manage well, I can do that well, this well, whatever.
And we use the ability fully, and whatever success we get, we are grateful for that. But, Paurusham Lushu, in the Bhagavad Gita 7, 8, Krishna says that I am ability that manifests in human beings. So, our ability is a gift from God.
And to the extent we have that ability, we use it. But we don’t identify with our ability. It’s because I sing well, that doesn’t mean I identify myself solely as a singer.
I identify myself as a soul who is a part of God, and who am doing the role of singing. And I have the ability, I’ll do it as well as I can. But tomorrow, if my singing ability or my speaking ability is lost, I won’t become so devastated, because I know I still have my fundamental identity.
I am a soul who is a part of God, and I have an eternal relationship with Him. So, we need dedication, so that whatever talents we have, that talent can lead to achievement. If you consider talent and achievement to be like the two peaks of a mountain, and the bridge between them is dedication.
And we do need dedication. We do need to work hard. But sometimes, even with the best hard work, sometimes results may not come.
And if the results don’t come, we may become so disheartened as to become depressed, as to become suicidal. If that is not to happen, we need a higher vision of our life. The higher vision is that my talents are gifts from God.
And I’m using these talents not just to make a mark on the world, but I’m using these talents in a mood of service to God. So, if I have that mood of service, that means with my abilities, with my resources, according to my positions and possessions, I do my best. But I’m not doing my best simply to prove to the world how great I am.
I’m doing the best to please the Lord. So, if the result doesn’t manifest in the world, I won’t feel my life is a waste. Because still, I have pleased God.
And God is pleased primarily by our endeavour. The world sees the results. God sees the endeavour.
I’ll conclude with one last point. At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, there are two endings. The Bhagavad Gita is primarily a discussion between Krishna and Arjuna.
And Arjuna is confused and disheartened, not knowing what to do when he has to fight against his relatives. And Krishna’s vision clears the moral muddle that he finds himself in. What should I do? What I should not do? And Arjuna has put aside his bow.
I can’t fight. He’s put aside his bow saying, I can’t fight. But by the end of the Bhagavad Gita in 1873, Arjuna picks up his bow.
He says that, says, I will do your will. He has picked up his bow in readiness to fight. So, what has happened over here? That Krishna’s message enlivened him.
At the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna was discouraged. By the end, he was encouraged. So, the message of the Bhagavad Gita, which is what I have summarised today, enlivened him so that when he was disheartened, he again became enlivened.
And eventually, he attained victory in a very difficult battle. The toughest war of his life, he was victorious. But that is one ending of the Bhagavad Gita.
At one level, Arjuna’s bow represents our determination. All of us become disheartened in life. I quit.
I can’t do this. But if we get this spiritual vision of life, yes, this problem may not be solvable. But work in a mood of devotion.
Work in a mood of service. And you will evolve. You will grow by that.
Even if the external result doesn’t manifest, you can still grow in your devotion to God. And you don’t need the external result for your happiness. Your inner connection with God alone can give you happiness.
So, that vision can enliven us. So, that is what Krishna gave to Arjuna. That is one ending of the Gita.
But there is another ending because the Gita is like a nested conversation. The conversation between Krishna and Arjuna. There is also another conversation between Dhritarashtra and Sanjay.
The first words in the Bhagavad Gita is spoken by Dhritarashtra. So, what’s happening on the battlefield, he says. And now Sanjay repeats the same message that Krishna has spoken to Arjuna.
Sanjay repeats it to Dhritarashtra. Now, Dhritarashtra is an extremely attached person. See, attachment is basically emotional enslavement.
When we are attached to someone, our emotions get locked in that person. And then we can’t do anything that will displease that person. No matter how essential it is to do that, that person makes us do something terribly wrong and because we don’t want to displease them, we end up doing that.
So, Dhritarashtra is attached to his evil son, Duryodhana. Dhritarashtra is not really a very bad person. Duryodhana is bad, really bad.
So, it’s like Dhritarashtra has weakness and Duryodhana has wickedness. Now, weakness is okay, it’s bad, but it’s bearable. But when weakness is exploited by wickedness, then that leads to ruin.
Say, if there are two friends, one of them is a drug, not only it takes drugs, but is also a drug peddler. And the other friend is a good person, but is attached to this person. And this person also start taking drugs and start peddling drugs also.
So, now Dhritarashtra is attached and Dhritarashtra hears Krishna’s message as spoken to him by Sanjay. But Dhritarashtra’s heart is not transformed. It takes a long time.
After the whole war is over, then Vidura comes and enlightens him at the end. Dhritarashtra has to lose, he loses all his sons, he loses his kingdom, he loses almost entire family. He has to lose everything before he loses his attachment.
But at this point, he is not transformed. Sanjay speaks the message of Bhagavad Gita, but Dhritarashtra is not transformed. And still, in the penultimate verses of the Bhagavad Gita, it described that just by speaking the Bhagavad Gita, Sanjay is transformed.
So, in 1876 and 77, it is said, So, he is saying that I am remembering Krishna’s message and I am remembering Krishna’s form. And by these twin remembrances, I am filled with joy. So, at the level of Arjuna, the Bhagavad Gita’s message predicts victory for Arjuna.
That means, sometimes when we are devoted to God, that devotion internally and dedication externally will lead to victory externally also. But sometimes, victory may not come externally. Like it happens with Sanjay, he speaks the Bhagavad Gita, but there is no external desirable effect.
But still, there is internal result positive, that is, he becomes satisfied. So, devotion and dedication can transform our life into an adventure. The adventure that when we are doing our best in a mood of service to the Lord, we will always be enriched.
Sometimes, there will be dramatic external results and that will add to the enrichment. But even if that doesn’t happen, each one of us, by connecting with God and then working in the world in a mood of service to Him, we can do much better than what we are doing. We can become much better human beings than what we are.
Now, how much good we can do or to put it more precisely, how much good God can do through us if we become devoted to Him. Discovering how much good God can do through us if we let Him do it, discovering that is life’s ultimate adventure. And every one of us can make a significant difference in the world and most importantly, the supremely significant difference in our own hearts when we reshape our life with devotion and dedication.
So, I’ll summarise. I spoke on this topic of how devotion and dedication can transform our life into an adventure. So, I started by talking about how we are all looking for progress, looking for happiness.
And we often, in the world, we equate happiness with external things. So, external things are what we live with, not what we live for. So, the whole world’s definition of happiness is that move more and more things from what you want to what you have.
But no matter how many possessions we get like this, if our disposition is to look at what we don’t have, we will always be dissatisfied. So, satisfaction comes by learning to appreciate what we have, not to crave what we don’t have. Now, how do we develop this disposition that I talked about? You may say, oh, there are so many enjoyable things that I don’t have.
How can I be satisfied? If I say satisfaction is a decision, how can I be satisfied? Then I mentioned that just getting enjoyable things alone doesn’t bring happiness. See, happiness is too cheap a purpose to make life meaningful. If somebody says just watch comedy throughout your life, we want meaningful happiness.
And secondly, if we go through phases when there is no happiness, then what will sustain us if happiness is our sole purpose? So, what will make our life meaningful and fulfilling is not just the pursuit of happiness, but the pursuit of spiritual growth. Spiritual growth means we learn to value the Lord who is present inside us and connect with Him internally. We are souls who are in a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution.
Evolution means to learn to increase our capacity to learn and to love. So, when we learn about the eternal and love the eternal, then we get inner contentment. I talked about my story of how coming first in GRE led to no intrinsic satisfaction.
And Bhagavad Gita promises us that intrinsic satisfaction if we become absorbed in God. So, devotion will make us, when we look inwards, look at what we have, and God is always what we have in our hearts, devotion can give us inner satisfaction. And then, that doesn’t mean we become apathetic in the world, but we contribute to the world in a mood of service.
We have abilities and we use those abilities to the best of our capacity, but we understand these abilities are gifts. And that’s why sometimes the performance doesn’t result, then we don’t get depressed, as can happen to celebrity authors who think their talents are their own and then they become suicidal. So, if the ability manifests through us and we are grateful, then wonderful things can happen through us.
If the ability doesn’t manifest, we are still graceful. Because, yes, I am doing this not to show the world, but to serve my Lord. And in this mood if we work, sometimes we make some wonderful contribution externally, but even without that external contribution, we can always have worthwhile satisfaction internally.
And that I talked about through the two endings of the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna was disheartened, became enlivened by the Gita’s wisdom and he attained victory externally also. So, for him, the Gita’s message provided an inner connection and that outer contribution, outer victory.
For Sanjay, however, there was no outer transformation in Dhritarashtra that happened, but still speaking the Gita made him satisfied. So, all of us, if we connect with God internally and let God act through us, then discovering how much good we can do if we let God act through us, that can make our life, that can be our life’s biggest adventure. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. So, are there any questions or comments? Okay. What is the best way to or what is the mood to foster that connection with God? The most important thing is, coming to temple is important, but it is association.
Association with those who are connected with God. Those who are not just like a religious ritual connected with God, but they are on fire with devotion to God, desire to serve God. Our desires are not just linear, they are also triangular.
What do I mean by linear and triangular desires? Sometimes, if we see something attractive, say maybe you see a gulab jamun. Does everybody know gulab jamun? You see a gulab jamun, you get the desire, I want to eat it. That’s a linear desire.
Does any of you know what is a baklava? Okay, some of you know. About several years ago, first time when I had gone to Australia, I had gone to a friend’s house and he had served food at the end of that. He said, for dessert, we have baklava.
Would you like to have one? I had never heard of a baklava and the name baklava is not very sweet. It was all that I said, maybe later. And there’s another friend with me who had come for that meal.
So, he said, give me. And then he took the baklava and he was eating it. He was savouring it with closed eyes.
When I saw him eating it, I said, give me one also. So, just seeing or hearing about the baklava did not create the desire. That means there was no linear desire.
But seeing somebody else enjoying the baklava created that desire. That was the triangular desire. So, in general, with respect to anything virtuous, anything devotional, anything virtuous, very often the linear desire is not so easily created.
If I just see a Bhagavad Gita, I might not get the desire to read the Bhagavad Gita. On the other hand, if I see a movie billboard, I might get the desire to watch the movie. So, with respect to worldly things, often linear desires can be easily created.
But with respect to spiritual things, just looking at the Bhagavad Gita may not create the desire to read the Bhagavad Gita. But if we associate with someone who is living the Gita, who is getting fresh insights from the Gita, then you say, oh, really, all this is there in the Gita, I also want to study the Gita. So, by seeing them, we get that desire.
So, that’s why association of those who are devoted to God is the single most important thing for us to move forward in our journey towards God. So, broadly we talk about A, B, C, D. A is association. B is books.
Books is reading spiritual books, reading the Bhagavad Gita, reading books based on the Bhagavad Gita. That gives us association, channels our social needs and triggers our spiritual desires. Books channels our intellectual needs.
And, of course, not just intellectual. There are books like Ramayana and Mahabharata which are filled with wonderful stories. So, basically, through the literary or the intellectual way, our desires are channelled towards God.
C is chanting. Like all of you are doing kirtan over here. So, kirtan, japa.
Sound is a very powerful means for raising our consciousness from the physical to the spiritual level. So, kirtans and japa, that is C, chanting. And D is deity.
Just like we have a temple over here. We come to the temple and worship the Lord. And in our home also, we have an altar and there we worship the Lord.
So, A, B, C, D. These four things we do, association, books, chanting and deity worship. We all can grow in our devotional life. Yeah, enthusiasm to do A, B, C, D. Good one.
Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, please. Okay.
So, we say we can’t be happy just watching comedies. But kids are often happy watching video, playing video games. And they spend hours and hours and then eventually get addicted and then they sometimes make a mess of their lives because of that.
Yeah, there are two distinct things over here. One is that in principle, when I talk about comedies, not making us happy. So, I’m talking about, there is meaningful happiness and there is meaningless happiness.
Now, if we are not pursuing anything meaningful, then we all need some stimulation in life. And it’s not just kids. Sometimes adults also spend so much time maybe surfing and maybe watching movies and people can spend days and weeks just going on and on surfing.
So, the point is that does anyone at the end of it feel contented? If I spend just 3, 4, 5, 6 days just watching one movie after another after another. I’ll feel, see the nature of the mind is if we keep doing whatever we like, we all should do what we like. But whatever we like means I want to eat this, I want to watch this, I want to do that.
If we keep doing whatever we like, we end up disliking ourselves. Why? Because we at our deepest core know I’m not doing anything worthwhile. Now, you spend a lot of time wasting on just meaningless social media surfing, movie watching or whatever.
Afterward, you’ll feel, why did I waste my time like that? So, we will start disliking ourselves. And same it happens that for many young people today, there is no meaningful vision of life. You might just say, you work hard so that you have a job and you have family and you have a career.
But why? What’s the point of it all? So, if there is no meaningless vision of life, no meaningful vision of life, then our mind will go toward that which is the path of least resistance. And when you go to the path of least resistance, then we go down, down, down, down by that. And it is often those, there is a well documented correlation, say the more time people spend on Facebook, the more they become depressed.
Because what happens? On Facebook, you see people who are happier than you are, because people just post the happiest moments of their life. Not only they post the happiest moments of their life, they actually act as if they are happy for Facebook. So, what we think is, oh, my life is so boring and this person has gone to this beach and he’s gone to this trekking and he’s gone here and done this.
And we end up by all that comparison feeling negative. So, similarly, video games also, when people keep playing that, there is, as I said, we need some sense of purpose and progress. So, they have that, okay, you win this game, you get this many marks, you get to this score.
But it’s all in an illusory context. It’s all ultimately meaningless. So, what we need to do is, especially in youth, the youthful energy needs to be channelled constructively.
Not just through rules, do this and don’t do this, but by giving an inspiring vision of life. Now, every one of us is a part of God. Every one of us can make a meaningful contribution in the world.
Through each one of us, the light of God can shine into the world. And if we, because of our trivialities and impurities, don’t let that light of God shine through us, then the world becomes dimmer and darker to that much extent. So, today the world is so big and so complicated that people can very easily feel that nothing counts.
Why should I study? Why should I work? Why should I achieve anything in life? Unless there is a meaningful vision of life, that ultimately because we are parts of God, and God can act through us, for us and for others, through us, each one of us can make a significant difference. So, in general, meaning is proportional to responsibility. The more responsibility we take, the more meaning we get in our life.
That’s why when I say a couple get married and they have children. Now, parents having children is wonderful, but it’s not just parents make children, it is the children make parents. What does that mean? That the children make parents responsible.
The parents may just do anything and everything when they are alone, but when they have kids, oh, I have to take care of this life, this life is dependent on me, that makes them responsible. Now, when do we take responsibility? When we feel that we can and we need to make a difference. This baby is crying, if I don’t take care of this baby, this baby will cry.
That’s responsibility. So, just as we can take responsibility for external things, we all need to take responsibility for ourselves. We, we have a certain set of talents and gifts which God has given us, and with that, what is the best contribution you can make? So, if we can give this vision, not just give a sense of a set of instructions, do this and don’t do this, that is very counterproductive, especially in teenage.
Generally, what happens? There’s a, there’s a, I think, American thinker who said that when I was 15, my father was a fool. And now I’m 25 and I’m, I’m amazed how much the old guy has learned in the last 10 years. Now, it’s not so much that the father learned in 10 years, but at 15 and at 25, the vision changes.
At 15, we’re quite frivolous. We’re just doing what we want to do. But at 25, we start taking responsibility.
Then somebody who has taken responsibility say, oh, then they have a lot of things that I can learn from them. So, basically, rather than condemning them for kids, for watching social media, for say, we’re playing video games or doing something like that, we need to give them an inspiring vision of life. Not just a vision of how wonderful life is, but of how big and their contributions count in the world.
Once that vision is given, then they can take responsibility. And then the various means of just escaping from responsibility and avoiding life, which is what video games and stuff like that are ultimately, they will no longer succumb to that. Okay, any one last question?