How the Gita expresses Krishna’s love by directing us to balance this world and the next world

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Detroit, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So today How is An expression Of Krishna’s love The same Lord Who Has Who plays the flute To call the gopis That is the sound that comes from him is the Venugita And that same lord with the same lips He speaks the Bhagavad Gita So I will talk this class in two parts We will take two similar Verses from the Bhagavad Gita And by focussing on their Dissimilarities We will try to see how Krishna’s love is Seen So there are two verses in the Bhagavad Gita Which are almost identical They are 934 And 1865 So 934 is Manmana bhava mad-bhakto Madhyaji mam namaskuru Mame vaisya sisyam Dwaivam atmanam Madparayanam Mame vaisya sisyam Till this point this verse And the next verse 1865 is similar Manmana bhava mad-bhakto Madhyaji mam namaskuru Mame vaisya satyam te Pratijane Priyosi me So mame vaisya That point is similar Satyam te pratijane priyosi me The first verse says Krishna is calling upon us Manmana bhava Fix your mind on me, become devoted to me Worship me, offer your obeisances To me And in this way you will come to me That part is similar But in 934 what Krishna is saying Dwaivam atmanam Madparayanam If you are engaged in this way you will come to me In 1865 he is saying Mame vaisya sisyam Satyam te pratijane priyosi me This is the truth I declare And I speak the truth Because you are dear to me And not only you are dear to me Pratijane I declare, I proclaim That you are dear to me So The difference is In the first verse Krishna is emphasising What we need to do He says if you do this You will come to me Then the second verse He is saying if you do this You just do this and I guarantee I will do my part and I will get you to me You will come to me So Suppose somebody wants to Maybe sell a house or something like that And initially they are very cautious About the buyer Does this buyer actually give the money or not If you pay this money this time If you pay this money this time Then the property will be yours So this is Where the seller is cautious But If the seller is desperate to sell the property If you just do this I guarantee you The property will be yours So In a sense Krishna Actually is becoming Very intense He is eager Let Arjuna listen to him Let Arjuna Basically Abide by his will See sometimes the same statement Can be there But depending on how What is the stress in the statement The meaning can change completely Say for example If somebody is being considered for some responsibility And say One person wants to support that person Their candidature They say he had problems earlier But now he is stable But somebody Who wants to oppose that Their candidature They may take the same facts and say He is stable now But he had problems earlier Same point but completely opposite meaning So what happens Opposite implication So the stress very much matters So if we see the Bhagavad Gita Not just as a book of philosophy But as a personal reciprocation Between Krishna and Arjuna Then we see A lot of sublime Layers of meaning And taste In the Bhagavad Gita So essentially What is the import of these two verses All of us When we live in the world We understand That We have to navigate And negotiate Whatever it is that we want to achieve We have to navigate our way The world is like an ocean Just for driving We have to navigate the traffic and go to a particular place Similarly In our relationship we have to navigate With different people In the corporate world We have to navigate our way through So the world is like A stormy sea through which we have to navigate And while navigating We have to negotiate Ok I want to go in this direction But the waves are too strong over here So then I will go in this direction first And then I will go in that direction That happens when say We are driving So if the Road is this way But the road is blocked I will go this way first and then I will go that way So basically while navigating we have to negotiate Negotiate means give and take So this Is navigating and negotiating These are the two Essential challenges Of our life journey Whatever it is that we have to do in life Ok where do I want to go Let’s navigate Negotiation is How will I get there In fact these two words Are in Sanskrit Can be broadly related to Sadhya and Sadhana Sadhya is What is it that I want to achieve Where do I want to navigate to get to And Sadhana Is the means Ok how do I want to get there So navigate and negotiate Now all of us Have to do this at different times in life It may be in different contexts But ultimately We are not just Navigating and negotiating In life We are actually navigating and negotiating With life Why with life Because life is like A race And it’s a race in which Everyone is running But This is a peculiar race That whoever gets to the finish line They are shot down Dead Now Whether you come first or last When you come to the finishing line You are shot There is an Italian proverb which says that At the end of the chess match The king and the pawn Both go into the same box So similarly The life is a race Where there is At one level it seems there is ultimate Futility That we are going to lose everything Then what are we racing for Before that I want to enjoy life Ok that’s fine But is that all that we want Is there something beyond So when we Live in the world Broadly speaking We could say that Some people think this world Is all that matters And Some people say what is there after death There is nothing Why? Because if we ask those who have died What is there after death They reply nothing They don’t reply They don’t reply at all So some people may say this world Is all that exists And there is nothing beyond this world So we could have Like a 4 quadrant diagram Some people say This world There is this world And there is something beyond this world Some people say this world is all that matters And So if you have this quadrant This world matters The other world doesn’t matter at all One quadrant could be Neither this world matters Nor the other world matters Life is itself meaningless A third quadrant could be This world doesn’t matter Only the other world matters And the fourth quadrant is This world matters And the other world matters So among these 4 ways Those who think neither this world matters Nor the other world matters They are people who Live a life of Apathy Lack of energy Lethargy Depression Now when depression comes upon people People become so apathetic They just can’t do anything Some people are such that If they get an award for laziness They will ask Can you courier it to me So nothing matters in their lives It’s a very dark And dreary place to be in If you feel nothing matters Then what is the point of living at all Life is tough And to go through The struggles of life We need to have We need to have that conviction That something matters And it’s worthwhile going through all this So more and more people Are going into this First quadrant Neither this life matters Nor anything beyond matters And because it’s unbearable Nobody can stay here For very long They have to get out of here So how do you get out One way is By Thinking that This world is all that matters Like okay Maybe after that there is nothing But till then I want to live And I want to have a good life and I want to enjoy And most Of modern technological Progress Is based on this assumption So if it’s Considered from the Dawn of the age of science From the 16th, 17th century onwards The whole effort has been on Trying to improve this world And in many ways We have succeeded We have Ordinary people today have comforts That were unimaginable Even for royalty a few centuries ago Air conditioning Air transport Telecommunications So we have Significantly improved the world But the problem is That we all Need enduring And It is ironical That today If you talk with people about About Some spiritual world Some life beyond this life Their most probable response will be This is mythology This is a pre-scientific myth We don’t believe in this, this is nonsense But While they very strongly reject That Living as if this world Is all that matters Is not very palatable There is a survey done of How people live What are the mental states of people Especially in the western world where people are prosperous Healthy, young For 5% of the time People are happy 5% of the time people are unhappy 90% of the time They are bored They are bored Because this world itself Is not always stimulating What is there? We may eat and enjoy But we can’t eat all the time We may want sensual pleasures We can’t do that all the time We want to look at beautiful things But Not many things are beautiful I was at a college programme So one boy had come for the college And he said There is a slogan written on his t-shirt The slogan said 90% of the world’s Women are beautiful The remaining 10% are in my college So what happens basically is The sensory fair of the world Is never Up to what we desire And Because we can’t live In this quadrant very satisfactorily It’s not stimulating It’s not sufficiently satisfying So the same people who Very vigorously Reject the idea of any Religious other world They create A A fictional other world A fictional world Through comics Through movies Through dramas And they get obsessed with that They get completely obsessed with that That if you see Entertainment Has always been a part of human society But the obsession With entertainment that we have today That has not been there in the past Obsession is not just in terms of The millions and millions of dollars That are spent on entertainment In fact, if we consider India There is the IPL Indian Premier Cricket League Probably here in basketball or baseball Or American soccer we will have So the amount of money That is spent in India in 50 days On the IPL That is enough to feed All the hungry people of India Throughout the year Now this Phenomenal amount of money Now where is it coming from It is coming from people And why are people spending So much money Because The entertainment is serving A desperately felt need And what is that Desperately felt need That is we all need A satisfying object Of thought We are not just Physical creatures Who need Food We are not just food, clothing, shelter We are not just biological machines Who are designed to survive and reproduce And avoid pain We want something more And what we want is a satisfying object Of thought Something satisfying to think about And that If we believe This world is all that matters Then this world Is not a satisfying object Of thought most of the time And that is why you will see the same People who are You could say almost Fanatically materialistic We often talk about fanatical religionists But you can have fanatical materialists also Fanatical materialists are those Who say matter Is all that matters At least those who say matter Is all that matters They are functional materialists Fanatical materialists are those who say Matter is all that exists They are we could say Pure devotees of matter So now Those same people who say there is no world Beyond this world They get so obsessed with fiction Maybe a few decades ago Fiction, Harry Potter And stuff like that Was what small kids watched But now we see Adults are obsessed with it Video games and so much stuff Like that So why is that If we just live as if this world is all that matters It’s not satisfying And then The same people take the other world Also very seriously But that other world is a fictional world People sometimes have arguments Over this fictional character is better That fictional character is better And there can be Fights over it So sports is not unreal People perform in the sports But actually In one sense sports is meant for entertainment But sometimes If one team starts losing Riots break out So what is happening Something which is created for entertainment People are taking it so seriously More seriously Than anything else I was in Australia And I was giving this talk And after that Sri Lankan came and met me And so 5-6 years ago Sri Lanka lost repeatedly Several Cricket World Cup 50-20 or whatever 3-4 finals they lost repeatedly In the finals And after that Almost a dozen people in Sri Lanka committed suicide None of the players Committed suicide The fans committed suicide And after that One person in Australia He said one of his very close Friends committed suicide He said both of us were mad for cricket But When that happened I was jolted by it How could he commit suicide I could understand it We were passionate about cricket That’s when he said I started looking for some higher meaning Why are we taking it so seriously So We all live We all want something satisfying Something which will Satisfying object of thought Satisfying, stimulating, meaningful So when people live as if this world is all that matters They don’t live like that They take a fictional world seriously Now somebody might say that I understand it’s fiction, I don’t take it as real Well You may say it is fictional But functionally People take it as more real than real Isn’t it I saw a cartoon It said that a man Is saying that Yesterday night my broadband went down My broadband WiFi went down So I spent some time with my family They seem like nice people So People end up Being more connected With some person Either in a fictional character in a video game Or some person in a social media And that person might have a profile Which has nothing to do with their real life People often fake profiles So what happens We are not living as if this world Is all that matters We are creating some other world And living as if that matters Now this can happen In a spiritual circle also That sometimes some people just reject This world as illusion And they say the other world is all that matters And that is escapism Now escapism can actually take both ways Escapism This world doesn’t matter at all That means I don’t care for anything in this world That If you look at the history of India This is a complex subject with political overtones But In Indian history when the Islamic invasion Started happening So at that time prominently There was the Theology, the philosophy Which was that this world is Maya This world doesn’t matter at all And that in some ways Fuelled the apathy Now whatever happens in this world Oh our kingdoms are destroyed Ultimately this is all an illusion Don’t bother about it And now conversely The Islamic invasion Also has this idea That this world doesn’t matter What does it mean doesn’t matter That what you do in this world doesn’t matter at all If you are living And dying For the sake of Allah Then you are going to be redeemed And so What happens to us doesn’t matter That is one kind of apathy The other is What we do doesn’t matter As long as we are following our ideology What we do doesn’t matter And this is not to single out any particular religion Now this This is what happened in communism also Now communism Which is there Now most of us know about the first world war, second world war And millions of people were killed in that About 15 to 20 million people died But Few people know That actually During the reign of communism In Russia USSR and China 100 million people were killed Several times more people were killed There By the governments themselves So what happened was They had this idea that We want to create a utopia in the world So they said that We will create a world Where everyone is equal And what they did was They took the wealth from the wealthy And started plan to distribute it to the poor But in the process How do you decide who is wealthy How do you decide who is poor So anybody who had any grudges Against anyone else Says you are the victimiser, I am the victim And eventually it ended up So many people were killed So their idea was We will create a utopia Where everybody is equal But it just doesn’t work like that Actually in USSR A study was done They decided in a classroom That All the students give the exam And Some students will get top grade Some students will fail They say at the end of the exam all of you perform And after that We will Whatever grade you get We will do the average of all the grades And all students will get that grade And the result of that was The lazy students Thought that we will pass even if we don’t study And the talented students Thought if we are going to get the same grade As everyone else, why should we study And eventually The whole class started failing So basically the point I am making over here is That Any ideology People can get so obsessed with it That they stop caring what we are doing Because we want to create Some other world We want to create a world of absolute equality And for that we can do even Monstrosity over here That becomes justified So the healthy way to live Is what Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita That this world matters And the other world matters Krishna Arjuna wants to renounce The world And give up his duty Krishna says nothing doing Like Arjuna says I will just stop being involved in the world Arjuna says I don’t want to do anything Nothing doing So Krishna says nothing doing To nothing doing Nothing doing to doing nothing If you say I will not do anything, it’s not possible He says act responsibly He says do your duty in this world And also remember the lord who is beyond this world So the way we function in the world Is that we take this world seriously And we take the other world seriously also Why the other world seriously? Because that is where We will go beyond this world And we at our core are Eternal beings and we can attain Eternal life So that is Something which has to be taken seriously In fact this capacity To take the future seriously Is what differentiates humans from animals Animals just live According to biological instincts They are driven to eat They are driven to go from here to there Even when animals seem to Prepare for the future, they are not consciously Preparing for the future They are just biologically driven to prepare for the future But human beings can prepare For the future So we take the other world seriously But the bhakti tradition says Take this world also seriously That means Do your activities Responsibly in this world But while doing your activities responsibly in this world Don’t let your vision be caught With this world alone Look beyond this world And look at the lord So This is 1846, 47, 48 This beautiful series of verses where Krishna says that That lord From whom everything has come By whom everything is pervaded So the connection of the world With the lord is described The world comes from him And the world is permeated by him By your work Worship him And if you do this You will attain perfection Now the Precise verse in the bhagavad gita is By your work, worship him Some people translate it as Work is worship Now work is worship Is fine as an ethical or social principle That whatever work anyone is doing All work should have Dignity of labour All workers Should be respected Nobody should discriminate against But work is worship Is not a philosophical principle Why? Because if work were worship Then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper The donkey was Harder than everyone else So it’s not Work is worship It’s work needs to be done in a mood of worship Work intrinsically Is not worship Krishna is saying That means What is the idea over here Take this world seriously Take the other world seriously So if you say work is worship Then all that you are saying is Do your work, don’t bother about the other world But work as a form of worship What that means Do your work, that is take this world seriously But worship means There is a purpose beyond this world Take that also seriously So work as a form of worship What that means is That we understand That we all have different talents Different abilities, different resources in life And all of these Are gifts of God to us Actually Whatever abilities we have We often take it for granted Now most of us We have certain intelligence Certain intelligence, certain skills And we use them But we didn’t do any programming In our mother’s womb So that we had those abilities We work to develop those abilities But certain talents are given So the Bhagavad Gita’s vision is That what we are Is God’s gift to us What we become Is our gift to God So what we are We have certain abilities, certain resources Those which are given to us Is God’s gift to us And what we do with it Not just what we do with it externally But how we use them To change ourselves What we become is our gift to God So the idea is That There is two things There are two aspects For us to function in the world We take this world seriously In a mood of service, in a mood of contribution And then we take the other world seriously In a mood of devotion Of connection So Contribution in this world Connection with the Lord Who is the source of everything Who is the master of the other world And maam anusmara yudhyaja Yudhyaja is Contribution in this world Maam anusmara is connection With the Lord beyond the world And With this So what Krishna is telling Arjuna is That Work, take whatever you are doing seriously But Don’t let it alone consume your mind Now with this background Let’s come back to the 934 And 1865 Krishna says So this is Krishna is telling In this way you connect with him What is the context of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna is considering Should I be doing my very difficult And demanding duty of fighting a war Krishna says What you are doing Is not as important as In what consciousness you are doing it So he is telling If Internally you are devoted to me Then I guarantee you, you will come to me So what does he say over there That Now these are very direct devotional Activities, he says fix your mind on me Worship me, offer your homage to me Become devoted to me So Krishna is not giving a vague idea Oh just work is worship Some people say that God is present everywhere Why do you need to go to the temple That’s like saying Water vapour is present everywhere Why do you need to go to a tap To get water, just hang out your tongue Well you can’t get water like that Water may be there everywhere as water vapour But is it accessible for us We need the water in a way that is Accessible for us and that is a tap So similarly Yes God is present everywhere But we can’t perceive him everywhere We need to go to places Where we can perceive His presence And sacred places Of worship like the temple Or even in our home A corner which we have made into a temple There are places where we can perceive We can Bathe in his divine presence And that’s how we establish the connection So Krishna says If you give due time to connect With me by doing these activities of bhakti Then In your profession You may be doing anything This is 1865 Few verses later 1856 Arjuna has Been told by Krishna That Whatever work you are doing That is not important What consciousness you are doing that is important If you take shelter of me Krishna is saying That You will come to me Sathyam te Sathyam te means I speak this truth Pratijane priyose Pratijane means I declare this So for Krishna is making a Proclamation over here Proclamation means he is putting his You could say his credibility At stake He is saying that if you Devote yourselves to me And it’s not just a matter of internal devotion We have to have time to connect With Krishna and then when we connect Then whatever else we do We will find that We will do it in a mood of devotion And This is Krishna’s assurance To us Krishna is not a god Who demands that you just give up the world And come to me He doesn’t demand He doesn’t demand Faith What he demands What he asks for actually is a Reasoned decision This is 1865 Two verses before that Krishna says Now I have given my message to you Vimrish shaita dasheshena yathe chisittha puru Now Deliberate on this deeply And then do as you desire So here we have a Vision of a god Who respects human Intelligence and respects Human independence Just do as you desire I’m not going to dominate you Do as you desire but don’t do it Just simply as you desire, deliberate And the Bhagavad Gita is an appeal To human intelligence One of my friends Recently told me that I’m planning to write a book And he said I’m calling it The Ten Commandments of the Bhagavad Gita So then I told him that Please don’t write a book like this He said what? He said the Bhagavad Gita’s mood is not a mood of commandments The Bhagavad Gita’s mood is of Choices and consequences You do this This will happen Now you decide what you want to do The Bhagavad Gita’s mood is more Invitational Invite yourself to Inviting to deliberate And then to decide what to do So here Krishna is promising us that If we He is speaking to Arjuna but through Arjuna he is speaking to all of us That if we Become devoted to him Then he guarantees we will come to him So that Is How we can mould our life The world is incredibly tough And it can become More and more complicated But if we just maintain An attitude of service Krishna whatever situation comes in my life I want to serve you If we maintain that attitude No matter how much confusion comes That service attitude will help us See a path ahead How can I say I can do this now Small small things we keep doing In a mood of service And we will move forward Sometimes in our life We may have a particular plan for our life It’s like we are on a road And there are street lights ahead And suddenly all the street lights go off We may have a plan for life But everything just collapses So now Naturally we might Mould, we might curse We might yell But after that We just turn on our flashlight And a flashlight can just show one step ahead Cannot show the full part But one step ahead And if we take that one step ahead The flashlight will show the next step ahead And then the next step ahead So similarly we may all have plans for our life But in one moment all plans can be disrupted But if we have A service attitude That service attitude is like a flashlight Krishna how can I serve you In this situation Oh god How can I serve you How can I contribute If we have that attitude Even in the darkest of situations That can become a light for us And I’ll conclude with one simple exercise A thought exercise here If you feel I can’t do anything I’m in such a terrible situation I just can’t do anything Then we can ask ourselves Can I Make things worse What Things are terrible Who wants to make them worse No nobody Wants to make them worse But can we make things worse No matter how bad Things are We never lose the power to make them worse And if we can make them worse We can make them better also Service attitude is that okay There are hundred things wrong in my life I don’t obsess over the hundred things that are wrong I focus on how can I serve Krishna If we keep in service Attitude Okay this one thing I can do right And if we do one thing right We are not just doing that one thing right We are actually Reposing faith in Krishna Krishna I’m your servant And the ninety nine things that are wrong Which we have no idea how to set them right Krishna can in his own way Set them right But if we look at the hundred things that are wrong And then don’t look at Krishna All that will happen is we’ll become so discouraged We’ll not even set that one thing right Rather these hundred things are wrong And we’ll make a hundred and first thing wrong So we Look at the world and we look at Krishna Beyond the world And when we have this attitude No matter how difficulties come We will navigate them If we take only this world seriously Then our problems may overwhelm us If We take only the other world seriously Again we will not do anything to deal with the problems And the problems will overwhelm us But If we take this world seriously and take the other world seriously Then what will happen We’ll focus our vision on Krishna And then deal with this world responsibly So We have to begin with the other world Not with this world Begin with Krishna not with the world Don’t tell God how big your problems are Tell your problems How big God is So we begin With the other world Tell your problems how big God is And then with that hugeness of God In our consciousness Look at the problems And we’ll find that slowly but surely We will get the wisdom, the strength To set small things right And then gradually Krishna will either give us the strength To set big things right also Or Krishna will himself set them right And we’ll be moving To a better future for ourselves So I’ll summarise I spoke today On how the Bhagavad Gita Is an expression of Krishna’s love for us I talked about the contrast Between 934 and 1865 Like Krishna is telling you become devoted to me You’ll come to me But first he’s insisting you do this this this Then you’ll come to me And then he’s saying you just do this I guarantee you’ll come to me So Krishna is desperate in a sense That we connect with him So when we are going through a life journey We need to navigate And negotiate Where do I want to go and how do I get there That is sadhana and sadhya And For that I talked about these 4 quadrants So our goal Is the other world But the means is through this world So the sadhya is the other world The sadhana is we function in this world There can be 4 possibilities People who don’t take this world or the other world seriously They are They are apathetic, they become depressed They just can’t do anything People can’t survive in this Most of the society today Takes this world around seriously And that’s how we have a phenomenal technological progress But No matter how much progress we have This world is never stimulating Or satisfying enough And that’s why We have used the technology not just to improve this world But also to create Improved versions of fictional worlds Into which we can escape And the same people who realise Who reject a religious other world like mythology They will take A fictional world with fictional characters Extremely seriously So The third quadrant is Where people don’t take this world seriously at all They just take the other world seriously That can again lead to Apathy towards whatever is happening Or that can lead to irresponsibility As long as I get to the other world, how I act in this world doesn’t matter I can destroy, I can kill That can happen to fanatical religion That can happen to fanatical ideologies Like communism, Marxism Anything So then the bhakti attitude is a balanced way To take this world seriously And the other world seriously That is, we understand why God is a sustainer of both the other world And this world And Krishna tells Arjuna That you have position You have talents, you have abilities Use them responsibly But it’s not that work is worship Krishna says, work as a form of worship Work is worship means You don’t have to bother about the other world at all Just work That is, if work were worship Then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper So work as worship means That understand that there is a lord beyond this world And it is he who is to be attained By our work in this world And when we have this attitude Then we What is the motivation for working? It is the motivation of service Of the connection with the other lord Other world And contribution in this world So we have this attitude of service And even if big obstacles come to us In this world Our whole plan seems to be shaken, our path seems to be dark And that service attitude will become Like our Flashlight So it’s one step, one step Krishna How can I serve you in this situation? And we have that attitude If we look at Krishna first and then at the world Then the world’s problems would overwhelm us Don’t tell God how big your problems are Tell your problems how big God is And then God will give us the strength To face through our problems And ultimately achieve fulfilment in life Thank you very much Hare Krishna Are there any questions or comments? Yes We know the param But I sleep when I eat And we know that completely But I know that How to pass through that Yeah that’s a challenge See we want If you want to go to the other world Whatever the criteria for that We are not meeting those So how will we Even if we get there we won’t be allowed to enter So what do we do? In fact I was trying to I have another class on this topic Broadly, what I call it as Digital and Analogue Analogue conceptions of bhakti What I mean is Digital conception is one or zero Either you are a devotee Or you are a non-devotee Either I am meeting the standard Or I am useless But analogue is a progression If you see Bhagavad Gita Is largely an analogue conception In fact it’s not just bhakti Krishna says you can’t practise bhakti You can’t practise yoga, practise jnana You can’t practise karma If you can’t worship me You can worship other devtas Krishna has so many alternatives Even within bhakti from 12.8 to 12.12 Krishna says Spontaneously fix your mind on me If you can’t do that Conscientiously try to fix your mind on me If you can’t do that Then work for me If you can’t work for me Then at least work for a selfless cause Work for something bigger than yourself So Krishna is giving Multiple levels for us to connect with So we don’t have to Necessarily Think that if we are not at a standard At a particular standard That we are not practising bhakti Bhakti is progression And if we just keep doing what we can When we say Krishna says That means I will protect what you have And I will provide what you lack That applies not just for our material assets It also applies For our spiritual assets So if we Krishna says 9.22 in the Gita If you strive to Be devoted to me Then I will protect Whatever spiritual advancement you have made And I will provide Whatever spiritual advancement you have made So we don’t have to really bother About coming up to a particular standard We just Dedicate ourselves to doing the best We can right now If we keep doing the best Either Krishna will make up for All that we are lacking and take us directly to him Or Krishna will Take us to some place where we are closer to him So yes we all want to grow spiritually But It’s very important That wherever there are standards The mind is such a thing That the mind can make Even the most positive thing negative That means That the purpose of Standards is to Inspire us Not to discourage us If we hear about How ecstatic The great saints Are How Mahaprabhu the Goswami’s are Absorbed in love for Krishna Now when we see that Either we can think I am nowhere near there What is the use of my practising Bhagat Or We can say that This is at such advanced stages And these can be attained by practising the process That I am practising right now If we practise wholeheartedly So depending on our consciousness We need to adjust our regime If we are feeling very proud Oh I am so spiritually advanced Then look how far you have to go There is no reason to There is no reason to be proud actually But if we are feeling disheartened Then we need to look behind To see how far we have come And we all Have come a significant way in our spiritual journey If we consider 5, 10, 15 years ago before we were practising bhakti And now We have grown significantly Our values have changed And we can Actually if we are honest we can say Whatever spiritual progress we have made It is not because of us It is in spite of us We are so distracted We are so impure We are so conditioned And in spite of ourselves We still made so much progress So just now Tomorrow I am leaving for India So a devotee friend told me Just have a safe trip So I told him that as long as I am with me No trip will be safe Because we are often our own enemies Our worst enemies So still we have covered significant distances And how has that happened? In spite of us That means despite of our half-hearted Distracted efforts Krishna has got us this far So if Krishna Has got us this far Krishna will take us all the way Thank you So if we are caught in a loop Where we keep making things worse Then thinking of serving Krishna Is almost impossible at that time So what do we do? We all have certain impurities Anger, greed Envy So many things like that And you could say these impurities that are there They are urges And these urges have surges So we may all have a certain level of Annoyance, irritation But sometimes it becomes fury And when these surges happen Then we might be powerless Just over-powerless So our devotion Is defined Not just by what happens during the surges But also what happens Between the surges So okay that time I am just helpless I am over-powered But what am I doing in between? Even if somebody is very short-tempered It is not that 24 hours They are always burning with anger Nobody can live like that Isn’t it? So nobody can live like that So okay during the normal time What am I doing? If at that time I am striving To purify myself To strengthen myself To connect with Krishna Then what will happen is Eventually when the urges come I will be strong enough to deal with it So don’t define Yourself or your spirituality By your ability To face the surges of the urges We want to deal with it But sometimes for some of us Some conditions might be such that They are impossible to deal with To overcome So focus on in between What are we doing? Krishna says that A devotee may do terribly wrong things But the devotee doesn’t give up The determination to serve Okay I do this It can be a grievous lapse But as soon as it is overcome I will come back and serve So that is the first thing Focus on what you can do In between the surges of the urges Second thing is Try to find out Are there some triggers That provoke those surges So Some people There are some people in our lives Who bring out the best within us Just seeing them, associating with them We feel inspired to become better But just as some people bring the best within us Some people may bring the worst within us Now we can’t blame them It is we who are doing that But if that is happening Some people are triggers for us And keep a distance from them Not in a condemning, judgemental sense But in the sense, this is not healthy for me So If somebody is trying to recover from alcoholism And if their home is on top of a bar It is never going to work If their home is on top of a bar They are going to be overcome If something is a trigger We need to create a distance So that the surges At least externals We don’t Thoughtlessly expose ourselves Then gradually If we do these things Then gradually we will find out That even amid those surges We will not get that much thrown That’s why sometimes In some cases The spiritual advancement is I was doing this and I gave it up That is spiritual advancement But in some cases, that could be digital One, zero It is complete freedom from that particular thing But in some cases Spiritual advancement may be incremental It may be analogue That means, that yes I used to I get angry But last time I got angry And I just yelled at this person so much This time I got angry I was angry, but I didn’t yell at him Or you could even make it I yelled at someone But I did not Use foul words or harsh words There can be the surge We can limit how much it goes And gradually That will start decreasing So don’t Focus on that part alone Focus on the rest of your spiritual life And then they will be able to deal with that part Thank you We had one last question Correct So even if we know That matter is temporary, still we hanker for it There are two ways of looking at this One is That this world is a place of illusion Illusion means It is like a trap Sometimes Some devotees say This world is a place of distress Does that mean there is no happiness in this world Actually Prahlad Maharaj says But there is a drop of laughter And Illusion is not About the presence of Pleasure The illusion is about the quantity of pleasure We think There is a lot of pleasure over here Most of the times Whenever We get some greatly Dreamed about sense pleasure Afterwards It is usually an anticlimax Anticlimax I dreamt about it and what I got was so little So there is So the illusion is not that there is no pleasure It is very little pleasure So The point I am making is This world is like a trap So there is enough pleasure in this world To keep us Attached To all the troubles that come with the pleasure If there is only trouble If there is only trouble We would just give it up If there is only pleasure we wouldn’t think about anything else But there is enough pleasure in this world To make us believe that all the troubles are worthwhile Actually whether they are worthwhile is open to question But because When we are pursuing this pleasure We think this is so great we think it is worth it So the way Is not just saying no to the pleasures of the world In bhakti We focus not so much on renunciation As on devotion What does that mean? That means That Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita In 1041 That Everything attractive Manifests a spark of my splendour Means Krishna is not saying Everything attractive in this world is false If it is manifesting His splendour then it is not false Because his splendour is real So the example to understand this could be If there is an ocean It is filled with water And there are many drops of water So Krishna is like the ocean The pleasures of this world Are like drops And Krishna is like the sun The pleasures of this world are like sparks So suppose we are here And the ocean is here Now there will be some drops of water Which are over here There are some drops of water Which are over here There are some drops of water which are over here So now all the drops of water They are all drops only But there are some drops Which are taking us towards the ocean Some drops which are taking us away from the ocean So we don’t deny the reality Of the drops But we focus on Where are these drops taking us So it is not For example Varanashram The whole idea of Social division Its principle is what A Brahmana is one who likes to be intellectual Be intellectual But be intellectual In a way that is spiritually harmonious A Kshatriya Is one who likes to lead To delegate, to control To basically You can say boss around the world In fact one of the qualities of Kshatriya Krishna Described in the Bhagavad Gita is Ishwarabhau Dhanam Ishwarabhavashyam Shatram Karmasabhavajam Now Ishwarabhau could be translated as The attitude I am God But Krishna is saying this is a recommended Varju of a Kshatriya Not that I am the supreme God It is not Parameshwarabhau It is Ishwarabhau Right There are some people who just like to lead To manage, to delegate, to control Do it In the service of the supreme leader So what this whole Idea of Ananashram is There are certain things which are materially pleasurable For us But do them in a way that will take us Towards the source of supreme spiritual pleasure So it is not that we Reject all material pleasure It is rather we Select that material pleasure That is harmony with our spiritual purpose So we Accept that the drops are there And they are real So The whole idea is We don’t focus so much on denying the pleasure Of this world Denying that there is pleasure or denying ourselves that pleasure Rather we focus on Remembering that This pleasure is a pointer to the ultimate pleasure And let me Pursue that path That’s why in bhakti It is not so much of What we Give up As what we take up Bhakti is not a process Of giving up things in the world It is more of taking up Prabhupada if you consider as an example There were many other Prabhupada’s god brothers Some of them were lifelong celibates Some of them They knew far more scripture Than what he knew But what Prabhupada had Especially was The strongest desire To share Krishna with others So Prabhupada took up That mission Of sharing the message of spiritual love Like no one else So what defined Prabhupada Was not just his giving up of material desires It was his taking up of Spiritual desires So we don’t Try to focus on What all we have to say no to Focus on What all can we say yes to We can’t Crowd out worldly pleasures Worldly desires from our heart Sorry we can’t drive out worldly desires But we can crowd them out So now We focus on What all can I do For Krishna And what I am not able to give up Not that we don’t Like I talked about we have to deal with the surges of energies But don’t obsess over that Focus on what you are taking up For Krishna The process of Bhakti is Not just that we are saved from What we are saved from Is not as important As what we are saved for No we are Saved, we are delivered, we are protected For a purpose That purpose is to serve Krishna more and more So take up the service of Krishna more and more Try to fill your life with Krishna And then whatever is to be given up We will find out how to deal with it So even if we Indulge in some pleasure No we won’t obsess over it Ok this is what I need to do, I do it And I move on Otherwise we are obsessing over it, no I won’t do it, I won’t do it No I want to do it, I’ll do it And then oh why did I do it Just move on So material indulgence Is not as Is not worth Thinking about too much Either in terms of how I’ll give it up or how I’ll get it Focus on the spiritual connection Thank you very much