How to participate in God’s plan for us 3 guidelines ISKCON Ottawa || Chaitanya Charan

That truth which everybody from any part of the world will agree with can be summarized in three words. That is life is tough. Whatever we do, whoever we will be, life is not evil. Life is difficult. And when we face the difficulties of life, if we are of a theistic bent of mind, if we accept the idea of God, then that actually raises the question.

So when I’m going through difficulties, when my life is tough, what is God doing? Does God care? Will God help me? The question will naturally come, and this is the question that Arjuna also has at the start of the Bhagavad Gita. The book here to hold is a book of prayers inspired by the Bhagavad Gita.

So there was one young man, he was born in a devotee family and he grew up and he was telling me that I don’t like to go to the temple. Is this better now? Can you hear me? So this boy, he told me he had grown up in the devotee family, and his parents used to go to temple. He said, I don’t like to go to the temple.

That happens to many people as they go into teenage, they become a little rebellious, they wanna explore the world. So I asked immediately, what is the reason you don’t like to go to the temple? So he said, I have so many troubles in my life, but when I go to the temple, Krishna is always smiling. He says, does Krishna even care for me? So I feel as if Krishna lives in a different world, I live in a different world.

So the world of bhakti has got nothing to do with my real world. And that’s why I don’t feel it is relevant at all. So I gave an answer to him at that time, but then, later on when I was writing this book, so I was reading at this particular verse and it struck me that here, Arjuna is crying. Arjuna is in tears. He’s so confused, overwhelmed.

Now Arjuna is in tears. Krishna is smiling. So this book is basically taken the verses of the Gita and we can see them as sources of wisdom, but we can also see them as the words of Krishna which are inspired devotion and devotional prayers within our hearts. So because some of us, some of you to read the prayer, we’ll read aloud. If you have a second mic, we can use that otherwise.

Those of you who have a mic inside your throat, you can use that to speak loudly. But let us begin. I’m also you have the book there but you also have it displayed over here. So you can repeat after me. My dear lord, let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith not weaken it.

So here, those of you comfortably can recite the words after me. So here to give a more devotional connect with the Gita as the song of God, I have tried to translate the Gita’s verses into English poetry. The Lord of the senses spoke with a gentle grace, a knowing smile playing upon his divine face. Between the armies standing calm and bright, he saw his Darjuna who was lamenting his plight. So let us who would like to read it?

Me, these lines? Yes, ma’am. Oh, my lord. Many are the times when I feel lost and lonely, confronted with the perplexities of life. At those times when nothing I do seems to be working, I cannot help but wonder, do you, oh lord, know my plight?

Stinky, yes I’m right back. So now for most of us when we go through life, I use this a little bit writing and drawing a few things, so if we are facing life, normally if we are here and our focus is on the world in front of us, we do certain things here and certain things happen to us and that’s what life is primarily about or so we think. Now when either what we are doing is not good enough, I’ll just put it not good or what happens to us is not good, At that time we start getting questions, what is going on over here? That is the time we may look upward, beyond this world we may look upward toward Krishna. Can you arrange this in such a way that the team is also seeing?

Then we may start looking upward. And normally when we turn to someone for help, if we are sick and we go to a doctor. Mhmm. Now one thing we want to know, say if we are if our heart is broken because of something, we have great emotional pain, and you go to talk with some therapist or talk with some friend or talk with some relative, talk at that time, one thing we naturally look for is is that person actually concerned? So similarly, when we come to Krishna, that question will actually come that, is Krishna concerned about it?

So when we look upwards, in general, in life, to be with difficulties, Krishna, according to the conclusion of the Gita, calls for faith, but he also calls for intelligence. He tells Arjuna in 1863, use your intelligence. Use your intelligence. Intelligence refers to whatever ability we have, whatever skill we have, use that. But then Krishna also says, So broadly speaking, everything I speak today will be centered on this four quadrant diagram that on one side is intelligence.

By intelligence, I’m referring not just to say IQ, I’m referring to the use of whatever resources we have. So it could be each of us’s particular abilities, maybe software, maybe medicine, maybe music. So we use our intelligence. And then there is faith. The Gita’s message is that we actually need to have oath.

So intelligence is about the human effort. This is we play our part And faith is about the divine plan. That whatever is happening in my life, there is some higher plan over here. So the human effort and the divine plan. Mhmm.

So if you consider these four quadrants over here, first there is if you consider these four quadrants moving from the right bottom, so we go clockwise upward. So which is the best quadrant here to be situated in, you think? Both faith. There’s human there is there’s faith that there is a divine plan, that there’s something happening according to divine plan, and there is endeavor. We are using our intelligence to put in our effort.

So which is the best place to be situated in? Faith. Top right. Which quadrant among these? First quadrant.

First quadrant. Which one? Four. Fourth quadrant. Okay.

Now this is the we could say best. Displayed. Why the best? It’s clear. It’s not displayed properly?

It’s not the writing is not clear? No. It’s not. Okay. So now if you consider the end of the Bhagavad Gita, there is an image.

Then he says that where there is Krishna, the supreme mystic, and where there is Arjuna, the great archer, there there will be victory, there will be glory, there will be morality, there will be opulence. So now it’s interesting what the Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion is. At one level we can say wherever there is God, there is victory. Isn’t it? Krishna, God is considered to be Lakshmi Pati.

So wherever he is there, the goddess of fortune will be there. So why does the Gita have to mention Arjuna over there? The Gita will say, where there is Krishna, there will be victory. But it says, where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna, there will be victory. Because the point is, the Gita’s focus is not just to glorify God.

The Gita’s focus is not just to proclaim that God is great. It is not just to proclaim God’s position but it is also to transform man’s disposition. That yes, God is great, God’s plan is there, God will work, therefore we should work with God. That’s why Krishna and Arjuna are together. So that’s why the end of the Gita is describing last source of the Gita is describing this level.

Where there is Arjuna who has raised his bow in readiness to fight. That means he is ready to do his endeavor. At the start of the Gita, he had put aside his bow saying I will not fight. By the end of the Gita, he has lifted up his bow in readiness to fight. And Krishna is there also.

So therefore, at the end of the Gita, both these points are there. Arjuna is ready to endeavor and Krishna has a plan. Krishna is described as Yogeshwara. He’s he’s a mysterious lord. He will work in ways that we can’t figure out.

So that’s why the Yogeshwara is the lord of mysticism. Lord who can do miraculous things. That lord is also there. So we’ll come back to this particular part of it. Would anyone else like to read?

We’re gonna have the tools and we have a mother reading. Yes. We’d like to read here. If you don’t know my suffering, then why do you not step forward to stop it? If instead of stepping forward to help me, I came to know that in those moments, you were smiling when I was suffering.

Oh, lord. How would I be able to maintain my devotion to you? Yes. So now the question comes that This boy was asking his question. We had it in the beginning.

That if we are going through trouble, we are going through some devastating problems in life. And if you come to the question, he’s smiling at that. And if you come to the Krishna, he’s smiling at that. Questions come, what kind of person is he? What kind of God is he?

Actually, that’s what Krishna is doing over here. Arjuna is in tears, this is if you consider, this is 2.1 in the Bhagavad Gita. And this is where Arjuna is, Krishna is smiling. But if you look at the verses before, the first verse 2.1 is Arjuna is in tears. Arjuna is crying.

So and there is no description that Arjuna has become calm and composed. Arjuna is still speaking. I mean his tears he is still speaking. He is trying to make his point but Arjuna has definitely broken down. It is not that suddenly his mood has changed.

So while Arjuna is in tears, how is it that Krishna is smiling? So sometimes life is tough but what makes it more difficult? There is distress, there is pain in life but some the distress often has degrees to it. No. Any kind of pain is a problem.

But if the pain is unfair pain, that means that we haven’t done anything wrong and still we are suffering. That becomes very difficult to hear. On top of that, if there is unfair pain that we alone are suffering. Now that feels most unbearable. So the nature of the mind is that whatever problems we face, the problems, we can’t remove them from our end.

They are going to come to everyone. However, based on how our mind perceives the problems, The Gita explains that the mind is like a screen inside us. This is the soul, the mind is in between and then we have the body. The body, the mind and the soul. So this is like a computer system in which we have the hardware that is the body, the software that is the mind and the soul is the user.

So now whatever happens in the outer world that is experienced through the body, but eventually it is experienced at the level of the mind. And sometimes an event may be tiny over you but when it reaches the mind it can become huge, it will completely occupy our mind And conversely, sometimes an event may be huge in the outer world, but when it comes here, it can become tiny. What does that mean? That life determines our problems, but our mind determines the size of the problems. Life determines our problems.

We we don’t control the size of the events out there. But now we all have probably noticed that sometimes if we are in a good mood and if somebody does something a little annoying, If we are in a cheerful mood, we feel annoyed, but okay. It’s okay. We say, hey. You know, we we’re supposed to meet somebody at a particular time, and we had a good day.

And that person has come, they got a little late. A little annoyed, but okay. These things happen. But suppose we have had a hard day, and our mind is already disturbed, our mind is already irritated. And then somebody is supposed to come on, and they come late.

So what happens? You know, when we finally see when that person is coming late, we feel as if that person has committed a crime called capital punishment. Because the mind can make something small very big. One friend, one person who gave a video was telling me once, how he got the realization that his mind was his enemy. That’s what made him start searching for spirituality.

So he said that whenever he will go to a restaurant, eat food. You know, if it is a restaurant, it would say hundred seats. He said he could not select the seat without having checked out all the hundred seats. He said, I don’t know one thing. I’m just thorough.

But there is thoroughness and there is just, you can be thorough about pretty, about, pretty small things also which can be big and petty. But then he realized that at one time he went to a restaurant and the previous time he had sat in a particular seat and he couldn’t sit on that seat because somebody was occupying that. And he’s very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, Wondering why is cooked again? Why is it going some other day? How will it taste and say it’s good?

It’s great. Then he said that small thing that I’m going to sit on a particular seat that can make a person extremely angry. The mind is such that it can just make small things very big. When I was in Australia One day, one one young man came to me and he said that he was complaining about another person constantly. And then I told him with all due respect, which, generally, if anybody starts a sentence, with all due respect, that means whatever they want to speak afterward is not going to be very respectable.

So I said, with all due respect, it sounds like you’re jealous of that person. Yeah, of course not, I’m not jealous. I’m just extremely unhappy that bad things are happening to me and good things are happening to him and sometimes the people are so spectacularly self unaware that in the textbook there is no jealousy. So sometimes something bad has happened to me, that is a problem, but good has happened to that person, that’s a bigger problem. So the point is that the mind can make small things big and big things small.

So for all of us, if we are very much controlled by our mind, then problems can be small problems can be made very, very big. And this is especially in relationships. If we start feeling that the other person is not taking serious stuff then what happens we can get irritated. Let’s say if we are disturbed or something and we go and tell someone and that person just says calm, we’ll be, why are you so disturbed about it? And first we are disturbed about what happened and now we are disturbed that the other person is not disturbed.

Isn’t it? So quite often it is other people’s reactions that can make small things big and big things small. And now how does this why am I talking about all this right now? How does this play in our bhakti, in our relationship with Krishna? So something is a big thing for us and if in our relationship with Krishna we feel Krishna does he care also for this also?

If whatever is a big thing for us is not a big thing at all for Krishna. Now that can be a question. Krishna doesn’t care for this thing. Krishna doesn’t care for me. Krishna doesn’t care for me.

Why do I care for him? That can be a that can be a question. I was when I was introduced to Bhakti about thirty years ago, I started talking about it to all my friends, relatives, and one uncle of mine, he said to me that God and I, we have very good relationship. I said, really? I never heard him do anything connected with God, you know, talk about God with me.

He says, what is the nature of this good relationship? He said, mutual non interference. He said, he’s happy there, I am happy here. Now the problem is that okay, Whether God is happy there or not, we do not know. Yes.

He’s happy there, but we won’t always stay happy. We will have difficulties. And then at that time, we will want God to intervene. And God doesn’t seem to care what am I doing over here? Why am I even practicing Bhakti?

So this is when Krishna is smiling at Arjuna while Arjuna is crying naturally Arjuna will have questions Can you continue? Yes, please. Bless me to remember, oh, Lord. Just wait a moment. Bless me to remember, oh, Lord, that you are never smiling because I am suffering.

It is through my suffering that I’m becoming more open to your calling. You know my pain, you feel my pain, and you want to heal my pain. Indeed, you stand ready and eager to free me from all pain. Yes. So Krishna being all let me move on that.

I can just pass it on. So now Krishna is all knowing. That means Krishna also knows our pain. We’ll three descendants together third third line. You know my pain.

My dear lord, you know my pain, you heal my pain, and you want to heal my pain. So Krishna is within our hearts. He’s closer than the closest person to us can be even if that person holds in the rightest of us. Krishna is inside us. He’s close to us.

And when we are going through suffering, it is not that Krishna is somewhere out there sending that suffering our life. Now Krishna is with us to give us strength to deal with that suffering, to go through that suffering, to go through that suffering, and to grow through that suffering. So Krishna wants to heal our pain. Now there are many different metaphors we may use to understand various concepts. So if we consider our relationship with God, what is the prominent metaphor in terms of how do we compare or conceive that relationship?

So if we consider relationship with God, so in the for example, you consider Christian tradition. What is the primary way God is addressed? Father, Lord. Father. Lord.

Father. So our father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Give us our daily bread. So the metaphor of a parent, there is one metaphor. Now generally, when you consider the metaphor of a parent, what is the each each metaphor that we have, it sets up a certain conception and certain expectations.

So in our relationship with Krishna, with God, not tradition is not God as Krishna. So one could be that as a father child, the parent child. You could say, now this what does it what does the parent child relationship primarily convey? What is the when when you think of a parent and a child, what is the dynamic of the relationship that comes in? Love, care, care, care, Unconditional law.

It’s interesting, dependence. I mean, if you have if your parents have loved you unconditionally, you are very fortunate. You know? If you have I was talking to one boy. He was a young adult, actually.

So he was telling me that I was staying at their place. He was driving me to various programs here in America A Few Years ago. I was still So he said to me, I said, I feel as if my parents don’t love me at all. I said, I’ve I’ve been with your parents. I’ve seen them interact with you.

They talk about you with me. I take care of you. I love you. He says, yeah. Yeah.

He says, they they love a future version of me. And they are simply tolerating me till that future version comes. Sir, that’s a very astute observation. And if it is true to the sad reality, sometimes we may also think that our relationship with God is like that. That God will love a future version of me who is a pure devote.

And till then, the way I am conditioned, God has built authority. Well, it’s not like that. God loves who we are and God loves who we can be. It’s unconditional love. That is yes.

In parenting, should it be there? Yes. It should be there. But you can say parenting contains protection, two things. When your parent child relationship is there, one is protection, the other is provision.

Isn’t it? The parents are supposed to protect the person and the protect the child and the parents are expected to provide for the child. Protection and provision are the primary expectations in a relationship. Each relationship will bring a different image. But broadly speaking that’s what if you see the prayer it says father give us our daily bread so it’s a protection and provision.

So any other metaphors have you heard about for our relationship with God? Best friend. Best friend. Okay. So now what does the idea of a best friend convey?

The the metaphor of a of friendship with God, what does it convey? Support. Support. Support. Okay.

Equality. Equality. Okay. Are we equal to God? No.

Are we not? Openness. Openness. Yes. You could say proximity.

You could say intimacy. Intimacy is not by the body goes to the sexual or physical senses, but it’s a very close proximity. Isn’t it? Like a heart to heart relationship. So is there any reference to this kind of relationship in our tradition also?

Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. Subrudam Sarvabhutaana.

Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. Subrudam Sarvabhutaana. That idea that God is our friend, this brings us a resonance of support and is a proximity or intimacy. And sometimes we may train our children, like how Krishna is a cowherd boy, Krishna goes and plays, and children may think of Krishna also as a how Krishna is that friend. And there’s a very there’s a great sweetness in the right.

So we don’t necessarily expect our friend to solve our problems, but we expect our friend to be with us, to be with us as we deal with challenges. So friendship is one metaphor. Let’s we’ll come back to these metaphors again. Any other metaphors? Servant.

Servant. So Krishna is our servant. Yeah. Krishna is our lord, our master. Now what does this this convey?

Obedience. Obedience. Yes. So whatever Krishna tells us, we need to obey this. So now this is not the most pleasant metaphor for most of us to conceive that, you know, why should I obey God?

That of okay. That God is the supreme authority. Yes. So that’s the same as master or lord. That means we have to obey him.

Now this metaphor, it can convey some resentment, especially if we have not encountered authorities who are very pleasant in our life. So the idea is that I experienced authority figures will not be very cordial. Then if, you know, it’s why so much being demanded from me? Do this, do this, do this, do this. So now that may not convey, some special emotion.

Let me come back to this metaphor. It’s an important metaphor. So because the first two metaphors, they are they are positive metaphors. And the third may be functionally right, philosophical is also right, but it’s maybe not the most pleasant metaphor. Krishna is our master, Krishna is our lord, Krishna is our authority.

Anything else? Guru and disciple. Guru and disciple. Yes. Krishna is the ultimate guru.

So we could use the word guru or guru also means guide. So what do we expect in this relationship? Yeah. I already hear that answer. So guidance.

So for example, we may want to hear, and if I want to do make some decisions in my life, what should I be doing at this time? So sometimes people may look for some signals, you know, or this indicate that I should do this, this indicate I should not do this. So we experience wisdom, we expect wisdom and guidance. Now we don’t expect the guru to necessarily be a magician who solves all problems. What do we expect is k.

So any other Okay. Forgiveness. So then what would be metaphor over there for that? What kind of relationship is it? Is it a judge?

A judge who does not judgment but use pardon. Yes. Something like that? Yes. Yes.

So we we may have done many wrong things. It’s a judge, but it’s like a pardoning or a forgiving judge. So then with that, the expectation is forgiveness actually. That, okay, I made some mistakes, but my dear lord, I beg forgiveness from you. Sometimes you may we may do some atonement.

We may do some extra practice, switching practices, something that, okay, I want to I want to express my my regret for what I did. But the idea is here, we expect forgiveness. It’s a good metaphor. Any other exam any other ideas of Like, bring your freedom, like, beloved, the way we look at your own creation. Yes.

That’s it. So that is there’s a lover and there’s the beloved lord. So it may be more in terms of the, see the most intense human relationship is the male female relationship. So that relationship is also seen as a metaphor for the relationship with God. And especially with Krishna, the highest love of Krishna is with whom?

With gopis. With gopis. Radha, I knew that of most gopis. The gopis, there is that relationship based on the principle of divine romance. So now in that relationship, because there’s a lot we have beloved, what do we expect?

Everything. Perfect. Everything? Okay. True.

That’s there. It’s, I mean, we come to the philosophical aspect even later. But from an experiential perspective, then normally when everything about romance, there was a romantic movie might be there. So essentially, what happens when there is a novel and a beloved? Stay together, spend time together.

Basically, it’s a okay. That’s after you get married. You expect that? I’m talking more at the romantic level. Love.

Love means but how is that love seen? It’s it’s selflessness. Objection. All of you in the right direction. Full of Basically, if you see lovers, what happens with them?

They’re lost in each other. Isn’t it? If you consider Mirabaya as a saint, it is absorption. When a person is absorbed in the other person, take loss to the world almost. We we are lost in the object of love.

That’s why the example of the gopis is whatever they are doing, actually the gopis don’t really expect a lot from Krishna. They whatever they do, they’re completely absorbed. Even when they churn butter and they have to go and sell butter, they are going to say butter. What is it? Butter, curd, but they saw also Krishna.

They are showing their way. They say Krishna, Krishna, go in the Madhaviti. So at the level of this, it’s we a person lost in the Lord. And that’s the example of the great saints. They may or may not be in the Madhaviras necessarily, but that’s also best metaphor where there is a person lost in the lord.

And this is one of the key differences between, say, a friendly relationship, a relationship of friendship, and a relationship of romance. And the the key difference is that the two friends, the friends face the world together hand in hand. But in a romantic relationship, the two people are looking at each other and the world is forgotten. So that’s a difference. Of course, eventually they have to face the world also.

But generally, in a romantic relationship, the focus is on they are lost to the world. The world becomes just fades into oblivion. That’s also one metaphor. And we could say that is that is a very elevated state of love. Now for us, we we as we may aspire to be at that level, but it is that we don’t get lost in the Lord.

Even that we are the where the Lord will get lost in the world. We will come to the temple and still we may remember, oh, you know, this politics has happened. This one has said like this to me, and that thing happened over there. Getting lost in the Lord, we we want that, but it’s a little far away from us. Okay.

Thank you. These are all very good metaphors. We’ll continue this discussion as we move forward. But any other metaphors before we move ahead? Surrender.

Sorry? Surrender. Surrender. Okay. So what would be the metaphor for that?

Is it same as parent and child, or you’re having some other metaphor? Yeah. I’m talking about your surrender is surrender is what we will do. So it’s like I’m talking about a relationship and the result of the relationship in terms of what we expect or what we do. So surrender is you’re talking about the second part of the relationship.

The surrender will be the end of the relationship, but then what would it be? What would the metaphor over this? Master. Ruler. Ruler.

Ruler. Master. Master. So then you could say obedience here can serve to surrender. Is that right?

Yeah. Now you could use that. There’s another metaphor which we may not use so often. It is like it is very much drawn from the vision of the Bhagavad Gita is that life is like a war, and Krishna is the commander. Krishna is the commander.

And what do we need to do? We need to surrender. So Krish now surrender to Krishna is not attacking us and we are raising our hand in surrender. That is not the point of surrender. Okay?

Surrender is we obey the order. There’s a higher plan over there. There’s a higher purpose over there. There is some especially if a war is going on, the war war is a serious business. There’s a lot at stake in the war.

And it’s important that the person that the that the the general is competent. Then the soldiers need to cooperate. Soldiers need to surrender. So now there’s one thing about this particular metaphor. This conveys a sense of shared mission.

Isn’t it? That the shared mission is a commander and a gen a soldier. They’re both working together. There’s a shared mission over there. Mhmm.

Any other metaphors? Krishna as ultimate goal and we are achiever. Krishna as the goal. Well, okay. That’s, it’s not a relational metaphor.

But it’s not it’s not that Krishna is only there at the end of the journey for us, isn’t it? The idea is we have a relationship with Krishna right now also. So later with this, I’ll just add one moment of her. That Krishna is like the doctors and then we are like the patient. Now what does the patient have to do?

Be patient. Well, yes and no. Patient has to be patient. What the patient is doing? If you talk with the doctor, we have to have cooperation.

The doctor is telling us do this kind of exercise, eat this kind of food, do this kind of activities. We need to cooperate. So the idea is different metaphors may inspire us or guide us or shelter us at different times. And here when Krishna is smiling and Arjuna is suffering, so why is Krishna smiling? Let’s look at the expanded up over here.

Who would like to read this? Who has the mic? You know the person who lectured or is the mic nice? Yes, please. Okay.

I was reading. Yes. Let me remember your smile amid my suffering as a sign of your confidence and confidence that you can tackle any and every problem no matter how gigantic it seems to me. Yes. Thank you.

That suppose, you know, person is, rushed to doctor. They got a swelling in their body and they think this is cancer. They’re scared to death because of that. They go to a doctor, and the doctor leaves reads the report, doctor talks, looks at them, doctor smiles. Now the smile of the doctor can mean the doctor doesn’t care, or the smile can also mean that the doctor is confident that this can be cured.

The doctor may stay calm and composed so to assure the patient that this is curable. And that is what the next verse in the Gita begins with. So Jiyogaswami in his commentary to the he’s not in the commentary, but in his comments on the Bhagavad Gita. So Dharwati says that the first word that Krishna speaks in the Gita, the first instructive word is in the second chapter eleventh verse and that is Oshochan. Oshochan is not worth lamenting, not worth worrying, not worth getting worded about.

And the last instructive word that Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita is ma shu jaha. Ma shu jaha is do not dwell. This is actually Krishna giving assurance that I have it. I can handle this. That this is not beyond my control.

I know how to handle this. So Krishna is assuring us, like, a doctor in the beginning may say that, oh, this is not worth worrying. The doctor makes me could heal the disease. This is the problem. This is how it has grown.

This is how it may grow in the future. This is how we plan to tackle this. These are treatments available and these treatments is how they will lead to recovery. And at the end, the doctor says, go to hell. So Krishna is that king of doctor.

So Ashok chan, not worth worrying. Not worth worrying, not worth getting worked up about. Finally finally it is, don’t worry. So in between Krishna will explain why not worth worrying, how not to worry or what to do about it So basically, how to deal with it. Those are the two main things that Krishna will explain in the Gita That whatever predicament we are facing facing, that it is not ultimately something which is devastating and not something to the end of the world.

Krishna is in control. Krishna can handle it. And that assurance now if you consider in, the metaphor of a doctor, there is the doctor’s competence. There’s a doctor’s confidence. It’s all important.

But even the best doctor cannot work without the cooperation of the patient. When the patient the doctor if the patient has got sick because of, say, alcoholism, they got liver problems, And the doctor says you will stop drinking. The patient says, oh, no. I can’t stop drinking. But you will die.

The patient says, right, you say, I die happy. Well, then the doctor will not be very happy with that answer. So the patient has to cooperate. But in this case, the cooperation is not simply that the doctor is the boss and you are doing it. The cooperation is for the good of the patient.

So similarly for us, when we are trying to develop our relationship with Krishna, there is this principle that we actually are also active. We also have to play our part. That’s why when I went back to this metaphor, this this other diagram, let you know that in these four quadrants, faith is that Krishna is a competent doctor. And intelligence is, I have a part to play. Let me play my part.

So when we understand these two things that Krishna is in charge, Krishna has a plan for my life. I’m not just all alone struggling in this world. But along with that, I have to play my part. So to play my part, I need to play it as well as I can. If I’m a parent, I need to be the best friend that I can be.

If I’m a professional, I need to be the best professional that I can be. Arjuna was an archangel, and Arjuna had to use all the archari expertise that he had acquired throughout his life in the final war that he fought for the service of Krishna. So our intelligence, our ability, even our individuality is not sub is not rejected. It is not suppressed. It all is meant to be utilized.

So that, the human endeavor and the learning plan, they both work together. So now if we look at this particular metaphor, not this particular diagram, let’s look at the other quadrants. So if we have neither we are neither using our intelligence nor do we have faith in the divine plan, What will happen? Yeah. Actually, we’ll not be stuck.

We’ll be stuck definitely. We’ll be stuck and we’ll be stuck. We’ll see. Problems will keep worsening in our life. Say somebody is somebody is addicted.

Oh, there’s there’s no God, no no meaning to life, ultimately. Many of these big atheistic philosophers were there. Most of them couldn’t function without drinking heavily. You know life was so unbearably empty for them. They were brilliant at an intellectual level but life was empty for them.

So here it’s like we are in a dark place and we are going to go in a darker place. So this is this is among the four patterns you could say, this is the worst situation to be in. In. Why the worst situation over here? Here we will become practically hopeless.

Mhmm. We’ll become that. Okay. Sooner or later we’ll become hopeless. Because there’s no higher plan, there’s no purpose to my life, and why should I care?

I also don’t care. I also act like this. We all have probably known people who have, by their own actions, made their life worse. Maybe they got into unhealthy habits. Maybe they get into unnecessary fights.

Maybe they just, get into negativity unnecessarily. Now sometimes we may ask ourselves have lived in this quadrant also. But the point is, this is the worst situation to be in. And a person like, sometimes we ask me, what are you thinking? And they do something rash, and somebody has a good amount of money, where they need some money, and they invest in Ponzi some Ponzi scheme.

You double your money in six months. Their money doesn’t get doubled in six months. Their money disappears in half a in in three months. So what were you thinking when you invested your money like this? So the point is we are asking that question is electronically.

That is you’re not thinking. So we all have experience of people who will break their own laws. So this is a quadrant we don’t want to be in. Now what if the first quadrant, what would be our situation over there? If we’re using our intelligence, but we don’t have faith any faith that there’s a divine plan.

What do you think will happen? Pride. You will risk the falling out. Yes. So on one side, as long as things are going positive for us, we will become prideful.

Isn’t it? That we will, yeah, I am doing so much. I have achieved so much. But it’s not that life will always be good. When life starts going down, we will become very resentful.

I worked so much, I did so much, why are things not working out for me? Why did everything go wrong? So this is extreme positive, I am so great, My life is so terrible. That’s why we’ll have this wild, wild oscillation. So now if we have if we have only faith that is a divine plan, but we are not using our intelligence, we are not making our endeavor, then what will happen?

We will not succeed. We will not succeed. Yes. That is true. We may become reckless.

In the name of bhakti, in the name of faith, we will become careless. We will become reckless. Now this is not healthy. Now when there are very great saints who do not care for the world, but they actually do not care for the world because they care so much for God. In our case, it’s not that we care so much for God.

It’s just that we don’t want to take trouble of dealing with the world. Then if you’re not putting an eye on the river, if you say Shri La Prabhupada, and then you’re 70, he traveled all alone to come to America. And the amount of endeavor he put in, every single day he would be he barely sleeps two, three hours, he would be writing his books, talking with people, he would be extremely hard. So this certainly, it’s not it’s not that only Bhakti means no endeavor. We it is best that we have our endeavor and we have God’s plan.

So what will happen by this is we will be faithful, actually because there is faith, and we will also be using our intelligence. So this is what the place where we will be purposeful. That my life always has a purpose. My life always even if my particular plan is not working, Krishna, but you have a plan, And your plan is working even when my plan is not working. So with our intelligence, we will make our plans, and we’ll try to do the best we can.

But we understand that even when my plan doesn’t work, Krishna’s plan will be working. So we will be hopeful. We will go to school. We will never become resentful. We will not become prideful.

So we play our part, and we know that Krishna will be playing his part. So this purposeful, what does it mean over here? Then we understand that, okay, there’s a doctor who is treating me. The doctor is competent. I have confidence.

Then, okay, this is the kind of food I want to eat. This is the this is the kind of things I will not do. We will also be playing our part. We will be purposeful. And being purposeful in this way, what does this mean?

We’ll talk about this more in tomorrow’s session. I’ll make one last point over here about what is the nature of the state when we are purposeful in Krishna’s service. What it means is that we use our intelligence, and we work diligently. We make our plans. We we observe ourselves.

You see, what are what are the gifts that I have? What are the talents that I have? What are the place I have? And we’ll talk about all this more tomorrow. But in this situation, what will happen to us is that we will have our plans.

We’ll hold our plans. But do you understand that there is Krishna and he has plans? We hold our plans lightly, and we hold our Lord tightly. Unfortunately, sometimes even when we practice bhakti, we may come to a temple, we may practice bhakti, we may chant the holy names, but what happens is we hold our plans tightly. And because we hold our plans tightly and the plan don’t work, then what happens is, I hold our light we hold our light lightly.

That we don’t want these two things to happen. That we hold our plans lightly. We hold our lord tightly. And hold our plan lightly means we make we do our endeavor. We we plan and try to the best of our capacity.

At the same time, if my plan is not working, that does not mean nothing is working. Even when my plan is not working, Krishna’s plan is working. And with that understanding, we can go through the most difficult of situations in life. Where our intelligence is work can work, we use our intelligence to make things work. But where our intelligence is at work, we don’t lose hope.

We keep we keep moving forward. We keep how to move forward, how to how to hold our plans, and how to hold out all, that will be the topic of the discussion tomorrow. Let’s look at the last sentence, last paragraph over here. Who would like to read this? Yes, please.

You’re ready once, is it? You’re ready once? Yes, please. May your smiling face, oh lord, never reduce my faith in your magnanimity. Let it always reinforce my faith in your capability.

Yeah. So the Lord is smiling, and the Lord is dancing, and the Lord seems to be happy. That is not that the Lord doesn’t care. It’s not that he’s not magnanimous. It is that he is con he’s capable, and he’s confident of his capability.

That Krishna has things under control. Even when things seem to be widely veering out of control for us, Krishna has things in control. Krishna’s plan is still working. That understanding can give us faith in all situations even when our intelligence and our plan doesn’t work. So I’ll summarize what I discussed today.

The topic was finding strength in hard times. So when we talk about this theme of finding strength in hard times, today was the first part. We continue the second part tomorrow, But the first part, I discussed about how normally we turn towards when do we turn towards God? It is when life becomes tough. Normally, we are caught in the world.

What I do in the world and what the world does to me. But when these both of them seems to be not good, that’s when we turn towards God. So we turn generally, we turn towards God in times of need. So in these times of need, when we turn towards God, we turn with a certain expectation, and expectation is based on the metaphor. The metaphor for our relationship or rather metaphor for our conception of our relationship with God.

So we discussed many metaphors. Right. Can you remember the metaphors? One was the parent, then authority, then friend. Here are the metaphors.

Yeah. Last metaphor. Doctor. Judge. Judge.

Judge. Commander. Lover. Master. Master of probably friend.

Teacher. Teacher, guide. And the last metaphor we discussed was? Doctor. Doctor.

Now each of these metaphors has their value. Each of these metaphors is important in their own being. And the the the each metaphor will set a particular expectation from God. The vision of the Bhagavad Gita is that at the end we discussed how Krishna is actually asking Arjuna to raise his weapons and fight. So the Gita’s conclusion so the Gita’s mood or the Gita’s metaphor is is actually that both come together.

That there is the human endeavor that is our intelligence. I mean, the intelligence, we are ability. We humans are meant to make an endeavor. And it’s also that there is faith. Faith that there is a divine plan that I am not lost in life.

It’s not just I alone trying to struggle in face life. So the Gita’s this fourth quadrant is where the Gita wants us to be. Eighteen seventeen doctor, which is where we can be purposeful in our life. And now if we have neither, we’re not using our ability nor we’ve held faith, then we’ll be hopeless. We’ll be in that situation, we’ll be darker.

If we are having a an intelligence and doing our endeavor, but not we don’t have faith and higher time, what will happen? Do you remember this? Right. Yes. You either become prideful or yes.

If things don’t work out, we’ll become resentful. If we have only faith, but we’re not doing our part, then we’ll be Scratchless. Yes. We’ll be careless. We’ll be careless.

In the name of faith, we’ll maybe become negligent of our part. So we want to be purposeful. And this purposefulness what is the basis of this purposefulness? There’s one sentence that conveyed that. Hold our plans.

Yes. We make our plans. We do our endeavor. We hold our plan lightly. We hold our Lord tightly.

So this is the essence of Mahdi that in many ways you wanna put in this way, our sadhana, that is how we hold our Lord tightly. And the rest of our life, everything that we do, we we may have some seva in the temple, we have responsibilities, we have a professional responsibilities. We do our part diligent. When I say lightly, that doesn’t mean careless. We’re still holding on to that.

But lightly means it’s more in comparison. We don’t hold on to our plans in the world more tightly than we hold on to the Lord. So if we have this vision, our intelligence is important, but faith in Krishna is just as important, in fact, very important. So we hold on to our Lord tightly while we hold our make our plans, we hold our plans tightly. So how to do that, that we’ll discuss in tomorrow’s session.

Let’s conclude by offering this prayer once again. This last or the starting place you offered. My dear Lord. My dear Lord. Let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith not weaken it.

Thank you very much. Do you have time for questions? Are there any questions or comments? Thank you so much for, you know, this enlightening class. I have a question, take for this topic, today’s topic.

You know, most of the work is present here in this congregation, from, from India and India’s economy. Now, you know, the the the the recent events have made us all very uneasy in the sense that, you know, there there is this feeling that, as if the whole world is turned against us. You know, how do we tackle this stuff like this? The feeling that the whole world has turned against us. I think the only reason is India knows geopolitically rising now.

India is, if nobody considers us to be a threat, then is that a good thing? Maybe it is but maybe it is that nobody considers us a human. Yogi. Yes. So that’s also a possibility.

In general, for each one of us, then the Gita talks about our swadharma. Each one of us has a part to play. In the swadharma in the loka sandhara. Loka sandhara is the maintenance of the world. So our each one of us plays a role.

Now some of us some rules may become more prominent at certain times. So for example, if somebody is in disaster prevention and normal times, okay, that’s just one department. But when a disaster strikes, their role will become the most important. Somebody, the doctor, yeah, their role is normally important, but if there’s a pandemic, their role becomes even more important. So soldiers, their role is very important.

But when there is a war, their role becomes even more important. So sometimes in the in the way the world moves, the importance of certain roles becomes very evident. But in a normal course of life, you know, we all have a tendency to devalue the rules that we are playing. So it’s important for us that to recognize that every one of us has a part to play. And whatever be our whatever be our sphere of influence, Each one of us around us has a Kshetra.

Kshetra is our sphere of influence. Some people may have a huge Kshetra. Say somebody is a billionaire who who funds political parties, they have much bigger. Somebody who’s the head of state of a country, they have much bigger. Our will be small.

But a small kshetra does not mean it’s worthless. That does not mean it’s insignificant. So we do our best in the kshetra that we are in. So generally speaking, in the world, as I said, there is so another way of putting these two things, there is intelligence and there is faith. So another way of understanding this is there is Shakti and there is Bhakti.

So Hanuman ji, he has hands that are folded. That indicates his Bhakti. But in those folded hands, he has a mace. That is Shakti. So both these are required in life.

So for every one of us, whatever be the role we are playing right now, if we learn to play it more competently, we become more responsible, we become more diligent, we become more successful, then our kshatriya will increase. Now rather than worrying about too much about what is happening in somebody else’s kshatriya, we need to focus on our kshatriya. Now, of course, if you can contribute to somebody who is in the Akshaytra where a lot of things are happening, we should contribute. So, for example, you know, one way, Indians outside India can contribute is that Indians, certainly outside India, are respected as successful, responsible citizens. So there are various ways in which the advocacy groups can be formed.

We can basically like, when you say the world has turned against us. You know? Okay. Maybe the world has turned against us, but are we telling our side of the story? Is it simply because somebody is telling our story and we’re not telling our story at all?

So it’s our responsibility that we also share our side of the story. Not in an aggressive way, not in a judgmental way. So in general, in Tamoguna and there are three I’ll just go to answer one last point that whenever there is a problem, there are there are three gunas. There is satua, there is Rajas, and there is Tamas. So in Tamas, whenever there’s a problem, we focus that I’m a victim.

Oh, life is so bad to me. Things are so so many bad things are happening to me. In Tamas, the focus goes on on being a victim. In Rajas, the focus goes on finding a villain. That it’s not not just I’m a victim.

Right. Who is the person who is who is messed up with my life? Who has ruled my life? I will redeem this person. So Rajas and Tamas are very related.

Because if the villain is too powerful, then again we go down to the victim. Mhmm. But it is the mind gets caught induced to this. Somebody out there is hurting me. Oh, I’m so I’m in so much pain.

I’m hurt so much. Is it possible that we could be a victim? Of course. Sometimes life victimizes us. Sometimes people victimizes us.

Is it possible that there could be villains out there? Of course. It’s possible. But the point is, it is when we fixate on those things, that’s when life becomes unnecessarily dark. We we cannot afford to fixate on those things.

So what we fixate on? Now when we are in sattva, we try to cultivate a vision. Vision, we got all over the place. What is actually happening? What is in my control?

What can I do? What can I not do? This is the. Not that we don’t care for the result, but we don’t fix it on the results. What is the vision where I can do some things?

There are certain things which I can do and let me do those things. So the vision that inspires us to action. Action is a concrete action. Now beyond this, of course, there’s the Shuddha Satva. Shrutta Satva is the level of bhakti where we focus on Krishna as the supreme victor.

Krishna is a victor and the message of the Bhagavad Gita is not just that Krishna is the supreme hero. The message of the Gita is that in the service of the supreme hero, each one of us is also meant to become a hero. Krishna wanted Arjuna to fight and get the glory. So Krishna wants us also to do that. So we may or may not get glory in the world’s eyes.

Not everybody can get that. But we all can play our part, and that we consider valuable by Krishna in his service. So see what we can do and focus on doing that. Thank you. Correction, Raul.

You start your class with three words. Life is tough. Yeah. My question is, is life is tough? Is it subjective?

The third part of it is, is it with our intelligence we can pass through these things? Because, yeah, I think I I have completed my question. Okay. Question to you. Yeah.

So is life really tough or is it a matter of subjectivity? Well, as I said, subjectivity is definitely part of it. You remember I talked about how, sometimes the problem might be small, but our mind can make it very big. So our mind is here. My computer is making a small problem big now.

Okay. This is my mind. That could be a big problem that can become small in my mind. And that is a small problem that can become big in my mind. So the idea is that, there is a subjective element to it.

No doubt. But beyond the subjective element, there’s objective reality also. If, for example, the temperature is is very low. One time I was in Washington. I woke up very early.

I wanted to do my mantra chanting. So I woke up, looked at the temperature. It was 14 degrees. Okay. I’ll go out for a walk and I’ll chant.

I’m free of up to 15. But I’ll do I’ll go out for a walk and I’ll chant. So I’ll chant again and I found that within a few minutes, my fingers were freezing, the steam coming from my mouth. I had gone a little distance away from the temple. And I was wrong.

I mean, there’s not 40 degree effect. And I looked at my temple, looked at my phone, somehow I had opened up. I was busy. I had forgot I had forgotten I had not looked at the minus sun. So it is minus 40 degrees.

So the point is that is it a matter of subjectivity? No. It’s objective. The 14 degree experience and minus 14 degree experience is gonna be really different. Neither.

When there is cold, somebody can make their objective reality subject to you also worse. Oh, it’s so cold. It’s so cold. It’s so cold. It’s so cold.

They can keep complaining about it. And then people around them will say, oh, what you’re saying is so old, so old, so old. Get over it now. Learn to live with it. So, yes, there is a sub there’s a subjective element with undoubtedly, and we can try to minimize it.

But but you see, everything is subjective. That is not reality. There is an objective reality. We do grow old. And sometimes in sports, people may say that, oh, age is just a number.

That age is just a number, but that number has our number, basically. So as of now, you may say, naturally today you’re 40. Some tennis player, some cricket player, it’s performed spectacular. We appreciate that because that’s extraordinary. And in that, actually, the 40 might do very well, but that won’t be as actually, it’s not as suitable as when they’re 20 or 25 or 30.

So there is objective reality. So when we’re dealing with the pain problem of pain in life, there are two extremes. One is to consider it entire only objective. I’m suffering so much in life and my life is so objectively somebody who’s living, say, in a very comfortable, comfortable house as compared to somebody who’s living in a maybe in somebody living in a tent. The object there’s a huge difference, but you know, is it only objective?

There were 10 people living in a tent and their states of mind are different. So pain is not only objective, the other is to make it only subject. So in general, the western approach to some extent has been to focus only on the objective side of pain. The idea was through science and technology, we’ll make so much progress. We will we’ll remove all discomforts in life.

And we have succeeded spectacularly. We have got comforts and conveniences now that we can’t imagine at all. Or at least people fifty years ago could not have imagined that that we’re not available even for royalty fifty to a hundred years ago. So the western approach is make all suffering only objective and remove that suffering. But you know, despite having spectacular amount of comforts, what is the result?

No. We are we are comfortably there’s a huge amount of comfort in the western world, but we are comfortably miserable. Why? Because when the objective level has been addressed, the subjective level has been neglected. The subjective level has become far worse.

Now on the other hand, in the eastern thought, especially to some extent, the Indian thought, suffering was all considered subjectivity. And that led to objective level reality deteriorating. And anyway, simplified analysis over here. Yeah. It’s that there are so many invaders who came and conquered India.

And when that happened, often the attitude of all the warriors, but many of them, all this world, ultimately Maya, these things keep happening over here. It will go beyond the world. No. But when Maya, Krishna comes to establish Dharma in the world of Maya. When you consider all suffering to be only subjective, it’s all the state of the mind.

And just live with it, tolerate it, transcend it. No, that can make us subject to unnecessary object to suffering. So what is the understanding? That there is an objective level to suffering and there is a subjective level to suffering. So subjective level of suffering will be by by strengthening our mind, by purifying our mind, and it’s definitely required.

But along with that, Dharmaya is also about making social arrangements, particular arrangements. So the objective level both have to be addressed. When Krishna comes to the world, now for example, Sita has abducted by Rama. Rama doesn’t think, you know, it’s all subjective. Whether he’s with me or he’s with Rama, it doesn’t matter.

Krishna doesn’t tell when he comes signs for executing people. See, you know, it’s all. Everything is a play of the mind. Whether you are in a prison or whether you’re in a palace, it doesn’t make any difference. This is what is a play of the mind.

Krishna comes to fix things in a physical level also. But, of course, we cannot fix things permanently at the physical. They will get unfixed. That’s why for us, the objective when you say objective is the physical level. Subjective is the mental level.

It is for us, we want to fix things at the objective and the subjective levels, but fourth are for for ultimately raising ourselves to spiritual. So as much as we can, we try to fix something at the objective level. As much as we can, we try to fix something at the mental at the subject to mental level. But ultimately, we have to rise to the spiritual. Okay?

What is the root cause of life is tough? That is a tough question. Well, in India, we have this service called IAS. It’s a very tough sir task task exam, the buzz. So basically, the suffering in life falls in three categories.

There is suffering, which is inevitable. It is just the nature of the world. For example, jen mum tu jaravyadhi, the khadoshan darshan, which talks about in 13.8 to 12, that these are just inevitable. Everybody will have to grow old. Everybody will get deceased.

We’re not the same disease, but everybody will have will be deceased sooner or later. There is inevitable suffering, and that is just the nature of the world material. So we are spiritual beings. We are caught in the material world. And because of that, there is some suffering you just have to accept.

Like a patient is sick, you know, whether you are in the hand of a good doctor or a bad doctor, there is some suffering there is unavoidable till the disease is cured. So that’s one level of suffering. The other is avoidable suffering. Avoidable is more self created suffering. Krishna says, for example, five twenty two, So for example, somebody becomes an alcoholic, drinks and becomes an alcoholic, and then they suffer various problems.

That is self created suffering. That is something which we should avoid. That is that cannot be called as a part of life’s toughness. That is our our foolishness and not life’s darkness. Then there is suffering that is strengthening.

There is suffering that helps us become a better person. There is suffering that helps form our character. This is what Krishna talks about in eighteen thirty seven in the Bhagavad Gita. This is That which is in the beginning like poison will eventually become like nature. So this is so for example, if somebody wants to become healthy, they wanna become fit, and they have to do their photogement to work, that is that is suffering, but it’s good.

Somebody wants to learn a new language. It’s difficult. But after that, a whole new universe will open for them. Similarly, when we try to go to school, we try to fix our mind in Krishna, we try to develop our Krishna, sadhana. That’s tough.

But in that toughness, we accept so that we can become we can rise to a better place. We can become better. So it’s like, with this particular disease, you’re sick. Some problems are inevitable. Some pain is inevitable.

But if somebody is diabetic and they eat a lot of sweets and their insulin level spikes away, that is avoidable suffering. That they need to avoid. But if somebody is diabetic and they need to change their taste, so then that is developing a different taste that is strengthening suffering. So there are different kinds of sufferings and depending on what the source of suffering is, what the start of what the suffering is, we need to address it accordingly. K?

Yeah. Yes. And that’s it then. Let’s give her a round of applause. Thank you, David.

Okay. And, actually, tomorrow will be the next program, but it will be home program. And, will give us some details about the home program tomorrow with, Chitanisha. Yeah. Yeah.

So I’ll just talk about two things. First is about tomorrow’s program. So I’ll be talking about two main things there. You know, how do what is needed to make our plans, and how do we make our plans? What does that mean practically?

So I need a question about our somehow and also dharma, our nature, understanding our gifts, and how do we use our gifts in Krishna service. So how do we maximize our Shakti? That will be one part of session. And then how do we maximize our Bhakti? How do we strengthen our faith?

So both these aspects, we’ll be discussing tomorrow’s session. So one is self observation. Look inward. Look inward and look outward to see how we can make our maximum contribution and then look upward to see how we can play a part in Krishna’s plan. So I’ll end it up.

Today was a little more analytical philosophy in the session. But tomorrow, we’ll discuss you something from the Maha from Mahabharata. We’ll look at how the Pandavas, their lives emerged. So that’ll be in tomorrow’s session. I already talked about this book, prayers inspired by the Bhagavad Gita.

So there are 122 prayers over here. Let me have open book. So basically, for me, the Gita’s verses are not just, sources of wisdom that many other years ago, like friends for me, personal friends who we turn to. Like, you wanna know our our friends in different context so that we get to know them better. So through this in the chapter I have in this book, I have broken it down as sources of prayer, and there are 122 prayers with each prayer is like a spiritual accommodation.

So there are prayers when we are feeling lost in directionless. There are prayers when we are in great pain. There are prayers when we are, feeling our cravings arising and becoming unbearable, a pair. There are prayers when we feel lonely or misunderstood. So many devotees have told me that this also helps them in their chanting Because this before they do a mantra chanting, just look at one prayer, whatever Krishna read, one affirmation, and read the prayer.

So this is one book that is available prayers inspired by Bhagavad Gita. And the other is? 7,030 books, but I’ve got two new books this time. This is Gita for the CEO. Nowadays, there is a lot of interest in the corporate world for wisdom from ancient times that can be relevant today.

So from Greek, stoicism is very popular. The daily stoicism is quite widely known. From Japan, IKIGAI is quite becoming well known. Hyperboleth are the biggest publishers in the world. So they asked me to write on the Bhagavad Gita.

So like I was drawing some simple diagrams. So there are many places where there are conceptographics explaining the concepts of the Gita. And I have presented this as a conversation. The Gita originally is a conversation, but this present is a conversation between two people. One who knows the data and one who knows wants to know the data.

Both of them are concrete leaders. And this is not just a book for CEOs. It is book for anyone who has a new leadership role role formal. So it’s also a good book that you may want to give to your friends or colleagues who may not hate to be ready to read the guitar directly or connect with it. So they this might trigger this mutual curiosity.

Both these books are available, and there are 10 principles in this data for CEO. Now how to learn to be more mindful. Today, what much of much of what I discussed, I discussed more on the emotional frame today. But that life determines our problems. We determine their side as a chapter by that title.

So then how our perspective can be changed by spiritual wisdom that’s explained. And then how also if you tap the power of speech, we all feel why don’t people listen to me when I tell them some good things? So how to discipline our speech is the whole chapter on that words, shape words, Watch your words. Rather than 10 practical and empowering principles. So both these books will be here.

Thank you very much.

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Transcript

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that truth which everybody from any part of the world will agree with can be summarised in three words life is tough whatever we do whoever we will be life is not easy life is difficult and when we face the difficulties of life if we are of a theistic bend of mind if we accept the idea of God then that naturally raises the question so when I am going through difficulties when my life is tough what is God doing does God care will God help me the question will naturally come and this is the question that Arjuna also has at the start of the Bhagavad Gita the book yet you hold is a book of prayers inspired by the Bhagavad Gita so there was one young man he was born in a devotee family and he grew up and he was telling me that I don’t like to go to the temple can you move away a little bit yes is this better can you hear me so this boy he told me he had grown up in a devotee family and his parents used to go to the temple he said I don’t like to go to the temple it happens to many people as they go into teenage they become rebellious they want to explore the world so I asked him gently what is the reason you don’t like to go to the temple so he said I have so many troubles in my life but when I go to the temple Krishna is always smiling he says does Krishna even care for me so I feel as if Krishna lives in a different world I live in a different world so the world of bhakti has got nothing to do with my real world and that’s why I don’t feel it is relevant at all so I gave an answer to him at that time but then later on when I was writing this book so I was reading this particular verse and it struck me that here Arjuna is crying Arjuna is in tears he is so confused he is so overwhelmed Arjuna is in tears Krishna is smiling so this book is basically I have taken the verses of the Gita and we can see them as sources of wisdom but we can also see them as the words of Krishna which can inspire devotion and devotional prayers within our hearts so I request some of us some of you to read the prayers read aloud if you have a second mic we can use that otherwise those of you who have a mic inside your throat you can use that to speak loudly but let us begin you have the book there but you also have it displayed over here so you can repeat after me my dear lord my dear lord let your smiling let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith strengthen my faith not weaken it not weaken it so here those of you who are comfortable you can recite the words after me TAMUVACHARISHIKESHA TAMUVACHARISHIKESHA PRAHASANYIVABHARATHA PRAHASANYIVABHARATHA SENAYORUBHAYORMANHE SENAYORUBHAYORMANHE HISHIDHANTAMITAMVACHAHAN HISHIDHANTAMITAMVACHAN HISHIDHANTAMITAMVACHAN so here to give a more devotional connect with the Gita as a song of God I have tried to translate the Gita’s verses into English poetry the lord of the senses spoke with a gentle grace a knowing smile playing upon his divine face between the armies standing calm and bright he soliced Archana who was lamenting his plight so let us who would like to read these lines oh my lord many are the times when I feel lost and think of life at those times when nothing I do seems to be perfect I cannot help but wonder do you oh lord know my plight thank you so now for most of us when we go through life I use this a little bit for writing and drawing a few things so if we are facing life normally if we are here and our focus is on the world in front of us we do certain things here and certain things happen to us and that’s what life is primarily about or so we think now when either what we are doing is not good enough I just put it not good or what happens to us is not good at that time we start getting questions what is going on over here that is the time we may look upward beyond this world we may look upward towards Krishna then we may start looking upward and normally when we turn to someone for help if we are sick and we go to a doctor now one thing we want to know say if we are heart is broken because of something emotional thing and we go to talk with some therapist or talk with some friend or relative at that time one thing we naturally look for is is that person actually concerned so similarly when we come to Krishna that question will naturally come that is Krishna concerned about it so when we look upwards in general in life to deal with difficulties Krishna towards the conclusion of the Gita calls for faith but he also calls for intelligence he tells Arjuna in 1863 use your intelligence use your intelligence intelligence refers to whatever ability we have whatever skill we have use that but Krishna also says so broadly speaking everything I speak today will be centred on this four quadrant diagram that on one side is intelligence by intelligence I am referring not just to say IQ I am referring to the use of whatever resources we have so it could be each of us particular abilities software, medicine, music so we use our intelligence and then there is faith the Gita’s message is that we actually need to have both so intelligence is about the human effort this is we play our part and faith is about the divine plan that whatever is happening in my life there is some higher plan of it so the human effort and the divine plan so if you consider this four quadrants over here first there is if you consider this four quadrants moving from the right bottom and we go clockwise upward so which is the best quadrant here to be situated in you think there is human there is faith there is a divine plan and there is endeavour we are using our intelligence to put in our effort so which is the best place to be situated in which quadrant among these fourth quadrant fourth quadrant this is the we could say best why is the best it is not displayed properly writing is not clear ok so now if you consider the end of the Bhagavad Gita there is an image it says that where there is Krishna the supremistic and where there is Arjuna the great archer there there will be victory there will be glory, morality there will be opulence so now it is interesting what the Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion is at one level we can say wherever there is God there is victory Krishna God is considered to be Lakshmipati so wherever he is there the goddess of fortune will be there so why does the Gita have to mention Arjuna over there the Gita says wherever there is Krishna there will be victory but it says where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna there will be victory because the point is the Gita’s focus is not just to glorify God the Gita’s focus is not just to proclaim that God is great it is not just to proclaim God’s position but it is also to transform man’s disposition that yes God is great God’s plan is there, God will work therefore we should work with God that’s why Krishna and Arjuna are together so that’s why the end of the Gita is describing last verse of the Gita is describing this level where there is Arjuna who has raised his bow in readiness to fight that means he is ready to do his endeavour at the start of the Gita he had put aside his bow saying I will not fight by the end of the Gita he has lifted up his bow in readiness to fight and Krishna is there also therefore at the end of the Gita both these points are there Arjuna is ready to endeavour and Krishna has a plan, Krishna is described as Yogeshwara he is a mysterious lord he will work in ways that we can’t figure out that’s why Yogeshwara is the lord of mysticism the lord who can do miraculous things that lord is also there so we will come back to this particular part but anyone else like to read we will go on the two books and we will have one more yes if you do know my suffering then why do you not step forward to stop it if instead of stepping forward to help me I came to know that in those moments you were smiling when I was suffering oh lord how would I be able to maintain my devotion to you yes so now the question comes that this boy was asking that if we are going through trouble devastating problems in life and if you come to know Krishna he is smiling in that question comes what kind of person is he what kind of god is he actually that’s what Krishna is doing over it Arjuna is in tears if you consider this is 2.10 in the Bhagavad Gita and this is where Arjuna is Krishna is smiling but if you look at the verses before the first verse 2.1 is tam tatha krupaya vishyam ashnu purna ashnu purna Arjuna is in tears Arjuna is crying so and there is no description that Arjuna has become calm and composed Arjuna is still speaking amid his tears he is still speaking he is trying to make his point but Arjuna is definitely broken down it is odd that suddenly his mood has changed so while Arjuna is in tears how is it that Krishna is smiling so sometimes as I said life is tough but what makes it more difficult there is distress there is pain in life the distress often has degrees to it any kind of pain is a problem but if the pain is unfair pain that means that we haven’t done anything wrong and still we are suffering that becomes very difficult to bear on top of that if there is unfair pain that we alone are suffering that feels most unfair so the nature of the mind is that whatever problems we face the problems we can’t remove them from our life they are going to come to everyone however based on how our mind perceives the problems the Gita explains that the mind is like a screen inside us which is the soul the mind is in between and then we have the body the body the mind and the soul so this is like a computer system in which we have the hardware that is the body the software that is the mind and the soul is the user so now whatever happens in the outer world that is experienced through the body but eventually it is experienced at the level of the mind and sometimes an event may be tiny over here but when it reaches the mind it can become huge it will completely occupy our mind and conversely sometimes an event may be huge in the outer world but when it comes here it can become tiny what does that mean that life determines our problems but our mind determines the size of the problems life determines our problems we don’t control the size of the events out there we all have probably noticed that sometimes if we are in a good mood and if somebody does something a little annoying if we are in a cheerful mood we feel a little annoyed we say we are supposed to meet somebody at a particular time and we had a good day and that person has come a little late a little annoying these things happen but suppose we have had a hard day and our mind is already disturbed our mind is already irritated and then somebody is supposed to come and they come late what happens when we finally see that person is coming late we feel as if that person has committed a crime worth capital punishment because the mind can make something small very big how he got the realisation that his mind was his enemy that’s what made him start searching for spirituality so he said that whenever he would go to a restaurant to eat food if it is a restaurant let’s say 100 seats he could not select the seat without having checked out all the 100 seats he said I don’t overthink I am just thorough but there is thoroughness and there is just you can be thorough about pretty small things also which can make us petty but then he realised that at one time he went to a restaurant and the previous time he had sat in a particular seat and he just couldn’t sit on that seat because somebody else was occupying that and he just went to the restaurant and it was his favourite delicacy and ordered but he said it was like a cheesecake it was a cupcake and it tasted like chocolate powder he was wondering why it was good how was it tasty he said it was good then he said that small thing and I couldn’t sit on a particular seat that can make a person extremely angry the mind is such that it can just make small things very big I was in Australia one young man came to me and he said that he was complaining about another person constantly and then I told him with all due respect generally if anybody starts a sentence with all due respect that means whatever they want to speak afterward is not going to be very respectful so I said with all due respect it sounds like you are jealous of that person he said of course not I am not jealous I am just extremely unhappy that bad things are happening to me and good things are happening to him and sometimes people are so spectacularly self unaware that is the textbook definition of jealousy isn’t it so sometimes something bad has happened to me that is a problem but good has happened to that person that is a bigger problem so the point is that the mind can make small things big and big things small so for all of us if we are very much controlled by our mind then problems can be small problems can be made very very big and this is especially in relationships if you start feeling that the other person is not taking you seriously then what happens you can get irritated lets say we are disturbed about something and we go and tell someone and that person just says calm down why are you so disturbed about it and first we were disturbed about what happened and now we are disturbed that the other person is not disturbed isn’t it so quite often it is other people’s reactions that can make small things big and big things small and now how does this why am I talking about all this right now how does this play in our bhakti, in our relationship with Krishna so something is a big thing for us and if in our relationship with Krishna we feel Krishna does he care for us also if whatever is a big thing for us is not a big thing at all for Krishna Krishna doesn’t care for this thing Krishna doesn’t care for me Krishna doesn’t care for me why should I care for him that can be a question that can be a question I was when I was introduced to bhakti about 30 years ago I started talking about it to all my friends, relatives and one uncle of mine he said to me that God and I, we have a very good relationship I said really I never heard him do anything connected with God he never talked about God with me he said what is the nature of this good relationship I asked he said mutual non interference he is happy there I am happy here now the problem is that whether God is happy there or not we do not know yes he is happy there but we won’t always stay happy we will have difficulties and then at that time we will want God to interfere and God doesn’t seem to care what am I doing over here why am I even practising bhakti so this is when Krishna is smiling and Arjuna while Arjuna is crying naturally Arjuna will have questions can we continue yes please yes please wait yes so Krishna so now Krishna is all knowing that means Krishna also knows our pain lets read this sentence together you know my pain my dear lord you know my pain you feel my pain and you want to heal my pain so Krishna is within our hearts he is closer than the closest person to us can be even if that person holds in the rightest of hearts Krishna is inside us he is close to us and when we are going through suffering it is not that Krishna is somewhere up there sending that suffering Krishna is with us to give us strength to deal with that suffering to go through that suffering and to grow through that suffering so Krishna wants to heal our pain now there are many different metaphors we may use to understand various concepts so if we consider our relationship with god what is the prominent metaphor in terms of how do we compare or conceive that relationship so if we consider relationship with god so in the for example if we consider the christian tradition what is the primary way god is addressed father lord, father so our father, thou art in heaven give us our daily bread so the metaphor of a parent, there is one metaphor now generally when you consider the metaphor of a parent what is the each metaphor that we have it sets up a certain conception and certain expectations so if our relationship with Krishna with god, in our tradition we know god as Krishna so one could be that as a father child as a parent child what does the parent child relationship primarily convey what is the when you think of a parent and a child what is the dynamic of the relationship that comes in its interesting dependence if your parents have loved you unconditionally you are very fortunate you know you have I was talking about a boy he was a young adult actually so he was telling me that I was staying at their place he was driving me to his programmes here in America a few years ago so he said to me I feel as if my parents don’t love me at all he said I have been with your parents I have seen them interact with you they talk about you with me and they care for you a lot he says they love a future version of me and they are simply tolerating me till that future version comes sometimes we may also think that our relationship with God is like that that God will love a future version of me who is a pure devotee and till then the way I am conditioned God is simply tolerating me well it’s not like that God loves who we are and God loves who we can it’s unconditional love that is yes in parenting should it be there yes it should be there but you can say parenting consists of protection, two things when a parent-child relationship is there one is protection the other is provision isn’t it the parents are supposed to protect the person and protect the child and the parents are expected to provide for the child protection and provision are the primary expectations in a relationship each relationship brings a different image but broadly speaking that’s what if you see the prayer said father give us our daily bread so it’s a protection and provision so any other metaphors have you heard about for our relationship with God best friend so now what does the idea of a best friend convey the metaphor of friendship with God what does it convey support support ok equality are we equal to God openness openness you could say proximity you could say intimacy intimacy is the word used in the sexual or physical sense but it’s a very close proximity it’s like a heart to heart relationship so is there any reference to this kind of relationship in our tradition also surudam sarvabhootana Prabhupada said this word surudam in 5.29 of the Bhagavad Gita it refers to the idea of Krishna is our close friend Krishna is our great well wisher so that idea that God is our friend this brings this resonance of support and proximity or intimacy and sometimes we may train our children like how Krishna is a coward boy Krishna goes and plays and children may think of Krishna also as a Krishna is my friend and there is a very there is a great sweetness in that so we don’t necessarily expect our friend to solve our problems but we expect our friend to be with us to be with us as we deal with challenges so friendship is one metaphor we will come back to these metaphors any other metaphors servant so Krishna is our servant Krishna is our lord, our master so what does this convey obedience so whatever Krishna tells us we need to obey this so now this is not the most pleasant metaphor for most of us you can see that why should I obey God that God is the supreme authority so that’s the same as master or lord that means we have to obey now this metaphor it can convey some resentment especially if we have not encountered authorities who are very pleasant in our life so the idea is that I experience authority figures as not being very cordial then why so much being demanded from me do this, do this, do this so now that may not convey some special emotion it’s an important metaphor so the first two metaphors they are positive metaphors the third may be functionally right philosophically also right but it may not be the most pleasant metaphor Krishna is our master, Krishna is our lord Krishna is our authority anything else Guru and Disciple Guru and Disciple Krishna is the ultimate Guru so we could use the word Guru or Guru also means guide so what do we expect in this relationship yeah I already gave that answer so guidance so for example we may want to hear if I want to make some decisions in my life, what should I be doing at this time sometimes people may look for some signals this indicates that I should do this, this indicates that I should not do this so we experience wisdom, we expect wisdom and guidance now we don’t expect the Guru to necessarily be a magician who solves all problems what do we expect is right so any other metaphors forgiveness so then what would be metaphor over there for that what kind of relationship is it is it a judge a judge who does not use judgement but use pardon something like that so we may have done many wrong things but it’s a judge but it’s like a pardoning or forgiving judge so then with that the expectation is forgiveness actually that ok I made some mistakes but my dear lord I beg forgiveness from you sometimes we may do some atonement we may do some extra practise something that ok I want to express my regret for what I did but the idea is here we expect forgiveness it’s a good metaphor any other exam any other ideas of yes so that is there is a lover and there is the beloved lord so it may be more in terms of the see the most intense human relationship is the male-female relationship so that relationship is also seen as a metaphor for the relationship with god and especially with Krishna the highest love of Krishna is with whom with Gopis there is that relationship based on the principle of divine romance so now in that relationship if we consider the lord and the beloved what do we expect anything ok true that’s there I mean we come to the philosophical aspect later but from an experiential perspective then normally whenever you think about romance romantic movie might be there so essentially what happens when there is a lover and a beloved stay together spend time together basically that’s after you get married you expect that I am talking more in the romantic level love how is that love seen it’s selflessness ok all of you are in the right direction basically if you see lovers what happens to them they are lost in each other if you consider mirabai as a saint it is absorption the person is absorbed in the other person like lost to the world almost we are lost in the object of love that’s why the example of the gopis whatever they are doing actually the gopis don’t really expect a lot from Krishna whatever they do they are completely absorbed in Krishna even when they churn butter and they have to go out and sell butter they are going to say butter butter curd but they are so lost in Krishna they are showing their way Krishna Krishna Govinda Damodara Madhaveti so at the level of this a person is lost in the Lord and that is the example of the great saints they may or may not be in the Madhuri das necessary but that’s also much better where there is a person lost in the Lord and this is one of the key differences between say a friendly relationship a relationship of friendship and a relationship of romance the key difference is that two friends face the world together hand in hand but in a romantic relationship two people are looking at each other and the world is forgotten of course eventually they have to face the world also but generally in a romantic relationship the focus is on they are lost to the world the world becomes fails into oblivion that’s also one metaphor and we could say that is a very elevated state of love for us we aspire to be at that level but it is that we don’t get lost in the Lord even when we are in the Lord we get lost in the world we come to the temple and still we may remember oh you know this politics this happened this person said like this to me and that thing happened over there getting lost in the Lord we may want that but it’s a little far away for us thank you these are all very good metaphors we will continue this discussion as we move forward but any other metaphors before we move ahead sorry surrender so what would be the metaphor for that is it same as parent and child or you are having some other metaphor I am talking about surrender is what we will do I am talking about a relationship and the result of the relationship in terms of what we expect or what we do surrender is you are talking about the second part of the relationship surrender will be there in the relationship but then what would it be what is the metaphor over it ruler master master so then you could say obedience here can also surrender is that right now you could use that there is another metaphor which we may not use so often it is like it is very much drawn from the vision of the Bhagavad Gita is that life is like a war and Krishna is the commander Krishna is the commander and what do we need to do we need to surrender so now Krishna is not attacking us and we are raising our hand in surrender that is not the point of surrender surrender is we obey the order there is a higher plan over there there is a higher purpose over there there is some, especially if a war is going on the war is a serious business there is a lot at stake in a war and it is important that the general is competent then the soldiers need to cooperate soldiers need to surrender so now there is one thing about this particular metaphor this conveys a sense of shared mission that the shared mission is a commander and a soldier they are both working together there is a shared mission over there any other metaphors Krishna is the goal well ok it is not a relational metaphor but it is not that Krishna is only there at the end of the journey for us I guess we have a relationship with Krishna right now also so related to this I will just add one more metaphor that Krishna is like the doctor and then we are like the patient now what does the patient have to do be patient well yes I know patient has to be patient but the patient has to be with the doctor we have to have cooperation the doctor is telling us do this kind of exercise eat this kind of food, do this kind of activities we need to cooperate so the idea is different metaphors may inspire us or guide us or shelter us at different times and here when Krishna is smiling and Arjuna is suffering so why is Krishna smiling lets look at the next paragraph over here hmm who would like to read this who has the mic who would like to read this please yes let me remember your smile amid my suffering as a sign of your confidence and confidence that you can tackle any and every problem no matter how gigantic it seems yes thank you that suppose you know they got swelling in their body and they think it is cancer they are scared to death because of that they go to a doctor and the doctor reads the report and looks at them doctor is smiling now the smile of the doctor can mean doctor doesn’t care or the smile can also mean that the doctor is confident that he can do it the doctor may stay calm and composed so as to assure the patient that this is cured and that is what the next words in the Gita begins with Ashok chan Ashok chan so Jiva Goswami in his commentary to the Bhagavad Gita its not a commentary but it is comments on the Bhagavad Gita he says that the first word that Krishna speaks in the Gita the first instructive word is in the second chapter eleventh verse and that is Ashok chan Ashok chan is not worth lamenting not worth worrying not worth getting worried about and the last instructive word that Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita is Ma Shucha Ma Shucha is not worth this is actually Krishna giving assurance I have it I can handle this this is not beyond my control I know how to handle this so Krishna is assuring us the beginning may say that this is not worth worrying the doctor makes smoke this is a disease this is how it has grown this is how it may grow in the future this is how we plan to tackle this and these treatments is how they will lead to recovery and at the end the doctor says so Krishna is that kind of doctor so Ashok chan not worth worrying not worth getting worked up about finally finally it is don’t worry so in between Krishna will explain why not worth worrying how not to worry or what to do about it so basically how to deal with it those are the two main things that Krishna will explain in the Gita that whatever predicament we are facing facing that it is not ultimately something which is optimistic it is not something which is end of the world Krishna is in control Krishna can handle it and that assurance now if you consider in the metaphor of a doctor there is a doctor’s competence there is a doctor’s confidence it is all important but even the best doctor cannot work without the cooperation of the patient in the patient the doctor in the patient is got sick because of say alcoholism they got liver problems and the doctor says stop drinking the patient says oh no i can’t stop drinking but you will die but at least i will die happy and the doctor will not be very happy with that answer because the patient has to cooperate but in this case the cooperation is not simply that doctor is the boss and you are doing the cooperation is for the good of the patient so similarly for us when we are trying to develop our relationship with Krishna there is this principle that we actually are also active we also have to play our part as i went back to this metaphor this diagram that you know that these four quadrants faith is that Krishna is a competent doctor and intelligence is i have a part to play let me play my part so when we understand these two things that Krishna is in charge Krishna has a plan for my life i am not just all alone struggling in this world but along with that i have to play my part so to play my part i need to play it as well as i can if i am a parent i need to be the best parent that i can be if i am a professional i need to be the best professional that i can be Arjuna was a archer Arjuna had to use all the archery expertise that he had acquired throughout his life in the final war that he fought for the service of Krishna so our intelligence our ability even our individuality is not rejected it is not suppressed it all is meant to be neutralised so that the human endeavour and the divine plan they both work together so now if we look at this particular metaphor this particular diagram lets look at the other quadrants so if we have neither we are neither using our intelligence nor do we have faith in the divine plan what will happen ya actually we will not be stuck we will be stuck definitely we will be stuck and we will be struck the problems will keep worsening in our life say somebody is addicted oh there is no god we need life ultimately many of these big atheistic philosophers most of them couldn’t function without drinking heavily life was so unbearably empty for them they were brilliant at the intellectual level but life was empty for them so here it is like we are in a dark place and we are going to go in a darker place so this is among the four quadrants you could say this is the worst situation to be in why the worst situation over here here we will become practically hopeless we will become that ok sooner or later we will become hopeless because there is no higher plan there is no purpose to my life and why should I care I also act recklessly we all have probably known people who have by their own actions made their life worse maybe they got into unhealthy habits maybe they get into unnecessary fights maybe they just get into negativity unnecessarily now sometimes we may ourselves have lived in this quadrant also but the point is this is the worst situation to be sometimes we ask what are you thinking when they do something rash somebody has a good amount of money and they invested in Ponzi scheme you double your money in 6 months their money doesn’t get doubled in 6 months their money disappears in 3 months so what were you thinking when you invested your money like this so the point is you are not thinking so we all have experience of people who break their own limits so this is a quadrant we don’t want to be now what if the first quadrant what will be our situation over there if we are using our intelligence but we don’t have faith any faith that there is a divine plan what do you think will happen yes so on one side as long as things are going positive for us we will become prideful isn’t it I am doing so much I have achieved so much but it’s not that life will always be good when life starts going down we will become very resentful I worked so much I did so much why things aren’t working out for me why did everything go wrong so this is extreme positive I am so great my life is so terrible so we will have this wild wild noxious issue so now if we have if we have only faith that there is a divine plan but we are not using our intelligence then what will happen we will not succeed yes that is true we may become reckless in the name of bhakti in the name of faith we may become careless we may become reckless now this is not helping now there are very great saints who do not care for the world but they actually do not care for the world because they care so much for god in our case it’s not that we care so much for god it’s just that we don’t want to take trouble of dealing with the world then if we are not putting in our endeavour the physician of Prabhupada at the age of 17 he travelled all around to come to America and the amount of endeavour he put in every single day he would sleep 2-3 hours writing his books, talking to people it would be extremely hard so there is certainly it’s not that only bhakti means no endeavour it is best that we have our endeavour and we have god’s so what will happen by this is we will be faithful and we will also be using our intelligence so this is what the place where we will be purposeful that my life always has a purpose my life always even if my particular plan is not working Krishna but you have a plan and your plan is working even when my plan is not working so with our intelligence we will make our plans and we will try to do the best we can but we understand that even when my plan doesn’t work Krishna’s plan will be working so we will be hopeful we will be purposeful we will never become resentful we will not become prideful so we play our part and we know that Krishna will be playing his part so this purposeful what does it mean over here then we understand that ok there is a doctor who is treating me the doctor is competent, I have confidence then ok this is the kind of food I want to eat, this is the kind of things I will not do we will also be playing our part we will be purposeful and being purposeful in this way what does this mean we will talk about this more in tomorrow session I will make one last point over here about what is the nature of this state when we are purposeful in Krishna’s service what it means is that we use our intelligence and we work diligently we make our plans we observe ourselves what are the gifts that I have what are the talents that I have we will talk about all this more tomorrow but in this situation what will happen to us is that we will have our plans we hold our plans but we understand that there is Krishna and he has his plans we hold our plans lightly and we hold our lord tightly unfortunately sometimes even when we practise bhakti we may come to a temple we may practise bhakti, we may chant the holy names but what happens is we hold our plans tightly and because we hold our plans tightly and the plans don’t work then what happens is we hold our lord lightly that we don’t want these two things to happen that we hold our plans lightly we hold our lord tightly hold our plan lightly means we do our endeavour we plan and try to the best of our capacity at the same time if my plan is not working that does not mean nothing is working even when my plan is not working Krishna’s plan is working and with that understanding we can go through the most difficult of situations where our intelligence can work we use our intelligence to make things work but where our intelligence doesn’t work we don’t lose hope we keep moving forward how to move forward how to hold our plans and how to hold our lord that will be the topic of the discussion tomorrow let’s look at the last sentence last paragraph who would like to read this yes please you have read it once isn’t it anyone has not read it yes please may your smiling face oh lord never reduce my faith in your magnitude let it always reinforce my faith in your capability when the lord is smiling when the lord is dancing when the lord seems to be happy that is not that the lord doesn’t care it is not that he is not magnanimous it is that he is he is capable and he is confident of his capability that Krishna has things under control even when things seem to be wildly veering out of control for us Krishna has things in control Krishna’s plan is still working with that understanding and give us faith in all situations even when our intelligence and our plan doesn’t work so I will summarise what I discussed today the topic was finding strength in hard times so when we talk about this theme of finding strength in hard times today was the first part we continue the second part tomorrow but the first part I discussed about how normally we turn towards when do we turn towards God it is when life becomes tough normally we are caught in the world what I do in the world and what the world does to me but when these both of them seems to be not good that’s when we turn towards God so generally we turn towards God in times of need so in these times of need when we turn towards God we turn with a certain expectation and the expectation is based on the metaphor the metaphor for our relationship rather metaphor for our conception of our relationship with God so we discussed many metaphors right you remember the metaphors one was the parent then authority then friend any other metaphors yeah last one doctor judge judge commander lover master master pardon me friend teacher guide guru and the last metaphor we discussed was doctor each of these metaphors has their value each of these metaphors is important in their own way and the each metaphor will set a particular expectation from God the vision of the Bhagavad Gita is that at the end we discussed how Krishna is actually asking Arjuna to raise his weapons and fight so the Gita’s conclusion the Gita’s mood the Gita’s mood or Gita’s metaphor is is actually that both come together that there is the human human endeavour that is our intelligence our ability we humans are meant to make an endeavour and it’s also that there is faith that there is a divine plan that I am not lost in life it’s not just I alone trying to struggle in this life so the Gita’s fourth quadrant is where the Gita warns us to be 1817 to talk about this is where we can be purposeful in our life and now if we have neither we are not using our ability nor are we having faith then we will be hopeless it will be a dark situation going darker if we are having an intelligence and doing our endeavour but don’t have faith then what will happen do you remember yes we will either become prideful or yes if things don’t work out we will become resentful if we have only faith but we are not doing our part then we will be yes we will be reckless we will be careless in the name of faith we will become negligent of our part so we want to be purposeful and this purposefulness what is the basis of this purposefulness there is one sentence that conveys that hold our plans yes we make our plans we do our endeavour we hold our plans lightly we hold our lord lightly so this is the essence of bhakti that in many ways our sadhana that is how we hold our lord lightly and the rest of our life everything that we do we may have some seva in the temple we may have our responsibilities we have our professional responsibilities we do our part intelligently when i say lightly that doesn’t mean careless we are still holding on to that but lightly means it’s more comparison we don’t hold on to our plans in the world more tightly than we hold on to the lord so if we have this vision our intelligence is important but faith in Krishna is just as important but more important so we hold on to our lord tightly while we make our plans we hold our plans lightly so how to do that that we will discuss in tomorrow’s session let’s conclude by offering this prayer once again this last or the starting prayer my dear lord my dear lord let your smiling let your smiling amid my suffering amid my suffering strengthen my faith strengthen my faith not weaken it not weaken it thank you very much applause are there any time for questions are there any questions or comments any questions thank you so much for this enlightening class i have a question related to this topic today’s topic you know most of the devotees present here in this congregation are from India in their subcontinent now you know the recent events have made us all very uneasy in the sense that you know there is this feeling as if the whole world is turned against us you know how do we tackle this the feeling that the whole world is turned against us i think one reason is India is geopolitically rising now India is if nobody considers us to be a threat then is that a good thing maybe it is but maybe it is that nobody considers us a villain that’s also a possibility in general for each one of us the Gita talks about our swadharma each one of us has a part to play in the swadharma in the lokasangraha lokasangraha is the maintenance of the world so our each one of us plays a role now some of us some roles may become more prominent at certain times so for example if somebody is in disaster prevention at normal times that’s just one department but when a disaster strikes their role will become the most important somebody is a doctor their role is normally important but if there is a pandemic their role becomes even more important so the soldiers their role is very important but when there is a war their role becomes even more important so sometimes in the way the world moves the importance of certain roles becomes very evident but in a normal course of life we all have a tendency to devalue the roles that we are playing so it’s important for us to recognise that every one of us has a part to play and whatever be our kshetra, whatever be our sphere of influence each one of us around us has a kshetra kshetra is our sphere of influence some people may have a huge kshetra say somebody is a billionaire who funds political parties they have much bigger kshetra somebody who is the head of state of a country they have much bigger kshetra our kshetra may be small but a small kshetra does not mean it’s worthless that does not mean it’s insignificant so we do our best in the kshetra that we are in so generally speaking in the world as I said there is, so another way of putting these two things there is intelligence and there is faith so another way of understanding this is there is shakti and there is bhakti so hanuman ji his hands are folded that indicates his bhakti, but in those folded hands he has a mace that is shakti so both these are required in life so for every one of us whatever be the role we play right now if we learn to play more competently we become more responsible we become more diligent, we become more successful then our kshetra will increase rather than worrying about too much about what is happening in somebody else’s kshetra we need to focus on our kshetra now of course if we can contribute to somebody who is in the kshetra where a lot of things are happening we should contribute so for example one way Indians outside India can contribute is that Indians outside India are respected as successful responsible citizens so there are various ways in which the advocacy groups can be formed we can basically the world has turned against us maybe the world has turned against us but are we telling our side of the story is it simply because somebody is telling our story and we are not telling our story at all so it’s our responsibility that we also share our side of the story not in an aggressive way not in a judgemental way in general in tamoguna there are three, I can put a last point whenever there is a problem there are three gunas there is sattva there is rajas and there is tamas so in tamas whenever there is a problem we focus that I am a victim oh life is so bad today so many bad things are happening in tamas the focus goes on being a victim in rajas the focus goes on finding a villain not just I am a victim but who is the person who is messed up in my life who has ruined my life I will deal with this person so rajas and tamas are very related because if the villain is too powerful then again we go down to the victim but it is the mind gets caught in this somebody out there is hurting me oh I am having so much pain I am hurt so much is it possible that we could be a victim of course, sometimes life victimises us sometimes people victimise us is it possible that there could be villains out there of course it is possible but the point is when we fixate on those things that’s when life becomes unnecessarily dark we cannot afford to fixate on those things so what we fixate on now when we are in sattva we try to cultivate a vision vision what is actually happening what is in my control what can I do, what can I not do this is the karmanye vadhika raste maapaleshu kadach not that we don’t care for the result but we don’t fixate on the results what is the vision where I can do something there are certain things which I can do and let me do those things so the vision that inspires us to action some concrete action now beyond this of course there is the shuddha sattva shuddha sattva is the level of bhakti where we focus on Krishna as the supreme victor Krishna is a victor and the message of the bhagavad gita is not just that Krishna is the supreme hero the message of the gita is that in the service of the supreme hero each one of us is also meant to become a hero Krishna wanted Arjuna to fight and get the glory so Krishna wants us also to do that so we may or may not get glory in the world’s eyes not everybody can get that but we all can play our part and that will be considered valuable by Krishna in his service so see what we can do and focus on doing that thank you Pramod you start your class with three words life is tough my question is is life is tough is it subjective the third part of it is is it is it with our intelligence we can pass through these things because I think I have completed my question so is life really tough or is it a matter of subjectivity well as I said subjectivity is definitely part of it sometimes the problem might be small but our mind can make it very big so our mind is here my computer is making a small problem big now this is my mind that could be a big problem that can become small in my mind and there can be a small problem that can become big in my mind so the idea is that there is a subjective element to it no doubt but beyond the subjective element there is objective reality also for example the temperature is very low one time I was in Washington I woke up very early I wanted to do my mantra chanting so I woke up and looked at the temperature it was 40 degrees ok I will go out for a walk because I am three of us I will go out for a walk and I will chant I started chanting and I found that within a few minutes my fingers were freezing there was steam coming from my mouth I had gone a little distance away from the temple and I was like what’s wrong there is no 40 degree effect and I looked at my phone somehow I had opened up I was busy I had forgotten I had not noticed the minus sign so it was minus 40 degrees so the point is that is it a matter of subjectivity no it is subjective 40 degree experience and minus 40 degree experience what are we using it for now if the weather is cold somebody can make that objective reality subjectively also worse it’s so cold they can keep complaining about it then people around them will say what you are saying is so old get over it now learn to live with it so yes there is a subjective element to it undoubtedly and we can try to minimise it but but everything is subjective that is not reality there is an objective reality we do grow old sometimes in sports people may say that age is just a number age is just a number but that number has our number isn’t it so sometimes you may say an athlete at the age of 40 some tennis player, some cricket player performs spectacularly we appreciate that because that is extraordinary and even that athlete at 40 might do very well but that won’t be as actually still not as swift as when they are 20 or 25 or 30 so there is an objective reality so when we are dealing with the pain problem of pain in life there are two extremes one is to consider it only objective I am suffering so much in life and my life is so objectively somebody who is living say in a very comfortable comfortable house as compared to somebody who is living in a maybe someone living in a tent objectively there is a huge difference but you know is it only objective there are 10 people living in a tent and their states of mind are different so pain is not only objective, the other is to make it only subjective so in general the western approach to some extent has been to focus only on the objective side of pain, the idea was through science and technology we will make so much progress we will remove all discomforts in life and we have succeeded spectacularly we have got comforts and conveniences now that we can’t imagine at all or at least people 50 years ago could not have imagined that were not available even for royalty 50-100 years ago so the western approaches make all suffering only objective and remove that suffering but you know despite having spectacular amount of comforts what is the result we are we are comfortably there is a huge amount of comfort in the western world but we are comfortably miserable why because when the objective level has been addressed, the subjective level has been neglected, the subjective level has become far worse now on the other hand in the eastern thought especially to some extent in the Indian thought suffering was all considered a subjectivity and that led to objective level reality deteriorating and you have simplified analysis over here is that there are so many invaders who came and conquered India and when that happened often the attitude not of all the warriors but many of them oh this world is ultimately maya these things keep happening over here it will go beyond the world no but even maya Krishna comes to establish dharma in the world of maya to consider all suffering to be only subjective and just live with it tolerate it transcend it no that can make us subject to unnecessary object to suffer so what is the understanding there is an objective level to suffering and there is a subjective level to suffering so subjective level of suffering we deal by by strengthening our mind, by purifying our mind and its definitely required but along with that dharma is also about making social arrangements, practical arrangements so the objective level both have to be addressed when Krishna comes to the world for example when Krishna has been abducted by Rama Rama doesn’t think its all subjective whether he is with me or not Rama doesn’t act Krishna doesn’t tell when Kamsa is persecuting people its all mann ka khele everything is a play of the mind whether you are in a prison or in a palace it doesn’t make any difference Krishna comes to fix things on a physical level also but of course we cannot fix things permanently at the physical level they will get unfixed that’s why for us the objective when you say objective you can say physical level subjective is the mental level it is for us we want to fix things at the objective and the subjective levels but both are for ultimately raising ourselves to the spiritual so as much as we can we try to fix things at the objective level as much as we can we try to fix things at the subjective mental level but ultimately we have to rise to the spiritual what is the root cause of life is tough that is a tough question well in India we have this service called IISC its a very tough example so basically the suffering in life falls in three categories there is suffering which is inevitable it is just the nature of the world for example Krishna talks about in 13.8 to 12 that these are just inevitable everybody will have to grow old everybody will get diseased there is inevitable suffering and that is just the nature of the world so we are spiritual beings we are caught in the material world and because of that there is some suffering like a patient is sick now whether you are in the hands of a good doctor or a bad doctor there is some suffering that is unavoidable till the disease gets cured so that is one level of suffering the other is avoidable avoidable is more self-created Krishna says for example 5.22 so for example somebody becomes an alcoholic drinks and becomes an alcoholic and then they suffer various problems that is self-created suffering that is something which we should avoid that is that cannot be called as a part of life’s toughness that is our own foolishness not life’s toughness then there is suffering that is strengthening there is suffering that helps us become a better person there is suffering that helps form our character this is what Krishna talks about in 1837 in the Bhagavad Gita this is this is that which is in the beginning like poison will eventually become like medicine so for example somebody wants to become healthy they want to become fit they go to a gym and do a work that is suffering somebody wants to learn a new language that is difficult but after that a whole new universe opens up similarly when we try to grow a spiritual we try to fix our mind with Krishna we try to develop love for Krishna we do sadhana that’s tough but that toughness we accept so that we can become we can rise to a better place so it’s like with respect to the disease they are sick some problems are inevitable some pain is inevitable but if somebody is diabetic and they eat a lot of sweets and their insulin level spikes that is avoidable suffering that they need to avoid but if somebody is diabetic and they need to change their taste so then that is developing a different taste, that is strengthening suffering so there are different kinds of sufferings and depending on what the source of suffering is what the starting point of suffering is we need to address it accordingly that’s good these are the questions do you have questions? do you have any questions? and that’s it let’s give her a round of applause applause applause thank you applause actually tomorrow will be next programme but it will be home programme and Swamiji will give us some details about the home programme tomorrow yeah so I’ll just talk about two things first is about tomorrow’s programme I’ll be talking about two main things how do, what does it mean to make our plans and how do we make our plans what does that mean practically our sabhaav and our dharma our nature, understand our gifts and how do we use our gifts in Krishna’s service so how do we maximise our shakti that will be one part of the session and then how do we maximise our bhakti how do we strengthen our faith so both these aspects we’ll be discussing in tomorrow’s session so one is self observation, look inward look inward and look outward to see how we can make our maximum contribution and then look upward to see how we can play a part in Krishna’s plan so today was a little more analytical philosophy kind of session but tomorrow I’ll be discussing something from the Mahabharata, we’ll look at how the Pandavas their life emerged so that will be in tomorrow’s session I’ll be talking about this book Prayers Inspired by the Bhagavad Gita so there are 122 prayers over here let me have an open book so basically for me the Gita’s verses are not just sources of wisdom many of the Gita’s are like friends for me personal friends who we turn to we want to know our old friends in different contexts so that we can get to know them better so through this in this chapter, in this book I have brought the Gita’s verses as sources of prayer and there are 122 prayers each prayer is like a spiritual affirmation so there are prayers when we are feeling lost and directionless there are prayers when we are in great pain there are prayers when we are feeling our cravings arising and becoming unbearable there are prayers when we feel lonely or misunderstood so many people have told me that this also helps them in their chanting because before you do your mantra chanting just look at one prayer look at one picture of Krishna, read one affirmation and read the prayer so this is one book that is available this is one of the 12 prayers inspired by Bhagavad Gita and the other is I have written some 30 books but I have brought 2 new books this time this is Gita for the CEO nowadays there is a lot of interest in the corporate world for wisdom from ancient times that can be relevant today so from Greek, Stoicism is very popular the D.V. Stoic is quite widely known, from Japan Ikigai is quite well known Harper Collins are the biggest publishers in the world so they asked me to write on the Bhagavad Gita so like I was drawing some simple diagrams so there are many places where there are conceptographics explaining the concepts of the Gita and I have presented this as a conversation the Gita originally is a conversation but this is a conversation between two people one who knows the Gita and one who wants to know the Gita both of them are corporate leaders and this is not just a book for CEOs it is a book for anyone who has any leadership role formal or informal it is also a good book that you may want to give to your friends or colleagues who may not yet be ready to read the Gita directly or connect with it this might trigger their spiritual curiosity both these books are available and there are 10 principles in this Gita for CEO how to learn to be more mindful today much of what I discussed I discussed more on devotional frame today but that life determines our problems we need to decide how our perspective can be changed by spiritual wisdom that is explained and then how also tap the power of speech why don’t people listen to me when I tell them some good things how to discipline our speech there is a whole chapter on that words shape words watch your words practical and empowering principles both these books will be here thank you very much