Sthita Prajna 3

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So essentially, whenever we are functioning in the world, we need a certain level of restraint while functioning. But, life is not meant just to be restrained. We want to be engaged.
Say, if we are driving a car, then, at one level, we have to be careful that we don’t just get caught looking here and there, what is the shop over here, what is this new thing that has come up over there. We don’t want to get distracted. At the same time, we have to be driving ahead.
So, the point of life is not just sensory regulation. Regulation is to prevent distraction. But then there is engagement to move in a healthy direction.
So, if we are on a road, say, we don’t want to get caught in various side diversions. So, this we want to avoid. But at the same time, we want to be able to move ahead.
So, the section, till now, was talking about restraint in this sense, that from 58 to 63, don’t get diverted by other things. But at the same time, we have responsibilities in the world. We have material responsibilities, we have spiritual responsibilities.
And for that, we have to move ahead. So, that is what the section from 64 to 71 will talk about. And now, different Acharyas have divided this from where the answer to the fourth question begins.
There is a little difference in analysis. I have preferred this, starting from this particular verse, because there is a synonym in this verse. There, in 54, the question was, kim vrajet? Vrajet is, how do they move? And here, in 64, here it is charan.
Charan is, again, movement. So, a similar sentence is there over there. Let’s look now at what the verse is essentially saying.
So, raag, dvesha, vimukta istu. That, whenever we are functioning in life. So, right now, we are here, sitting for this class.
So, now, some of you may find it comfortable sitting on the floor, some of you may not. Some of you may like philosophy, some of you may not like philosophy so much. You may like more of devotional katha kind of classes.
So, we all have certain raag and certain dvesha. We can say, broadly, we have our likes and dislikes. On social media also, we have facilitation of our likes and dislikes.
Buttons, what do I like, what do I dislike? So, now, while we have our likes and dislikes, it’s important to not like our likes and dislike our dislikes. What does that mean? That it is not that we have to get carried away by them. Yeah, this is what I naturally like, that’s fair enough.
This is the kind of food I like to eat, this is the kind of food I don’t like to eat. I like this particular sabji, I don’t like that particular sabji. That’s fair enough.
And if we can get the kind of sabji that we like, that’s good enough. But, if somebody says, you know, I like sweet rice, I don’t like rice. So, the only thing I will eat is sweet rice.
I will never eat rice. Well, then, after sometime, you will never eat anything. You won’t be able to maintain our health.
So, we naturally have our likes and dislikes. And we can’t wish them away, we can’t deny them. They are there, based on whatever impressions, samskaras are there in the mind.
Or mind is shaped in a particular way. And we all have certain natural likes and dislikes. But, vimukta is true.
That means, we don’t, here in the Krishna Yajna, be free from them. That means, not eliminate them, destroy them. But don’t be controlled by them.
So, A, for our health, we don’t like bitter food. Most people don’t like bitter foods. But, if you don’t like bitter food, and if, say, some food has medicinal value for us, and we need to eat it, we should be ready to eat it.
So, raga-dvesha vimukta is true. So, when we are going on this particular path, when we are doing our responsibility, whatever responsibility we have to do, don’t let A, there is something we dislike, you know. That comes right in the way.
Then, don’t let it stop. Say, if you are going to go to work, or you are going to come into a temple, and say, the only way to come is through a street, which is not very clean, which is smelly, which is, to say politely, stinky. Now, we may not like the stink.
But then, don’t let it stop you from coming here. So, raga-dvesha. So, there the dvesha would be there.
On the other hand, on this same street, you know, maybe there is something we like. Maybe there is a movie theatre, there is a hotel, there is some sports club, and we like to go there. So, we are going along on the path, that comes along, then, sarva-dharman-karitechi.
Now, raga-dvesha, we try to avoid being controlled by both. So, this is our life. We don’t go in either direction.
Raga-dvesha, we look this way. Now, Krishna says, vishayan indriyesh charan. There is a natural movement of the senses towards the sense objects.
Now, our senses are like radars. In a war, there are radars, which see, okay, from where is any aircraft, any movement coming. And then, they see, there is this kind of aircraft coming over here.
Is it danger? And they scan it. So, in one sense, our senses, they are like radars. But radars, whereas normal radars, would seek enemies to stay away.
Okay, either keep them away, or we stay away from them. But our senses, they seek sense objects. And it is not to stay away, it is to bring closer.
So, it is to bring closer. Our senses are like heat-seeking objects. Wherever there is some sensory heat, our senses naturally move towards those.
So, when we are moving, charan, when we want to move, it seems as if sometimes, even against our awareness, without our awareness, and against our will, we may be almost pulled or pushed in a particular direction. So, we need to be aware and avoid that. In the Vishayan Indriyaish Charan, the senses naturally move.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about how, later in the third chapter, he says, that whenever desire gets triggered in the heart, that desire becomes like a fire, and the fire burns. Dushpure Adali Nityo. So, when it burns, normally, say, if I am sitting here right now, and say, if this backrest is hot, then I will try to keep as much distance away from it.
If something is hot, uncomfortably hot, then we will try to move away from it. Now, the idea that whenever there is unfulfilled desire, or just there is desire, you could say, there is triggered desire, that creates, that is like fire. This is universally understood.
Even in materialistic circles, say, there may be some Hindi songs, Saavan jo aag laga hai. So, the idea that fire is lit, that is universal. But the solution, they think, is, by going closer to the object of heat, the fire will be extinguished.
Rather than going away from the heat, we think that by going toward the heat, the fire will be extinguished. And there is some truth to it. There is some truth to it.
Normally speaking, say, when some desire is tormenting us, I want to eat this, I want to watch this, I want to touch this, I want to do this, and then, when we indulge in the desire, the desire goes away. See, whenever there is indulgence, it is a journey. Whenever we indulge in some pleasure, say, for example, let’s take a little more destructive pleasure first, and then we’ll come to the normal pleasures of the world.
Say, for example, if we drink alcohol. Now, initially, when they drink alcohol, there is pleasure. There is a feeling that you go high for some time.
However, with time, the pleasure starts going down. And after that, when they drink, what they essentially get is relief. Which is mistaken to be pleasure.
What I mean by this is that the fire is burning so much inside, do this, do this, eat this, drink this. It’s like something is tormenting us from inside. And when we indulge in it, it is not so much that we get pleasure, as we just get some relief from that.
So, yes, whenever we indulge in some sense object, there is some pleasure. But with time, the pleasure starts decreasing. And all that is available is just the torment increases.
This downward trend is the torment. Torment means the prickling sensation that is there, the pricking sensation that is there from inside. Do this, do this, do this.
So, that is there, and that keeps increasing. And then, when we indulge, just get some relief. So, there is a big difference between pleasure and relief.
It is quite often when alcoholics drink, especially when they have liquor, it reminds the dangers of drinking. And they want to give it up. They say, I don’t drink because I like it so much.
It is that I drink because when I don’t drink, I can’t tolerate it. With respect to drugs, this torment is often called as withdrawal pain. That is, somebody is habitually taking drugs, and they want to give it up.
Then their body reacts in uncomfortable, even disruptive ways. And the doctors have to tell them, to deal with these reactions, you may have to take some other drugs. And people get addicted to that drug sometimes.
It is unfortunate. But now, for normal indulgences, there will not be so much withdrawal pain. But it may not be like a medically recognised phenomenon, called withdrawal pain.
But for all of us, when we are indulging in something and we are trying to give it up. So, the withdrawal pain is, if I don’t do this, the internal torment is there, and there is no relief. So, why do we go towards the heat? As I said, the sensory objects, normally, if this is the sense, or this is a person with the senses.
Now, what happens is, when the senses are strong, the sense becomes less. A person with strong senses has little sense. So, what happens, if this is the sense object.
What we are trying to understand is, why this charan, this movement is there. So, initially, it might be because of pleasure. But eventually, it is just because of relief.
So, when the heat is there, why do we go towards the heat, instead of away from the heat? Because, that heat is so much, that, even if we go away from the sense object, the heat still remains inside. And then, if we, I am not getting any relief from that heat, that torment that is there inside, if I just indulge in it, I will get some relief. So, if we have to, actually, become detached, recognising, that pleasure soon degenerates into mere relief, that is a very important realisation, if we get it, then we will become much more determined.
I am not going to waste my time pursuing this, because I don’t even enjoy it. It’s just that, when I don’t do this, I feel so miserable. So, now, what happens over here is, how do we get that relief? Basically, if we consider, okay, just imagine this to be a fire.
As you can see, my drawing is great. But, so, if this is fire, and when there is indulgence, then indulgence is like a block put on the fire. When the block is put on the fire, the fire gets, at least it disappears.
But, if this block is of wood, then what is going to happen? Temporarily, there is cessation. But, after that, when the block catches fire, then the desire returns, and the desire returns stronger. So, what happens is, indulgence does give us relief, but that relief is temporary.
Like the fire, it is not extinguished so much, as it is our vision of it is reduced. We can no longer see it, but the fire is still there, and it will grow further. So, this chagan happens because that’s what the senses have learned.
If I go this way, I’ll get pleasure. Or at least, I’ll get relief. So, how do we deal with this? Vidhe Atma.
Vidhe Atma is, Vidhi here refers to scripture. So, Shastra gives us a process to deal with things. So, Vidhe Atma, if we systematically follow the process, then gradually, Prasadamati Gacchati, we will attain the mercy.
Now, at this particular point in the Bhagavad Gita, at this particular point, Krishna has not yet outlined Bhakti Yoga. Actually, Bhakti Yoga will start from the 7th chapter explicitly. So, when Krishna is using the word Vidhi, he’s keeping it generic.
Whatever Vidhi, one can follow Karma Yoga, one can follow Gyan Yoga, one can follow Dhan Yoga, one can follow Bhakti Yoga. Not all of them are equally potent, but all of them are useful. So, one follows the Vidhi of Shastra.
Vidhe Atma, by that, what will happen? If you want the fan, you can keep it on. Just don’t let it come to me. Just turn it around a little bit.
Vidhe Atma, so Prasadamati Gacchati. So, Prasadam means purification. Mercy, but the mercy primarily is in the form of purification.
So, by following scripture and regulating the movement of the senses, so this Charan, that is going to happen. So, this Charan has got nothing to do with the Charan, which is the feet. This Charan is like a cow’s Charan.
The cow grazes Charan and it moves towards that. So, Pranatadehinapapakarshanam Trunacharamugam Trunachara, that the word Chara comes, that is in the Gopi Geet, Trunachara is those who eat grass. So, here the Charan, the natural movement of the senses towards the sense objects will be there.
But we try to regulate that. Now, we will talk about this Vidhe Atma, what is the Vidhi and how to follow it, we’ll come to that. But basically, this verse is telling us the process is that we need to have positive spiritual engagement, or positive engagement in general, by which we will be able to move towards purification.
So, Prasada is mercy. But what is the mercy in this context? It is purity. So, in one sense, purification and purity are the two different or the same? What do you think? Sorry? Yes, purification is the process.
And purity is the result of the process. So, through the process of purification, through Shuddhi Karan, we will get to the stage of purity. And purity is Prasada.
So now, this Prasada, exactly what the process is, we’ll discuss that. But right now, let’s see how this chain of thought that Krishna is having moves forward. So, in this verse, he has basically said, in 264, first thing he has said is Raga Dvesha.
So, we have this Raga Dvesha, what does it do? Raga Dvesha determines the movement of the senses towards the sense objects. So, either we’ll move towards or we’ll move against. So, Charan.
So, Krishna says, we need to reunite. Vidhe Atma. By following the Vidhi.
So, when we do this, say just like, if we are coming here, say, if you want to attend a class. And say, on the way you see a shop, there is something new over there, I want to purchase from that shop. Now, we may go into a shopping mall and we may think, I’ll go and purchase for 5 minutes and then we may spend 5 hours browsing all the things over there.
But if we have something important to do, okay, I purchase this later. And let me go right. So, when we have a clear purpose, it’s relatively easy.
So, this Vidhi, when we follow, Krishna says, Prasad. So, the one part is Raghat Vesham Guptaisthu. Regulate the movement of the senses towards the sense object.
The second part is, that by Vidhi, by following the scriptural process for purification, we will attain purity. So, now let’s look at the next verse. So, he says over here, Prasade Sarva Dukhana Now, the Acharyas discuss over here, what does Sarva Dukhana mean? Krishna says this world is dukkhaalaya.
So is it that all distress can be removed from this world? Well, that is never possible. Statements are often made in context. So for example, if a doctor says, we are going to a doctor for a particular disease, and the doctor says, you take these medicines and all the problems will go away.
Now what the doctor is referring to is all the problems associated with this particular disease. It is not that all financial problems, relational problems, professional problems are going to go away. No.
So Krishna is talking about sarva dukkhaanam over here, that sarva, it is contextual. It refers to the distress that comes because of being entangled with the senses and the sense objects. So those problems will go away.
The torment, especially talking about the torment and the relief, once we get the mercy, once the purification results, then prasade sarva dukkhaanam, haanir asyo bhajaan. It’s like say, maybe some of us were eating meat before we started practising bhakti. And maybe there is some craving, there has been some craving for eating meat.
Maybe we even realised that maybe meat is harmful for health, I want to give it up. But we tried, we are not able to give it up. Because prasad bhaja, a soap, yes, the desire is still there.
But, say we start practising bhakti and start taking prasad, and prasad is the most accessible manifestation of higher taste. Higher taste can come in many different ways. But sometimes some higher taste appears that it is too high for me to get to that higher taste.
But prasad is accessible to everyone. So we start taking prasad, and after sometime we find that even the desire for meat disappears. Say we are travelling in a train or a plane, and the person next to us takes out some food, and they are taking meat.
Now, it’s not that we are tempted by it, what Yamunacharya says, at least for that, our lips may curl and distinct. I don’t like this at all. So what has happened over there? There, the desire inside itself has disappeared.
And if the desire has disappeared, then there is no torment inside. There is no struggle inside. And that is the meaning of the khaana, khaani, the distress that comes from the inner torment that is there, that just goes away.
As we all grow older, we become more spiritually involved, more spiritually realised. You know, maybe when we are young, we have a lot of ambition. I want to have a bigger house than this person.
I want to have a better car than this person. And even among devotees, that kind of competition can be there sometimes. But as we grow spiritually, we may find after sometime, it doesn’t matter so much.
Even if somebody gets a bigger house, they’ll be happy with that, if they find some happiness in it. So we just, that craving, that torment, that disappears. So basically, there is a difference between regulation and purification.
So regulation is basically, say, I may want to go in this direction, and there is a force inside me which is pushing me in another direction. So this is, say, our, so we want to go in a particular direction, that is our spiritual purpose. And then, this is our impure desire.
So regulation means that there is a force inside us that is working against us, but we use our intelligence, we use our willpower, we set up boundaries, like we discussed earlier, and by that, we push on in the direction that we want. So we keep that particular desire under control. That’s regulation.
But purification means that we are moving in this direction, and whatever was in this direction, that is eliminated. So there is nothing pulling us or pushing us in an opposite direction. So, So from this vidheatma, from vidhi, to here, this is prasad.
So at this stage, the inner war, the inner struggle, that disappears. Now for all of us, we feel, when is this going to happen for me? Yeah, it is a natural question. At the same time, we may all have noticed that this has happened for us in some things.
Maybe there are some things which we used to crave a lot for in the past. And now there is no craving. So that is an evidence that this will happen.
In general, for us to push ahead, we need to have faith. And faith is, at one level, a matter of choice. Choice means, there is evidence in the world, and there is evidence that can boost our faith, and there is evidence that can wound our faith.
So that means, if I look at some craving which I had before I came to bhakti, I still have it. Bhakti doesn’t work at all. But if I look at some craving which I had in the past, and now it has gone down substantially, now it’s not a struggle to give this up, then our faith will be boosted.
So faith is a matter of choice. What is the evidence that I will focus on? See, the world is both the domain of maya and the kingdom of Krishna. So if we want to go into maya, there is enough evidence in the world to justify our going into maya.
And if we want to go towards Krishna, there is enough evidence in this world for us to have reasons to go towards Krishna. So, this way, faith is a matter of choice. Of course, faith is also a gift.
A gift that comes by good association, by purification. Sometimes we are convinced this is true. Sometimes, nowadays in social media, we might see some video of some atheist, and the atheist just smashes all the arguments we know for the existence of God.
And now we may be confused, how do we respond to that? But our faith inside is not shaken, because we have had experience. So that kind of conviction, which is not shaken merely by arguments, that is the faith that is a gift. But there are some areas where our faith may be a little shaky.
And in those areas, we have to make the conscious choice, that I will focus on those things which will boost my faith. So, Naturally, if there is no inner struggle, there is no inner torment, then we become cheerful. We become cheerful.
Now, Prabhupada would say, chant and be happy. Now, there are two ways of looking at this. One is, this is one instruction, and the second is, these are two instructions.
What does this mean? One instruction is chant and you will become happy. The other is chant and be happy. So, just as we practise chanting as a discipline, similarly, we practise happiness as a discipline.
There are things which we can be unhappy about in our life, and there are things which we can be happy about. So, we cultivate happiness as a choice. So, this is where, if I focus on the things, the areas in my life in which bhakti is not working for me, then I will not be happy.
But if I focus on the areas in which bhakti is working for me, then I can be happy. So, prasanna cetaso ya asur and then it is said, the result of this is, buddhi pariya vatishthate. The intelligence becomes firmly established.
So, the sequence here is, when there is purity, there is release from distress. This is not just relief from distress, but release. Relief would mean that, I have some disease, I take some pain medication, I get some relief.
But release means the disease itself is removed. So, purity leads to release from distress. Release from distress leads to happiness or joyfulness.
And the joyfulness leads to steady intelligence. Steady intelligence means, at this particular point, our intelligence is not being destabilised from within by our mind, by the desires that are there inside it. So, it’s like the Indian state government.
Now, in most parts of India, it is pariya vatishthate, it is stabilised. In Maharashtra, in Karnataka, in Andhra, there may be some discontented elements, but they are not trying to overthrow the government and secede from the country. But in Kashmir, there was a powerful force like that.
So, the government was there, but the government was not well established. When there are destabilising forces, which are very powerful, then the government is there, but it’s not really properly in control. But when those destabilising elements are removed, then the government becomes well established.
So, buddhi pariya vatishthate. Now, generally speaking, it is at this stage, when there are intelligences, when we are established, this is the time when we can actually be truly independently thoughtful. Prabhupada said we all should be independently thoughtful.
And that means we can take our own decisions wisely. We will have the clarity and the maturity to take good decisions. Just like children, we love our children, but just because we love our children doesn’t mean we trust our children.
Love and trust are two different things. Not that we consider our children are bad, but just that they don’t have the experience of the world, maybe they don’t have sensory discipline. So, there is love, but trust requires the child to grow up, the child to show some signs of discipline, some signs of maturity, and then the child can be trusted.
So, similarly for us, for us to actually trust our own judgments. Now, of course, we have to make our own judgments, but to rely on our own judgments, that happens when buddhi pariya vatishthate. So, till then, any major decisions we are taking in our life, it is good to consult devotees.
It is good to consult a spiritual master or a representative spiritual master. Because when our mind is working from within and sabotaging our intelligence, we may not be able to figure out. So, somebody may think, oh, we want to build a big temple for Krishna.
So, I will take a job, which will, you know, by which I can give a million dollars to Krishna. Okay. I take that job, and I have to work 18 hours a week.
I have no time for chanting. I have no time for coming to the association of devotees. Now, if we do that, our intent might actually be good also.
We genuinely want to do that. But to get that job or to work with that job, what do we need to do? It is not just we are going into the office and working. While we are earning money, especially at that scale, at that pace, we are associating with people who have those kind of desires.
And they may not have any service motive. So, all that association will affect us. And we say, okay, right now I can’t do charity, but once I earn this much money, then I will do this much charity.
And then when we get there, we think, okay, not this much money, I need more money. And a little more money. So, what will happen is, two things will happen.
Our bank balance will increase, and our distance from Krishna will increase. But our donations may never increase. So, sometimes we need guidance.
Even if we have a good intention, but still, do we have the capacity to execute that good intention? So, the Buddhi Pariyava Tishthate means that our intelligence is well established enough for us to know what is the level of sensory challenge or materialistic engagement that I can actually take up. So, now Krishna says that this is very important, this Buddhi Pariyava Tishthate. If it is not there, then what happens? nāsti buddhir ayuktasya na ca ayuktasya bhāvanā na ca bhāvayataḥ śāntir aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham So, now the question comes over here that do we have to, can we have Buddhi only when we are purified? Is it that we have no intelligence till that point? We need intelligence throughout our life, isn’t it? And we can’t say that we don’t have any intelligence.
It requires intelligence even to know who has intelligence, isn’t it? Even to surrender to a Guru, it requires intelligence to know who is a trustworthy Guru. So, we can’t say that we don’t have any intelligence at all. But the point Krishna is making is that yuktasya, yukta is connected, engaged in yoga.
If we are ayuktasya, ayuktasya is, that means we are disconnected. If we are not practising some vidhi for being engaged in the practise of yoga, ayuktasya, then the result of that is nā buddhi. So, if we are purposefully engaged in some meaningful activity, then our intelligence stays clear.
But otherwise, nā buddhi. And then not only nā buddhi, if there is nā buddhi, then there is no steady mind, bhāvana. There is a lot of etymological analysis of what bhāvana refers to over here.
I won’t go into that elaborately. But essentially, bhāvana refers, in normal language, what does bhāvana mean? Feeling or emotion. Now here, it refers, bhāvana refers to not so much emotion, as it’s more like an emotional disposition.
Emotional disposition means the tendency where our emotions go towards. So, for example, that somebody may like cricket very much. Or I like the Indian cricket team.
Now, after they lose a big match, I don’t like them temporarily. But overall, I like them. So, our bhāvana is going to be constantly changing.
In the sense of the emotions will change. But we have an emotional disposition where there are certain things which we naturally like. So, it is based on that that we can steadily move forward.
So, if the emotions are very unsteady constantly, we can’t do anything. So, if the mind is constantly unsteady, if the emotions are constantly flickering, see, everybody’s emotions flicker. But there are limits within which they flicker.
Say, if you are working with someone, if you have a relationship with someone, some days you may want to spend a lot of time with them, some days you may want to spend, okay, that’s enough for today. But if the emotions flicker too much, I don’t want to spend time with you or I don’t want to spend time destroying you. That’s way too much.
And if you act on those emotions, that’s a big problem. So, nācā bhāvyata śānti. If the emotions are unsteady, then there can be no peace.
And if there is no peace, then there can be no happiness. Aśāntasya uttahāsakam. Krishna is actually making this as a rhetorical question.
How can there be happiness if there is no peace? Now, most of the times, when people seek entertainment, entertainment has always been a part of human society. And Krishna also says, yukta āhāra nihāra. Some regulated entertainment.
But what has happened in today’s world is, entertainment has become a major part of people’s lives. Like people are maniacal about entertainment. Some new movie comes up, some new TV series comes up.
People just go crazy. Millions and millions of dollars are spent. If somebody from a thousand years later, if they wanted to do archaeological study of 21st century or 20th century, what is the most peculiar aspect of the current times? That people spend millions of dollars.
Some of these big movies, there are hundreds of millions of dollars spent for just something, which you finish watching in three hours. Hollywood movies are three hours. Most Hollywood movies are not even three hours.
They are one and a half, two hours. Why spend so much money? It’s because people need, you know, ashanta. The mind is constantly ashanta.
And when the mind has no peace, it’s like there’s no peace, either we can seek a painkiller or we can seek a cure. So the painkiller is entertainment. And that’s why when the mind is agitated, I just need quickly something which will make me forget all the problems in my life, all the problems in my head.
So it is like, there’s one social commentator who said that the reason the Indian family is together is because of the TV. People sit together and watch TV. Then you could say they are together, but are they together with each other? Each of them is an illusion in their own way.
So it is like, okay, I have problems with you, you have problems with me, let us both forget each other and watch this movie. Now, the thing is that in moderation it is fine. If somebody has severe disease and severe pain, then some kind of pain medication can bring some relief.
Till the cure works. But the cure is actually enlightenment. Enlightenment is understanding our inner world.
What is it that makes my mind so agitated? How can I deal with the agitation of the mind? What do I need to do for that? But that is not there at all. So what happens? We just want more and more pain medication. Traditionally, Indians had two pain killers.
One was cricket and the other was volleyball. About 16-17 years, both of them got married. And they had a child.
That child is IPM. So the idea is that we just want more and more pain medication. So Arshamant is here.
If the mind is agitated, we need to do some inner work to understand why the mind is agitated and what can I do to address it. But instead of that, we just watch something which gives us some temporary relief. Now, it provides temporary relief, but sometimes when we watch, it actually fuels the lust, anger, greed inside us.
And then we end up, initially some relief, like the fire gets extinguished, but after that, the fire blazes even more. So, it doesn’t actually offer relief. So, peace is needed for sustainable happiness.
Otherwise, it’s very superficial. It’s almost like a pleasure that is not actually pleasure. It’s a pleasure that is meant to make us forget the pain in our life.
It’s not positive pleasure. It’s again, like I said, relief. Relief is mistaken to be pleasure.
So, now if you move forward. So, Krishna says that, okay, how can we become Yukta? When we are engaging ourselves, when we are trying to follow Videhatma, at that time, our senses can get distracted. So, Krishna is warning over here, that be careful.
Indriyanam hi charatam Yanmano anuvidhiyate Tadasya harati pragyam Vayurnavam ivambhasi So, he says here that, that just as a wind can sweep away a boat, so like that, now the boat may actually be going in a particular direction. But if the wind comes, if the person doesn’t anticipate, okay, the boatman doesn’t anticipate the wind is coming this way, then he’ll get swept away by it. So, similarly, we may get swept away.
And how does that wind come? You may say the wind comes from nature. The wind just comes naturally. But, well, that is true, no doubt.
But the wind generates force based on our contemplation. Yanmano anuvidhiyate So, there will be sense objects out there and we can’t go around with blind eyes, with closed eyes. But when we see those sense objects, it’s like a wind is gathering.
The more we dwell on it, the more the wind starts gaining momentum. tad asti harati pradyam Our intelligence may know that, okay, I shouldn’t be doing this, but that’s what we’ve been trapped with. So, now this is similar to 260, yathato api kaunteya purushase vipashita But the key difference over here is there a person is trying to regulate, but they’ll be agitated.
Here a person is engaging in the world. The metaphor of the boat is not that somebody is in the dock. We are going out in the world, we are trying to do our work, but tad asti harati pradyam We get swept away.
So, therefore, what does Krishna say? tasmadhyasya mahabaho vigruhitani sarvasah indriyan indriyathebhyah tasya pradyam pratishtita Therefore, he says that we need to be very careful in making sure of the senses. We can’t avoid the contact of senses with sense objects, at least in terms of perception, but contemplation, be very careful to avoid. And then, I’m going through the verse a little fast because I want to take some time for question and answer also.
ya nishasarvabhutana yathasyam jagrati sanyami yathasyam jagrati bhutani sa nishapasyato mune Krishna says that this value system where a person is pursuing discipline and regulating the senses this is very different from the value system of the world. People will not appreciate it. What seems to be night for the selfless, for the disciplined appears to be day for the materialistic people.
So, the idea that Prahlad would not respect Hiranyakashipu, would not follow Hiranyakashipu, that Hiranyakashipu wouldn’t comprehend. If you just respect me, the whole kingdom you will get. By disrespecting me, where is Vishnu? What is Vishnu doing for you? You have been threatened, you have been tormented, you may be assassinated.
What is the point of it all? In the material world, discipline is valued, no doubt. But discipline is seen as a means for getting better enjoyment in the future. Better material enjoyment in the future.
So, discipline to go beyond material enjoyment, that something is incomprehensible for people. What are you doing? What are you getting out of it? This can’t comprehend at all. So, this is a different value system.
Krishna says that we need to be ready to understand that people won’t understand this. Sometimes it becomes very frustrating because we are trying to do something and it makes sense to us, but it just doesn’t make sense to us. So, we can try to communicate, but some things will just not make sense to people.
And we need to be ready for that. This is, go in a different way. Krishna is calling us to have the courage to be different from the way the world is living.
Somebody is seeking spiritual growth. If they are also looking for material fame and material popularity, the two cannot always go together. We have to go away from the path that will make us materially popular.
Now, after this, is a key verse, I’ll spend my time on this. Ahuryamana Machala Pratishtham Ahuryamana Machala Pratishtham Samudramapapravishant Yadva Samudramapapravishant Yadva Advakamayam Pravishanti Sarve Advakamayam Pravishanti Sarve So here, Krishna is giving us the process that even if we are not yet having purity, how can we still have peace? Without peace, you cannot have happiness. But, how can we have peace when we are still tempted, still have desires.
So, he is giving an example of an ocean over here. So, if this is the ocean, the ocean here refers to our consciousness. To understand this metaphor, Krishna used a very curious word, Kamakami.
Kamakami is the desirer of desire. Nakamakami means do not be a desirer of desire. Now, what does it mean? So, he is comparing like a river coming into an ocean.
So, this river is compared to desire. Now, normally, we think of desire as something going out from us to outside. I desire that.
And there is truth to that. But simultaneously, actually, sometimes desirable objects come into our perception. So, it’s like this desire, if this is our consciousness, then what comes in is desire in one sense, but this is more like a proposition.
Buy this, watch this, touch this, eat this. That’s a proposition. And then, what the desire that flows out, that is the intention.
So, Krishna is saying, we cannot stop the propositions from coming in. But, don’t let the propositions become our intentions. Na kama kami.
Now, giving the example that, the river comes into the ocean, the water comes in, but water doesn’t start overflowing out. The key is, the river is, the ocean is so big. Now, on the other hand, it’s the same thing, there is a puddle, and then a river came into it.
Then what would happen? The river would cause the entire puddle to overflow and disrupt. So, if our consciousness is small like a puddle, then it is going to be very difficult for us to be able to withstand the inflow of temptations. So, this proposition, a more familiar word for this is temptation.
So, here it is like, to feel tempted. Feeling temptation is something which we can’t avoid. We’ll all feel tempted at times.
But here it is, we fall for temptation. Fall for temptation means, we give in to the temptation. That we want to avoid.
And the key thing that will differentiate these two is here, the silence of our consciousness. So, what is inside our consciousness will determine whether it is like a small puddle or whether it is like a large ocean. And, more or less I’ll conclude this class with this point.
We’ll go back now to the point which I said I’ll take later, param drishtva. Now, Prabhupada translated this as what? Higher taste. So now, what is the word param? You can say it means higher.
Drishtva, what does it mean? Vision. So, basically this is a progressive concept. How do we make our consciousness like an ocean? See, first there has to be a higher vision.
That, you know, there is a better way to live. There is a better happiness. It’s not that my whole life I’m chasing after objects which are not available mostly even when they are there.
Just give a few moments of pleasure. There is a better way to live. There is a better happiness to find.
At first we get the higher vision. That higher vision comes by swadhyaya, by shastra. When we study shastra, that gives us the higher vision.
I am a spiritual being and I am capable of finding higher happiness. Now, many people may have higher knowledge but that higher vision has to translate into a higher purpose. Higher purpose is where we start pursuing something based on what we understand.
This is where, this comes through satsang. When we come in the association of devotees, especially if we associate with devotees who have a strong desire to serve Krishna, then by their association we also get that desire. Yes, I want to serve Krishna.
A sense of higher purpose comes. When Sri Prabhupada went to America, the people who he attracted, they had a lot of conditionings from the past and they were in the prime of youth. So we could say, all the desires and temptations would have been very strong at that time.
But what Prabhupada gave them was a higher purpose. In 1968, Prabhupada called his disciples in New York. They had a small room and they had a globe over there.
And Prabhupada said, all of you, pick up one-one country go there and deliver that country. Now, Jaiturani Matani was there. She was barely 18 years old at that time.
Prabhupada, what about us girls? He says, we are not boys or girls. We are souls. You also pick up one country.
So, Prabhupada had that capacity to just infuse devotees with a sense of spiritual mission. And they took up that desire, that desire became so strong, that spiritual desire became so strong that the other desires got silenced. So for us, this higher purpose is very important.
When Prabhupada gave the Bhagavad Dharma classes where which is later published as the book Dharma, the Way of Transcendence. So one devotee asked Prabhupada, Prabhupada, if our purpose is to serve Krishna, why is Maya so strong? And Prabhupada immediately replied, because your purpose is not so strong. He said, that our purpose needs to be strong.
We need to trigger spiritual desire. Say, the Indian defence forces on Kashmir, they want to protect the Indian country. But, if they are not strong in their purpose, those who want to destroy the country, their purpose may be much stronger.
So, the Indian defence forces are protecting because, you know, I get a salary. And they will be protecting, oh, I’ll get 73 virgins. So, their motivation will be higher.
Now, depending on what motivates the purpose, what happens is, they will be having that much strength of purpose. So, sometimes our strength of purpose in Bhakti is not very strong, but Maya’s strength of purpose is very strong. So, we need to strengthen our sense of purpose.
That higher purpose will eventually give us higher taste. Higher taste actually comes through Shuddhikaran, through purification. That takes time.
So, once Prabhupada was… Prabhupada said that, you know, why I am able to preach to thousands and thousands of people? Prabhupada said, because I have no lust. And then he paused and said, because I have no time for lust. So, what he meant by that was, he, of course, he was translating Mahabharat, but the point he was teaching us is that, at higher purpose, Prabhupada was filled with the desire to share Krishna Bhakti all over the world.
And that desire drove him. Sometimes, materialistic people, they can’t sleep at night because they are tormented by desires. Prabhupada, you could say, couldn’t sleep at night because he was tormented by compassion.
That compassion got him together, the desire to share Krishna with others. So, for us, this, making our consciousness like an ocean, that means, having something so valuable and meaningful inside our consciousness that the externals become irrelevant. So, it’s like, say, this is the higher taste and this is the lower taste.
So, if I am here, what happens is, sometimes we feel as if I have to jump from here to here. And, trying to jump up, we go half way and we end up further down. So, if we try to jump from lower taste to higher taste, we end up in no man’s land and then we can’t stay there for so long and the high seems too high.
So, we come down and we think, anyway, I can’t go higher, let me go down. So, if we plan, I’ll wake up at 4 o’clock and we don’t wake up at 4 o’clock. 4.30, anyway, I’m late, let me sleep again.
Instead of, we could have woken up at 4.30 we end up at 6 o’clock or 7 o’clock or whatever. So, if the higher taste seems to be too higher, then what do we need? We need a ramp. It will gradually take us up and that is the higher purpose.
The higher purpose. I may not get taste right now in chanting the holy names, I may not get taste right now in the remembrance of Krishna but I understand that this is good for me. I understand that this will be good for others.
So, those devotees who are sharing Krishna Bhakti, let me try to do some service to them. When we have that higher purpose, that sense of higher purpose can fill our mind. Even in materialistic life, say, if somebody wants to get into IIT.
Now, it requires a lot of hard work to study. One devotee told me, tried to get three times into IIT, he couldn’t get it. He said, I have renamed IIT.
IIT is Institute of Infinite Torture. Trying to get into it is so difficult. So, now, how do people motivate themselves? You know, it’s like, for those six months, one year, two years when they are studying, they are actually doing Tapasya.
Serious Tapasya. So, it’s that, because they are so convinced that at the end what I get will be so valuable, even though they are depriving themselves right now, that sense of purpose, that I will get to something valuable, that itself gives some fulfilment. Although they have not achieved it till then, just having that sense of purpose can also give, even if you don’t say exactly higher taste, but some kind of higher fulfilment.
So, to the extent, the key for our spiritual growth, it is like, when you talk about desires, there are material desires and there are spiritual desires. So, the key is, on one side, we want to weaken our material desires, but much more important is that we strengthen our spiritual desires. Sometimes we spend a lot of time fighting to weaken our material desires, and we don’t spend enough time trying to strengthen our spiritual desires.
And then we just end up feeling Nirahara, we start feeling emptiness within us. So, we don’t want that. So, how do I strengthen my spiritual desires? That is probably, as I said, this whole session will be about establishing bonds.
Yesterday I talked about boundaries, but this is about bonds. Now, why do we need that bond? That was my focus over here. Because it is only when we have spiritual desires that we can actually go away from material desires.
So, the desire to remember Krishna, the desire to serve Krishna, the desire to do something of value to Krishna. So, in this, when we are having this higher purpose, that itself gives us some higher fulfilment. I am doing something valuable in my life, and that helps us move forward.
So, what I had talked about yesterday, caste. That same applies for developing these bonds also. So, we might take up a new category of activity.
So, we start practising bhakti. Okay, I want to do some seva. Maybe I come and start distributing books.
This is something which we have never done. Going out and meeting strange people, unfamiliar people and talking with them, that itself gives us a sense of excitement, adventure. It brings a whole panorama of emotions with it.
And that new category of activity can help us. Then, we can also have, A was what? Accountability. So, if we are trying to form a bond, say, every day, I am going to read Bhagavad Gita.
You wait 15 minutes. And have some accountability. You will find that if you keep reading the Bhagavad Gita regularly, that same principle, Dhyayato, Vishayan, Pumsa, it will apply here also.
Just keep reading the Gita and you will start getting things for the meeting. So, we have some accountability. Okay, every week, I am going to the temple for this class.
So, create some self-accountability or accountability for others. Then, space. Space could mean that in our home, we create a sacred space.
We have an altar. We have a place, which is we want to make our home, entire home Krishna-centred, but at least begin with having some corner of our home, which is Krishna-centred. Then, so that way, we can easily go there whenever we feel some need for the shelter of Krishna.
See if we can stay close to a temple, or if we can’t, then see if we can have some kind of spiritual community wherever we are staying, we are preaching. So, make the space. There, the idea of space was increase the space between us and sense objects.
Here, the idea is decrease the space between us and Krishna. And lastly, time. We may decide that this is the amount of time I am going to devote every day.
So, many times people say, what is the use of chanting so much when you can’t be attentive in your chanting? Well, there is some truth to that, but the point is, many times, the commitment to quantity will bring quality. Like, if every day I have to spend one and a half, two hours, then let me not waste that time. Let me become serious.
We will read more about Krishna, we will read more about the holy name. So, we decide, this much time I am going to spend every day. So, by these four things, each one of us can also develop our bonds with Krishna.
And by this, our consciousness will start becoming more and more like an ocean. And as it becomes more like an ocean, then the desires may come inside, but we won’t be triggered by those desires. And the next two words Krishna says, one who can live like this, that person will be peacefully situated even in this world.
The temptations come in, the person doesn’t get agitated. The last words he says, if we can live like this lifelong, then even in the person in this world, that person will not be deluded. Eventually, at the end of their life, they will attain me.
So, the key for us is to cultivate that sense of higher purpose. Prabhupada would say that every time when we come to the temple, we look at the deities. We should feel, Krishna is asking me, what are you doing for me? There are many ways of understanding whether we are Krishna conscious.
Krishna is asking, what are you doing for me? Most people when they come to Krishna, they ask Krishna, what are you doing for me? I have this problem and I have that issue and that issue, what are you doing? So, that is the initial way of connecting with Krishna. So, from that initial way of what are you doing for me, to what am I doing for you, that spiritual journey Krishna talks about from 7.16 to 7.19, that I will be discussing in today evening’s class. But here, this sense of higher purpose, each one of us needs to find out, what can I do for Krishna? Now, it may not be a world-shaking thing, like Prabhupada did, but it is a small corner.
I can take care of my family, I can talk about Krishna Bhakti to these people, I can learn this cooking, I can learn this music, I can learn the Shastra and try to teach it others. It’s like, our love for Krishna, if we try to find some tangible way by which we can make an offering for Krishna, this is my offering to Krishna. Of course, we can take guidance of senior devotees, we want to do it within the instructions and the parameters of where we are.
But broadly speaking, when we get that sense of personal investment, personal offering, then what will happen is, that’s how that higher purpose will come. So the higher purpose, which will eventually lead to higher taste, it comes by personal investment. This is what I am going to do for Krishna.
At the end of my life, if I see Srila Prabhupada, if I see Krishna, they ask me, what did you do throughout your life? What am I going to say? Now everyday I spend two and a half hours on social media. No, okay, you know, this is what I did. So, is there something tangible that we can say is going to be our offering to Krishna? It may be a small thing, it doesn’t matter, the size in this world, but it is our offering to Krishna.
It can be within the broader, we are all a team. Now every team member makes their own contribution. Some teams, some members contribution might be naturally, somebody else might not.
But every team member, they are making their contribution. Then that takes the team forward. So for us, our personal, it’s within a team, we are a part of a community, but within the team framework, we find out how I can make my offering to Krishna.
That way we’ll find, from wherever we are, we will get a sense of personal purpose in bhakti. So, the sense of purpose when we have, once we find that sense of purpose, we will have a clear sense of direction. Like, for us, we feel, what is the purpose of life? We tell everyone, the purpose of life is to go back to Godhead.
But you know, going back to Godhead seems so far away. It’s like a long-term purpose, it seems very long away. Okay, what is my purpose in this life as I move toward Krishna? Bhagavatam gives the example that a devotee’s life, Bhagavad Gita gives the example that, that just as a river flows toward the ocean, the consciousness of the wise people flows towards Krishna.
Now, Vedanta Desika is a commentator in the Srivastava tradition. So, he explains in his commentary to this verse, that the key about that river is, a river doesn’t just go toward the ocean, while going toward the ocean, the river benefits countless life-forms along its banks. So, like that, a devotee doesn’t just go toward Krishna, while going toward Krishna, a devotee benefits many people.
So, like that, for us, we have a long-term purpose. That is, to develop love for Krishna, to go back to Krishna. But, we need something like a medium-term purpose.
Medium-term means, in this life, you know, okay, the river of my consciousness, the river of my life, how is it going to flow toward Krishna? What path will it take? What contributions can I make? So, service in this life. When we have this, then we’ll find so much of the temptation that is agitating us, we will start realising, I am not fighting against temptation for my own sake. Actually, the more I win the battle against temptation, the more I can benefit others.
And that will give us a far greater sense of purpose in trying to fight against temptation. So, we get a sense of direction and we’ll also get a sense of urgency. Like Prabhupada said, I don’t have time for temptation, because whatever purpose we have for life, it takes time, it’s not easy.
We have so little time, we want to use all the time we have for the purpose we want to pursue. So, that higher purpose, when we cultivate that, that will expand our consciousness to be like an ocean, and then temptations won’t agitate us so much. We will keep marching steadily toward Krishna, becoming increasingly joyful in this life, and eventually joyful in our next life.
I’ll summarise what I discussed today. Mainly, we discussed three points. I spent some time today on 264, but how we need to put aside Raga and Dvesha, put aside, so that we can follow the Vidhi of scripture, and through that Vidhi, what will we get? Prasad.
Prasad is purity. So, that Vidhi, that following scripture will give us purity, that was the theme. Now, purity means that, we discussed over there in 65, more or less to 69, the theme that I discussed here was that when there is purification versus the difference is there is regulation.
Purification means there is still inner struggle, regulation means there is no inner struggle. So, going towards purification is a gradual journey, and it is when we have some level of purity, that’s when we can be independently thoughtful. Our intelligence becomes well situated.
Till then, of course, we have to think for ourselves, but we need to take guidance from others also. And the last point which I focused on, I am giving a very broad summary of it, that if our consciousness is like an ocean, karma will come in, temptation will come in, but we don’t want the intention to go out. So, the way to prevent that is, we want to make, expand our consciousness.
So, expand consciousness, how do we do? We start first with a higher vision. From that we get a higher purpose. From that we get a higher taste.
So, higher vision we get by studying Shastra. The purpose we get by Satsang. Associating with devotees who have a sense of purpose.
Prabhupada has a huge sense of purpose for the whole world. Within Prabhupada’s sense of purpose, we find our sense of purpose. So, our personal offering, we could try to see, what can I do for Krishna in this life? That will give us the sense of direction and the sense of urgency.
And when we have this, just doing this will give us some fulfilment, even if we have not come to the level of taste in Krishna. And that’s how, we can be Shanta, even while we are going through this troubling material world, as we make our journey towards Krishna. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Do you have some time for questions? Okay. Yes, speak it, I’ll repeat it.
It should not be very harsh, and it should not be very soft. You know, we are trying to message others, that we pray so much. In our territory, we got such an answer.
So, many times, we are preaching to them now, and in different languages, and then they suggest that we should try to control them too much. And they preach, and we did our responsibility that we would influence Krishna in other terms. At the same time, what we tell them is very different, right? If we tell them, then the party becomes angry, then we can speak to them.
Okay. But, I’ll address it now. They’re saying that we need accountability, but the position should not be too hard or too soft.
I mentioned that yesterday. But say, if we are guiding someone, if we come in contact with someone who is under the guidance of someone, and they feel that their guide is too hard, then we don’t want to disrupt that system, but how do we help that person? It depends on the level of trust we have with that person, and the level of trust that they have with that person. So, generally speaking, it is best to tell them to express themselves respectfully, but clearly with their particular guide, and see if the guide understands.
If we have friendship with the guide, we can talk with that guide also. But, if that doesn’t work for them, then we need to know that, we need to just inform them that there are many ways of being Krishna conscious. Like, we sometimes use the word Prabhupada’s mood and mission.
Actually, these two are very different things. Prabhupada had one mission, he had many different means. When he was in America, at that time, it was Sarva Dharma and Parivrtta.
People just left everything and joined him. But, when he was in India, nobody was ready to do that. So, Prabhupada accepted people as wife members, and he respected their engagement.
So, it is not that Prabhupada has one move. So, there is one mission in international society for Krishna consciousness. But, there are many different moves.
So, within the movement also, there are many different teachers and they have different moves. So, if we don’t find that, if a particular person finds that the mood in which their particular situation is not working for them, then they can still stick to the mission, but they have to find association that works for them. We all need like-minded association.
That’s a principle in Bhakti. So, like-minded association, what does it mean? When we say like-minded, it has three aspects to it. First thing is, we… like-minded guide.
So, we understand their mind. That when they give a class, it makes sense. If we ask a question about something from Shastra, and he just quotes another verse from Shastra to explain, well, I want a logical explanation.
Because giving Shastra doesn’t help. Isn’t it? So, we may be impressed by the scriptural learning, but we may not be persuaded by it. We understand their mind.
Then, if we are further associated with them, and we talk with them, they understand our mind. So, if we ask them some question, they don’t just label us. We are overthinking.
You know, you are a Jnani, you are practising Bhakti, you don’t do this, you don’t do that. Like that, they don’t label us. They understand our mind.
And then, they help us understand our mind. Okay, you are thinking like this. In this point, it’s right, but maybe here you need to rethink what you’re thinking.
So, each one of us needs that kind of association. And we need to find that over time. Thank you.
The question arises, you are addressing the Manushya Gana. In terms of a curve, I do not know whether it’s a elliptical curve or a parabolic curve. Manushya compared to Isra and so on, it is shown that as a human being, we have some limitations.
Could you throw some light on the limitations of a human being compared to God? Limitations of a human being So, based on our human limitations, is it that there is some limitation to our happiness? Well, yes and no. No in the sense that when we are experiencing spiritual happiness, it just happens at the level of the soul. So, that doesn’t depend on our embodiment.
So, the spiritual happiness can be unlimited. So, in that sense, no. But yes, in the sense that while we are in this world, even when we realise I am the soul, still we work through the body.
So, the body has its limitations. Somebody who is filled with love for Krishna, their soul might be constantly dancing in ecstasy. But if their body dances, after some time the body will get tired.
Isn’t it? So, the particular expressions of happiness, yes. They may be limited. As one devotee was telling me, he did some wonderful service.
He was like a top distributor. And he himself felt very fulfilled. And everybody was appreciating and saying, I am tired of smiling.
I am happy, but you know how low when face muscles are tired of smiling. So, there are physical limitations. You could say there are physical limitations to the physical expressions of happiness.
So, but internally, the more we remember Krishna, the soul is awakened, the happiness is unlimited. Yes. Firstly, you spoke of attachment part.
Vaishya, if you could explain a little bit in the sense that should I hate something which is also very bad, we understand that at a very broad level, but then how does one comprehend that and especially when we are talking to people or when we are doing some preaching and these things. So, like the example that you gave of meat and then you know we might detest it, but then how do I personally or practically approach that particular topic because somebody is associated with meat. Is that Vaishya then needs to be a part of this? Is my question.
Let me update this also. So, how do we deal with Vaishya? See, it’s very important that when we are dealing with people, it’s that our personal value system, whatever it might be, that Vaishya, because of which we dislike something. And we don’t let that come out as disrespect or disdain for others.
So, when that happens, we can alienate people a lot. That was Prabhupada’s capacity. Prabhupada lived so purely that he had not even drunk tea or coffee in his life.
And yet he went to the West, even among the West, which generally from the Vedic perspective, the West is considered degraded. But the hippies were considered degraded even by the West. He went among those people, because their only regulative principle was to break all regulative principles.
And not one of those people, Prabhupada, has ever said that Prabhupada made us feel unworthy, guilty, fallen. No, Prabhupada talked us with attentively, talked us with politely. Prabhupada appreciated.
So, many of these people will be stoned on drugs, they’ll be smoking and they’ll be drinking and they’ll smell of all that. But, Prabhupada was able to put it aside. Prabhupada obviously was afraid of that sense of aversion or whatever.
But Prabhupada put that aside so that he could connect with people. So, we need to work. If we are trying to do outreach to a particular demographic, then if we want to do that, then we have to make sure that our personal Raag and Gratitude.
Now, even if we say my Raag and Gratitude is based upon Shastra. Still, that should not come in the way I am connecting with others. So, for example, nowadays many Indian devotees are trying to go up to America, to the West to try to help in the outreach there.
So, now in India, in general, there is a certain level of gender separation. And, some devotees, based on their culture, upbringing or whatever, if they see any three gender mixing, they might just say, these people are so spiritual, they are not interested in that. But, when I went to the West for the first time, I saw that many times in the Western outreach programme, boys and girls, men and women sit together.
And, I found it a little distracting for me and I found it difficult for people to focus like that. But, when I talked with people, one American boy who had become a devotee told me that the first time he came to a temple, his girlfriend brought him to a temple. She was interested in Bhakti.
They came in the same car. But, he said, after we came to the temple, I saw we had to sit separately. And, I said, I couldn’t make any sense of what was happening throughout the programme, throughout the events.
And, I said, I am never going to come again. So, he said, then afterwards, she only took him to a Western outreach centre, where the gender separation was not there. And, then he says, she explained what was going on.
For the Western mind, much of what goes on here, just doesn’t make sense. An Australian lady, she told me, when you blow the conch, why does everyone kiss the floor? So, we may have certain values, according to Shastra. But, then, we can’t impose that.
So, I remember, one person told me that, he came to a temple, and he was taking food, and he was eating with the left hand. And, somebody said, this is sacred food. Eat it with the left hand.
You are committing an offence. You are committing an offence. He spoke it publicly to everyone, in front of everyone.
He said, I am never going to come to this place again. He is a very intelligent person. Actually, he was a scholar of religion.
And, he said, I had so many negative experiences. I came to a temple. I was sitting, asking a question.
And, I said, Prabhu, I have a question. And, the person next to me, almost slapped me on my thigh. He said, this is not a Prabhu.
This is a Maharaj. Don’t commit an offence. So, he said, you people say, that this is the path of the heart.
But, you have bound this path of heart, within such a rigid framework of rules and rituals, that the heart has no place over it. So, he has become a prominent Gauri Vaishya scholar. But, he has gone to Gauri Amrit.
Slowly, appreciating has gone. So, if we bring our dvesha, we will lose a lot of people. So, to understand, what is the impact of what I am doing.
So, every particular person will have a particular sense of emphasis, even in Bhakti. And, if that emphasis is going to override the sensitivities of people, then, it is not going to work. There is one Mataji, she told me, she is from Europe, very intelligent, she is a yoga seeker, she had come to India for searching.
She said that, from ISKCON, I came to know that I am not the body. But, in my entire life, it is only in ISKCON that I am constantly reminded that I am the body. I am a woman, don’t do this, don’t go India.
You can’t do this, you can’t do that. She said, what you teach, there is no way I can practise it among you people. So, eventually, she connected with the Western Autism Centre, that’s where she got some space to grow.
So, we have to be careful about our tuition not coming in. In the way people are practising Bhakti. So, in one way or another, people have also connected.
Yes. Which comes first? That’s like the chicken and egg question. You know, which comes first? So, it’s like, So, some people may just get fed up with the lower taste and they start searching for the higher taste.
Some people may get the higher taste and then they may start giving up the lower taste. However it works. How spiritual awakening occurs in a person, it’s a great mystery.
But, however it begins. Sometimes somebody may achieve something wonderful in material life and they may find it unfulfilled. Somebody may seek something and they completely lose that.
And then you will be devastated. Now, both of those situations may prompt them in a spiritual search. Somebody may materialise quite comfortable in their life and they come and associate with a devotee and say, what I have is good in my life, but this is something better.
So, there is no like frustration or negativity towards the lower taste. It’s in the attraction towards higher taste. So, in any way it works.
Yes, sir. This is about the outreach we do. So, we are reaching out to someone who are in this category, say, of maybe substance to go.
So, there are two ways to do it from what I heard. One is you understand their mind and then they understand you to some extent and then you allow them to go. Otherwise, you enter like a lady, maybe come out like a pro in the sense maybe directly have direct Krishna conscious How does a person who is trying to reach out, is it just based on that person’s experience and situation to decide which of the two or combination? It’s difficult to say.
Ultimately, see, we cannot change who we are. Krishna has given us a particular sabhaav. We say it has come from our past karma or whatever.
But still, it’s under Krishna’s jurisdiction. So, we cannot change too much of who we are. So, we try to make some adjustments within who we are.
Some people may like discipline and hierarchy and order and that’s the way they function. They will find a demographic that also looks for that, that feels comfortable with that. And some people may themselves want autonomy and they want to give others autonomy.
So, I think we need to just be sincere about what has worked for us and share that with others. And that way of sharing will work with some people, will not work with some people. So, after I started travelling abroad, several people gave me a feedback as I’ve been travelling since 2014.
Some people gave me feedback that my classes are too intellectual. So, then I offered to my Guru Maharaj, Maharaj, it’s not that I’m intentionally intellectual. That’s just the way I think.
So, I can’t change myself. So, Maharaj said that you don’t have to change yourself. He said that if you try to be humorous like Gauravpal, it won’t work.
If Gauravpal tries to be intellectual like you, it won’t work. So, I said, I’m concerned. I’m neither intellectual like you, nor humorous like Gauravpal.
So, I said, Maharaj, whatever abilities we have, it is simply by your mercy. Maharaj said, you can see this, he said, Krishna has gifted me with deep concern for others. With that concern in my heart, whatever I speak, it seems to inspire others.
He said, you don’t have to change yourself, but try to increase your concern for your audiences. So, I found it very both insightful and appealing. It’s a completely different way of looking at it, increase your concern, but what does it mean practically? Then I explored, I heard some of the classes that I had given in 2014, what I thought were my best classes.
And they’re my classes, but I had to pay full attention to understand what I was saying. Okay, this is an example for this. How is this flowing over here? Then I realised I’m making too much demands intellectually for the audience.
And somebody told me that, you know, when I listen to your class, I get smoke from my brain. So, that’s when I decided to explore, you know, how could I make it easier to understand? So, I experimented trying to make PowerPoints for every class. And then that’s how finally I came up with the system of writing things.
So, when I write things down and draw things, it helps to, one thing, it slows me down. So, the second thing is that it gives a visual component for people to focus on. And it makes things clearer.
So, I’ve been told that this is made by classes less incomprehensible. So, I think within our range, we can try to adjust. And we will reach some demographic, we will not reach some demographic.
So, let’s try now. No. Prabhupada didn’t really reach the Indian masses.
Prabhupada didn’t want to also. Prabhupada wanted to reach more of the classes in India. That’s why he focused primarily on English outreach.
Prabhupada didn’t do Bengali outreach. Prabhupada could have done Bengali outreach. He could have done Hindi outreach.
He would have got millions of followers. Sometimes Prabhupada gave Hindi classes. Prabhupada wanted his books to be translated.
But Prabhupada didn’t focus his energy on that. So, I think each of us, according to our Swabhava and our Sakshatkar, we serve accordingly. And we will find some audience that we can reach.
So, thank you very much. Okay. Okay, last question.
I have to stop. After hearing from Krishna about the Ramayana and particularly in 20 years how progress has been made, and finally Siddhartha Upadhyaya described that Krishna was the Guru. He says that Krishna was the Guru.
That is very true. When Arjuna was fighting with Vishnu, he started saying that I did not kill Vishnu. I am not doing it.
And Krishna would understand this attachment of his. So, that also comes to us by listening to you, Mahabharata, Bhagwat, we all have speakn our Prastha and we all know it. And when it comes to our practicality, the situation of my body that comes in front of Krishna.
See, just because we are spiritual, doesn’t mean we are no longer human. There is a… See, you can say that I am not my body, but I am still in my body. Isn’t it? And what happens to the body affects me.
What happens to the mind affects me. It cannot control me, but it still affects me. So, spirituality is not about cancelling our humanity.
It is about recognising that we are bigger than our humanity. So, now Vishnu was his grandfather. This was the person who took care of him after his father passed away.
For him to shoot arrows at that person was going to be painful. And that’s understanding. I think to call it attachment is very harsh.
See, when we use the word material desires also, I didn’t get time to do this, but quickly I will show you this. See, material desires can be in sattva, rajas and tamas. And they are not all the same.
So, especially after I started going to America, I realised the difference between rajas and tamas. See, many Indian parents, they may not be spiritual at all, and they push their children to study this, do this, do this. They have a lot of expectations for their children.
But, if their child falls sick, they’ll move heaven and earth to treat the child, to heal the child. Contrast that with somebody who is stoned on drugs and they don’t even know that they have a child who exists somewhere. So, if somebody desperately wants money, you want money so that I can get my next drug victim.
Somebody wants money so that I can say, admit my child into a better college. And somebody wants money because my child is dying and needs some money for treatment. It’s all desire for money, but to call it all as the same is minor.
There’s a big difference in it. So, there are sattvic, rajasic, tamasic desires, and they’re very different. And to call all of them as material desires, all of them as attachments, is an oversimplification.
So, yes, we want to give up tamasic, and to some extent we want to give up rajasic as much as we can, but Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that even rajas and tamas should not be equated. He says rajas can sometimes serve as an antidote to the poison that is tamas. So, at least from a material perspective, it is far better than tamasic.
So, to have an abusive or a negligent parent is far, far more damaging than to maybe have a helicopter parent who is controlling too much or whatever. So, I think this is just natural human emotion. And we need to address it gradually.
So, Krishna also, how does he respond? Actually, if you consider that emotion to be bad, Arjuna hesitating when he has to fight against Bhishma, Arjuna breaks down and cries and yells at Yudhishthira and Bhima when Abhimanyu is spoken. Now, what does Krishna do at that time? Krishna says, You fool, just 13 days ago I spoke the Bhagavad Gita to you. Have you forgotten it all? Did you forget? You are such a dumb person.
Maybe I should have found somebody else to speak the Bhagavad Gita. No, Krishna doesn’t take any philosophical approach at all. Krishna says, Arjuna, in this world, bad things happen to everyone.
The wise and the unwise. But the difference is the unwise act in ways that make things worse. The wise act in ways that make things better.
So, he says, right now you are in pain at the death of Abhimanyu, but Bhima and Yudhishthira are also in pain. Please don’t speak words that will increase their pain. So, we need to be very human and understanding in these situations.
Otherwise, if we lose our humanity in the name of our spirituality, we will alienate our family, we will alienate our friends, we will alienate potential people who are going to be devotees. So, yes, we are not our body, and we are not our mind. But we live in this body and mind.
And there are some natural issues which affect the body and mind. And they need to be addressed. While Krishna says, do not lament, he also says, or rather in the Vedic tradition, there is a whole process called grieving.
It is described in the Bhagavatam itself. After the war ended, the Pandavas grieved for all their loved ones. So grieving is not lamenting.
I understand this person is a soul, I understand I am a soul, and I understand the soul is eternal. But this person was in my life and played an important role in my life. And that person is no longer there.
That’s going to create an emptiness in my heart. And I need to address that. So, we have to find out whatever situation the person is in, okay, this is the emotion I am experiencing.
How can I address this emotion in such a way that I can keep moving towards Krishna? Not that this emotion is Maya, suppress it. No, okay, this emotion is there. Maybe it needs some space, but I don’t go away from Krishna.
Yes, exactly. Yuktahari, the balancing is implied. So I think we will stop here.
Thank you so much. I have to leave for another programme. So, thank you very much.
It was wonderful being here and doing this three-part series. When I spoke all this, it is not that I am some person who has, like I also have my intense battles. This is a war, we are all fighting this war.
There are some weapons that I found work for me, and I am trying to share those weapons. So, if this has been of any help to you, then I seek your prayers so that in my own battles against temptation also, I can become better situated and win my wars, and I pray that all of you can also win your wars against temptation. Shri Prabhupada Ki Jai! Hare Krishna!