How God helps those who help themselves – Bhakti Basics explained

[Talk at Denver, USA]

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Transcript

This is AI generated transcript and may contain some errors

side.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for coming today.
And today I will speak on the topic of … So I will speak on the topic of how God helps us when we help ourselves. And within that I will talk broadly three parts. What is the help that we need in life? Who is the God that helps us? And how does he help us? So we all have many desires that we want to fulfil.
We want to buy something. We want to achieve something. Basically, our desires can be classified into two broad categories.
We want possessions and we want positions. So, possessions. I won’t own this.
I won’t own this. Positions is in the social hierarchy. We want to rise higher and higher.
Even a little conduct of life helps us recognise that it’s not always in our power to fulfil our desires. And when that happens, we start thinking, is there something higher? And is that something higher, whatever it is, will that help me? So when we recognise that what we want, our performance matters to get it. But our performance is not all that matters.
Then we start thinking of ways in which we can please whatever unknown is out there so that our life can go on well. So that our desires can be fulfilled. And it is when usually what we want is not easily achievable.
That is when we start thinking, what do I do now? I need help of someone more powerful. We may literally look at some other human beings, some other people are more powerful. But some things are just beyond human control.
So generally, we might have some cultural conception of God. But in a practical sense, we turn toward God when we feel a need to do something that is not in our power to do. For 20 years, I have been a brahmachari in India.
And I used to live in a temple. And after a few years, I started observing that April and May were the months of devotion. What do I mean by that? That right next to our temple in Pune, where I was staying, there was a school.
The school children would never come to the temple except in April and May. What was happening in April and May? Exams! So, they wanted to oh God, please help me pass this exam. So, it was April and May were the times when people were kids were coming to the temples.
So now, when they feel I have to get something which is not in my power to get, that’s when we seek help of someone higher. So that’s the beginning of turning towards God. Even if we have some cultural conception in an existential practical sense, we feel the need for God and we have to do something which we are not able to.
And then, at that time, once we start connecting, start seeking help from that unknown, gradually we start thinking who is that unknown? Or what is that unknown? When I was one, some of you may have noticed that I require patches for walking. So when I was one, I got polio. Actually, it was that my parents had given me the polio vaccine but somehow it is a remote town and the medical facilities were not very good and the doctor did not keep the vaccine properly.
So, the vaccine dosage got multiplied somehow and the vaccine, instead of preventing the polio, gave me the vaccine. So, since then, I couldn’t walk properly. But then, my parents, when my relatives and friends would come, they would say that I was good at studies somehow.
So, my parents would talk and they would say, whatever God has taken in physical ability, God has provided him in intellectual ability. So, at that time, I remember thinking who is this mysterious being God? He can give anything and take anything. What is all this? That is how I started thinking about it.
And then, over a period of time, initially, our interest is not in God per se. It is in what God will give me. So, that is the beginning of the religious instinct.
But to go from religion to spirituality, to go from religion to a higher level of consciousness means the person’s focus shifts from what God gives me to who God is. And when we want to understand that, that is the time when our spiritual evolution progresses much higher. So, all over the world, there are many different theistic traditions and they all talk about God.
When the Britishers and the European colonialists came to India, they found India extremely bewildered. There was one British thinker, he said that if there were a if we had a competition in religious wealth, India would be the millionaire. Why? Because India had a million Gods.
Other traditions have one God with a million Gods. So, initially, they thought, the Europeans they had this idea of monotheism and polytheism. Have you heard these words? What is monotheism? One God.
Mono is one, theism is God. And polytheism is? Many Gods. So, they had the Christian tradition, basically the Abrahamic religions, where they have Judaism, Christianity, Islam, all come from the same roots.
So, they had the idea that there is one God. That’s monotheism. And before that, in the Greco-Roman tradition, there they had polytheism.
Many Gods. That was their conception of the worship of many Gods. And when they came to India, they thought Indians are also polytheistic.
But, after some time, as they looked deeper, they noticed something very peculiar. That actually, the attributes of Gods. See, in polytheism, the idea was that each God has his or her own turf.
And these Gods are fighting among each other. And this God has this territory, that God has that territory, that God has that territory. But then they found that in the Indian tradition, if you consider the Bhagavad Gita, if you consider any of the core texts, the description of God was actually very similar to the description of God in terms of characteristics, what is given in the Abrahamic tradition.
That means, when God is described in the Bhagavad Gita, He is described as being all-powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. And the Bible, for example, says, I am the Alpha and Omega of all things. And the Bhagavad Gita says, I am the beginning and end of all things.
And I am the middle also. So, in terms of characteristics, they found that the characteristics of God that are described in the Indian dharmic traditions, they are the characteristics of a monotheistic deity, not a polytheistic deity. Polytheism means each God has his own jurisdiction and each deity So then, it is very confusing.
What is going on? So, actually, there are certain classifications which are derived from certain traditions. And those classifications may not apply in other traditions. Why is that? Because, if, say for example, if we are eating food, this is sweet, this is sour.
But, if we come to a room and we want to measure the room, is the room sweet or sour? Rooms are not sweet or sour. It may be something in a particular way. But, nobody comes to taste a room.
So, we say, okay, is it spacious? Is it cramped? Is it sunlight? We look at different characteristics. So, the Vedic conception, the dharmic conception of God is very different. And the best way to describe it is neither monotheism nor polytheism.
It’s actually what you can call as polymorphic monotheism. Polymorphic monotheism. There is one God, but polymorphic.
Many, many forms. So, ekam sat viprabhavdha vadanti. The Rig Veda says that there is one absolute truth, but the sages know their absolute truth many different ways.
So, polymorphic monotheism. And it’s not just monotheism. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is envisioned as the masculine being.
God is always referred to as He. But in the dharmic tradition, God is not just a single person. God is always a divine couple.
We have Sita Ram, we have Radha Krishna, we have Lakshmi Narayan. It’s always a divine couple. And both of them are considered divine.
Both of them are considered worshipable. So, if you want to make a further classification, it’s actually polymorphic by monotheism. There’s one God who manifests as a divine couple, and then there are multiple divine couples in it.
So, it’s a much more intricate conception of God. And within this, there’s an understanding that one divinity manifests at multiple levels to attract different kinds of people at different levels. So, this is another major difference.
In the Bible, for example, it said, your God is a jealous God. Thou shall not bow down to any other God except your God. And there’s always a contrast between there’s one true God and there are many false Gods.
And right from the Old Testament down to the Quran, there are descriptions wherever any religious king conquers a particular place, the first thing he will do is destroy all the false Gods. So, their idea is that the glory of the true God will be established. But this dichotomy between the true God and the false Gods, that is not there in the Dharmic tradition.
The idea is that there is one God and He is not jealous. He does not worship anyone except you. God is not jealous.
God is zealous. He is zealous. He is eager.
He is industrious so that our welfare can be sought. And the idea over there is that each one of us is an individual. And not everyone will be attracted to the same ideas.
Then, the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells this idea of polymorphic monotheism. Whatever form someone desires to worship, Krishna says I make this form. Shraddhaya Chittam Ikshati.
The desire to worship. Achalam Shraddham. I give them that faith.
And then what happens by that? Shraddhaya Yuktas Tasyara Dhanamehate Labhate Chittatah Kaman Mayaiva Vihitan Hitan. This is 721-723 in the Bhagavad Gita. This is 722 now.
Krishna says that with that faith I give this faith. Whichever form you want to worship, I give you that faith. And then you worship that form.
And then we get some results. Krishna says I am giving those results. So Mike is very humble.
I think it’s permanent. So So it says that it is God you can say there is God with a capital G and there are Gods with a small g. And all of them are one continuous hierarchy. It is not that the God with a capital G is competing with the God with a small g. There is one God and there are multiple levels of manifestation.
So I’ll explain the story this or rather adaptation of a particular story. In the Biblical tradition there is a story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son is, many of you know this story? Some of you.
So this is that there is a very wealthy landlord and he has two sons. And as one of the sons younger son comes of age he says father give me my inheritance. I want to go and live on my own.
He says no you cannot stay with me, whatever you want I’ll provide you. He says no, give me my inheritance. And he takes it and he goes.
And usually there are two kinds of friends we may have. There are some friends who take us for lunch. And there are some friends who take away our lunch.
So generally most people struggle to earn money. Only I have more money. It is so much good.
But actually money it is difficult to earn it. But it is even more difficult to use it. For somebody to have the ability to earn money without the maturity to use money.
That is a recipe for disaster. Imagine if somebody is just a teenager and they just started exploring life and they are exploring drugs. And that time their grandmother they get a big inheritance.
It is the worst thing that can happen to them. So the ability to earn money is important. It is valuable.
But even more valuable is the maturity to use money. And this kid he has got so much money and he falls into a bad crowd. And they start using his money, squandering it, and he ends up losing all his money.
And what happens when he loses his money? All his friends are also lost. And now he has defiantly left his father what to do now. He starts looking for some jobs.
He starts working with some other landlord. And that landlord exploits him and gives him barely the same food that the animals are being fed. Then you feed the pigs and what are the food remains you eat then? You don’t get lost.
And he is living like that over there. He starts thinking what do I do? So my father thinks I am so much better. Maybe I should go back.
No, no, no. I rejected him. I squandered his wealth.
Will he accept me? On one particular day he is so angry and he is feeding his pigs. All the pigs bite his hands and he is in immense pain. Even if my father accepts me as a servant, he treats his servants better than what I am being treated over here.
So let me go back. And when he goes back, he is apprehensive. But his mother with great joy welcomes him and celebrates that my lost son has come back.
So this is a metaphor which is used to tell how much is the love of God for us. Even if we turn away from him, he doesn’t abandon us. He doesn’t reject us.
When we want to turn toward him, he is always there waiting for us. Yes, this is at one level a revelation of the love of God. The Dharmic tradition says that actually God’s love for us is much greater.
It’s not just that he welcomes us when we turn back and return to him. Rather he works to get us back. And what is the way he works? That is, say suppose the father is a landlord or a king.
Now the son has had a quarrel with the father. So that’s why now the father even goes and calls the son back. Because he has a quarrel with his son and he has not come back.
So what the father does is that the father sends some other landlord who is like his employee, subordinate to him. He says, you go and meet him. You talk with him.
And then you employ him. Now if there is a king then the father is a king and under that there is a landlord. So this landlord goes and employs this lost boy.
A prodigal is one who wastes things very much. So he’s a wasteful boy. He says, what are you doing? Work for me.
I’ll pay you. Okay, I’ll pay you more than what you’re getting. He starts working.
Now what has happened is this boy has left the father’s kingdom. But still he is now connected with someone who is connected with his father. He is not yet back in the kingdom.
But he is back indirectly with his father’s kingdom. And then this boy says, the boy wants to take up employment. Normally if you want to work with someone, you want to know what are their credentials.
They want to know our credentials. I’ll work for this company and after six months this company goes bust. My career will also be disrupted.
So is this company having a good track record? So, now for this purpose, to boost the credentials of this landlord, the king gives him a lot of wealth. You’re a really big person. And then on seeing this, what happens? This boy develops speed.
Oh yeah. He’s a big person. Let me take up his work for him.
And while he’s working for him like that, at that time, now he gets salary. So where is the salary coming from? The king. The king who is giving the salary.
So what is happening by this? The king is reconnecting with the son. And then eventually, gradually he may ask, okay, as minister I work for him. So what do you do? He says, oh, I work for the king.
Which king? That king. No, you work for that king. And he says, maybe I should go back to that king.
So what is happening here? A bridge is being built. So in the Vedic tradition, I started by talking about how there is polymorphic monotheism. There is the idea that there is one God in the capital G and God in the small g. There is one God who in Sanskrit is called as Bhagawan.
And there are many other Gods who are called as Devatas and Devis. And they are all one continuity. And the purpose of that continuity is to elevate everyone.
So some people, they may just directly get attracted to God, to Bhagawan, and they connect with Him. But those who cannot, for whatever reason, well, it’s not that my way or the highway. Not like that.
There are some religions who say that you worship our God or you are going to go to hell. And some extremists within that religion say not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there fast. But that is not the idea over here.
There is no exclusivism. It’s inclusivism. Inclusivism means, okay, if you cannot connect over here, connect over there.
If you cannot connect over here, connect over there. So this way, what is here? There is a continuity and there is facility to connect at one’s own level. So we see right now, the Durga Puja is going on.
And this culminates, the last day is Dasara. And Dasara is a celebration. Each of these festivals in the Indian tradition, they have multiple significances.
And the idea is, all these are meant to work together to elevate different people to different levels. So Durga, the word Durga has many meanings. One of the meanings is Durga.
Durga is a fortress. And one who is the guardian of the fortress. So I was in Australia and I was asked a question.
If God is good, then why are the good choices so few and the bad choices so many? Isn’t it? See, if I want to do bad, there are hundreds of bad things I can do. But good things, the good choices are so few, the bad choices are so many. So I replied, that’s how it is in any multiple choice exam.
Any multiple choice exam, there will be four wrong choices. Only one right choice. Now, if everything were functioning only on probability, you could sue the teacher.
You expect me to get 40% marks, but the probability of my taking the right answer is only 20%. So you rigged this paper so that I fail. I’ll sue you for this.
Now, because a choice is not meant to be made only on probability. The choice is meant to be based on education, on knowledge. Similarly, in the world, we have many choices.
And the idea is God from within our hearts, as the Paramatma, and from outside as the Guru Sadhu Shastra. As the saintly teachers, as the spiritual master, and the sacred books of wisdom. Through all this, we are given education of what choice to make.
And, normally if you have multiple choice exam, it’s like one answer is right, and all the others are wrong. But in life’s exam, it is not that simple. There are degrees of rightness, and there are degrees of wrongness.
Some can be totally wrong. Some can be perfectly right. And some can be nearly right.
So it’s not that simple that one right and all wrong. But it’s degrees of rightness and wrongness. So, overall, what happens is, I said I’ll talk about the topic of how God helps those who help themselves.
So the first point I spoke is, we all realise that sometime I need help. The second point I spoke was, who is the one who helps us? So the dharmic traditions reveal a sophisticated conception of a God who manifests at multiple levels. And, now how does God help us? So I talked about how there is a king, and the king wants his lost son to come back to his state.
But if the son is not ready to come back, then the king says, okay, at least work with my minister. Work with my landlord. And he will take care of you.
So similarly, God offers us many many agents through which we can be helped. And the best way we can help ourselves is by seeking God for God’s sake. Not seeking God for the gifts that God gives us.
Why is that? Because the nature of the world is that whatever things we have, if we consider, all of us, there are some things which we have, and many things which we don’t have. Say, this is the box of what I have, box of what I don’t have. Most of us think, success means to move things from the box that I don’t have to the box that I have.
I have this car, but I don’t have a bigger car. I have this house, but I don’t have a bigger house. So what happens? The more things we move from the things I don’t have to the things I have, we think, I’m becoming successful.
Yes, we all need things in life, and we can seek them. But the problem here is that how many possessions we have is not as important as what disposition we have. We may have a hundred things with us, but if our mind is habituated to looking at what we don’t have, then we will never be happy.
So to be happy is possible, but we want to be happier than others. And that is impossible. Because there will always be someone who will have more than what we have.
And when that happens, we feel, why? I want more, I want more. And this way, if we think the success in my life is getting more and more things, then we will set ourselves for perpetual dissatisfaction. Suppose, after this programme, we have some prasad.
Well, don’t suppose, prasad is there. But suppose, there is a special kind of menu where every one of you, every one of us in our plates will have a separate dessert. Someone has gulab jamun, somebody has halwa, somebody has malpua, somebody has sol papri, somebody has baklava, somebody has something else.
Now, I have a dessert in my plate. But instead of eating it, if I start looking, what is in his plate? And then, what is in her plate? And then, what is in her plate? What is in his plate? What will happen? I won’t even taste what I have in my plate. Isn’t it? So, that is the predicament of us in today’s world.
Especially today with the interconnectedness through technology, maybe in the past, if people wanted to buy something or they were craving for something, I have this, but they could just go and do what is called window shopping. Just look at all the things that are there in the shop. But now, through the internet, you can do window shopping all over the world.
And that just increases our dissatisfaction. So, we all need things in life. But, there is a difference between what we live with and what we live for.
What we live with are the resources and they are important. Suppose, you saw your neighbour rushing out of their home and going out in their car. Where are you going? He says, I am going to the gas station to put gas in my car.
After that, where are you going? He says, after that I will go to the next gas station and put gas. No, but after that where will you go? I will go to the next gas station. Where are you going? He says, I am going to the gas station.
Well, that’s strange. You know, gas is what we drive with. It’s not what we drive for.
So, similarly for all of us, we all need some amount of wealth. We all need some amount of worldly possessions. But, that is what we live with.
Not what we live for. So, there is a difference between the resources for living and the purpose of living. Most people go to God because they feel like there are some resources I want and I don’t have those resources.
So, if God provides me those resources, I am so good. And, yes, God can provide us those resources also. But, God’s greatest gift is not to provide us the resources for living, but to provide us the purpose for living.
And ultimate purpose for living is that we want to connect with the one who is all attractive, who is all powerful, who is all loving. And the bhakti tradition reveals a vision of God who is supremely attractive. And in loving God, it’s described, I talk about 7.21, 7.22, 7.23, just one verse before that, in 7.19, in the Bhagavad Gita, it’s said bahunam janmanavante jnanaman prapadyate vasudevas sarvaviti samatmasudurlabhaham So, bahunam janmanavante it may take many, many lifetimes to come to this understanding.
What is that understanding? Jnanavan, one becomes knowledgeable. mam prapadyate that person surrenders to God. Why? Understanding? vasudevas sarvamiti that whatever I want, the embodiment and fulfilment of all my desires is ultimately in God.
samatmasudurlabhaham The great soul who desires like this is very, very rare. So, I said, no matter how many things we have, if our disposition is to look at the things we don’t have, we will forever be dissatisfied. But, if we learn to direct our desires towards God, then that purifies our desires and satisfies our heart.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t have possessions or we don’t care for possessions. But, we don’t think of the possessions as the purpose of life. We don’t think of the possessions as our primary source of happiness.
And that way, when we connect with Krishna, when we connect with the Supreme, connect with the Divine, connect with Krishna, at that time, we experience the Supreme at that moment. yam lakdvacha paramlabham manyate nadi gandatam yasmin sthito dukhena gurunapi vichayate yam lakdvacha If we develop that spiritual devotion, that divine attraction to the Lord, cha paramlabham manyate nadi gandatam If we get this, then there is nothing more to be desired. We don’t feel that, oh, I have this, but I want this.
No. This is ultimate. We feel contentment with that.
You can think in your life, whatever are your dreams, if you fulfil those dreams, can you say, after I get it, there is nothing more I want. Whatever goals we have, one of the goals, we can say this. I get that, I want something more, something more, something more.
So it is a perpetual dissatisfaction. But this is not the case if you become absorbed in the Lord, in love. And then, it says, also, if we are situated like this, Guru naapi na vichal yate, even if distress comes in our life, distress won’t disturb us.
Distress will not disturb us. So once we develop this understanding that God is the source of all good, and the various good things are valuable, but the source of all good things, God is the supreme valuable. All the things of this world can give us some pleasure.
So I’ll conclude with one example, and then if you have some questions, we can discuss. That God is like a 5 billion dollar treasure. And the things of this world, various things, they are like 5 dollar notes, 5 dollar treasures.
For somebody who has nothing, then 5 dollars are very valuable. But, if somebody is on the path where they can get to 5 billion dollars, and while moving towards 5 billion dollars, this is the path I’m going along, and I’m here, and I see along the road, there’s a 5 dollar bill over there. Let me go and get it.
And I go toward it, and the bill flies away. And I fly. And I run after it.
And in chasing that 5 dollar bill, I end up losing the 5 billion dollar treasure. I want this, but I lose something much bigger. Conversely, I’m walking along this road, and I have a 5 dollar bill in my pocket, and some thief comes and just puts his hand in my pocket and pulls that 5 dollar bill.
I start chasing them. I run, run, run, and I’m far away, and I forget this path. So, in our life, there will always be ups and downs.
Sometimes things will go right, sometimes things will go wrong. But these ups and downs are like 5 dollar gains or 5 dollar losses. They are important.
If you can avoid the loss, if you can procure the gain, that is good. But in seeking that, we can’t afford to get distracted from life’s ultimate purpose. That is like a 5 million dollar gain.
The Bhagavad Gita says that if we become focused on the Divine, that don’t be elated when there is pleasure. And don’t be dejected when there is pain. Because these will come and go.
But how can I tolerate them? Brahmamit, recognise that you are a spiritual dreamer. That you are connected to the supreme spiritual reality. Each one of us is meant for something much bigger.
The children play with toys. And if the toys break, they cry. Now, if an adult starts playing with toys and starts crying as the toys break, they grow up.
Just as we outgrow our toys as we grow up physically, similarly we outgrow our obsession with material things as we grow up spiritually. And then, sometimes this happens. We lose sometimes, we gain sometimes.
But there is no need to get too disturbed by this. Let me say spiritually connected. And if we do this, this is the best way we can help ourselves.
Because life will always bring some ups and downs. God does not promise us a stormless sea. Even if we become devoted, then we are in a sea.
The world is called Bhavasagar. When sea storms will come, God doesn’t promise a stormless sea. But God provides an unsinkable ship.
That unsinkable ship is the ship of bhakti. When we connect with the divine with devotion, then that connection gives us stability. And that stability will be the basis by which we can go through even the toughest of lifestorms.
And we can grow internally in more and more contentment, in more and more strength. Ultimately, in more and more love for the Lord. That is the path to supreme satisfaction.
And when we are connected in this way with the Lord, we will eventually realise that God can give us many blessings. But God is God’s greatest blessing. That if we have the Lord with us, then even if we are nothing, else, it doesn’t matter.
In the Mahabharata war, Krishna, Arjuna and Duryodhana both went to choose. And Duryodhana had this material vision. He was very happy when he got all of the army of Narayana.
And Arjuna was happy he got this Narayana. And Duryodhana thought Arjuna is a fool. Now, in the war, Arjuna said, I will not fight.
I will be non-combatant. He said, what is the use? One person and that too non-combatant. Sentimental fool.
But if you study the Mahabharata, what happened? Krishna was there as the counsellor. Krishna was there as the guide. In all the critical battles, Krishna guided Arjuna to victory.
So, just as Krishna’s role was in the Mahabharata war, God’s role is in our life. God may not directly be visible. God may not directly act.
But for one who chooses God, for one who devotes themselves to God, God will guide from within. No matter how big dangers, how big challenges come, if we are connected with God, then we will find within us the strength to face those challenges. Life may send big problems in our life, in our way, but greater than the world’s problems is God.
Greater than the world’s power to hurt is God’s power to heal. And if we turn towards God, we will always stay protected, stay strengthened. Ultimately, we will attain life’s perfection.
We will attain the end of our life, the eternal kingdom of God, where we will live forever in love with Him and with a wonderful community of pure souls. That is life’s supreme perfection. So I’ll summarise what I spoke today.
And then if you have any questions, we can discuss briefly. So I spoke on this topic today of how God helps those who help themselves. I talked on three parts.
First was, how do we need help? So whenever we try to fulfil our desires, soon we realise fulfilling my desires requires many things beyond my control to work right. And then we start thinking, maybe there is someone up there who is controlling those things. And I can seek the help of that being.
That’s how it’s a preliminary awakening of God consciousness. And then gradually as we move forward, we start thinking, who is that being? What is that reality? And then I talked about in the Abrahamic traditions, there is the idea that there is one God and we have to subordinate ourselves to him. And they had the idea that other traditions have many gods who are completely major.
But the Dharmic traditions have the idea of not monotheism or polytheism, but polymorphic monotheism. There is one God who manifests at multiple levels for one purpose. So there is God with a capital G and there are gods with a small g. That’s an example of the prodigal son who talks about how God loves us so much that even if we give up God and go away, when we come back, God welcomes us.
But the Bhakti tradition, the Dharmic traditions tell us that not only does God welcome us when we come back, but God works to get us back. And that is through intermediaries. So just like the king, we send the son in order to come back to him, the king sends the minister or the landlord.
You work with him, that’s how you are indirectly connected. And gradually by working for him, you come to him. So similarly, there is one God but he has many Devatas.
Bhagwan and Devatas. And those who can devote themselves to Bhagwan, they are special, they are Mahatmas. But those who can’t, it’s not that they are rejected, not one way or the other.
They are also connected. They can connect with Devatas. It is Bhagwan, it is Krishna himself who gives the power to the Devatas by which they can inspire faith among their followers, among their worshippers.
And it is he who gives them the gifts which they get from the worshippers. Just like the king provides everything to the minister, which the minister provides to the employees. And this whole multi-level conception of God is having one purpose.
To connect us with the ultimate reality. And how do we connect with that? How do we help ourselves? We help ourselves by choosing God rather than the gifts coming from God. If we choose only the gifts coming from God, the problem is no matter how much we have, our mind will look at what we don’t have and keep us dissatisfied.
So, what we live with is not what we live for. God will give us the resources to live with. But most importantly, the purpose to live for.
And that purpose is ultimately attraction to Him, absorption in Him. Because He is like the 5 billion dollars. And everything in the world is like 5 dollars.
So, the more we connect with the 5 billion dollar treasure, then the 5 dollar losses or gains don’t trouble us so much. So life will send many storms in our way. That is, the 5 dollar things will get lost.
And if we have no vision for the 5 billion dollars, the 5 dollar loss will seem like a huge thing. But if we connect it spiritually, then we will stay stable amidst life’s ups and downs. God doesn’t promise a stormless sea, but He does provide an unseekable ship.
An unseekable ship is a ship of devotion. And when we practise such devotion, then, even if the world hurts us, we find that God’s power to heal is greater than the world’s power to hurt. And that’s how we move safely and successfully in our life journey.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So are there any questions or comments? What is the relationship between God or spirituality and rituals? Firstly, rituals are universal.
It’s not just in religion. Say, when we meet someone, we shake hands. That’s a ritual.
But rituals give structures to human interactions. When you meet someone, you want to greet. How do you do that? You shake hands.
So in cricket, say for example, if a batsman hits a ball over the boundary, the umpire raises his hand like this. That’s a ritual. The umpire could just symbolise six.
But why raise his hand like that? When there are four runs, they could just raise four fingers. Why do they move their hand like that? That’s a ritual. Yes.
I agree with you. It’s true. But why that particular thing? You could have any other thing.
If you see from a purely rational perspective, this does not have any correlation with six. The six fingers would be much better correlation with six. This does not have any correlation with four.
So the point here is that there are ways in which we function in the world and those standardised ways of functioning, they are rituals. So rituals are at one level. Just standardised ways of interaction.
Let me complete this answer. I’ll move forward. So now just as there are standardised ways of interacting in normal functions, in sports, in everything.
Say for example, when there’s a birthday. When there’s a birthday, we have a cake and then we blow the cake, blow the candle. Now why blow the candle? Actually it’s some ancient Scandinavian myth that actually on every birthday some evil spirit enters into the body of the person.
And if you blow a candle, that evil spirit is blown out. So that’s why the number of, the age of the child, how many candles you have, they blow it out. Now most people don’t believe that.
But still that ritual is going on. So it’s not that rituals are only in religion. If you start thinking rationally, almost every area of life is filled with activities that we do simply because they are convention.
There is no intrinsic connection between those activities and what it symbolises or what it means. But that connection is through convention. So at one level, when we want to approach God, there are certain practises which are given in the various theistic traditions for connecting with God.
Say for example, right now, if I put my foot over here, and I point the legs to all of you and I sit like this, and I say, I’m feeling very humble now. Now the very posture here is a bossy posture. You could say it’s possible to feel humble, but it’s unlikely.
So there are certain externals which facilitate certain internal emotions. So when we come to the temple and then we fold our hands in front of God, we bow down to God, these are externals which are meant to promote certain internals. And that way the rituals are meant to express the spiritual.
And they are meant to experience the spiritual. That’s why if you have spirit plus ritual, then it becomes spiritual. If it’s just a ritual done without the spirit, sometimes a person might be conspiring against another person.
The next opportunity is going to stab you in the back. But when they meet, they shake hands warmly. Well, that’s hypocrisy.
So what happens? If there is no spirit in the ritual, there’s no warmth in the handshake, then it’s hypocrisy. Similarly, if the rituals are done without any spirit, without any either experience of spiritual reality or any desire to experience spiritual reality, then that becomes a ritual which is devoid of spirit. And then that becomes meaningless.
That can even become hypocritical. But when the rituals are done properly with the appropriate spirit, then the rituals become pathways by which we connect with God. And there can be different traditions in the world which may have different rituals.
Because in some countries, we shake hands. In some countries, we fold hands. In some countries, people rub their noses against each other when they are greeting each other.
Different people have different traditions like that. But the point is it’s a greeting. So in the dharmic tradition, we fold our hands.
And maybe in the Christian tradition, they have the Hindu mass. In the Islamic tradition, they raise their hands for the mass. The rituals may be different in terms of the specifics.
But their purpose is to connect with God. So the rituals are means by which we can connect with the divine. Okay.
That’s a good question. Yeah. I got your question.
Is there one particular way to connect? Even for our religions and for our religions, even for our religions, we worship and we give back to our God and Goddess. But you know, sometimes some people from India, those who believe in humanity, they see us and they talk like, oh my God, you are my saviour. It’s human nature.
But that’s not wrong at all. But I think, you know, it’s just our ritual. It’s just how we bother, this is how we learn.
But here is when we go to town, we can make an agreement what we like to eat, what we like to eat, what we like to eat. We are martyrs. So, you know, that’s what makes me wonder why ritual is so important.
That was a long question. Let me answer what you have spoken till now. Let me answer what you have spoken till now.
Otherwise, you will not be able to address the issues. There are many issues. Let me first address the point of diversity of rituals and then go into specific diversities later, if we get the time.
So, can different people have different rituals? Or is there one ritual that everyone has to follow? No. I’ll use another example to understand this. So, there is a top of a mountain and there is a bottom of a mountain.
Now, there could be different paths up the mountain. It’s not that everyone has to take the same path up the mountain. But that doesn’t mean every path is a path up the mountain.
Some paths may be just going round and round the mountain. Some paths may be going down the valley into the mountain. Down into the valley, away from the mountain also.
So, we all should be open-minded. But we can’t be so open-minded that our brains fall out. What does that mean? That means there have to be some objective criteria.
If I am saying that, okay, this is the path I am going to take up the mountain. And what is the test that this is a path up the mountain? Broadly two things. If that path is really taking me up to the mountain, then my distance from the top of the mountain should be decreasing.
And my height from the bottom of the mountain should be increasing. Bottom of the mountain should be increasing. Similarly, if we are following certain set of rituals, practises.
See, this is my path. Any spiritual path should lead to two things. One is increased attachment to the spiritual.
And decreased attachment to the material. bhakti-pareesha-anubhava-viraktir-anyatra-cha The Bhagavad Purana says that bhakti, how does one even know that there is actual, authentic bhakti over there? Bhakti leads to paraeesha-anubhava. The experience of that divine who cannot be experienced in any other ways.
Para. And that anubhava, that experience is so fulfilling, so enriching that one stops craving for other things. Viraktir-anyatra-cha.
So, we have to see that whatever practises I am following, are they increasing my attachment to the divine? And are they decreasing my attachment to the worldly things? If that is happening, then that is a progressive spiritual path. So, there can be many different paths. But it’s not that anything that anybody is doing in the name of ritual that is necessarily spiritual.
There can be rituals which are conducive to spirituality. And there can be many different rituals like that. But that doesn’t necessarily… we have to have that objective test.
Is it increasing my spiritual attraction? Is it decreasing my material attachment? If that is happening, then we are definitely the rituals are taking us on the progressive path. Now, beyond that, if you consider specifics, there are… as I talked about, there are different levels of access to God provided in the dharmic traditions. The idea is, if you cannot connect at this level, connect at this level.
If you cannot connect at this level, connect at this level. So, in general, whenever anybody is practising something, they need to feel that this is worthwhile. This is good to do.
So, with any set of rituals that are practised, there is a certain sense of sanctity associated with them. And that is what inspires people to do it. So, I’ll explain the example.
Suppose there is a community of alcoholics. Everybody is drinking constantly. And then, one of them decides that I’m going to control myself.
So, I will drink only once a week. Now, in that community of alcoholics, a person who drinks once a week will be considered to be a saint. He has so much self-control.
He will drink only once a week. And definitely, it’s good as compared to where they are. It’s very good to come up to that level.
Now, if somebody wants to become completely sober, they must say, why once a week? Just give it up. So, there are different levels. But for somebody who is drinking constantly, if they say, oh, I’ve given up all drinking.
Yes, I think this person is of some other category only. I can never be like this. I don’t even want to be like this.
But there is a bridge in between. So, the idea is that similarly, for connecting with God, if you consider at a practical level, it’s easy to infer that all living beings have life. Many people keep fish in their aquariums.
And fish have life. So, if God is the source of all life, then killing life just for the satisfaction of our palate, of our tongue, that is questionable at the very least. Let me complete this.
In general, we all wouldn’t like to cause pain to anyone. If you’re walking on a path and it’s crowded and we accidentally put our foot on someone’s foot and we realise, oh, I’m sorry. We’ll apologise.
Sometimes it’s just unavoidable because there’s so much crowd. But we won’t intentionally put our foot on someone unless we are evil. So, we in general, a civilised way to live is to cause as less pain as possible.
So, similarly, a spiritually cultured way of living is to cause as less pain as possible. So, that means if we can live without killing other creatures of God, that is a spiritually more harmonious way of living. This may not be possible for everyone.
And when it is not possible for everyone, there is a facility given. Now, if you look at the tradition, whether it is Kali or any other tradition, there is always, yes, you can offer this to Kali and then you can take it. But there is some regulation over there.
The idea is that don’t do this indiscriminately. Do it in a regulated way. And by that, even that regulation is a step up from indiscriminate indulgence.
See, there are, if a parent has two children and one of them barely passes the exam, gets 40% marks, and other one is very good, gets 80% marks. And today, both of them have got their results. And both of them have got 60%.
And the first child comes up and the parents will say, Shabash! Well done! And the second child comes and the parents say, Badmash! What have you done? Both of them have got 60%. But why appreciation for one and condemnation for the other? Because their level is different. For the 40% to go to 60% is a progress.
For the 80% to come down to 60% is regress. Similarly, for somebody who is completely doing indiscriminate indulgence, for them to do regulated indulgence within the premise of some religious rituals, that is a step up. For somebody who is capable of just giving up that indulgence, for them to come down to that indulgence, that’s unnecessary.
That’s unhealthy. So there is a progression, and there is a place for everyone in this progression. So, wherever we are at, there is a place for us, and from there we can move forward.
Now, if we start claiming that this is the place where we are all Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, everyone is on my path. Everyone is on the mountain, somewhere on the path of the mountain. The key thing is that we don’t this is the place where I am, and this is the place where I will stay forever.
Wherever we are, we progress from there. That’s how we get to the top of the mountain. So, if we are at the 60% level, and there are people at 40%, we are much better than them.
So for somebody who is doing religious rituals, that person may be in many ways better than the person who is completely godless. But for somebody at 60%, and they say, this is my rituals, and this is how I will stay, then they will not go from 60% to 80%. So, if we have, if we understand the spirit of the rituals, then we will understand where the rituals that I am practising are placed in the overall progression.
And then we can take incremental steps forward. But if we start thinking, these rituals in themselves are all that I need to do, then what is happening? We are divorcing the rituals from the overall context within which those rituals are. And then, we will stay stuck over there.
So what is progress for one person could be regress for another person. And a lot depends on context. The idea is that nobody should be looked down upon or demeaned.
Just because somebody is at 40% doesn’t mean that they have to be frowned upon. If somebody is at 40%, appreciate their 40% and move forward from there. So gradually, everybody is on the spiritually progressing path.
It’s not that simple. It’s not that simple. See, our spiritual level is not determined by just… I get your question.
Is our spirituality related with what rituals we follow or what we eat? Our consciousness is affected by many things. And the food that we eat is one among them. It could be that somebody because of their culture might be eating meat but they might be very spiritually evolved.
And somebody because of their culture might not be eating meat but they might be completely materialistic. So it’s not that just the particular ritual is the sole determiner. But each of these practises contributes.
The kind of food that we eat that matters. The kind of people we associate with matters. The kind of overall lifestyle that we have matters.
So all of these contribute. So it’s not that just one ritual determines the whole consciousness. But all of them contribute.
In general, the food we eat does shape our consciousness. And the food that we eat, it’s not just simple physical nutrition that we get by it. It is also, there are subtler energies that are passed on through that food.
Nowadays, with science, we can easily make almost 100% replica of mother’s milk. But, it has been well documented that babies who are not fed by their mother, they are fed simply mother’s milk. They grow in a mother’s milk.
They don’t grow up as well as those babies have been fed by their mother. So it is a physical nutrition. You could say that the artificially manufactured milk, it’s the same.
But when a mother is feeding the baby, it is not just the physical nutrition. The mother’s affection is there. The physical contact is there.
The mother’s care is there. So the food that we eat is not just a matter of physical nutrition. There are many other energies that are passed through that food.
So when we eat meat, basically the animals who are killed at that time, whether it is whatever animals, there is fear and there is anger. Fear that I am going to die. Anger.
Who is this? Why am I being killed like this? And those energies at a certain level are stored over there. And they get passed on to our consciousness and they affect our subtle energies. That’s why we can’t just say that because somebody is doing a particular ritual, that is the level.
And somebody is doing another ritual, that is the higher level. No. One’s consciousness is determined by many factors.
But we can’t go to another extreme and say that whatever practises we are doing, it doesn’t matter at all. The food we eat also affects our consciousness. So we have to look at specific practises and we have to look at how specific practises are affecting our consciousness.
And then according to our situation, we take steps forward. Do you have a few more minutes for questions? You asked me for a long time. Yeah, sure.
How do we do our day-to-day activities in a mode of service to Krishna? Like say for example, like I have to complete a project. At the lowest level I’m asking a simple question. So how do we do that as a service to Krishna? Okay.
So how do we do our work just completing a project as a service to Krishna? Broadly, this is in three broad ways. It is just like say, if you are working in the office, then externally, you’re not at your home. Sometimes you may be far away from your home, in a different city, in a different continent also.
But then you know you’re doing this for your family, for your children, for your wife. And you want to take care of them. You want to be responsible for them.
So it is the purpose of our action is determined not by the location of our body, but by the location of our heart. So if we do some regular sadhana, say we do japa, do some swadhya, do some satsang, do some puja, then by all these our heart gets connected with Krishna. And we understand that yes, I have many goals in my life, but our ultimate goal is Krishna.
That is not just a theoretical conception. There has to be some spiritual experience that reinforces the theoretical conception. That’s why our daily spiritual practises come into picture.
So if we have some time for regular sadhana, regular spiritual practises, then that establishes a connection with Krishna in our consciousness. And then whatever the specifics we do, our life is orientated toward Krishna and then everything within our life becomes gradually orientated toward Krishna. That’s the first thing.
We have a spiritual connection by which Krishna becomes our ultimate purpose in life. And secondly, when we are doing our work, we all use our abilities, our resources. And if you think deeply, it’s not that we created those abilities.
Our abilities are gifts from God to us. Paurusham Nrishyakrishna says. So in many ways, people who become successful, you could say they are successful not just because of their hard work, but they are successful because they were winners of a genetic laboratory.
Some people are born with a high IQ, some people are born with a low IQ. And people in general, IQ is not the sole factor, but if there is extremely low IQ, people can’t even function normally. So those of us who are successful, we’ve given certain abilities.
And we didn’t really make those abilities, we just got them. So the resources that enable us to do things, if you understand it, they are coming from God. And that itself is one level of God consciousness.
What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. So while doing our work, we try to keep that awareness.
The ability to do this is also coming from God. And then beyond that, when we get the results of our work, we offer those results to God. That means in our heart, we understand that everything is meant for God.
Practically, we need to give some charity. The idea of charity is that we want to give our heart to God. But our heart is filled with so many things in the world.
So what we do is, if we can’t give our heart to God, we give what is in our heart to God. And what has a prominent place in our heart is money. So when we give some charity, when we give what is in our heart to God, we give God a place in our heart.
And that way, by our spiritual sadhana, by our awareness that our abilities come from God, and by giving a portion of the results of our work to God, we can spiritualise our work. Thank you. Thank you very much for your attention and participation.
Hare Krishna.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
side.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for coming today.
And today I will speak on the topic of … So I will speak on the topic of how God helps us when we help ourselves. And within that I will talk broadly three parts. What is the help that we need in life? Who is the God that helps us? And how does he help us? So we all have many desires that we want to fulfil.
We want to buy something. We want to achieve something. Basically, our desires can be classified into two broad categories.
We want possessions and we want positions. So, possessions. I won’t own this.
I won’t own this. Positions is in the social hierarchy. We want to rise higher and higher.
Even a little conduct of life helps us recognise that it’s not always in our power to fulfil our desires. And when that happens, we start thinking, is there something higher? And is that something higher, whatever it is, will that help me? So when we recognise that what we want, our performance matters to get it. But our performance is not all that matters.
Then we start thinking of ways in which we can please whatever unknown is out there so that our life can go on well. So that our desires can be fulfilled. And it is when usually what we want is not easily achievable.
That is when we start thinking, what do I do now? I need help of someone more powerful. We may literally look at some other human beings, some other people are more powerful. But some things are just beyond human control.
So generally, we might have some cultural conception of God. But in a practical sense, we turn toward God when we feel a need to do something that is not in our power to do. For 20 years, I have been a brahmachari in India.
And I used to live in a temple. And after a few years, I started observing that April and May were the months of devotion. What do I mean by that? That right next to our temple in Pune, where I was staying, there was a school.
The school children would never come to the temple except in April and May. What was happening in April and May? Exams! So, they wanted to oh God, please help me pass this exam. So, it was April and May were the times when people were kids were coming to the temples.
So now, when they feel I have to get something which is not in my power to get, that’s when we seek help of someone higher. So that’s the beginning of turning towards God. Even if we have some cultural conception in an existential practical sense, we feel the need for God and we have to do something which we are not able to.
And then, at that time, once we start connecting, start seeking help from that unknown, gradually we start thinking who is that unknown? Or what is that unknown? When I was one, some of you may have noticed that I require patches for walking. So when I was one, I got polio. Actually, it was that my parents had given me the polio vaccine but somehow it is a remote town and the medical facilities were not very good and the doctor did not keep the vaccine properly.
So, the vaccine dosage got multiplied somehow and the vaccine, instead of preventing the polio, gave me the vaccine. So, since then, I couldn’t walk properly. But then, my parents, when my relatives and friends would come, they would say that I was good at studies somehow.
So, my parents would talk and they would say, whatever God has taken in physical ability, God has provided him in intellectual ability. So, at that time, I remember thinking who is this mysterious being God? He can give anything and take anything. What is all this? That is how I started thinking about it.
And then, over a period of time, initially, our interest is not in God per se. It is in what God will give me. So, that is the beginning of the religious instinct.
But to go from religion to spirituality, to go from religion to a higher level of consciousness means the person’s focus shifts from what God gives me to who God is. And when we want to understand that, that is the time when our spiritual evolution progresses much higher. So, all over the world, there are many different theistic traditions and they all talk about God.
When the Britishers and the European colonialists came to India, they found India extremely bewildered. There was one British thinker, he said that if there were a if we had a competition in religious wealth, India would be the millionaire. Why? Because India had a million Gods.
Other traditions have one God with a million Gods. So, initially, they thought, the Europeans they had this idea of monotheism and polytheism. Have you heard these words? What is monotheism? One God.
Mono is one, theism is God. And polytheism is? Many Gods. So, they had the Christian tradition, basically the Abrahamic religions, where they have Judaism, Christianity, Islam, all come from the same roots.
So, they had the idea that there is one God. That’s monotheism. And before that, in the Greco-Roman tradition, there they had polytheism.
Many Gods. That was their conception of the worship of many Gods. And when they came to India, they thought Indians are also polytheistic.
But, after some time, as they looked deeper, they noticed something very peculiar. That actually, the attributes of Gods. See, in polytheism, the idea was that each God has his or her own turf.
And these Gods are fighting among each other. And this God has this territory, that God has that territory, that God has that territory. But then they found that in the Indian tradition, if you consider the Bhagavad Gita, if you consider any of the core texts, the description of God was actually very similar to the description of God in terms of characteristics, what is given in the Abrahamic tradition.
That means, when God is described in the Bhagavad Gita, He is described as being all-powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. And the Bible, for example, says, I am the Alpha and Omega of all things. And the Bhagavad Gita says, I am the beginning and end of all things.
And I am the middle also. So, in terms of characteristics, they found that the characteristics of God that are described in the Indian dharmic traditions, they are the characteristics of a monotheistic deity, not a polytheistic deity. Polytheism means each God has his own jurisdiction and each deity So then, it is very confusing.
What is going on? So, actually, there are certain classifications which are derived from certain traditions. And those classifications may not apply in other traditions. Why is that? Because, if, say for example, if we are eating food, this is sweet, this is sour.
But, if we come to a room and we want to measure the room, is the room sweet or sour? Rooms are not sweet or sour. It may be something in a particular way. But, nobody comes to taste a room.
So, we say, okay, is it spacious? Is it cramped? Is it sunlight? We look at different characteristics. So, the Vedic conception, the dharmic conception of God is very different. And the best way to describe it is neither monotheism nor polytheism.
It’s actually what you can call as polymorphic monotheism. Polymorphic monotheism. There is one God, but polymorphic.
Many, many forms. So, ekam sat viprabhavdha vadanti. The Rig Veda says that there is one absolute truth, but the sages know their absolute truth many different ways.
So, polymorphic monotheism. And it’s not just monotheism. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is envisioned as the masculine being.
God is always referred to as He. But in the dharmic tradition, God is not just a single person. God is always a divine couple.
We have Sita Ram, we have Radha Krishna, we have Lakshmi Narayan. It’s always a divine couple. And both of them are considered divine.
Both of them are considered worshipable. So, if you want to make a further classification, it’s actually polymorphic by monotheism. There’s one God who manifests as a divine couple, and then there are multiple divine couples in it.
So, it’s a much more intricate conception of God. And within this, there’s an understanding that one divinity manifests at multiple levels to attract different kinds of people at different levels. So, this is another major difference.
In the Bible, for example, it said, your God is a jealous God. Thou shall not bow down to any other God except your God. And there’s always a contrast between there’s one true God and there are many false Gods.
And right from the Old Testament down to the Quran, there are descriptions wherever any religious king conquers a particular place, the first thing he will do is destroy all the false Gods. So, their idea is that the glory of the true God will be established. But this dichotomy between the true God and the false Gods, that is not there in the Dharmic tradition.
The idea is that there is one God and He is not jealous. He does not worship anyone except you. God is not jealous.
God is zealous. He is zealous. He is eager.
He is industrious so that our welfare can be sought. And the idea over there is that each one of us is an individual. And not everyone will be attracted to the same ideas.
Then, the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells this idea of polymorphic monotheism. Whatever form someone desires to worship, Krishna says I make this form. Shraddhaya Chittam Ikshati.
The desire to worship. Achalam Shraddham. I give them that faith.
And then what happens by that? Shraddhaya Yuktas Tasyara Dhanamehate Labhate Chittatah Kaman Mayaiva Vihitan Hitan. This is 721-723 in the Bhagavad Gita. This is 722 now.
Krishna says that with that faith I give this faith. Whichever form you want to worship, I give you that faith. And then you worship that form.
And then we get some results. Krishna says I am giving those results. So Mike is very humble.
I think it’s permanent. So So it says that it is God you can say there is God with a capital G and there are Gods with a small g. And all of them are one continuous hierarchy. It is not that the God with a capital G is competing with the God with a small g. There is one God and there are multiple levels of manifestation.
So I’ll explain the story this or rather adaptation of a particular story. In the Biblical tradition there is a story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son is, many of you know this story? Some of you.
So this is that there is a very wealthy landlord and he has two sons. And as one of the sons younger son comes of age he says father give me my inheritance. I want to go and live on my own.
He says no you cannot stay with me, whatever you want I’ll provide you. He says no, give me my inheritance. And he takes it and he goes.
And usually there are two kinds of friends we may have. There are some friends who take us for lunch. And there are some friends who take away our lunch.
So generally most people struggle to earn money. Only I have more money. It is so much good.
But actually money it is difficult to earn it. But it is even more difficult to use it. For somebody to have the ability to earn money without the maturity to use money.
That is a recipe for disaster. Imagine if somebody is just a teenager and they just started exploring life and they are exploring drugs. And that time their grandmother they get a big inheritance.
It is the worst thing that can happen to them. So the ability to earn money is important. It is valuable.
But even more valuable is the maturity to use money. And this kid he has got so much money and he falls into a bad crowd. And they start using his money, squandering it, and he ends up losing all his money.
And what happens when he loses his money? All his friends are also lost. And now he has defiantly left his father what to do now. He starts looking for some jobs.
He starts working with some other landlord. And that landlord exploits him and gives him barely the same food that the animals are being fed. Then you feed the pigs and what are the food remains you eat then? You don’t get lost.
And he is living like that over there. He starts thinking what do I do? So my father thinks I am so much better. Maybe I should go back.
No, no, no. I rejected him. I squandered his wealth.
Will he accept me? On one particular day he is so angry and he is feeding his pigs. All the pigs bite his hands and he is in immense pain. Even if my father accepts me as a servant, he treats his servants better than what I am being treated over here.
So let me go back. And when he goes back, he is apprehensive. But his mother with great joy welcomes him and celebrates that my lost son has come back.
So this is a metaphor which is used to tell how much is the love of God for us. Even if we turn away from him, he doesn’t abandon us. He doesn’t reject us.
When we want to turn toward him, he is always there waiting for us. Yes, this is at one level a revelation of the love of God. The Dharmic tradition says that actually God’s love for us is much greater.
It’s not just that he welcomes us when we turn back and return to him. Rather he works to get us back. And what is the way he works? That is, say suppose the father is a landlord or a king.
Now the son has had a quarrel with the father. So that’s why now the father even goes and calls the son back. Because he has a quarrel with his son and he has not come back.
So what the father does is that the father sends some other landlord who is like his employee, subordinate to him. He says, you go and meet him. You talk with him.
And then you employ him. Now if there is a king then the father is a king and under that there is a landlord. So this landlord goes and employs this lost boy.
A prodigal is one who wastes things very much. So he’s a wasteful boy. He says, what are you doing? Work for me.
I’ll pay you. Okay, I’ll pay you more than what you’re getting. He starts working.
Now what has happened is this boy has left the father’s kingdom. But still he is now connected with someone who is connected with his father. He is not yet back in the kingdom.
But he is back indirectly with his father’s kingdom. And then this boy says, the boy wants to take up employment. Normally if you want to work with someone, you want to know what are their credentials.
They want to know our credentials. I’ll work for this company and after six months this company goes bust. My career will also be disrupted.
So is this company having a good track record? So, now for this purpose, to boost the credentials of this landlord, the king gives him a lot of wealth. You’re a really big person. And then on seeing this, what happens? This boy develops speed.
Oh yeah. He’s a big person. Let me take up his work for him.
And while he’s working for him like that, at that time, now he gets salary. So where is the salary coming from? The king. The king who is giving the salary.
So what is happening by this? The king is reconnecting with the son. And then eventually, gradually he may ask, okay, as minister I work for him. So what do you do? He says, oh, I work for the king.
Which king? That king. No, you work for that king. And he says, maybe I should go back to that king.
So what is happening here? A bridge is being built. So in the Vedic tradition, I started by talking about how there is polymorphic monotheism. There is the idea that there is one God in the capital G and God in the small g. There is one God who in Sanskrit is called as Bhagawan.
And there are many other Gods who are called as Devatas and Devis. And they are all one continuity. And the purpose of that continuity is to elevate everyone.
So some people, they may just directly get attracted to God, to Bhagawan, and they connect with Him. But those who cannot, for whatever reason, well, it’s not that my way or the highway. Not like that.
There are some religions who say that you worship our God or you are going to go to hell. And some extremists within that religion say not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there fast. But that is not the idea over here.
There is no exclusivism. It’s inclusivism. Inclusivism means, okay, if you cannot connect over here, connect over there.
If you cannot connect over here, connect over there. So this way, what is here? There is a continuity and there is facility to connect at one’s own level. So we see right now, the Durga Puja is going on.
And this culminates, the last day is Dasara. And Dasara is a celebration. Each of these festivals in the Indian tradition, they have multiple significances.
And the idea is, all these are meant to work together to elevate different people to different levels. So Durga, the word Durga has many meanings. One of the meanings is Durga.
Durga is a fortress. And one who is the guardian of the fortress. So I was in Australia and I was asked a question.
If God is good, then why are the good choices so few and the bad choices so many? Isn’t it? See, if I want to do bad, there are hundreds of bad things I can do. But good things, the good choices are so few, the bad choices are so many. So I replied, that’s how it is in any multiple choice exam.
Any multiple choice exam, there will be four wrong choices. Only one right choice. Now, if everything were functioning only on probability, you could sue the teacher.
You expect me to get 40% marks, but the probability of my taking the right answer is only 20%. So you rigged this paper so that I fail. I’ll sue you for this.
Now, because a choice is not meant to be made only on probability. The choice is meant to be based on education, on knowledge. Similarly, in the world, we have many choices.
And the idea is God from within our hearts, as the Paramatma, and from outside as the Guru Sadhu Shastra. As the saintly teachers, as the spiritual master, and the sacred books of wisdom. Through all this, we are given education of what choice to make.
And, normally if you have multiple choice exam, it’s like one answer is right, and all the others are wrong. But in life’s exam, it is not that simple. There are degrees of rightness, and there are degrees of wrongness.
Some can be totally wrong. Some can be perfectly right. And some can be nearly right.
So it’s not that simple that one right and all wrong. But it’s degrees of rightness and wrongness. So, overall, what happens is, I said I’ll talk about the topic of how God helps those who help themselves.
So the first point I spoke is, we all realise that sometime I need help. The second point I spoke was, who is the one who helps us? So the dharmic traditions reveal a sophisticated conception of a God who manifests at multiple levels. And, now how does God help us? So I talked about how there is a king, and the king wants his lost son to come back to his state.
But if the son is not ready to come back, then the king says, okay, at least work with my minister. Work with my landlord. And he will take care of you.
So similarly, God offers us many many agents through which we can be helped. And the best way we can help ourselves is by seeking God for God’s sake. Not seeking God for the gifts that God gives us.
Why is that? Because the nature of the world is that whatever things we have, if we consider, all of us, there are some things which we have, and many things which we don’t have. Say, this is the box of what I have, box of what I don’t have. Most of us think, success means to move things from the box that I don’t have to the box that I have.
I have this car, but I don’t have a bigger car. I have this house, but I don’t have a bigger house. So what happens? The more things we move from the things I don’t have to the things I have, we think, I’m becoming successful.
Yes, we all need things in life, and we can seek them. But the problem here is that how many possessions we have is not as important as what disposition we have. We may have a hundred things with us, but if our mind is habituated to looking at what we don’t have, then we will never be happy.
So to be happy is possible, but we want to be happier than others. And that is impossible. Because there will always be someone who will have more than what we have.
And when that happens, we feel, why? I want more, I want more. And this way, if we think the success in my life is getting more and more things, then we will set ourselves for perpetual dissatisfaction. Suppose, after this programme, we have some prasad.
Well, don’t suppose, prasad is there. But suppose, there is a special kind of menu where every one of you, every one of us in our plates will have a separate dessert. Someone has gulab jamun, somebody has halwa, somebody has malpua, somebody has sol papri, somebody has baklava, somebody has something else.
Now, I have a dessert in my plate. But instead of eating it, if I start looking, what is in his plate? And then, what is in her plate? And then, what is in her plate? What is in his plate? What will happen? I won’t even taste what I have in my plate. Isn’t it? So, that is the predicament of us in today’s world.
Especially today with the interconnectedness through technology, maybe in the past, if people wanted to buy something or they were craving for something, I have this, but they could just go and do what is called window shopping. Just look at all the things that are there in the shop. But now, through the internet, you can do window shopping all over the world.
And that just increases our dissatisfaction. So, we all need things in life. But, there is a difference between what we live with and what we live for.
What we live with are the resources and they are important. Suppose, you saw your neighbour rushing out of their home and going out in their car. Where are you going? He says, I am going to the gas station to put gas in my car.
After that, where are you going? He says, after that I will go to the next gas station and put gas. No, but after that where will you go? I will go to the next gas station. Where are you going? He says, I am going to the gas station.
Well, that’s strange. You know, gas is what we drive with. It’s not what we drive for.
So, similarly for all of us, we all need some amount of wealth. We all need some amount of worldly possessions. But, that is what we live with.
Not what we live for. So, there is a difference between the resources for living and the purpose of living. Most people go to God because they feel like there are some resources I want and I don’t have those resources.
So, if God provides me those resources, I am so good. And, yes, God can provide us those resources also. But, God’s greatest gift is not to provide us the resources for living, but to provide us the purpose for living.
And ultimate purpose for living is that we want to connect with the one who is all attractive, who is all powerful, who is all loving. And the bhakti tradition reveals a vision of God who is supremely attractive. And in loving God, it’s described, I talk about 7.21, 7.22, 7.23, just one verse before that, in 7.19, in the Bhagavad Gita, it’s said bahunam janmanavante jnanaman prapadyate vasudevas sarvaviti samatmasudurlabhaham So, bahunam janmanavante it may take many, many lifetimes to come to this understanding.
What is that understanding? Jnanavan, one becomes knowledgeable. mam prapadyate that person surrenders to God. Why? Understanding? vasudevas sarvamiti that whatever I want, the embodiment and fulfilment of all my desires is ultimately in God.
samatmasudurlabhaham The great soul who desires like this is very, very rare. So, I said, no matter how many things we have, if our disposition is to look at the things we don’t have, we will forever be dissatisfied. But, if we learn to direct our desires towards God, then that purifies our desires and satisfies our heart.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t have possessions or we don’t care for possessions. But, we don’t think of the possessions as the purpose of life. We don’t think of the possessions as our primary source of happiness.
And that way, when we connect with Krishna, when we connect with the Supreme, connect with the Divine, connect with Krishna, at that time, we experience the Supreme at that moment. yam lakdvacha paramlabham manyate nadi gandatam yasmin sthito dukhena gurunapi vichayate yam lakdvacha If we develop that spiritual devotion, that divine attraction to the Lord, cha paramlabham manyate nadi gandatam If we get this, then there is nothing more to be desired. We don’t feel that, oh, I have this, but I want this.
No. This is ultimate. We feel contentment with that.
You can think in your life, whatever are your dreams, if you fulfil those dreams, can you say, after I get it, there is nothing more I want. Whatever goals we have, one of the goals, we can say this. I get that, I want something more, something more, something more.
So it is a perpetual dissatisfaction. But this is not the case if you become absorbed in the Lord, in love. And then, it says, also, if we are situated like this, Guru naapi na vichal yate, even if distress comes in our life, distress won’t disturb us.
Distress will not disturb us. So once we develop this understanding that God is the source of all good, and the various good things are valuable, but the source of all good things, God is the supreme valuable. All the things of this world can give us some pleasure.
So I’ll conclude with one example, and then if you have some questions, we can discuss. That God is like a 5 billion dollar treasure. And the things of this world, various things, they are like 5 dollar notes, 5 dollar treasures.
For somebody who has nothing, then 5 dollars are very valuable. But, if somebody is on the path where they can get to 5 billion dollars, and while moving towards 5 billion dollars, this is the path I’m going along, and I’m here, and I see along the road, there’s a 5 dollar bill over there. Let me go and get it.
And I go toward it, and the bill flies away. And I fly. And I run after it.
And in chasing that 5 dollar bill, I end up losing the 5 billion dollar treasure. I want this, but I lose something much bigger. Conversely, I’m walking along this road, and I have a 5 dollar bill in my pocket, and some thief comes and just puts his hand in my pocket and pulls that 5 dollar bill.
I start chasing them. I run, run, run, and I’m far away, and I forget this path. So, in our life, there will always be ups and downs.
Sometimes things will go right, sometimes things will go wrong. But these ups and downs are like 5 dollar gains or 5 dollar losses. They are important.
If you can avoid the loss, if you can procure the gain, that is good. But in seeking that, we can’t afford to get distracted from life’s ultimate purpose. That is like a 5 million dollar gain.
The Bhagavad Gita says that if we become focused on the Divine, that don’t be elated when there is pleasure. And don’t be dejected when there is pain. Because these will come and go.
But how can I tolerate them? Brahmamit, recognise that you are a spiritual dreamer. That you are connected to the supreme spiritual reality. Each one of us is meant for something much bigger.
The children play with toys. And if the toys break, they cry. Now, if an adult starts playing with toys and starts crying as the toys break, they grow up.
Just as we outgrow our toys as we grow up physically, similarly we outgrow our obsession with material things as we grow up spiritually. And then, sometimes this happens. We lose sometimes, we gain sometimes.
But there is no need to get too disturbed by this. Let me say spiritually connected. And if we do this, this is the best way we can help ourselves.
Because life will always bring some ups and downs. God does not promise us a stormless sea. Even if we become devoted, then we are in a sea.
The world is called Bhavasagar. When sea storms will come, God doesn’t promise a stormless sea. But God provides an unsinkable ship.
That unsinkable ship is the ship of bhakti. When we connect with the divine with devotion, then that connection gives us stability. And that stability will be the basis by which we can go through even the toughest of lifestorms.
And we can grow internally in more and more contentment, in more and more strength. Ultimately, in more and more love for the Lord. That is the path to supreme satisfaction.
And when we are connected in this way with the Lord, we will eventually realise that God can give us many blessings. But God is God’s greatest blessing. That if we have the Lord with us, then even if we are nothing, else, it doesn’t matter.
In the Mahabharata war, Krishna, Arjuna and Duryodhana both went to choose. And Duryodhana had this material vision. He was very happy when he got all of the army of Narayana.
And Arjuna was happy he got this Narayana. And Duryodhana thought Arjuna is a fool. Now, in the war, Arjuna said, I will not fight.
I will be non-combatant. He said, what is the use? One person and that too non-combatant. Sentimental fool.
But if you study the Mahabharata, what happened? Krishna was there as the counsellor. Krishna was there as the guide. In all the critical battles, Krishna guided Arjuna to victory.
So, just as Krishna’s role was in the Mahabharata war, God’s role is in our life. God may not directly be visible. God may not directly act.
But for one who chooses God, for one who devotes themselves to God, God will guide from within. No matter how big dangers, how big challenges come, if we are connected with God, then we will find within us the strength to face those challenges. Life may send big problems in our life, in our way, but greater than the world’s problems is God.
Greater than the world’s power to hurt is God’s power to heal. And if we turn towards God, we will always stay protected, stay strengthened. Ultimately, we will attain life’s perfection.
We will attain the end of our life, the eternal kingdom of God, where we will live forever in love with Him and with a wonderful community of pure souls. That is life’s supreme perfection. So I’ll summarise what I spoke today.
And then if you have any questions, we can discuss briefly. So I spoke on this topic today of how God helps those who help themselves. I talked on three parts.
First was, how do we need help? So whenever we try to fulfil our desires, soon we realise fulfilling my desires requires many things beyond my control to work right. And then we start thinking, maybe there is someone up there who is controlling those things. And I can seek the help of that being.
That’s how it’s a preliminary awakening of God consciousness. And then gradually as we move forward, we start thinking, who is that being? What is that reality? And then I talked about in the Abrahamic traditions, there is the idea that there is one God and we have to subordinate ourselves to him. And they had the idea that other traditions have many gods who are completely major.
But the Dharmic traditions have the idea of not monotheism or polytheism, but polymorphic monotheism. There is one God who manifests at multiple levels for one purpose. So there is God with a capital G and there are gods with a small g. That’s an example of the prodigal son who talks about how God loves us so much that even if we give up God and go away, when we come back, God welcomes us.
But the Bhakti tradition, the Dharmic traditions tell us that not only does God welcome us when we come back, but God works to get us back. And that is through intermediaries. So just like the king, we send the son in order to come back to him, the king sends the minister or the landlord.
You work with him, that’s how you are indirectly connected. And gradually by working for him, you come to him. So similarly, there is one God but he has many Devatas.
Bhagwan and Devatas. And those who can devote themselves to Bhagwan, they are special, they are Mahatmas. But those who can’t, it’s not that they are rejected, not one way or the other.
They are also connected. They can connect with Devatas. It is Bhagwan, it is Krishna himself who gives the power to the Devatas by which they can inspire faith among their followers, among their worshippers.
And it is he who gives them the gifts which they get from the worshippers. Just like the king provides everything to the minister, which the minister provides to the employees. And this whole multi-level conception of God is having one purpose.
To connect us with the ultimate reality. And how do we connect with that? How do we help ourselves? We help ourselves by choosing God rather than the gifts coming from God. If we choose only the gifts coming from God, the problem is no matter how much we have, our mind will look at what we don’t have and keep us dissatisfied.
So, what we live with is not what we live for. God will give us the resources to live with. But most importantly, the purpose to live for.
And that purpose is ultimately attraction to Him, absorption in Him. Because He is like the 5 billion dollars. And everything in the world is like 5 dollars.
So, the more we connect with the 5 billion dollar treasure, then the 5 dollar losses or gains don’t trouble us so much. So life will send many storms in our way. That is, the 5 dollar things will get lost.
And if we have no vision for the 5 billion dollars, the 5 dollar loss will seem like a huge thing. But if we connect it spiritually, then we will stay stable amidst life’s ups and downs. God doesn’t promise a stormless sea, but He does provide an unseekable ship.
An unseekable ship is a ship of devotion. And when we practise such devotion, then, even if the world hurts us, we find that God’s power to heal is greater than the world’s power to hurt. And that’s how we move safely and successfully in our life journey.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So are there any questions or comments? What is the relationship between God or spirituality and rituals? Firstly, rituals are universal.
It’s not just in religion. Say, when we meet someone, we shake hands. That’s a ritual.
But rituals give structures to human interactions. When you meet someone, you want to greet. How do you do that? You shake hands.
So in cricket, say for example, if a batsman hits a ball over the boundary, the umpire raises his hand like this. That’s a ritual. The umpire could just symbolise six.
But why raise his hand like that? When there are four runs, they could just raise four fingers. Why do they move their hand like that? That’s a ritual. Yes.
I agree with you. It’s true. But why that particular thing? You could have any other thing.
If you see from a purely rational perspective, this does not have any correlation with six. The six fingers would be much better correlation with six. This does not have any correlation with four.
So the point here is that there are ways in which we function in the world and those standardised ways of functioning, they are rituals. So rituals are at one level. Just standardised ways of interaction.
Let me complete this answer. I’ll move forward. So now just as there are standardised ways of interacting in normal functions, in sports, in everything.
Say for example, when there’s a birthday. When there’s a birthday, we have a cake and then we blow the cake, blow the candle. Now why blow the candle? Actually it’s some ancient Scandinavian myth that actually on every birthday some evil spirit enters into the body of the person.
And if you blow a candle, that evil spirit is blown out. So that’s why the number of, the age of the child, how many candles you have, they blow it out. Now most people don’t believe that.
But still that ritual is going on. So it’s not that rituals are only in religion. If you start thinking rationally, almost every area of life is filled with activities that we do simply because they are convention.
There is no intrinsic connection between those activities and what it symbolises or what it means. But that connection is through convention. So at one level, when we want to approach God, there are certain practises which are given in the various theistic traditions for connecting with God.
Say for example, right now, if I put my foot over here, and I point the legs to all of you and I sit like this, and I say, I’m feeling very humble now. Now the very posture here is a bossy posture. You could say it’s possible to feel humble, but it’s unlikely.
So there are certain externals which facilitate certain internal emotions. So when we come to the temple and then we fold our hands in front of God, we bow down to God, these are externals which are meant to promote certain internals. And that way the rituals are meant to express the spiritual.
And they are meant to experience the spiritual. That’s why if you have spirit plus ritual, then it becomes spiritual. If it’s just a ritual done without the spirit, sometimes a person might be conspiring against another person.
The next opportunity is going to stab you in the back. But when they meet, they shake hands warmly. Well, that’s hypocrisy.
So what happens? If there is no spirit in the ritual, there’s no warmth in the handshake, then it’s hypocrisy. Similarly, if the rituals are done without any spirit, without any either experience of spiritual reality or any desire to experience spiritual reality, then that becomes a ritual which is devoid of spirit. And then that becomes meaningless.
That can even become hypocritical. But when the rituals are done properly with the appropriate spirit, then the rituals become pathways by which we connect with God. And there can be different traditions in the world which may have different rituals.
Because in some countries, we shake hands. In some countries, we fold hands. In some countries, people rub their noses against each other when they are greeting each other.
Different people have different traditions like that. But the point is it’s a greeting. So in the dharmic tradition, we fold our hands.
And maybe in the Christian tradition, they have the Hindu mass. In the Islamic tradition, they raise their hands for the mass. The rituals may be different in terms of the specifics.
But their purpose is to connect with God. So the rituals are means by which we can connect with the divine. Okay.
That’s a good question. Yeah. I got your question.
Is there one particular way to connect? Even for our religions and for our religions, even for our religions, we worship and we give back to our God and Goddess. But you know, sometimes some people from India, those who believe in humanity, they see us and they talk like, oh my God, you are my saviour. It’s human nature.
But that’s not wrong at all. But I think, you know, it’s just our ritual. It’s just how we bother, this is how we learn.
But here is when we go to town, we can make an agreement what we like to eat, what we like to eat, what we like to eat. We are martyrs. So, you know, that’s what makes me wonder why ritual is so important.
That was a long question. Let me answer what you have spoken till now. Let me answer what you have spoken till now.
Otherwise, you will not be able to address the issues. There are many issues. Let me first address the point of diversity of rituals and then go into specific diversities later, if we get the time.
So, can different people have different rituals? Or is there one ritual that everyone has to follow? No. I’ll use another example to understand this. So, there is a top of a mountain and there is a bottom of a mountain.
Now, there could be different paths up the mountain. It’s not that everyone has to take the same path up the mountain. But that doesn’t mean every path is a path up the mountain.
Some paths may be just going round and round the mountain. Some paths may be going down the valley into the mountain. Down into the valley, away from the mountain also.
So, we all should be open-minded. But we can’t be so open-minded that our brains fall out. What does that mean? That means there have to be some objective criteria.
If I am saying that, okay, this is the path I am going to take up the mountain. And what is the test that this is a path up the mountain? Broadly two things. If that path is really taking me up to the mountain, then my distance from the top of the mountain should be decreasing.
And my height from the bottom of the mountain should be increasing. Bottom of the mountain should be increasing. Similarly, if we are following certain set of rituals, practises.
See, this is my path. Any spiritual path should lead to two things. One is increased attachment to the spiritual.
And decreased attachment to the material. bhakti-pareesha-anubhava-viraktir-anyatra-cha The Bhagavad Purana says that bhakti, how does one even know that there is actual, authentic bhakti over there? Bhakti leads to paraeesha-anubhava. The experience of that divine who cannot be experienced in any other ways.
Para. And that anubhava, that experience is so fulfilling, so enriching that one stops craving for other things. Viraktir-anyatra-cha.
So, we have to see that whatever practises I am following, are they increasing my attachment to the divine? And are they decreasing my attachment to the worldly things? If that is happening, then that is a progressive spiritual path. So, there can be many different paths. But it’s not that anything that anybody is doing in the name of ritual that is necessarily spiritual.
There can be rituals which are conducive to spirituality. And there can be many different rituals like that. But that doesn’t necessarily… we have to have that objective test.
Is it increasing my spiritual attraction? Is it decreasing my material attachment? If that is happening, then we are definitely the rituals are taking us on the progressive path. Now, beyond that, if you consider specifics, there are… as I talked about, there are different levels of access to God provided in the dharmic traditions. The idea is, if you cannot connect at this level, connect at this level.
If you cannot connect at this level, connect at this level. So, in general, whenever anybody is practising something, they need to feel that this is worthwhile. This is good to do.
So, with any set of rituals that are practised, there is a certain sense of sanctity associated with them. And that is what inspires people to do it. So, I’ll explain the example.
Suppose there is a community of alcoholics. Everybody is drinking constantly. And then, one of them decides that I’m going to control myself.
So, I will drink only once a week. Now, in that community of alcoholics, a person who drinks once a week will be considered to be a saint. He has so much self-control.
He will drink only once a week. And definitely, it’s good as compared to where they are. It’s very good to come up to that level.
Now, if somebody wants to become completely sober, they must say, why once a week? Just give it up. So, there are different levels. But for somebody who is drinking constantly, if they say, oh, I’ve given up all drinking.
Yes, I think this person is of some other category only. I can never be like this. I don’t even want to be like this.
But there is a bridge in between. So, the idea is that similarly, for connecting with God, if you consider at a practical level, it’s easy to infer that all living beings have life. Many people keep fish in their aquariums.
And fish have life. So, if God is the source of all life, then killing life just for the satisfaction of our palate, of our tongue, that is questionable at the very least. Let me complete this.
In general, we all wouldn’t like to cause pain to anyone. If you’re walking on a path and it’s crowded and we accidentally put our foot on someone’s foot and we realise, oh, I’m sorry. We’ll apologise.
Sometimes it’s just unavoidable because there’s so much crowd. But we won’t intentionally put our foot on someone unless we are evil. So, we in general, a civilised way to live is to cause as less pain as possible.
So, similarly, a spiritually cultured way of living is to cause as less pain as possible. So, that means if we can live without killing other creatures of God, that is a spiritually more harmonious way of living. This may not be possible for everyone.
And when it is not possible for everyone, there is a facility given. Now, if you look at the tradition, whether it is Kali or any other tradition, there is always, yes, you can offer this to Kali and then you can take it. But there is some regulation over there.
The idea is that don’t do this indiscriminately. Do it in a regulated way. And by that, even that regulation is a step up from indiscriminate indulgence.
See, there are, if a parent has two children and one of them barely passes the exam, gets 40% marks, and other one is very good, gets 80% marks. And today, both of them have got their results. And both of them have got 60%.
And the first child comes up and the parents will say, Shabash! Well done! And the second child comes and the parents say, Badmash! What have you done? Both of them have got 60%. But why appreciation for one and condemnation for the other? Because their level is different. For the 40% to go to 60% is a progress.
For the 80% to come down to 60% is regress. Similarly, for somebody who is completely doing indiscriminate indulgence, for them to do regulated indulgence within the premise of some religious rituals, that is a step up. For somebody who is capable of just giving up that indulgence, for them to come down to that indulgence, that’s unnecessary.
That’s unhealthy. So there is a progression, and there is a place for everyone in this progression. So, wherever we are at, there is a place for us, and from there we can move forward.
Now, if we start claiming that this is the place where we are all Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, everyone is on my path. Everyone is on the mountain, somewhere on the path of the mountain. The key thing is that we don’t this is the place where I am, and this is the place where I will stay forever.
Wherever we are, we progress from there. That’s how we get to the top of the mountain. So, if we are at the 60% level, and there are people at 40%, we are much better than them.
So for somebody who is doing religious rituals, that person may be in many ways better than the person who is completely godless. But for somebody at 60%, and they say, this is my rituals, and this is how I will stay, then they will not go from 60% to 80%. So, if we have, if we understand the spirit of the rituals, then we will understand where the rituals that I am practising are placed in the overall progression.
And then we can take incremental steps forward. But if we start thinking, these rituals in themselves are all that I need to do, then what is happening? We are divorcing the rituals from the overall context within which those rituals are. And then, we will stay stuck over there.
So what is progress for one person could be regress for another person. And a lot depends on context. The idea is that nobody should be looked down upon or demeaned.
Just because somebody is at 40% doesn’t mean that they have to be frowned upon. If somebody is at 40%, appreciate their 40% and move forward from there. So gradually, everybody is on the spiritually progressing path.
It’s not that simple. It’s not that simple. See, our spiritual level is not determined by just… I get your question.
Is our spirituality related with what rituals we follow or what we eat? Our consciousness is affected by many things. And the food that we eat is one among them. It could be that somebody because of their culture might be eating meat but they might be very spiritually evolved.
And somebody because of their culture might not be eating meat but they might be completely materialistic. So it’s not that just the particular ritual is the sole determiner. But each of these practises contributes.
The kind of food that we eat that matters. The kind of people we associate with matters. The kind of overall lifestyle that we have matters.
So all of these contribute. So it’s not that just one ritual determines the whole consciousness. But all of them contribute.
In general, the food we eat does shape our consciousness. And the food that we eat, it’s not just simple physical nutrition that we get by it. It is also, there are subtler energies that are passed on through that food.
Nowadays, with science, we can easily make almost 100% replica of mother’s milk. But, it has been well documented that babies who are not fed by their mother, they are fed simply mother’s milk. They grow in a mother’s milk.
They don’t grow up as well as those babies have been fed by their mother. So it is a physical nutrition. You could say that the artificially manufactured milk, it’s the same.
But when a mother is feeding the baby, it is not just the physical nutrition. The mother’s affection is there. The physical contact is there.
The mother’s care is there. So the food that we eat is not just a matter of physical nutrition. There are many other energies that are passed through that food.
So when we eat meat, basically the animals who are killed at that time, whether it is whatever animals, there is fear and there is anger. Fear that I am going to die. Anger.
Who is this? Why am I being killed like this? And those energies at a certain level are stored over there. And they get passed on to our consciousness and they affect our subtle energies. That’s why we can’t just say that because somebody is doing a particular ritual, that is the level.
And somebody is doing another ritual, that is the higher level. No. One’s consciousness is determined by many factors.
But we can’t go to another extreme and say that whatever practises we are doing, it doesn’t matter at all. The food we eat also affects our consciousness. So we have to look at specific practises and we have to look at how specific practises are affecting our consciousness.
And then according to our situation, we take steps forward. Do you have a few more minutes for questions? You asked me for a long time. Yeah, sure.
How do we do our day-to-day activities in a mode of service to Krishna? Like say for example, like I have to complete a project. At the lowest level I’m asking a simple question. So how do we do that as a service to Krishna? Okay.
So how do we do our work just completing a project as a service to Krishna? Broadly, this is in three broad ways. It is just like say, if you are working in the office, then externally, you’re not at your home. Sometimes you may be far away from your home, in a different city, in a different continent also.
But then you know you’re doing this for your family, for your children, for your wife. And you want to take care of them. You want to be responsible for them.
So it is the purpose of our action is determined not by the location of our body, but by the location of our heart. So if we do some regular sadhana, say we do japa, do some swadhya, do some satsang, do some puja, then by all these our heart gets connected with Krishna. And we understand that yes, I have many goals in my life, but our ultimate goal is Krishna.
That is not just a theoretical conception. There has to be some spiritual experience that reinforces the theoretical conception. That’s why our daily spiritual practises come into picture.
So if we have some time for regular sadhana, regular spiritual practises, then that establishes a connection with Krishna in our consciousness. And then whatever the specifics we do, our life is orientated toward Krishna and then everything within our life becomes gradually orientated toward Krishna. That’s the first thing.
We have a spiritual connection by which Krishna becomes our ultimate purpose in life. And secondly, when we are doing our work, we all use our abilities, our resources. And if you think deeply, it’s not that we created those abilities.
Our abilities are gifts from God to us. Paurusham Nrishyakrishna says. So in many ways, people who become successful, you could say they are successful not just because of their hard work, but they are successful because they were winners of a genetic laboratory.
Some people are born with a high IQ, some people are born with a low IQ. And people in general, IQ is not the sole factor, but if there is extremely low IQ, people can’t even function normally. So those of us who are successful, we’ve given certain abilities.
And we didn’t really make those abilities, we just got them. So the resources that enable us to do things, if you understand it, they are coming from God. And that itself is one level of God consciousness.
What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. So while doing our work, we try to keep that awareness.
The ability to do this is also coming from God. And then beyond that, when we get the results of our work, we offer those results to God. That means in our heart, we understand that everything is meant for God.
Practically, we need to give some charity. The idea of charity is that we want to give our heart to God. But our heart is filled with so many things in the world.
So what we do is, if we can’t give our heart to God, we give what is in our heart to God. And what has a prominent place in our heart is money. So when we give some charity, when we give what is in our heart to God, we give God a place in our heart.
And that way, by our spiritual sadhana, by our awareness that our abilities come from God, and by giving a portion of the results of our work to God, we can spiritualise our work. Thank you. Thank you very much for your attention and participation.
Hare Krishna.