Hindi – Day 2 Relationship and life lesson from Mahabharta – Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So, how many of you were not there for yesterday’s session? Okay, thank you. How many of you were not there for today’s session? So, many times we are all together at one place, but at one place our mind keeps going to many places. So, we are discussing Mahabharata, life lessons, so the theme that we were taking, I will quickly summarise what we discussed yesterday.
So, I would like to ask you, yesterday, if we want to see the story of every person’s life, we can see four things. What are those four things? Does anyone remember? Do you want to see it in the live studio? So, what is it? In which situation was he in? Then? Was he in that kind of mood? Yes, I have been seeing those words since yesterday. Because, I was talking about sanskars.
Sanskars are usually positive. So, the situation and the mood. What is the situation and what is the mood? And what is the other thing? What does he do in their mood? What kind of decisions does he make? And what are the consequences of that? So, from these four things, we can see the story of anyone’s life.
And what kind of decisions did he make? Were they right? Were they not right? So, we can learn that. So, we saw this. And then, what did we discuss about yesterday? About Duryodhana.
So, how did we see about Duryodhana’s life? Are some people bad internally? Are some people basically bad? So, how did we see? Was he bad? We can say that there is no bad at the level of the soul. But, at the level of the mind, the impressions in the mind, it is possible. It is possible.
There can be some people. And, from his birth, there is a symptom that he is a bad person. So, what is it? We saw that there are bad conditionings.
So, we saw that there is inner power and outer power. So, someone does not have inner power. Someone has this outer power.
And, outer power means he has a position, he has power in different ways. He has money, whatever it is. Political power, whatever it is.
So, if someone has outer power and inner power, then it is best. So, Pandavas were in this situation for some time. For some time, they were also in such a situation that they did not have outer power.
But, Duryodhana, he had a lot of outer power. But, he misused it. Because, internally, he did not have self-control.
So, what is the main difference between God and demon? Does anyone remember? Respect for boundaries. We do not respect the boundaries. Everyone gets angry.
But, if someone raises his voice in anger, someone else will take out a knife and kill him. So, what is it? The no boundaries of Duryodhana, how do we see them? When Pandavas came back, he had insecurity. So, insecurity, we can understand.
Anyone can have insecurity. But, what did insecurity do to him? He started murdering. So, because of insecurity, someone goes to this extent.
This is demonic nature. So, we saw how his bad deeds increased. First, he tried to kill Bhim.
Then, he tried to kill all Pandavas and their mothers. Then, he took money from Pandavas. He also tried to insult Draupadi.
So, in a way, this is the worst. Because, he did this publicly. He has no fear of anyone.
So, what happened to him? His character got worse. So, now what is it? In a way, we saw that if we have conditionings, yesterday’s main guideline or lesson, that if we have bad conditionings, if we have negative or bad conditionings, then what should we do? We have to avoid bad conditionings. If the conditionings are already bad, then we have to avoid our conditions.
Conditions that make the bad conditionings worse. So, this was yesterday’s lesson. His conditionings were bad.
So, what did he do? How did he get those conditions? He had two conditions. One was that he was a prince. And second was that in conditionings, there can be power and in conditionings, there can be people.
What kind of power or position can we say? What position are we in? And what kind of people are there? So, who did he make friends with? He made friends with Shakuni. He didn’t make friends with anyone else. So, if the conditionings are bad, and the conditions are also bad, then that is the path of destruction.
Destruction for oneself and destruction for others. So, yesterday I said that in every class, we will see one diagram. Yesterday, we were seeing that if someone does not have inner power, then it is very dangerous for him to get outer power.
So, yesterday I saw this second diagram. Today, we will build on that. How is it? Now, we see that there are conditions, there are situations, and there are conditionings.
So, now, if the conditions and conditionings are both good, then it is best. But, if the conditions and conditionings are both bad, then it is worst. So, in a way, this is the situation of Duryodhana.
What are the conditions? They can be positive or negative. What do negative conditions mean? Someone is in poverty, someone is living in such an area, all the neighbourhoods steal, everyone lies, everyone commits a sin. So, there are such conditions.
So, the conditions can be good or bad. And the conditionings can also be good. Some people, some people are afraid to lie since childhood.
Some people are like this, like this, not, what is the English word for it? Nonchalantly. Without any hesitation, without any, without any, one is, there is no doubt in others, and there is no doubt in oneself. One is that, we make others believe our lies, second is, we believe our lies.
That, one is, we lie in such a way that we make others. But, second is, we lie in such a way that we ourselves start believing it. So, one is deception and the other is self-deception.
So, both are dangerous, but what is dangerous for a person? Self-deception. When we start believing our own lies, then no one can save us from those lies, because there is no voice inside us. So, now, we will discuss about Duryodhana later, but today we are going to discuss about Karna.
So, what is the situation of Karna? What were his conditionings? We can go back to the story of his previous birth. But what happens is, we see in Bhagavad Gita, that God speaks about his previous birth at the level of spiritual knowledge, but he does not elaborate on it at the level of behaviour. God says that we all have taken many births, I remember, you do not remember, this is a body, this is like a letter.
But God does not tell Arjuna that you were like this in your previous birth, and Bhishma was like this, and you did like this, Bhishma did like this, and that is why you have to fight now. Such an esoteric knowledge, esoteric means, which is not available to everyone, such a knowledge, neither does God give it, nor does he emphasise it. Is the volume a little less? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.
So, now, when we are talking, can you all hear me? So, now, what were the conditionings? Now, to some extent, it has been told in the Mahabharata, that Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali. Now, what is there in that, it is mentioned only once. It is not that, somewhere else it is said that, maybe the demons did a lot of penance, so that he could come to earth, and Duryodhana was the result of their penance.
So, Duryodhana was their advance party. So, they wanted to rule the earth from Duryodhana. But, now, there is not much emphasis on this.
What happens is, everyone has a pre-eternal history. But most people do not know what is the pre-eternal history. And, when our conditionings, what kind of conditionings are there, how have they come, why have they come, it is difficult to understand that.
So, now, it is good to understand that we all have mixed conditionings. It is mixed, some are good, some are bad. And, we have to nourish the good conditions, we have to increase them.
We have to reduce the bad ones. So, now, in everyone’s life, there is pain. There are different kinds of pain.
Now, when God says, दुखालयम्, so, the pain, in English, it is called distress, so, distress, it can be on many levels. One is disappointment. And, the second is devastation.
Now, what does disappointment mean? Things are not, if this is my, how to say, this is my expectation, and this is reality. What was my expectation, that has reduced the truth a lot. So, that is also disappointing.
We want that, we get a big job, we get a lot of money, and we become happy. So, we get a job, we get money, but what happens, there is politics, there is this, there is that. What was our expectation, that is not so good.
Some people go from India to America, they say, there will be so much comfort, there will be so much bliss, there is comfort, there is convenience, but what happens, it is not as good as we expected. So, that is also sad. And, the more we expect, and how far something is from that, that is more sad.
So, if someone gets married, and has done a lot of romance, and then gets married, and then realises, that this person is not as good as he thought. So, there is disappointment. So, if we have a child, and we want our child to become a good student, a good doctor, and he becomes good, but he does not become as good as we want him to be.
So, that is disappointment. So, now, disappointment, we will say, is not a very big sorrow. But, the level of emotions is invested.
So, in that, disappointment is also a big sorrow. But, what does devastation mean? It means, what we expect, the truth is exactly the opposite of that. So, what does devastation mean? Suppose, we open a new business, and think that I will get a lot of profit from this.
And, yes, there is profit, but what we expect is only one-tenth. So, it is disappointment. But, if we open a new business, and there is no profit from that business, there is a loss.
All the money that we have invested, goes away. What is that? That is devastation. If we get married, and find out that that person is only for our money.
And, he is not interested in us. And, he is exploiting us as much as he can. So, what happens? That is a kind of heartbreak or devastation.
So, there can be different kinds of heartbreaks. So, now, we can say that Duryodhana’s heartbreak was a kind of disappointment for him. What was the disappointment for him? That he was expecting to become a king.
I am a prince, I will become a king. And, that king became a king later. Officially, he never became a king.
But, he was influenced by the king. But, he was not an undisputed king. Kauravas were challenged by the Pandavas.
So, whoever thought that he will become a king, he did not get that. Now, we will see that the Pandavas to some extent, what happened? As I told you, they came from the jungle to the kingdom. This business is that there will be protection in the kingdom.
But, what happened? Duryodhana is trying to kill someone intentionally. Rajasuya yagya took place. And, when the yagya took place, he was expecting that he will become the king of the whole world.
And, after that, his own family and his cousins snatched everything and insulted him. And, before that, which is completely contrary to expectations, he was asked to go there and give some support to the people So, he was sent to Varanasi. And, the palace, we want to stay in our house.
We want to go to the ashram. But, if someone burns our house and he built a house to burn it, then what happens? It is completely opposite to expectations. That is devastation.
So, there can be different types of sadness. So, one type of sadness is distress. It has a subjective component and an objective component.
Subjective means how that person is experiencing. And, objective means a practical truth. So, if a student wants to come first in his class and he comes second.
So, what happens? Is it bad to come second? It is good to come second because you are among the top students. But, the thing is it is very sad on a subjective level. Even though you did well on an objective level.
For example, India, when the world cup took place, India lost in the final. Losing in the final is a good thing. But, if you lose, you are in the top two.
But, you are not in the top. So, it is less fun to go to the final and more sad to lose in the final. So, you are among the top teams.
It is a good thing. But, it is very bad on a subjective level. So, there is a subjective feeling of sadness.
Every person’s expectations and wishes have a subjective feeling of sadness. Some students are not able to pass the exam. Some students come second in the class.
So, it is good to come second on an objective level. But, it is bad to not pass the exam. But, if you do not pass the exam, it does not matter.
It does not matter. If you do not pass the exam, it does not matter. So, the sad incident is serious.
But, it is not serious about him. So, this is a subjective and objective component of sadness. So, if you look at it objectively, there was no sadness in Duryodhana’s life.
He was born in a royal family. His father used to pamper him a lot. And, he had everything.
But, subjectively, he was jealous of the Pandavas. He was insecure. And, because of this, he was never happy.
So, these two are extremes. Between these two, there is compassion. Today, we will discuss about compassion.
As I told you in yesterday’s lecture, that in everyone’s life, there are some important incidents. And, because of those incidents, the choice of their life is the trajectory. Where they will go, that is decided.
So, we will see four incidents in Karna’s life. One is birth. The second is meeting Duryodhana.
And, there are many incidents. If we have to discuss in the Q&A, we can do that. But, we will focus more on these incidents.
After that, there is gambling match. After that, there is Krishna’s peace proposal. That happens after the war.
And, the last one is Krishna’s final encounter with Arjuna. So, it will take time to see all these. And, we will try to see as much as we can.
So, when he was born, what happened? He was born in an unfortunate situation. Kunti was not married and Kunti got a mantra. So, he thought what is this mantra? Let’s see.
So, Suryadev came there. Suryadev gave him a son. Kunti was not married.
I cannot take care of my son. So, what did he do? He left his son. Now, what Vidur asked Dhritarashtra to do with Duryodhana, he did not do.
What Dhritarashtra did not do by choice, by circumstance, by conditions, Kunti had to do. Now, Kunti did not leave him mercilessly. Like, he kept him in a wooden box and kept good jewels in it.
And, at that time, he put him in the river. The flow of the river will take him to the other coast. It will take him to the other side.
And then, he prayed to Vayudev, to Suryadev, to God, that you take care of the child. I cannot do it. It was very difficult for him.
But, at that time, there was no other choice for him. Now, Karna was born in a Kshatriya family. He was Kunti’s son.
He was Pandu’s son. Pandu was not married. So, he was not Pandu’s son.
But, he was Suryadev’s son. And, Suryadev was also a Kshatriya. So, he was born in a Kshatriya family.
But, he was never respected. And, what happened with him? Since his childhood, he was in a way, that in our life, everybody feels undervalued. Everybody feels underappreciated.
That, I am doing so much, why are people not appreciating what I am doing? Why are people not appreciating what I am doing? Why are people not appreciating So, this happens in everyone’s life. A person, a householder, a husband, says, I am doing so much for my family, but my family does not appreciate it. A housewife says, I am doing so much for my family, but everybody takes me for granted.
So, this feeling happens in everyone’s life. Of course, in some people, there can be a lot of pride, and in some people, there can be a lot of power, that they are doing so much, but nobody appreciates it. But, someone has a lot of capability, someone can sing very well, in our community, but he is not given a chance to sing.
Or, he does not get a chance to sing. Someone can decorate a priest with a very good God, but he does not get a chance Someone can give a very good sermon, but he does not get a chance to say it. Or, sometimes, we do some service, but nobody appreciates it.
Someone distributes a lot of books, but nobody appreciates it. Someone raises a lot of funds, whatever service it is. So, in a way, the weakness of Duryodhana, the weakness of Duryodhana, went from insecurity to envy.
And, after that, he went to a very cruelty. Cruelty means, he went to destroy. So, the trajectory of Duryodhana, was first insecurity.
Insecurity means, my position, my respect, will I get it or not, what is going to happen to me? Where did he go from insecurity? Envy. I am not getting my position. Why is he getting this much position? Why is he getting this much respect? And, that too can happen.
It is not good, but it can happen. But, where did he go from there? Cruelty. He went to cruelty.
So, jealousy is actually an inner emotion. Insecurity. Insecurity is actually more related with the self.
Insecurity is an emotion, and it is more self-directed. I am getting insecurity. But, envy is also an emotion, but it is directed towards others.
It is other-directed. Meaning, when jealousy happens, I am not getting jealous of myself, I am getting jealous of this. And then, the cruelty is also others, but this is action.
So, we will have jealousy. But, what are we going to do Suppose, there are two batsmen in cricket, from different countries. And, both of them do good batting.
Both of them are top batsmen in the world. One wants to become top. He is scoring such good runs.
So, what does he do? He hires a contract killer. So, what is this? This is cruelty. Cruelty is a very diabolical evil.
So, this is the story of Duryodhana’s life. But, now we will see what was the situation, what was the state of mind. And, what did he do in that? So, the story of Karna is a little different.
He always he felt undervalued, underappreciated. And, this is natural. When he grew up, he saw that his body was very healthy, sturdy, like a warrior.
Then, from his childhood, he saw that he was very interested in archery. But, for everything, he had to struggle. Struggle means, he did not get education.
No one was ready to teach him. He went to Drona, but Drona did not accept him. He went to Parashurama, but Parashurama was also not ready to accept him.
Then, what did he do to get acceptance from Parashurama? He lied. What did he do He told him that he is the son of a Brahmin. Sometimes, to get something good, sometimes, you have to do something bad.
So, in a way, he saw that he had talent. He wanted to develop his talent. So, if you want admission in a college, now, what happens is, there is a little difference between India and America.
College admissions, etc. So, now, in India, if someone wants to go to IIT, there is a cut-off percentage of IIT. If you get marks on this, you will get admitted.
If you don’t get marks, you won’t get it. So, this is a little objective criteria. But in America, the top universities, like Ivy League, their system is very non-transparent.
It is not like that, if you have 4.5 CGPA, you will get it. Even if you have 4.9, you may not get it in Harvard. So, how do they do it? They do a diversity quota.
When there are reservations in India, there is a diversity quota. I was giving a lecture in Harvard. I was talking to the dean.
He said that if we admit everyone only on merit, then all our universities will be filled with Indians and Chinese. There won’t be a place for Americans here. So, now, what happens is, they see a lot.
They see your marks, what you are doing in co-curricular and extracurricular. They want to see the whole rounded personality. So, if someone is in college admission, he says that he has done social service, he has done this, he has done that, but he has not done anything in reality.
So, now, they can understand. It is not good to claim what you have not done. But, sometimes, what did Karan do? Karan lied in his college application.
So, he lied in his school application. It is understandable. When someone lies, sometimes, they are caught.
So, in America, now, the black people, they are called African or American, but they have been in America or Africa for many generations. They were here 300-400 years ago. So, the black people, they are more, they are more diversified.
So, India, there is an Indian student, he is a young man now, so, he wrote a book that he wanted admission in medical college as an Indian, but he did not get admission. So, what did he do? You can legally change his name in America. You can change his name anywhere.
So, he changed his name. Later, he made his own history that I am African. And, with the same percentage, with the same background, he got admission in Africa.
So, he stayed in medical college for 2 years. Then, he left medical college. Then, he wrote a book about him.
So, now, because of this diversity quota, there is a lot of discrimination. So, now, now, we can say that in some jobs, merit is the most important. Whether you are from this society or that society, that is not important.
In reality, your competence is important. So, now, Karna had a kind of competence. So, he had to lie.
He lied. He was caught. So, he was punished.
So, overall, Karna had to fight for everything. He did not get anything easily. Now, a Kshatriya can become a Nipun.
He is a good Kshatriya. He is a very good archer. But, he needs a forum, an opportunity.
Let’s say, a good cricket player, does good bowling, does good batting, but he is playing cricket in his lane. So, he should select a district level competition or a state level competition so that he gets some opportunity. So, Karna was always looking for an opportunity.
Where will I get an opportunity? So, there was Parshuram. Parshuram gave him some knowledge. But, Parshuram did not have an academy.
So, what does it mean that Someone learns engineering. Now, if someone learns from a famous college, a company comes to the campus. But, if someone is a genius engineer, he is learning from him.
But, he is giving a degree, but he does not have a name. So, Karna was looking for an opportunity. When will I be able to show the world that what can I do? So, where did he get that opportunity? That was the Drone Marshall Exhibition.
How was it? In a way, it was a graduation ceremony for all the Drone students. Now, a leader, a Kshatriya, the way a leader rules, it is based on two things. One is power, and second is trust.
A leader needs power. A leader should be powerful. But, he should be trustworthy.
He should be trustworthy. That, this is power, but is it enough to protect us? It is powerful. So, the Kshatriyas, after the Drone school, it was an exhibition.
All those Kshatriyas came to see how good they were at war. What did the citizens come to see? They were proud. Such Kshatriyas are protecting us.
In India, there is Independence Day, Republic Day, there is an Air Force show, there is a security march. We show how powerful we are. It is meant to inspire confidence.
So, in a way, this event was for the graduates of the Drone Academy. It was a private event, but it was for them. But, now, Karna came into it.
From Karna’s point of view, we can understand what he did, why he did it. It was his opportunity. I have to show it.
I may not be a Drone student, but I am better than Drone students. So, all the students showed their expertise, their style, their ability, their strength. It wowed everyone.
And then, Karna came there. And as soon as Karna came there, he said, whatever Parth has done, I can do better than him. So, when he said this, everyone became quiet.
He came in. He said, can I be a Drone student? Can I be a Drone student? Drone was officiating. Krupa looked at Drone.
Krupa said, yes, yes. So, he let him do it. He exhibited his ability.
It was so extraordinary. Everyone was surprised. But, whatever he tried, Karna, what Arjun did, he could not do better than that.
Whatever Arjun did, he could do that too. He equalled, but he did not surpass Arjun. And then he said, I am better than Arjun.
Can I have a duel with Arjun? Can I have a duel with Arjun? So, when Arjun saw Karna coming, there was a feeling of rivalry. Who is he? This is my day. This is my day.
I have worked so hard. I am so dear to my Guru. This is the glory of my Guru.
Arjun can be proud of himself. He can be proud of his Guru. But, at that time, who was this upstart? Who came from outside? For Arjun, it was not about his own pride.
Arjun had a very close relationship with Drona. And, his glory was also his Guru’s glory. So, who came from outside? So, Arjun said, I will have a duel with him right now.
But, what happened till then? He said, if you are fine, you have done an exhibition. But, there will be some inter-school competition. There will be some dance practise, dance competition, singing competition, any competition.
Naturally, they will ask, which school are you from? What is your background? So, when they started asking him, Karna calmed down. Which school are you born in? He calmed down. Then, Duryodhana saw this opportunity.
When the duel took place, it was an exhibition fight. But, when Bheem and Duryodhana started a real fight, then, Kripa said, I will go in between. Stop them.
So, Duryodhana was thinking, I will handle Bheem. But, I need someone to handle Arjun. So, he thought, I got Karna.
Then, he immediately made Karna the king of Anga. You say, if he does not look like a Kshatriya, look at his body, he is a Kshatriya’s body. So, he thought, can a cat look like a lion? He is a lion.
He is definitely a Kshatriya. So, in a way, he gives an anti-caste speech there. But, he does not care about caste.
He cares about his own opportunity. So, when he gives the kingdom of Anga to Karna, then, in a way, Karna feels honoured. He is being insulted.
He is being humiliated. He is going to lose his opportunity. But, he feels honoured.
So, this meeting for Karna, was a life changer for him. In a way, he got the kingdom. He became a Kshatriya.
Then, he said to Duryodhana, You have been so kind to me. You have been so kind to me. What can I do for you? Then, Duryodhana was very sad.
Duryodhana said, I do not want anything. I just want your friendship. So, after hearing this, Karna was completely bowled over.
Karna said, He is a prince. He has not given me a kingdom. Sometimes, someone does a favour to us.
And, when someone does a favour to us, then, we feel like the soil of their land. You are so noble. I am so great.
I have done such a great favour to you. But, now, he said, He makes me his friend. This is such a good thing.
So, he said, My friendship will always be for you. So, now, in this situation, here, in a way, what he is doing, he is looking for an opportunity. And, the opportunity that he is getting, either he is trying to catch it, or he is tapping the opportunity.
All of us have to look for an opportunity. By tapping the opportunity, a person wants to become great. So, to some extent, he can say, Ok, what happened? Can you hear me? Hare Krishna.
Oh, it got discharged. Is there another mike? So, the opportunity that he tapped, it may not be appropriate, but, his intention was, I need his ability, I need his training, I need his forum. Now, when he gave the kingdom of Anga he was also in a way, questionable.
Why? Because, whose kingdom is that now? Because, is he a prince? Is Yudhishthir a prince? Who is the crown prince? Who is going to be the king? Did he have the right to give Anga to him or not? That is unclear. But, Yudhishthir was a rivalry between Pandavas and Kauravas. They were competitors.
But, he also had the respect of our clan. So, someone from our clan said, I will give this kingdom to you. So, if we go against it, it will be an insult to our clan.
So, he did not go against it. So, what Duryodhana did was good, but, we do not know if he had the qualification to do it or not. But, whatever happened was good.
Now, till this time, we can say Karna has not made any bad choices. Whatever opportunity he got, he did a little wrong. But, he can understand whatever he did.
Now, what happens after this? Now, he has become a king. He has become a friend of Duryodhana. So, after this, now, making a friend is one thing, making a friend is another thing.
So, he has to make a friend. So, in the beginning, Karna says, that Duryodhana wants to meet Karna in his inner circle. And then he says, what I am going to do is, I have to kill Pandavas.
So, Shakuni gives him an idea, what to do? You send them to Varanasi, we will burn them there. Now, this is a very big conspiracy, to send someone there, to build a palace, and to build such a palace, that, the palace should be built with lakhs of people. So, now, he has to make a very big plan.
So, this conspiracy was given to him So, when he was talking, Karna used to oppose it. But, we can say that, Karna is here, from an ethical and moral point of view, Karna says, what is the need to do all this? You directly challenge them, we will defeat them, you defeat Bheem, I will defeat Karna, I will defeat Arjun, and the kingdom will be yours. So, what is the need to do all this? But, what did Shakuni say? Shakuni said, Karna, you are a child, what do you know about politics? When you fight a war, there is no certainty, who will win and who will lose.
So, a wise politician, he wins without a war. And, this is the right path. So, not to fight a war, avoiding a war, is a good thing.
But, avoiding a war, assassinating someone, killing someone, is a very bad thing. But, what happens is, Duryodhana agrees with Shakuni, Karna does not. So, in any social circle, we, especially, we want to be included in that social circle.
For example, if a student goes to a college, there are different groups in the college, some are called cool kids, everyone thinks they are good, great. So, he wants to be included in that. So, what happens is, suppose, there is a child, who has been brought up since childhood, his parents say, do not get into bad habits, do not drink alcohol, do not do drugs, it is a good habit.
But, he comes to the college, and in the college, there is a group of cool kids, everyone drinks alcohol. So, he comes to the party, everyone drinks alcohol. At first, he will say, there is no need to drink alcohol, you can have fun without it.
We can joke with him. He will say, you are a small kid, you are still drinking your mother’s milk, when will you grow up? So, what happens is, when we say something, and he does not accept it, he gets tensed. And sometimes, the kid who does not drink alcohol, later, there is a big party, just to be accepted in that group, what will he do? He will not only drink alcohol, he will drink the most alcohol.
Ok, I am one of you, to show this, he will drink the most. So, now, with Karna, Karna, first of all, says no to Duryodhana. What is the need to do this? But, when Draupadi, when Juha, in that, Karna gives this suggestion, What did you think? Now, Draupadi has become your maid, now, you call her here, and you can make her your slave.
So, now, this is the complete opposition of a Kshatriya. So, now, Karna, what is in that? In that Draupadi-Vastarhan, Karna, it is his worst moment. It is not worst, Karna at his worst.
What does it mean? Karna is not the worst, but he did the worst. There were three things. First of all, it was his suggestion.
He only gave the suggestion, how to do it. And then, after the suggestion, what did he do? He put allegations. So, now, it was such a horrifying idea, to insult someone in public.
So, what did he say? When he was being opposed, he said, what kind of a woman is Draupadi? She is the wife of five husbands. So, she is like a prostitute. He uses the word bandhini.
What does bandhini mean? The prostitute stays in her place and a man goes to her. So, bandhini means she is a home-breaker. Someone is in her house, she goes there and breaks his house.
So, he puts such allegations on her. Now, to insult someone in such a way, it is very bad. Now, Draupadi, she got married to five husbands but she did not do anything special that I want five husbands.
She was in her own house as per her father’s plan. And, her five husbands were accepted by Vyasdev. After that, her father accepted her.
After that, he accepted her. So, this is an allegation. It is false in a cruel way.
But, it is not only false, it is very cruel. It is very evil. It is very insulting.
So, first, he gave this suggestion and then put an allegation on her. But, he did not put an allegation on her. It is called character assassination.
To kill someone in character assassination means to destroy his character. It was a very bad allegation. After that, what did he do? After that, in all the marriages, two people, Vidur opposed a lot.
But, he did not listen to Vidur. After that, Vikarna opposed. Vikarna was one of the Kauravas.
He had a good character. When he opposed, then, Karna silenced him completely. Karna scolded him.
There are big people here. You are a small kid. What do you know? So, he scolded him.
One thing, we are doing wrong. That is a bad thing. But, when someone stops you from doing wrong, you should insult him and silence him.
After that, crushing. Opposition. So, he assassinated his own character.
First of all, he gave a bad suggestion, and then, he silenced him. So, nobody actually behaves well except Draupadi. Draupadi is the most dishonoured and she is the most honourable in her behaviour.
Her behaviour alone is ideal. Nobody’s behaviour is right. Pandavas’ behaviour is also right.
Why Yudhishthira did this? We can talk about that later. But, everybody acts questionably. now, there is a difference between Karna and Duryodhana.
Whatever happens, after that, Karna regrets his actions. Does Duryodhana regret his actions? Yes, he does. But, he regrets that his plan was not successful.
He regrets that he did not do the right thing. His plan was not successful. When Karna talks to Bhishma, on the 10th day of the battle, Bhishma falls down and then he comes to Krishna with the proposal of peace.
He says, I did this to please Duryodhana and I did wrong. I went too far in trying to please Duryodhana. Now, we can understand that somebody thinks that he does not belong here.
But, there is a limit to where you are going. So, what Karna did here, it was horrendously cruel. What he did was horribly cruel.
And, after that, he got a big opportunity. Now, there are many incidents in his life and I will finish in 10 minutes. After that, when the battle was about to happen, before that, the Pandavas tried a lot to prevent the battle.
First of all, they sent Drupad, he was in the kingdom of Virat. Drupad came there because Abhimanyu was married to Uttara. So, Drupad sent his brother Brahman to give him the kingdom.
Then, Dhritarashtra sent Sanjay. Sanjay left. Dhritarashtra rejected his proposal.
Then, Krishna himself went. There were many rounds of negotiation. Now, when Krishna went, Duryodhana rejected his peaceful proposal.
What happened after that? Then, who came? When Krishna was leaving, he said that he wants to talk to Karna. And, when he wanted to talk, he said, the next day, before leaving, Krishna said to Karna that you are actually Kunti’s son. You are Kunti’s elder son.
Kunti had told Karna earlier. It was not a shock for him. But, he said that you come in the Pandavas’ side and you will become the king of the whole world.
All Pandavas, your followers will become like Indra. All the gods are his followers. So, now, Krishna, Krishna offered Karna.
Actually, all the Krishnas offered to Karna. It was all his dreams. One is his lineage.
Lineage means in which clan he is born. So, he gets the lineage. Duryodhana has given him something.
But, he is an outsider. He has been made a king. He was getting lineage and he was getting position, power.
Whatever Duryodhana had given him, Krishna was giving him more than that. So, now, Karna did not accept it. He did not accept it.
And, who did not accept it? There were two reasons for it. Sometimes, we say that he made choices. While making choices, what was he thinking? It is necessary to understand that.
With that, we can see the character of that person. What choice did he make? And, why did he make that choice? So, earlier, he said that when I was born, Kunti left me. Now, my parents have raised me.
Now, in the greed of a kingdom, I will not leave my parents. So, now, who has told him to leave his parents? It is his imagination. Now, Krishna also had two parents.
Krishna himself was Vasudev Devki and Nanda Maharaj Yashoda. So, now, when Krishna went to Vasudev Devki in Mathura, did he reject Nanda Maharaj Yashoda? Did he reject his love? Not at all. Did his parents, who had raised him, feel sad that Karna would have become the king of the world? No.
It was Karna’s imagination that I am doing this. That reason has no substance. But, let us see his thought process.
What will the other say? Duryodhana, having faith in me, fought this war alone. He made an army for the war. And, he is my friend.
I cannot break my promise. I cannot leave him at this time. So, now, here he says one more thing that I had a dream.
In the dream, I saw how Yudhishthir, wearing white clothes, is sitting on a chariot. He is sitting on a chariot, a beautiful white horse, and he is going up. And, Duryodhana is on a cart, not a chariot, but a cart.
And then, he is wearing black clothes. His hair is cut. And, those donkeys are pulling that cart, pulling the cart, and he is going down.
So, I understand that Duryodhana is going to be defeated. Duryodhana is going to be killed. And, Arjun will kill me.
The game that Shakuni had played, the same game will come in the form of Arjun’s arrows. The same game will come in the form of Bheem’s arrows. And, Kauravas are going to be destroyed.
But, still, I will not leave Duryodhana. So, now, the reasoning that I am thinking, is that, to what extent is this right? Suppose, we have a friend, who has helped us a lot. At what time? He comes to us and says, I need a lot of money.
You help me. What can I do for you? I need a lot of money. I don’t have money.
You might say, I can’t do as much as I can. I will try. No, I don’t need money from you.
I have made a plan that I am going to rob a bank. And, you help me. We will rob the bank.
I will get money. You will get money. So, if we say, No, I can’t do that.
How can you be a friend? You don’t help me. So, if someone asks such a question, sometimes, we have to answer the questions. Sometimes, we have to question the questions.
Sometimes, some questions should not be answered. They should be counter-questioned. How can you be a friend? You don’t help me.
We should say, what is the answer? How can you be a friend? How can you be a friend? You are asking such a help from me. So, now, when Karna and Duryodhana became friends, how Duryodhana was unrighteous, Karna might not have known. But, the way he is looking, what happened while looking? He is understanding the character of Duryodhana.
Now, he can say, I will not leave Duryodhana. I will not leave him when he needs me. I will not leave him.
But, I am his friend. He left. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.
So, I will not leave him. Now, he could have thought, if I am his true friend, then I want his well-being. He is leading him on the path of death, on the path of destruction.
If Karna was his true friend, then Karna would have said to Duryodhana, you accept Krishna’s proposal. If you do not accept, then I will accept his proposal. If Karna had not been with Duryodhana, then maybe Duryodhana would not have fought.
Because, Duryodhana had Bhishma, Drona, great warriors, who were more powerful than Karna. But, they did not have any hatred towards Pandavas. So, Duryodhana had faith in their ability, but not in their commitment.
Who had faith in their commitment? Karna. Karna was Arjuna’s representative. So, if Karna had not been with Duryodhana, then maybe Duryodhana would not have fought.
Millions of people would not have died. And if Duryodhana would have fought, then maybe Duryodhana would have understood that Duryodhana could not win. Duryodhana could have settled.
Karna did two things. Karna did very bad during Draupadi’s wedding. But, they would say, this is the situation.
No one did a good thing. Everyone did a bad thing. So, that is terrible, but you could say, it is circumstantial.
They did a bad thing He is not a drunkard, but to show off, he drank a lot. He is bad, but you could say, it is circumstantial. But, when he rejected Krishna’s proposal, it is not circumstantial.
He did it on purpose. He did it knowingly. So, this is very bad.
He did a very bad thing. So, Karna, was he ruined by his fate? Was it the nature that ruined his life? Was it the nature? It was his intention. It was his fate.
He was in a bad situation. But, the reason for his destruction was not his fate, but his choices. Karna’s ruin was not because of past karma.
Past karma means destiny. Because of that, he faced difficulties, but his ruin was his present karma. Present karma means, the choices he made now, that he decided to go against Krishna, to go against Pandavas.
His thought was, if I leave Duryodhana now, then I can’t leave him. It means, he was afraid You sold your friend for your kingdom. Now, who is going to speak like this? Duryodhana or his supporters? So, is there any truth in his words? Sometimes, people say, how to conquer your fears? Actually, no one can conquer all their fears.
And, fear is not a bad thing. Sometimes, fear tells us about danger. So, we can’t, our fears, we can’t conquer our fears.
No one can conquer them. But, we can choose our fears. Which fear do I fear? It means, whose criticism do I fear? Whoever criticises me, I feel bad.
Whatever we do in this world, someone is going to criticise us. It is not possible that we do something and everyone praises us. If we want everyone to praise us, everyone to be happy with us, then we should start a free ice cream distribution charity.
Everyone will be happy. But, some people will criticise whatever we do. whatever we do, some people are going to criticise us.
So, choose whose words you are going to be afraid of. If we do something good, then maybe, we will have some bad people with whom we do bad things. What are you? You are becoming impractical.
You don’t drink, you don’t party. You don’t do anything good. You stay with the devotees.
And you start doing something like this. Then they say, what are you? You are going against religion, against scriptures. Why are you doing like this? Whose words do we fear? We have to decide that.
So, Karna chose the criticism of Duryodhana. He couldn’t bear the criticism of Duryodhana. And in that way, he chose the wrong side.
And because of that, he was destroyed. Now, in the end, we will discuss how Krishna intervened in the battle But, what we have seen in Karna’s life, we will see the summary, what we have done. We have seen three incidents in his life.
So, Karna’s karma is our topic today. What kind of karma did Karna do? So, we all have something to do with our past karma. So, in the first situation, he had to fight for everything, we can say.
For his birth, from birth, he was abandoned. Then, for education, he had to lie. Then, for opportunity, he had to gate-crash.
Now, in Duryodhana’s competition, okay, he did everything. This is maybe not the best, but it is okay. So, what is going on? After that, we saw, his in a way, the degeneration of his character, actually, let’s make it four instead of three.
Secondly, his friendship with Duryodhana, so, what happened? The opportunity he got, his friendship with Duryodhana, when he, okay, can you hear me now? Lost audio. Okay. So, I will just finish this.
We will continue tomorrow. So, what happened in his friendship? First, he took an opportunity for him. Okay.
He got an opportunity, and he didn’t know what Duryodhana was doing. But, what happened? In his friendship, the gambling match, what happened in that? He comes out at his worst. Because, okay, Duryodhana was friends with Duryodhana, but to please Duryodhana, to please Duryodhana, what did he do? He gave a suggestion to Duryodhana, that he should wear Draupadi’s clothes.
He accused Duryodhana that she was like a prostitute. And, the person who opposed him, he also killed him. So, this is Karna coming out at his worst.
But, he can also say, okay, this is not the situation. Is it because of the situation? Someone does bad things. Maybe it is because of the conditions.
Okay, but to what extent is he doing it intentionally? Is he doing it because of the situation? But, the rejecting Krishna’s proposal, what was it? He did it knowingly. It was not circumstantial. What was it? It was intentional.
Circumstantial versus intentional. He is doing it intentionally. And, the reason given is not a valid reason.
So, what did we see? We have to choose our fears. He considers Duryodhana as his friend. He is really Duryodhana’s friend.
So, when he knows that this is the path of destruction, he does not want to go that way. Instead of going with him, that was his best bet to stop him from going in that direction. That he should not go in that direction.
But, unfortunately, he did not accept it. So, the life lesson that we have seen today is to choose our fears. Whose words are we afraid of? Don’t be afraid of anyone’s words.
We do not live like that. We all need acceptance and respect. But, who do we respect? If we respect good people, we will become good.
If we respect bad people, we will become bad. So, that is the decision we all have to make. Thank you very much.
So, let us pray. Lord Krishna, please guide us so that we do not do anything wrong in our lives. Yes.
First of all, thank you for such a wonderful lecture again. It was very insightful. I have three questions for you.
One question at a time. The first one is very small. There are some references of previous lives of Pandavas.
Where can we find that? The references of previous lives of Pandavas are scattered in Mahabharata. It is said that every Pandava was Indra in his previous life. He was in heaven in his previous life.
He was a God. Then he came to earth. For example, Kauravas came from demons and Pandavas came from Gods.
So, that is one reference. In Bhagavatam, Pandavas are the eternal guardians of God. So, they have come from the spiritual world.
So, when we are discussing about ethics and religion, in Bhagavatam, it is not given much emphasis on So, the choices we have made, the circumstances, if we look at it from this life’s perspective, it is much more pragmatic. For information, we like to know who was who in previous life. But for our own decisions, we need a decision We need a path of decision.
So, let’s focus on this life. No, at that time, we did not follow. God tells us God comes when there is a need for religion.
So, when God took incarnation at the time of Mahabharata, at that time, there was a need for religion. So, what is told in scriptures, in scriptures, there are some things which are prescriptive. It means you should do this.
Some things are descriptive. Descriptive means, at that time, I used to be like this. So, I used to be like this, means, I should be like this.
Chaitanya Charitamrita tells us how when Haridas Thakur did not get admission in Jagannath Mandir. Now, is this Chaitanya Charitamrita’s recommendation correct or not? No, it was like this. In scriptures, many things are descriptive.
So, what happened in the beginning of Mahabharata, in the beginning of Kalyug, a little before the beginning of Kalyug, Kalyug has come very close. So, the description of society in Mahabharata is non-ideal. It is not that it is an ideal description of society.
Ok. That incident is different now. Now, it is the incident of Shambhuk.
There are two things in it. First of all, I will narrate that incident. Then we will discuss it.
You know, a Brahmin came and said that my son has died. And he said, Akala has died. And why has Akala died? He said, something is happening in your society, in your kingdom, which is not right.
And because of not being right, it is happening like this. Then, Prabhu Shri Ram sent his message to Shambhuk. He himself saw what was happening.
He saw that there was a Shudra named Shambhuk. And he was doing penance. After doing penance, he went to heaven.
His desire was to become Indra. And in Indra, he wanted to get the wealth of Indra. He wanted to enjoy it.
So, when Prabhu Shri Ram Chandra heard this, he killed Shambhuk. And as soon as he killed Shambhuk, this Brahmin’s son came back to life from death. So, this story, many times, it was a caste discrimination.
He killed a Shudra. He was doing penance. What is wrong in doing penance? So, now, Hare Krishna.
Should we continue tomorrow, bro? It’s happening repeatedly now. Hare Krishna. Anyway, it’s nearly 9 o’clock.
Let’s stop here. In a way, penance for technology. Many times, even demons do penance.
Nowadays, how do we develop technology? By correcting it with science. We try to understand the mechanism of nature. But in Vedic Shastra, a person who does penance, likes the deities of nature and gets some power.
But the feeling is that penance is to get power. Nowadays, technology is to get power. But if by getting technology, someone is going to misuse it.
If someone is going to misuse it, then it should be stopped. When the whole COVID vaccine was spread, now, more or less, it has been confirmed that the Gain of Function in China, they were doing research. There are viruses in nature which are very dangerous.
But the scientists made them more dangerous. Why? Their feeling is that if it becomes like this in the future, then we will already have its medicines. It is called Gain of Function.
But if it has already been made, and it has become illegal, or someone has misused it, then can we make a difference in the society? So, what has happened is more than caste discrimination, it is social protection. It is difficult to understand exactly how it is happening. But if we see the whole story, by stopping penance, by stopping penance, he died and came back to life.
So, that is why, it is more about using austerity for a destructive purpose. Using penance for a destructive purpose. That is the story about it.
So, Shudra, Shambhuke Shudra was the son of a Brahmin. This is incidental. Okay.
Okay. It is already 9 o’clock. Should we continue or should we stop? We will stop.
We will stop. Thank you. As you said, there were some situations in life, and the results are due to Gain.
And some are due to our presence. Some are due to Karma. Is it due to Karma or due to Gain? Actually, in Shastra, there is a branch of six systems of law.
It is called law. In law, it says that whenever there is a problem, first of all, look at the visible cause. Visible cause.
After that, look at the invisible cause. What is the invisible cause? It is the one who can see, who can understand. If I am not working, is the invisible cause discharged? Is the system broken? If we can understand the visible cause, if we can solve it, then we must do it.
But if we can’t understand the visible cause, and can’t solve it, then we must look at the invisible cause. If I have a disease, have I eaten something wrong? Have I gone to an environment where there is an infectious zone? We must look at that. But if it has happened, then we can go to the past karma.
So, go to past karma as an explanation. Only when present karma as an explanation does not make sense. If you have a feeling of insecurity, then what should you do about it? There are many things in this.
I will answer three perspectives. One is, if devotees feel insecure. I will look at it from a philosophical point of view.
Then, we will look at it from a relational point of view. Third, we will look at it from an institutional point of view. So, from a philosophical point of view, first of all, insecurity is not about humility.
Humility is given a lot of importance. And we give importance to develop humility. But to understand humility, we make many mistakes.
So, there is a big difference How is it? We normally say humility. And what is its opposite? Respect. What is the opposite of humility? Ego.
Pride. Arrogance. Normally, we look at it like this.
But actually, it is incomplete. There are three things in Vastu. One is ego.
Second is insecurity. Third is humility. And in between, there is humility.
Ego means I can do everything. I am everything. This is ego.
Insecurity is I can do nothing. I can do nothing. And I am nothing.
I can’t do anything. My life is nothing. What is humility? Humility is I can do some things.
I am God’s creation. I can’t do anything. But I can do some things.
So, sometimes, we say, don’t have ego. So, from that, we can develop insecurity. Insecurity and humility are very different.
Ego is illusionary. Insecurity is I can do nothing. I am everything.
I am nothing. We are created by God. So, insecurity means my life is nothing.
It has no value. Humility means I can’t do everything. So, whatever I can’t do, I accept it.
And whatever I can do, I accept it. So, I can do some things. I am a part of God.
I am not God. So, sometimes, humility and ego are important. But the difference between humility and insecurity needs to be emphasised.
If not, it becomes a pathology. A mind refuses that a person is insecure in the name of humility. So, this is a philosophical difference.
On a relational level, in our relationships, there are always some people who value us and some people devalue us. This happens naturally. For some people, we will do 100 things and they will see that we didn’t do 101 things.
And they will blame us for that. No matter how much we do, they won’t be satisfied. Because at home, there are two brothers and two sisters.
One is good in studies and the other is not. So, parents always compare this brother with another brother. And then, this second brother earns his parents’ praise and tries to make them proud.
And the other brother is good. He is disappointed. He is not as good as the first brother.
So, sometimes there are such people who are difficult to deal with. So, in our relationships, what we have to do is don’t overvalue those who devalue us. There are some people who will never be respected.
or learn to value those who value us. And sometimes it happens in our life that some people respect us and you always speak well of me and we don’t care about what they say. It is possible that they speak well just to encourage us.
It is also possible that they are giving us something good. So don’t devalue those who value us. So if I am giving a class, some people are very excited to listen to it.
Some people are very excited to see the class photo. Now, if I look at the people who come out of the class with enthusiasm, I will be more excited to give the class. If I look at the people who are excited to listen to the class, I will be more excited to give the class.
So the thing is, those who value us, we value them. Those who devalue us, what can we do? We can present as well as we can, but we can’t overvalue them. So on a relational level, if we are having insecurity, then we should see, choose your fear.
Whose words are I getting more and more? After that, there is insecurity. So who is there in my life who encourages me, we all have mistakes, we all have shortcomings, and we have to overcome the shortcomings. It happens gradually, it doesn’t happen overnight.
So who encourages us in that journey? We should see that. And the third thing is on the institutional level. What happens is that in every institution, there are some definitions of success.
What does the institution want to do? So according to that, if someone, now this is called tradition, there can be three main definitions of success. What is it? How many devotees are made? How many books are distributed? How many devotees have been made? How many texts have been written? And how many temples have been constructed? Temple spirit. So these were the three traditional definitions.
Temple spirit means that it has to be quantified, books distribution. So what happens is that whatever the definitions of success of the institution are, the one who fits in that has a lot of qualities. The rest of the devotees can serve in a big way.
If someone pays a lot of attention to the service of the priest, but maybe he doesn’t give much importance to the institution. Institution means where it is, the emphasis of the leadership there. So what happens is that the devotee feels very insecure in that.
Suppose someone is very interested in Shastra, and he is in such a place, he says, I want to read Shastra, Shastra. Do you know philosophy? When you listen to the class, you say, I have to memorise this shloka, I have to understand this, I have to understand that. Why do you put so much time in it? First do some service.
Do this. Distribute books. Do this.
Do that. So what happens is that if we are like this, that our inspiration to serve and the emphasis of the institution, then if there is a difference in that, then there can be insecurity in that too. Then we should make a decision.
That if I want that here, I need appreciation from the leaders of the institution. If I want that, then I have to work according to their definition of success. If I don’t need it so much, it’s not that I want to make them live, it’s not that I want to oppose it.
But if someone wants to distribute a book, then he has to do fundraising. Yes, but if he doesn’t know Shastra, he will appreciate it a little. So he is not going to take so much time that someone is doing fundraising for him, someone is doing his book.
So do I need their association? Do I need their understanding? Then we have to adjust ourselves. So for insecurity, we have to see what is my definition of success? How much should I work towards that? And what is the definition of success in my life? And according to that, our feeling of insecurity will decrease. We have to try ourselves that I have to improve myself, I have to become better myself.
But one thing is that I can’t improve overnight. And the other is that I can improve in some things, but I can’t improve in some things. I have to accept that too.
So that’s why we look at it from a philosophical, psychological, philosophical, relational, institutional perspective. We can see how to overcome insecurity. Okay? Okay, thank you very much.
Okay, shall we continue tomorrow? Will you be there tomorrow? Yeah. You can talk till evening. So in this, the message of the Gita, especially for the corporate people, how it is relevant, that has been explained.
So the Gita is a samvat, so in this too, I have taken the message of the Gita in the form of a conversation. There is a corporate leader who knows the Gita, who wants to know it properly. There is a conversation between them.
There are ten principles. There was a simple diagram, there are diagrams in this book. And on the basis of that, now you yourself, in our practical life, in our daily life, in our spiritual life, how can you help us? For that, you can read it yourself, if you want.
And if you have any friends, who may not be interested in reading Bhagavad Gita directly, then to activate an interest in Bhagavad Gita, this is a book of a link, which if you want, you can take it. I will be here for some time. I can sign the books also.
Thank you very much.