Comparing Ramayana and Mahabharata 2 – How to process adversities constructively
Morning and I'll continue my discussion we started yesterday on the topic of comparing basically we discussed the theme of what do good people do when bad things happen to them I talked based on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the topic was comparing Ram Leela and Krishna Leela yesterday was not much Krishna Leela but actually it's what we are talking about is how Krishna manifests in the devotees lives, it's not directly Krishna Leela, today I'll talk about how the Lord acts so basically the topic which I'll speak on yesterday I spoke about how this great adversity for both the characters in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata that they suddenly exiled and had to live in the forest so then how did they process it so the topic we'll discuss is how do we see God's hand when bad things happen in our life how we process those bad things is God the cause of everything that happens to us including the bad things these are very complicated questions and one I'll start with one key point and then I'll elaborate with respect to the storyline whenever anything happens we try to find some cause for why it is happening and say right now a sparrow had come here, the sparrow was chirping, now you say okay the sparrow is here, you could say what is the cause of that, one cause is the windows are open that's why the sparrow has come so you could just trace the presence of the sparrow to one cause, the window is open but you could escalate it further and say oh the weather is cold and the sparrow also wants warmth that's why the weather is here so you could put the same event in different causal boxes one causal box is the window is open that's why the sparrow is here second causal box is the weather is cold, that's why the sparrow is here, a third causal box could be that maybe there are some food crumbs lying over here so because this place is not so clean, food crumbs are lying, because of one cleanliness the sparrow has come another causal box could be that maybe the sparrow population has increased or whatever it is and there are sparrows everywhere and they are here also so like that the same event can be placed in different causal boxes and based on the causal box that we put it in we will determine what action to take so if the window is open, let's close the window of course, after the sparrow goes out not before, so then that's the way we deal with it another way could be that maybe we need to keep the place clean or maybe we need to consider, maybe we have to create a bird park or bird sanctuary something like that for the birds to stay whatever, so based on which causal framework or causal box we put a particular event in choose the appropriate action accordingly and most of the times when people have mental breakdowns that usually happens because they place the event in a destructive causal box what do I mean by destructive causal box? that say, I was giving a seminar in New Jersey on mental health and spirituality so after that one girl, western girl she was talking and American she said that how she sank into depression so she was studying in a university and along with that she was waiting tables just to earn some money and one day she was carrying a glass of water for a client for a customer and the glass slipped from her hand and it fell down it spilled and it cracked and it's a mess and she said that time the thought came in my mind if I can't carry even a glass of water how am I going to live my life now from how many of her hands water has spilled a glass of water has spilled so my it has happened when it is near a computer then it is a disaster so it has happened in all of us but okay now that could be placed in so many causal boxes because maybe a hand was wet or maybe the glass was slippery or maybe suddenly somebody called out or maybe I was just inattentive but how many of us escalated it into the causal box if I can't carry a glass what is my self worth so why are you putting it in that box so many times when we have when we are dealing with people sometimes people take some small things very personally and say I think this person is very angry why I passed by them and they didn't even look at me well it might be they might be having a lot going on in their lives so what happens is if we in general if we are mentally stable then we almost subconsciously place events in the most constructive causal box in the most constructive causal box and that's how we find out how can I function but when we are mentally unstable or mentally sick then the same events we start placing them in less constructive or sometimes destructive causal boxes and when we place something in a destructive causal box I can't carry even a glass of water what will I do with my life it can be overpowered so when we go through difficulties in life we need to learn what is the most constructive causal box in which to put the particular distress that we are going through so if we don't learn this then that's one way our mind can destroy us sometimes the mind destroys us by just giving destructive desires within us and that is a very direct attack we have some desires which we know are harmful for us but a subtler way the mind destroys us is by giving destructive interpretations to events when we have a destructive interpretation that means it places us in a destructive causal box and then we just become completely disheartened so what are the possible causal boxes in which we could put difficulties so for example now we discussed in the Ramayana when Ram was exiled to the forest Lakshman was putting her in the causal box the king is infatuated with his young wife and that's why he is exiling her Ram said no our father is a person who is a world of honour and he is honouring his world even at great personal cost to him so you see the event is the same Ram is being exiled but one causal box makes Dashrath the victimiser the other causal box sees Dashrath also as a victim, not exactly a victim but as helpless in that situation so what causal box we put something in can lead to a 180 degree opposite interpretation of the same event so normally whenever something something odd happens we immediately try to find out what is the cause of this if I speak something right now and every one of you start glaring at me not just staring but glaring immediately I think what happened, did I speak something wrong or maybe there is somebody behind me who is doing something strange and you are glaring at that person and I don't know so what happens is that we all have to we all consciously, subconsciously place events in certain frameworks, in certain causal boxes and in this this is how we process life and if we can learn to place event in the most constructive causal boxes we can go through almost any difficulty and if our minds are placing events in destructive causal boxes then even the smallest of difficulty can knock us out that is where we talk about mental resilience or inner resilience, resilience comes by the capacity to place events in constructive causal boxes so what are these causal boxes, I gave two examples of say Lakshman and Ram now Ram placed him in a box by which he could maintain his respect for his father and still accept the duty which he had to do a difficult duty it was, going to the forest, now in the case of Yudhishthir we talked about how aware that he was also to be blamed, he was at least made a mistake, he got carried away so now he could have placed it how could I have been so dumb and he could have beaten himself up by it, there is a difference between I am dumb and I did a dumb thing so yes we all sometimes do act in foolish ways but that doesn't make us intrinsically bad or foolish so here I would like to differentiate between weakness and wickedness weakness is where all of us have certain impurities within us it can be lust, it can be anger it can be greed it can be envy and because of this we sometimes do something bad when we do something bad after knowing it immediately our conscious kicks in hey you should not have done that you should not have spoken like this so that is we could say our conditioning our impurity temporarily overpowers we go off track and then we come back whereas wickedness is where a person does wrong and delights in doing wrong in fact the person does wrong in such a way that they think my cleverness is to cover my tracks explicitly so that nobody will catch me so now Yudhishthir's gambling what was that result of weakness Duryodhana inciting Yudhishthir to gamble was wickedness so what happens is that sometimes somebody does something wrong and then we label them based on that such a terrible person we treat them as if they are wicked there are some people who may be wicked but that is very few most people are not wicked most people have weakness and weakness means that they want to do the right thing but sometimes their impurity their conditioning overpowers so Yudhishthir saw that and okay he accepted it now when we talk about God we are going to focus our driving question in this whole series is what do good people do when bad things happen so when bad things happen to us where do we place God in that causal framework in that causal box if we see God sometimes intervenes in miraculous ways and some sceptical people will say that what is the scientific what is the rational explanation for this if Krishna lifts up Govardhan hip how can he do that how can somebody if Krishna lifted up on his finger how did Krishna find the centre of gravity of Govardhan and place his finger over well Krishna doesn't need to find the centre of gravity because he is the source of gravity so he the miracles are not against science they are above science they are above science science is the operational principles by which the lord has arranged for the world to function but he is above the operational principles and he can adjust them as required but in general God doesn't do that and if somebody expects God's help in terms of the operational principles the operational principles will be changed well that's unlikely to happen say if somebody jumps down from a 20 story building and they say God will protect me that is the domain of gravity if you put gravity to test gravity will put you to rest how God will protect me God gives you intelligence so in general a devotee doesn't expect that God intervene within the normal operational principles of the world the world operates according to certain principles and we have to intelligently work within that so it's not that just because we are practising bhakti God will change the rules of the game for us he may give us the intelligence so that we can play the game better but not that he will change the rules of the game so if something bad happens to us now I will put these two points together first point was that we have to put things in the most constructive causal framework and then God can change the God can suspend the principles, the operational principles of nature the laws of nature but God usually does not so then with these two principles the whole thing we are discussing is how do we process adversities in our life so how did Ram process? how did Yudhisthira process? and how did Krishna come into the picture? so in the case of Ram he is himself the divine descended on the world but although he is a divine descended here he doesn't act as if he is omnipotent the idea is in the Ramayan he is demonstrating how an ideal human being is an ideal human being if the human being has omnipotence then you will say you can do anything but so he doesn't act as if he is omnipotent sometimes he does manifest extraordinary powers but even then it's more of an extraordinarily that's an that's an interesting causal box to put it in so now so Ram he displays how he is an ideal human being not by summoning divine powers and then dealing with all situations rather he demonstrates how to respond to adversity with grace and dignity so Ram doesn't blame anyone what does Ram do? he sees it as destiny so this is I'll come to this in a few minutes but let's take up this incident that Lakshman Lakshman is initially angry how could Dashrath do this? he says it's not Dashrath it's Kaikeyi who has given the word who has demanded this Kaikeyi is so selfish it's for no fault of yours she is sending you to the forest don't speak badly about her you know how much she loves you although she is my stepmother her love for me is as much as the love my own mother for me it is like the Ganga flowing incessantly Lakshman is still angry he says that's what I can't understand how did the Ganges river dry up in one night then Ram replies that's why when I heard her speaking those harsh words I understood this is the will of destiny when people's behaviour changes inexplicably why are we doing this? there is some complicated or not see this is the will of destiny and then Lakshman is still angry and he says what destiny? only cowards who call injustice as destiny and accept it heroes fight against injustice Ram says actually for me my primary concern is my duty as a duty to my father I was ready to ascend the throne as a duty to my father I will go to the forest as a part of that duty this explanation this happened because of destiny that will help me that part of that explanation the explanation that this happened because of destiny will help Ram to do that duty most gracefully without resentment without any too many hard feelings in the case of I will give a philosophical framework for this little later but here Ram introduces the concept of destiny now what do we actually mean by destiny? as I said that there are different causal boxes in which we can place this and usually we think of karma as simple and linear I do action A and I get the result B so for example I eat food and I get an urge so yes that's true but it's not just that simple there are other factors which are sometimes invisible and sometimes visible so I may eat food and I get an urge but suppose I have got some disease because of which I can't digest food then I may eat the food but I still don't get an urge so gahana karma yoga the workings of karma are so complex that they can give even complex thinkers a complex so we normally think that this action has an effect but I do this action and I don't get this effect then what's going on then the principle of destiny helps us to expand the framework see the situations that we meet in our lives the results that we get are not determined by our present actions alone it is our present actions plus our past actions at a simple level we can understand this that suppose two students study for an exam both of them study for say 100 hours but in that 100 hours one student gets 100 out of 100 and other students study just as much but they get just 60 now I am thinking why didn't you study why didn't you study now all of us to some extent we are from a material perspective we are playthings in a genetic lottery our IQ is more or less determined at work we can increase it a little bit but from 100 you can make it 110, 120 if somebody has 150, 160 IQ it's a great gift or whatever is a higher IQ so those of us who achieve great things in life to some extent we start with some brilliance so it's not just the amount that we study that determines the brilliance, we have certain IQ and now from the perspective of karma we understand that this is not just a genetic lottery, it is our past life karma which determines the resources that we get in this life so the IQ level that somebody has that, so you could say broadly if you want achievement in life there is talent plus commitment leads to achievement so the commitment is what is in our hand right two people may put the same commitment but A the two have different talents and the achievements will be different and the talent is just a gift so it's not that simple that my action produces the result so now my talent is determined by my past karma and we could say from this life's perspective that's the destiny by destiny sometimes we get some good things, some good resources to move in our life too and by destiny sometimes we get some limitations so usually when we function I eat food, I get energy which is my action and the result so the role of destiny over there is almost invisible but sometimes it becomes extremely visible I eat and then two people make the same food and one of them gets a severe food poisoning other, nothing happens so there are other things going on over here so the whole point is that Ram when he says destiny okay, I didn't do anything to anger this person but why this person come against me like this now it's destiny it's not so much and Ram is also not telling Kaikeyi is a bad person because Kaikeyi is not a bad person Kaikeyi has weakness and that is manipulated by Mata, Mata so he doesn't hold it against he accepts it he treats it as destiny so sometimes when beyond our control beyond our provocation something terrible happens to us so one causal framework that can help us to accept it is destiny okay, something will be this time to happen and I have this love let me accept it now accept it doesn't mean passivity accept it means that that which is unchangeable I accept it so that I can focus on what is changing the situation that Ram had to go to the forest was unchangeable now with what consciousness he will go to the forest that is changeable and he tries to change it he goes as good a consciousness as possible now let's look at Yudhishthira and let's see how Krishna comes in the picture over here so if we consider and the Pandavas are in the forest during this whole incident when Draupadi is about to be disowned by Krishna at that time Krishna offers her an inexhaustible robe but nobody sees Krishna over there she calls out and she desperately calls out and the robe becomes inexhaustible and then her disrober her robe is inexhaustible and her disrober becomes exhausted and then she collapses they give up the attempt that's Krishna's miraculous intervention at one level but all of us in general in our lives some of us might be fortunate enough to see some miraculous intervention of Krishna but for most of us we might not see that miraculous intervention where apparently the laws of nature the operational principles are suspended now we could say that ok Krishna intervened to protect Draupadi couldn't Krishna have intervened to stop Yudhishthira from gambling on her couldn't Krishna have intervened and made sure that Yudhishthira wins the gambling match although he is not skilled when God intervenes that's up to God we can't predict that we can't define that so we have to do the best that we can do and significantly I said Yudhishthira has weakness so when Yudhishthira was in the forest he practised and learned gambling in the forest he already got so much trouble in gambling, why are you practising and learning now because he knew that Duryodhana might challenge him again for a gambling match and he wanted to be prepared so he didn't resent or demand Krishna you should intervene so generally I talk about the framework of destiny why do bad things happen sometimes is destiny, another way of looking at destiny is when something happens to us something bad happens to us there are broadly three factors three causal boxes in which we could put that event does everything that happens is everything that happens God's will what do you think is everything that happens God's will sorry God sanctions yes there is a difference between God's willing and God's sanction so what is it, here we put it as three factors by which actions happen in this world there is God's will, there is free will and there is evil God's will free will and evil so God God's will is ultimately supreme but God's will is supreme doesn't mean that this is the only will that exists he has given everyone of us free will and there is if I think technical there is free will and there is freedom even a prisoner has free will but the prisoner does not have freedom freedom is the area to exercise the freedom the prisoner has free will but the prisoner doesn't have the physical freedom to go wherever they want so now why is that, maybe the prisoner has done something wrong because of which they have been put in that jail where their freedom is restricted, so they may have abused their freedom, may be harmed someone, stolen from someone and that's why their freedom is decreased, is curtailed even within a jail also sometimes somebody might live in a comfortable place, somebody might be in a dungeon where he can't even see the light so it depends on what kind of wrong doing they have done so our free will is never taken away but based on our karma we are all given different degrees of freedom freedom means different different sizes of the area over which we can exercise our free will that is determined by our past karma say if i become angry or you become angry you might just yell at some people or you might just, if you didn't become physically angry, you might physically attack someone if the president of America becomes angry press a few nuclear buttons countries can be destroyed so what is happening over here we all have free will we all can become angry but based on karma the degree of freedom that we have, the area over which we can act according to our free will varies now within this area say somebody is wicked somebody is wicked even if somebody is wicked then they misuse their free will and then what they do during the misuse of their free will that is not god's doing that is god's sanction god's sanction why? say for example, the holocaust is a terrible event which happened in the recent history of course the holocaust is widely known in the mediaeval times there has been a hindu holocaust, so many hindus were killed there are so many communities that have been wiped out but when something like this happens, people ask where is god well it is like the particular kings or heads of state who did the horrible things by their past karma, they were meant to have a certain phenomenal amount of power and that power they had how they used it is up to them and if they abuse it then people get victimised and its atrocious and outrageous such dictators and abusers of power need to be punished but the point is this is not god doing it it is people misusing their free will so what we do with our free will cannot be ascribed to god naadatte kassichit paapam vichai vasukrutam vibham abhyanena vritam jnanam tena muhiyanti jantam asarvam in the govinda fifth chapter 13-14-15 krishna talks about what is called aetiology aetiology is the study of causation what is the actual cause of these things in medicine its often the aetiology of medicine how does this originate so in philosophy also aetiology means the study of causation so krishna says that i am not responsible for the good and bad things that people do they are doing it based on the kind of coverings that are there in their consciousness somebody does bad it is because their consciousness is covered and they are misusing their free will so there are three factors i talked about god's will i talked about god's will and free will third one evil now what is evil there is no such being like satan who is out to make us do bad there is of course the illusive energy maya but she is not evil her purpose is ultimately to test us so i was in australia and somebody asked a question if god wants us to do good things then why are the bad options so many in the world so i said thats how it is in every political choice exam so 5 options 4 wrong the student can say my probability my chance of getting it right is only 20% and you expect me to get 40% to pass its unfair, i will sue you but its not based on probability its based on intelligence its based on preparation so in the world we have given many options because we have free will and free will itself has no meaning if there is no potential to use that free will freely so many people have lower desires and accordingly there are options to fulfil those lower desires evil means that if somebody repeatedly does something wrong then they become habituated to it evil in this sense is like wickedness when people do wrong and they don't even feel that they are doing wrong thats what i want to do, i get joy in that i get joy in hurting people so that is where i get a sense of wow i can see how powerful i am i can cause so much pain that is very dangerous so many people have evil at that time you could say at one level even weakness is evil but weakness is not exactly evil weakness is just impurity which makes us do wrong things but wickedness is there that impurity becomes so deeply entrenched and thats our defined action and rodent environment so now going back to these three things god will, free will and evil we are trying to see how we can process the events the bad things that happen in our life how can we process them in a way which helps us to grow so in the forest krishna at one level in the assembly krishna still grows but then the events keep unfolding and then eventually the pandavas are exiled and then krishna comes there the pandavas in the forest, krishna comes to meet them a drop of rain breaks down and she says krishna i am your friend, i am your relative, i am your devotee i call out to you for help why did you come to help me krishna doesn't have a video how dare you question my plan my plan is perfect no krishna he says i didn't know about the damage evil demon attacked dwaraka and i was busy defending dwaraka as soon as i came to know about what had happened i have immediately come to you and i have heard not only about the terrible thing that happened to you but how gracefully you stuck to the dharma throughout he said oh draupadi, rest assured that those who have wronged you will be punished those who have wronged you will be punished so here we see what happened something terrible happened to draupadi now she could say why did god make this happen god didn't make it happen what krishna does is he helps her to see that this is the result of evil that don't you know evil and he did this and he needs to be punished and he will be punished so again as i talked about weakness and wickedness so we could say whenever we misuse our free will that's wickedness but when we become so habituated to misusing our free will that we don't even think we are doing anything wrong and we are delighted in doing it that becomes evil so when there is weakness for weakness there can be forgiveness for wickedness to give forgiveness is foolishness for wickedness there has to be justice there has to be punishment so what duryodhana did was was it wickedness or wickedness wickedness what kaikeyi did, what was that wickedness so neither ram nor dashrath nor lakshman nor bharat they ever think that kaikeyi should be punished that was wickedness that was out of character of kaikeyi she did some she did some and she was profoundly remorseful and she said that eventually when bharat chided her what have you done she came out of her own stupor and then she was so remorseful that she herself came with bharat asking ram to request ram to come back with her so she overcome her weakness and that's why there is no punishment for wickedness but for duryodhana a punishment because there was no weakness but wickedness now having said this lets now come to how do we process when something bad is happening there is god will there is free will and there is evil so sometimes if we have too sentimental understanding of bhakti then what happens is we start seeing things in inappropriate context so for example one devotee said to me good morning i was going to office and my car got punctured i said i know i didn't chant attentively so krishna punctured my car really really now can you see the real krishna's mind like that well there is no need to escalate everything to the level of krishna there is no need to escalate everything to the level of krishna its ok maybe you didn't pay attention to it lets put it in terms of karma suppose on a cold night like we have now somebody eats 10 ice creams and the next morning ice cream i have a terrible throat and then is this because of past karma yes past karma but past nights karma you don't have to where there is immediate explanation available there is no need to escalate it to some bigger level ya i ate wrongly and that's my fault so prabhupada also when the devotees in london wanted to do a vigraha kshatra so they replicated the car design of the devotees in san francisco where there was car festival but they got a much bigger tower and what happened the weight was so much that when the car was moving the wheels were crumbling and it was a PR disaster they called everybody for the festival and the devotee looked to prabhupada and said prabhupada did our car crumble because of our poor devotion and prabhupada said it crumbled because of your poor engineering so don't escalate everything to krishna now we will say aren't we meant to see krishna and everything but that is in a way that is immoral for our krishna so basically now let's look at it this way that when we are going through difficulties god's role can be broadly in three categories he is the cause of the difficulty he is the comforter amid the difficulty and he is the cure for the difficulty there are three possibilities now when we start seeing god as the cause of our difficulty then in that case what is happening it may be very easy for us we may become resentful of god and god doesn't want the people of india he is a well wisher of india says something bad is happening so ascribe it to god it may well be philosophically also wrong and definitely is devotional now here again this might again be a little complicated and we will have questions and answers to address this there is a difference between the cause of something and the purpose of something the cause is where it comes from the purpose is where it takes us so we can say that god is the purpose of everything that happens even when bad things happen sometimes those bad things they impel us to take more shelter of krishna so in that sense for everything that happens the universe is arranged in such a way that the purpose is that we go closer to god the purpose is that we evolve spiritually and that is krishna's expertise that even when bad things happen he can make his plan work but that doesn't mean he is the cause of something he is not the cause of the bad things happening when ravan abducted sita it's not that it was ram who came in the form of ravan and abducted sita it was not ram doing it, it was ravan doing it it is not god's will it is evil so if we escalate everything to god in our causal works then that can seriously damage our evolution so we have to find appropriate causal works there is no necessarily right or wrong causal works if the sparrow came in is it because the window is open or is it because of the weather being cold it could be both we have to look at what is the most constructive causal works constructive means that based on which we can do something constructive if the weather is warm then there is nothing constructive that i can do if i am in charge of the city maybe i might decide i want to create a boy sanctuary or if i am only in charge of the temple and then i am concerned that the sparrow might distract or the bird might distract then we might decide to close the windows so it's not so much which causal works is right and which causal works is wrong but which causal works is the most constructive so with respect to Yudhisthira he doesn't put the gambling in that causal works i am such a fool i am worthless i can't be a leader let me just quit everything and nor does groper put it in the causal works no i am god doesn't help anyone what is the use of worshipping god so imagine lets say a tiger is chasing a deer and the tiger is closing and closing of course animals don't have their consciousness developed enough to perceive god but suppose hypothetically they have so the deer is praying oh god please save me please let this deer not kill me please let this tiger not kill me and the tiger is praying oh god i am dying of starvation please don't let this deer flee away i need to save my life please let me catch it and eat it now who's prayer will god fulfil so here it depends on the skill if the deer gets caught that means the deer was not skilled enough the tiger was skilled enough the deer slips away that means the tiger was not skilled enough so we want to we can't in the interaction between people when things happen if you start bringing god into every interaction then i think we will not get the formation properly in kunti maharani's prayers 1.8.28 she says 1.8.28 1.8.28 1.8.28 1.8.28 1.8.28 she says my dear god you are 1.8.28 1.8.28 1.8.28 1.8.28 and when there are quarrels there are conflicts among people that is because of their mutual interactions quarrel happens so when one person becomes angry with another person one person does something terrible to the other person so that's not god doing it so that's going to lead to the mahabharat what is the causal framework in which yudhisthira puts it it is a terrible mistake but it is a mistake i have not repeated it it is not that god did not help me but rather this person was evil and that's why he did what he did so when we put things in the appropriate constructive boxes in the appropriate causal boxes then we can process things so i will conclude with a couple of examples of Shri Prabhupada and then we can have few questions so when Shri Prabhupada went to america he came to america you could say he was 69 all alone he had practically no money Shri Prabhupada came with just 40 rupees to america and it's very amazing you know what happened to those 40 rupees in 1968 when Shri Prabhupada went back to india he went back by plane and from the airport when he went to where he was staying he took a rickshaw and for that rickshaw he paid those 40 rupees so Shri Prabhupada came with those 40 rupees and at that time they were not very Indians so Indian currency couldn't even get converted very easily to money so Shri Prabhupada literally came with nothing he came with no money he came with no followers he came with no institutional support he came with next to no contacts and then Shri Prabhupada is on the on the coast of america he is seeing the he is seeing the skyline of america he composes a song and actually even before that Shri Prabhupada came with nothing and the only resource that he had at that time was his own body and that also he had two heart attacks and he had sleep sickness and motion sickness and then somehow he survived and came and what is the first 9 minutes in the song that he composed the prayer to the lord and he composed so he is saying Krishna you are very merciful to me that you brought me here now most of us are thinking where is the mercy there is no money no followers you have no institutional support your body is just barely recovering from a terrible attack where is the mercy so Shri Prabhupada's vision was what frame was he putting in oh i am alone i am resourceless he just felt sorry for himself but what was the mercy Shri Prabhupada felt that at least i have an opportunity to fulfil the instruction of my spiritual master my spiritual master asked me to share Krishna Conscious to do the best in the world and now i have an opportunity so he had for us to do anything we need the opportunity and we need the facility so say for example if i am coming here to your class if i am invited to speak that's an opportunity but then if there are no houses there is no facility so there is opportunity and there is facility so Prabhupada had no facilities but he had opportunity and even for that he was grateful so Prabhupada's gratitude is striking he has nothing and still he was grateful for his grateful because he felt Krishna you need an opportunity to serve me and because of that opportunity he is grateful for that opportunity and for Prabhupada to get to America he is trying for many years and finally he came to America so grateful i have this opportunity and in this session we are talking about the many forms of surrender that was the title of this session so i have not gone directly to surrender but the point is before we can surrender we have to place things in the right causal framework so if there is a practical cause for something and i ascribe it to transcendental cause say for example if i am speaking and nobody is attending now i could say that its Kali Yuga and people are not interested and this is the age where nobody is interested that could be one explanation that nobody is going to be interested or it could be just that the mic is off so nobody is able to hear so when there is a practical explanation we don't have to go to a philosophical explanation so before we can surrender we have to have the right conception of how to surrender so in the case of Ram although he is God he is playing the role of a human being and he surrendered by accepting the inevitable ok i have to go to the forest i go to the forest and he went gracefully so there is one way of surrender where we just accept what is happening to us the other way of surrender is the Pandavas had to go to the forest because they were going to honour their word but they also knew that the Kauravas are wicked and they will try to destroy us so in the forest the Ram more or less was focussing on spiritual growth Ram and Sita would be together in the forest they would have good time and they would talk with the sages learn from the sages, the Pandavas also did that but the Pandavas were prepared Arjuna did austerities and he got celestial weapons Bhima was practising his mace fighting and Vishnu was learning apart from his armours, he was also learning gambling because he knew that eventually a confrontation would come and he would have to prepare for it so in this case surrender can have two distinct forms there is dependence on Krishna and there is diligence for Krishna dependence on Krishna is ok this has happened, this is terrible but i accept it and we have seen God as God in this story and he is dependent on Krishna so Draupadi's surrender which was utterly helpless is reason and dependence on Krishna but the Pandavas when they performed they worked to get better sources for the eventual confrontation that was diligence for Krishna so when do we surrender by dependence and when do we surrender by diligence so in these three things there is free will evil and then there is God so if there is nothing that we have done wrong there is no misuse of free will and there is no evil over then we can say that ok there is some higher plan and let me just do my part this is dependence but if there is something which we can do to fix this that we have acted wrongly and we need to fix this then it is also diligence for Krishna there are some situations where we just go at it suppose we get a terminal disease and whatever therapies we try nothing is going to work then what is dependence on Krishna let me just now absorb myself in Krishna but we are healthy we are energetic we are talented we have inspiration then surrender is by diligence for Krishna diligence means do our very best and this alteration between dependence and diligence this is actually the dance of devotion the dance of devotion is there are times when we are dependent on Krishna and there are times when we are diligent for Krishna so when to do what that depends on which causal framework we are putting causal box we are putting restrictions so now let's go back to Prabhupada's example itself let's go back to Prabhupada's example itself now Prabhupada concludes this song by saying na chao na chao prabhu na chao se mate kamsa tera putra ni chata na chao se mate he is saying that my lord make me dance like a puppet here makes a puppet dance make me dance at one level he is completely dependent on Krishna I don't know what am I going to do whatever you want me to do Krishna will do it but along with that there is also one more thing Prabhupada was a resourceful wherever an opportunity came he took advantage wherever he got opportunities he was taking it slowly slowly so there is so this is in every situation that we are in something is in our control something is beyond our control in the first session I talked about balance the rest of reality and we are in a harmonious situation so for the things that are in our control we surrender by diligence for Krishna and for the things that are not in our control we surrender by dependence on Krishna so suppose we are giving a class and we are speaking about Krishna now for us we should organise our thoughts very very carefully so that we can give the best presentation of the spiritual wisdom that we want to share that is in that we have to be diligent for Krishna but now now what is the mood of the other person how they will think it that we can't control on that from where we are getting the information 20-25 years ago when I started speaking for the first time for Krishna so a senior devotee gave me a list of 10 points of guidelines for speaking in public for Krishna.
The last point was depend on Krishna but in bracket depend on Krishna but only after you have to pay so even if I have to give a class on dependence on Krishna I will first have to have diligence for Krishna so we have both things going on and learning when to do what when to have dependence when to have diligence that requires placing things in the right causal box placing things in the right causal box then you can move forward when Sri Prabhupada was a Jnasi and he had the opportunity to build a temple over a group of devotees he had started and he had done it in a cosmopolitan way this was an international airport of a group of devotees and big people from that part of the country had come for the inauguration but then there was a whole clique against Prabhupada and the place which was supposed to be his airport he was getting evicted from there now Prabhupada could have thought about it but he decided not to go there he said he felt that Jnasi is a too small a city and the people are more religious and spiritual over here and there are not many committed people over here it's not a battle ground just Krishna will open some other road to Prabhupada's walkway so Prabhupada here was dependent on Krishna Krishna will open some other road but when Prabhupada was in Mumbai and they got the land in June it was that time it was remote but Prabhupada was sure enough to see that this is where India was going to grow and they got the land and the person who was selling that land was a double dealing politician so he took the money and then he was not giving the land back so when he tried various means he tried to hire some thousands and attack the devotees so Prabhupada at that time said if he has to steal this temple from Krishna he has to go over my dead body but what a thought Prabhupada was religion is about Krishna so at that time he already had an international movement he had devotees and Mumbai was an important city and a very strategically valuable place so Prabhupada could see that he would fight so Prabhupada put it in the proposal box so this is the time when I have to fight for Krishna so this is the time when Janki put it in the proposal box it is not going to work so when we learn to place things in the most constructive proposal boxes then we will be able to decide which form of surrender is the most appropriate whether it is surrender through dependence or whether it is surrender through allegiance so I will summarise this book today and then we will have some questions so I spoke today on this topic of how to process when bad things happen to us started by talking about how we can place events in various causal boxes, the same we will do a sparrow coming, window is open the weather is cold, sparrow population is increasing the room is empty so which causal box we put it in that is we have to decide that is our intention, when we are mentally stable, we put it not necessarily in the causal box we put it in the right but it is the most constructive where it enables us to do something constructive about it and when we are mentally disturbed or mentally unstable we place events in destructive causal boxes, a glass of water spills from my hand and I think what can I do with my life, I am so useless so with respect to when bad things happen to us so where is God in that? does God protect? what is he doing? God has created certain operational principles in the world and usually he doesn't intervene he can intervene the study of the operational principles of the world is science and God's actions are above science that's why when God intervenes, miracles are not a game science they are above science but a devotee doesn't demand that God intervene repeatedly a devotee's idea is that not that my devotion is God reaching the roots of the game for me, but that I should play the game as well as I should and then how is the game played in the world, how do things happen in the world I talked about when something happens, there can be three levels of boxes in which we are put in, what are those three boxes? three causal boxes God's will, free will and evil so depending on which causal box we are putting it in we will respond appropriately so when some bad people do bad things it is not God doing it, it is they have free will and based on their karma they have certain freedom and if within the sphere of control that they have, if we fall in that sphere, sometimes their bad things bad actions will hurt us and when that happens it's not God doing it so we all have free will and we tend to misuse our free will that is weakness but when the misuse of the free will becomes so habitual that we don't even feel bad while doing it, that is wickedness so for weakness there can be forgiveness but for wickedness forgiveness may be foolishness may be punishment over it so based on which causal box a particular action is put in, is it just I was foolish because of this happened we wish to do that that okay I was naive and I was exploited over there, I will not be naive in future and it don't happen when Ram was sent to the forest he put in a causal box that this is destiny destiny means normally we simply see the linear correlation between my action and the result but our action alone doesn't fulfil it it is talent plus commitment that leads to achievement our present action is commitment but talent is largely by destiny what we get from our past karma so sometimes that is just invisible and sometimes that is visible we eat food sometimes we eat food, we don't get any energy so if we understand, so Ram puts it in the causal box of destiny so that he doesn't feel resentful towards Kaikeyi and he goes to the forest and he focusses primarily on spiritual enrichment, he just accepts it this will happen, it's normal but Pandavas who were in the forest they know the Kauravas are wicked and they have to be prepared so Ram is God but he exhibits here surrender by dependence on Krishna dependence on the Lord acceptance and dependence I accept it, let's see what good comes out of my action and Pandavas they exhibit surrender by diligence for Krishna based on we surrender if something is in our control we surrender by doing it the best that we can and when something is beyond our control we surrender by dependence and if we learn to place things in the right causal boxes then we will know how best to surrender in what situation and in the last session in the evening, I'll talk about both these forms of surrender dependence and diligence now how can they be practically implemented in when we face difficulty we will draw towards the conclusion of both these incidents, Ramayana and Mahabharata that includes the war and in that we will discuss this so are there any questions or comments Hi Krishna so Ram was able to actually see the actions of Kshatriya's destiny because he knew that Kalki was not wicked but on the other hand Yudhisthira was actually preparing for to become better at gambling because he knew that Yudhisthira was wicked so if we try to compare these two situations the response was dependent on the assessment of whether the person who caused it was wicked or it was caused due to weakness so how do we what are the principles for us to actually determine whether someone is wicked and we need to prepare for someone who is doing out of weakness we just have to forgive and move on so like call it as destiny how do we answer this question so how do we know whether somebody is doing something because of weakness or because of wickedness it's tough but broadly there is also three categories the action what comes before the action and what comes after the action that means generally when somebody succumbs to weakness it is largely impulsive it is not premeditated if there is premeditation then it's usually wickedness so now you could say was Kalki's action premeditated yes it was only for one night Bantra influenced her but it's something that requires a lot of planning and coordination it's a conspiracy there can be there can be a crime and there can be a conspiracy a crime can just be what you do, rob something I just see a bag lying on the ground and I think nobody cares let me steal it that's a crime stealing but if somebody makes a whole plan how to rob a bank and they do this and do this that's a conspiracy so we can look at premeditation we can use our own intelligence to understand for doing this what all would be required one is premeditation so before the action what all is required second is that after the action so if you just look at the action it's very difficult to know whether this is because of wickedness or wickedness after the action is there any remorse is there any apology is there any recognition or is there a desire for that so what's the attitude after the act if they justify it this is just the way it is accept it or get out of it if they are not at all apologetic or even remorseful then that's also an indicator that there is a margin of weakness now again any kind of analytical categories we use life is much more complicated than any analytical framework that we use so it could be that some person might have wickedness without themselves being wicked that means in one particular action they behave wickedly and others they might be okay so it's this is a broad categorisation it's not a exhaustive classification of not everybody will neatly fall into wickedness but this is our understanding so this is the remorse and the third would be repetition if they keep repeating it again and again what does that say that fool me, cheat me once cheat me once and I am wicked cheat me twice and you are a cheat cheat me twice and I am a fool so that means if somebody keeps doing the same thing again and again and they don't try to reform and just keep accepting it then it's something we have to check so we can look at what all is the history if we repeat it again and again then that's something which is much more serious so premeditation presence of premeditation presence of remorse and the presence of repetition that's the thing that we see we appreciate any other questions yes you explained two forms of surrender one is dependence on Krishna and then deviance to Krishna and then how one places the event in the appropriate causal boxes to determine the form of surrender so practically I think better people who are able to always place the event in the appropriate causal boxes or some who don't I don't think they would use this framework more of being diligent and wisdom so how does one develop practically this wisdom and being diligent so that on autopilot you are always able to most of the time able to place things in the right causal boxes and then to the right causal boxes yes so we can't really do all this analysis when events happen to us how can we make it more habitual that's why it's something which comes by association if we we see a particular event so we see in Prabhupada's life also when Prabhupada was trying everything and business was collapsing his family was not doing well and everything that he was trying to remember everything was and then Prabhupada says I met my godbrother and my godbrother told me this verse in the Bhagavad Gita that for one whom I am very merciful Krishna says I take everything away from you so that they have nothing except me so everything can be used in the service of Krishna but everything can also become a distraction from Krishna so sometimes Krishna may give us everything so that we can use it in service and sometimes Krishna may take everything away so that we just give ourselves without any distraction so what happened is Prabhupada when he read this verse Prabhupada says illuminating makes sense of it so even for Prabhupada we see from the example of association generally hearing from others it just helps you understand in what causal boxes people are putting things so listening to others even listening to people who disagree with us putting differently from us listening to people can be very interesting if we are really listening now really listening means that we are not just listening to argue to respond to defend but we are trying to understand and especially if he has a spiritual friend spiritual guides they can give us the constructive frameworks to put it and if we sustain the association like that then gradually we develop the ability so usually for major decisions in life guidance and association are important and as we study sculpture internalise sculpture then that placing things in the right framework such happening sometimes we can also learn from experience that sometimes what happens we do something wrong and we just beat ourselves up why did I do that so we might decide that ok I am normal to over sleep and then we end up doing that and we might just beat ourselves up why did I do that why am I so foolish but if we are just beating ourselves up we can think at that time what did I think maybe the mind you woke up.