Decisions Determine destiny – Chaitanya Charan 27 02 2025 – Varanasi

Jai Gaur Premananda ki. Together, not collectively. We are not going to be responsible, but together.

So, explain these four factors for decision making. If we are on a path in our life, and we are right, and we have multiple directions in which we can go. So, where to go? When we have to decide in life, say, you came to a decision that you came for this job.

Somebody else may decide that I want to go here for this party or whatever. We all make decisions in our life. And, some decisions are extremely consequential.

Some decisions, okay, which college should I get into, which kind of job do I get into. But before an exam, my friend comes, let's go ahead and go for a party. If we go for a party, maybe after the rest of our life we'll never go to another party.

Our whole life could be lost. So, decisions have consequences. So, we need to understand what are the factors that lead us to taking our decisions.

And, how can we take decisions in a way that we create a better, a brighter future for ourselves. So, I talk about, we all have arcs of our life. The arc is a path in a story, a movie has a character arc, where the arc is.

So, I'll talk about these four factors and arcs. So, the first is our attraction or aversion. So, each one of us, when we are growing in our lives, we are naturally drawn to certain things.

Some of us, when I am talking about attraction, I am not talking about anyone likes to watch movies. Or, I just like to have fun. So, we have a natural progressive side of us.

So, that requires self-observation. Through self-observation, we understand what are the things that I am naturally attracted to. When, in the Mahabharata, Arjuna was at the hand of Draupadi, at that time, they all were in the garb of Brahmins.

So, Draupadi asked Arjuna, who are these people who have got my daughter to me? So, he said, they are dressed like Brahmins, but their physique and their ability suggest that they are divine form, divine beings. So, he invited them all for a feast to his house. When they came to a feast, he brought them to a large hall.

And he asked them to sit here. He asked them to sit here and come back in a few minutes. On the opposite side of the hall, on a table, he had kept various objects.

And then he along with his son, Vishnu, they were watching from a hidden window. What was happening? And now, there was some Gyatya paraphernalia, there were some huge Brahmanas used, and then bows, arrows, and swords, and maces. Then there was some Vaishya paraphernalia, there were some clothes and other things, that robes, that barber's robes.

And then there were some artisan's robes. And then he was watching. Pandavas sat down, they looked around in the room, their eyes went to the table, and all five of them awoke as one.

Where did they go? Oh, there is an abyss. And then, Vibhaktapada, the biggest beast that was there, started moving around, Arjuna took up a bow, Vishnu took up a spear, and they all started talking. This picture was better than that.

It was absorbed completely. And Rupada understood that, if you can give them credits, these are sufferings. So, there is some natural interaction between them.

The self-observation, what is the meaning of self-observation? When do you want to be this way or that way? Self-observation can mean, we can note what we notice. We note consciously what we notice automatically. We note consciously what we notice automatically.

And that is a good indication of what is unactualized. So, for example, I am a very world-conscious person. Say, I am driving in a car and there are some billboards.

On the billboard, they have some big image. My eyes first go to the caption, to the words. And if the words are interesting, then I look at the image.

If the words are not interesting, I don't even look at the image. So, my interest in words is like action. For somebody else, it might be something else.

So, we note consciously what we notice automatically. And this is one important factor to know. Certain responsibilities in life.

I should be saying, okay, my master's letter, I am studying the basics. I will do my engineering. I will just forget everything and start doing this.

No, but reading the music, you don't know how good a career this will be in my family. I have some debts. I have this good room.

Everybody doesn't know. So, I should be around doing this. So, we can't simply do what we are attracted to.

That is one thing to consider. But, we also need to be responsible. Now, responsible doesn't just mean, externally society is going to do this.

We have to do this. Responsibility means response-able. Am I able to choose our responsibilities? If this is what I need to do, then I will do it.

Nobody in their life will ever be in a situation where they will always be able to do what they like to do. Even if somebody becomes a musician. And this is life.

But then, to do music shows at various cities, they have to travel. And travel is a headache. We don't have time to travel.

Now, for those who don't travel, travel is adventurous and glamorous also. But for those who travel regularly, travel feels so exhausting. Everyday, morning you wake up and wonder which continent you are in.

Initially it's exciting, but afterwards it's quite disorienting. It can be. So, whatever we do, there are certain things, nobody will ever have a life where they can only do whatever they like.

We also have to do certain things which we do not like. It's like, in our life, there is a balance. The activities that we do, some things which we like, some things which we don't like.

Now, sometimes we have to do the things we don't like, so that we can get to the things which we like. Like, even if say we are studying engineering. Now, we may be interested in a particular engineering.

We are interested in electronics. But then maybe in the first year of engineering, you have to study various subjects. What has this got to do with engineering? No, but if you don't study it, you can't go to the next year.

So, even if we get a job, say if we like to do research, we may like to do research, but to do research, we need to get funds. And for getting funds, we have to write papers, we have to team up, we have to get some sponsors. Things like that.

So, we also have to have a sense of responsibility. This is the situation I am in, and I am expected to be so in this situation. And if somebody sees the responsibility only as a burden, then the person will not be able to grow.

Because one part of growth is doing what we like to do, which we are interested in. The other part of growth is also having the capacity to do what we do feel like doing. Did you see this? Everybody has to do that.

So, for our growth, see, I put the diagram such a way that if we want to, we climb here. And I want to climb up here. I want to get here from here.

So, sometimes the pushing force forming the attraction. I feel like doing it, so I do it. I have fun doing it.

But sometimes I may not feel like doing it. But then, there is a responsibility. This is what I am expected to do.

Now, suppose the mother has a newborn baby. Now, having a child is one of the greatest joys of my life, taking care of the child. But it is not a joy constantly.

Isn't it? So, both the parents have worked extremely hard throughout the day. And they are sleeping at the big tree. And our small babies are like alarm clocks with no setting.

Isn't it? Just go off and do it then. But that time, the mother may not feel like a mother at all. You will feel like getting up and doing it.

And that's a responsibility. And if it had not been responsible like that, we wouldn't have been here. So, the responsibility is important.

The child can also be wonderful. That's what it means. Now, in many ways, we are going back to what I said earlier, the seed is the culture.

Now, the culture often determines what we hear and what we don't hear. Culture does many things. But in a culture, based on the culture that we have, certain things are acceptable and certain things are not acceptable.

If we are in a relatively cultured system, there are civilised, respected people. Even if we get angry, we won't say swear words. We won't use obscene language.

Why? Because we understand this is just a plural. And if somebody doesn't have fear of that, then others should have fear of such a thing. This person doesn't belong over here.

See, right now, all of you are sitting. It's fairly crowded. Every one of you is perfectly confident.

And the person sitting next to you is not suddenly going to turn up on you and slap you in the face. Now, is it possible? I don't want to put ideas in your mind. But you could say anything is possible.

But it is not very probable. If somebody has come for a spiritual talk, if somebody is interested in something like this, then it's quite likely that if somebody goes to a place where everybody is taking a trance, and anybody goes higher on the trance, they go higher and everybody goes lower. You can do anything.

So, the management and PRA determines higher and up. And this higher and higher I am not talking about in the fear and the level of terror. I am not talking about the terror that is threatening anyone in the family.

But we all need a sense of bondage. Now, of course, sometimes those bondage are good, sometimes they are not good. It depends.

But our culture around us is also that shapes our behaviour. So, a young person has brought up in a very cultured family where the parents are taught good values. So, don't get into having a drinking or drugs or smoking.

Keep going. And the kid comes and starts staying in a hostel. And in the hostel, there is a group of what we call school kids.

And this boy wants to belong to those school kids. And all those school kids drink. So, then what happens is that person goes and they have a party.

Everybody is drinking. And he says, what do you mean to drink? We can have fun without drinking also. Yeah, we will have fun without drinking.

Without drinking. Go ahead. And people start saying like that.

This person is very afraid. Who will drink? You know, I will drink. And all that person doesn't want to drink just to get a sense of being accepted and belong to that group, that person will start drinking.

So, what happens is, we have this homo. What is homo? Fear of missing out. Now, the fear of missing out, homo often creates homo.

You know what is fear? We have homo, fear of missing out. But then there has to be a fear of messing up. In the name of homo, what happens is, we have, one kind of fear we have.

Oh, I will miss this out, I will miss that out. And that's okay. You don't want to miss out.

But there is another fear is, fear of messing up. In the name of not missing that, I mean, okay, all these people are going and drinking. They are having fun.

I don't want. I don't want to miss out on that. But then we mess up our own life because of that.

So, what we should fear and what we should not fear. That is something which we decided for ourselves. So, what happens is, in trying to be homo, often in trying to be homo, people become homo.

They start doing things which they know they are not good. So, in one sense, for us if we consider culture, it's like we may exist in a full cultural surface. So, there could be one culture which sort of brings out the negatives.

And there could be another culture which brings out the positives. Say, in one culture, in one social circle we go, and then everybody illustrates their words. Every sentence has some obscene word in it.

And we hang out with those people, then that's the world which we live in. Now, in another place where the people speak politely, the people speak fluently, maybe they are learning to be articulate, they are learning some higher values, higher things. Now, if we go there, then our speech will become cleaner and better.

Now, we exist in one sense in many social circles. There are many cultures which are influencing us negatively. So, now, which culture do we fear or which culture do we not fear? So, if some kids who make it that belonging to our group is required to take up, we should not have the fear of missing out their group.

That should be, should have abhaya, not bhaya. Even if I am not, I should not say goodbye and good riddance. I am better off without this.

So, that's something, what we should fear and what we should not fear. That is important for us to say. When Krishna came to Karna, Krishna came first to Dhritarashtra as the peace messenger.

Dhritarashtra was the king. Krishna spoke for a couple of minutes, and Dhritarashtra said, Krishna, what are you saying? It's prophecy, it's a humility. But my son doesn't listen.

So, please speak to me. So, this was very open admission. And actually, Dhritarashtra was not in power.

Before, probably 10-12 years ago, before that in India, one person was in the prime minister's seat, another person was in power. So, like that, Dhritarashtra was in the king's seat, but Dhritarashtra was in power. And Krishna spoke to Dhritarashtra.

Krishna made a very reasonable case. But Yudhdan did not listen. And then, after that, Krishna decided that if he cannot fight the war, let us try to win the war instead.

And so, he told Karna, what would you like to do? Now, Krishna was very strategical. That, if you see, on the sides of Andhra Pradesh, there is Krishna, Dronacharya, Drupada, who are very powerful warriors, very experienced. But none of them had any hatred against the Pandavas.

They were fighting because they were obligated to. Apart from Dhritarashtra, Yudhdan and some of his brothers. Now, all his brothers are just as evil.

They followed him. So, that's how they did their business. But apart from his brothers, the only ones who actually were against the Pandavas were Karna and Shakuni.

Now, Karna and Shakuni, Shakuni, Karna was dangerous on the battlefield. Shakuni was dangerous on the gambling field. On the battlefield, he was not a very powerful one.

So, Shakuni was not that big a threat. So, when Krishna called Karna, Krishna told Karna, you know what? Krishna was suddenly thinking, that he is fine. And that man, you know, he was wanting to discuss with Shakuni, and he called Shakuni.

He will come to the Pandavas' side and call the Dhritarashtra community. He will get the Pandavas' respective eyes and embrace Dhritarashtra. He will be a Shakuni.

He will have all the respect. And then, he will also have a political situation. If Karna had come to the Pandavas' side, either Dhritarashtra would have lost his confidence and settled for some peace.

His arrogance would have gone down. Or even if he had fought, the war would not have gone for so long. So, unfortunately, Karna said, well, if, just before the war, after I had promised Dhritarashtra, that I will be his friend, I will be with him, if I leave him, what will you do? Dhritarashtra said, that for the sake of our freedom, I will give up Dhritarashtra.

And Dhritarashtra said, two main reasons. He said that, I cannot abandon Dhritarashtra. The second reason he said is, I cannot abandon the Pandavas.

Kunti abandoned me. And, it is my talent to take care of people. So, not just because I am getting kicked, you know, I am also abandoning the Pandavas.

The reason, at one point, he said, rather than that, Krishna would have said, Karna would have abandoned his talents. Now, circumstances can sometimes be peculiar. Krishna himself had two sets of parents.

So, Krishna, yes, he left Krishna and Dhritarashtra, but he never abandoned or rejected them. He still loved them. But his duty required him to be like his father.

So, you know, would his parents have been happy, if their son had become a king? They were so happy when he got on the wheel. That is given by someone else. But here, this would have been worth it.

He didn't, he was imagining the problem, in many ways. But the second is, the people basically abandoned him. For the sake of the people.

Now, which people are going to say this? It is Duryodhana who will say this. It is Duryodhana, and Dushyasana, and Shakuni who will say this. But there is another way of looking at it.

If you are ready, this is going to be a part of instruction. Then, maybe this is the best way to stop it. Isn't it? So, by acting on principles, he could have actually prevented a huge amount of bloodshed.

So, who we want to, whose criticism we hear, whose criticism we do not hear, that is important. Because, in our life, whatever we do, there will always be someone who will criticise us. The only way that we will never be criticised, we don't want anyone to criticise us, the only thing we should do is, absolutely nothing.

But the problem is that people will criticise us for nothing. So, it is just not possible, that we can please anyone, everyone. If you want to please everyone, start a free ice-cream distribution.

Because we can help everyone in India. But there are some people who are saying, it is not worth increasing the calories of India. So, in one sense, people say, there will always be fear, but, we can reduce our fears.

Choose our fears means, choose what to be afraid of. Or rather, choose whose rejection to be afraid of. So, whose rejection should I be afraid of? If, if I don't drink, please friend, you can help me.

If I drink, please help me. If I don't sit down, then whose rejection is more important? That is something, that is what fears do. When fears are part of something.

So, which culture, I am a part of, will determine, what I should be afraid of, and what I should not be afraid of. Which fear to take seriously, and which fear, fear to not take seriously. So, and, the last is, So, we need to consider, that, we are discussing this, electronic parts.

So, what is the state, I will attain? State means the condition, that, you could say the state, or the status, the stature, then I will attain this. That, is this, in the long run, going to take me to a better place, or a worse place. So, what is, right now, if I have a stutter, please tell me, is not helping me, enjoy, but that could, give me a good job, that could give me some amount of financial stability, financial stability and flexibility.

If I have to, if I am sick, maybe, my life is not in danger. But, if I do that, otherwise, right now, I am in a hospital bed, and sometimes people are, sick, and that's why they are in a hospital bed. And sometimes, they are sick, and they don't do anything to cure their sickness.

And, they are not really, it's fine, not taking medicines properly, you know, it's not that you are sick now, but, they are very sick of you now. So, now, we can't always see the future, but we can, to some extent, see the consequences of our actions. If I leave it, this is where it's going to take me.

So, what is the, what is the stage, what is the state, the stages, which are the stages that I want to take, which is going to be a better state, which is going to be a worse state. So, when we talk about freedom and bondage, I'll make one last point, and then we'll have a few answers over there. Freedom, that, broadly, there can be two kinds of freedom.

There is, most of the world talks about freedom for. Freedom for means what? Now, I will eat whatever I want. Who doesn't like to eat this? Nowadays, especially with, to some extent, western, culture coming up, it's the, physical relationship.

I want to have with more than one person. So, people want to live together, and people want to do all kinds of things. there is, so, then, there was something called sexual revolution in 1960s, where the sexual revolution was the idea that, we want to have freedom.

Freedom is, all kinds of restrictions on sexuality, these are just, primitive, religious, and, we reject it, and we live freely. So, it's been seen, basically, three things have happened. When they said free love, it was not free love, actually, it was free lust.

It is, what happened was, three things happened. One is, relationships, become extremely unstable. It's like, whenever, people really, physically in touch, everyone knows, everyone knows, I am here today, but if something goes wrong with other person, I am here.

And, if something goes wrong with other person, I am here. Life is so insecure, you go to office, you may not have your job. You come back home, you may not have your spouse.

It's extremely, because what happens is, if, I am, if I am thinking that, the only purpose of a relationship is enjoyment, then, if that person stops giving me enjoyment, what is the point of being there? Or, if, somebody else promises a better enjoyment, why should I be there? So, it's, when I go across the world, travel, I speak, and, often speak about sociological problems, there is a, from a non-spiritual, from a holistic view, we get all, karma, and future, but I am getting that, in a sociological level, man, is so deep, that means what, the one, when you show the card, man is like, you see, how happy, your children, my children, and ours are not happy. So, you get that, your children, my children, and our children, sorry, you were married before, I was married before, there are no children from there, So, the idea is that, normally in Indian schools, when kids meet each other, where do you stay? In American schools, kids ask children, with whom do you stay, your mother or your father? So the assumption is, the mother and the father, are not together. The second problem that comes is, relationships are unstable, not because they are disturbed, but because they are lonely.

You need someone to talk to. In UK, the government actually created, an official minister for loneliness, because they found that, that minister, was only therapist for loneliness. So, in the past, we had joint families, now, we have nuclear families, now we have the nucleus split.

There are protons and electrons, orbiting around in the space, what to do? So, yes, loneliness. So, relationships are unstable, people are extremely lonely, and loneliness, is also associated with, a lot of insecurity. So, in the past, the big problem is also, childlessness.

In India, the problem is, population is exploding. In the west, the population, the depopulation is a big problem. If you go to any city, like if you go to a park in, New York, or any other places, you see that, often in the parks, more dogs are there than kids.

There are people who come, adults who come, and it's not just observation, because in, among the population, population in America, Caucasian is the white Americans, among them, the number of, people who have pets, is more than the number of people, who have children. I was in, LA, and, in Los Angeles, and I was doing a programme, for westerners. So, after that, many people were there, and then, a couple came and, they were talking with me, and, then I asked them, what are the things, that I was going to do, in software, and she said to me, I am, I am a stay at home, dog mom.

I am a stay at home, dog mom. What does it mean? I stay at home, and I take care of my dog. Now, software, people feel that, and they're like, yes, we shower their love, on their dogs.

I was with, I, yeah, I was in, San Francisco, and I was giving a talk, at a yoga studio. So, I'm a yoga student, there's a person, I'm talking to this person, and one person said, sir, he said I'm a yoga teacher. And then, you yoga teachers? Yoga teachers, yes.

I said, what is yoga? Yoga, is yoga, with dogs. So, I said, move it, so she's just playing yoga. In fact, they're like, I move my arms, you train my dog also, to move his paws.

Actually, yoga teachers, are paid more than yoga teachers. So, and there are yoga teachers, actually there are Koga teachers. What is Koga? Catfight.

Catfight. So, so the point I'm reaching over here is, that, actually, if, in America, the nation is going down very rapidly. In Japan, it's a huge problem.

In Singapore, it's a huge problem. That's why, these countries are accepting immigrants a lot. But then the problem with immigrants is that, individuals bring their own culture.

Indians are actually, concerned with the model minority movement. Model minority means, Indians are law abiding, tax paying, family raising. But there are, different kinds of immigrants, who come and they disrupt law, and they do all those old things.

So, Elon Musk recently said that, if we get a free population, one of the biggest problems for the rest of the world. So now, if you just, if you just want to have, so, in India, traditionally, if a couple doesn't have a child, then they say, to be childless, is considered to be a, it's an unfortunate thing. You don't have to look down on anyone, it's unfortunate.

With awareness, people don't say I'm childless. I'm child free. I'm child free.

If their parents were child free, maybe the world would have been free of them. So what happens is, the very foundation of society will devastate, if somebody just lives only for pleasure. So I was talking about freedom.

So, there is freedom for, you can have freedom for, basically, it's lust. That is one kind of freedom. That leads to devastation.

We're not talking about, spiritual degradation, spiritual devastation. At a social level, there is devastation. So this is one kind of freedom.

But, freedom can be of another kind. There is freedom from, there is freedom for, and there is freedom from. So for example, there can be freedom from alcoholism.

If somebody is an alcoholic, and somebody is not an alcoholic, then the two people go to a party, maybe the company has a quarter party. If one person goes to a party, and then that person is alcoholic, you know, they see a drink, and then they don't see anything else. Even this, they talk to their boss, their boss pours a bottle of alcohol.

So, on the other hand, somebody is not drunk, and they are free from that. Their mental space is so much more available for reconstructing. So, in the Vedic tradition, freedom from, is considered more important than freedom from.

Freedom from greed, freedom from lust, freedom from anger, freedom from craving, this is very important. So, for example, if somebody is greedy, maybe forget everything else, it is known as greediness, those who are greedy, are always becoming people. If somebody is greedy, no matter how much they have, they always say, oh this person has more than me, that person has more than me, that person has more than me, and they will never be satisfied, they will never, they will never be happy.

So, to be free from greed, is actually to have more peace. So that is, if I am going to do this activity, is it going to make me free, or is it going to make me mindless? I want to be free to smoke, I want to be free to drink, I want to be free to do this or that. I think I am free right now, but what is happening is, I am going to become bound up to one thing or the other.

So, in one sense, this is discipline and indulgence. Indulgence is doing whatever we want to do. So, in one sense, discipline, indulgence, it seems like freedom, it feels like freedom, but it leads to bondage.

Discipline, it feels like bondage, but, it leads to freedom. So, when we are disciplined, we ask, at this time I am going to do this, I am not going to do this. So, this is the kind of food I am going to do, this is not what I am going to do, these are the things I am not going to do.

It feels like a, it is very restrictive, but what happens is, this is freedom, this is freedom from all of it. This is, what happens is, bondage to certain things. The person says, ok, he is a child, they are college years, they say I don't know how to drink, and they don't drink, and then, he said no, once, twice, five times, ten times, and then he goes and talks to the machine guy, and then they all go and play with the machine guy.

They drink. It's a, it's, for those who have, have been alcoholics, I am not going to talk about it, I promise you, it seems to be a struggle, and we do not have that struggle anymore. It's, it's a freedom that we don't value, because, we have not seen, a good side, to bondage.

So, so, what state, do I get, in the future? See, if you consider those, these four factors, each one of us, can make sound decisions, based on, considering, what we, somehow, decided to do. And, when we study the Bhagavad Gita, when we understand, how to make a picture of life, that also strengthens our intelligence. See, Bhagavad Gita, is not just, we have to become devoted to God, and love God, and go back to God.

Yes, that is there. But, Arjuna had to fight a war. Arjuna had to practically act in the war.

And the Gita, is a guidebook, in helping us, make better, decisions, in a peaceful way. So, through the study of the Gita, when things become sadhvi, our decisions become better. And through the better decisions, our life becomes peaceful.

Our life becomes better. through our life becoming better, we can help, make others' lives better. That, is ultimately, what will bring, real value to us.

That, I could do some good for myself, I could do some good for others. And, that's what, the Bhagavad Gita can empower, each one of us to do. But, sometimes, when we discuss life, we talk about, decision making, the factors, what is decision making, as given in the Bhagavad Gita, or we could say, good decision making.

And we discussed, four factors. What is that one? A was, action. So, through self-observation, pravrttimca, nivrittimca, we look at, what is it, that I am actually attracting.

So, self-observation, means especially, we know, we know this. We all know this, but this is supposed to indicate, our actual interest. And to some extent, whenever a positive presents us, we can develop this.

This is something, which I am interested in, which I have some, some, attraction for. And then, R was, responsibility, karyam, karya, karya, karyam. So, responsibility, this means that, we are responsible, for all of us.

Sometimes, there are things, which we, actions that we need to do, things which we like to do, and these can help us, to grow emotionally. But, don't like to do, that can also help us, to grow. Because, what happens is, that, people can come to us.

Somebody, who is only going to do, whatever they like to do, the others, can't trust such a person. Can we come to someone, who is very emotional? And, you know, you promise, you'll be arriving, and come. And, you feel like, no.

If a surgeon, has to do surgery, then surgeon, has to come. So, why don't you come? Especially, like, I don't feel like, doing surgery. But, the world requires, responsible people.

And, responsible, in one sense, you can say, the responsible, are the right people. So, we want to have, these friendships, we want to have, the best of people, need to be responsible. And, see what's, the culture around us.

Culture means, the culture leads to, what is to be feared, what is not to be feared. So, now, it is for us to choose, which culture, we want to belong. We all belong, to different social circles.

Some social circles, they bring out, the negativity in us. And, some social circles, they bring out, the positive in us. So, knowing, whose rejection to fear, and whose rejection, not to fear, that is important.

So, here I just think, there is an example of, Karna and Krishna. Karna, feared, the criticism, of Duryodhana. But, actually, he could have done, a better job, to Duryodhana, than himself.

So, in trying to, defuse, he somehow, become, So, what culture, then finally, what is the, state, I want to attain. So, here I discussed about, with the action, is it going to, there is, free, there can be, for, or free from. Now, if I am free for, that means, there is indulgence.

That indulgence, what it leads to, eventually, it leads, like freedom, leads to free, but, it leads to, or violence, also. On the other hand, free from, is, We will be discussing, the rest of, the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution, will be free, for, whatever, I want to do.

Like, freedom from lust, what has it resulted in? It has led to, little bit, divorces, family breakdowns, it has led to, loneliness, and insecurity, and it has led, led to, shynessness. Now, obviously, we are not talking about, say, other spiritual effects, of all this. The sociological itself, is going to be a disaster.

So, this is a feeling, it can just be, like, feels like bondage, but, it leads to, freedom. So, somebody says, I won't drink alcohol, and then, you don't even get, emptied alcohol. So, it's a great fear.

So, if, we, look at the, non-verbal consequences, what is the state, I want to attain, what is the state, this spiritual journey, will be helpful to us. And each one of us, can become equipped, to take better decisions. And, let us pray to Krishna, that, whatever wisdom, he has given us, we learn to, better observe, discover, our natural, actions, that we become more, to whatever goals, we are proving, that we choose, the healthy culture, that will help us, fear the things, that take us down, and we won't fear, the rejection, by, unhealthy circumstances.

Finally, give us the intelligence, my Lord, to see, this, the state, that I'm going to attain, my more important, three, four certain things, is to be, free from certain things. To discipline, to lead us, to freedom, to fulfil our potential, to fulfil the destiny, that God, wants for all of us, to, bring good to ourselves, and bring good to others. So, Krishna, what was the question? Go on.

I'll quit now. Today we were discussing, about this culture, so we were working together, and working with people. So many times, so clear to societies, the ways we live values technique.

We want that, we should be identified, with some healthy culture, but still, we have not run past, actions that are all ready, to follow certain energy attractions and because of that we don't want that culture, which we don't want to be the part but still we are here. So, there are two different things in our life. There is what we desire or what we want and there is what we want to want.

So, what we want to want are our values. What we want are our desires. So, our desires often spring from the conditioning of the mind.

But our values come from or they get sustained by our intentions. So, we cannot immediately change what our mind will desire and because of that we will push in particular directions. But if our values are strong, this is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I want to do, then there is a conflict in the mind.

But over a period of time, things will change. Then it's like what I want is pushing me in one direction, is pulling me in one direction, but I know this is what I want to do. So, what I want is, this is what I want to do, what latest programme I want to watch on TV, who has posted what approach I want to take.

But what I want to want, I want to become an expert in the field that I am studying, I want to learn some spiritual philosophy. I want to become an unbounded individual who is wise, not just informed about their endeavour, he is actually wise. So, what happens is to the extent we strengthen our intentions.

So, even if we go off in the wrong direction, we will go forward. We will go indifferently. So, this is what I am saying, the intelligence, over a period of time the intelligence will become stronger.

And this may happen gradually. So, we will not be able to give it immediately. If we can't give it immediately, we have to look at gradual signs of things.

That means, am I becoming fit? So, is the frequency of what I am doing decreasing? Is the intensity or the severity decreasing? That means, somebody has a tendency to spend a lot of time watching movies or reading politics or just social media. So now, in the past, every day five times I go on social media. Now, I do one thing.

Then, intensity is how far? I read some politics, read some this, read some that, some people go into very obscene and vulgar and bad things. How bad? How often? How bad? How often? How bad? And how long? duration, time duration. So, how often? How bad? How long? So, if each of these measures are the same, that is also seen as a constructive change.

It may not come from one to zero. So, sometimes our spiritual progress might not be, our growth may not be digital. Like, I was doing this, I gave it a problem.

So, each can allow. You can still be doing it, but it's decreasing. There is a difference between pravakti and bona fide.

So, there can be a musician, that their pravakti is music. But their bona fide is sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. So, if the Buddha is sattvic, he can make soothing, uplifting, calming music.

If the Buddha is rajasic, then he can make very passionate, noisy kind of music. So, for them soothing music will be very boring. Somebody tamasic, they will make music, it will be destructive.

The belligerent society is destroying it. All kind of dark themes. Calling for violence.

So, what we are talking about, pravakti is not the guru. Pravakti is the natural direction. So, in one sense, Duryodhana also had the pravakti of Shatrughna.

Bhima also had the pravakti of Shatrughna. Yudhishthira also had the pravakti of Shatrughna. But, Yudhishthira was more in sattva.

Bhima was in rajas. But Bhima was guided to listen to Yudhishthira. That's how his rajas did not become too rich.

Unfortunately, Duryodhana was in rajas also, but he was affected by tamas. The tamas of Yudhishthira was that, Yudhishthira would not control him at all. He would just allow him to do whatever he wants.

Tamas of Shatrughna was, what Duryodhana wanted to do, Shatrughna gave worse ideas for him. Tamas can have both this. Tamas can be inactive or destructive.

Both them. So, Duryodhana was dragged down. So, the guna and the pravakti are different.

As far as the question of guna is concerned, can the guna be changed? As far as tamas is concerned, it will take time. That somebody is in tamas, that in the mode of Yudhishthira, that person will suddenly turn to Shatrughna. But from tamas, he will come into rajas.

Is this fair or not? Like a person in tamas, that person may not even want to have a job. That person may just want to live with their parents or live in society. Society, life in society.

But from there, the person comes and starts thinking of a job. He is responsible enough to take care of a family. He needs something.

From tamas, he will go further to Shatrughna. So, gradually, from wherever we are, we can rise up. Especially, if we can, from wherever we are, we can take hold of Krishna.

Somehow, if we connect our consciousness with Krishna, then Krishna, Krishna can lift us up. Thank you very much. I also know that the director was so happy and inspired by Prabhupada's talk that he is deciding to start the segregated course, mandatory course for the students of diplomatic dialogue.

The first semester includes a mandatory course based upon stream of number we have for all the diplomatic dialogue. And in the third semester, it will be an optional open election. So, let's have a process of beautifully helping all of us, how we can make proper decisions and how we can make a difference in life.

So, let's thank Prabhupada ji by one time loudly chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra. Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare So, this is Prabhupada ji's latest book, Gita Goshti Eko. So, this book will be available outside.

So, one day it will be available here. So, the cost of this book is 350 rupees. So, if you want to purchase it, you can purchase.

And it will also be available here, outside. So, you can get an order as well. So, basically the Gita is obviously a philosophical and religious book.

But it has atop practical guidance for decision making. So, I presented the Gita as a conversation between two individuals. One is a corporate leader who wants to know about the Gita.

Another is a corporate leader who knows the Gita. And they have descriptions of how to be a resilient, how to be positive, how to be mindful, how to have a clear purpose, how to make real money. These kind of attributes, how they arise from the Gita's worldview, let's describe.

And it comes with some simple sketches and diagrams. There are sketches of illustrating concepts. And we may or may not be CEOs right now.

But we are CEOs of our own life. So, in that sense, we are meant to be leaders of our own life. And we all have the potential to be CEOs in the future.

So, the Gita is a book to guide us to bring out the leader in us. So, if you want, you have a chance. Thank you so much.

Jai Hind. Jai Hind.