Resentment into retirement Gita 2.6 Los Angeles

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we’ll be handing you a book. I’ll also be displaying the content of the book over here.
And we’ll discuss based on that. The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient book of wisdom which has guided millions for millennia. Today, I’ll be talking on the topic of resentment.
When we feel resentment, how do we deal with that? Resentment can be about many things in life. I’ll be discussing this based on a particular verse from the Bhagavad Gita. So, in this book, we’ve taken the Bhagavad Gita.
There’s a one-line prayer inspired by the verse. And there’s the verse. And then there’s a poetic translation of the verse.
And then there’s a prayer inspired by the verse. So, we’ll read this one by one. I’ll request some of you also to read the prayer as we move towards it.
So, let’s begin but first. With you, you can repeat after me. With you, my Lord, there are no dead ends.
This is the verse from the Bhagavad Gita. Those of you who are comfortable, you can recite. Otherwise, you can just hear.
Na cai tad vidhma Kataranno ghariyo caitad vidhma Katarranno ghariyo Yadvā jaye ma Yadivāno joye juh We do not know which feat is best, to win or fall in this cruel test. Those whom we wish not to slay, stand armed against us in this fatal fray. This is Bhagavad Gita 2.6. The Bhagavad Gita is a song.
Sometimes when you study the philosophy you might forget that it is a song actually. That’s why I try to offer this poetic translations of the verse. So who would like to read the first paragraph? It’s visible there.
It’s also visible in the book that you have. I hope you have the page number. Page number is 31 page in the book.
My dear Lord, when I find myself at a dead end, let me remember that my vision is limited. But your wisdom knows no bounds. No problem is too big for you to solve.
Even when I am so small that I cannot even conceive of a solution, let alone implement one. So when we go through life, there are times when we often think of life as a straight journey and this is the path of life. And sometimes we come to forks.
But sometimes we come to a dead end. And there’s just no way out of that. It seems that it is so huge we just can’t go around it.
Neither right nor left. It’s completely blocked. And when that happens, it can be extremely frustrating.
So now in one sense, we always have choices. But if somebody says your choices, I’m going to kill you. Either I’ll shoot you in the head or I’ll shoot you in the heart.
Choose. What is the choice in that? So sometimes life’s choices can feel like that, that whatever we choose, it seems to be a terrible path ahead. And when that happens, then it just feels what am I here for? What am I to do? So generally speaking, this is the time when resentment can come in very quickly.
Now, when we use the word resentment, so I would like to ask you that what does resentment to mean to you? And when do you sometimes feel resentment? I was giving a talk in India and I asked one student. So when do you feel resentment? He says, when you are asking me this question about resentment. So sometimes people just want to be peaceful and the speaker asks them a question.
Why are you doing this to me? So what does resentment mean to you? Frustration. Now, frustration, yes, it’s a negative emotion, especially we experience frustration when we try to do something and we can’t do it. We try again, we can’t do it.
And repeatedly after trying when something doesn’t move forward, that’s when we feel frustration. So that’s one kind of negative emotion. Why is this here? Why is this happening to me? Thank you.
Any other situation? Unwillingness for what? Yes, so when on one side we are unwilling, but on the other side we have to do it. We are unwilling, but we are somewhat forced. So we have to do something, we don’t want to do it.
That’s when we feel resentment. Yes. Anything else? Disappointment.
Yeah. Why did things not work out the way I wanted them to? So the disappointment is, in one sense, disappointment and frustration are slightly different. Disappointment is, yeah, things did not work out the way I wanted them to.
And maybe it’s just over. It can’t do anything about that. Chapter is over.
And then we feel disappointment. Anything else? Strong dislike. Yes, dislike.
Why is this thing here? I was once trying to do a mediation between two people. And the first person said, I can see that you’re very angry with me. Can you tell me, what have I done to make you so angry? The second person said, you exist.
Now the second person was not actually being facetious. He was actually saying everything about you. The sound of your voice, the way you laugh, the way you sit and slouch, your hairstyle, everything about me, about you annoys me.
So now it’s very difficult to have any kind of reconciliation with the person who says that, I dislike your existence itself. So that is the extreme situation. But sometimes there’s dislike.
So these are various situations in which we may feel resentment. Now I’ll talk about this in broad principles. I’ll talk about this in two parts, three parts basically first.
First I’ll talk about when resentment occurs and then how we normally try to deal with resentment and how spirituality can empower us to better deal with resentment. So those three parts we’ll discuss. So broadly speaking, if we are here in life, now there are certain things which we like, which we like and we want.
And there are some things we dislike and we don’t want. Now ideally speaking what we want is, things which we like should come to us, things which we dislike should go away from us. But sometimes life does the opposite.
What life does is, life gives us the things we like go away and the things we dislike come to us. So in Sanskrit it is said that, that which is priya, that which we want, it goes away from us. Viyoga happens.
And that which is apriya, that which you don’t want, it comes to us. Now when either of these things happen, then we feel annoyed. And that annoyance can go downwards.
Say we want to go to a, we are going on a drive. And maybe there are four or five people going, we are going in a bus, maybe a bus. There is some person we want to sit next to and talk.
And there is some person we just want to avoid. And we get on the bus and the only seat remaining is next to the person we don’t want to sit next to. It can seem a small thing, but it can be annoying at that time.
So basically when things don’t go the way we want them to go, that’s when we start feeling annoyance, displeasure, a variety of negative emotions. Now resentment, all of you gave various aspects of resentment. I would like to dive a little bit deeper into resentment.
Now let’s take another parallel. There is anger and there is hate. Are the two the same thing? No.
What do you think is the difference? Yes, true. So anger and love can exist, coexist. In fact, sometimes we are most angry with the people who we love the most, isn’t it? Because our emotions are so invested in them.
So if they have done something which is going to hurt us or which is going to hurt them, like a parent may get very angry with their child, but they love the child. So anger can coexist with love. Anger and love can go together.
In fact, love itself may cause anger sometimes. But hate and love cannot coexist. Thank you.
Good point. Any other difference? Yes, anger is momentary. Anger is, you could say, short-lived.
Anger is, sorry, hate is long-lived. It is continuous. It is long-lasting.
And in terms of action, what do you think may be the difference between somebody acting out of anger and somebody reacting out of hate? What would be the difference? Yeah, actually, hate can be better concealed also, isn’t it? I think you are on the right track. You know, if you consider a person, how do I, my drawing is very limited. Okay, you can say this is the mind of a person or this is the, now if you see, if anger is there, anger comes out like fumes.
It’s very difficult to conceal anger, isn’t it? Generally speaking, people can do that, but it’s very difficult. Somebody is angry and the other person doesn’t even notice that they are angry. Then there is something wrong with the other person.
But on the other hand, if you consider hate, hate can actually be carefully concealed. In fact, it might not just be, it might be filling the consciousness or filling a major part of the consciousness. But hate can be concealed.
Like somebody who hates, that person may come very close and pretend to like, to admire. And then when they earn the trust and the guard is lowered, that’s the time moment they might stab. So, anger, so hate can be more pronounced in the sense that it is more deep-rooted.
It is, anger is more difficult to conceal, but sometimes anger comes and it goes, it’s short-lived. So, hate is much more deep-rooted, we could say. And the result of hate being deep-rooted is that, in terms of actions, when we act out of anger, we are impulsive.
In the heat of the moment, we might say something. But in, hate is often very calculative. Hate is very calculative.
Another way to put this is, impulse, when anger is there, we become hot-headed. Or somebody is angry, is hot-headed. Somebody is hateful, is cold-blooded.
Yeah, it’s reactive and it’s thoughtful. Thoughtful is not the most positive word to describe that, but I get what you’re saying, you know. It’s like, it’s well thought out, it’s calculated, it’s premeditated.
So, in that sense, thoughtful, yeah. So, now, why are we discussing this difference? See, anger or hate is directed towards someone. We need a person to be angry with.
If our car doesn’t work, we can beat the car, but only our fist will get damaged, isn’t it? So, we might feel angry with objects, but generally, anger and especially hate is directed toward people. But when that same emotion gets diffused, it gets spread. So, there is annoyance.
When things don’t go well, we may be annoyed. But that annoyance can degenerate into resentment. So, what hate is to anger, resentment is to annoyance.
Now, when we interact with each other, we all might do something that we might annoy the other person, the other person might do something which annoys us. And it’s just natural. We all are different and we all have our particular expectations in life.
But when it becomes resentment, it becomes very deep rooted. It goes deep inside and it sort of blackens our view of the entire world. When somebody has resentment, annoyance, it can come and go.
It’s superficial, it’s short lived. But somebody is resentful, they become extremely bitter with life. And there are various kinds of resentment.
And when we talk about various kinds of resentment, what do I mean? That there can be, again, circumstantial resentment. Maybe it comes, it stays for some time, it goes away. But for some people, when it becomes deep rooted, it becomes existential resentment.
They just complain and blame everything. So, yes, there are many things wrong in the world out there. But when our heart becomes filled with negativity, then the problem is that whatever is wrong out there is actually making things wrong in here.
And then we will become, not only we will be in greater pain, but will also cause greater pain to others. So, resentment is much more deep rooted. So, everybody will experience some pain in life.
Now, we can go two ways. Pain can either be transmitted or pain can be transformed. Pain can be transmitted or pain can be transformed.
So, when it goes on this path, pain is transmitted, generally this is associated with resentment. So, resentful people, they are bitter and their bitterness comes out towards everyone. They tend to hurt others by their words, by their actions.
Now, there is, you can say, life is difficult and everybody can have a lot of reasons to be resentful. So, that is a fact of life. But the point is that, that is no way to live.
We’ll just make ourselves miserable and we’ll make others miserable. So, some of me may know that I need crutches for walking. So, when I was one, I got polio.
Now, when I travel across the world, I often am invited to talk to people, to gatherings where people with special needs assemble. And some of these people are extremely resilient and inspiring. The kind of odds they have overcome and the way they have risen in life.
Unfortunately, after I give my talk, when I talk with others and talk with the audience, I find that many of them are filled with so much resentment. Now, maybe there was an accident, maybe there was some mishap and they lost a limb, they lost a hand, a leg, an eye. It’s all tragic.
But what has happened is, it’s already over. Maybe it happened one year ago, maybe five years ago, maybe it happened ten years ago. And what has happened is that resentment, what it does is, it keeps us fighting lost battles.
Now, if you keep fighting lost battles, the result is that it is we who become lost. We keep fighting lost battles. It is just we who get lost.
Why does this person do like this way? Now, resentment can broadly go towards three directions. We might find some person, the resentment can go toward that person. Sometimes resentment can come upon ourselves.
Now, why am I like this? Why am I not like that? Why am I not tall enough? Why am I not fair enough? Why am I not smart enough? Why am I not fluent enough? So, that can be there. Why? Why? Or resentment can go towards all of the world itself. Now, we can include that and some people can be resentful of God also.
But resentment can go directly towards the entire world, all of existence. Now, each of these forms of resentment is a problem. But what the essence of resentment is that we are fighting battles that are already lost.
Now, sometimes when I see so much resentment in people, I look back at my life. Fortunately, I don’t feel that much resentment. So, I couldn’t figure out why it was so till a couple of years ago, memory actually came back.
It was like a defining memory for me, but the memory itself had been obscured for a long time. Because when I was one, I got polio. It was a defective vaccine that was given to me.
We didn’t realise that the fridge in which the vaccine had been kept had lost its power supply. And it’s not our job to realise. The attendant didn’t realise.
The physician didn’t realise. And they gave me that vaccine because the temperature had increased. So, the number of germs in the vaccine were much more.
And then instead of preventing the polio, the vaccine caused the polio. Now, I was about to learn to walk and I felt I couldn’t walk normally. I don’t remember that.
But what I remember is I was about two and a half or three and a distant relative had come to our home. And she was consoling my mother saying, it’s so sad that your son got polio. And I remember her mother’s words, very calm, clear, confident.
She said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually. I don’t know why she said that, but somehow that stayed with me. And because that stayed with me, as I grew up, I found that I couldn’t play outdoor games like other kids could.
But when we started reading, started studying, I noticed that I could memorise things quickly. I could read things fast. I could articulate things well.
And somewhere at the back of my life, it’s mind, it settled. Maybe I never articulated like that, that I could say life is unfair. I didn’t do anything to deserve this special physical disability.
But then I could say that I didn’t do anything to deserve this intellectual ability either. So in the big picture, life is fairly unfair. Fairly unfair means sometimes we get worse than what we deserve.
And sometimes we do get better than what we deserve. So basically, what happened because of my mother’s, now I analyse psychological, that statement stayed with me. We all identify with something within ourselves.
So this is a bit of a subtle concept, but once you get it, it’ll be very easy to understand what I’m going to discuss further. So there is, we all have a social identity. Not one identity, we have many social identities.
So for example, we may be identified as a male or a female, as an Indian or as an American, or as young or middle aged, as an engineer or as a doctor. We can have many social identities. And beyond that, we have, you could say, what we can call as a self-identification.
Self-identification means, how do we see ourselves? So the social identity and the self-identification, they are not necessarily the same. So for example, someone may see you as a woman, but you may think, yeah, I’m a woman, but that’s not what defines me. Maybe I’m a doctor, I’m an engineer, I’m a lawyer.
Somebody may see most of us as Indians. Yeah, we are Indians, but that’s not who we identify as. Say, how many of you, those of you who are from India, how many of you think of yourself as Asians? You know, Asia is such a big place, you see, there are so many different, so are we Asians? Yeah, we may be Asians, but we don’t identify ourselves as Asians, you know.
It is first time when I came to America, that somebody asked me, are you an Asian? I thought, oh yeah, I am an Asian. I never thought of myself as an Asian. So there are many identities which we may have, but we don’t identify with that.
So there is a social identity and there is a self-identification. That’s a part of who we are, but that’s not who primarily we identify ourselves with. So what happens is that when resentment comes up, this is where I’m going to the philosophy of the Gita, that when resentment comes up for us, what is happening is that when we have multiple roles in our life and we have identities based on that.
So we could have a role of, we might be a parent, we might be a professional, we might be a citizen, we might be an immigrant, we have different roles in our life, identities associated with those roles. But there are some we identify with more and some we identify less with. So our, the resentment that comes in our life is based on which roles we identify with.
So for example, when people see me, the first thing they may think of me that I need crutches for walking, I’m a physical disabled. Now that’s true, but that doesn’t occupy much of my headspace. By God’s grace, I’m on a journey in life where I don’t have much leg room, but I have a lot of headspace.
So the point is in my headspace, that is just a small part, it’s like I need to wear glasses. Now if you start wearing glasses, how many of us think, oh, I’m a bespectacled person. Most people may not even use the word bespectacled, is it? Yeah, okay, you can’t see well, put on glasses and move on with life.
So for me like that, put up crutches and move on with life. So we all have certain identities which from the lens with which society sees us. But we may or may not see ourselves that way.
So there is a social identity and there is a personal or self-identification. And this can go in various directions. So for example, if most of you here are from India, settled in America, now when people in America see you, they say, oh, you’re Indian.
You say, yeah, I’m an Indian, but then India is such a huge country. There are South Indians, there are North Indians, there are South Indians also, you know, I’m a Telugu, not a Tamil. We may have so much further identification over there.
So when we are feeling resentment in life, generally what is happening is that we, based on our identities, we have different roles that we can play in life. And sometimes one identity might just get blocked. And one role that we want to play, it will just not be possible to play that role.
So the Gita talks about our identity as multilayered. Multilayered means, now I already talked about this question of identity, I talked about identity and identification. I’ll just first elaborate that and then I’ll move back to this multilayered identity.
So what I mean by that is each one of us, say for example, we may have multiple identities which may be based on our age, our gender, our education, our profession, our financial status, our income. I’m middle class, I’m upper middle class, our nationality or our ethnicity, our religion. Like this, we can have many identities.
Now, this is how we can say this is our social identities. Now among the social identities that we have, say we may have identity based on our height or weight, we might have an identity based on our complexion. Is somebody fair or dark, somebody is blonde or brunette, whatever.
We all have different identifications in society. Now among these, some of these may be very prominent for us. As you can see, I don’t have a very good identity as a drawer.
Somebody who draws, you know. I grew up in a place called Nasik. So when I went there and I gave a spiritual talk, so many of my school students, many of my co-students, some of my teachers attended.
So after one of my talks, one of the talks there, one of my teachers, she came to me. I asked, what did you think about the talk? She said, when you were my student, I should have forced you to draw better. So our teachers will always be our teachers.
So now among these, for some people, maybe one identity, maybe based on their profession or maybe based on their income level, that might be very prominent. And other identities may not be very prominent. So maybe based on your income level.
So the other identities are there, but they are relatively smaller. So what happens for us is that two people may lose the job and one person is disturbed, the other person is devastated. Why the difference? It could be that both of them are financially more at the similar level only.
It is not that one is wealthy and the other is not. It is that if the person identifies with that job a lot, then they have not just lost a job, they have lost their identity. Who am I? And losing one’s identity is very, very disorienting.
So for somebody else, they lose a job, okay, I will find another job. Some people say, I am jobless. Others say, I am not jobless, I am between jobs.
So it is between jobs, I will find another job. It is no big deal. So now this layering of our identity, that we have multiple identities.
Now if for somebody, their income level is a very defining part of their identity and the stock market crashes and they lose their money, then they will be devastated. Of course, if we have lost our money, it is a problem. But there is something which is, like I said, there is annoyance and there is resentment.
There is a problem and there is a heartbreak, there is a complete shattering. So for us, the role that we identify very strongly with, if we face a roadblock in that, that is when resentment starts. So resentment does not come by anything going wrong in our life.
Many things keep going wrong in our life. But we just shrug our shoulders and move on with it. But some places where something goes wrong, we just become totally overwhelmed.
Why is this happening? So fortunately, what my mother taught me or she spoke that, okay, I realise as a physically fit person, my role would be limited. But that is not the only thing required for growing in life. There are other avenues to grow in life.
So basically what happens? When we are thinking of the path in life, and I said there is resentment. So quite often, it is that this is only one path in life. Maybe there is a completely different path available.
There are many paths ahead. These paths are associated with our roles, with our identities. So when I go back here, the Bhagavad Gita says that we have multiple levels of identity.
So we have functional identities. And then we have a fundamental identity. Now functional identities are many.
Like we discussed over here, there are many identities at the functional level. Now the question is, beyond my job, beyond my complexion, beyond my age, beyond my nationality, beyond this, is there anyone beyond all this? When we identify with any of these roles, that at a functional level is necessary. That’s why I call it functional identity.
The Sanskrit word is there is vyavaharik and there is paramarthik. There is vyavaharik is practical, functional. We have a functional identity.
Now sometimes we may settle into a functional identity. And that’s good. We all are required to settle in a functional identity.
Somebody is a parent. And sometimes it seems it happened in some parts of the world that in America, when you have small babies, there is a baby seat behind. And the baby also is expected to sit with the back towards so that it doesn’t impact the non-injury.
So now it happens sometimes that the parents got out of the car and went away and forgot there was a baby. How can you forget that you have a baby? You know, those who forget their baby should forget the idea of having a baby. Isn’t it? Isn’t it? So if, sorry? That’s true.
Unfortunately for the baby. But the point is that certain identities should be settled deeply within us. You cannot forget that you are a parent.
So there are identity, it’s important at functional level to have certain identities. However, if our identity is, if our identity means our self-identification I am talking about. If our self-identification is reduced to only one particular identity, it’s equal to one functional identity.
Then there are, that’s not an identity in which we can sit comfortably for long. That is, there is three problems with it. This will be the core part of the talk by which we move afterwards.
But we cannot sit in any of these identities. So I mean, sit means can’t settle down. Suppose you’re sitting on a chair, sometimes you know, you may go to a, you have a small child and you go to the children’s classroom.
And then they have chair for children and the teacher comes and sits on the chairs. Now you’re sitting on the chair, first of all you’re not comfortable with the chair, second you’re afraid any moment the chair will fall down, the chair will break apart. So if the chair is too small for us to sit, we can’t sit for too long on it.
So like that, any functional identity that we have, there are three problems with it. First is, S is, it can be stolen. It can be pulled away from us.
If somebody identifies as a surgeon and maybe they get in a car crash or something like that, they lose their hands, may not completely, but they just don’t have that expertise in the hands. Then any functional identity can be stolen. If somebody thinks, I’m an athlete, I’m a sports player, then they get an injury that can end their career, that identity can be stolen.
So any identity that we have, if we get too attached to that identity, then the problem is it can be stolen. And it can be not just disruptive, it can be devastating. Now the second problem with it is that even if it is not stolen, sometimes it turns out to be insufficient.
Now whenever I meet people around the world, and many of them are on a spiritual journey, so I often ask them, so what started your spiritual journey? What is your story? I was just talking with one friend, he’s become a friend, say, what started your spiritual journey? He said, I was frustrated with success. Now we may say, how can somebody be frustrated with success? Normally, we are frustrated with what? Failure. When things don’t work out the way we want, then we become frustrated.
But so I said, what do you mean? So he said his dream was to become a musician. And he became a fairly successful musician. Not like a top notch, but fairly successful.
But he said, I felt something was missing in my life. So we may achieve something, but you feel like, isn’t there anything more to life? So we may achieve a particular role, but that role may, this doesn’t define me. There’s more to me than this.
So sometimes, even success in a role. So first is that we are stolen. That means success is taken away from us.
Success is achieved, but we feel it’s not enough. Isn’t there something more to life? Many times people who become quite successful, wealthy, they start maybe thinking of giving some charity or doing some contribution to society, giving it back. Because they feel, yeah, okay, I could just be on this treadmill, earning more and more money.
But what’s the point of it all? I don’t really feel that satisfied. So I’m a millionaire, I’m a billionaire, I’m the see-suit now. But then, you know, I want to do something more.
I want to be known as something more than simply being a millionaire or a billionaire. Not just I want to be known as a charitable person, I want to be a person who does humanity and work. I also want to do something more.
So sometimes the identity that we have may turn out to be insufficient. So we are given an identity by society, but we feel that’s not who I am. Or at least that’s not all of who I am.
That’s a part of who I am, but that’s not all of who I am. So that identity may turn out to be insufficient for us. So now this can happen, for example, for women.
If a woman is typecast in a particular gender role, okay, you be a mother. Okay, I’m a mother, but I want to be something more also. I want to have my own job, I want to have my own career.
But then sometimes it can go to the other extreme. And then I want to have a career, but I also want to be a mother. It’s not that that alone, sometimes it happens that if the propaganda of feminism goes too much in one direction, and somebody says, I want to have a career, I want to be famous and celebrated in life.
And that’s good, there’s nothing wrong in that. But then we have multiple roles, we have multiple identities, somebody may come to you 40, 45, 50 and they feel okay, you know, I need something more in my life. We all have a need to nurture.
And that need to nurture is fulfilled in some certain ways. So one of the ways is parenting. So sometimes it can go towards multiple extremes.
So we may find that a particular identity is insufficient. Now the third problem with identifying, or I would say more precisely, over identifying with a particular role is that we may feel torn. Why torn? Because two functional identities may pull us in different directions.
Say somebody is very serious about their job, and very serious about their role as a parent. And they are in a deadline bound work, and a work emergency is there. At that time, they get a call from their kid’s school.
Now your kid is in trouble, come and visit right now. What should I do now? Or depending on that crisis, you have a corporate dinner on a particular evening, and that time, that evening you have parent PTA meeting. So where do we go now? And there’s no right answer over here.
There are basically two roles, and the two roles are pulling us in two different directions. So what do we do at that time? So this can lead to a big sense of confusion and crisis. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is spoken in this third situation.
Arjuna is feeling torn in two roles, two identities. As I said, Arjuna is the student of the Gita. He has many different roles.
Now one of the roles is that for him, one of his roles is that he is a warrior. That is one of his identities. Now other of the identities is that he is the member, he is a leader in his dynasty.
So he is a dynastic leader. So what happens is, for him, when he has to fight a war against members of his own dynasty, so if he’s a warrior, he should fight. If he thinks of himself as a dynastic leader, I should not fight.
So what do I do at that time? You may feel torn. So sometimes two roles may tear us apart. And it can be very confusing at that time, because it’s not a matter of this is right and this is wrong.
Both are right, and how do you decide what is more right? So when I started coming from America, I’m based in India, I started coming to America, I noticed that in some ways the American culture is quite different from Indian culture. You know, I grew up in a culture where I would not even shake hands with girls. And as I’m in a monastery, I was quite conservative.
And then I came to America, I noticed that people hug each other quite freely. So I was a little taken aback. Then, but I noticed that it’s just a way of greeting.
It’s just a polite expression of affection. And there are different kinds of hugs also, I learned about that afterwards. But anyway, so I was doing a college outreach programme in Texas.
And one American girl, she asked me a question, why do religions fight among each other? And then I answered the question, elaborately explained about exclusivism and things like that. And she was quite satisfied with the answer. And after the talk, I was talking with the participants, students, and then she came there.
And she said, this question was burdening me for so long. You relieved me of a burden. I’m so grateful to you.
Can I give you a hug? Now as a monk, I can’t say no, but as a teacher who is sharing spiritual knowledge, I don’t want to discourage her. I don’t want to reject the expression of, for her it’s simply expression of affection and appreciation. So the person who was organising the programme, I looked at him and said with my eyes, please help me.
So he, I didn’t say that, but he said, help me. I said, save me. So he helped me, but in the most unexpected way.
So he said, he’s a monk, on his behalf, you can hug me. So I was like, that’s not the kind of help. So then his wife was next to him.
And his wife said, I’m his wife, on his behalf, you can hug me. So sometimes when we are torn between different roles, we have to somehow expertly come out. It’s not always so easy.
So basically, for all of us, when we are feeling resentment, that resentment doesn’t just come because of something has gone wrong. Sometimes we may tell someone, come on, let it go, move on with life. Say, I can’t move on with life.
Sometimes what happens, we are disturbed by something and we tell it to someone and that person says, okay, don’t take it so seriously. Then what happens, first we were disturbed by what happened and now we are disturbed that the other person is not disturbed. The other person says, don’t take it so seriously.
How can you not take it seriously? So what is happening over there is that for us, based on our psychological makeup, that particular thing is very important. We are identifying with that particular role very strongly. And somebody else may not identify with that role that strongly.
And because of that, that person says, just move on. How can you move on? How can you even tell me to move on like this? You don’t even understand me. That’s why when we are dealing with people, we all identify people in a particular way.
Okay, this person like this, this person like that. But how we identify them may be different from how they identify themselves. And that’s why sometimes communication just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere because we are talking past each other.
So therefore, what the Gita says is that we have this, if you go backward over here, we have functional identities, but the problem is we can’t sit in any of these identities. They are important in any of the, in some way they are all important. And we need to build the identity which we have.
But we can’t sit, we can’t settle any of these identities because they can be stolen, they may turn out to be insufficient, and we will be torn between multiple ones. So what do we do? The Gita says that we have an identity, a core identity, a fundamental identity beyond all these identities. And that identity is our spiritual identity.
That is, each one of us is a spiritual being. We are souls, and we are parts of God. We are, God is known by different names and different traditions.
In the Bhagavad Gita, God is known by the name Krishna. So we are parts of God. And as parts of God, as sparks of divinity, each one of us is in the world, and here we have many different roles.
And we are meant to play those roles, but we can’t over-identify with those roles. So when the resentment is coming, it is because the pathway in one particular role is blocked. Now we may try to break that blockage, and sometimes we may succeed.
But sometimes when we don’t succeed, what we need to let go is, we have to let go of that identity. We have to let go of that role. Maybe this role is not going to happen.
But that doesn’t mean that I am less of a person. I can shift to another role. There are many different roles in which you can function in life.
So let’s move, let’s see one more paragraph from here. This is what I said that, my vision is limited, but your wisdom knows no bounds. My vision is limited means that my vision is limited by the particular role that I am identifying with right now.
But maybe God wants us to play a different role, maybe a bigger role, a better role. Who knows? Our wisdom is limited. Who would like to read? Yes, so the two possibilities.
We just don’t see any path ahead, or every path seems to lead to trouble. It’s, am I going to live like this for the rest of my life? This is terrible. Yeah, it is terrible.
But it will be far more terrible if we identify with that role. Some battles, which we will just not be able to win. But just because some battles are lost, does not mean the war is lost.
Which battle is very important for us right now, may depend on what role is very important for me right now. But maybe that is not the only role I am meant to play. Maybe there are other roles I can play.
So that, when we are unable to avoid distress, what can we do? Yeah, who would like to read? Anyone else? Yes, you forget everything from this talk. You can just remember this one sentence, that finite vision is not equal to the final vision. We have a finite vision of things.
And our finite vision is not wrong. Whatever vision we have, we need to utilise it. But the finite vision is not the final vision.
It is important, but it is not all important. There is more to life. So for all of us, we go through phases in life.
And sometimes, some role will just be taken away from us. So if we are parents and we are serious about parenting, and certainly we need to be. Among all the species that we know about in biology, it is a human species where the progeny need the most care and for the most amount of time.
In some species, they just lay the eggs and the progeny just hatch and take care of themselves. But human babies cannot survive. Basically, when you have a newborn baby, it’s more than a full-time job.
That’s why a single parent, if they do take care of a child, it’s laudable, but it’s extremely difficult. And even if the children grow up to the age of 10, 15, they need protection, they need guidance. So it is important if somebody is becoming a parent to identify with that role.
But then what happens is the children may grow up, they may go to college, they may enter some relationships, they may settle down their own life. Then at that time, we start feeling, oh, the nest is feeling empty now. Then if we have identified too strongly with our role as a parent, we feel, what am I going to do now? And sometimes what happens is the children have grown up and the children need some space, but the parents keep, you know, there’s helicopter parenting.
And the parents are constantly hovering as if in a helicopter. What are you doing? What are you doing? So give me some space, isn’t it? So now, of course, parents want to take care of the children and that’s natural. But then the love has to change form.
Initially, the parental love is the love that guards. And after that, it becomes the love that guides. We cannot guard, we can only guide.
But after some time, we may find that we may be wanting to guide, but they may not be ready to take our guidance. Mark Twain said that when I was 17, my father was a fool. Now I’m 25 and I’m amazed how much the old guy has learned in the last 8 years.
I thought so much the old guy has learned. At 17, we think I can conquer the whole world. Everything, the hormones are running high and we feel the whole world is mine for enjoying.
But then as we come to 25, quite often we start taking responsibility. I want to settle down. We realise there’s much more to life than what I thought.
And my parents also have some wisdom. So the love that guides is not the love that forces. So what happens is the role changes.
So parents also need to evolve in their role. They cannot identify with that role too strongly for too long. Of course, a parent will always be a parent.
At the same time, they cannot identify too strongly with that role. So that’s why in the Indian tradition, there will be the vanaprastha where somebody retires. Retires means what? You need to retire before people around us tyre of us.
So basically, the Gita says we have a fundamental identity. And the fundamental identity is that each one of us is a soul. And as a soul, we have many roles to play in our life.
But they are roles. They are not who we are. So what happens is the soul has a role.
Of course, the soul has many roles. But sometimes what happens is the soul goes into a soul role. That means what happens? One role becomes a soul role.
And that’s where it leads to resentment. When that role is not moving forward, sometimes one person may say, I’m doing so much for you. Why don’t you appreciate it? The other person may say, you’re doing so much for me.
That is the problem. He said, I want to live my life. Don’t intervene in my life so much.
Now the other person, you’re so ungrateful. One person says, you’re so ungrateful. And the other person says, you are so domineering.
So what is happening is maybe the relationship has evolved in a different phase. So we need to identify with the role. But we can’t over-identify with that role.
And then sometimes we have to shift to another role. So the way to do that is to be able to see our roles as services. So I’ll conclude with this point.
Let’s see. We are here in this world. And so above us is God.
Above us is Krishna. And so this is the world. Now in the world, we have many roles to play.
So in each of these roles, we may have our trajectories. Say we may have a role as a parent. We may have a role as a professional.
We may have a role as a member of our community, a citizen of a country. We all have roles to play in that. And ideally, we would like to be successful in all the roles.
And we may be successful to different degrees in different roles. However, what if we understand that we are souls? What happens is we understand that all these roles are ways by which we are serving God. That all these roles, whatever role we are playing, the roles are not to be rejected.
But the roles are to be seen as means by which I am serving God. Parenting is a very important role. But somebody sees that, okay, when a baby is newborn and a mother breastfeeds the baby, it’s one of the most intimate acts of love.
Certainly it’s the mother’s love for the baby. At the same time, the mother did not do anything special to manufacture milk in her breasts when the baby was born. The same God who sent a child through her womb into the world also sent milk in her breasts.
So it is the mother’s love, but it’s also God’s love coming through the mother’s love. So if we have children, we take care of our children. There are children.
They’re also God’s children in our care. So if we have some talents, say if somebody is a sports player, somebody is a musician, somebody is good at math, somebody is good at coding, we all have particular roles. These roles are important.
At the same time, we need to see that my talents are gifts given by God to me. And while I want to use them in the world to do something valuable, to be recognised, the world is so big that sometimes we feel I’m a nobody. That’s why when we use our talents, that gives us a sense of identity.
But then if we are not connecting things with God, then sooner or later we’ll get frustrated. I’m doing this as a service. What happens is, if we are focussing only, same diagram if I’m putting it forward here, see we always expect some reciprocation.
Say for example, if I’m here, I’m playing a particular role. Say if we are a teacher and we are teaching the students, we do something for them and we expect something back from them. But unfortunately, what happens is, in most of the roles that we play, like we do something and what they do is very less.
See almost everyone in life, while playing their roles, feels undervalued. It’s a universal feeling. As a mother, you may feel undervalued.
I’m doing so much for my family. As a father, we feel undervalued. I’m doing so much.
They are not appreciating it. In our job, we may feel undervalued. I am working so much, but I don’t get any recognition or to speak of any special recognition.
Of course, there are some situations where it may be manipulative and exploitative and we may need to make some change at that time. But in general, if we are looking at the world for reciprocation, sooner or later we will end up feeling undervalued. That’s why if our vision goes beyond, if our vision goes, okay, I’m taking care of this role, I’m taking care of this responsibility, but it is in service to God, then we will open ourselves to reciprocation from God also.
And that reciprocation from God, when we get recognition from the world, we get reciprocation from the world, that is what, say, if I do something and I get something back, that gives us, we all need a sense of worth in our life. We all need a sense of that what I’m doing is valuable. So when we get this recognition, that gives us self-worth, but this is extrinsic self-worth.
Extrinsic self-worth means it depends on the world’s giving us recognition. And this will always fall short. But when we do our activities in a mood of service to God, the reciprocation that we get from it is what gives us intrinsic self-worth.
Intrinsic self-worth means, yeah, this is the gift that I have been given. This is what I am meant to do. And now we all may find that there are some things which we do and even if nobody praises us for doing it, still we’ll do it.
Sometimes when the kids are growing up, the parents give the kids something to draw and the kid just sits there and maybe has an electronic slate, you can just delete it and draw it, delete and draw it. Now the kid may want to show the drawing to the parents, but nobody’s going to applaud a lot. But that’s what I like to do.
So that intrinsic self-satisfaction comes when we are playing the role that God has made us to play. So we all have particular talents, particular abilities, and now we have many roles to play, but there are some roles which give us intrinsic satisfaction. And that intrinsic satisfaction becomes more and more clear for us, more and more experienceable for us when we are actually directly turning to God also.
When we are having, we have roles in the world, but what happens is God may be reciprocating with us, but if our vision is focused on the world itself, there are some things which I do and I’m happy doing it, but what happens is I’m happy making music, but people are not recognising it. That’s why I’m unhappy. And then what happens is that unhappiness that people are not valuing what I’m doing, that overshadows the happiness that I get in doing that thing.
Some people may like to cook and they just, some people, their stress-relief strategy is cooking. You cook a lot of food and that’s a wonderful stress-relief strategy, definitely better than maybe just binge-watching TV or taking some, cooking food is better than eating food because of stress, definitely, but you know, now they feel happy doing that. And of course, if people appreciate that food, enjoy that food, that’s wonderful.
But even if they don’t, what happens is if our eyes are focused so much on the world that people are not appreciating it, that causes so much unhappiness that overshadows the happiness that we get in doing that activity. The Nobel laureate author who said that, that I get joy in being read, but I get far greater joy in having written. So yes, anybody who writes will naturally want to be read, but the fact that I wrote, that itself gives joy.
So that’s a glimpse of the joy that we get intrinsically when we are doing the things we want to do, or rather we are meant to do, which we are divinely gifted to do. But when our eyes are fixed on the world, the lack of the world’s reciprocation will create so much noise that the inner satisfaction will not come. That’s why when we turn towards God, when we have some quality time to focus directly on God, that is called sadhana, that is our spiritual practises.
That could be we did some kirtan just now, chanting of the holy names, doing some puja, doing some study of wisdom text like the Bhagavad Gita. Then when we have that quality time to focus on God, then we can start noticing the reciprocation from Him more and more. And paradoxically, when we start getting intrinsic satisfaction, then actually our contribution can increase.
The recognition may come eventually. The less we are dependent on the recognition, the more we are likely to do work that will bring recognition. And the more we are seeking dependent on recognition, we may be so anxious, so desperate, so needy, that may prevent us from actually doing quality work.
So in this way, the way to deal with resentment is to get that bigger vision that I have a fundamental identity as a soul, and the soul has many paths which ultimately go towards God, which link me with God. If I think my goal is to be recognised in the world, and if one particular path gets blocked, then it’s over. What do I do after that? But if I see this is a path, but there are many paths for me in life, many roles to play, many paths to go ahead.
Ultimately, I’m meant to link with God in a mood of loving service. So bhakti has these two aspects. The path that we are discussing which Bhagavata is teaching primarily is the path of bhakti.
So in the path of bhakti, there is, if I am here in the world, so we act in the world in the mood of service to God, but you also directly connect with God. So this part of bhakti is what is called as seva. And this is for transforming the world.
We all have what the Gita calls our swadharma, our own role to play in life, and through that we can transform the world. And then this is our sadhana. And the sadhana is for transcending the world.
That what happens in the world, it doesn’t matter all that much. So when our practise of bhakti has both these aspects, transforming the world, yes, I do play my role and I try to play my role as well as I can to transform the world. But simultaneously, we’re also trying to transcend the world.
We transcend by just turning away from the world and focussing on Krishna. During our direct prayer time, our meditation time, our time to be not just close to our souls, but close to the Lord who is the soul of our soul, who is at the innermost core of our being. And that’s when we’ll find that we can send resentment into a permanent retirement.
Resentment will go far away from us. So I’ll summarise what I discussed. I talked about three main points today.
We’re talking about the broad topic was how to deal with resentment or how to send resentment into retirement. So resentment in one sense is natural in life. So I talked about the cause.
The cause of resentment is basically that what we want, what we like, what is positive for us, it goes away from us. And what is negative for us, that comes upon us. Naturally, this causes resentment.
But it’s not that simple. It’s like a differentiation between say anger and hate. So things going wrong, anger is not the same as hate.
Hate is much more deep-rooted. The things going wrong itself doesn’t cause resentment. It is annoyance that will happen and things don’t go our way.
But from annoyance, resentment when it comes, it is far more deep-rooted. It is far more persistent. It is far more existential.
So now resentment can be towards some person. Resentment can be toward ourselves or resentment can be towards the world itself and maybe towards God also. But the problem with resentment is that we are fighting lost battles.
And we are fighting lost battles, what happens is we end up being lost. So then we discussed that this is broadly the cause of resentment. But that is a broad analysis.
So this is you could say a general analysis, but a deeper analysis, a deeper cause we discuss based on the Gita’s vision. That is, it is the role that we are identifying with in our life. So we discuss how we all have social identity, but we also have a self-identification.
Or rather we have social identities. We have many identities and we have self-identification. What do I identify with? So these two are not the same thing.
So we may have many social identities, say based on gender, age, so many things. But self-identification may be one of these is very big and the others are small. So now whichever identification we have, so we talk from the Gita’s perspective, that our identity is multi-level.
That is, remember towards functional identity. And then there is beyond that a fundamental identity. Now if we over-identify with the functional identity, there are three problems with this.
If you identify too many, what are the three problems? Yes, we can’t sit on it for too long. It may be stolen. It may be insufficient.
Stolen means somebody is an athlete and they just lose their athletic ability. Insufficient means, I am more than my job. I am more than my parenting role.
I am more than this. Say kids who grow up in America, Indian children who grow up in America, people will say, oh you are Indian. No, I am much more than that.
Why are you constantly identifying as Indian? So it may be like that. So insufficient. And T is? Taunt.
So as two roles may pull us in opposite directions. And it is when this functional identity is stolen, that is what any of these can actually lead us to resentment. So, then what is the solution to this? What is the cure for this? We discussed how the fundamental identity is that we are souls.
And souls means we are parts of God. And as parts of God, we have a part. We always have a part to play in God’s plan.
But the part to play, what that part to play is, that may change with time. There are always parts to play. And that means we will always have parts to play.
But the particular part may change. And that is the key. If we are in the world and we are looking for reciprocation from the world, what will happen is the reciprocation will always feel less.
And we will always feel undervalued, dissatisfied. So, yes, we have our roles to play in the world. But we need to re-envision that actually what I am doing is, whatever roles I am playing, these are not just roles in the world.
From the world, they are services to God. I have these roles, but I am a parent. But these children are not just my children.
They are God’s children in my care. And in that way, all our roles be direct towards God. So, even if some one role is taken away, and still we can keep moving towards God.
And then it’s not just that way we connect with God. We connect with God in two ways. One is through our roles in the world.
That is where we try to transform the world. Now, we may or may not succeed to different degrees. Another is we transcend the world.
We understand that I need to go beyond the world. The world alone does not define my identity. When we have both these sides to our life, then we’ll find that we will get an intrinsic sense of satisfaction, an intrinsic sense of self-worth.
And that is the path to peace. It is the path to satisfaction. That is the path to sending resentment into a permanent retirement.
So, let us pray to Krishna. Let us pray to the Lord that, my dear Lord, please let me never get frustrated and resentful if things don’t work in my life. Let me raise my vision towards you, knowing that my finite vision is not the final vision.
Please guide me as to what roles you want me to play when one role is not working out. Let me remember that I am a soul and that you always have a part for me to play. You can repeat after me, starting with, With you, my Lord, there are no dead ends.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you.
I’m going to get it from my dad once I go home. I understood the whole thing. Only in the pure part, is there a replacement for God? I mean, can I play somebody else instead of God? Certainly.
See, having something to bring meaning to our life is better than having nothing to bring meaning to our life. So, somebody may put their family in front instead of God. Somebody may put their country instead of God.
Somebody may put their humanity. So, people who have something to bring meaning to their life are fortunate as compared to somebody who has nothing to bring meaning to their life. Somebody becomes an environmental activist, for example.
We want to protect the earth. Having something to live for is very good. Now, the only challenge is that these are all functional identities and those will be taken away from us.
If somebody’s religious identity can also be taken away from us, that’s why we talk about spiritual identity. A person might be of one religion and maybe they are in a place where there is religious intolerance and they are forced to convert to another religion. Now, if they are forced to do like that, you will die if you don’t convert.
They feel, I lost my religious identity. Yes, you may have lost your religious identity, but you are still a soul. So, what happens is, having something to bring meaning to our life is good.
But the only enduring source of meaning… See, God is not just some particular image. That’s one way to depict and that’s definitely there. There’s a reality to it.
But God is also much more than that. God, if you want to understand in a more inclusive way, God is the locus of all meaning. God is the being from whom all meaning arises.
It is the God from the being through whom we find meaning in all other things in life. So, from a practical, psychological perspective, yes, if somebody cannot go towards God, it’s better to have some cause. In the Gita, there’s a hierarchy given in the 12th chapter, 12.8 to 12.
So, in the last verse, 12.12, Krishna says that, if you cannot focus on me, you cannot connect with me, then at least find some higher cause to work for. But he also gives multiple levels. There’s 8, 9, 10 and 11.
So, in 8, he says, this can be complete immersion in me. Some people, the transcendental part becomes the primary part of their life. Just doing what they can for God and that’s all.
Somebody cannot be immersed in God, then they can give attention to God. So, immersion means what? The person has so much love that they get lost in God. Attention means they do conscious practise.
For maybe 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, I’m going to sit and meditate. I’m going to focus my mind on God. If there cannot be attention, then there can be contribution.
Contribution means that we can do some service. I cannot come and do, I cannot sit and do sadhana, but maybe I can do some seva. You know, if in a temple food is being distributed, I can help serve the food.
I can do some volunteer work. But in a more devotional context. If one cannot do it in a devotional context, one can do it in a non-devotional context also.
So, it’s a progression. So, ultimately, there’s no source of meaning that will be as enduring as God. But circumstantially, one may need to evolve towards that.
See, sometimes I deliberately leave something hanging. Let’s see if somebody will ask. Yeah, thank you.
So, actually, here what Krishna says is that in the 11th, he talks about detachment. That even if we can’t contribute to God, at least be detached. Detached from wanting it for ourselves.
But you may say, what do I do if I’m not wanting something for myself? Then contribute to some other cause. It’s a progression. Thank you.
That can be one of the solutions for resentment. See, the thing is, yes, definitely detachment can be a solution to resentment. But the problem is that it’s very difficult to just be detached.
It’s difficult to be detached from one thing without being attached to something else. So, the idea is that we are conscious beings. We have emotions.
And we want those emotions to be invested in something. So, detachment is, okay, I turn away from the world. But what do I turn towards? We need something to turn towards.
Like say, this glass is there. Now, if I don’t want, this glass seems empty to me. But there is air in it.
If I don’t want air in it, now I can try to get some machine and try to create a complete vacuum over here. And I can seal it. But a slight delay in sealing, a slight moment of that seal, it will get filled with air.
So, nature abhors a vacuum. And same way, our own minds. It abhors a state of complete absence of any emotional investment.
So, what do I do if I don’t want air in this glass? I need to fill it with water. Once it’s filled with water, then there’s no space for air. So, we can say, generally, the word attachment is used in a negative sense.
But a more holistic way of looking at it is that there are unhealthy attachments and there are healthy attachments. So, healthy attachments, the ultimate healthiest attachment is to God. So, yes, we would like to have detachment.
But it’s very difficult to become detached without becoming indifferent, without becoming cold, without becoming hard-hearted. So, just becoming cold and hard-hearted is not a very healthy way to live. So, the way to develop detachment is by developing a higher attachment.
Like a doctor, like a mother loves her child. And if the child is sick and the mother takes the child to a doctor and the doctor says, I have to give you an injection. Child is in pain and the mother cannot tolerate the child being in pain.
So, the mother is attached to the child, but the mother is attached to the well-being of the child in future also. And because of that bigger attachment, I’m attached to my child’s present happiness, but I’m also attached to my child’s future happiness. And for the sake of my child’s future happiness, I will accept that present.
So, the way to let go of a present attachment is to have a bigger attachment. What does attachment to God mean? See, whenever we are attached to something, we in one sense get happiness from that thing. If somebody is attached to cricket, they enjoy watching cricket.
They get absorbed in it. They get lost in it. So, when we develop attachment to God, we start getting happiness in remembrance of God, in our connection with God.
And not only that, it’s not just being otherworldly. We also start getting the conviction that I am here for a purpose. I have a role to play.
So, that attachment to God basically means that for us, our connection with God becomes bigger. Through spiritual practises, not just knowledge, but practises. So, for example, when we chant the holy names, see, the psychological principle is that whatever we expose our mind to more and more, that will become bigger in our mind.
Say, for example, somebody comes from India. They may never heard of baseball. But if they come and get admission as a student in the college, where baseball is very big, everybody is talking about baseball.
And six months ago, they didn’t know about baseball. And six months later, they will be cheering madly at a baseball match. What happened is, because they got so exposed to baseball, more and more exposure made that bigger and bigger.
Got their emotions invested in it. The same thing happens to us also. That when we expose ourselves to God, when we bring ourselves in God’s presence, that comes by coming to the temple, having altar at our home, chanting His holy names, reading books about Him.
So, we expose ourselves to God. So, spiritual growth means that initially for us, the world is very big and God is tiny. But as we grow spiritually, the world becomes small and God becomes big for us.
And that happens by our spiritual practises. Spiritual practises centre on basically remembering God and exposing ourselves to His presence. Okay.
Thank you. Any last question before we stop? I gave a class on resentment. I once gave a class on resentment.
I told the audience that one of the organisers will send a note to me. He says, you know, if you don’t stop the class now, the audience will have resentment toward you. No, he has a question.
We’ll finish. We’ll talk later one-to-one. Yes, sir.
I have a small prayer for the mindless violence that happened in India earlier this week. Yes, yes, please. If you could read that, for those who were there at the time.
Yes. So, some of you may know that there was a brutal killing of tourists who had gone in Northern India to a place called Kashmir and it was very selective and targeted. The invaders attacked and asked the victims what their religion was and they specifically killed people who were Hindus.
And it is heart-wrenching what has happened. Let’s all have a moment of peace and silence and we can pray. My dear Lord, please grant peace to the souls who have departed.
Please give strength and solace to those who have been left bereaved. Please give intelligence and determination to those in power to take strongest action against those who have perpetrated this crime. Please, oh Lord, those who because of misconceptions are supporting these actions, may they get a broader vision that no solution is found through such brutality and violence.
The solutions are found only in harmony and service. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. If anybody would like to purchase.