Remembrance and guidance – the essence of devotion

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I will be speaking today on the Naam Ramayan so the Naam Ramayan is the composition which has 108 verses and these focus on how the lord and his pastimes can be conveyed the entire Ramayan is conveyed through one one name of Ram which reminds us of one one pastime and this is I will be focussing primarily on the pastimes in the Sundarkanda and I have extracted them over here as a slide show so we will discuss these verses and based on that we will be I will be speaking a few things so we could as possible also recite these verses so in the Ramayan there are many kandas it begins with the Balakanda which is lord’s childhood pastimes and there is Ayodhya Kanda which is where Ram and Sita are living together harmoniously then there is the Aranya Kanda where they are in the forest and then there Sita is abducted and then Ram starts searching for her and then he comes to Kishkindha that is the Kishkindha Kanda so some sections of the Ramayan are named after the place of the activity some are named after the nature of the activity and then after Kishkindha Kanda we have the Sundarkanda Sundar has many different meanings one of the names of Hanuman is Sundar and Hanuman is prominent in this Kanda another is that there are very sweet and beautiful interactions between the devotees especially between the greatest servant of Ram and the greatest devotee of Ram that is Hanuman and Sita that’s how the name Sundar Kanda comes over here. So I will explain each word and after explaining that word, explaining that name we will recite that name together and then I will speak on it.
So even this when the Ram Ramayan is sung each of these names or two names are sung together and then the last slide has the chorus which is sung repeatedly Ram Ram Jaya Raja Ram Ram Ram Jaya Sita Ram so the first name over here is Kapivara Santata Samsmrita Rama so Kapivara Kapi is monkeys, Vara is the best of the monkeys so Kapivara Santata Santata is constantly Samsmrita Rama so while the monkeys were going in the forest at that time they were searching for Sita and they were constantly remembering Ram so Kapivara Santata Samsmrita Rama you can try to repeat if possible Kapivara Santata Samsmrita Rama and then as they were going forward what happened? as they were making progress they faced many obstacles Vigna but by the grace of Ram Dhamsak Rama those that Lord Ram’s grace destroyed all the obstacles so Tadgate Vigna Dhamsak Rama now these two are very beautiful verses which actually also describe our condition in the material world the Sundarkand Sundarkand is the only kanda in the Ramayana where Ram practically has no role at the start of the Sundarkand Ram sends Hanuman and the monkeys in search for Sita and at the end Hanuman comes and reports his victorious expedition in Lanka so in that sense Ram is there initially and at the end but in the Sundarkand itself Ram is not there much and yet he is very much there he was very much there through the remembrance and the guidance so the Lord’s role in this world is also similar for all of us when we are in the world Krishna is not directly present but he is there through remembrance and through guidance so we remember him internally and then he gives us guidance internally guidance internally or guidance external he uses mercy whatever way it is but this is the essential reciprocation that comprises Bhakti so Bhakti as practised in the material world can be summarised in these two words remembrance and guidance that now of course we want to please the Lord, we want to do some service but everything its centred on these two things we with a devotional disposition try to remember and then Krishna gives us guidance about how do we go ahead executing that remembrance so remembrance and guidance so we will talk about these two principles in Bhakti and especially how these two can help us to face the challenges that are before us now see broadly there are different conceptions that people have of the role of God in the world what we mean by the role of God in the world that whenever we face some problems generally we turn to God to pray to him to help us remove those problems so then that raises the questions what is God’s role, is he sending those problems to us is he something else sending those problems and he is removing the problems but then sometimes despite our best efforts the problems don’t go away then what exactly is happening so to understand this properly there are basically two main ways of understanding devotion itself there is we could say there is material devotion and there is spiritual devotion now how can devotion be material material means that the Bhagavad Gita in the Bhagavatam in the third canto talks about how Bhakti can be practised within the three modes, Bhakti can be practised in goodness, in passion in ignorance, Bhakti itself is transcendental but the practitioners are not always transcendental and based on their level of consciousness they practise Bhakti accordingly so if we consider for the for the Vanaras so when we look at the Ramayan Lord Ram was on the earth but he was not there with them directly he was not there there are times later on when the direct war with Ravana will happen, Ram will be leading from the front but this is not the situation here here they are actually serving the Lord in separation so I will talk about some past times depending on how the time is available for how the Lord acted for them at one level it was extremely difficult mission that the Vanaras had that mission was essentially they had to search for one person and the only clue that they had was that person is somewhere in has been taken southward and they went southward accordingly and among the four parties that Sugrivas decided to send Ram had the strongest hope in the party that was going south and that’s why there were lot of illustrious people in that team so there was Hanuman himself and there was Jambavan and there was Angada interestingly till this point Hanuman is just one among several monkeys several monkey leaders he comes into his own and becomes the foremost leader through his exploits in the Sundarkand at this point he is just one assistant of Sugriva and also Jambavan is there who is who is very mature and wise because of his age and he had himself been a formidable warrior and now he is strong but age has had its inevitable effect and for Angada he is young he is just recovered from the death of his father and the sudden transition of power where now his uncle has become the king and he is also serving on behalf of his uncle so Angada because he is a member of the royal dynasty he is made into the leader and this has its own ramifications see broadly speaking in human history leaders have come through two broad sources one is from bottom up or from top down so bottom up means like nowadays across the world we have democracy where people elect someone and traditionally there was monarchy now monarchy at least as it is talked about in the Vedic tradition is different from what we today consider as what we call as dictatorship so monarchy usually the idea was there would be a person who had some divine authority and that means that person was appointed or become the king on behalf of the divine that’s why the kings were called Naradev so whichever way one gains authority it is impossible for authority to be maintained simply by raw power that may be possible for some time and if somebody has extreme power they can continue for a significant amount of time but there is the authority that is rewarded and there is the authority that is earned so for some people authority may be rewarded and they may not recognise that they have to also earn the respect not just get the respect because they have the position and for some people they might just go bottom up and they might feel I have earned the authority and they may not recognise that this authority is actually this position of authority is a reward which I have got because of some higher position so generally in any situation when there are multiple centres of power then there is always some tension that comes up so here in the group of the monkeys there were these three three locuses of power there was Hanuman who was you could say at one level wise who was quite resourceful he was the person who had mystic powers he had been the person to make the first contact with Ram he had been sent by Sugriva to check out who were these two strange looking people they were dressed like ascetics but they had bows on their shoulders and their shoulder had marks from keeping the bows which indicated that they had it for a long time and their physiques were strong and tall and their carriage was like Kshatriyas not like sages so Hanuman had changed his form and gone as a Brahmana to meet them so Hanuman was a trusted aid of Sugriva so Hanuman had that mystic powers Jambavan had wisdom and maturity and Angada had youthful energy and royal lineage so all of them were working cooperatively what happened generally it is if its a straight path to go ahead then we all can move along that path but when an obstacle comes at that time what do we do? which way do I go? this way or that way and that’s where sometimes conflicts come up and resolving these conflicts is not easy because each person feels that what I am saying this is what makes sense to me and other person’s view doesn’t doesn’t make so much sense sometimes we feel its just nonsense so when I was at a conflict resolution and one person who took the initiative forward he said that I know I made some mistakes you made some mistakes and we both need to meet half way to resolve this so other person said that I am ready to meet you half way I am ready to agree that you made some mistakes so now if somebody is so self righteous it becomes very difficult for resolution to take place its not always that there is 50-50% blame in each side but whatever it is there has to be when there are different views of the same situation if we don’t just view any situation in isolation our view is shaped by our world view, our background our experience, our analytical frame so because our view is shaped by our world view we all may we all may see the same view but we may not take the same view we may see the same object but we may have different perceptions of that object so anyway this conflict came up especially when the Vanaras were stymied they had been searching for Sita and Sugriva had told them that you have to come within one month back now they had been searching searching and they had been starving they somehow got into a cave and they got some food and water over there there was a mystical lady over there Swayam Prabha who helped them they came out from there and thereafter what happened was they came out and they kept searching and the one month period already exceeded and as they were waiting not knowing where to go they became dejected and two views started forming among them some of them said oh let us go back let us go back and let us wait for some further let us take some further commands from Sugriva what we should do we have already exceeded our time and the other group said that no no no we cant go back lets keep searching we have come so far we should seek and find and they were searching so the second group prevailed and they kept searching but when they came nowhere in their search desperately eventually the first group started becoming more restive more restless and they said lets go back lets check what is the desire but then what happened was the first group said that no no no actually we cant go back Angad was in that group and Angad said we will be humiliated if we go back in fact Sugriva Sugriva had given a very strict order generally in Kshatriya circles there are certain words which are words of honour and when its like a promise or a vow they take it very seriously but at other times there are Kshatriya speak words that are rhetorical so for example before a war somebody might say that I am going to cut off your head and feed it to the vultures nobody does that literally even the enemy is given honourable honourable cremation after Ravan was killed Haram insisted that Vibhishan perform last rites of Ravan so there are certain rhetorical statements that come up so they are meant to convey a particular point not necessarily the literal implication of what is being said so Sugriva had said that when the Vanaras were going out in search he said that anybody who delays even by one day in returning after the search they will be punished and they will be executed so now this statement was not literal the idea was that monkeys like to monkey around in fact monkey is not just a noun it’s also a verb monkey means just fool around with things so so the point was to induce a sense of urgency don’t just fool around actually go and search and come back but Angada took this literally and he took it literally and he said that that if we go back now we will be executed Sugriva will have all of us killed and we will be disgraced in front of our family and our loved ones we will be condemned as failures and we will be humiliated and killed rather than experiencing such humiliation and then death let us stay here itself and when he spoke this all the monkeys got agitated some of the monkeys felt that he is he is creating dissension against the king especially in a army situation if somebody speaks directly against the leader of the army it is like doing insurrection it is like rebellion and it can be a very serious crime so some of them say oh how dare he speak like this against the king they didn’t speak it directly but they started whispering and Hanuman was observing all this with increasing concern in the Mahabharata Bhishma Pitamah tells the Kaurava army at one particular point that the greatest danger for an army is not the the attack from the enemy it is dissension among its own ranks if the army itself gets split starts conflicting with each other then they can’t move forward they can’t do anything constructively so the same principle applied over here that Hanuman said that Hanuman became concerned Prabhupada also said that the greatest danger for our movement will be internal if we start fighting among each other then that can ruin our movement Prabhupada said that they allow for me while shown by how you cooperate that is one of his concluding instructions so now what happened over here is that as Hanuman was observing this finally in fear of Sugriva Angada took an extreme position and Angada said rather than being humiliated and executed after going back to Kishkindha I would much rather die over here itself and therefore he said that let me let us all fast to death here let us do prayavrata so prayavrata is basically sacred fast to death that is considered honourable way to die, it’s not suicide basically means that one is so frustrated with life that one just ends one’s life but if one just decides ok whatever I wanted to live for that mission is over or that mission is I don’t want to live on anymore so if somebody sits down to fast and they desist from water and from food and then they end their lives that is considered to be prayavrata so when Angada sat down like this because he was the appointed leader there is several of the monkeys also sat down with him now Hanuman didn’t want to directly accuse Angada of insurrection against the king at the same time he had to speak something so what did Hanuman do Hanuman said that actually don’t oh Angada your fear is unwarranted Sugreeva was told by your father Vali that he should take care of you and he will not disregard that promise which he has made to his father to your father and Ram is there Ram is virtuous and he will never let you be punished so Angada was still so upset he said just for gaining kingdom Sugreeva had his own brother killed if he could have his brother killed why not his nephew and he just dismissed Hanuman’s argument and the discussion went on to and forth but eventually at this point Sugreeva just sat down sorry Angada sat down to fast so now through all that was happening this is a big big Vigna we are discussing about how Tadgati Vigna Dhamsaka Rama so it is a big big danger that came upon them now when this danger came upon them what did they do they all were united in their desire to serve Ram what divided them was their desires to serve Ram what is the difference that is in principle we all have a desire we are all trying to devote ourselves to the lord and we all have a desire to serve the lord so that is at one level the desire the desire to serve is what unifies us but because we are all individuals we all have different ideas of how we may serve so the desire to serve unites us and the desires to serve they divide us so sometimes what happens is we focus not on that unifying desire to serve but on the dividing desires to serve and what we focus on determines how we will act so in the devotee community also sometimes we may have strong differences why because we have different ideas of how a particular service should be done so broadly speaking in the current scenario where the whole world has more or less been shut down because of the corona virus so there have been different opinions among different devotees about how best to take things forward so its not just among the devotees there are other religions also where there is ongoing debate that this is the time when people need god the most we should just have faith in god and we should do whatever is required we should just do our bhakti and god will take care of everything else so now that is one idea of devotion that we just continue and we don’t care for anything else and the lord will protect us the other is that no no no whatever whatever happens we have to use our intelligence we have to protect ourselves we have to god has given us intelligence and a part of our responsible services that we use our intelligence to serve so broadly speaking we could say that there are two broad ways in which we may serve and there is we can call it as dependence on Krishna and diligence for Krishna so the examples are of dependence on Krishna is Draupadi she just raises her hands in helpless dependence Krishna I surrender to you please protect me so that is one mode of surrender and at the end of the Bhagavata Krishna calls upon Arjuna to surrender and Arjuna surrenders and Arjuna picks up his bow in readiness to fight and that is also surrender but his surrender is not by raising his arms but by raising his bow so Arjuna represents surrender by diligence and Draupadi represents surrender by dependence now both are valid ways of surrendering then what is the difference why the difference because it depends on context context is critical for comprehending content there is content what is said and there is context to where it is said if you don’t look at the context you could just take one statement and absolutise it so context is critical for comprehending content so yes we want to serve the lord but how do we serve our faith is seen not just in our firmness in service but also in our flexibility in service there is firmness yes whatever happens I am going to serve the lord that is firmness but there is flexibility flexibility means this can’t be done let us do it like this so we see that lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself when he was instructing his various devotees about how they should practise and share bhakti he told the Goswamis in Vrindavan to build temples but there is practically no instruction of lord Chaitanya ever telling his associates in Bengal to build temples why the difference they are all devoted to him and they are all great devotees however context was different when Rupa Goswami was living at that time there was the rule of Akbar more or less and Akbar was relatively Akbar and the rulers just before or after were relatively tolerant so building temples was possible over there but Bengal was being ruled by Nawab Hussain Shah who was quite intolerant so the devotees were firm in their devotion but they were flexible in their execution so the devotees in Mayapur they had their home Shaligram Shilas and we see that if we go on a pilgrimage of Mayapur except for the recent temples there are no giant temples in Mayapur and although it is the sacred place for us, extremely sacred place for us the temples are mostly small and recent because devotees have to be flexible in their execution according to time, place, circumstance so firm in intention flexible in execution that is the sign of faithful devotion so faithful devotion just doesn’t mean that we are so flexible in execution that we give up the intention itself, oh ok this doesn’t work I will not do it at all but we can’t be so firm in intention that this is the only way I will not do anything else at all no there has to be firmness in intention and flexibility in execution and that is faithfulness in devotion so now what happens is that so should we just depend on the lord and continue our service or should we be diligent and take the necessary precautions well both are required we have to be firm in our intention just like now we can’t come to the temple because physical congregation is either banned by law or it is too dangerous so we avoid that but we don’t just because physical congregation is not possible that doesn’t mean we don’t have any programmes at all there is firmness in intention but there is flexibility in execution and this is how as devotees we continue our devotion so when there are differences in opinion of how to go ahead some devotees may say oh we stop this that is if we stop this is actually sign of lack of our faith but some devotees may say no no if we don’t stop this this is sign of lack of our intelligence so is it simply issue of conflict of faith and intelligence not necessarily generally what is right and what is wrong is actually not so easy to decide so we need to be flexible ok this is what we decided to let’s do it wholeheartedly but ok if that doesn’t work out if it backfires ok this is not the way to work forward this is the way to work forward so this is how we move so we have to sometimes basically we have to look at intent content and consequence that the content is this is what I want to do but why do I want to do it and what is the result of doing it so considering context means considering our intention and considering the consequence of what we are doing so now in this case both Hanuman and Angad were determined to serve but it was just that they felt different ways of moving forward and Hanuman was remembering the lord internally Hanumath so it is Kapivarasantata samsmita rama that actually Kapivarasantata samsmita it was always remembering Ram so both of them were remembering Ram and because both of them were remembering so what happened was both of them were actually trying to serve but their mood of how to serve was different now if both of them had the intention to serve what happens Krishna says Teshaam satata yuktanam bhajatam priti purvakam tadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayantite Krishna says I will give you the intelligence by which you can come to me. At this point when they both had the different ideas how to move forward so if we have the devotional disposition Krishna says tadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayantite I will give you the intelligence of how you can come to me so what happened sometimes we are trying to deal with one problem and we have ideas of should I do this or should I do this we have differences of opinion but then the way the lord resolves it is that its in a sometimes inconceivable way that a third bigger problem comes up so as these monkeys were seated some of them were seated in a row resolving to fast to death and others were just sitting nearby in consternation confused perplexed about what to do so at that time they saw a giant creature coming over there and this creature was actually a demon not a demon it was a giant vulture sampati and the sampati started moving towards and he spoke oh today is a fortunate day for me today I am going to get a feast providence has smiled upon me and now I started walking by looking at each of the monkeys licking his tongue and he went and flopped by next to the last monkeys flopped by next to Angada who was sitting at the head he was waiting he said the idea was as soon as the monkey falls down senseless because of the fasting then I will pounce on him and eat him and on seeing this the monkeys got unnerved we all know that we are going to die and especially if somebody has taken resolution to die they know that they are going to die but still there is its one thing to know I am going to die but its quite another thing to think that my body is going to be ripped apart and the limbs are going to be torn and chewed and consumed and spit out they started becoming very agitated by that and Angada spoke at that time alas what misfortune it is for me that although I wanted to serve Ram it seems I will meet the same fate as the unfortunate Jatayu just as he died while serving Ram I too will die on hearing this this vulture froze what what did you say about Jatayu they all turned around what happened why is he so affected by it do you know Jatayu yes Jatayu is my younger brother I have been separated from him for so many years and he briefly told the story of how they had once decided to fly high into the sky aiming to go to the sun and as the sun’s heat became unbearable and started scorching them Sampati was older among the two he spread his wings to protect Jatayu, Jatayu had survived but Sampati’s wings had got burnt and he had crashed to the earth and he had lost track of Jatayu it’s significant that Sampati and Jatayu both lost their wings and both served the Lord so it was while trying to serve the Lord that Jatayu lost his wings and Sampati lost his wings and that’s how he was able to serve the Lord so at that time when he was lying on the ground helpless in pain one pain was that he had lost his wings and for a bird wings are vital for survival and secondly he had lost his brother who was dearer to him than his life as he was lamenting like this a great sage came and told him that I can give you benedictions by which you can get your wings back but you have lost those wings for a purpose that purpose is in future the servants of Ram will come over here and they will they will tell you you will be able to do a service for them and he said I will give you benediction by which you will get food although you are immobilised you will get food and that’s how Sampati had lived for very long and as Sampati spoke all this the monkeys were hearing initially they were intrigued but now they were delighted, thrilled, excited so you are here to serve Ram and they started telling we are here to serve Ram and as they were telling he asked then both of them exchanged stories Sampati was grief struck to hear about Jatayu’s death but then he was lost as he was lost in thought, angada suddenly thought he was thinking about the whole story and he said do you know where Sita has gone Sita has been taken by Ravan and on hearing this Sampati perked up yes, although my body has weakened, although I have lost my wings but my eyes are still sharp and he said I saw long ago Ravan taking Sita across and even now with my eyes I can see just rose to his full height and he said I can see across the ocean to Lanka and Sita is in Lanka, if you go there you will surely find her and on hearing this all the monkeys became jubilant those monkeys were decided to fast they just give up their resolution to fast and they got up fast they sprang up charging towards the ocean to continue their mission to find Sita, angada turned and thanked Sampati profusely and they went their way so here what happens although angada was circumstantially acting against Hanuman and against the mission of Ram apparently, but in his heart he still had the desire to serve and because he had the desire to serve that’s how he just by chance he spoke that alas, my fate will be the same as Jatayu’s while he was fighting for Ram actually speaking, angada and Jatayu there is no reference that they ever met each other the Kishkindha forest is far away from the Dandakavan forest in modern Indian geography Kishkindha is in South India where as Dandaka is more or less in Maharashtra so it was quite far they might have heard of each other but it is significant that he spoke that particular statement at that particular time so what does it signify because he had the desire to serve the lord gave him that intelligence and with that intelligence he spoke that and it worked out at that time Sampati was there and they built a link over there so sometimes when we are in danger and we are not able to find a way ahead you know we may lose our way but we don’t have to lose our hope lose our way means we just don’t know should I be doing this, should I be doing this, we may lose our bearings but we should not lose our hearing, we should keep hearing being receptive to Krishna so our hearing will give us back our bearing bearing means our directions of where we should move so sometimes life can be so perplexing that we just lose our bearings at that time but if we keep remembering the lord by his grace we all can find the way ahead so monkeys remembered the lord and the lord acted internally and externally to remove the obstacles that they faced while they were serving him similarly if we maintain our inner remembrance by practising our sadhana bhakti and whatever challenges we may face they will be there, they may be discouraging but if we keep remembering the lord and striving to serve the lord will give us the guidance of how to deal with those problems and move ahead Krishna says if you become conscious of me you will pass over all obstacles by my grace so I will summarise what I spoke today I started by speaking on the theme of the Ram Ramayan two prayers 54 and 55 names of Ram and basically we talked about devotion is basically remembrance and guidance so the monkeys are remembering the lord and the lord is guiding them so that they can remove the obstacles and we talked about how within the practise of bhakti there can be our situation is similar to the situation in Sundarkand because Ram is not directly there and in the material world also we don’t see god’s hand directly so if we remember the lord will guide and as an object of remembrance whose remembrance can pacify us and as a source of guidance where we can gain guidance so rather than expecting that the lord is causing the problem or why is the lord not removing the problem we focus on how is the lord’s relationship with this world and the problems in it remembrance and guidance we don’t demand or expect that he mystically magically remove problems for us but we seek his remembrance and we seek his guidance we cultivate his remembrance and we are receptive to his guidance so I talked about how when the monkeys were going out there are multiple locuses of power and the tensions erupted between Angada and Hanuman so we all have a desire to serve which unifies us but we also have specific desires of how to serve and that sometimes divides us so we need to focus on the unifying desire to serve and then according to time, place, circumstance adjust the specific desires of how to serve so when Angada was almost speaking about insurrection against rebellion against Sugreeva Hanuman didn’t become judgemental and condemn him Hanuman was patient and because both of them were devoted when they were facing a problem, a bigger problem came but through that a solution emerged so we talked about how among devotees there can be when there are challenges there can be differences of opinion two modes of surrender are one is dependence on Krishna and other is diligence for Krishna so Draupadi and Arjuna as examples so in between we have to function and we have to see according to intent, content and consequence what is the best thing to do in a particular situation and strategies evolve so when Sampati is coming over there, it was Angada by chance, not by chance but by divine inspiration he spoke I’ll be like Jatayu and that’s how a bond was established and they found a way ahead so if we maintain our remembrance of the lord internally and if we keep castle receptive to his guidance, no matter what obstacles come, the lord will help us manage those obstacles with the remembrance internally we will get the strength to survive those obstacles and with the guidance we will eventually emerge stronger through those obstacles thank you very much, Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments Hare Krishna Thank you for a wonderful class just got a question about remembrance of the lord what are some of the ways in which we can remember the lord basically remembrance can be in the mind itself where we think of something and we remember him but because our mind is so restless, at the level of the mind if we try to remember just at the level of thoughts it’s difficult, so if we have something at the physical level which acts as a stimulus for remembrance that is very helpful so what that means is that we find out some object which can just like there are material sense objects there can be spiritual objects, spiritual sense objects not that they provide sense gratification but they are objects that are perceivable by the senses so for example the deities are a spiritual sense object, if we have scripture that is a spiritual sense object so within the parameter of bhakti we can find out which sense objects are the most conducive for us to remember the lord we consider this as one circle where there is the things that we like to do there is another circle, the things that are good for us so for example devotional things so in between the two we can find the intersection what is it that I like to do and it is also devotional so for some of us it might be kirtan for some of us it might be shloka remembrance for some of us it might be reading a particular book for some of us it might be beholding a particular image of a particular deities or sometimes these might be very specific just like for us material sense objects that agitate us might be specific some people might get agitated on say tempted by watching cricket news some people might get tempted by watching baseball news so just as material sense objects might be different each of our mind is different so what captivates our mind will also be different so we have to find out what are the resources that we can use to direct our mind toward the lord and then we use those resources to the best of our capacity does it answer your question thank you any other questions good to see you these monkeys these monkeys are not normal monkeys are not normal individuals they are probably the eternal associates of the lord who have come to participate in the leela so at this point of time when they were having a sort of a conflict and Angad was making his excuse and going for fasting and Hanuman may or may not have their freedom, what was their level of consciousness in terms of the diligence to serve the lord ok so now when we understand that the monkeys are all special souls they are devatas who have descended so then when Angad is saying that I will fast to death what is the consciousness actually basically the scriptures can be perceived at different levels if we consider the Bhagavad Gita’s first chapter in the first chapter almost consistently Prabhupada is appreciating Arjuna although he is about to fight a war still he is so thoughtful he is not just rushing into the war in passion, he is thinking about the consequences of his actions and Prabhupada’s overall tone in the first chapter is very laudatory about Arjuna’s thoughtfulness and farsightedness and suddenly in 2.1 second chapter first verse Prabhupada is saying that tears are a sign of ignorance and material attachment and everybody is in the bodily conception of life and the disease of the flesh so you say what’s going on over here so Madhusudana Saraswati prominent commentator says that the purpose of the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is to demonstrate Arjuna’s qualification for receiving the Gita and from that perspective Arjuna is presented positively oh this is such a qualified student but then once you start getting that knowledge the first point you have to know is you may be very qualified but right now you are ignorant so based on the perspective we can present the same character or even our Acharyas or scripture themselves may present the character from different perspectives so generally whenever the Leela is going on on very few occasions within the Leela the characters act as if they are anything beyond their role in the Leela I repeat this generally within the pastimes of the Lord the characters act in harmony with their role within that pastime they don’t act so much out of their role based on their identity beyond their identity within that pastime. Sometimes they may do that.
Say for example if we consider Sita is the goddess of fortune now she is herself very powerful one of the expansions of Sita is Durga and she is Mahishasura Mardini none of the gods could protect fight against Mahishasura it was Durga who fought and killed so how did Sita let herself be abducted by Ram by Ravan sorry in fact according to some later retellings of the Ramayana the Indra, the Shiva Dhanusha that was there that which Shiva’s bow which Ram lifted. Ravan had not been able to lift that also. Ravan had also come to the swayamvar of Sita and he had not been able to lift.
But Sita had been able to lift so if Sita had been able to lift then how was Ravan if Sita had been able to lift and Ravan had not been able to lift but was Sita more powerful than Ravan and if she was then how was Ravan able to abduct Sita the point is that within the leela, the purpose of the leela is to actually demonstrate the reciprocation of love and its dynamic at that particular purpose whatever is required for the progression of the leela that is what is done so the lord orchestrates the devotees in such a way that they remember or forget whatever is necessary for the performance of those pastimes so that’s why when the point of how glorious Sita is and why her husband for her should have that particular condition that he should be able to lift that Shiva chaapa, so at that time this point might be brought that Shiva has been able to lift and Ravan also not able to lift but Ram was able to lift. So from that perspective that is valid. But here the different point is valid that actually Sita, that whole conspiracy was made and Ravan abducted Sita.
So Sita acts especially in the role of the Rama and Sita is the quintessential damsel in distress and Ram is the hero who comes and rescues the damsel in distress. So similarly now Angad although he is considered also in a way an expansion of Indra because he is the son of the son of Indra. Actually speaking in some ways Vali is considered son of Indra, Vali is considered expansion of Indra.
So if Vali is the expansion of Indra then Angad is the expansion of the expansion of Indra. So he is very powerful but in this particular role he is acting according to the particular role that he is in. Does it act according to his any higher power that we have? So generally the whole the Leela, whatever is required for the progress of Leela, that’s how the actors all their characters act accordingly.
Does it answer your question? I think you are the best. Thank you Prabhu. Happy to be of service.
So let’s recite this verse. Is there any other question? I will stop here. Yes Prabhu.
Hare Krishna One last question. Yes. Thank you so much for a wonderful class.
You mentioned two types of surrender. Surrender by dependence and surrender by diligence. If you can help me to clarify and better understand what it means to surrender by diligence but maybe a practical example.
So what does surrender by diligence mean? If you consider the six limbs of surrender the first two are Anukulyasa Sankalpa Pratikulyasya Varjanam. Except that which is favourable, avoid that which is unfavourable. So surrender in that sense is dynamic.
Do this and don’t do this. So it’s not in that sense passive. Basically in our life there are some things in our control and some things not in our control.
So we could say that for the things that are not in our control we surrender by having dependence on the Lord. And for the things that are in our control we surrender by diligence for the Lord. So Prabhupada when he was travelling and speaking when he decided to go to America at one level he says that my dear Lord make me dance, make me dance but another level whoever Prabhupada met Prabhupada was very very cautious very attentive to to try to present bhakti in the best possible way to that person and when some hippies showed interest and they said Prabhupada come to the lower east side, Prabhupada went there.
So Prabhupada was diligent in doing what he could while being dependent on the Lord for the many things that were beyond his control. So in that way there is diligence and dependence. So thank you very much.
If you want to read more about this there is a whole class on this topic. Just search for diligence and dependence either on the spiritual scientist or on Gita daily. So thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Sri Ramachandra Bhagwan. Thank you so much.