Overlords Are Meant Not To Lord It Over Others But To Lead Others Over To The Lord Gita 18.43

Transcript

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Overlords are meant not to lord it over others, but to lead others over to the Lord, whenever we get any leadership position, whenever we become an overlord, to use somewhat archaic word, we get the power to control others and given our ego, our pride, our weaknesses, we may sometimes abuse that power to dominate or exploit others, to lord it over others, such lording it over others will hurt us spiritually, why? Spiritual growth essentially centers on becoming devoted to the Supreme Lord, Krishna, and if we fancy ourselves as the Lord, then we can’t really be very devoted to someone who is above us, if we are proudly looking down at those below us, we can’t humbly, authentically look at those above us, even if we sometimes make a show of devotion, the Bhagavad Gita in 16th chapter says that the demoniac people sometimes do religious activity just for show, when we understand that actually we can’t, we may be in the danger of over, of lording it over others and losing our spiritual opportunity because of that, we may think that maybe it’s best for me to avoid all leadership positions, but that would be a short-sighted idea because after all society needs leaders and we may well be among those people who have a natural inclination to lead, the Bhagavad Gita points to the naturality of this inclination to lead, when it lists Ishwarabhava as one of the characteristics of the Kshatriyas, Chauram, Tejodhati, Daksham, Uddhechaapyavalapayam, Dhanam Ishwarabhava, Shatrakam, Karmasvabhavajam, in 1843 it is said that one of the characteristics of Kshatriyas are Ishwarabhava, the mood of being the controller, this itself is not bad, although Ishvaroham aham bhogi, siddho aham balvan sukhi, this is a demoniac mentality which has been condemned by Krishna in the 16th chapter, 14th text, but Ishwarabhava, which makes one, the mood of being a controller which makes one lorded over others and which makes one alienated from the supreme lord, that is unhealthy, but if we understand that we are leaders in service of the supreme leader, if we use our leadership ability to serve the Lord and to help others become connected with the Lord, then that leadership ability will be spiritually conducive, if we artificially renounce the leadership ability, then we will feel personally choked and we will also leave the field of leadership open for materialistic leaders who may well mislead society, that’s why we need to learn from the Gita how to harmonize our material inclination with life’s spiritual purpose to love and serve Krishna the supreme leader, in our own lives we may sometimes aspire to live for a leadership position and we may be disappointed if we don’t get that, instead of lamenting about what we don’t have, we can focus on using the position that we have constructively, if we use it to move closer to the Lord and to lead others who are under our guidance toward the Lord, then the Lord will be pleased by that and he will grant us fulfillment internally and he may even grant us bigger positions externally when he sees that we have the maturity by which we will use that position for ours and others well-being. Thank you.