Dealing with negative past karma – 3 ways– Karma Philosophy for a Brighter Future part 2 of 5

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So… So, we'll recite this collectively. Om.

Namo. Like I mentioned yesterday. Om refers… Is a generic reference to the… All-pervading Divinity.

The Namo is offering our respects. Bhagwate refers to the… Relational potency within the Divine. And Vasudeva refers to the idea that… The Divine is not somewhere far away.

That the Divine resides within us. And we reside within the Divine. So, let's take three deep breaths.

Together. Om. Namo.

Namo. Bhagwate Vasudevaya Once more, three deep breaths. Om.

Namo. Bhagwate Vasudevaya One last time. Three deep breaths.

Together. Om. Namo.

Bhagwate Vasudevaya Break. Thank you for coming today. And… Let's do a quick recap of what was discussed yesterday.

Those of you who were there… Any of you remember any points from yesterday's discussion? Sorry. Yes. Destiny was the broad topic.

Anything specific within destiny? Smaller picture and bigger picture. To see the karma. Yes, that's a good point.

So, normally we see action. And we get a proportionate result. But, when there is a large action and a small result.

Then we need to consider… A bigger picture that there might be… Some negative action from the past. That might be working to create the result. So… That way we need to expand the picture.

So, action-reaction correlation is there. But, sometimes we may be carrying a… Negative karma baggage from the past. Which may lead to… Actions not leading to results in the present for us.

Anything else? Any other points? Samskara. We didn't really discuss that too much. That's a major subject we are going to discuss today.

But, Samskara are the impressions that are created in the mind. Yes, that's true. Kala.

Deva. Yes, got it. So, there are broadly… You could have two extreme thought systems.

That we can say… How results come. So, when we do some action. Normally I would expect that I am polite with you.

You should be polite with me. But, if I am polite with you now. I have been in the past rude with you.

Then, you may still be cold with me. Even if I am being polite right now. So, when we do an action.

The results come. There could be two broad world views. One is… Only our present actions matter.

So, that is… What is called in the Vedic parlance as… Karma-Vaad. That Vaad is… An argument or a world view. So, Karma-Vaad.

That Karma here refers to… Only our present actions matter. Then the other is… Only our past… That means our destiny matters. So, destiny is basically… Our past actions accumulated together.

That means, whatever I do now. It is going to make no difference. Everything is destined.

Everything is written in our palms. Or in our stars. Or whatever.

So, this is the other extreme. Daiva-Vaad. So, both of these are… Only partial pictures of reality.

The more balanced understanding was… That there are three factors. There is Karma. The present action that we do.

Then there is Daiva. That is the past destiny. That we have.

And then there is… Kaala. Kaala is the time that we go through. And then all these three together lead to… Fala.

Fala is the result. So, we could call this as… If you want to memorise, remember this. 4D is duty.

Plus destiny. Plus duration. That leads to the… Desired result.

So, I gave two examples… To illustrate this. Anyone remember any of the examples? Yeah? Yes. Farmer is… For the farmer, they need to sow the seeds… And plough the land.

That is the duty right now. But then destiny is… Rains. Water supply basically has to… Rains have to come in the right time, in the right quantity.

And then after that… The season has to change. We don't get the harvest immediately. So, time has to pass.

After the time passes, then the… Finally the result will come. That is the harvest will come. What is the second example? The pregnancy of a… Yes.

Say somebody, a couple wants to have a child. Then their uniting… Is what their karma. But then, union automatically doesn't lead to conception.

So, conception… Is due to the destiny. And after conception, it's not the next day the child is born. There is a period of gestation.

So, this same dynamic applies… In every area of life. Two people want to… Do good at music, say. One person may have a lot of talent.

And that talent they have that… By daiva. And then they put in some effort. They are doing the karma.

Everybody has to practise. Even geniuses need to practise. But the time they need to practise may be far lesser.

So, for them… If they have a lot of talent… So… We could say… In terms of… Okay, let's put it this way. So, talent… That comes from daiva. You all have some… I didn't give this example yesterday.

I'm building on that now. The talent will come from daiva. And generally, for a person to have… A positive result to come out… Everybody has some talent.

But along with that, they need a certain level of… Commitment. Commitment. Commitment is in terms of… Steadily doing some activity.

So, we could call that as… Karma. Now… Commitment also involves a certain… Amount of time. But karma is… Okay, I'm going to do this activity diligently.

And then after commitment… Then there has to be… Patience. Patience. So, the patience… I put it here as… The temperament.

Temperament means… Temperament and commitment might be slightly related. But commitment is in terms of doing the activity. Temperament is in terms of… Facing the ups and downs.

Even a person who is very talented… May sometimes meet with failure. They meet with failure… They just give up. Okay, we have all our bad days.

Push through the bad days. So, this is where we are able to go through the karma. And when you go through all these… Then there is… Achievement.

Achievement is the failure that we want to achieve. So, for some people… Who have a lot of talent… Maybe the temperament and commitment… May not play such a big role. Some people may be such geniuses… That even if they have a bad temper… Even if they have a bad… Work ethos… Other people tolerate them… In spite of it all.

Because they are just so good at their area. But somebody else… May not have that much talent. They may have to develop a much more… Even temperament.

They may have to show a lot more commitment. And then they get what they need to get. So, this dynamic of the past and the present… Working together… Is what leads to results.

And then… So… We were discussing basically… How much does destiny control us? Yesterday, we said… Yes, destiny determines our situations. But within those situations… What we do is up to us. So… As an example, I gave about… The scope for destiny and free will.

You remember that example? What was the example? Yes. So, alcohol was one example. Somebody may be an alcoholic.

They may say that… I mean, alcoholic is a good example. It's also a bad example. In the sense that… The alcoholic's conditioning… He cannot say it is by destiny.

But as an example, an alcoholic may say that… I have to drink every 6 hours. Okay. But you can still choose what you do in between the drinks.

Isn't it? So, that kind of person can be a little sober… And do something useful. Or that person can be blaming everyone… For how bad their life is… And not do anything worthwhile. So, another example was like a… Horse tied to a pole.

And if there is a pole… Okay. This doesn't look like a pole. You can see that by destiny… I don't have very good drawing skills.

So, I am not going to draw a horse. And only embarrass myself. This is a horse.

Laughter So… So, the horse… Can move within the… Within the… Circumference of the rope. But beyond that, it can't move. So, we all have a certain range… Within which we have freedom.

So, today our topic will be… We will be exploring… How our past actions and present actions… They unfold. I mentioned one more point… About destiny specifically. Do you remember that point? Are we the masters of our destiny? Yes.

We discussed that. It's a subtle but very significant disturbance. So, masters would mean that… We control it completely.

We are not masters. But that doesn't mean we are puppets or slaves. We are the makers… Of our destiny.

What that means is… That if I am going through this life… And… In the life journey… So, we have a karma baggage… That we are carrying. And this karma baggage from the past… Is what is essentially called as destiny. And there are certain… Instalments of that baggage… That are going to come upon us… During the course of our life.

And we can't avoid those. But… When they come upon us… In this life… How we have lived… Will determine our capacity to deal with them. So… Maybe by our karma… If we are going to do some business… We are going to have some job… We are going to be cheated.

Somebody close to us is going to cheat us financially. That's terrible. And that's going to happen.

But if we have… Developed healthy financial habits… And we learn to save and not spend too much… And not take too much debt… And overall… People see that we are trustworthy and reliable. So, when we run into financial problems… Because of that person betraying us… Then our own habits… Will help us. We will have some savings.

And seeing our habits, people will also trust us. So, the problem will still come… But our capacity to face the problem… Will be better. So… I will build on this particular topic… Of… How destiny and free will work together.

So, today… I will be talking more about the situations that we go through. And then… In our… On Sunday, we will be discussing more about the… Psychological aspects. That… Does destiny make some people particular? Like I talked about… Spending money.

Some people just seem to spend money… And they can't stop spending money. It's like some people are alcoholics… Some people are shopaholics. Shop, shop, shop, shop till you drop.

It's like that. So, is it something which is in our control? Is it not in our control? How much is it in our control? So, all that we will discuss more. But before we go into that… Everything that I am going to speak today… Is based… You can summarise in this one particular diagram.

More like a four quadrant graph. It is… Our present… Actions… And our past actions. So, our present actions can be… This is the positive axis.

This is the negative axis. Now… When I say… Present actions and past actions… What I mean by that is… That by our past actions… If our past actions have been positive… Then… We have a positive destiny. We have some good credits with us.

So… If our past actions have been negative… Say, if somebody's past actions have been positive… Then maybe they have a very healthy and robust body. So, on the other hand… If somebody's past actions have been negative… Maybe their body is very sickly. Some people… They just… They eat a little bit wrong… Or their digestion collapses… Their body bloats out… And… They seem to be very very frail.

There are some other people… Who seem to treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. They eat anything and everything… And still they seem to remain slim… And healthy… And fit… Nothing seems to be happening to them. So… By the way, is my accent not clear? Or is my pronunciation… Am I going too fast? Is overall it understandable? Okay.

If at any time I'm not understandable… Please… Help me understand that I'm not understandable. So, feel free to let me know. I'll slow down.

By my destiny, I think too fast. And when I start to try to speak… As fast as my words are… Thoughts are going… It just becomes difficult. So, I'll try to go slow.

But this is a concept that is very… I am quite excited about this. Because this contains a… Very valuable insight. For us to face… Life when it has… Bring some negative situations in our life.

So, let's consider these four quadrants. But before we go into that… Say, how does our past affect our present? Say… There is a… There are some thieves who live in a particular locality. They are not a gang of thieves.

They are all independent thieves. They all want to rob. And they come to know in a particular bank.

A big cash… Deposit has come over there. And say, six thieves… They all plan, I am going to rob this bank. And now… All of them plan… But five of them fail.

Something goes wrong. This goes wrong. That goes wrong.

The sixth one succeeds. Now… Why did one person succeed and other people fail? Now… Robbing… Is of course bad karma. But… Life is so… Paradoxical, almost ironical… That… To do bad karma, you need good karma.

The thieves who succeeded in robbing… Why did that thief succeed and others fail? It's because that thief… Had some positive karma from the past. And that's why they succeeded. Now… Does that mean… That thief had to rob? No.

By the positive karma from the past… Whatever endeavour… The thief may have tried… They would have been successful. If that thief had tried to build a business… They would have been successful. Now the thief tried to rob… Became successful.

Somebody becomes not just a gangster… But a gang leader. Now, they may rule by fear… But still, even to become a gang leader… A person has to have some leadership abilities. If they had decided to use those leadership abilities… More constructively… They could have become something successful.

So the point is… That when there is success at present… For present success… Present efforts are required… Present karma is required. But some past karma is also required. So consider… Like some kid in school is very mean… But… That kid is mean… But is a weak link.

That kid doesn't have any strong body… That kid doesn't have any good friends… That kid might be mean… But how much harm can that kid do? Maybe the kid is not even very tech savvy… Otherwise they can spread gossip… And hack people's accounts… And do terrible things. But suppose the kid is mean… But is not very intelligent… Not very physically strong… Not very sociable to have friends… Then what is going to happen is… If the present actions are negative… And the past actions are negative also… Then what is going to be… They are like… That person… It may be… It's like mean… But… Relatively harmless… You are getting this? A person like this… Somebody may want to hurt others… But they don't have the capacity to hurt others… So if somebody is present… Karma is bad… And past karma is bad… Then it's a bad situation… But not a very bad situation… Everybody gets angry… Somebody is short tempered… But they don't have much capacity to act out on their anger… And they can't harm others much… Now somebody's… Present actions are good… But their past actions are bad… That reason somebody… Say… Is very hard working… They work in a project or a company… But they work… And somebody else is a little bit more domineering… And they take the credit… And person doesn't get the credit at all… So… This is frustrating at times… Yet… If we understand the philosophy… It can become bearable… Not only bearable… It can actually lead to growth… I'll explain how this can happen… Now… If the past actions are good… And the present actions are good… That is the best… Like somebody is talented… But then they are also a good person… Talented means they have the ability from the past… And they are also… Basically their basic character is good… They are kind, they are helpful… Then they are like a light for the world… And not only they just have a small candle… They can have a large light… They can share with the world… So… If the past actions and the present actions… Both are good… Then you could say that is the best situation… Now… Actually… If the past actions are good… And the present actions are bad… This is the worst situation… Because what is going to happen? Due to past good actions… That person has power… That person has capacities… But then the present actions are bad… So they will keep harming others… And they will succeed in harming others… Now… Everybody may like to gossip about others… Isn't it? You know when you gossip… When does gossip happen? You know when you go… Especially if you are in an office… You go to a water cooler for a sip… You go for a sip and you gossip… So now… Everybody may like to gossip… Generally when do we gossip? Basically there are two conditions… It's when we hear… Something we like… We hear something we like… About someone we don't like… So… If we like that person… Even if we hear something bad about that person… Okay… I don't really have to share about it… If I hear something good I will share… If I hear something bad… Then maybe… I don't want to talk about it… I want to find out… I want to clarify… If we like someone and hear something good about them… We hear something we like… We will want to share and that's good… But when does gossip happen? When we hear something we like… That means something is like a delicious bit of… Bit of negative news about that person… Oh this person pretends to be so good… But this is the reality of this person… In public interest… Now I will share this with everyone… So… Now somebody may want to gossip… But… If somebody is in today's age is like very tech savvy… They hack into somebody's social media account… And find out their secrets… And then they share it… And they share it in such a way that they have an anonymous account… They spread very widely… And that can be nightmare for the person… That can be physical assassination… That can be character assassination… And so if somebody has… Past good karma… By which they have abilities now… They have strengths… But their present karma is bad… Then such… So whereas this person can be a light… For the world… Such a person can be a nightmare… For the world… A burden for the world… Even a terror for the world… So now… If you look at these four broad… Points over here… That our past actions… Are not in our control… Our present actions… Are what are in our control… And now ideally speaking… If we move from this path… If this is one… Two… Three and four… Now best is we would like to be in four… And in our present life… When I say past actions can be good… Past actions can be bad… What it means is… Not that everybody's past actions are always bad… We all go through phases… So sometimes when a phase is bad… When we go through negative phase… That means… Some negative actions from our past… Are unfolding… So it's not that throughout our life… We will be in one of these phases only… In one of these quadrants… We can go through different quadrants… So… Now… As I said our present actions are in our control… Our past actions are not in our control… But… Whatever past actions are there… They create a phase… So… Sometimes the phase might be positive… Sometimes the phase might be negative… So it is important to understand… Which phase am I going through right now… So in one sense you could say… Life is like a tennis match… In a tennis match the player… Is sometimes serving… And the player is sometimes returning… Now when we are serving… At that time… Relatively speaking we have more control… We can choose whether to… Serve into the body of the opposite player… If they have a weak backhand… And attack their backhand… At what height, at what pace… We all have that choice… But when we are returning… It is basically… We just have to get the racket to the ball… And get the ball back into play… So we have less control at that time… And… Similarly based on whether our… So… By our destiny… Sometimes we will be in situations where we have… More freedom… More scope… Sometimes we may have less scope… But when these changes are going on… In our lives… There is something which is always… Available for us… That is the choice of our… Present actions… So yesterday I mentioned this point that… The… Essential implication of karma… Is not so much punishment… That you did something so you have to suffer now… It is encouragement… That our actions matter… Even when they… Don't seem to matter… That… Right now… I am trying to do the right thing… But there are no results coming… That does not mean… Doing the right thing is worthless… It just means… That I am going through a negative phase right now… And because of that negative phase… I am not getting the results… So… When we look at the philosophy of karma… The implication… It could be negative… In terms of punishment… Or I don't know what karma I have done in the past… And I am suffering right now… But the essential implication is positive… It is… Encouragement… That… I am trying to do something now… It is not working… But that does not mean… It is useless… It may take more time… For things to… Manifest their results… So… Sometimes we may be… Learning a particular skill… And there might be… Maybe we are in a particular place… Where… We are not being encouraged… We get a new job… And the workplace is… Maybe a bit terrible… Even toxic… I just want to leave this right now… But that is the only job we have… We need that particular job… And we survive that… Then what is happening is… We may not get success over there… We may not win people over immediately… But… We will learn… How to deal with difficult people… We will learn… How to endure… And grow through such situations… And that could be good for us in the long run… So when we are facing difficult situations… Sometimes… Especially when those difficult situations seem to be unfair… I am trying to do my best… And why is this person doing like this… Why am I being treated like this… So… There are of course situations… There are times when… We should just change the situation… This is too toxic… I just want to leave… I want to get out of here… And it may be required… But that alone may not be the solution… Because sometimes we do need to learn… By going through difficulties… So… If we are put in a situation where… Things… Don't seem to change… Despite our efforts… The philosophy of karma can give us a… Broader vision… Of how can I… Look at this situation… How can I… Move through this situation… So… I will talk about based on this… When we are facing difficulties… I am right now focussing on the… Outer aspect of karma… That when by… Our destiny… We are put in a particular situation… So how do we deal with that situation… Should I just consider… The situation is because of my karma… And so I should just live with it… Or should I change the situation… Like yesterday I mentioned that… If we start thinking… This is because of my past karma… So… I just… That is not meant to make me passive… That is not meant to make me… Helpless… It is actually meant to… Help me become introspective… To see… What is actually required… For me to do… In this particular situation… So… Sometimes… It is that… We may need to change… The situation… So I will use… An acronym… MET… M E T… So… When we face difficult situations… When we face difficulties… Tough situations… We have broadly… Three approaches… For dealing with the situation… First is… Mitigate… Mitigate means… We act to change the situation… Second is… Emigrate… Just leave that situation… I don't want to get… This is too messy… I don't want to get involved in this… Now the third is… Tolerate… How do I decide what to do… These are… Anything we can consider… If we have a relationship… And the relationship is not working… I want to stand up for myself… This person cannot keep treating me like this… And sometimes we may need to have a confrontation… And… Who knows what the result of the confrontation might be… But sometimes… Through those hard discussions… We might come to a better understanding of each other… So that is mitigating… The way you are working with me… I don't like this… Sometimes we may emigrate… I just want to end this… I don't want to be involved in this… Sometimes we may decide to tolerate… This person has this particular quirk… I don't like this… But there are other things I like about this person… So I'll tolerate this… Same way… With a job… So maybe… The work culture is not very good… So we may decide… I'm going to talk with my colleagues… I'm going to talk with my boss… I'm going to complain about this… Express my concerns… And hopeful situations change… Or I may decide that… This is just not working… I'm going to leave this job… And emigrate… Or we may decide that… This is the way things are in this particular place… And although the work culture is bad… But the pay is good… I need the money right now… So I'm going to tolerate it… So all three could be valid approaches… But… How does our… Understanding of karma… Shape it… So should we think that… I'm put in this bad situation by my karma… So… My karma means my past karma… So should I just live with it… And I should not try to change it at all… So I can just tolerate it… Or… Should I… Change the situation… Now broadly speaking… There is… The western world view… And the eastern world view… Now in the west also there are many many different… You could say cultures and ideas… And philosophies… In the east also there are many different cultures and philosophies… So although I'm generalising… I'm not absolutising over here… There will always be exceptions… So… In general… In the east… The culture is more of tolerate… Ok these are difficulties… Just don't get so worked up about it… Just manage it you know… Things are… Nothing is easy in the world… One of the starting truths… In say in the buddhist thought… Similar to what the Gita says is that… The first truth of life is Dukkha… And it's interesting… It's a noble truth… That… Now why is it considered noble truth… We will discuss later… But there is Dukkha everywhere… And trying to run away from it… Is not going to solve the problem… So there will always be problems everywhere… Just learn to tolerate it… So broadly that is the eastern approach… The Gita also says this… The world is… Dukkhalaya… And this is a place of distress… Now as I said… I don't want to generalise… In the west also… The world is a veil of tears… So… The idea that there is distress… And to some extent distress is unavoidable… That leads to the idea that tolerate… The problems are there… Now… Mitigate or emigrate… Is more of a western approach… That doesn't mean it's not done in the east… But… If this particular… In India there haven't hardly any revolutions… Where the masses rebelled against the king… Yes there was an Indian struggle for independence… But in Europe for example… In the west there have been lot of revolutions… The king is tyrannical… We will destroy the king… So… That is… Revolve… Fight to fix the problem… Or… Emigrate… The whole of America started because… Those who went on Mayflower… They found that they are being persecuted in Europe… So they went to America… So that is emigrate… So overall… When we face… Problems… We could take any of these approaches… We could just live with it… Or we either change… The place where we are living… Or in the sense that we fight against the situation… Or we just go away from that situation… Now… When we are trying to do this… Each of these… Could be done in a healthy way… And in an unhealthy way… Now when tolerate… It can go towards a negative… Then what we end up is… We end up not just tolerating… But we suffocate… That… We are just in the name of tolerating… We are not able to do anything at all… Now… Mitigate… It can become negative… When we go towards retaliate… Rather than… Fixing the situation… We start becoming revengeful… You did this to me… So I am going to do this to you… And then it can just lead to a… Cycle of vengeance… That can sometimes go over generations… Or at least years and decades… So… Rather than mitigate is more like… Fix the situation… Fight to fix the situation… Retaliate is… You just want to hit back at the other person… We become fixated with… Getting the other person down… Or knocking out the other person… Now emigrate… It can be done negative… In terms of running away… Escapism… Wherever there is a problem… This is not a good place… I will just go away from here… So… All of these approaches… Can be done negatively… And the negative… Negative in the sense that… That is unhealthy… So broadly… When we are facing difficult situations… What approach… Do we take… To deal… With a difficult situation… So I am in this difficulty… How much of this is due to my past karma… And I can't escape it… So I just live with it… Or how much is it dependent on my present karma… And I need to change it… So if I am sick… Can I say… Oh the sickness is all because of my past karma… So I should not go to a doctor at all… No that would be foolish… Yeah that sickness is there… But… I also have some present responsibility… I need to use my intelligence… And approach… A proper treatment methodology… And now… We may have tried out allopathy and we find it has a lot of side effects… So most of you are yoga practitioners… So now we are practising yoga… We are all doing yoga in some way or the other… So… That is we found that ok… The present actions have to be done… But I have to do it intelligently… I don't want to just take pills in my body… Which will have their own side effects or whatever… So my present actions also I can select intelligently… Now… When we are trying to choose… What should I do… So now… If… We focus only on tolerating… The problem with this is… That there is… Physical stagnation… That means people don't work… To change the situation… This is unfortunately seen in India… You know when Indian philosophical thought… Was discovered by the colonialists… When they came to India… Then… There were some American thinkers… They are called the transcendentalists… Emerson and Thoreau and others… They were fascinated… They didn't travel to India… But they were fascinated by Indian thought… But some of them… They came to India… And one of them made a very striking observation… He said… How is it that… The thoughts of these people… Are so lofty… But their streets are so filthy… That these people thought such great things… But why is their lifestyle… And why is their country and everything… So poor, so pathetic… Not just poverty… But just a general sense of apathy… Now there could be historical and geopolitical reasons for it… But one aspect is… That if too much is accepted… Oh, it's all destined… Then a person doesn't leave… Doesn't try to improve things at the material level… Okay, it's all destined… This is just the way it is limited… Now… If a person is focused too much… On either retaliating or running away… Then that leads to… Mental agitation… This is something which many people… In the… In the western experience… And India also… See, when… We lack a sense of acceptance… Some things are just not in our control… That's just the way life is… I need to accept it… In every situation… You did this, I'm going to hit back at you… You did this, I'm just going to leave this place… Then our mind can't have steadiness… So if we don't accept… That there are some things… That are not in our control… And sometimes bad things just happen… And we need to have that capacity… To accept that… If we lack that, then the mind… Starts becoming wild… Now mental health is a complex issue… And I'm not going to do a single factor analysis… Where I… Reduce mental health problems to just this one cause… But… It is a very important factor… I'll just explain how this happens… Say, loss… Is something that everyone faces in life… Now loss… Is external… It's an event… So you could say, a loss may come to me… By destiny… By my past karma… It might be, I apply for a job… Or I have a job and I lose the job… I'm in a relationship… And some other relationship ends… That's a loss… Now that's an event… Now the experience of the event… That means how do I… Event is external… The experience of the event is internal… So how do I experience the event? That will depend… On… Not just the state of my mind… That's important of course… But also depends on our overall world view… Our self conception… So at one level… I may say, I have lost… And that's a fairly objective evaluation… Yeah… I had this and I lost it… Now a more damaging… Experience could be… I am lost… And I had put… My entire life into this particular relationship… That person was the centre of my life… Now that person has abandoned me… Or that person has betrayed me… What am I going to do now? Where am I going to go? This was a career I was pursuing… Now I was an athlete… And now I got a physical injury that has ended my career… What am I going to do now? So I am lost… That is… A more damaging interpretation… But the most damaging interpretation would be… I am a loser… Now… When a person starts interpreting like this… This is toxic… This is so toxic… That a person even becomes suicidal… You know… If… Say somebody… Has a… And by that… I am unloved… And I am unloveable… There is something wrong with me… Because nobody will ever love me… Now that… Can be a terrible state of mind to be… I am a loser… Now sometimes… Because of destiny… We may be going through a bad phase… You know we apply for one job… And things go wrong… And we lose that job… And we apply for a second job… And we lose that job… And we apply for a third job… And we lose that job… And it is possible to start thinking… I am a loser… And if you start thinking like that… Then what is a problem? We are not denying it is a problem… But a small problem can become… Excessively big… So… Sometimes… We do need to take responsibility… I messed up over here… And I need to improve myself… But sometimes… It is not that I messed up things… It is life is a mess… The world is a mess… And even without… We messing up things… We might be just treated very badly by life… So at such times… If we don't have an understanding of… A broader understanding of past karma… Then what will happen is… We will end up… Beating ourselves down… Too much… Now what exactly is the mind… And how it works… That we will be talking about in future sessions… But… The mental dimension of karma also we will talk about… But right now… This understanding that… When we face a bad situation… Sometimes… It may not be because of our actions… We say it is all because of our actions… In terms of past actions… That is true… But that is not in our control… In my present control… What is there… So considering whether… A particular thing went wrong… Because of something I did… Or it is something I did in the present… Or it is because of something beyond me… That is very important… So… I mentioned this point that… We can either mitigate, immigrate or tolerate… So to some extent… When a person has the capacity to tolerate… Then… Their mental agitation becomes lesser… Sometimes just… Bad things happen in life… So let me just accept it and move on… That is the capacity to tolerate… The word tolerate… It is also… Resilience… More positive word is grit or resilience… Life knocks us down… But we are still ready to rise up… And… So when… So how do I evaluate… That… When I am doing something… And it is not working out… Is it because of my present karma? Is it because of my past karma? And more importantly… What should I do? Should I just live with it? Or should I try to change it? So now… To answer this question… We will have to go into psychological dimensions… But… Which we will be doing in future sessions… But I will make one last point… As a continuation of this point… And then we will have question answers… Here… When we are trying to make decisions… It is important… To try to be… As objective as possible… That… Our own mind… And what role it plays… Since the event is external… The experience is internal… So to try to separate… This is more objective… What actually happened… This is more subjective… So the subjective experience is important… But especially when we are making decisions… We need to be… Try to be as objective as possible… So… For being objective… It is… Important to consider… Ok… I am in this situation right now… What has landed me in this situation? Now sometimes… It is just possible that… The work culture in a particular place is toxic… A particular person is toxic… And… It is best to just leave that place… Leave that person… But sometimes that might not be the solution… So… The thing that is required for this… There are many aspects… But the thing… One key that is required is… Introspection… So… I will talk about three broad things… There is… Introspection… Association… Introspection is… Our own capacity to look at ourselves carefully… So for example… When I am going through life… Introspection is where I am here… And I am walking through life… But it is like I raise myself… Above myself and I look down… What did I do? And… What was I thinking at this particular time? What was this person thinking when they did that? How did I respond? So one powerful tool for introspection is journaling… And… I will talk about journaling in our retreat… When we have ongoing… That will be a major part of our session… But having the capacity for introspection… Hmm… So… That is very helpful… Now association… Is one of the biggest correlators… For mental health is relationships… If a person has good… If a person is lonely… Then they are much more likely… To succumb to more mental health problems… So what happens? I will talk about the mind a bit more… But just a quick understanding… I am here… I am the soul… And my mind is here… So… It is through my mind… That I look at everyone else… So… If say in the past… People have been sweet talkers… And they have exploited me… Taken me for a ride… Then what happens? Most people… We look at through our mind… That means… If somebody is talking sweetly with me… The first thought is… What does this person want? What is the interest of this person? Now it could be that… That person has some selfish motivation… And is trying to exploit us… It could also be that person is actually a nice person… But for most people… We look at them through our mind… And that is natural… That is the way we work… But if we have a close relationship… Then what happens is… I am here… My mind is here… And this person comes here… So what happens is… I look at my mind through this person… Otherwise what happens normally… We would look at that person through our mind… So what does this mean? For example, something bad has happened to me… Let's go back to the point… I am a loser… I tried this… And this didn't work… I am a loser… Nothing is going to work… What is the point of even living? Somebody suddenly thinks like that… But if they have a close friend… Or if somebody is close to them… And that person says… Ok… Yes, you went through this particular situation… But… This happened… You couldn't have predicted this… This was a bad decision… But you learnt from that… And you tried to work it over here… But here when things went wrong… It was because of a different situation… Not the same thing being repeated… The point is… When we have our mind… And our mind is telling us… You are a fool… You are a loser… You are a terrible person… It can be the opposite way also… Our mind can tell us that… We are better than what we think we are… Or we can be worse than what we are… Whichever way it is… We need someone else to help us look at our mind… If you are thinking like this… And this is where you are right… But this is where you might be a little off… You need to evaluate it… So having good association… Helps us… To look at our mind… And this is where… The idea of Satsang… Sangha or Satsanga… Good association… There is association of spiritually minded people… Saintly people… The idea is that… Those who are truly spiritually minded… They are not interested in material gains from us… Everybody in the world is mostly materialistic… And they want something from us… Now… Even spiritually minded people may have some material motivations at times… But their concern is more for us… And that's why… If we have good association… We have trustworthy association… Then that helps us… To be able to look at our mind… And try to understand the situation… More objectively… There is no way… To… Understand the situation… Fully objectively… Because we are subject to human beings… But it is a large help… And the last point I'll talk about is… Meditation… Now introspection and meditation might seem the same… But when I talk about introspection… It is more of self-observation… Meditation… I'm using this… It's more in terms of connecting… With something higher… With something bigger… We meditate on a higher reality… So for example… When we are doing the Kirtan… We are meditating on the sacred sound… Or rather we are meditating… On the sacred… Through the sound… So meditation… What it does… It actually purifies us… It changes the samskaras… In our mind… And it changes the narrative… The story that our mind is telling us… That we will discuss more… But these three things… I use the acronym… We don't take aim for this… What is the problem? Association, introspection, meditation… These three things… Can actually help us… Come to sounder decisions… When I'm facing this particular situation… Should I just accept this? Or should I try to fix this? Or should I just move away from it? How do we decide that? There is no one-size-fits-all formula… It is something which requires… Careful contemplation… And that can happen… In one sense… Through an internal resource… Through an external resource… And through a divine resource… So it's more like… Social… Personal… And devotional or divine resource… So all of these can help us… In better decision making… In better moving forward… So to some extent… The meditation that we do… That is our sadhana… Introspection can also be a part of our sadhana… So satsang and sadhana… These two things can help us… Arrive at better decisions in our life… So I'll summarise what we discussed… So now… All these three aspects… But most importantly… Association, introspection, meditation… Especially introspection and meditation… These two… Will be focussing in our one-day retreat… That we are going to have on Saturday… Where we will go deeper… Into understanding… That… Why does our mind work the way it works? When we make bad decisions… Okay… What prompts us sometimes to make bad decisions? How much can we correct that? All that we will discuss… In that session… But to summarise here… I discussed… Three main points today… So it was… Today our topic was… Dealing with our past or getting past our past… Yesterday we discussed… How much does our past influence us? Then… Today I discussed three points… First was this quadrant diagram… That our present action and our past actions… So… We discussed how… This is mean… But weak, not a terrible situation… So this is bad… But… It can be bearable… It becomes bearable with wisdom… This is the best… If my past and present karma are both good… But if my past karma is good and my present is bad… That is the worst situation to be in… Or rather my past is good and my present is bad… So what happens is… We will become… One person can become a light for the world… And other person can become a nightmare for the world… So… I am trying to decide that my present karma… I want to do good… But how do I decide that? So for that we discussed… That when we face difficulties… We could have three broad approaches to deal with difficulties… So one is… What are three broad things? One is… Me… Mitigate… Mitigate is fight against the situation… To correct the situation… This could be done negatively as… Retaliate… We make it our agenda not to fix the situation… But to hit back at the other person… E was… Emigrate… So this is move out of the situation… This could be done negatively as… Running away… We may escape and then we just keep running away… From one, two and many situations like that… T is… Tolerate… Now tolerating could become negative as… Yeah… We let ourselves stay in a situation where we can do nothing… So broadly… The east is generally involved in tolerating… Where okay… Life is difficult and… There is dukkha, just live with it… But this… While it can lead on a positive side… On negative side it can lead to… Physical stagnation… Physical apathy… Where people don't go through it… On a positive side… This can actually bring a certain level of mental stability… That… Yeah… Tough things happen… We need to learn to live with it… Now this is broadly the ideology of the west… On a… Negative side… This can lead to mental instability… Because our mind goes wild when things go wrong… Although… On a positive side it can lead to… Physical progress… And that is what has happened in the west… That because… We don't just accept situations… We try to fix the situations… So a lot of scientific progress has happened by that… So… Both these approaches can be very led… And to understand… Which one to do… So I discussed about… The role of the mind… So the mind can interpret things… Maybe there is a loss… I have lost… I am lost… I am a loser… So I am a loser… Is a toxic way of looking at things… And we would like to avoid that… So we… To avoid this… We discussed that we can consider… Broadly… Three factors… To decide… That was A.I.M… To decide… To interpret situations in a healthy way… What was caused by my past karma… And I should accept it… What was caused by my present… And it depends on my present… So I should try to change the situation… So A was… Association… Association helps us to look at our mind… More objectively… With the help of… Taking in others inputs… And I was… Introspection… Introspection is where… We try to take time out to look at ourselves… From a… Perspective of ourselves… And then M was… Meditation… Meditation is… So association and introspection are more about… Evaluating our mind… But meditation is more about… Elevating our mind… Not just evaluating it… This is right, this is wrong… This is the way a voice inside me is speaking… But this is where it is right or wrong… But… Meditation is about… Elevating our mind… So we need both these approaches… These two are for… Evaluating our mind… What is the inner voice that is telling me… Is it right or wrong… So through this we can gradually learn to make… Better decisions in our life… So thank you very much… Hare Krishna… Are there any questions or comments… Okay… Yes… Do we have a mic… Yes please… When you talk about… I didn't want to be that loud but… Here we are… So… When you talk about past actions… Do you only refer to the past actions… From the current life… Or past actions… From past lives as well… Past lives as well… Because they also affect us… Sometimes… Some of our situations may come from past actions in this life… But sometimes they are not from this life at all… Say… We are born in a particular country… Where there is a lot of political instability… And political violence… You know… We have not done anything… To do that… To be there… So that's largely because of past actions… So both… But primarily when we are talking about past actions… It is more in terms of things that are unchangeable for us… So that's from the past life… Thank you… Yes… So how to define a karma to be positive or negative… Because as you said yesterday… There is nothing black or white… Everything is grey… And for example… It is supposed that if we donate something to someone… It is considered to be a good karma… But suppose… If I donate someone… Some money… And that person goes and buys alcohol… From that money… And does some crime… Or beats his wife… Then is it a good karma or a bad karma? Ok… So… I am right now… It's an important question… But let's start with where we are right now… When we are talking about our present actions… I am simply talking in terms of… I am in this situation right now… How do I deal with this situation? Ok… I am in a bad job… I am in a difficult relationship… I am in a bad health situation… So how do I deal with that? Yes, we can say… I could do some charity and all that… But how do I deal with that situation? That's what I am focussing on right now… So… In the Mahabharata… Krishna tells Arjuna… That… This is not in the Bhagavad Gita… In this world… Adversities happen to everyone… Bad things happen to the wise people and the unwise people… Everyone… But the difference is… When faced with adversities… The wise… Act in ways that will make things better… Whereas the unwise… Act in ways… That will make things worse… So… When I am talking about good actions and bad actions… Right now I am simply talking about… I am in this situation… What can I do to deal with this situation? Is tolerating… A particular situation… Simply going to make it worse… When the other person keeps exploiting me more and more… Or is tolerating… Going to let this person… This person will leave me alone… And I can go on with my work and… I will move ahead… So it depends… There is no black and white answer… I am talking about it in those terms right now… But… Coming to your specific question… So… When you talk about right action… Or wrong action… I am talking more here in terms of pragmatic terms… Pragmatic means… In terms of its effect… What will help to… Improve the situation… What will lead to… Worsen the situation… So when somebody asks me a question… I tend to give long answers… So now… Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? But it depends on what kind of question is asked… What kind of context I am in… Sometimes I may have to short cut the answer… So I am talking more in terms of pragmatic terms… Now you could talk about right action in ethical terms… Where we are talking about… What are the karmic consequences… In the long run… So with respect to charity… When you talk about it… So generally there are three factors to be considered… In ethics… Whenever we are trying to decide… The content of action… The intent of action… And the consequence of action… Whenever I am trying to decide… What is right or wrong… What exactly is being done… Why is it being done… And what is the result of doing it… And… There are entire ethical schools… Or ethical schools of thought… Which prioritise one over the other… So some people may… Absolutise one of these or prioritise content… So charity is a good thing… And… Giving charity is… If wealthy people give charity… That's what can mitigate so much of the suffering in the world… So anybody who gives charity is a good person… So that's one way of looking at it… Now… Another way of looking at it could be that… Many times people give charity… To just look good in people's eyes… That… Like there is porn, sexual porn… There is what is called poverty porn also… And then you show very terrible images of poverty… And then people give a lot of charity… And then people… Their concern is not so much helping others… As feeling good about themselves… So… Charity is more like a photo op for some people… So there the intent… Is more to show… Charity becomes like a social cosmetic… Rather than a social cure… So the intent is important… The consequence also is important… Ok… When I am giving charity… Is it actually helping the person? Or is it letting the person harm them? Is it enabling the person to harm them? Let's say somebody is an addict… And if they are given money… Then what are they going to do with that money? They are most likely to harm themselves… So… Now a holistic vision will consider all these three things… Now which should be considered more important… And which should be considered less important… That has to be decided according to the circumstances… But all three factors need to be considered… But we cannot see the consequence… So generally speaking… As far as possible… We should try to see the consequence… So if somebody is poor… Instead of giving them money… We could give them food… Food is not so easy to abuse… Or… Instead of giving a person just money… Try to give them a job… So if they take up a job… That will solve that problem in a more effective way… So within our capacity… We try to see whether all three can be positively affected… Ok… Thank you… Hare Krishna Prabhu… I want to ask the question about… It's like… Very rarely discussed in the conversations… And it's more related to psychology also… Like… How would you define… Like the suicide… Like in India also… It's growing a lot… India is like one of the… How to say… The most affected country for the suicide also… Because we are the youngest country in the world… So how would you define and correlate… To the karma… The suicide and all… Thank you… Well… Suicide is tragic whenever it happens… Now… Essentially… Suicide from a… Psychological perspective… What is happening is basically… The mind is killing the body… Basically… Now there are times when people are starving… They are in terrible pain and they end their life… But more often… It's more like psychological pain than physical pain… So… The mind loses hope… The mind just… Suicide is the ultimate… You could say… The ultimate triumph of despair over hope… We all need some hope in life… And when there is no hope left… And there is only despair… So… In terms of karma… It's not that… Anybody is ever… Forced to commit suicide… Suicide is at one level of choice… And… Can somebody be put in situations… Where that can seem… Not only a… Feasible option… But the only feasible option… Well… Yes… You can be put in those situations… But I doubt whether… Somebody can be put in those situations… Entirely by past karma… Like I said… Sometimes terrible things can happen… Suppose somebody at the same time… Loses their job… And at the same time… There is a recession… Or some stock market crash… And they lose all their money at the same time… Maybe… Their spouse or partner lose them… Same time they are diagnosed with a serious disease… Four serious problems coming at the same time… It can break anyone down… But… If they have lived their life in such a way… They have tried to continue relationships… They have tried to… Develop friends… They have tried to live in a healthy way… And they will also have some resources to deal with that… So if somebody has been… Unidimensional… Only pursuing success… Or some people… Are not seeking any deep relationships… They are just… Seeking just… Superficial sexual experiences… Without any deep connections… Then… They just become extremely lonely at that time… They feel… They have been using others… And when they are of no use to others… They may not have any need… So… The situations that can prompt one to suicide… May come because of past karma… But… In general… Our past… How does our past… Lead to our present? The past… Never compels… But… It can impel… Impel means… Push us towards particular choices… But… Compel is to force… Like somebody is born in a bad neighbourhood… Now… There… It is… That bad neighbourhood… Bad neighbourhood means that everybody drinks over there… Everybody does some crime over there… It is quite likely that… They will also become… Get into those kind of habits and behaviours… But it is not necessary… So there is always… Some room for freedom… So… Suicide is like that… At an individual level… A person should try to cultivate support systems… And society should also be… Providing support systems… It is… Not just in terms of mental health counselling… So… While suicide is often considered to be a mental health problem… And… Having suicide helplines… Or having… Access to mental health services… Is important… But there is… A social and a philosophical aspect to it… That… When you want to consider suicide prevention… That… There is… A psychological aspect to it… But it is not only a psychological problem… That's how it is… Mostly being reduced to in today's world… But there is also a social dimension to it… How much you… I have a friend with California who is a therapist… He said that… Actually after the pandemic ended… There was a pandemic… Not a pandemic but there was a huge surge in… People coming with mental health problems… Because humans are not meant to live… Like a lockdown alone for so long… So social support is important… And there is… The philosophical aspect… Philosophical spiritual aspect also… What is the world view that I have… And if somebody… Understands the world view… Or has a world view which can… Accommodate suffering… Accommodate even unfair… Undeserved… Seemingly unbearable suffering… Then that is… Easier for them to deal with it… That's why this one correlation of people… If they have some… Religious or spiritual practises… Then… Many studies show that such people are… Less prone to suicide… Not that they are not at all… But much less prone… So if we have a world view that can accommodate… Unfair suffering in life… That is very helpful also… Thank you, thank you very much… Do we have time for questions? Yes, please… Hello sir… Sorry, my voice… Is a little broken but… I will try to make it… So, I understand the concept of… Karma… As a personal karma… But in some situation… It seems like… Karmas are interconnected… Between people… Let's say… As I was single before… I had my own karma… But now I'm married… And I'm living with my husband… And I feel like sometimes… His karma… Affect my karma… And you can extend this to your family… Like parents and all… But… His karma… Has nothing to do with mine… But still I feel like… It also affects my life… At some extent… So, how can you explain this? Yes… It does affect… Like… We are born in a particular country… We are born in a particular family… And say the family we are born in is poor… Or the family we are born in is wealthy… That is a big… Instalment of our own karma… Coming to the family situation… So… Now… In a particular situation… Where does my karma end? And where does someone else's karma begin? Especially when we are in a relationship… It's very difficult… To try to evaluate that… Yesterday I mentioned that… I got this polio because… The vaccine… That was given to me… Was defective… That basically it was too much… Because the refrigeration was off… In that particular fridge what happened was… That… The polio vaccine ended up having too much polio virus in it… And that gave the… Now… To what extent was it because of my past karma? To what extent is it the doctor's responsibility? To what extent can I say… It was my mother who took me to that doctor… My mother could have taken me to some other doctor… These are difficult situations… So… In general… If we start trying to very rigidly separate… This is your karma… And this is my karma… Then relationships will become very difficult… So… To some extent… One aspect of… Forming a relationship… Is that… That relationship becomes a buffer… For both people… For dealing with life's challenges… Sometimes I am going through a bad karma phase… And… My family, my friends… They will help me in that… And sometimes they are going through a bad phase… And I help them in that… So… Trying to too rigidly analyse… What is whose karma… That can make things complicated… Of course we can say that… Say if one person falls sick… Then it's their karma… But because we are in that relationship… We have to take care of them… So if somebody has a child who is autistic… Now… Autistic children can also be brilliant in their own way at times… But they need a lot more… Say… Support… In terms of parenting… Then what are the children needing? So it is a difficult situation… So here… I didn't get time to introduce this concept… But there is… The concept of dharma… Dharma… In this context means GD… That… So I will talk more about this in our future sessions… But since you brought this question… The key point is… Not… What is whose karma… The key point is… What is my dharma? What is… The responsible thing for me to do in this situation? What is my responsibility? If we start analysing… What is whose karma? You know… We can become very heartless… Say for example… If a mother has a newborn baby… And the newborn baby is crying… Should the mother think that… Oh! This is the baby's karma because of which the baby is crying… Not just heartless… But monstrous… Now at the same time… Sometimes it can happen that… The baby has some disease… And no matter how much the mother tries to comfort the baby… No matter how much the mother tries to… Offer the treatment to the baby… Still the baby is crying… So after… We have done our dharma… After we have done our part… If things don't get fixed… At that time we can accept… That you know this is… This is my karma and I need to live with it… But… If we start jumping to… People's past karma… Right in the beginning… Now that will… That will lead to no… Responsible relationship being possible… Isn't it? Say if somebody is robbed… And they go to the police… And the police say it is your own karma that you got robbed… The point here is… Whenever somebody is suffering… This is a… So whenever there is suffering… Our focus… Should not be… On their karma… Our focus should be… On our dharma… The police… Is being paid… To prevent crime… That is their job right now… Now can police completely wipe out crime? No they can't… So sometimes the police may… Try to find something that has been robbed… And sometimes they succeed… And sometimes they don't succeed… Now after trying if they don't succeed… Then we can say that… It's… Karma is involved… Now of course the police should not be saying that… But the person can accept it that way… So… In general… When a person is going through difficulties… It may be their karma… But we should see it… That this is an opportunity for me to grow… That ultimately we all need to learn selflessness… We all need to learn selflessness attitude… So this is my dharma… And in helping others… Deal… With negative karma… Their negative karma… You could look at positively that I am creating positive karma… You know… In the sense that a parent who takes care of an autistic child… They are actually… Doing far more efforts… So even if in terms of… Pious currentists we don't think about it… But surely in terms of character growth… The level of selflessness that comes… Generally any relationship… I will talk more about this… See whenever there is a relationship… Most relationships are… Transactional… Transactional means… That I do something for you… And you do something for me… And that's fair enough… But… If I go to shop… I just buy something and I give you some money… But there are relationships… That can also be… Transformational… So transformational means two things happen… Through that relationship I come closer to you… And you come closer to me… That's one transformation… But another is… Through that relationship I become better… And you become better… So through that relationship… I can go closer to the divine… And you can go closer to the divine… So in today's world… This transformational aspect of relationships… Has been very much downplayed… And that's why what happens is… If I am not getting anything in the relationship… Why be there in the relationship… Just quit it… But… That way then society itself cannot be sustained… If people cannot have… Trustworthy relationships… Now again… We cannot take this to an extreme… Say if somebody is in an abusive relationship… See this one thing is… Like somebody is suffering because of their past karma… And we support them at that time… But if somebody is at present… Doing bad karma… Then supporting them… May not be a healthy thing… Say if somebody is an alcoholic… And… We may want to help them… But sometimes… What happens is there are… Co-dependents… And if they are enabling the alcoholic… Every time the alcoholic makes a mess… And they clean it up… That person squanders all the money… And other person works doubly hard to earn money… And they squander it again… At that time… So when the suffering is coming… If it is coming because of past karma… Means that person's past karma… Then we can accept it and we can say… This is something which I have to go through also as a… This is part of responsible relationships… But if it is coming because of their present karma… Then… Enabling an alcoholic… Is actually worsening their addiction… If you are going to continue this… Then… There are going to be consequences… I am not going to be with you… I am going to put some boundaries… So if somebody is… Abusing that relationship… Or abusing us in that relationship… Then… So the point is… Dharma doesn't just mean what I do for that person… Dharma also is about our own growth… So if that person is abusing me… Or… Yeah… They are abusing me in the sense that they are hurting us… Or they are using us to hurt themselves… And we are just becoming instruments for them… Then we may have to put some boundaries over that… So in that sense… It has to be carefully contemplated… So the focus should be more on dharma… What is the right thing for me to do… What is the responsible thing for me to do… And how can I do it in this situation… Sometimes somebody may be so sick… That… It is just not possible for us to care for them… Then we may decide we have to put them in some… Nursing home or whatever… That will be a hard decision… But if in caring for someone… We are completely crumbling and collapsing… And we can't take care of ourselves… Then that could be a problem… But sometimes we go through phases… Where we need to care for the other person… It may be a little more difficult for us… So in time and circumstances… It has to be considered… Does that answer your question? Thank you… There is one question… Ok… In India… In India… We have a very famous belief… That by dipping in the Ganga… All our karmas wash away… So is there is… Really it happens… And what is your opinion on this belief? See there is a… Rational aspect to spirituality… And there is a mystical aspect to spirituality… So right now I am focussing on the rational aspect… There is a mystical dimension… And when we talk about bhakti and… In the retreat when I will talk about… How the samskaras can be transformed… That time we will talk about… The mystical aspect… Of changing… But this is certainly… There is definitely… Association and meditation… One aspect of meditation is that… It leads to purification… So purification is definitely one aspect… But the idea that… Certain rituals… Can cleanse one… So that one can just… Be responsible and do whatever we want… That is a completely unhealthy idea… It is a wrong idea… The idea is that… There are ways in which… We can manage… Our past karma… With help from divine sources… So what is a healthy approach… To accessing those divine sources… We will discuss later… Thank you… Is there a question? Ok… Ok… Ok… Ok… So… I was thinking… When you explained the math part… Mitigation… Immigration… Toleration… So I was thinking about… Survival mood… In the sense of how the nervous system works… And the mitigation would be like… Flight response… Immigration… Running away… And the other one… Freeze… So… I would like… Make this combination in my mind… But my question is more like… If we want to be in that state… Of like… Transformation of relationships… Or be more like the creators… Of the life… You would say the tools to attain that… Would be… What you mentioned as A… The association, introspection and meditation… So through those tools… We can pass… So that thing I would call… Mostly survival… In the way of like… We are trying to avoid suffering… Or we are responding to a life… Rather than… In that sense of like… More than we die… I don't know how to put it… Ok so… It's a good correlation on flight… Flight, flight, freeze… And now… I… I also thought about this correlation before… I don't use that… Because generally the fight flight is considered… All three are considered bit impulsive… And they are considered… You know… They are not very contemplative responses… So… What we are talking here about more of… Contemplate and make a more informed decision… So fight, flight, freeze… Now freeze generally doesn't lead to survival in the animal kingdom… You freeze you die… Now fight, flight, one of those could be healthy… So those are… At least the way I look at it… It's more like they are biologically driven responses… There is of course the mind involved in it… But they are more impulsive… More unconscious, automatic… So they are created by… They are… We are impelled towards them by our samskaras also… So by the AIM framework… Association Introspective Meditation… We can become more contemplative… And then after that… So fighting is not always a bad thing… Sometimes it can be a good thing also… And by the word flight has a negative connotation… And I won't equate freezing with tolerating… Tolerating and emigration can be good things… But it's just that the process that we are going through… If we are putting due amount of thought in deciding… What we are doing… Then any of these responses can be a healthy response… Okay… Thank you… Yes sir… We'll just take this… Yeah… So quick question… Should we base our actions on the end result? Because if we do… Then if we don't achieve the end result… There is always hopelessness… And we can say it's based on karma… And if we don't… Base our actions on the end result… Then we might fall into inaction or lethargy… So what's your take on that? So… In the Bhagavad Gita… There is a famous verse… It's 247… So there it talks about results… And it says… Be detached from results… That is one thing which often the Gita is quoted for… But just six verses before that… It's 241… It says… Have one aim… Don't have too many desires… Like some people say… New year is coming in few months… Once a friend told me… I have made 108 new year resolutions… I told him… 108 is an auspicious number… But 108 resolutions is not a resolution… It is more like a wish list… You know… We cannot have too many aims… 1, 2, 3… So the Gita is not against… It does say set aims… Or you can say set goals… Now the difference is… That if you consider goals are set… Before the action… Results come after the action… So before we do an activity… It is important to set goals… So that they will motivate us… So that they will inspire us… To do our best… At the same time… If we haven't understand the karma philosophy… We will understand that… My present actions alone… Don't determine the results… So… If the results don't come… We can accept it… But… If we have not set an aim… Then our present action itself… May not be whole hearted… And because my present action is not whole hearted… So I don't get the result… I can't blame my past for that… So that's how we set aims… We set goals… But we can stay a little detached from the results… So being detached… Is not being irresponsible… It is not being apathetic… Like if a parent, his mother is telling a child… Exam is coming tomorrow, why are you not studying? I am detached from the results… You are not detached… You are just being careless… You are just being irresponsible… So set aims… So that's the difference… Thank you… Last question… For me… Sometimes… It's so hard… Not to… Think about the phenomenon… In social terms… You know… To analyse them in a social term… So… I remained… Thinking about… What is… Probably one of the… Hardest… Experiences… For the people of this country… In its recent history… One of the most painful experiences… From your point of view… How did… Mostly the people approach… The partition of India… During the partition of India… And immediately afterwards… By… Mitigating… Ending rating… Or tolerating… And in that sense… How could… Or what could… Western people… Learn about this experience? Yeah… When we go into history… It is… It becomes very complicated because… As they say… History is always told by the winners… So sometimes… It means… What actually happened… Who was responsible… It is difficult to say… In India… The causes of partition… Will be told differently… From what they told in Pakistan… So there is some… Subjective element to the… Point of history… Now… So… In such situations… I have friends in Pakistan… And… They say Hindu friends… Okay… That's clear… So… Could we drink it? You need to just… Pour it… So some of them chose to stay over there… They are tolerated… Now some of them have… Some… Sorry… Especially those who are living in cities… Major cities… They are relatively safer over there… Those who are living in more rural areas… There is more threat over there… My brother is married into a… He is married to a girl… Who… Whose family emigrated from there… They just left everything and came… They have… Quite terrible memories… Of what all that happened over there… And the way it happened… It was a fighting was… Almost impossible… Just a terrible phase of violence happened over there… But… Sometimes… We cannot… Make sense of life… That means… One aspect of karma is… To recognise… That we are agents… But we are… Finite agents… We have finite capacity to understand things… And we have finite capacity to… Change things… So we can make sense… Of life… Sometimes… But we have better possibility to make sense… In life… So what is the difference between making sense of life and in life? I have a friend… He is a firefighter in California… So he… When there is a fire… The first thing they want to know is… If they are rushing there… What caused the fire? Was it arson? Was it accident? Was it caused by some electrical thing? Was it caused by some fuel? Was it just wood burning? So now that helps them face… The fire and strategise how to fight the fire… But sometimes… There is just no information available… Then they just have to make the best… Ok this is the fire here now… Ok there are civilians living over there… So we have to make sure the fire doesn't go in that direction… So we attack the fire from that side… Sometimes they can find out the cause of the fire… After the fire has been extinguished… And then they investigate… Sometimes even after investigating… They can't find the cause of the fire sometimes… So in life… We can't always make sense of life… That is just… Even in the Bhagavad Gita… Arjuna has to fight a terrible war… And Krishna… When he is preparing to fight that war… Krishna doesn't go into an esoteric… Past life revelations… Oh you were XYZ in this life… And that person was ABC in that life… And they did that and you did that… And that's why now you are fighting against each other… Ok this is what life is now… Let's make sense of life… If we can't make sense of life… Let's make sense in life… Make sense of life means… I try to understand what is happening… And why it is happening… But make sense in life means… I can't understand why this is happening… But what is the best thing I can do… Or what is the constructive thing… I can do in this situation… And just try to do that… So yeah… Sometimes in history… Terrible things happen… Now we can go into historical reasons and… There are religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims… The British also had a divide and rule policy… And… We can go into many factors that specifically caused… The partition… And… You know the divide and rule… Policy that the British had… When they were leaving… That has led to a lot of problems… North Korea and South Korea are still fighting… There is… Vietnam there was a terrible war… In some ways the Arab-Palestine issue… That is… Not only because of the divide and rule… It is oversimplistic… In history you cannot just… Reduce problems to one particular cause… It is complex… But to whatever extent… We try to make sense of things… But we can't make sense of things… It is focus of make sense in life… What can I do in this particular situation… Now that the situation has come upon… What can I do about it… So… In India… There was caste discrimination in the past… Now it is substantially gone down… In the West there was racial discrimination… Sometimes when… Maybe 100-200 years ago… People who faced this kind of discrimination… Had to live with it… They couldn't do much about it… But now… There are much more resources available to do it… So the point is sometimes… We just have to tolerate… We just have to deal with it… Whether by tolerating… Or emigrating… Sometimes the social forces… That are acting… It is too big for us to do anything about it… So… At that time… We can't do much about it… If we can't make sense of life… We can make sense in life…