Rise above the ego’s need to be right by focusing on devotional purpose

[Bhagavatam class on 4.19.38 at ISKCON, San Diego, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Today morning we are discussing Brahma’s instructions to Dhrutamaharaj. And he is requesting that Dhrutamaharaj remember the purpose of his descent and act accordingly. So the context here I will speak on this theme of how our purpose can help us to overcome our circumstantial emotions.
So let’s look at the context here. What has happened is Dhrutamaharaj is performing a yajna and Indra has come in various guises to try to disrupt the yajna. And while trying to disrupt the yajna in this way Indra after Brahma’s stopped him, Indra starts taking various garbs to come and then disappear.
And those garbs are what are later on taken on by others and thus various upadharmas various false systems of religion are going to be created. So Brahma he is telling stop this. Now if we consider from a very you could say legislative or judicial or argumentative perspective we could say the point of the troublemaker here is Indra.
And Dhrutu is just doing his duty. He is a Kshatriya and Kshatriyas are expected to perform yajnas and he is a heroic Kshatriya and if he has the capacity to perform a hundred sacrifices that’s his glory, that’s his privilege. He is not stealing from anyone to do that.
So it’s his privilege, since he is doing simply his dharma. And if he is doing it in a glorious way, nobody should have any problem with it. So here he could say that very well Indra is the troublemaker.
And he could interpret this instruction to mean stop these all false forms of religious system from originating. He could say that this means that I should kill Indra. Because Indra is the troublemaker.
But that is not Brahmaji’s intention. Brahmaji’s intention is that we should stop doing these sacrifices. So that Indra will stop disrupting.
And then all these other forms of religion will not come. So there might be something which is contextually right. In this particular argument, I am right and you are wrong.
And we might devote our, we might put all our energy in trying to prove this. And sometimes other person just doesn’t accept. Some people are such that even if we prove with all possible argumentation to them that they are wrong, what happens is a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still.
They just don’t change. And here Brahmaji is telling and eventually Vishnu will also come and appreciate Pruthu, that don’t be like two squabbling children. Be the adult in the room.
If a child is squabbling, the adults can’t start squabbling with the child. Indra, because of his attachment has become like a child. Indra is attached to his position.
He is the king of the heavens and he is feeling insecure that if Pruthu performs a hundred sacrifices, Pruthu will become entitled to get the post of Indra. And therefore he doesn’t want Indra to do the hundred sacrifices. And so generally what happens is, it is there is biological immaturity that is there because we will be physically small.
But there is psychological immaturity that comes because our vision is small. If we are too attached to small things, that leads to psychological immaturity. Psychological immaturity means what? We make a big hue and cry over small things.
And sometimes if you look back at even big world wars that start, they start with small differences. And one difference leads to another, to another and they escalate and eventually it becomes like a fireball that destroys millions of people. So when somebody is psychologically immature, that means they are too attached to something which is not that big, which is small.
But attachment attachment can make small things seem very big and detachment can make even big things seem small. So, life determines the events but we determine the emotional impact of those events. So here, Brutha is being told that be an adult Indra.
And the way to stop this is not by killing Indra. Indra is a celestial being, Indra is the king of the gods and killing him would disrupt the universal order and what Brahmaji is telling is just let go of the desire for the hundred sacrifices. In every area of life, there are certain achievements that are considered to be like landmarks.
Say, if in sports like cricket, if a player scores 100 runs, that’s called a century. And a batsman who gets out of 99 is considered, oh, you’re so unfortunate you couldn’t get to a century. If you get to a century, that’s a landmark.
And we all would like to achieve landmarks. In a sense, a landmark is a mark on the land. So when we achieve a landmark, that means we can show the world, this is what I’ve achieved.
So, I remember maybe 20-25 years ago when I used to follow cricket in India, one of India’s most famous cricketers, he was on 196 or 197 and he was on 190 or something like that and the captain at that time declared the things. And this cricketer was so upset that for months, although they were in the same team, he refused to talk with the captain. And the captain had to communicate with this cricketer to the vice-captain.
And he said, I could have in a few more minutes, I could have scored a double century. He said, no, actually we wanted to get the other team out and we didn’t have time for the ball. Anyway, just let’s listen.
So what happens is when people come close to landmarks, at that time, their emotions get very strongly invested in it. And then, they often don’t maybe think of the big picture. So, detachment is not apathy.
Detachment is not lack of care. Detachment means we don’t get so consumed by the immediates as to forget about the ultimate. So here, Prajapati, the word used to describe the two is that actually, you are meant to protect that one.
Prajapati literally means one who is the progenitor of humanity. The word pati can mean, pati is husband. Pati also means the progenitor.
It can also be protector. So, Bhrutu is not literally a progenitor. He is not like Daksha or other who gives rise to many living beings.
But he also is a protector. So, you see, if you are a protector and you act to protect dharma, you act to protect dharma piece, you do what is required for making sure that things don’t become worse. And in this case, what is required is just let go.
Sometimes, the right resolution of a particular issue is necessary for pursuing our purpose. But sometimes, the right resolution of a particular issue may not be necessary. If you want to move towards our purpose, say for example, we are going on a road and somebody suddenly cuts a cross.
And then we get angry at them and say, how dare you cut like this? And that person argues, actually I didn’t cut, you cut a cross. No, but I was on the straight lane, you entered into the lane. No, but you should have looked at me.
Now, we might say that they are wrong and we are right. But suppose we have to go for an important meeting, we have to reach on time and we spend half an hour arguing with that person. Then, what is happening? Even if we win that argument, what is going to happen? We will be late for a bigger meeting.
So, at that time, just let it go. Let it go. So, it’s not necessary for us to win every argument.
In fact, one test of love, see love is a very easy word to speak, but love is often tested through actions. And love means, one way of assessing love is love raises us above our ego’s need to be right at all times. Our ego has a need to prove I am right and you are wrong.
And that need, now sometimes, for the resolution of the issue, for the overall project or the overall purpose of what we want to do, things have to be done in particular. And then we may have to stand for it. But other times, some things are not that consequential.
So, just let it go. So, in small issues, if we try to prove that I am right and you are wrong, then the end result of that is, we may be right, we may prove ourselves right in that particular situation, but we lose track of our purpose. And the end result becomes like winning the battle and losing the war.
Suppose two forces are fighting and there is one very resilient contingent of the opposite side over here and the defending army just concentrates all their attack over here and they start fighting with all their energy over there and they win, they defeat that contingent but the remaining contingent attacks from other side and destroys the fort. So, they win the battle but lose the war. So, for us, our mind often makes us trip and trip and fall in this way.
It trips us and it traps us. How? One way the mind can allure us, the forces of illusion can captivate us is by direct temptations. It could be lust, it could be greed, it could be such desires, these directly drag us away from Krishna.
And when temptations come in such a direct way, we understand that this is something which I should not do. But, so it’s like we are supposed to be doing our duty and we get allured by pleasure and we go away. That’s almost like a deserter or a betrayer.
And most of us would not succumb to that gross temptation. But, if you consider war is going on, if a soldier is bribed and told to quit, just give up, that’s outrageous. But, another way the opponent can actually make the soldier ineffective is by getting the soldier caught in small battles while the big battle is lost.
And this is what the forces of illusion are trying to do. This is Kali Yuga and Kali Yuga is called the age of Kalaha. Kalaha is quarrel.
Quarrel means that, I add, how does Kali induce quarrels? In many different ways. But one way is by making us lose perspective of things. In small things, we make them very big and sometimes people will remember, 25 years ago when I did this, you spoke this to me.
Well, 25 years ago. Come on, grow up now. Let go of the wounds.
You know what, I am hurt. Okay, you are hurt. But so many things may have hurt us too.
This doesn’t mean that somebody is a routine abuser and they need to be let or set free. But the nature of the world is that somehow, we all burn each other. I do something which will hurt you.
You will do something which will hurt me. That’s how we all are. We are all struggling souls.
We all have our conditionings. And the forces of illusion often capture us by, they capture us, they captivate us, they defeat us by making us fight small battles while we lose the little battle. So, this is what we see quite often.
That the important thing is not just to be right in that particular argument. It is to be right in pursuing our ultimate purpose. Because we could say this is the right beyond the right.
Circumstantially, I am right and you are wrong. And I can put all my energy to proving that. But then, are we moving in the right direction? Are we striving to fulfil our mission? We sing in the Mangal Aarti, Samsaar, Raavan, Ulilulok, that there is a forest fire of material existence and the spiritual master’s Manasi is meant to extinguish that forest fire.
As I travel across the world, meet devotees in various parts of the world, I find that most, not most, the large part of all the energy of the devotee community goes not in extinguishing the forest fire of material existence. It is extinguishing the fires that devotees themselves have lit. We spend so much of our energy in trying to resolve our own conflicts.
At one level, conflicts are unavoidable because we are all individuals. Especially if somebody wants to practise Krishna Consciousness, they have to go against the way. And it requires courage.
It requires at one level, a strong mind to go against the current of the world and to start practising Krishna Consciousness. And when such strong-minded individuals, they start practising something and within the practise of Krishna Consciousness, they develop certain opiates. This is how things should be done.
It is difficult for strong-minded individuals to actually let go of their opiates. There are attachments in different modes. In the mode of ignorance, the attachment is just to not taking any responsibility.
Just be lazy. Just be comfortable. People in the mode… There are some people who make things and there are other people who make excuses.
And people in the mode of ignorance are experts in making excuses so that they don’t have to do anything. That is their attachment. People in the mode of passion, their attachment is to things.
People in the mode of goodness, often their attachment is to opinions. In satchitananda. In goodness, I have to prove that I am right.
And that’s why it is said, it is that every sage will have one’s own opinion. That is said about philosophers or even scientists. If there are six scientists in a room, there will be seven opinions.
And it is all vehemently quarrel over those opinions. So what happens is that we all have our particular attachments. It could be the differences could be with respect to practical things.
Should this festival be conducted this way or that way? It could be our philosophical issues. Is this philosophical point like this or it is like this? I saw one picture which one devotee had made. It is like two Roman warriors that are fighting against each other.
And they are using axes. Axelike objects. Both of them are hitting each other.
And in the front of the axes, both the axes it is, Prabhupada said. So both of them are having codes of Prabhupada. Prabhupada said this.
And he can fight over that. So what happens is that ultimately Prabhupada was a living and resourceful person. So Prabhupada spoke according to what was most effective for furthering Krishna consciousness in the situation he was in.
And the particular context. If you look at Prabhupada’s words, there are so many places where we might see apparent contradictions. The letter by Prabhupada, some brahmachari writes to Prabhupada and apparently has some problem with some desires.
Prabhupada gave a standing instruction to all his disciples that if they have any problem with controlling their desires, they should get married. And there is another letter where Prabhupada said if you are troubled by desires, everyone is troubled by desires. Even Brahmaji is troubled by desires.
If you think that simply getting married is the solution for your desires, you are delusional. Just tolerate it. Two opposite things.
Now if you consider, probably there is a context. Devotee was writing several times to Prabhupada. And Prabhupada said, try it, it’s not working, find more.
In this case, Prabhupada said, no, no, don’t do it. So like that, Prabhupada gave so many, if you look at Prabhupada’s books carefully, there are so many places where Prabhupada will give specific instructions. In the Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita itself, one place where Prabhupada says, we should not worship any form other than Krishna.
This is not even the form of Vishnu. And yet Prabhupada, in his own temples, had forms of Ram established. We have in Washington, we have Ram in Juhu.
So, what Prabhupada did and what Prabhupada spoke, are they different? No. Prabhupada, in that particular purport of the Bhagavad Gita, is actually manifesting in the womb of the Gopis in Vrindavan. Then we know the famous pastime when in the Rakhidam, Krishna had disappeared.
So the Gopis were frantically searching for Krishna. And then Krishna, just to have fun with the Gopis, manifested a form as Vishnu. And, in complexion, Vishnu and Krishna are somewhat alike.
So the Gopis were delighted, oh, Krishna is there. And they ran towards what they thought was Krishna. And then they saw Vishnu.
And they were disappointed. For the sages, the sight of Vishnu is the cause of the greatest celebration. For the Gopis, it is the cause of heart-breaking disappointment to see Vishnu.
And then they offered obeisances and they said, oh, Vishnu, please can you tell me where is Krishna? Their love was so intense that sometimes we put on a mask but we are not able to maintain that mask. So what happens? Krishna chose not to speak. Krishna just pointed like this.
And the Gopis ran. And the last Gopi who came was Radharani. And Radharani asked, oh, Vishnu, have you seen Krishna? She was calling out with such fervency that Krishna tried to point his hands same way, but because of Radharani’s devotion, Krishna’s two hands went away.
And Radharani saw the beloved lord, the heart of Krishna. So Prabhupada is writing in that mood. The Gopis do not want to worship even Krishna.
They want to worship only Krishna. Is there an absolute injunction for all temples for all times to come? Not necessarily. So context is extremely important for comprehending text.
There is text and there is context. Text is what is said and context is where is it said, why is it said, when is it said. So quite often there are literalists.
Literalist means there are some people who just take the text and give this how it is, no questions asked. And life is not that simple. You have to consider text but you have to consider the context.
In what context is it being said? And what is the purpose being served by it? So there is, there are of course times when we may have to fight a war. This is very important and this is how it should be done. In the big picture you have to consider does this really matter? Is this a battle worth fighting? What happens for each one of us whenever there is any emotional stress, it consumes the mind.
And once the mind is consumed it is no longer available for worshipping the lord. We will see most often conflicts, the first casualty because of our conflicts is our chanting. As soon as we have some bad relationship, bad interactions which give a bad taste in our mouth, then what happens? Our mind becomes hyperactive.
And what happens? Even before we see them our mind tells them off, maybe a dozen times. And it envisions maybe a dozen scenarios in which we will tell them off. In planning to give others a piece of our mind, we lose our peace of mind.
So, that’s why and this is not let everybody walk over you. The point is not to let everybody walk over us. The point is to do what it takes so that we can be absorbed in the glorification of the lord.
If anything distracts us from the glorification of the lord, then we have to check whether it’s really worth it. Sometimes it may be, but most of the times it isn’t worth it. So, let go.
Let go of it. And in the bible it is said that if you are worshipping lord in all the altars, and if you have quarrelled with another fellow in unity, you go off the altar, reconcile with that unity and then go and worship. Because we won’t be emotionally available, we won’t be emotionally attentive for worshipping the lord.
And, you know, of course, sometimes it just works that people, no matter what we do, people just don’t listen to us. I remember I had a conflict resolution. I was a remediation.
I was trying to facilitate it. And then one devotee approached the other and said, I know you are angry. I am not angry with you.
I am not angry with you. Anger is an expensive emotion. You are not worth it.
And now, when somebody has that kind of attitude, what can you do? Sometimes you want to become so bitter. Well, in some cases, we just have to live with it. But at least we can be honest before Krishna and Krishna act right.
But if we hold on to, hold on to the resentment, hold on to the anger, it’s a, I don’t know, one of the heaviest things to hold in life is a grudge. It is invisible and the burden is not immediately felt. But, it is felt in terms of the emotional toll that it takes.
It strains us. So, sometimes, if the other person is just not reconciling, we just have to live with it. But sometimes, just take a few steps down.
Take a humble position. This is the way you want. And, in general, most people are not bad people.
In the devotee community especially, or even people in general, people are not bad. It’s just that sometimes certain attachments overwhelm them. There is, I’ll conclude with this point and then we can have some questions.
There is weakness and there is vigilance. Weakness is where we are temporarily overcome by some impurities. It can be love, it can be anger, it can be greed, it can be arrogance, it can be envy.
So, we all have within us some internal defending forces. Primarily because there are two. It’s our intelligence and our consciousness.
Our intelligence rationally tells us do this, do this. And our consciousness, it would say, emotionally tells us. Emotionally means, when we start doing something wrong, our consciousness tells us do this, do this.
When we do something bad, our consciousness makes us feel bad about it. And, I don’t want to feel bad about it. So, maybe I’ll go and apologise.
Maybe I’ll go and at least make sure I don’t do this again. So, this is, these two are like our inner guards. Our intelligence and our consciousness.
Our buddhi and our vivek. So, now, when we have weakness, sometimes, the force of the impurity is such that it overwhelms us. If we consider the lust, anger, greed or something like that within us, if they are normally at this level, it’s manageable.
It’s sometimes annoying, it’s irritating, but it’s at the tolerable level. But sometimes, the graph just throws you off. It’s like there are electrical power pulses.
So, like that we may have lust alterations. When that happens, at that time, we might just do something wrong. Or similar to the anger pulses, it might be, whatever.
So, at those times, we are overpowered. And, it can happen to the best of us. But, what are we doing within the remaining time? Are we devotedly practising bhakti? Are we trying to purify ourselves? If we are doing that in the remaining time, then that lapse is an evidence of weakness.
Not wickedness. Weakness means, temporarily our intelligence and conscience are overpowered. But soon, they come back in fraction.
And then, we feel bad. We apologise. We apologise.
And then we strategise. How can I prevent this from happening? Use our intelligence to strategise. But, in the case of wickedness, it’s very difficult.
Because the conscience has been numbed and the intelligence has been subverted. Subverted means what? Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that, … … … In 3.40, he says that, desire, calm, desire is situated in the senses, the mind and even the intelligence. What this means is, sometimes, some people do wrong and then they expertly cover up the wrong doings.
And then, in the case of that, their intelligence is not engaged to stop them from doing wrong. Their intelligence is engaged to stop them from being caught after doing wrong. Once a popped cold over a person who was speeding.
I asked the person, did you see the speed limit? He said, yes, I saw the speed limit, I just didn’t see me. Some people think that doing wrong is not the problem, getting caught while doing wrong is the problem. So, if this is how somebody habitually, that means their intelligence is used not to choose their tracks carefully, but to cover their tracks carefully.
And they don’t even feel bad on doing that. Everybody does that, what’s the big deal? Or, sometimes some people, their conscience is so numb, that they actually delight in doing it. Some people are sadistic.
Normally, if we cause pain to anyone, we will, say, if we are walking through a crowded road, and our foot steps on somebody’s foot, oh, I’m sorry, you have no chance. But, if somebody steps their foot on someone, the other person is insane, and then they raise their foot, and bang it down the limit. That’s wicked, that’s cruel.
So, evil is where, evil is to deliberately cause pain for the sake of causing pain. I mean, wickedness, then we cannot have tolerance over it. There, there has to be, there has to be strong action.
So, weakness needs to be reciprocated with tolerance and forgiveness. Wickedness needs to be dealt with like it falls, with justice, with disciplinary action. And most cases, in the devotee community, what we are dealing with is wickedness, not wickedness.
If somebody had wickedness, why would they even, why would they even try to practise bhakti, why would they even put on a facade of practising bhakti? Because they want to overcome. Sometimes some condition is so deep-rooted, that they may themselves give up hope of overcoming those conditions. But that doesn’t mean they are wicked, that doesn’t mean they are delighted in those conditions, that doesn’t mean necessarily that they, they are not trying to move towards it.
I met one devotee in England, he said, after many years, I have developed renunciation. I said, what happened? He said, I have developed renunciation toward renunciation. I stopped trying to renounce.
I just can’t do it. I’ve given up trying to give up. So now, sometimes, sometimes, we may be fighting our inner battles and we may get defeated so many times that we just lose heart.
I can’t do it. Now that quitting is not necessarily wickedness. Although it can degenerate toward that, if it grows further and further and further.
But the point I am making is, there is a difference between weakness and wickedness. So Indra, what is he characterised as, weakness or wickedness? Weakness. Indra is not a demon.
Although sometimes he may act in a demonic way. So, just tolerate that. Let him do what he wants to do.
You be the agent in the room. So, weakness and wickedness. And when we can resolve this, we can deal with issues in this way, we will be able to let go of small things.
And so many conflicts can be avoided. We may say that, but every time, why do I have to take the lord position? Why do I have to be the humble person? Why can’t the other person be the humble person? Each time, why should it always be like a lose-win kind of resolution? Every time you win, I lose. It’s not like that.
If we are so emotionally invested in something, then we feel that losing is a very bad thing. Then, maybe the entire community has heard and maybe communicated with that person properly. Not with their emotional in charge, but some other time.
But overall, if we are focused, if we have something important to do, if we have a service in the lord position, that if we take up responsibility for increasing our own Krishna Consciousness and striving to increase the Krishna Consciousness of others, then that responsibility itself will consume us so much that the incidental wounds won’t hurt us as much. It is, often we, while preaching, we say that the only problem in the world is the lack of Krishna Consciousness. And then we say, but the problem in my life is this devotee doesn’t listen to me.
The only problem in the world is the lack of Krishna Consciousness. And the problem in my life is also lack of Krishna Consciousness. Of course, I am not saying that all conflicts can be dealt with simply by tolerance and forgiveness.
Sometimes, there is a little bit of conflict, sometimes we have to take assertive action against certain people. But overall, we can decrease the amount of conflicts that we have to face if we can learn to choose our values. When I talk about weakness and wickedness, the point I was making is that if somebody is exhibiting wickedness, then we have to fight back.
But if it’s weakness, then, don’t mind so much about it. And when somebody tries to steal the Juhu land, this man tries to steal the Juhu land from Prabhupada, what a waste. But there were times when devotees, they raised funds and then they were a little careless in how to handle the funds.
They spent too much money. In India, especially, it would happen that the devotees would think in terms of American currency, and they thought we got a damn cheap deal. We got a very cheap deal.
And the Indian merchants, they would say, this is a damn fool person. We gave him 10 times the price. And sometimes devotees lost a lot of money there.
And that’s why we mentioned, it happened several times, Prabhupada decided, I’ll stay in India. Since there are reasons, all of you can manage the pitching in America, but you can’t manage the pitching in India. So Prabhupada oversaw a lot of the pitching projects in India himself.
Because he found that his disciples were not able to manage the finances well. But in that case, he was displeased, but he was not on that case either. Because that was weakness, that was not weakness.
So all of us, if we choose our battles carefully, and if we pick up the battle, primarily be Krishna conscious and do strive to help others to become Krishna conscious. So that is the battle we focus on. If we take that responsibility, then all the other scars and wounds that we might get in the inevitable process, in the inevitable pushes and pulls of living together in a community in Kali Yuga, those won’t hurt us that much.
To the extent we decrease the vigour to share Krishna consciousness with others, to that extent, our mind will gain vigour in complaining about things. During our idle time, our mind works all the time. So we learn to take a responsibility.
I am in a situation, this devotee is doing like this, that devotee is doing like that. But what can I do in this situation? What can I do in this situation to make things better? Maybe not with that devotee, but overall. How can I make a positive contribution? Sometimes I feel that I just can’t do anything.
People around me are troubling me so much, they are saying, I can’t do anything at all. And if you feel like that, you can turn around and tip the mic. If you can’t do anything, if you can’t make anything better, can you make anything worse? Who wants to make things worse? They are already terrible.
Nobody wants to make things worse. But can we make things worse? No matter how bad a situation we are in, we never lose the power to make things worse. I might be fractured and bedridden.
I am powerless, I can’t do anything. But I can take a hammer and crack my abdomen. And I can make things worse.
So, if we have the power to make things worse, then we also have the power to make things better. So, in our situation, what can I do right? Not what is right in this particular argument, but what can I do right? How can I pursue Prabhupada’s mission? How can I share Krishna Consciousness? There are small things I can do. And once we start doing that, that brings us positive, that brings us wholeness, that brings us higher pleasure.
And then, that helps us to see all the incidental conflicts in perspective. And if we can rise above conflicts that Bhutma has dealt, we will get, in due course, a reward similar to what Bhutma Raj got. What was the reward? That for Bhutma Raj, Vishnu himself came in a sacrament.
And he blessed him. Vishnu may not have come if Bhutma had completed the 100th sacrament. Vishnu came because he was ready to let go of the desire to go 100 sacraments for a higher cause.
Similarly, if we let go of small battles and focus on trying to establish dharma and serve the lord, the lord will be pleased with us. And he will, even if he doesn’t appear physically in front of us, he will appear more and more in our hearts. And our hearts will become enriched and illumined by his supreme attractive presence.
And that will give us far greater satisfaction than whatever satisfaction our ego might get by proving ourselves right. So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today on the theme of how to choose our battles while practising bhakti.
That how we can keep small things small and focus on big things. So, here clearly we could say that Indra was the wrongdoer. And when Brahma says, stop this spreading of adharma, Krutugoda had taken it to mean that just kill Indra.
Then this adharma will stop. But he saw it as meaning that to insist on doing a hundred sacrifices. So, he saw beyond the circumstantial motion to what is the overall purpose.
And he focused on that. So, for all of us, we will inevitably face arguments and conflicts and we may be consumed by the need to prove that I am right. But love, dedication, all these, love in one sense means dedication.
And dedication here means that our love should free us or raise us above the need, above our ego’s need to prove that we are right. Even if we are right sometimes, there is no need to prove it. Just let go so that we can move on for something bigger in life.
It’s like a street, instead of getting into a street fight if somebody has cut us, we go on to an important meeting. So, by keeping small things small, we can have our energy available to focus on many things. We are meant to extinguish the fires of material existence.
Much of our energy goes in extinguishing the fire that we ourselves light. If we have hard feelings or conflicts with someone, the first casualty of that is our own change. Because we are no longer, we are so emotionally consumed by that conflict that we are no longer emotionally available for the Lord to remember Him and worship Him.
And that’s why to do kirtani as a daahari, to be absorbed in the mood of glorifying Krishna, it is important that we be humble and tolerant. And this doesn’t necessarily mean that we let people walk over us. It just means that we don’t get so caught in fighting small battles that we end up losing the war.
The forces of illusion can delude us, can bribe us into giving up the fight, but they can also delude us by making us get into a small fight while the big war is being lost. And that small fight is trying to prove I am right. The big war is trying to raise ourselves to Krishna consciousness and raise others to Krishna consciousness.
And while we tolerate and forgive, there are sometimes we tolerate and let go. There are times when we have to take a stand. So if something is very important for us, it is a big battle that we are fighting.
We may have to take a stand at that. But at that time, those times are relatively few. When do we let go? When the difference between the two is ridiculous.
Somebody occasionally does something wrong because of their conditioning, but they don’t have any ill intent. Then don’t hold it against them forever. Sometimes when we try to give others a peace of mind, a peace of our mind, we end up losing our own peace of mind.
Attachment makes small things seem very buildable and we lose perspective. Attachment helps us to see things the way they are and let go of them. And if there is wickedness, then definitely we have to take a strong stand.
But in most cases there is wickedness, just let go. And the best way to let go of things is to catch hold of something bigger. So within Krishna Consciousness, if we take up the responsibility of enhancing our own Krishna Consciousness and doing things to enhance others’ Krishna Consciousness, then we will find that letting go will not be that painful.
We won’t nurse grudges and wounds for a long time. It will just be forgotten. In the fulfilment that comes when Krishna engages our heart, the truth who is rewarded for his detachment by Vishnu appearing is thus his sacrificial family.
So if we also let go of small things, then Krishna will appear in our heart and enrich our heart. And that satisfaction is far greater than any egoistic satisfaction of doing the opposite. Thank you very much.
Pray Krishna. Any questions are coming? Question from audience. Question from audience.
… … … … … … If certain conditions are troubling us and those around us, can we just chant those conditions away? Or do we need to strive specifically to remove them? It depends on what the conditioning is, how much it is affecting us and how our chanting is affecting us. Chanting is affecting that conditioning. It is that sometimes we don’t understand that Krishna Consciousness is essentially the process of developing a relationship with Krishna and relationship is a complete relationship and involves the whole person.
We can’t reduce the relationship with Krishna only to chanting. Chanting is a vital, extremely potent process for linking with Krishna and the point is to live with Krishna, to have a personal relationship with Krishna. And if we identify ourselves as servants of Krishna, who want to do service to Krishna, then we will use all possible resources available so that we can serve Krishna better.
Let’s start with something which is extremely physical. Let’s say Arjuna, when he was fighting the Kurukshetra war, he was not thinking, let me chant and my enemies will be killed. He had practised archery diligently throughout his life and he fought tirelessly.
So we could say at the level of physical things, he was dependent on the Lord but he did not use that dependence as a means to avoid his responsibility of fighting. I will do my best to fight, in the results, I depend on the Lord. So with respect to physical things, we clearly understand.
If I am hungry, I will have to cook food. It is not that if I chant Hare Krishna, somebody will mystically provide me food. It might happen one day.
It has happened but we cannot base an institution on that assumption. We cannot base our life on that assumption. We have to make arrangement.
That’s why the Varanashram Dharma, why are there different Varanas, different duties. Everybody who is a chanter, Hare Krishna, everybody will provide. No, society has to be structured and people have to do their roles within social structure responsibly.
So this is with respect to physical things or physical earning food, physical fighting wars or whatever. Things become a little more consuming, confusing. Of course consuming can be confusing also.
But things become somewhat more confusing when it comes to the psychological level. That will chanting help us overcome our conditions? Of course it will. What do you mean? Is there a question about it? Yes, it will.
But how soon? We all see that for us, maybe some conditions like some of us might be used to eat meat or drink tea or coffee or whatever. And we just chant it for a few weeks or few days and just kill it. Some conditions fall off so easily.
And some conditions just don’t work. They are there for a long, long time. This is indulgence and this is abstinence.
For some people, from indulgence to abstinence is so easy. Just kill them. But for some people, in between there is a big mountain to climb.
Because the impressions, those conditions might be very, very big for them. So, one person might just so easily give this up. He is struggling.
Am I advancing? No, you are in a different situation. You have to climb up this whole mountain to get here. So, each one of us have different impressions of this.
So, some devotees might be short tempered and they start practising bhakti and they just become soft and gentle. And some devotees, they might be short tempered and even after practising bhakti for 30 years, still they remain short tempered. And some devotees, they might be gentle and after practising bhakti, they become more judgemental.
And they become more critical and they become apparently short tempered. So, what’s going on? Life is complex. Each one of us is a complex individual.
And we cannot lose the transformation of heart to a formula. The transformation of heart comes by developing a relationship with Krishna. I guess in an ordinary life, that if a boy and a girl want to develop a relationship, you can’t have a formula how to develop a relationship.
Similarly, for developing a relationship with Krishna, you can’t have a formula. There are general guidelines we are following but each one of us has to do what it takes to develop a relationship with Krishna. So, if we chant more and if it helps, it’s wonderful.
If you put this all together, the point is, it’s like we have to do what it takes. If chanting extra helps us, well and good. If chanting extra doesn’t help us, that doesn’t mean chanting is not working.
It just means that that particular conditioning is such that we may need to do something at an immediate level. Remembering Krishna and loving Krishna is the ultimate solution to all problems. Now, whether it is the immediate solution to all problems, that is up to the mind.
If I fall and I get a fracture, chanting Hare Krishna isn’t going to remove that fracture. Then you can say Krishna can do anything. But that’s not the way normally Krishna works.
So, saying this is, we understand this is a physical reality. Sometimes it may apply to the mental reality. So, if somebody is somehow hooked to something, some particular conditioning, then they may have to make a specific plans.
That okay, in this particular situation, I am vulnerable. So, let me keep a distance from this situation. Or these are my, I have to know what are my triggers.
What triggers us, what agitates us. Keep a distance from it. Whether we trigger for someone else and that’s why it may not matter for them.
But if it matters for us, then we have our responsibility here. So, chanting can also be done in Tamil Nadu. Although chanting is transcendental, chanting can become a form of escapism for some people.
Ultimately everything can be used by people for whatever purpose they want. So, some people may have serious emotional issues to deal with. Say if they have some very strong argument in some way.
And they may say that they have to maybe sit down with their leader and talk with that person and resolve all those emotional issues. But instead of doing that, they say, I will just chant. And if you chant, and even if they sing a chant, the emotional issues are there, they will not go away.
So, we have to do what is meaningful. And we have to look, in this case, we have to see phalena parichayat. Let’s say, if I chant more, is it actually making a difference? If it is not making a difference, then we begin to try something else.
Make a strategy, do this, do this. Sometimes I am going to have a counsellor, a mentor, whom I sit and talk. It’s a war and you cannot say that I am going to fight.
We might have a very strong sword and we might be very good at fighting, at sword fighting also. But if the enemy is attacking with bows and arrows, you will be killed before you can reach the enemy and attack them with the sword. Then you have to pick up the sword and fight.
So, you have to pick up the sword, arrow and fight. So, in a war, we can have a plan but we can’t be attached to the plan. We have to be attached to the purpose.
The purpose is we have to win the war. So, sometimes the plan helps in fulfilling the purpose. Sometimes the plan comes in the way of fulfilling the purpose.
So, our purpose ultimately is to love Krishna and to become better instruments for Krishna so that he can share love of Krishna in the world. So, sometimes the weapon of chanting will help us. Sometimes we may need other weapons.
And that’s why bhakti is an inclusive process. It’s not an exclusive process. Bhakti includes the analytical faculty.
Bhakti includes, in the Jigot Swami, there is so much analysis on the Sandalwood. Bhakti includes the practical practise. The Pandavas would practise.
They would practise archery. Arjuna was known as a Gudakesha because he would all day learn archery and all night practise archery. So, we can’t, we need to have an inclusive vision of bhakti.
And when we do other things, we shouldn’t see that I am giving up bhakti and doing other things. These are also included in the purpose of bhakti. So, if Arjuna shooting arrows can be included in bhakti, then our making some strategies, taking some guidance from people who are expert in that, then it may be necessary.
If we do it, there is nothing wrong in that. It is what is necessary for us to serve Krishna. Does this answer your question? Okay.
All the things we do have to come in the nine limbs of bhakti. Yes, but these nine limbs of bhakti can also be seen either in a stereotypical way or as a dynamic way. So, when we say worshipping the lord, that’s one thing.
That’s the limb, archanam or vandanam. Vandanam is offering praise, archanam is worshipping the lord. So, we could say that to worship the lord, we need to have a deity of the lord.
Maybe to have a deity of the lord, we need a temple of the lord. To have a temple of the lord, we have to build a temple. So, now, is fundraising for a temple also archanam? Well, yes and no.
Yes in the sense that, yes, in extended sense, it is also meant for the worship of the lord. But no in the sense that we have to see what is the consciousness. If somebody is becoming constantly money minded, as soon as you see a new person, first thought is, you know, oh, this person is going to be an expensive person.
You know, he is going to be a lot of donations. And then you have a nice and polite with that person. And somebody who is a simple person, you know, you will just neglect him.
If you become that calculative, then that kind of fundraising is, it may not be good. So, we don’t have to have a narrow, stereotype vision of the nine limbs of bhakti. So, almost everything that we can do.
Like Prabhupada, before Prabhupada, nobody used the word Sankirtan for book distribution. I am going out of Sankirtan. Sankirtan was literally Harina, Sankirtan.
But now, when we have a Sankirtan stall, what is Sankirtan stall? Is it a stall where you do Sankirtan? No. In the bookstore, we call it a Sankirtan stall. So, these words are elastic.
They are not unlimitedly elastic. Somebody cannot say, I am going to watch a movie and I am in Sankirtan. That’s not going to work.
So, they are elastic, but not endlessly elastic. So, if there is something in the mood of service to the lord, then it is included in the, it can be included in the limbs of bhakti. And I gave the example of Sankirtan, the term, the ambit, the semantic ambit of that term was extended by Prabhupada beyond what was done by the pillacharyas.
So, we have to see whether we feel connected with Krishna by doing that. I was talking with recently, a prominent disciple of Shri Prabhupada, a prominent scientific preacher, disciple of Shri Prabhupada. And he was telling me that when I read books on science and spirituality, I am not associating with the Lord.
I am associating with my spiritual guru, who wanted scientific preaching to me. And I was thinking, I am also interested in science and spirituality. But when I read that kind of books, I don’t feel that connection.
That I read those books because I need them for my outreach. I read those books because they give me some intellectual nourishment. But I don’t feel this.
This is not giving me devotional nourishment. For somebody else, it might. So, we, here we have to see fully in a punctuality.
What is the result? Somebody might do fundraising and they might feel devotionally elated. Oh, I am going to build a wonderful temple for that. Somebody else might be doing fundraising and they just become so money conscious.
Then, okay, that’s the study. Do it. But then do some other things also which will give you some nourishment.
Does that answer the question? So, thank you very much for your attention, participation. And I just wonder, I am grateful to have the opportunity to come here. And I forgive all of you.
Please forgive me if I committed any offences in the last two days. And I seek your permission so that I can continue to serve Shri Mataji.