Gita for CEO 3 – Finding meaning in our work – Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Namo Nithyananda. Namaste.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for coming today.
And today I will speak on how the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom can enrich and empower us in our daily lives. So, I will talk about it based on this particular verse from the Bhagavad Gita 4.9. But I will be using broadly speaking an acronym written. So, verse W will be the worldview.
What is the worldview? And then I will talk about what is the implication of that worldview and then how understanding that worldview can transform our lives. So, let’s begin with this verse from the Bhagavad Gita. This is 4.9. So, let’s recite the verse.
So, if you are comfortable, you can follow me. Otherwise, you can just listen. Vitaragbhaya trodhaha Vitaragbhaya trodhaha Upanayamam upasthitaha Upanayamam upasthitaha Taho gyan tapasah Kutamat bhavamagataha Kutamat bhavamagataha Vitaragbhaya trodhaha Vitaragbhaya trodhaha Upanayamam upasthitaha Upanayamam upasthitaha Taho gyan tapasah Last time, all of us together.
Now, let’s want to go together. Vitaragbhaya trodhaha Upanayamam upasthitaha Taho gyan tapasah Kutamat bhavamagataha Upanayamam Upanayamam Upasthitaha Upanayamam Upasthitaha Upasthitaha Free me Free me from the three obstacles to devotion Attachment Fear and Order Free from passion Fear and Order Free from passion, fear and order In devotional service to me the wise Through knowledge and penance Free from any disturbance Prevailing The world, the Bhagavatam Now I have travelled across the world for last 10 years and spoken to people from many different religious backgrounds, philosophical orientations, cultural tendencies and So whatever differences there are three words which convey a truth that resonates across history, across geography, across cultures, across civilisations. Out of those three words, life is eternal.
We may be wealthy, we may be poor, we may be popular, we may be unknown. Life is not easy for me. The specific nature of difficulty may be different.
And that is just the fact of life. Don’t you notice that I need crutches for walking? When I was one, because of a medical mistake, I was given a vaccine of polio, which had a high dosage of polio. So that’s how I ended up.
So that’s a limitation that I have faced throughout my life. And one of the things that really helped me face that situation was an incidental statement that my mother made when she was talking with her relatives, consoling her and saying, you’re so sad your son got polio. My mother said that whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him with it.
I don’t know why she said that. But somehow that statement helped me to reshift my focus on the intellectual ability. But now as I talk with people, to some extent, I feel I am in a better place than others.
Because everybody is wounded in some ways, but my wounds are visible. So if I’m travelling, I’ll have easier assistance if somebody will carry my luggage. So in that sense, because of my limitations are visible, I get a lot of support.
If somebody may have been traumatised in their childhood because of something, somebody may have suffered a painful loss, it’s real. Everybody’s life story has a tragedy somewhere in it. So it is actually all experience that often is important.
And then when we turn to our worldview, I mean the word worldview in a generic sense, but it is philosophy. Many people may not say, if you ask what it is, it’s not a topic of small talk. You may be somebody’s party.
So what is your philosophy of life? What’s wrong with you? That’s not what most people talk about, genuinely. But even if we don’t use the word philosophy, we all have some way in which we view the world. Some way in which we try to make sense of the world.
Sense of the world at our place and purpose in the world. And basically, when I use the word worldview, we could be, we could use it in the sense of philosophy, but I’m also using it in the sense that our worldview determines the story we tell ourselves, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves, about ourselves in terms of our place and purpose in the world. So now, if we consider the toughness of life, how do we go about this? One way we will face it is, yeah, some bad things happen in life, some good things also happen.
Let’s tolerate the bad and get to the good things in life. That’s one way you look at it. And that’s nice.
That’s nice. We need some way or the other to look at life and face it. Now, broadly, the world views that we can have for facing life’s challenges can be summarised in a four quadrant diagram.
So almost any worldview that anyone has, the specifics may vary, but it falls in this category, these four categories. This world, this world is the world of our daily experience. This world we may consider to be real, or we may consider it to be unreal.
And there is other world, there’s some other world that is there, that we may consider to be real, or that we may consider to be unreal. So based on that, you can have four quadrants. This world is real, the other world is unreal.
Both worlds are unreal. And only the other world is real, this world is false. And both the worlds are real.
So in this particular, in this framework, which do you think is the world view most people have nowadays? Which quadrant? Quadrant one. Okay. Yeah.
So this is what we call as materialism. So if we go back, even to a few centuries before, and the Western history is called as the scientific enlightenment. Before that, almost everyone had the idea that there’s another world beyond this world.
And that is the place of shantung. That is the place of reality, a real satisfaction, a real security, a real happiness. More or less, most people have a practical world perspective, rejected that.
Maybe some people, when I would say relatives passed away, we might put a photo and say Swarga Vasi or Kailash Vasi or Vipulta Vasi, something like that in between. But it’s almost like nominally reputed. So basically, the idea is this world is all that exists.
And this world is only real. This is one world. You know, Krishna is telling that we want to grow spiritually.
So this world view leads to Ram. Raga means attachment or strong desire is the world view of desire. If this world is the only world that is real, then what happens? We are desperate to make the most of this life.
We’re desperate to enjoy this world, to get all the pleasures that we can lay our hands on. And now, I just first go over all the world views. Then I talk about the way I approach philosophy is more from a psychological perspective.
What is the psychological implication of this particular philosophy? So life is tough was the starting axiom we started with. The life is tough, but this is the only life that we have. This is the only world that is real.
And what do we do? Somehow we have to fight and make things better and become happier. The implication I talk about being able. Now, some people gravitate even in that as science has progressed a little bit more.
If you see science can also deconstruct things. While you could say science in one sense has fuelled this world view, like science says, when the first cosmonaut from Russia is supposed to have gone into space, he said, I went to the sky. I didn’t see any God over there.
So there’s no God. So the idea was, it’s a very naive argument that the God is not like an, if you ask any serious theologian, God is a spiritual being. God is not like an undiscovered planet around Saturn that we’re on a planet.
We just need some more technology. God is a spiritual being. But anyway, the idea is science has led to, to some extent, materialism.
There is no other world. But those people who study science seriously, those who have a philosophical approach to science, they can actually go towards this world view. Because if you really are rigorously scientific, then everything can be deconstructed.
And the love that a mother feels for a child, that is just some secretion of chemicals in the brain. And every single thing, every single cherished human experience can be reduced to just some chemical interaction. And then from that perspective, we are just a set of chemicals who have somehow come alive and they are alive for some time.
So even this world, especially if we go into quantum physics and practical applications, its implications, nothing is real. Einstein is said to have said that, I would like to believe that the moon continues to exist even if I’m not looking at it. It’s obviously going to exist.
But quantum physics says that actually there is no such thing as a tangible reality. Now I’m simplifying things very much over here. But basically, whenever there’s an observer, then the wave function collapses and that’s where we perceive something.
So and not just from a philosophical perspective of the nature of reality, but the nature of human emotions. So nothing is real. Nothing is real.
And this is the world view of Nihilism. Nihilism is, Nihilism can have many different meanings, but I use it in a particular sense. Nihilism is a critical response.
And this is the world view of Krodha. And Krodha is what? Anger. But anger is a hot emotion.
When anger becomes brutal, it goes to the level of despair. Despair is just a point of view. And in fact, there’s a prominent existentialist philosopher, Albert Camus, who said that existence is suffering.
The more you try to remove the suffering, the more actually the suffering exists. Therefore, the only philosophical question worth asking is whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow. So unfortunately, this is a very, among all the world views, we all need at least some sense of meaning and value in our life.
If nothing is real, nothing really matters, what is the point even of living? So Nihilism is a very dark world view. That now there is, there is the world view. So right now, I’m not talking psychological implications for Nihilism.
The third world view is where? That this world is false and the other world is real. Now, this is the world view of impersonals. Impersonalism or what it holds is that, actually this whole world view, this comes, it’s a misunderstanding of the Eastern or Indian world view.
Sometimes there are aphorisms or short statements which convey deep truths. But sometimes the short statements convey distorted truths, not deep truths. You see, in the same Nihilist tradition, which gives some statement like, the avatar of the Lord comes down into this world to set things right.
So if this world were an illusion, then why set things right in the illusion? The more things become miserable in the illusion, and the more likely is people will want to come out of the illusion. Why set things right in the illusion? This world is not considered false within the broad teachings of the Hindu Amitabh Geshe. But this is a world view where it leads to fear.
Fear can be called as fear, but when fear goes to psychological emotions. But when fear becomes very deep-rooted and existential, it becomes dread. So there are world views of desire, despair, and dread.
Now why dread? Because if this world is false and the other world is real, then everything that seems real in this world is just a trap. So all the attractive things in the world, all the pleasures of this world are just traps. And therefore, the whole point of living in the world is dread getting trapped in the world.
And this is a very world-rejecting and life-sapping world view. And even philosophers who propagate this world view actually don’t live this world view. Because at a practical level, we cannot live like this.
So now the Gita’s world view is in this whole category. That this world is real and the other world also is real. And this, we can call it as Gita’s world view.
We can call it, actually Prabhupada uses this word in his early back-to-world articles. We can call it devotionalism. Now devotionalism is, this is the world view that leads to bhava.
Not bhaya, but bhava. Bhava means emotion or devotion. So we understand that it is God who exists.
There’s another world. There is this world. And we can connect with God through devotion in this world as well as the other world.
I’ll talk about the implications shortly. But what the Gita is telling us over here is that these three world views, these three world views need to be given. Each of these world views is a trap in a particular way.
So these world views, the specifics can really be like, hey, what is the nature of the other world? The Bible may talk about the nature of the other world in a particular way. The Judaic world view or the Islamic world view may talk about it in another way. But that there is another world, there is this world.
That dynamic is always there. So now let’s move forward and look at what was the acronym I was going to discuss? You remember the acronym? Yes. The W was what? World view.
Now I is the implication of this world. So if we consider what is the implication? Let’s start with the four world views one by one. Materialism.
Now materialism holds that this world is the only real world. And therefore, this is the world that we need to improve. An extreme version of materialism is where materialism aggressively concerned considers the other world to be false.
Within materialism, there are two areas. Within materialism, there is functional materialism. Functional materialism means people may not have really thought about it, but the way they live, it is matter is all that matters.
And nothing matters beyond. And beyond that, there is fanatical materialism. Normally we associate the word fanatical with religion.
So fanatical materialism. So fanatical materialism is what was presented by say communism. They said religion is the opium of the masses.
Their idea is that the hope of some other world and improvement in some other world prevents people from making efforts to improve people in this world. And that’s how people end up becoming very aggressive. So for example, during the current school, nowadays there’s a lot of news about extremism and stuff like that.
And that is sadly true. But materialistic extremism is no less. If you consider the history of communism in Soviet Russia and China, without any war, no major war, the government itself killed a hundred million people.
More than First World War and Second World War combined. So what the attempt is to create a utopia on this earth. There’s no other heaven.
So we have to make this world into heaven. Now we can try to do it in different ways. We can try to do it through political ways.
We can try to do it through technological ways. We try to do that. And in one sense, we naturally want to improve this.
We all at the core of our being, we feel I deserve more in life. There has to be something more to life. That urge to improve is wonderful.
It is essential to the fabric of our being. How we direct it. So it was attempted to redirect to the political means.
What happened was that the state decided there are people who are wealthy, there are people who are poor. And the wealthy have got wealth by exploiting others. To take the wealth from the wealthy and give it to the poor.
And that way everybody will have equal wealth. But the problem with that was that who will decide to take wealth and give wealth? And those people became extremely powerful. George Orwell was a British social commentator.
And he said that in communism, all people are equal, but some are more equal than others. So eventually, the result of this is fanatical nationalism. But what we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to create a utopia in the world.
So it could be done. So we could go in the political direction. And we see to some extent in America, it’s that political polarisation is a part-time family.
So because each political orientation within the left or the right has their own idea of what is help and what is bad. And they say that if this particular party comes in rule, that’s going to be hell for us. If this particular leader comes into power, that’s going to be heaven for us.
And in many ways, the religious terminology is appropriate to the political domains. And it’s just too much unreality expectation from the head of state. The head of state is not God.
And leaving the head of state into God is a dangerous thing to do. But either way, now we can go in the political domain. That was turned out to be a mistake.
Now we can go in the technological domain. Our technological domain was where people thought that we will increase through technology the comforts of life. Or we’ll remove the discomforts of life.
It’s too cold, we have heaters. It’s too hot. There are so many diseases, we’ve come up with cures.
And in that way, we will remove the distresses of life. And to some extent, this has been successful. Life today is far more comfortable than what it was 50 years ago, 500 years ago.
In fact, today we have access to comforts and conveniences that even 50 years ago, and certainly 100 years ago, were unimaginable for even royalty. What was probably accessible to royalty. Anybody with a mediocre income can, decent income can travel in an aeroplane, can have Wi-Fi, so many things.
So have we created heaven? Or have we removed distress from life? Well, certainly we have made ourselves more comfortable. But at a physical level, we have made ourselves comfortable. But unfortunately, at a mental level, we have made ourselves somehow miserable.
The irony today is that people are comfortably miserable. So we will be in an air-conditioned room and we are depressed. We are in a very comfortable couch, lined out and air-conditioned.
So people are just so stressed. Somehow that dream of making this world into paradise or heaven does not work. Life is still distressful.
This is the distress has shifted to a large extent from the visible, physical domain to the invisible mental. And sometimes it can be even more crippling, even more damaging. A lot of people can live in denial all the time.
Now, another problem is that you see, we have ended up creating virtual worlds. Now, virtual reality is one thing. But if somebody from 10,000 years came back to the 21st century, and 20th century, 21st century, whatever, they came back, what would be the defining relic of the time that we live in? You could say the defining relic would be entertainment.
It could be movies, it could be TV shows. For just like a one-hour TV show or a one and a half, two-hour movie, millions and millions and millions of dollars are spent. Entertainment has always been a part of human history.
We all need it. Just as the body needs rest, our mind needs relaxation, recreation. But entertainment is meant to be a break from life.
For many people nowadays, life is a break from entertainment. That the virtual world, whether it is video games, or whether people become fans of a particular TV show, whether it is comic cons and all this. People treat this as if it’s realer than reality.
Most people, on the phone, what is happening on the phone is more real than what is happening in front of them. There are cases where some tragedies are happening. Stopping the tragedy, people are more concerned of filming the tragedy.
There are cases of people who want to take selfies and dangerous photos just to get some views on social media. They end their life. Fall off the slip and fall off.
There was a place called a selfie spot in California. They renamed it as a selfie suicide spot. So many people end up losing their lives.
It’s not an official video game. It’s such a dangerous thing over there. So somehow, we using technology, we rejected the idea of any religious or philosophical other world.
But through technology, you create another world. And we try to rush into that world as quickly as we can. I was, one friend showed me a cartoon.
Madness, the bar talking with his friend. I said, yesterday my Wi-Fi went down. So I spent some time with my family.
They seem to be like nice people. We get more concerned about say what is happening in Serbia than what is happening in our spouse’s mind. They’re concerned with what is happening in China than what is happening in their children’s lives.
We’re completely lost. And at least Serbia and China are real places. People get caught in what is happening in the next Harry Potter series or the next superhero series or next this series or that cinemas.
We have tried to create a fictional world which, I don’t consider it real. But you know, okay, you cannot philosophically consider it real. But practically, nowadays, any entertainment show that becomes popular, it has this whole merchandiser.
And sometimes they make more money through the merchandiser through the original movie also. In India, there was a, there was a boxer from the park, Middle East, not Middle East. The Paris, I think Marie Comer.
Now the movie was made about her. And now the actress who made the movie, she earned more money for the movie than the boxer earned throughout her life. So what happens is that we have created our own version of another movie.
And what Marx said, that religion is the opium of the masses. Religion is technology is the opium of the masses. That I’m not a technology guy, but I see the technology, it has the potential to do that.
In trying to get lost in the other world, we are trying to immerse ourselves in the other world. We are actually neglecting relationships in the real world. We are neglecting activities in the real world.
And we are unfortunately ending up making the world a far worse place than it used to be. When we have a phone, we can use the phone for two broad purposes. One is to get things done.
And for that, it is very convenient and very powerful. This is not a pirate against technology. This is not at all.
It is, I’m focussing on the world view. But we can also use the phone to get away from things. So a phone can become an escape strategy.
And that is where we can retreat from the world around us. And it’s very powerful to get people. But when you use it for getting away from things, then it disconnects us from people.
It can disconnect us from what is meaningful and valuable. And essentially, we are creating another world. And I’m not going to get into the problem of loneliness and how so many people nowadays have AI friends and AI partners and AI girlfriends and AI boyfriends.
And one of my friends is a big into robotics research. One of the biggest, two biggest sources of funding for robotics. One comes from Amazon that they want efficient robots for packing and unpacking.
And the second is Xbox. That people basically want to have romantic partners. And it’s very difficult to form relationships.
Very difficult to trust people. I live in California and I’m doing a lot of programmes. And then I have this bumper sticker on my car over there.
The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog. So, we live in crowded cities, but we are a lonely society. I’m not pinning the blame on technology for all this.
What I’m saying is, my argument is very precise and clear. It is saying that technology has not created the paradise. That was the beginning promise at the start of the age of science and technology.
And what we have is, in many ways, we are trying to create a virtual world and we’re going to do that. But that is not the solution. So, the implication of the world, this world is the only real world, is that if we want to create paradise in this world, then we end up creating a nightmare over here.
We do aggressive political change. If we try to do aggressive technological change, then another kind of nightmare, which is loneliness. There are mental health problems that come.
Now, the second world view is nihilism. Nihilism is when neither this world is real, nor the other world is real. Now, most people at a philosophical level, may not even have heard the word nihilism.
But unfortunately, at a psychological level, we are activists. What do I mean by psychological level? What is the meaning of anything at all? What is the value of getting education? What is the value of getting a job? What is the value of having a family? What is the value of… What is the value of being anything at all in life? And it’s… In the Vedic tradition, there is this concept of artha. Now, artha can mean money.
Artha can mean money, but artha can also mean nihilism. So, we all need some source of money in our life. And the money can be a basic source of money, but it’s not enough.
Making money is important, but what we are making with money is even more important. Now, in the way we are making, especially among young people, and especially young people who are educated in universities, which are the humanities, it’s not a critic of humanities, but often there’s a tendency to deconstruct everything. And when everything is deconstructed, then life just becomes stripped from you.
It’s the point of living at all. We don’t have any sense of value in life. Forget spirituality.
If we just consider biology, biologically, we are designed for two things. We’re designed for surviving and reproducing. That’s how species continue.
And we will see what we call as technological progress. That has actually taken away the impetus for a lot of reasons. It is humans is the only species that is known to commit suicide.
So, there are some dogs who also commit suicide, but those dogs are contaminated by human association. So, if we consider basic biology, every living being does these two things. They fight to survive and then they fight to reproduce.
Now, what is happening? Both of these things are going on. Surviving, people are ending their lives. The world has called this a tragic social problem.
More than 1 million people commit suicide every year. So, what about reproducing? Less and less people are having children. There is a big concern about population explosion.
Now, there’s a big concern about population implosion, depopulation. Especially in the Western world, if there had been no immigration, the population would have gone down alarmingly. Now, immigration indiscriminate has its own problems.
I’m not making a political statement over here. I’m simply making a demographic statement that if what even the animals do, if we humans are losing the impetus to even do that, then a civilisation that is leading to that has something seriously wrong with it. If people feel that there are many reasons why people don’t want to have children, one is we don’t have enough income to even have a home and then how do you take care of children? Another could be that, no, the planet is a terrible place.
I don’t want to bring people into this, children into this world. Or some people may just feel that, you know, in most traditional societies, if somebody don’t have children, they would say childless. And that’s a sad thing.
It’s not a thing. It should not be condemning a person for that. But it’s childless.
Nowadays, there are people who change their vocabulary and say, I’m a child free person. One of the biggest thing that we need to provide is to, we all have a need to nurture. And then we can be someone for everyone.
We can be something for everyone or we can be everything for someone. And we can be something for everyone means we can become very popular. We can have a big career.
We can become famous. But for the world, every celebrity is basically interfering. One celebrity goes to another person.
We can choose to be something for everyone or we can choose to be everything for somebody. When the parents take care of a child, the parents are everything for somebody. And at a level of relational nourishment, that actually fulfils the heart much more.
So nihilism is affecting that at a psychological level where the basic thing which even animals do, we are demoting it as a human being. That is very toxic. Now, if we go towards the third worldview was impersonalism, where this world is false, the other world is real.
Now, this worldview is not present very much at present. But this is what actually dogged and damaged much of Indian mediaeval history. So that was the time when impersonalism was very prominent.
And now, there can be many causes for history. We cannot do a unifactor analysis of any historical phenomenon. But it’s almost every time when the Islamic invaders came to India, their number was always lesser than the Hindu kings who were defending.
And never in the history of the world has it happened that, like what happened with the British Empire, so small number of people ruled so large number of people for so long, almost 160 years. So one reason for this is just that this whole world is false. Whatever happens in the domain of man, they don’t care about it.
And nobody can live without caring for anyone. So what happened was Indians at a large level became very concerned about protecting their own bubbles. Like every family will take care of themselves, the community will take care of themselves.
But the sense of the civic spirit of a nation, of trying to change the system, the Indians are very good at rising to whatever system there is. So by changing the system, so whichever I travel all over the world, whichever part of the world I have gone to, if Indians are there, Indians are respected and liberated. People are respected in the polite world.
More precise word is, they are envy to Indians. Respect and envy is the same thing. Isn’t it? Respect is, hey, you’re so good.
Envy is, why are you so good? So respect and envy, basically respect is, like rather envy is respect given unwillingly and unhappily. In the same sense. But the point is that neither applicant India faulted it.
And no, no, no. Impersonalism. So if we start to leave this whole world in just thoughts, why endeavour for anything at all? So that is a very disempowering world.
Ecologically also, if we consider this world to be Maya, why take care of the world? Why take care of ecology? Why take care of anything at all? So that is certainly not the future of the world. That is a misunderstanding. And even many impersonalist scholars now are saying, that is a wrong application of impersonalism.
Because while we are living in this world, we have to consider this world to be real. Even if ultimately it’s false. Anyway, so this is also a very damaging world view.
We live in the world where we consider this world to be false. So these are the implications. Now, that will bring me to the last part.
I’ll talk about the implication of the Bhakti worldview, the devotional worldview, in terms of the transformation it brings in. So impersonalism is largely the Indian history, the Indian mediaeval history. So now India is to some extent rising at the geopolitical level.
And it is largely by becoming assertive and serious about this world also. And the Bhakti worldview, it is highly empowering. How is it empowering? I’ll talk about three points over here.
So people take one hour. Now, this world is real in the other world. Now, that is the Gita’s teaching.
At the same time, there is a difference. Let’s talk about it. One way to understand this, when we are here in the world, for most of us in the journey of life, the world initially is very big.
And the other world, whether it is God, or however you can see the other world, the divine, it is small. So when I was introduced to Bhakti about 30 years ago, I started talking about it to all my relatives and friends. And one of my uncles told me, yeah, I believe in God.
I have a very good relationship with God. It’s a beautiful relationship. So mutual non-interference.
He’s happy there, I’m happy here. Now, for many people, they may consider God to be completely irrelevant. So this is the way we may function initially.
But as there is spiritual growth, as there is spiritual growth, what happens is that the world becomes small and God becomes big. The important thing is not the world becomes small. The world becomes small.
Now, what is the advantage of the world becoming small? The world is a place of ups and downs. Sometimes happy, sometimes not. Happiness, distress, it always comes.
Now, if the world is very big in our mind, then what happens? When the good things happen, we go way up. When the bad things happen, we go way down. And you all probably know people who are having extreme mood swings.
One day that person has so much energy, I’ll shake the whole world. In the next day, it seems the whole world can’t shake them out of their bed. So it is like one day, they go to job, oh, maybe they get some encouragement from the boss.
Oh, I love this job. It’s the best job in the world. The next day they get some negative feedback and why did I even take this job? What was I thinking? I hate this job.
Or even relationships. I love you. I can’t live without it.
A couple of days later, I hate you. I can’t live with you. So, you know, if we take the world as very big, then every upheaval in the world becomes very big.
Now when the world becomes small for us, the ups and downs also become small. And this is where a person can be more stable, a person can be more reliable. At the same time, what happens when the world becomes small for us, we become externally peaceful.
Peaceful because we understand that the world here is, the ups and downs will come and go. So, I may be going through a very tough time right now, but let time pass. Things will change.
So let time pass. Don’t do time pass. Let time pass.
Now we do, we become extremely peaceful. Now, beyond this, when God becomes bigger for us, God becomes bigger means what? God is always the biggest reality, but psychologically for us, we become aware that God is a bigger reality. In fact, when we do some spiritual practise and we come to a temple like for a satsang like this, we do some puja, we do some japa, we do some kirtan.
The point of all this is to bring us in the presence of a bigger reality. Even people who are non-theistic, when they go to some place that is considered sacred, they feel some sense of peace over there. The vibes here are different.
So they may not believe in God, but they will experience the vibes are different over here. So what happens is when we come in the presence of a reality far bigger than ourselves, it helps us become a little calmer. It helps us get a better perspective of life.
So now at one level, when we become spiritually connected, when the world becomes smaller and God becomes bigger for us, the idea is that this world is a reality, no doubt, but the other world with God present is a bigger reality. It’s a bigger reality. So this connection with God makes us internally joyful and internally purposeful.
So I conclude with these two points about how this worldview can make us joyful and how it can make us purposeful. So now the idea that there is another world, the problem with detachment, people say we can detach from this. People say that nowadays detachment or non-attachment is become somewhat of a cool word.
So I suppose it’s becoming popular. But the problem with detachment or non-attachment is it seems to strip our life of joy. I was in Washington a month or so ago.
One young boy, he told me that when good things happen, we can be happy and bad things happen, we can let go. I said, that’s a very good idea. Unfortunately, psychologically impossible.
It’s like say if somebody is very big into cricket, now if India wins a cricket match, yeah, top of the world. If India loses the cricket match, I don’t care about it. You say like that, but that’s all a frustration.
That’s not about all the fun. So to the extent we enjoy the positive, to the extent we will suffer with it. If somebody gets pleasure in a romantic relationship and then there’s a breakup, you know, I’m detached.
You can say you are detached, but to the extent there’s joy in the relationship, then it’s a very good thing. So it’s not possible to just accept the positive and to enjoy the positive and to let go of the negative. Psychologically, it is not possible.
Theoretically, the idea is good, but psychologically, it doesn’t work like that. But so the question comes up if we become detached. We are very much into some watching some TV show.
And you get very involved in the character. And sometimes in a long running TV show, you know, some big one major character decides that, you know, I don’t want to be with Tony. Maybe they’ve asked too much money and the producer don’t want to pay so much money.
When that person leaves on the TV show, what happens is they have to kill off the character. Sometimes the kind of agony that people go through. There are some videos which shows a popular character being killed.
Hundreds of comments of people crying over it. Expressing their agony, saying, oh, to the extent you enjoy something, when something bad happens, you cannot just be detached. So then what is the source of detachment? How can we do that? Or how can if we get one side, it’s like the two sides of the coin.
The more we get the, enjoy the positive side of the duality, the more we will suffer the negative side of the coin. You just can’t avoid it. It’s like, it’s a way.
If I enjoy the way when it goes high, and the way it goes down, I feel fearful. I feel panic. The solution for us is actually to find an anchor and to learn to hold on to that anchor.
That the world’s will will go up and down, but our spiritual practises become like an anchor for us. And that anchor is what makes us peaceful. So, yes, the world will have its ups and downs.
But if we have developed a relationship with God, with Krishna, through our practise of bhakti, yes, this thing came, this thing lost, got lost. There’s pain because of that. But there’s some unchanging mind.
Like you hold on to it. And we will still be hit by the waves, but we won’t be swept away by the waves. And over a period of time, initially spirituality acts like an anchor for us.
But if we keep practising spirituality, eventually it becomes like an airlift for us. Airlift means what happens? That the same waves will come, but we are at a higher level. So we can be concerned about what is happening in the world.
But like, if we are lifted out of the waves, we’ll be concerned, are any of our friends there? But we will be concerned, but not affected by it. We won’t live in a constant sense of fear and insecurity and existential dread. So this spirituality can help us become peaceful amid life’s ups and downs.
And this is something which each one of us can do as a test case. You know, adopt some spiritual practises, participate in some japa regularly, do some kirtan regularly, just 10-15 minutes every day. Just do it for some time.
And then if you notice, you do it for one month, three months, the same problem or a similar problem, which three months ago completely shaken us, now we’ve formed it, we won’t be that people. We will be able to stay calm whenever we meet Silicon Valley. I was invited to speak at Salesforce.
Now they’re among the many of these big companies now, they invite people to come to the mosque, to do spiritual talk. Salesforce also has a mindfulness colony. So now they are at one level a corporate entity.
And they found that if they do some time for some meditation, some mindfulness for their employees, then their employees stay calm and they perform better. And from their perspective, they don’t have to pay so much for the mental health and physical health insurance for their employees. So the budget line is the bottom line, of course.
But even from a utilitarian perspective, there is that benefit. So meditation is actually cheaper than therapy and much more effective than therapy. If we can do it.
Some people may need therapy also, if not nothing substitute, but it can be a prevention. So this is where we can become spiritually peaceful. Because we understand, yes, the world has ups and downs, but I have a connection with something which is bigger and stronger.
Then the last part is probably simply peaceful and spiritually or internally purposeful. The purposeful is that if we understand the nature of the world, if I am here and say, God, Krishna, I did appear. And this is the world.
Then one version of spirituality is this turn away from the world and go in the other direction. But what the Gita teaches us is that we function in the world. And it is through this world that we ultimately attain Krishna.
So while this is one way, this is the recommended view of the world. And whatever abilities we have, swakarmanatam apdhyarcha siddhim indatmanoham Through your work, worship that Lord. And through your work, you can attain that Lord.
So a more holistic worldview is that God doesn’t just exist in the spiritual world temple. God exists everywhere. God exists in our office.
God exists in our home. God exists in our heart. So everywhere is a domain that we can serve the Lord.
And the idea in this worldview is that what we have, what we have is a gift from God. The particular ability, the particular talents, the particular interest that we have, they are gifts given to us by God. And what we do with what we have is our gift to God.
What we have is a gift from God. What we do with what we have is our gift to God. So Arjuna, who is a student of the Bhagavad Gita, had innate talent in Arjuna.
And that was a gift. And he worked very hard to develop that gift. He practised diligently, performed austerity, he went to a competent teacher.
He developed those abilities. And by that, he was able to do great service for Krishna in this world. So now our abilities may not be as extraordinary or as prominent as Arjuna’s.
But we all have certain gifts. And now in this, let’s conclude one last point over here, that when our focus is only in this world, so what happens is we want to maybe, if we don’t have this bigger picture of God, our vision is only in this world, there are two problems that come up. Sometimes we may feel that I am not good enough.
Maybe I’m not smart enough. I’m not fluent enough. I’m not fair enough, not tall enough.
I’m not this, I’m not that. I don’t have enough talents to actually do something good. And the other feeling, so if we feel that if our vision is only I am here and the world is here, if I feel I don’t have enough talents, then I feel insecure.
And if I feel that, okay, I have some talents. I’m doing so much work. But somehow the world is not recognising me.
And that is where we feel that life is unfair. Now, this leads to a sense of resentment. And among the various emotions that can afflict and disempower us, these two, a sense of unworthiness and a sense of unfairness, a sense of insecurity and a sense of resentment.
These two are most damaging. So insecurity is a huge problem. A lot of people have low self-esteem, insecurity, and then depression.
What do you mean? I don’t have any abilities to be glamorous. I don’t. And we always say in every society and culture, certain abilities will be glamorised.
And those who have those abilities, those get glamorous. Other abilities may also be of value. The problem is, if we are looking only at what the world will recognise and glamorise, we feel I don’t have what it takes to make it great.
In India, we use the word crack an exam. If somebody does very well in IIT, some exam is a crack an exam. Sometimes you crack an exam and sometimes you are cracked by the exam.
So they feel I just am not good enough. So that could be a problem. And the other problem is, we may work very hard, but the world’s reciprocation is never good enough.
And this is where our vision is fixed only on the world. We may work in a company and we feel I’m not getting enough praise, I’m not getting enough recognition. And if you’re taking care of a family, you feel that I’m not being valued.
A mother may feel I’m doing so much. I have a job, I have to take care of my family, I’m doing so much. Only value is what I’m doing.
And if a father is there, he feels, I’m working so hard, but my family is always complaining. Everybody will feel that their life is in a loop. The problem is, that this vision, the problem is, there’s a particular specific problem we can address, we can fight for things.
But eventually, if our vision is fixed on the world, these two things, insecurity and unfairness, these will dog us all the time. That’s why the Gita offers us a bigger vision. Yes, we try to function in the world, but we function in the world in the mood of service to Krishna.
And when we’re functioning in the world in the mood of service to Krishna, it is the reciprocation we get is also from God. So that is why when we talked about Vishakamakarana, we talked about be detached, do your work in a mood of detachment. And what does it mean? It doesn’t mean be apathetic, be irresponsible.
It means have a higher vision for your needs. That we have been given some abilities and we use those abilities in a mood of service to Krishna. Now, whether those abilities make a visible difference in the world or not, whether they’re appreciated in the world or not, it’s important, but that’s not the most important thing.
So if this whole idea of being recognised and appreciated in the world, this was not so much emphasised in the past. Why? Because it was understood that this world is like a pathway to academia. We all are born in the world and we all have certain rules in the world.
And if we play our roles, we will go to a better life later. We of course try to make a better life as much as we can in this world. But our whole sense of self-worth does not come from how much we are practising in this world.
That it is, we all have certain roles to play. We play those roles and we play those roles. We try to make life better over here.
But ultimately, by doing our work responsibly in a mood of service to God, we will move to a better place. So if we are recognised in the world, that is great. So this particular implication is that we can get recognition in the world, reputation, fame in the world.
And we can get satisfaction in our heart. So the words in Sanskrit are abhyudaya and shreyas. Abhyudaya is more like achievement.
So not everybody will achieve spectacular things in the world’s eyes. So that was the communist idea. What happens is, everybody gets a participating certificate for whatever reason.
Everybody gets a certificate, then nobody’s certificate has any value. It is like, if we try, we cannot make everybody an achiever in the world. Some people have talent and some people will be achievers.
There’s achievement and there is enrichment. So when we play our roles in a mood of service to God, we may or may not always achieve, but we will get enrichment. So A, if we are only seeking achievement, whether that’s enrichment or not, this is dark.
For the achievement will not satisfy us. We may achieve something, somebody gets nominated, people want to get influencers. You get 1 million followers.
Why does he or she have 2 million followers? There will always be somebody who has more and will be dissatisfied. If there is no achievement and no enrichment, that’s a very dark life. But if there is achievement and enrichment, that is the best.
But if there is no achievement, but there is enrichment, still that is durable. This is most unbearable. And if there is recognition, but no achievement, but no enrichment.
But this is something similar to what is comfortably miserable. Like a person is popular, but they have everything to do. So this is actually the most deceptive.
So for us, the Vita says that we can aim for recognition or achievement in the world, but we should not lose sight of enrichment. So whatever we do, if we do it in a mood of service to the Lord, I’m a mother, I’m a software engineer, I am beyond all these, I’m a devotee, I’m a soul who’s a part of God. And let me play my role in a mood of service to Him.
If I do that, yes, I may get reciprocation from the immediate role that I’m playing. If we get it, that’s wonderful. But if we don’t get it, if that’s not enough, still we know that Krishna is watching.
Krishna is at the Vishnu. What are the names of Vishnus? Vishnu and Nisha. He says that.
Vishnu Sahasranama said, Anilisho, Nilisho, Swadhi, Varchesh, Patirudha, Aradhi. So Anilisho and Nilisho. What it means is that Krishna, when we are trying to do some service, Krishna unblinkingly notes even the smallest of services.
He notes the services and he removes the differences. And Draupadi was with, when Krishna was in the Andhav, in the Indraprastha, Krishna and Arjuna were chatting and Draupadi came and wanted to offer some fruits. He saw them chatting intimately.
Krishna was wondering. Krishna took a knife and started cutting the fruits. Knife slipped and his finger got cut.
Draupadi came running over there and she ripped off her sari as a bandage. She was in anxiety. But Krishna was looking at her with a serious smile and said, Oh Draupadi, I will not forget what you have done.
What will you do? I will reward you for this. And he rewarded her with unlimited food. So Krishna is unblinkingly, he notices even the smallest of services.
And he is also very brutal. All that he does is, if we are trying to serve sincerely and sometimes we make a mistake, Krishna blinks and overlooks the mistake. And this is the law that we are actually having the authority to commit to.
Through the message of the Gita. The Lord is with us and the Gita calls us to be with the Lord. To make Him the bigger reality and then redefine our roles in the light of the Lord.
So to summarise what I discussed today, we discussed the topic of how the Gita’s worldview can come forward as the broad topic is. We discussed later on in, what was it? Worldview. So W was? Worldview.
Worldview. So I talked about the four worldviews based on, whichever worldview we adopt, we can say that life is stuck in the universal truth. And because life is stuck, so what do we do? We try to adopt some way of making sense of life.
So either this world is real or false and the other world is real or false. So what are the four worldviews that come up because of this? Materialism. So materialism, nihilism, neither of them is real.
Impersonalism. And then, devotionalism. So we discussed how each of these has an impact.
That is, if you go into the implication of the worldviews. If you consider the implication of it all, then we saw that the materialistic worldview, it leads us to, it actually leads us to desire, praga. But we talked about how there are three ways we try to create a political paradise.
We end up creating a nightmare. We try to create a technological paradise at a level we become comfortably or we just go into a virtual world and we start taking it too seriously at the cost of a real relationship and real interaction. Then nihilism, it just leads to total despair.
Now people may not be having this philosophical awareness, but at a psychological level, this is very much there. That’s why there’s no me. So even what animals are doing, that is, that is to survive and reproduce.
Our so-called very progressive civilisation, western civilisation is not giving people enough motivation to do even that. And that is a serious problem. It requires some serious thinking.
Why is it like that? And then there is, there is impersonalism. Impersonalism, it leads to dread. It leads to just a great level of apathy towards them.
And we talked about how this happened in mediaeval India. And this is the one page empowers us the most. So how do we empower? The transformation.
That’s what I discussed in that last part. So for us, while both worlds are real, we understand that in the world is very big and God is small. But as we grow, the world becomes small and God becomes big.
And this makes us externally peaceful because we don’t take the world’s reality so seriously. It makes us internally, two things. Either one is internally joyful.
Internally joyful and internally. So actually, I was talking about how internally joyful and purposeful. How does that happen? So internally peaceful, we become because the world will always have dualities.
But we become, we get like a anchor. And then eventually we get a airlift. And if we rise above the world, we become strong but not.
We are purposeful and joyful. We understand that. I am in the world.
God is above the world. And what I have is God’s gift to me. What I do with what I have is my gift to God.
So understand each one of us has a role to play that gives us a sense of purposefulness. And when we are not looking for recognition only from the world, we understand that in the world, there are some people who will have achievements. But everyone can have enrichment.
So what the Bhakti world does is it gives us this enrichment. It is unconnected. Through our roles in life, we connect with Krishna and the connection with Krishna gives us enrichment.
Now, if we can get achievement and enrichment, both that’s wonderful. But even if we don’t get achievement, we have enrichment still life is good. But if we have achievement without enrichment, both of those are bad.
So one of them could be worse. But actually having achievement and enrichment makes our life healthy. So the Gita offers us a pathway by which we can have that enrichment wherever we might be in our lives.
And in the course of time, we all may move towards worthwhile achievement and enrichment. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Thank you so much for the wonderful introduction and your presentation.
I have a two part question. Firstly, is the idea of self-learned action on the income karma compatible with ambition? And the second part of the question is, where does one draw the line between healthy aspiration and ego driven life? Good questions. So first is that, is there a, if you see the Bhagavad Gita itself, 2.47 is the verse which is often quoted, karma nivarikarasya, is non-attached action.
But before that, there is 241. It says, yavasayatika buddhi eti hetu gurum. So there’s a big difference between setting goals and being attached to results.
So the idea is, the Gita is not actually setting goals. Goals are what we set before we do something. Results are what we get after we do something.
So if I am here and say this is my particular role in which I have an ambition. Now what is in our control is what we put into it, put it together. Now what we get out of it, you naturally say, what I put in proportion to that I’ll get.
It’s true to that, but it may not always work like that. The Gita is saying that this, we may not know, but focus on this. So do we have ambition? Of course.
Actually, I have the ambition of becoming the greatest archer. So we can always have ambitions. But let the ambition be focused more on maximising our contribution rather than maximising our conditions.
Let me increase my contribution. So most people, when they say ambition, what happens is, it can go in the direction primarily of recognition. I want to have a big house.
I want to have this. I want to be in the sea suit or whatever. That’s fine.
But what we need to focus on is our contribution. So if our ambition is focused more on our contribution than our recognition, then we can be empowered to do the right thing. And sometimes some people may get recognition without contribution.
But that is unsustainable. If they themselves are not sustainable, life presents real challenges to them. And they may end up misleading those who are under them and outing on them at that time.
Yes. Prakriti, you mentioned that whatever we do, we should try to do it and make it a mode of service to Krishna. But I feel a lot of times we lack awareness for it.
That is one. And second is that if we are aware that we want to do everything in mode of service to Krishna, we sometimes lack motivation. It might be because maybe the work that we do is not likeable enough.
So how can we work on motivational awareness? Yeah. Generally, when I talk about Krishna becoming bigger for us, how does Krishna become bigger? It is a psychological principle that whatever we expose ourselves to, whatever we bring into our consciousness, that will become bigger. But generally what happens is, if this is my consciousness, that initially Krishna is one component in my consciousness.
Yeah, I have 100 things in my life. I have a job. I have this.
I have hobbies. I have a family. And then, okay, going to the temple is also one thing.
That’s also one part of my life. And that’s good. So at least giving entrance to Krishna, because it is my consciousness.
So this is Krishna. But if we keep doing this regularly, eventually what is happening, we start realising that Krishna is a much bigger reality. And then it is our consciousness that gives entrance.
That means it’s not that we merge into Krishna, but that we merge in. And we gain shelter, we gain safety, we gain security. So initially you give entrance, eventually you gain entrance.
And that happens by regular experience of Krishna, regular exposure of our consciousness to Krishna. That’s why that awareness is not just intellectual awareness. And awareness happens by regularly remembering Krishna.
By regularly chanting his holy name, by regularly coming across his devotees, by regularly reading about Krishna. By that, Krishna will become the bigger reality. So that is avidhasa, the practise.
And similarly, vairagya means the other things are already big in our consciousness, they’re not really important. We don’t expose ourselves to them so much. So, okay, this scandal over here, this gossip over there, all those things, we don’t expose ourselves, we become smaller in our consciousness.
So that’s one thing. Now, as far as the motivation is concerned, motivation is a very individual and you could say, unreliable tool. That motivation is sometimes come and motivation is sometimes go.
That’s why what I prefer to focus on is need rather than motivation. What does it mean? That right now, every moment of our life, we have a choice. That okay, in the next one hour, what I’m going to do? Is it going to add meaning to my life? Or is it not going to add meaning to my life? Maybe I spend some time with a good friend, become close with each other.
And something unique. I just spent time with them, just mindless surfing of some reasons. So in general, the meaning in our life is proportional to the responsibility that we do.
Most people think meaning is proportional to motivation. Now, if what I’m going to do, say, if I’m going to do a talk for five people, and should I give an audience? I’m going to 500 people. Oh, I should do the talk.
So we often think of meaning in terms of motivation. Again, that is a very superficial way of thinking. Sometimes it’s required to look at that people from that perspective.
But if you can see, like I said, the difference between being something for everyone or everything for someone. So if somebody becomes a mother or a homemaker, you know, they have something for everything for their child. But now do not take cognition away, but you take responsibility and then bring a new sense of meaning to life.
So in the sense, now what do I mean by responsibility in this context? This is the situation I am in. What can I do for the best for myself? So like motivation comes, that’s better and good. But if motivation is not there, we can try to find some ways we can motivate ourselves.
But if we can’t, let’s focus on simple choice. Do I want my life to be meaningful or meaningless? Nobody wants to say that, okay, the biggest achievement of my life was every day I watch eight hours TV every day. But the whole matter, whole life.
No, nobody wants that in their lives. Unless of course they are a professional TV reviewer or something like that. That’s a different thing.
The communities are meaningful. And we don’t think of meaning in that big picture. It’s not thinking, what is the meaning of life or what is the meaning of my life? So I have a question, what can I do right now to bring more meaning to life? And that itself can inspire us to do something worthwhile.
And a focus on meaning is actually much more accessible for us than a focus on motivation. So the contents which you mentioned are something that we decide that all of us undergo in our lifetime. Which ones? The individual or the four world views? Four world views.
It’s not necessary that we have to go through all the other world views before we come to the fourth world view. So we might grow up in a culture where one particular world view is there. And then we can move from that world view to the devotional world view, to our understanding, to our experience, to our own conscious deliberation and decision.
So we don’t have to go through all the world views. I pray to God that if the strength for manifesting that this is what I want from my life, where does that come from? Thank you. That’s fair enough.
See, the problem is not that we have desires and we take our desires to God. The problem is though that if I am here and say God is here. Now having desires is natural.
But sometimes what happens is we make those desires into demands. And sometimes we go beyond demands to become ideators. So that is where it becomes a problem.
So we can definitely have a desire and we can express that desire. But then we can have a mood of, and yeah, I don’t know. I’ll be in a better place in my life, emotionally, financially, emotionally, then I can play my part in the world plan better.
I can serve you better. So please, my Lord, please make this easy. At the same time, if this is not your plan, then please, I need you to understand what it is that you want to do in this life.
Please let me not be lost. So we can have that, we can express the desire, then we can have an acceptance. That it’s like I mentioned earlier, the key thing for devotion is humility.
And humility means that you understand that my vision is finite. So what I function with my finite vision or finite vision is not the final vision. Therefore, it’s not that we have to reject our finite vision, we accept with my finite vision, this is what I think will be good for me.
Express that vision, but you have a bigger picture and please tell me how you want me to face this. Okay, that’s one of my questions. Thank you, my question is regarding the worldviews.
So when you explained this world is real and there’s another world, are you talking in terms of like the other? Either world is like physical in nature or spiritual in nature? Or at one point, as you said, is it a spiritual vision, that spiritual vision is between us everywhere? So are we always looking like externally, like upwards and kind of add an attachment to it? Or when can we look inwards and see the experience? So Krishna is present within our hearts and the spiritual world is within us. But at the same time, it’s not just within us. There’s also another domain of reality.
So the idea is that the spiritual can be understood at two different levels. The spiritual is a condition and the spiritual is also a location. It’s a condition in the state of awareness.
But in the world also, if the divine becomes bigger for us, then we will be in a much more spiritual state of consciousness. At the same time, our stay in this world is temporary. And at the end of our life, we will go somewhere.
So where will we go? That is a location. That is our destination. So spiritual is also a destination that we can attain beyond this.
So the spiritual world is within us. The spiritual world is also beyond this entire world. It’s a theme which comes repeatedly in the Bhagavad Gita.
God, the ultimate reality, is that which Krishna is the one who is present in everything and in whom everything is present. So sometimes spiritual can go to both extremes. One is, let’s talk about only God being present in this world.
And a lot of people call it the immanence of God. That God is an immanent reality. God is within nature.
So God is within. Some traditions emphasise only that. And some traditions only say that God is beyond.
But the understanding is, God is both. God is both immanent and God is present. So while we are in this world, we focus on accessing and connecting with the divinity which is within us.
But at the same time, God is also present. We can say God is within us but when we come to a place like a temple, we experience the presence of God. The presence of God is more manageable.
And then there is a world where God’s presence is most manageable. And we also want to attain that world. Thank you.
There are two questions. We can finish with this. Just a minute.
We talked about when you focus more on the world, we generally have to think in terms of insecurity or unfairness. And a lot of times, when we are lost in those feelings, like we are prepared to go to heaven or to the netherworld, how are we going to be able to go to the world? It is difficult that maybe the self-taught people somehow that is anti-focus on Christmas, the other side. And sometimes, life is unfair.
Like it’s not just that I didn’t get a promotion. It’s like somebody died or something terrible happened. So how does one come out of those feelings? Both of those feelings re-join together.
So how do you come together when that happens? See, insecurity, many times we think about ego. The opposite of ego is humility. But actually, the opposite of ego is insecurity.
And in between these two is humility. So when we feel insecure, it is we are focussing on what we don’t have. So ego is that I am everything, I can do everything.
I am basically God. Insecurity is I am nothing, I can do nothing, I am worthless. I am zero.
But humility is, I am something, I can do something. So maybe our role is not going to be as big as we would like it to be. Maybe our talents are not as outstanding as we would like them to be.
Sometimes. So we focus on what we have rather than what we lack. And try to implement them more.
That is the way to overcome insecurity. And also that is the same principle that we use to overcome unfairness also. Like I mentioned, my mother told me that whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually.
So basically what happens is that I have a physical limitation that is unfair. But when I started studying, I started reading, I noticed that I could remember things well, I could articulate things well. So some part of me settled down that, this physical disability, I didn’t do anything to deserve it from this life’s perspective.
But then I didn’t do anything to deserve his intellectual ability also. So then life is in the big picture, fairly unfair. Fairly unfairly, sometimes we get less than what we deserve and sometimes we get more than what we deserve.
So we need to focus on how life is fair to us rather than fair to us. There are some people who trouble us a lot. There are some people who go out of their way to be kind to us.
So we can’t be grateful for all situations in our life. But we can be grateful in all situations in our life. By not looking at that particular situation, but by looking at what we have been given to feel successful.
If somebody suddenly gets cancer or something, it’s very difficult to be grateful for a cancer. But it will dehumanise the effects that somebody can be grateful for. But I have basic good health, I have a supportive community, a family, I have little children, the disease is curable.
I have some spiritual practises that will keep my sanity in the best time. So those are things you can be grateful for. And that way, we can find pockets of fairness instead of focussing on what may seem like vast plains of unfairness.
And what we focus on will with time become bigger. Last question. Thank you.
So when we live on, do you think, the two words, the distinction is you use your talents, but also what we have is not given to us. What we do is what we have in all of the time. Okay.
And let me use that as a whole thing. For those people that become one, some people, how do they deal with their ego, or the basic tendency of wanting to belong or be left behind? The more the world becomes so agonising, with the optimism, this world is the only real world. And it’s like, many ways, if an event is not reported and publicised, then the event didn’t happen.
It becomes like this. So news is not what happens. News is what gets reported.
So that’s the world view that comes. So glorious is not the action that is done. Glorious is the action that is implemented.
So when we live in an external world view, it becomes difficult to sustain anything. That’s one of the reasons why, psychologically speaking, why parenting is getting neglected, why people don’t want to have children. So many economic and other factors.
One thing is that the world we live in, parenting is not glamorous. These traditional cultures, they consider parenting a very important responsibility. But in today’s world, it’s not just for women, it’s not really glamorised for anybody.
So it is a very important thing. So that’s why we need some sense of, that life’s meaning does not lie only in the condition that I’m in. So there is a sense of valuation that comes internally, that I am doing something meaningful.
And the more society takes that sense away from people, then it also has a lot to do with parenting. So what do we praise our children for? Do we praise our children for the effort that they put in, or do we praise our children for the results that we get? And actually, if they get results, it’s probably because we praise them. But if that is all that we praise them for.
We can say that our children are studying diligently throughout the year for a particular exam. And then they don’t do so well in the exam. Do we criticise them for how they don’t do well? Or do we appreciate them? I mean, if you didn’t put in your heart, if you didn’t put effort, then it’s not so good.
So often, self-work is fostered by tensile work. So how society values us, not just everybody in society, but the people who are important for us. So we have to have, around us, at least some people who will foster intrinsic self-worth.
Because in the past, the culture was such that, OK, I have a family, taking care of my family is a source of intrinsic self-worth for me. This was the meaning of my life. But now, that sense has been eroded.
So throughout history, there have been heroic soldiers who fought and sacrificed their lives. Now, the idea of building memorials is something which is recent. In the First World War, Second World War, mass memorials.
Throughout history, so many people sacrificed their lives to build memorials to them. There was a sense of beauty over them. The sense that, this is what I’m meant to do.
So unfortunately, that sense has been eroded. That we can do something meaningful, that if we recognise the fun, but if it’s not recognised, it still has value. So how do we do that? Maybe within a small circle, the value is appreciated.
Maybe we have close friends. Now, maybe we have one friend that we appreciate for a few days. Even though we don’t know each other, that means there’s some value.
Sometimes, we appreciate one of the content from our accumulated sense, but that means we’re encouraging and motivating ourselves. So we have to find that we cannot depend on the world’s situation. It will make for a very unstable and unhappy life.
Can I ask you a simple question, please? Ask what you’re talking about. Can you discuss or understand on how passion, meaning, well, passion, devotion, and meaning interact? So I often see passion listed as an attachment to watch the boat. See, words and their meanings change with time.
Like say, nowadays, the word wicked, I just wanted to do one of these. That is a wicked party that I’m in. Yeah, okay, great.
I’ve been like that, you know. The meaning of words changes with time. So the word pride also nowadays has a positive connotation.
Like hotel pride. Hotel executive pride. I’ve not seen any hotel arrogance till now.
So I think the word passion is nowadays acquiring one more positive connotation. So passion is something like, you know, the deep and inner interest or drive or a longing for us. So that was not the sense in which the word rajas is translated.
But within Varanashram, each varna, each person, say, Brahmana, Brahmana will have passion for Pramana Kriya. A Kshatriya will have passion for Kshatriya work. So the idea of having a passion in life, it’s central to the idea, to the teachings of the Vedanta.
That we all have certain innate interests which can become our drives and they can become the driving, driving source of meaning and motivation for us in our lives. So that’s it. So now devotion is understanding that those drives are gifts given to us by God.
That the talents that we have, they don’t come in isolation. Krishna says, what is that? He says that simple two liners. I also have to convey the part of the story about when I was surveyed, in which I undertake Aurusham Rishu.
Aurusham Rishu, I am ability in the religions. So our ability, what kind of ability anyone has as a gift of God, as a manifestation of God? Not like a talent in one. A gift in one is a gift for everyone.
If one person has a beautiful singing voice, we can give so much joy to them. The person has great, one person has great thinking ability. We can look at people and actually give so much, a deep sense of aesthetic, a blind joy for people.
If one person can be nice, they could be in a beautiful temple, they could be beautiful, whatever. So the point is that our passion, if it is coupled with devotion, then it becomes exclusive for all of us. So the passion itself can give some sense of meaning to us.
And that’s good. But the problem is that it may not be adequate. Sometimes we may do a lot of, we are called to passion, do work, we get some sense of meaning from it, but it will fall short of reach.
And it doesn’t last for much. So if our passion is coupled with devotion, then that can give us a meaning in this world and a meaning beyond this world. A meaning that is external, valuable, but it’s also internally nourishing.
So much of what I spoke today is given in these two books. This is especially the Gita for the CEO. It has a chapter here called Work as Worship, where I talk about the concept of gifts and inner enrichment.
And so this is, I think in the wisdom of the Gita, presented in a way that is relevant and appealing for corporate audiences. And it is not just for corporate audiences. Anybody wants to apply the Gita practically, there are some simple illustrations and diagrams that I was making, which help us understand the concept of the Gita.
And I presented it in a conversation between two characters. So that’s why it makes it very accessible. The Gita is only a conversation.
And I have to ask them to write this book because they felt that the Gita deserves a presentation that is from a contemporary perspective. And Kikigai has become popular. Saraswati has become popular.
So the Gita is also getting a presentation. This is another book. So this is a book, more devotional book of prayers inspired by the Bhagavad Gita.
So there are, this is the hundred and twenty-two prayers. I showed a picture of this book also. We recited one prayer from here.
So this is a more of a devotional, less analytical approach to the Gita. And I’ve taken various themes based on the Gita’s verses. If you are feeling lonely, if you are feeling purposeless in our lives, if you are feeling too much unhealthy cravings in our life, if you are feeling misunderstood.
So there are prayers for all situations. There are a very accessible table of contents where you can look at the prayers and whatever your emotional state or prayers need is, just go to those prayers. Many people have told me that before they start their mantra chanting or before they start their spiritual practises, this can help them to calm and centre themselves.
So both these books are available and I’ll be here for some time in case you want me to sign the books or if you have any further questions. Thank you very much.