Crossing the Covid-19 ocean, Lessons from Hanuman’s flight to Lanka, Rama-Navmi Special

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I am grateful to be here with all of you today and so I will speak today on the topic of from the Ramayana of crossing the COVID-19 ocean lessons from Hanuman's journey the Ramayana is a book that has few parallels in world history in terms of the number of people it has inspired and influenced when the British came to India at that time they had their own agendas either it was to westernise India, it was to Christianise India it was basically to make Indians subordinate to the west whether it is western religion or western colonialism western capitalism whatever so after studying India for many decades a prominent British thinker in India, he said that if you want to understand India if you want to understand the Indian mind you need to study the Ramayana so the Ramayana we are taking his statement over here to begin this talk because the Ramayana has influenced the Indian mind in a way that few other books have influenced not just the Indian mind but have influenced the world anywhere and one reason for its enduring influence is its relevance so the Ramayana teaches us spiritual values it teaches us human values so today I will talk about the parallels between Hanuman's enormously challenging journey to Lanka and how we are dealing today with this crisis of the COVID-19 ocean so I will use this, I have a powerpoint but this powerpoint will also serve as a whiteboard where I may write some points as we move forward so the COVID crisis seems to be like an ocean now now we are even using the word waves for it the first wave came and went and there was celebration, India seemed to be like a model for the world of dealing with COVID, the second wave has come and it is becoming quite acute so when we are in the middle of the ocean the ocean seems so large as to appear unending but it does end there is land beyond the ocean and we just need to persevere till we get to the land so in the Ramayana and while there is a whole devotional context but the challenges the characters face the emotions that they go through the decisions that they have to make all these are remarkably similar to what we have to go through the specific actions that they do the specific forms that they have there are demons with four heads and there are monkeys who can fly and all these things are there and they can be explained in appropriate ways but rather than getting caught in those we look at the overall principles that the challenges they face are similar to what we face so let's look at it from that perspective so we can strive to be like Hanuman today is Ram Navami and the glory of God is manifested most fully through the glory of God as manifested in those devoted to Him so the Lord doesn't desire His own glory the Lord desires the glory of those who are devoted to Him and thus there are few better ways to celebrate the appearance of Lord Ram than to celebrate the glorious activities of the greatest devotee of Ram that is Hanuman and to contemplate what He can teach us so Hanuman was flying above this ocean and in that ocean there were dangerous planetary beings, there were heavy huge stormy waves above Him overhead the sun was beating heavily on Him and yet He kept flying so for all of us the world is like an ocean now right now there is the biggest danger of physical infection but it's not just physical infection there is along with it mental dysfunction I've been a part of several conferences and seminars in America on mental health and spirituality and I'm in touch with professionals over there as well as pioneers on mental health and spirituality so they've been telling me that the number of people facing mental health problems in today's world are huge we are so concerned about the epidemic at the physical level but the disruption that it has caused in people's life financially, also not just financially existentially, existentially means we all have a vision of what my life is meant to be how I am meant to live, what life is meant for so that can also get disoriented, what brings meaning to my life so all these oceans, waves are there in it and we want to rise above and we want to move above them so let's see what we can learn from Hanuman about how we can rise and persevere above the ocean of distresses and dangers that surround us in the world today so we look at four virtues that Hanuman manifests during his journey to Lanka he's tireless, resourceful fearless and forceful let's look at them one by one so tireless before we look at the virtues we human beings are inherently purpose-driven creatures so Hanuman had a mission, this depicts the success of his mission and while he was moving he was envisioning the success vision that he will meet Sita and he will talk with her and then he can go back to Ram and report that so Hanuman's mission was to be an instrument of Ram so it is described in the Naam Ramayan that how did the Vanaras progress that they were progressed by remembering that they were working on Ram's behalf so Ram had given him an instruction to locate Sita and when he was going to locate Sita, it was not just to locate Sita it was to reassure Sita that Ram is going to come he is going to rescue you, he is going to deliver you so he had that mission and we humans are inherently purpose-driven creatures if we don't have a purpose, if we don't have a direction then we become overwhelmed by negativity so what could be our mission in this time each of us, we have certain abilities, certain resources of course we have limitations, we have challenges but wherever we are we can become an instrument of divine compassion for helping each other and especially for helping those who are trapped in misery just as Sita was trapped in misery bound, imprisoned by Ravan in Lanka so different people are in different levels of distress now we may say, who am I to help others I am not a medical professional, I can't treat people okay, that's fine but the needs of people are not just medical medical is one aspect of it there are so many ways in which if a heart wants to help many are the ways that the hand can find to help and what happens when we have a mission why is it important to have a sense of purpose have a sense of mission otherwise what happens is we start sinking into ourselves without a mission, without a purpose without a purpose we drown in the ocean of self-pity this problem in my life and that problem in my life and so many things are going wrong in my life and that's how we make our life miserable instead of being a part of the solution, we become part of the problem and paradoxically if we strive to be a part of the solution we find that our own problems also start decreasing so when we say be an instrument of divine compassion what does it mean we all have certain power, we all have certain intelligence we all have certain abilities but our intelligence, our ability if we do whatever we can in a mood of service in a mood of devotion then as God helps those who help themselves if we try to do what we can in a mood of service we'll find that powers greater than ourselves will come to our aid and we will be able to do far more than what we can do so let's look at this theme of an instrument of divine compassion a little later if all this sounds a little lofty we could just think of it in simple terms wherever I am can I make things better instead of worse we may say I am so powerless, what can I do I am so tiny, I am so insignificant yes that is true, we are insignificant now who am I to be an instrument of divine compassion or anything like that so I'll raise one significant point over here so we sometimes feel powerless sometimes we feel are we too tiny to make a difference now of course we are tiny we are very small, the world is very big but we can make a difference how can we know that let's look at it from another way now things may be very bad things are so bad, what can I do about it so we may feel what can I do so we can ask this question to ourselves can I make things worse now we may say what kind of question is that who would want to make things worse things are terrible nobody wants to make things worse but can we make things worse this is no matter how bad things are we never lose the power to make them worse we never lose the power to make them worse we may have a terrible one of our important relationships may be going downhill and we say what can I do about it I can't do anything well just remove all verbal restraint for 10 minutes a relationship we may have cultivated for 10 years can completely get devastated in 10 minutes so no matter how bad things are we never lose the power to make them worse and if we can make things worse we can make them better too if we have the power to make a difference we can make a difference in the negative direction or we can make a difference in the positive direction now how much difference can we make that depends on our vision, our intention, our motivation but we can make a difference the world may be in a big crisis right now but each of us can make a difference there is so much darkness around us our effort may be like a tiny flashlight but even the tiniest of flashlight can provide light it can provide light to us, it can provide light to people around us so that will be our attitude in this discussion how we can make a difference and we all can make a difference so while Hanuman was crossing over the ocean to go toward Lanka he at that time encountered suddenly in his path a mountain rising and that mountain was personified as Mainak and he said that actually I am related to you in various ways and I won't go into the elaboration of the story but he said you are going on an extremely difficult mission and you have been travelling for so long Hanuman had been flying across the ocean leaping across the ocean, whatever word we want to use he said rest on me for some time but Hanuman he said thank you for the offer and he politely touched the mountain top and then he moved on he said I have an urgent mission he took a rain check later, maybe sometime in future so what does it mean Hanuman was focused on his mission he didn't let lethargy or tiredness come in the way he said we may have opportunities for personal comfort right now but we as human beings have much to do to help each other amidst this massive crisis now if you start thinking about personal comfort you may think I can't go out for a walk I can't do this, I can't do that there are so many things I can't do but if you think how can I help so if you place our shared cause above personal comfort during this time I have found that sharing the spiritual wisdom of the Gita can give so much solace and strength to so many people so that's what we are trying to do and there are many ways according to our particular situation our particular position that we can help others actually the more we if our focus becomes seeking comfort and the problem is no amount of comfort is ever enough and then we will always feel like complaining I don't have this, I don't have that so I was just talking with an acquaintance in America and he said I am so miserable he said I am in the hospital I am down with Covid, I am in the hospital and my hospital doesn't have AC it is so hot over here and I told him that here in hospitals in India people are lying in the corridors they don't have oxygen and somehow they are surviving I was shocked when he heard this it is just a matter of perspective when we seek comfort there is no limit to how much comfort we want and we can keep complaining but rather than seeking comfort for ourselves how can I offer help to others and if we focus on that we can be tireless in moving ahead then as Hanuman moved on the next challenge he encountered was Surasa she appeared like a demoness and she was huge and she said I have been given a benediction by the Devatas, by Brahma that whoever passes this way will enter into my mouth now Hanuman what he did was he said ok but I am too big to enter into your mouth and he started becoming bigger and bigger and then she made her mouth bigger and he made his size bigger and she made her mouth bigger and suddenly Hanuman decreased his size he became tiny, entered into her mouth and came out of it and Surasa was pleased he also folded his hands and offered respects to her he said now the word that you had what you wanted that I entered into your mouth I have done that, please let me go ahead in my service to Ram so Surasa smiled and she said yes actually she revealed I am not a demoness I am a goddess I was sent by the Devatas to test you you will face many more obstacles when you go to Lanka and you wanted to see how resourceful you are you are indeed a worthy servant of Ram and may all success come upon you so sorry when dealing with conflicts we need to be resourceful what does resourcefulness mean that means we focus on fulfilling our purpose that doesn't necessarily mean that every obstacle has to be defeated it can just be bypassed so we can think out of the box ok if I can't deal with it this way, can I deal with it that way if I can't deal with it this way, can we do this so sometimes our mind runs on one track this is the problem and this is the solution and this solution is not working, what can I do about it oh there is nothing we can do about it no, we think about out of the box at one level the covid crisis has revealed the fragility of humanity one tiny being which is so tiny that it is invisible even to the bacteria that are invisible to us so viruses are so tiny that even bacteria can't see them and we can't see bacteria so such a tiny being has brought the whole world to a standstill so to speak it is somehow recovering from it so in one sense the covid crisis has revealed our fragility but in other sense it has also revealed our resilience the human capacity to spring back from difficulties physically we can't have talks like this we are having digital talks, people can't commute to office we are working from home so the human spirit is incredibly resilient and to the extent we don't let ourselves let our thoughts, our ideas let our imagination be limited by our situation we will be able to find a way ahead so we need to think out of the box and that's why when we face problems especially obstacles that are coming from someone so Hanuman could have said I will defeat you, I will destroy you so when there are conflicts, what I want and what you want they can be two opposite things either I have to win or you have to win what do we do? but are they really opposite? are there ways in which both wants can be met? if they can be met then there can be a win-win solution so Hanuman was creative enough he wanted to go to Lanka to serve Lord Ram's instructions and Sursa wanted that whoever passed by went through her mouth so he did that, he did that in a resourceful way so to be resourceful what does it mean? that means to not have only one resource this is the only way I will do things to be resourceful, to be full of resources if things can't work this way, let's try this way and this human capacity for resilience that is what raises us above the nature of the world which is filled with distress and ultimately death this resilience ultimately points to transcendence there is a part of us which goes beyond matter we'll talk about in the next part that why do we humans spring back again and again no matter how many difficulties are there, yes sometimes people get crushed sometimes we ask why do people become depressed, why do people become mad with anger why do people commit suicide but actually the question we should be asking is opposite why do so many people not commit suicide why are most people not mad with anger why are most people not depressed life is tough it's incredibly tough and why are not more people depressed, suicidal or maniac that's because within our core within us at our core is a spark of the divine that is inextinguishable that is indestructible that can spring forth from the greatest of difficulties so in one sense if we live with a materialistic view of life then we are limiting our vision to one track but if we get a spiritual vision of life we see life has many tracks things don't move in this track, they can move in this track so one way of becoming resourceful is to expand our vision of life to understand that there are many ways to progress in our life and once we have an expanded vision we can choose our battles choose our battles means that sometimes we need to put small differences and ego issues aside to be of service to each other sometimes I want to do it this way you want to do it this way some people are just by nature irritable so for them the third law the laws of physics apply in a different way for them to every action there is an exaggerated and irritating reaction for everything that happens they'll complain about this and that they'll complain about us, they'll complain about others they'll complain about the weather, they'll complain about the world we might just get annoyed with it, exasperated well if that is the way they are, that is the way they are we can't change it but we don't have to become the way they are just let their words, they come in through one ear, go through another ear we don't have to persuade them, we don't have to listen to them we can just move on in our life sometimes some people just need to vent let them vent and move on so choose your battles, being resourceful means choosing our battles not every battle needs to be won through a direct confrontation sometimes some battles can be just bypassed and we move ahead so the history of human if you can see the history of human society is a history of challenges and meeting challenges and this will go on but through it all, if our wisdom evolves if our spirituality evolves then there is lasting benefit for us and there is lasting benefit for others so then Hanuman met a third demoness that is Simhika, third obstacle rather she was actually the first demoness Surasaya said she was not demoness so Simhika, as Hanuman was flying above, suddenly he felt himself immobilised he was just not able to move, he looked up and he saw he couldn't see anything, he looked around, he couldn't see anything he looked down and he saw this demoness, she was looking up at him with jeering expression on her eyes licking her tongue so she had some mystic powers she was physically far away but from there she could just immobilise him completely she just left him immobilised so when she was like that when I had visited Princeton for speaking I was taken by the organisers to a lab, former lab there where they had, they were studying paranormal phenomena so for example PSI, extra-sensory perception telepathy and other psychokinesis and it's remarkable the amount of evidence that they had accumulated about these issues, so of course that's a different subject but the idea of Simhika just from distance controlling Hanuman it may seem remarkable for us but it's a form of psychokinesis or psychostasis you can say, from distance exerting influence and causing motion she stopped Hanuman from moving and then she started pulling Hanuman down and Hanuman just couldn't do anything but what did he do? he just couldn't do anything he just watched as some force beyond him just drew him down and then he was swallowed but he didn't lose heart he broke through her belly and came out victorious so we need to be fearless and watchful, fearless means sometimes we will be temporarily rendered powerless sometimes situations come in such a way that we can only watch we are just being almost ingested into the situation we just can't do anything we decide I don't want to do this, I don't want to get involved in this but we seem to be dragged into it so at that time rather than getting panicky, rather than being fearful sometimes it's just that things don't work our way but that doesn't mean they will never work our way so we be patient, we be patient wait, we can avoid becoming fearful and we can wait for the opportunity to come and for us opportunity will come in the world there are phases sometimes happiness, sometimes distress Krishna says be equipoised among all now in Bollywood there was a movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam, so the idea is yes happiness and distress will be there neither will be constantly with us but our purpose can be constantly with us and if our purpose itself is only happiness is gaining happiness or avoiding distress then we will feel if we don't get happiness or we get distress our purpose is being thwarted but we are meant for a higher purpose in life our purpose is to manifest our potential to do good in the world and ultimately evolve in consciousness toward the divine so when we have a higher purpose in life then we don't let situations overwhelm us so sometimes we feel trapped just like Simika was immobilised and she was ingesting Hanuman, sometimes we may feel like that, that's what happening to us we may sometimes face failure but failure is one event in life it is never life's defining event everybody faces failure but what spirituality does is it doesn't remove failure from our life but it redefines our relationship with failure this is an important concept what is my relationship with failure what do you mean by relationship with failure when we have a relationship with someone if we have a very bad relationship with someone then what happens, as soon as that person comes we start feeling annoyed, nervous, angry so that means that relationship creates certain emotions within us so what is our relationship with failure if I think failure is so terrible failure is a disaster then what happens is as soon as failure comes that is the relationship that we have corresponding emotions come upon us and then we get overwhelmed but if you understand, failure is a part of life failure is not the whole of life life is not like a 100 metre sprint it is like a 100 mile marathon and even if we fall back in one phase of life it doesn't matter Hanuman failed in trying to avoid or to break free from Simika's grip but he didn't become disheartened so right now we may feel that the COVID situation is such that sometimes we may physically fall sick sometimes we have financial difficulties we feel that the situation is just leaving us helpless it's just drawing us inside we may feel consumed by it but don't lose hope don't lose hope, be patient, be perseverant expanding our vision of life that's what spirituality does as I said that life is not a 100 metre sprint it is it is a 100 mile marathon and when I talk about a 100 mile marathon that actually extends beyond this life it is we are what the spiritual traditions of the world say is that this life is not our only life the Bhakti tradition, the Gita tradition it explains it further that we are non-material beings and we are a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution and that's why even what might seem the ultimate failure death, that is also not the end death is just a comma it's not a full stop we continue to exist beyond death I have written a book, Demystifying Reincarnation where given dozens of cases of children who remember past lives cases that have been very rigorously investigated by top notch researchers so that is one evidence indicative of this expanded vision of life what it does for us is we start seeing if even the ultimate terrible event is just death if that is not a full stop then why should I let the events of this life okay, I lost a job or my health went down or this happened why should I let those events get to me so much yes, sometimes events may suck me in but I can break free I just need to be patient I need to be watchful so we need to wait our time then the last obstacle that Hanuman faced as he flew across the ocean and eventually came to Lanka he wanted to sneak in but then he found this powerful and fearsome demoness who was blocking his way but again Hanuman didn't give in to fear he pressed on she tried to attack him but Hanuman just hit one light slap at her she was so surprised first of all this tiny monkey is attacking me and secondly such was the force he didn't attack her so powerfully as to wound her or kill her but he hit her sufficiently that she fell off and then he went ahead so here sometimes we have to use force the force he used was not to destroy but force was to remove the obstacle from his way life is such that we can't just wait for things to happen if you want things to happen we have to make them happen if you compare the world to be like a hotel it's not a hotel where a waiter or waitress will come to us and ask us what we want like a self-serving restaurant these are all the items over here, what do you want? take a little from here, take a little from there, make your own menu so sometimes we have to exert force we have to throw our weight around it is now one of my friends is in is in Europe and some parts of Europe are aggressively atheistic others are ok, so he is offering spiritual counselling so he offers counselling he is certified in psychology but he is also offering, he brings spiritual insights into his counselling so now often people have concerns secular concerns, they are valid concerns but people shouldn't use somebody's distress to convert someone that is a valid concern but ultimately the point is not converting, the point is assisting so there were so many people during this Covid time who were in severe distress but he was told he is following the Gita spirituality and he said you can't help these people because you are from a different religion he said I am only offering wisdom, I am not trying to convert anyone over here so he says no you can't do it and he told them that there are people in distress they are in trauma, they are emotionally broken down one of the things that modern medical science has found is that if people are emotionally broken then their body also breaks down much faster there is a provocative paper in the journal science where science and spirituality kiss each other what it meant was that if a person is terribly sick with a disease like cancer then if they have people around them who love them, especially if they have a loving spouse a loving partner then people who have that loving support so you could have a control group and a test group so both of them have similar kind of cancer, similar prognosis but those who have a loving support group they get healed faster so he said let me just go there if they object, if they complain, you can send me away even if one person complains, you don't let me enter anywhere but you know how much it is that if people don't get emotional support how they break down so he had to push his weight around so finally they allowed him and then he went and he talked about spiritual wisdom he gave them strength, he gave them solace, he gave them guidance he taught them some breathing exercises, some meditation and he was respectful of their faith and he offered them help see most people in today's world are nominally religious they are not like very deeply religious so ultimately why does any person turn towards religion they turn towards it because they want some resources to face life's challenges so in this humanity in crisis he offered some resources and he was of immense help in fact he has been doing this for several months now and not only that hospital the city over there they gave him a certification thank you for your sterling service in this time of crisis sometimes even when we want to do good things we have to push we have to sometimes throw our weight around just because somebody is obstructing doesn't mean oh what can I do, you stop me for doing good we have to sometimes use force so sometimes we are afraid of people and sometimes we are afraid of using force with people, by force I don't mean physical force or violence I don't mean being abusive what I mean is just don't let others rule over us so any problem whether it is a situation or it is a person they grow threatening the more we let them prey on our mind oh this person stopped me, this person doesn't let me do this and we start feeling sorry for ourselves we start letting the problem grow bigger and bigger and then it preys on our mind our mind becomes like a prey it becomes like a predator and it devours our mind so we may say that to use force properly I need to be free from fear well we can't exactly be free from fear that's why I said fearless it is not so easy to be fearless fearless means it means fear becomes less less than what? less than our purpose to be fearless we don't need absence of fear we need a purpose bigger than fear because he wanted to help people so he was able to overcome that fear Hanuman was alone going into Lanka alone single handedly it was enemy territory filled with powerful demons but his purpose was bigger than his fear so for each one of us if we strive for fearlessness in this way we all can move ahead and whatever challenges we may face we can overcome them so now of course when you talk about fearless being fearless doesn't mean being reckless Hanuman although he had overcome Lanka he kept an inconspicuous form so just because you want to help others doesn't mean that we avoid basic precautions that are required for avoiding infections so many of my friends are in the medical care field and they are careful but they are also they are careful they are not careless but they are not fearful they go and offer service but at the same time they are cautious not to get infections so Hanuman didn't I have overcome this obstacle who can challenge me he didn't court trouble if trouble came he didn't let the trouble stop him but he didn't go about inviting trouble by taking on a big form so be cautious but don't let fear rule your life if fear rules our life we will make our life miserable as it is said a coward dies a thousand deaths before the actual death so ultimately we talked about these four virtues of Hanuman his most defining virtue however was his faith his faithfulness Hanuman as he was leaping across Lanka going through the sky he was constantly chanting the names of Ram Jai Shri Ram so he was chanting the names of Ram in this way and he was chanting them that enabled him to cross over the ocean the faith faith is a remarkable power each of us can have and if we can tap the power of faith some people think of faith as a sign of as a sign of lacking critical intelligence as a sign of blind belief it's not like that everyone has faith it is just what we have faith in when I was invited to Cambridge to speak on science and spirituality I passed by the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling some people say it fell on his head some people say it fell in front of him either way when that apple fell what happened? most of us if an apple fell in front of us we would just pick it up and eat it Newton could have done that but he didn't do that thought what made this apple fall now when he asked this question he had the faith that apples don't fall just by chance that there is a pattern to nature that the nature has an order and it is that order that I can uncover so science and faith are not opposites because science itself is grounded in faith science is grounded in the faith that nature has some order and that we by observing with our senses and by analysing with our mind can discern that order so faith is required in any area of life if you want to make progress but what matters is what do we have faith in so spirituality reveals to us the ultimate object that we can have faith in the ultimate empowerment that we can get through directing our faith in that direction so the vision of faith is that God has not brought us so far to abandon us what do we mean brought us so far if we look at our lives now all of you will be of different ages some may be 20, some 25, some 30, 35, 40 there are millions of people who die before they come to our age if we look at our own lives so many things could have gone wrong we may have worked hard to come where we have come but along with our hard work there are so many things which fell in the right place who did that? we didn't do it it was ultimately something beyond us that did it that something beyond when understood properly is the ultimate reality is God so our very existence is based on forces far beyond us so it is God who has brought us so far not to abandon us he will see us through he will take us all the way so when we remember God we get these three things so faith is not just oh God exists somewhere faith is expressed through devotional remembrance of God so what we are doing in Ram Navami today is remembering the Lord so when we do this remembering is not just chanting his holy names or going to a temple and doing some singing or some worship remembering can be done also by understanding the message of the Lord understanding the wisdom that he has shared so three things will happen by this comfort, clarity and confidence when we remember God then what happens is we understand that no matter how bad things are there is a higher plan there is a purpose for what things are purpose behind whatever is happening that gives us some comfort that gives us some solace and then once we understand there is a purpose behind all that is happening but then there is something I can do within it there is a role I can play when we understand that we get clarity and then as we start doing something positive in a mood of service, in a mood of devotion then we start getting confidence so Hanuman embodies extraordinary confidence as he flew across the ocean to enter into Lanka and eventually emerge victorious the book in which Hanuman's heroics are described is Sundarkand which is one of the most beloved sections of the Ramayana and the Sundarkand is actually very similar to how God exists to how the nature of the world is in the Sundarkand Ram is almost absent Hanuman is dispatched and Hanuman goes through various adventures he finds Sita, he gives a stern warning and a strong message and a strong demonstrative message to the Lanka's citizens and Lanka's monarch by setting it on fire and then he returns victorious to meet Ram so overall in the Sundarkand the Lord is not present except in the hearts of his devotees in the heart of Hanuman primarily so similarly in this world we can't see the presence of God he is there but he is hidden in our hearts but just because he is hidden in our hearts doesn't mean that he is absent or he is important he is there with us to help us so if we strive in a mood following that of Hanuman to try to do something good then we will find that we will all be empowered to make a difference some of us may empower to make far greater difference than others but that doesn't matter at the very least by just trying to act in a mood of service with spiritual wisdom, with spiritual direction we will make our heart brighter we will make our corner of the world brighter and who knows the light that comes from us can make more than our small corner of the world brighter also so that is the enduring message of the Ramayan Lord Ram descends to this world he descended on Ramnami thousands of years ago but that is not just a historical event that is an event that can be replicated in our heart if we invoke our devotion if he descends in our heart he lights our heart and through us he lights our world it is for us to let him do that by opening our heart to his wisdom and his compassion for manifesting in our life and in our world so I will summarise what I spoke today I spoke broadly on the theme of learning from Hanuman's example crossing the covid ocean so just as Hanuman had a mission that was to be an instrument of Ram similarly we all need a mission if we don't have purpose then we sink into the ocean of self pity feeling sorry for all the things that are wrong in our life but if we try to fix something in life not just in our life but in the world around us we take responsibility we find that our problems start becoming smaller and we start gaining a sense of power and purpose more and more so Hanuman's virtues we discussed four virtues first was his tirelessness he didn't accept the comforts of Mainaka but he didn't reject also he politely took a rain check similarly we might be in a comfortable situation right now but there is so much that humanity needs today and we can do if we start obsessing over our comforts there is no end to it but if we focus on trying to be of service we will find that there is so much we can do each one of us so we may feel what difference can I make well can we make things worse yes we all can make things worse then we have the power to make a difference then let's make a positive difference let's try to make things better then the second virtue is resourcefulness Simbika blocked him he just entered into her mouth and came out so rather than thinking it has to be win-lose either I win and you lose or you win and I lose we can think out of the box we don't have to defeat every obstacle how can I just persevere in my purpose if we focus on the purpose we will find ways to move ahead no matter what situations obstruct us Covid-19 has demonstrated the resilience of the human spirit that despite so many problems at a global, social, economic level human society is going on because there is a spark within us spark of the divine that is transcendental that is never limited by anything material and the more we manifest that the more we become resilient the third I talked about was Hanuman's encounter second was Surasa third was Simbika with Simbika he remained fearless although he was swallowed by her but he emerged sometimes situations will leave us helpless and they will just entangle us but rather than losing hope or giving in to fear we wait and opportunity will come failure is not life's divine event it is just an event and to expand our vision resourcefulness means life has multiple tracks not just physical, not just material but also spiritual so similarly if we consider fearlessness if we understand that in life death is not the full stop it is just a comma we are on a multi-life journey and if death itself is not the end then why should we consider some problems in our life to be the end persevere and we will find that opportunities will come for us then talked about Lankini's encounter Hanuman was forceful he didn't let fear of the opponent or fear of even using his force stop him we don't want to be indiscriminately forceful and we don't want to be reckless Hanuman didn't just barge in a giant form he remained inconspicuous even while doing good sometimes we have to use force the world is not going to give things to us on a platter it is not like a restaurant with waiters it is like a self-serve restaurant so if we persist in a worthy cause with a requisite force then we will find that we all can do more things than what we thought we could we can do more good in the world ultimately our purpose is to manifest our potential and to do good in the world in a mood of service to the Lord and for all this be faithful faithful was Hanuman's defining virtue and that enabled him to cross over the ocean and do the wonderful things that he did so for us faith is not just like a religious dogma or some blind belief it is an understanding that there is an order behind the apparent disorder of the world and that is the basis of even science when Newton saw the fruit falling it was a random disorderly event, he saw the order and that is how he came up with the discovery of gravity so for all of us faith means to understand that there is order behind the disorder of the world apparent seeming disorder of the world so with faith we will understand that actually it is God who has brought us this far so many things could have gone wrong in our life but if he has brought us this far he will take us all the way ahead by remembering God we can have comfort we can have clarity, we can have confidence and if we let God manifest in our heart through our devotion then he will light our heart and through us he will light our corner of the world inviting us to do that is the purpose of celebrating festivals like Ram Navami Prabhu, just one doubt sometimes one follows some path which he thinks that it is the path which is meant for him or her but after a long time also that kind of success which is expected is not coming or the average success is coming so how to keep oneself how to take the signal of God so it is like God is saying maybe something else is meant for you and you are walking on the wrong path how to take that message from God if it hasn't been considered for a long time in somebody's life so this is an important question if despite our best efforts for a long time we are only getting moderate success how do we take that I would say we have to look at three things broadly speaking our nature, our endeavour and our culture our culture means our situation our nature, we all have a particular nature sometimes people nowadays say that you can achieve whatever you want in life whatever you desire you can achieve well that is an exaggeration we are all naturally drawn towards certain things we need to find out what it is that we are drawn to what it is we are gifted in what is it that we are interested in and then try to do our best in that field not everybody can become a champion cricketer not everybody can become a great musician not everybody can become a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer especially great in that field so rather than thinking that I can achieve anything that I want and if I can't achieve it that is a failure for me we try to look within, what are my natural gifts what are my natural interests see we can't really choose our interests much our interests choose us what does that mean? that we are naturally attracted, naturally drawn towards certain things so in one sense you could use the metaphor of farming when we are farming we can't make any kind of crop grow on any kind of land we have to understand the land what kind of land do I have, will rice grow over here I might see my friend over there growing mangoes but that land might be different and my land might be different so I have to understand myself so what are my natural interests, what are my natural talents so this is called a Kshetra in the Bhagavad Gita so understand our Kshetra so look back at our lives and to understand what our nature is what our natural gifts are, what our natural interests are we can ask ourselves two questions now what do I feel comfortable doing and what am I competent at doing guna and karma, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita so understand, look at our own nature and second is of course look at the endeavour so going back to the farming agriculture metaphor if it happens that yield is not coming on the ground so it could be because the seeds you have sown are just not suited for that ground second could be that maybe you didn't maybe we didn't farm properly maybe we didn't know how to plough properly maybe we didn't plough adequately, maybe we did things wrong so we have to look at our endeavours, no doubt without that we will not improve and we all have room to improve and thirdly we have to look at the culture by culture means what is the situation in the world around us so the land may be right for growing particular things but if there is no rain over there or weather has become too hot, now because of climate change there are changes in some parts of the world where things which were growing earlier in that part of the world are no longer growing so sometimes despite our best endeavours the situations may be such that things just don't work so we look at our nature we look at our endeavour and we look at our we could say the culture around us or the world around us broadly speaking and then we come to a mature assessment sometimes it's good to write things down if we are going to make a major life changing decision we can't very well think in our head I also do seminars on journaling how to journal to for self understanding, for self transformation so when we get thoughts out of our head and onto paper or onto a screen then the distance between us and those thoughts gives us a greater clarity better perspective so we write down things and then revisit them regularly every week or at a periodic frequency and over a period of time greater clarity will evolve so if it is that we are not working according to our nature then maybe we need to do some change and that voice, that guidance may come from outside that guidance may just come as a voice from inside and if we add to all this, especially the mood of prayer then you know, I want to be I want to do what you want me to do oh lord please guide me so then if we have that prayerful mood of seeking guidance we will get guidance so whether it is the nature something disharmonious with our nature does it mean we can change immediately, do we change gradually or do we do something by the side which is according to our nature while continuing to do what we are doing as our main activity we look at those things and we make a decision do we need to spend more time trying to improve our endeavour or is it just that this particular setting is not suited we look at Srila Prabhupada Srila Prabhupada is one of the most prominent spiritual teachers from India in the 20th century so he for 60 years at the age of almost 70 he went to America and the last 10 years he had phenomenal success in his spiritual outreach and sharing the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita so before that also he was trying for 40 years he was trying in India from 1922 to almost 1966 so he was trying but it didn't work then he eventually realised that India in the immediate pre-independence time and the post-independence times was too politically obsessed to really value its own spirituality so he decided that let me go to the west and he reached to the west at a time when the west was very receptive spiritually and he had phenomenal success and then he came back and then he was successful in India also because Indians were politically obsessed but they were also it was like cultural nationalism foreigners are practising our culture maybe there is something in our culture, we want to learn about it, we want to promote it so in his case he was trying his best it was his calling to share spiritual wisdom but he realised that the situation is different, the situation is not conducive so he changed the situation, he went to a different place but there are other times when he was writing books and he kept writing and then eventually he went on and the principle is sometimes our endeavour needs to improve, sometimes we need to harmonise with our nature and sometimes we need to change our external situations so that we have to contemplate carefully and seek prayerful guidance then we will learn Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Prabhuji, Tushar has one question so he is from COEP earlier and Chetan Sharma Prabhuji is room for conducting Gita class almost like 25 years back I believe so its reunion after 25 years Happy to meet you. How are you doing? I am good.

You are based in Pune only now? Yeah, in Pune only. Excellent, good to see you after a long time. We used to come to C building for the classes.

Can you just expand your photo Anyway, good to see you We used to come to C building for the classes. Yes, I remember that Yes, please tell me You were mentioning about having faith in the purpose and lord but is it different? Faith and devotion are different or they are same? Okay, good question Are faith and devotion same or different? They are very much related in Sanskrit the words are Shraddha and Bhakti or Nishtha you can say and you can also talk about so Shraddha when deepened becomes Nishtha Bhakti when deepened becomes Prema Bhakti Prema. So there are stages you could say but broadly speaking you could say that devotion is more of a emotion whereas faith is more of a conviction that means devotion means that when we remember the lord or when we behold his form in the temple when we hear about his stories we feel a sense of emotional attraction towards him we feel a sense of joy coming up within us so that is devotion whereas faith is more faith can also lead to devotion and devotion can also nourish faith but faith is more a sense of clarity or certainty or conviction that this is the right thing for me to do this is the right path, this is the right goal this is the ultimate reality so it's more a form of conviction or clarity whereas devotion is more we could say a sense of affinity or emotion both are parts of the same relationship with the divine but there is a slightly different focus to each of them ok does it answer your question? thank you Hare Krishna any other questions? Prabhuji, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna some supreme is being evident there is a war, there is a conflict there is everything is there but the situation presently we are having this type of situation has not been in my knowledge has not been written or I have not heard of that yeah good question so in the scriptures are pandemics being described? there are 2-3 different things over here first is the Vedic texts they don't give an exhaustive account of history they give a purposeful account of history see the purpose is to demonstrate or to describe events in the history of humanity where humanity rose to morality and spirituality so for example times when when the divine descended to the world or times when those were virtuous they acted in special ways so its not a chronological history of all events so in that sense there could have been pandemics and they may not be described so its a selective description of history and its selected based on whatever serves a spiritual purpose that is the first point to understand with respect to our scriptures second point is that its also to be understood that diseases don't just occur in a vacuum there is a famous doctor and you could say medical scientist health in the 21st century the future of an illusion so that book basically talks about we may say that by scientific advancement we removed the black plague we almost eliminated smallpox and he says yes that is only part of the story he says that diseases arise because of certain socio-economic, socio-cultural situations and when those socio-cultural situations change the diseases also go away for example the plague that was caused by the by the rats so now as human society moved towards a more urbanised setting as even agriculture changed to agribusiness so rats became less prevalent and therefore diseases caused by rats also became less likely so the point is that diseases are while the principle of disease is something which will always be there dogging humanity but the specific diseases that we get don't exist in a vacuum they arise because of certain socio-cultural socio-economic, socio-political factors so you can say this particular pandemic even if a pandemic like this had occurred in the past it is now that human society at least from the perspective of recorded human history has been far more connected than in the past because of that because of that connectedness this connectedness is because of trade it is because of tourism, it is because of immigration so even in the past epidemic had occurred the black plague actually spread because there were not just traders there were political conquests and so many people went across that's how the plague spread but it spread slowly because we were so interconnected that's why the epidemic wherever it started in Wuhan or wherever from wherever it started it just spread across the world so rapidly before we could come across anything so the scale and the speed of the spread of this pandemic is a result of the socio-economic factors that we have in the world today and when there are not similar socio-economic factors there will be distress, there will be disasters, there will be diseases but they will be of different forms in different parts of the world so we could say this is a product of the socio-economic situation, that's the second point and third point would be that we certainly the pandemic that we have is huge and for most of us in our memory we have never seen anything like this but it's not like that in 1920s there were issues, if you look at even last century there were epidemics but they didn't spread so fast across the world and they didn't cause as much damage as they did because of our particular situation so I would say that even human memory is not that sharp all the time so apart from the scriptural records if you look at other historical records also how much of a historical record do we really have especially if you consider from the perspective of Indian history for a long time the Saraswati river was considered to be mythological river but it was only maybe a decade or so ago that American probes over the Thar desert, over the desert in Rajasthan, they found below the earth the remnants of an extraordinarily large river in fact the river bed was so large that there are evidences of houses being on the river beds that means what happened was the river bed was very large at one time then people normally live on the coast then as the river becomes smaller then the people start coming closer so what was the river bed earlier becomes the river bank so people were living on the river bank and they lived for so long that the imprints, the remnants of their houses are still there on the ground over there and then eventually the river dried up completely so I would say in general the state of archaeological research in India is quite underdeveloped so from historical research were there colossal health calamities like this who knows in future research may tell us more about not just the empirical historical what empirical historical findings may come through archaeology but who knows we may find further documents we know actually if we consider from the historical perspective it's a significant miracle that Vedic culture has survived despite nearly a thousand years of aggression, vandalism, persecution so in India being a tropical country leaves on which books were written they themselves don't last and on top of that if there are aggressors trying to destroy the culture, destroy the wisdom then that will also happen and even if they don't destroy, if they don't support financially then maintaining them will also become difficult so in spite of that we have a significant body of scriptures still remaining the commentators on scriptures if you look at Madhvacharya or Jiva Goswami they say that basically what we have now is barely 1-5% of the broad Vedic canon of scriptures so many are lost so there could be descriptions in those texts also okay, thank you Hare Krishna one last question I'll ask if somebody wants to ask if you want to comment anything you can even share so thank you very much for this opportunity to share spiritual wisdom with all of you sorry Prabhu, I wanted to ask one question I'm just mentioning here I have a couple of sites there is GitaDaily.com where I write everyday on the Bhagavad Gita a small 300 word article there are over 4000 articles there I've been writing for the last more than a decade so you can subscribe for free over there and there is a GitaDaily app also where you can get it as an app on your phone so there is also the spiritual scientist website from which you can also get answers actually beginning of this honeymoon period is over in Bhakti we come to interact with different kind of people we interact with their views perceptions a lot of things bombarding in one of your lectures I heard what is this God business so how do I see people like you surviving after all these so you give practical experience from your life which will help help to stay Krishna conscious forever okay you got my question I didn't put this word properly let me articulate the question and then you can tell me if I got it right so basically we may start practising our spirituality in Krishna consciousness but over time we have different kinds of experiences even while on the spiritual path and we may face difficulties because of even other practitioners because they are all different levels different natures and to persevere through all these obstacles and maintain our spirituality how can we do that was that the question overall yes yes yes yes so my understanding is that all of us gain strength from certain things and we may have a spiritual purpose we start practising spirituality so we have to find out what is it that makes us tick spiritually for some of us the primary fuel on our spiritual journey may be intellectual we may like the wisdom, we may like the philosophy and we get stimulated by that for some of us it may be more cultural cultural means we like to go to a temple we like to see the deities, we like to hear kirtans we like to do worship, we like to go to holy places for some of us it may be more relational relational means that oh I come here and I meet good people they are well behaved, they are virtuous they are caring and I want to be with these people if ever I want to be counted with anyone I want to be counted with these people and not with others so like this I am just giving three, there could be more also but broadly speaking there are certain things like these which are the primary spurs they are the primary fuel on our spiritual journey so once we understand this then the next step is to make sure that that fuel keeps coming to us so if we consider I mentioned three things the fourth thing could be more of emotional or psychological we are just very disturbed by life and meditation or prayer these just make us feel very calm and serene and peaceful and that's what we like we feel good when we come to a temple we come to a spiritual place so it's something related to relational but it's more of emotional, psychological so if we consider these to be four imagine this to be like a circle or a square now at the centre of this square is the ultimate reality, is Krishna and we have all these paths there could be intellectual path, there could be a social relational path there could be a cultural path, there could be a emotional mental path now whichever way we come to Krishna sometimes what happens for us is that particular method for approaching Krishna becomes our substitute for Krishna what I mean is that I come to Krishna because those devoted to Krishna, the devotees are such nice people and then we start taking shelter of the devotees and the devotees nice behaviour instead of Krishna or we may start taking shelter of the of the culture in the temple instead of Krishna, now the culture, the association the philosophy, all these are meant to help us take shelter of Krishna and they will help us definitely but sometimes what is meant to be a means becomes the end and when that happens that's where we become situated on in the Bible it is said the world is like a bridge don't make your home on the bridge, cross over the bridge so for all of us we need to make sure that this is not becoming alternative shelter this is a bridge, by bridge I don't mean it's utilitarian it has to be given up but that so if my primary purpose in associating with devotees is oh because devotees are such nice people but then we will find some devotees may not behave so nicely there could be various reasons for that it could be because of those devotees have their own conditionings sometimes we have certain conditionings because of which we rub them wrongly whatever it is, we will never have a utopia in this world so if we think oh I am with devotees because they behave so nicely and then they don't behave so well then what am I doing being here well I am here not just to be with nice people I am here to be with Krishna and of course we need a supportive social environment and we may have to find the right supportive social environment maybe these people I can't get along, I mean the devotee community is also very large I can't get along with these devotees, that doesn't mean they are bad or I am bad it just means that we are not so compatible so let me find those devotees who are like minded and let me take their shelter similarly if our focus is more intellectual and we hear stimulating wisdom and that inspires us but sometimes we find that we have questions and those questions just don't get answers and we start getting annoyed, what's happening and we ask questions and people say why are you so hyper analytical just be devotional and that vexes us even more so then if our intellectual side is becoming a substitute to our spiritual side instead of being a path to the spiritual side then we need to know that I am here not just to get intellectual stimulating stuff yes I want all this intellectual stimulation to eventually help me develop a spiritual connection and for that spiritual connection what do I need I need to move onwards so of course I may still need intellectual stimulation and then I may have to again find those sources where I can get that intellectual stimulation that may be some kind of classes, some kind of writing, some kind of communicating style I may not be able to gel with it and there are others I might gel with, so I have to find that so we also need to be resourceful to find what it takes for us to keep moving in our spiritual life our spiritual growth is our responsibility it is nobody else's responsibility it is not the devotee community's responsibility it is not any spiritual organisation's responsibility it is not even our spiritual teacher's responsibility it is our responsibility they all can help us so I'll conclude this answer that various things are resources for our spiritual growth when we start thinking of them as the sources of our spirituality then that's where the problem comes they are not sources nor are they destinations they are resources of course they are valuable resources they may be even indispensable resources but they are still resources so to find out what is it that gives you strength and then evaluate how are you using that or accessing that to keep moving toward Krishna and then find out how you can keep gaining access to that keep connecting with that so that you can keep connecting with Krishna that's how we can persevere in our spiritual journey.