Destiny – Do we make it or does it make us?

[Prerana festival at ISKCON, Chowpatty, India] PPT: Video:

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today evening.

I'll speak on the topic of destiny. Do we make it, or does it make us? I'll talk about this presentation in four parts, using an acronym, FATE. So, we'll have to depend on fate, whether the PowerPoint comes or not.

So, before we start, what do we mean by the word destiny? There are words equivalent to it in every tradition. We may use the word Daiva, Niyati, Kismat, in various traditions. But, the idea is that there are some factors beyond us, which shape results for us.

So, the word destiny is used sometimes to refer to these factors. We can say the word destiny has two distinct meanings. One is that it can refer to some things that happen to us.

So, some things are beyond our control and some things happen to us. So, we work very hard to achieve something, but something doesn't work. And you say, okay, destiny was not favourable.

So, some things are beyond our control. The other can be, say, if somebody is a very talented, promising person, maybe the popular sport in India is cricket. And I'm in America, most people think of cricket either as an insect or as a telephone network.

Like we have AirTel, cricket is a network over there. Cricket as a sport is not known much over there. But, still, if you consider cricket, some young player shows a phenomenal amount of talent.

And then, maybe 5 years, 10 years down the line, that person becomes a glorious champion cricketer. Then we may say, he has fulfilled his destiny. So, the promise that he had earlier, he has fulfilled it now.

So, destiny can have both these meanings. Things that happen to us or things that we are meant to achieve. And then somebody succeeds in achieving them.

Now, when we talk about destiny, in these two senses, so, do we make destiny or does it make us? And the answer, like for many such questions, lies both ways. So, let me start with this acronym FATE. F-A-T-E.

So, FATE is, first F is FACT. If you look simply at the facts of life, we'll see that we all want to achieve certain things in life, but, those achievements, the results are not in our control. If we again consider something like sports, say cricket.

Now, when I first went to Australia, I observed Australian people in general were quite laid back. So, I talked with devotees and other friends over there and they said that if you know in India, India and Australia has a very intense cricket rivalry. Probably second only to India and Pakistan.

And there have been many unpleasant incidents also of sledging and accused cheating. So, Australians are known to be quite aggressive and abrasive in their sledging. So, they told me that Australians are laid back in everything except cricket.

In cricket, they are very aggressive. I think in the 1990s, early 2000s, the Australian cricket team was on top of the world. They said they were in it to win it.

And yet, there were many Australian cricketers who had their own quirky superstitions. Australian batsman Mark Taylor, whenever he would go out to bat, first he would go to the pavilion restroom and he would make sure that the lids of all the commodes were down. And then he would go out to bat.

And if anytime he got out early, then he would come back not to the pavilion, he would go to the restroom. And if any lid would be open, he would go and blast the other place. Why did you keep that open? Because of that, I got out.

Now, what has the position of the lid of the commode got to do with his batting? But, or for that matter, Australian captain Steve Waugh, he would always keep a handkerchief in his pocket. And the handkerchief would be partially inside, partially outside. And he was a very good fielder, sometimes he would drop a catch, he would look down, has this handkerchief fallen off? How do I drop this catch? So, these were very talented, dedicated players who were on top of the world at that time.

But still, even they understood that performance matters, but performance is not all that matters. Performance matters. Can you go ahead? Yeah, go ahead.

That's what we've been discussing. Yeah, performance matters, but performance is not all that matters. There are things beyond our control and these players in their own quirky, idiosyncratic way, are trying to appease that unknown so that that unknown, that uncontrollable will work in their favour some way or the other.

Another example we could use for this is, if somebody is steering a boat or a ship in an ocean, the person at the helm of the boat has to be expert. At the same time, if a monster wave comes up, you can just overturn the boat or at least block the boat from going in that direction no matter how much the person endeavours. I was just, as I mentioned in the introduction, I came back from America, Canada, I was there for three months and before that I was in Australia and New Zealand for a month and a half.

So, I was told that in America the number of students going from here has substantially decreased in the last two, three years. As students have gone there, they are in tremendous anxiety because the prospects of getting a job there are much lesser. So many students from America are emigrating to Canada.

Canada's immigration policies are relatively more open. So, students may work very hard to achieve a particular career. But, because of national politics or global economics, things change.

Then, nothing can be done about it. Then, you just have to move on with life accepting the changed reality. So, our planning to build a particular career is like wanting to steer our boat.

But, the change in the global politics, global economics or the national politics, that is like a monster wave hitting us. And that shapes, that affects what happens to us. We can't deny that.

So, if we consider the situation, how we drive is in our hands. How we drive, steer the boat is in our hands. But what kind of waves come, that is not in our hands.

So, there is the fact of life is that there are things beyond our control. And, those point to the role of destiny. Any more? So, I was going to talk about an acronym F.A.T.E. FATE.

So, first was FACT. Second is, A is ANALYSIS. So, I'll periodically during this class, I'll stop in case if you have questions.

We can discuss one or two questions. And then we can move on. So, I'll do this analysis part.

Then we can have some questions of that. So, broadly speaking, the Indian wisdom texts explain that our actions alone don't lead to the results. There are, there is Karma, Daiva and Kaala.

Karma plus Daiva plus Kaala together will lead to Fala. Fala is the desired result. Or in English, you could put it as, we do our part that is our duty, destiny and duration.

All three come together to give the desired result. Two simple examples to illustrate this before we go into more complex examples. If a farmer wants a harvest, the farmer will sow the seed and plough the land.

That is the Karma. After that, the rains have to come on time and in the right quantity. That is the Daiva.

After that, the right amount of time has to pass till the harvesting season comes. That is the, what is that? Kaala. And then you'll get the Fala.

They'll get the harvest. Or say, if a couple wants to have a child, now they may unite, that is the Karma. But sometimes, although there is union, there is no conception.

So, for that, something higher is required. That is Daiva. And even if conception occurs, it's not that they can have a child immediately.

That is the period, nine months of gestation. That is Kaala. And then there will be Fala.

Then they will have a child. So, these three factors, Karma, Daiva, Kaala, all of them come together harmoniously, then we can get the desired result. So now, when we work to get results, actually, the results that we get are a combination of multiple factors.

So this is if we consider the Karma that we have done in the past, to be like a water tank. Now, in this water tank, there is an inflow. There is one area from which water is coming inside.

And there is another area from which water is going outside. So, now when the water comes inside, that is the Karma that we are doing right now. So, the actions that we are doing.

The word Karma, sometimes we use it in different senses. Sometimes we may say, okay, I am doing my Karma well. Or if somebody is suffering terribly, oh, they are suffering bad Karma.

There we use the word Karma to refer to the reactions of Karma. So, the water going in, okay, the picture has gone in now. So, the water going in, you can visualise it, I think.

Water going into the tank is like the Karma that we are doing right now. And the result that we are getting, the falla, that is what we are experiencing. So, if we want to envision this water tank, imagine that there is a opening from which the water comes inside.

But from there, there are multiple pipelines. So, one pipeline is such that water comes in from here and goes out straight to the exit. The second is that the water comes in, goes round, round, round and then comes out.

The third is water comes in, goes round and round and round and round for a long time and then it comes out. And not only that, when the water goes in, little water may go inside, water may go in with a little force. But what may come out may not be only that water.

There may be much more water that may come out. So, that means, if we consider the total water in the water tank, that is like our destiny. That is daiva.

The water that is going in is the karma. And the water that is coming out is the falla. So, the falla that we get is a complex combination of karma and daiva.

And that there are different pipelines that indicates the falla factor. Sometimes the karma may come out immediately, sometimes after little time, sometimes after much more time. So, let me give a few examples to illustrate this.

Say, many people when they are driving, often people while driving also try to do multitasking. So, sometimes while driving, we are talking with someone on phone or even texting someone. And, I was in America, so one of my friends there is a traffic cop.

Many times when people drive, they think that we can break the rules and if we are not caught, there is no problem. Once there was a person who was driving and he was driving, speeding way too much. And the cop pulled him over and said, didn't you see the speed limit? Speed limit was 60, he was driving at 90.

Didn't you see the speed limit? Yes, I saw the speed limit, I just didn't see you. So, sometimes we may think that if we do a particular action but if we can get away without the consequence, then everything is alright. And sometimes it may be alright.

So, this friend was telling me that he had to pull over a young boy. Just a few months ago he had got a licence. And he was driving and in America baseball is quite big.

So, there is a baseball match going on and he had kept his mobile on a stand in front of him and he was driving and watching the baseball match. And something happened and some unexpected move happened in that baseball match and his attention got diverted. He said, looking at the baseball match he was driving through a school area and at that moment suddenly a child ran over.

He saw the child running and he tried to brake but he was just a few moments late and the child was knocked over. Child was injured, fortunately survived but he got into a huge amount of legal trouble. Now somebody else may do the same thing and they may not get into any trouble.

They may just look at their phone and do something. It may not matter at all. So, when we say it does not matter all that it means is that the water going in is minor and the water coming out is minor.

But sometimes the water going in may be minor, a small quantity of water but that may combine with a large quantity of water from another side and that may cause a big problem. So, imagine three people are walking along the road and they are chatting and none of them notices that there is some water that has spilled on the path and as they are all walking all of them slip on the water. Now the first person is walking and there is a tree nearby he just catches a branch and studies himself.

The second person slips and falls. It doesn't hurt himself much, only hurts his ego. But the third person slips and falls and where that person's head hits the ground, there is a sharp rock over there and gets a brain haemorrhage.

Now, even now what happened over here? Their karma, all of them, all three of them are walking inattentively but the karma alone doesn't determine the fall. Sometimes by destiny some small mistake may lead to a terrible consequence and sometimes a big mistake may also not lead to much of a consequence. Say, consider for example if we consider people in America consider that Indians are so primitive.

You people had caste system, you people had untouchability. But in today's world if somebody becomes overweight or obese they are treated like modern untouchables. People get into so many psychotic disorders just because they become overweight.

Now normally we may say that if somebody eats a lot they become overweight. But it is not always like that. There are genetic factors also involved.

Sometimes some people may just eat normal and still if they have some thyroid issues or some genetic predisposition, then their body may just balloon out. And somebody else some people treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. So they take anything and everything and still they remain slim.

Nothing seems to happen to them. So that means that the karma that we are doing right now that is the kind of food that we are eating that alone doesn't determine the falla. There is a correlation, no doubt.

But it is not a linear one to one correlation. Sometimes we may do a small karma, big falla. Sometimes big karma no falla or very small falla.

So that's why once we start understanding destiny we start making better sense of life. So let me continue this point of analysis. There can be broadly two schools of thought.

One is Karmavad and other is Daivavad. Daivavad is the idea that Daiva alone determines everything. Nothing is in our control.

Now many traditional schools of thought were thought to be adhering to Daivavad. And this is heaped scorn upon in today's world. In the modern times and now the post modern times they are all characterised by Karmavad.

Karmavad means if you work hard if you shed enough sweat, if you are smart enough you can become the next wealthiest person in the world. So now Daivavad it has its problems. So the Vedic understanding sometimes people accuse the Indian thought system they are also fatalistic.

That's why I said British are such a small quantity came to India and because Indians are fatalistic they have accepted British rule. Actually it is not like that. If you look at the history of India, it has been a history of resistance.

That's why Indian culture survived thousands and thousands or thousand years of invasions. But some people think that actually the Vedic culture says nothing is in our control. In fact this was the argument which is given in the Mahabharata.

But it is given by Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata. We have to understand that everything in scripture is not the teaching of scripture. Everything in scripture is not the teaching of scripture.

Because in scripture sometimes there may be non-devotional, demonic characters also. And they may speak certain things. And somebody quotes that this is said in the Mahabharata.

Yes it is said in the Mahabharata and it is refuted in the Mahabharata. So this is called cherry picking or quoting out of context to serve one's own purposes. Now what happens before the Kurukshetra war Vidura is trying to persuade Dhritarashtra.

Stop your son Duryodhana from his self-destructive stubbornness. If he quotes war with the Pandavas he will be destroyed. In fact the whole Kuru dynasty will be destroyed.

At that time Dhritarashtra tries to rationalise. Rationalise. You know what is the spelling of rationalise? R-A-T-I- O-N-A-L L-I-E-S Rational lies.

So rational lies. Rational lies means they try to tell a lie and try to use rationality to prove it is right. So that's what Dhritarashtra did.

And he said that if it is the will of almighty destiny that our dynasty be destroyed then who am I, a tiny mortal to come in the way of almighty destiny? At that time Vidura cuts through the illusions of Dhritarashtra and makes the statement destiny determines the consequences of our actions. Not our actions themselves. So destiny determines not our karma.

It determines the fellow. Whether we do the karma or not is in our hands. It is not in destiny's hands.

About 20 years ago when I started first giving class 20-25 years ago, I started giving classes so one of my mentors gave me 10 guidelines of how to give classes. And the last guideline was depend on Krishna. But in bracket depend on Krishna but only after you have prepared.

So if I depend on Krishna, I don't prepare at all. I say whatever comes out will be destiny. Now whatever comes out will not be destiny it will be my responsibility and my stupidity.

So there is, destiny determines the fellow, not the karma. Now this idea that destiny determines everything, which we call as Daivabad. Can you go ahead please? The result of that is it leads to passivity.

People just accept anything. I was in South America last year and in South America there have been civilisations like the Aztec, Mayan, the Inca at 2000-2500 years old. And when the conquistadors from Spain came, when Europe was fighting its wars between the Catholics and the Protestants.

The Protestants came eastwards to India and that's how the British India conquered India. And the Catholics went to South America. So there one of the conquistadors, those were the colonists who conquered them.

So they had a very small army. But one of the Catholic pastors, Catholic priests rather, he became, so they realised with a small army we can't conquer this big civilisation. So he entered into, he became friends with the tribes living over there.

And as he started becoming friends, he gave them some medicines and things like that. They started talking and then he came to know that there is a big tribe, thousands and thousands and thousands of people in that tribe. And they had they had a belief that on a no moon night, if a white horse without any rider comes running into their village, then that signifies that in future a big army will come and which will defeat us.

As soon as this priest came to know about this, he sent an information to the Spanish and conquistadors. And then on that night just at the outskirts of the village, they brought a white horse. And they just guided the horse and the horse was coming on the horseback led by someone till the outskirts.

But then the last few hundred yards, the horse ran in on a no moon night into the village. And when the villagers saw this, the next day, just an army of few hundred colonists came over there and this huge tribe surrendered. And not only they surrendered, so within two years a civilisation that was 2000 years old was eliminated.

It no longer exists. So this is, if somebody starts giving too much credence to destiny and thinks that nothing is in our hands, then that can lead to passivity, that can lead to atrocity, that can lead to abuse. And that definitely is unwanted.

However, this does not mean that Karmavada alone is good. Karmavada has its own flip side also. When we think that we alone determine the results of our actions, then sometimes when factors beyond us shape the results, then we needlessly start blaming ourselves.

We needlessly start blaming ourselves and beating ourselves down. I was in Central New Jersey and there is a huge area where there are million dollar mansions or houses and these are all the houses of people who many of them, there were houses of people who were working in the twin towers. Very wealthy.

And when the twin towers fell, some of them, they were trapped over there and they died. But many others, their offices, their companies, everything collapsed. Some of them sank into depression, some of them committed suicide.

Now, they had built a big career for themselves. And this thing happened, they were not responsible for that. Some anti-social elements came and blew it up.

But if they start beating themselves up for that, that leads to depression. That leads to self-destruction. So, sometimes despite our best efforts, results don't come.

And if they don't come, there is no need to blame ourselves. Mental health problems are a huge problem in the western world and in the westernised world. About 1 million people commit suicide every year.

So, 1 million figure means, it is about 1 suicide every 40 seconds. That is, since we started this discussion, 45 people have committed suicide. This is more than the number of people who are killed in wars, murders, and all kinds of terrorist attacks combined together.

More than the number of people who are being killed by others, are the people who are killing themselves. Now, of course, suicide is a complex subject, but one common reason for suicide is that when people feel that life is hopeless. And why do they feel life is hopeless? Because some things have gone wrong in their life.

Just because some things have gone wrong in our life, doesn't mean everything is going to go wrong in our life. There are many things that have gone right in our life also, and many will go right also. When we believe in Karmavada, then failure becomes not a practical problem, it becomes an existential problem.

Means, if I want to pass an exam, and somehow, if I want to crack this exam, I want to get into this college. Now, I may study very well, but sometimes in colleges, if that year, there are many other talented students, and I get a high percentage, but others get higher percentage than me, then what can I do? So, then, either you can get into depression, and beat yourself up, or accept and move on. So, a lot of mental health problems come, because we beat ourselves up for things that are not in our control.

So, Karmavada can also be equally damaging. And the balanced understanding is, Karma and Daiva, both move together in helping us to attain the fellow. So, any questions till this point? Yes, please.

Yeah. You have a mic? Thank you. But, as you said, like, if we face failure, then we should accept it, and like, see like, this might be our destiny.

But, my question is, should we look back on ourselves, like, where did I did mistake, and I should, like, rectify them, and then I may get a better result, or should we accept it? Or my, like, this might not be my destiny. So, what should we do? Good question. Thank you.

So, if we face failure, should we just accept it as our destiny, and move on? Or should we try to see, how we can, what we could have done better? Certainly, learning from the past is vital. We, as human beings, have progressed because we have learned from experience. Of course, a famous historian, Will Durant, said that the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history.

That means, if we look at history, people keep committing the same mistakes again and again and again. People succumb to lust, people succumb to pride, people succumb to greed. We keep making the same mistakes.

But still, we have the potential to learn. So, learning from the past is good. At the same time, unless we have some foundational stability, if we try to look at the past also, instead of learning from the past, we will end up lamenting the past.

The Bhagavad Gita explains that there are three gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is characterised by clarity, Rajas by hyperactivity and Tamas by passivity. So, I put it this way, some people make things happen, some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened.

So, in Sattva, think, plan and make things happen. Rajas, some people, they try to do one thing, they're doing, running, running, trying to do one thing and one thing leads to second and third, fourth way, what's happening? Some people, they watch things happen and some people, they wonder what happened. That's Tamas.

So, broadly speaking, when we are looking back at the past, we can either be in the Sattva or we can be in Tamas. We can be in a calm, collected frame of mind or we can also be dejected, depressed. So, if we are in Tamas, then looking back at the past simply increases the negativity in us.

We don't learn much, why did this happen? Why did I do like this? I'm such a big fool. I'll never learn. And we'll just make a mess of our life.

But when we are in Sattva, then we can look back. In this situation, this happened. If I had done like this, this could have changed this way.

In this situation, they spoke like this. At that time, I could have done like this. So, we need a basic sense of security and this, how we get that security? By understanding our spirituality.

That will be the next point. I'll talk about T-transcendence. But we have to be calm and composed.

That's why sometimes if we are too agitated by something that has happened, at that time, it's best to not think about learning. At that time, just focus on stabilising ourselves, calming ourselves. And then when we are a little calmer, then look back and learn from the past.

Thank you. Yes, please. Hare Krishna Prabhuji.

Prabhuji, I wanted to ask you a question. Do we decide our destiny or our astrologer? Okay. Do we determine our destiny or does our astrologer determine our destiny? So, a few years ago, a few years ago, there was this movie which is a satire on religion called OMG.

And I wrote a book about that movie called OMG, re-answering the questions. So, there they depicted as if the astrologer is like a thug who threatens you and scares you and who forces you to do certain things and extorts money from you. The astrologer, so that was actually a dis-analogy.

Analogy means when two things are comparable. Dis-analogy is when two things are not comparable. And why are they not comparable? Because the astrologer is not threatening us.

The astrologer is warning us. In Hindi, there is a difference between dhamki and chetavani. So, if if we are driving a vehicle and it tells, slow down, sharp turn ahead.

Now, it is not that the road is threatening us. It is the fact is there and if we don't slow down, we'll veer off the road. So, it's simply warning us.

So, if we consider if some astrologer tells us that, okay, this is going to happen in your future. So, is it that if the astrologer says something bad is going to happen in your life, you're going to have some health crisis, you're going to have some relationship issues. Is it that the astrologer is going to do something inside our body to give us a health crisis? So, if you consider thugs, they say, if you don't give hafta, if you don't pay to me, I'll break up your house, break up your shop.

And the thugs are actually going to do that. So, the astrologers don't determine our destiny. If the astrologers are good and it is a big if, it is a big if.

So, if the astrologers are good, then they can give us some indications of what is going to happen in the future. Astrology, in that sense, is like a weather forecast. If you're going on a road, at that time, if you get a weather forecast, okay, there's going to be heavy rains now, there's going to be storm over here.

I was coming from Connecticut to New York to the JFK airport to take a flight to come back to India. And on the way, we suddenly got a news, you know, there's a sudden storm and a flash flood coming. So, at one moment, the road was clear and the atmosphere was clear and next moment, suddenly heavy winds and we were in a car, our car was sweeping off the road.

And we all looked and we all saw that everybody had just got off the road and they were waiting on the side of the road. So, at that time, that was the weather forecast. And we got the news and we all stopped.

So, a weather forecast does not cause the weather. The weather forecast only informs us about the weather. So, now, of course, weather forecast can also go wrong at many times.

And astrological forecast can also go wrong. So, astrological forecast, based on the position of the celestial bodies, can point us towards certain things that are going to happen in our life. And that can prepare us better.

Sometimes, if you're just going for a casual ride and say, oh, there's going to be a heavy storm, better let me not go in this direction. Sometimes, we may decide that, I have to go, it's very important for me. So, if there's a storm, I'll go, but I'll go carefully.

The same way, astrology can tell us certain things and then we can respond appropriately. Thank you. So, we'll move ahead and we can have more questions towards the end.

So, I talked about F-A-T-E. What was F? Fact. The fact is simply that there are things beyond our control.

A was? Analysis. That means that there is, okay, what is beyond my control? How does it determine the results? Karma, Daiva and Kaala leads to Fala. Now, let me move on to the third point.

T is Transcendence. Transcendence means that the Bhagavad Gita tells us that this Karma and Daiva, all this acts in the arena of matter. But we exist beyond that arena.

In 13.21, the Bhagavad Gita says that cause and effect, action and reaction, they all occur in the domain of matter. Prakriti. But it is our consciousness that determines whether we experience pleasure or pain.

So transcendence means that we understand that we are souls. And our existence transcends our situations and our emotions. The Bhagavad Gita explains that our existence is three levels.

Body, mind and soul. This is like in a computer system, the hardware, the software and the user. So, destiny determines what kind of hardware we may get.

Say, if you get to work in a company, the company policy may determine which brand computer you get. The company policy may determine which software you get. But it is you who determine how you work on the computer.

You are separate from it. Similarly, destiny determines for us, destiny may determine our situations and it may even determine our emotions. In terms of the default emotions that come within us.

Sometimes something bad happens in our life and naturally we feel angry, we feel resentful. But, we can rise above that situation. We can consider, okay, this situation has come in my life, this emotion has come in my life, but I am different from it.

I am a soul who is above all this. I'll explain this a little bit more, but the essential point is, if you go back to the example of steering a ship, if somebody is steering a ship and they are in the ocean, but suppose there is a heavy storm and their boat or their ship is being buffeted around, they will feel insecure, they will feel threatened, I will be knocked over. But, if above there is a rescue helicopter and the rescue helicopter throws a rope down and they catch hold of the rope or they tie the rope around their waist.

Now, they are still trying to manage the ship, but they know if this boat goes out of control and I'll be pulled up. So, they don't feel immediately threatened themselves. So, similarly, our spirituality, if you understand, that means that I exist above my situations and above my emotions.

Next. So, now, destiny, sometimes we ask, destiny, does it affect only our situations? I said, it affects our emotions also. So, what does that mean? We think our emotions are inside us.

So, I talked earlier, karma is what is in our hands. Daiva is not in our hands. Now, what does daiva refer to? Does it refer to externals or does it also refer to internals? Now, yes, by destiny, our internals may also be shaped to some extent.

There is a British playwright, Oscar Wilde, he said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a dozen times. That means, he gave up smoking, but smoking didn't give him up.

So, what do we mean by this? This means that sometimes, based on our past actions, certain emotions may just be our default dispositions. So, some people, say somebody has become an alcohol addict or a smoking addict. What does that mean? That means, that thought of drinking or smoking just pops up within them, repeatedly, again and again and again.

That doesn't necessarily mean they have to drink. But, that is the thought that pops up. An example to illustrate this point, so, say, somebody has visited a particular site repeatedly on their daiva.

Say, suppose somebody visited Bollywood.com. Again and again, they have visited it. And then they come for a spiritual programme like this, and they hear about the Bhagavad Gita. And they think, you know, this Bhagavad Gita seems very interesting.

Let me read about it. And they open their browser, and they want to type Bhagavad Gita. And they type B. And what happens? Bollywood comes up.

Now, they didn't want to go to Bollywood, at least not then. But, because of the past choices, that's what comes up. Now, this doesn't mean that they have to visit Bollywood.

They can still type Bhagavad Gita and go to Bhagavad Gita.com. But, in that situation, Bollywood will come as auto-complete. So, similarly for us, based on the kind of actions that we have done in the past, there are the actions that we have done in the past, they get stored as impressions in our mind. And those impressions come as propositions.

Just like if we visit a particular site repeatedly, that gets stored as a preference. And that comes as an auto-complete. So, similarly, for us, based on the kind of emotions that we have cultivated, or we have given into, so, we may get that kind of emotions repeatedly.

So, sometimes people ask, is this glass half-full or half-empty? Sometimes, when people ask this question, we may feel like looking, is there enough water to throw on the head of the person who is asking this stupid question? So, it's such a banal question. Don't see that the glass is half-empty. See that the glass is half-full.

It seems nice, but people who have been habituated to thinking negatively, they will, by default, think negatively. Some people find solution to every problem. And some people find problem with every solution.

Now, it's not that either of them is bad. If people keep simply thinking unrealistically of solutions and don't acknowledge the gravity of the problem, that can also be a big problem. In 2006-2007, when this big recession hit the world, one reason was unrealistic optimism.

The people had no money and still they were taking big loans to have big houses. Somehow, we will be able to fill it. We will be able to give the premiums.

And then, when that went beyond a limit, the whole economy crashed. The domino effect. So, it's not that negative thinking is bad.

Some people are, by nature, cautious. So, if you give a solution, they look at the problems. It is the default disposition that all of us have.

That is not the problem. It is when we make the default disposition our only disposition, then it becomes a fault. Some of us will naturally be creative and we look for solutions.

That's good. But then we have to look at the problems with the solutions also so that we are realistic. Some of us will always be cautious.

But if you are always cautious and we don't do anything, then that's also not good. So, for some of us, a particular option may come as a default within us. Now, we have to recognise what is the nature of the default option and then use our intelligence to evaluate how I should act.

So, some of us may be, as I said, optimistic. Some of us may be a little pessimistic. Some of us may tend to get depressed easily.

Some of us may get angry easily. Some of us may be a little more sentimental. Some of us may be a little more rational.

All these are dispositions. So, they affect the scope of our free will. Scope of our free will means that this is the way we will think.

But that doesn't mean that is the only way we will think. That is what will come as the default. But then, we can, within the default, we can consciously choose.

Krishna gives the example in the Bhagavata for this. यथा आकाश्यस्तितो नित्यम् वायु सर्वत्रगो महान् तथा सर्वानि भूतानि मत्थानि त्यो पधारया In 9.6, He says that just as within the sky, the wind moves. If you envision the sky to be like upside down ball, bowl, then within that, the wind moves.

So, like that our past determines our destiny determines the scope. This is the area within which you can move. But within that, all of us can move.

So, this is understanding. When we understand that we are transcendental, we understand that actually, destiny may restrict what all things I can do. Certain ideas may just come up as default for me.

But within that, I can choose. And this understanding is empowering. So, even if we can't progress materially, we can still progress spiritually.

Sometimes, especially in today's world, the idea of spiritual progress, especially in terms of some other world. If you look at, before the modern times, around 17th, 18th century, before that, whether it is India, or whether it is Middle East, or whether it is America or Australia, everywhere, people understood that this world is a transition place. Jesus said that the world is like a bridge.

Cross over it. Don't build your home on it. So, the idea is that there is another world and that is where we are meant to be happy eternally.

But as science progressed and especially as technology progressed, the idea came up, why do we need to believe in any religious paradise? Through technology, we will create technological paradise in this world itself. And therefore, the idea of another world was rejected. The defining difference between the pre-modern times and the modern times is that in the modern times, the idea of spiritual progress was rejected.

The idea of a spiritual world was rejected. And thus, all progress was thought to be material progress. And sometimes, we may be in a situation where material progress may just be impossible.

If a river is moving in a particular direction, and it gets blocked, it just can't move forwards. Some of you may, and I came in, some of you may notice that I need to use crutches for walking. So, when I was about one, my father is sitting behind me, so probably he can vindicate the story.

So, when I was about one, my parents took me to a doctor to give a polio vaccine. And somehow the doctor had messed up the vaccine. He had not kept it very carefully.

And the vaccine, instead of preventing the polio, the vaccine ended up giving me the polio. So, since then, I have not been able to walk normally. Now, when I travel across the world, and I speak to I speak at gatherings where people are having some physical issues.

In America, the world, we don't use physical disabilities in America. They use special needs. Some people have special needs.

So, after I talk with them, I see that many of them are still fighting battles that have been lost long ago. Somebody has lost a hand. Somebody has lost a leg.

Somebody has lost an eye. Somebody has lost an ear. Well, it's over.

It's done. You can't do anything about it. But, why did this happen? Why did this happen? Why did this happen? They keep just resenting it again and again and again.

And, it just does nothing. Resentment of reality often hurts more than reality. Now, if I look back at my life, I don't remember feeling resentful like that.

For anyone who sees me, the crutches are the first thing they notice. But, for me, the crutches are just a functional need. They are like glasses for me.

I can't see without glasses. I can't walk without crutches. But, what's the big deal? Just use it and move on.

So, if I look back at this, I could say that my parents, their upbringing, they just accepted me and they helped me to accept myself. My parents would tell me that whatever you don't have in physical ability, God has given you in intellectual ability. And, at that time, I just didn't understand what is this idea of who is God who has so much power on my life that he decides what to take and what to give.

But, still, that resentment never came. And, as over the years, I understood the Bhagavad Gita and I started appreciating the Bhagavata's philosophy, I started understanding this body is just a functional tool. If something is lacking in the body, that is a problem, but that doesn't have to define us.

So, sometimes, some channels of material progress may just be blocked by destiny. If you just keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, it just hurts us. But, if you understand, this is blocked, but there are other channels that are still open.

This channel is blocked. When the river has to move towards the ocean, the river's purpose is fixed. The river's path is not fixed.

If this path gets blocked, the river will find some other path to move on. So, our spirituality helps us to understand that we are bigger than our situations. Certain situations block us.

We don't keep insisting, this way, this way, this has to happen this way only. Why not this way? If it is not happening, just give up. No, find some other way and move on.

So, that's how we can grow in our spiritual life. I was in Canada, I have written a book on reincarnation. So, one boy asked a question to me after a class.

He said that, I want to marry a particular girl, but somehow our parents are not agreeing. So, I can't marry her, but what karma can I do in this life so that I can marry her in my next life? So, actually, Bollywood has taken the concept of reincarnation and has romanticised it. So, many people, when they talk about, I wrote this book on reincarnation and the most common question people ask is about soulmates.

Do all of us have a soulmate? So, I usually answer let's focus on the soul first, then the mate. So, I explained in answer to this question that actually, all of us have horizontal relationships in the world with others and we have vertical relationships. A vertical relationship is with God, with Krishna.

And, depending on circumstances, depending on destiny, sometimes some horizontal relationships work out and sometimes some horizontal relationships just don't work. So, if a particular horizontal relationship doesn't work, that is not the end of the world. The Bhagavad Gita explains that everything attractive comes from Krishna.

So, whatever we find attractive in anyone, they are representing a spark of Krishna's attractiveness. They have attractiveness, we don't deny that, but that is a spark of Krishna's attractiveness. So, whatever we might get through the most fulfilling horizontal relationship, we can get that and more by developing our vertical relationship with Krishna.

The soul is eternally a part of the whole of Krishna. And, to the extent we focus on the vertical relationship, to that extent, we can get inner strength, we can get inner stability. If we go on the horizontal relationship, sometimes it may just not work.

And if you obsess over it, people become depressed, sometimes people become suicidal and unnecessarily make things worse. So, explain that. We don't have so much control over which soul is going to go where in the next life.

But what we can control is where our soul goes. So, we can develop the relationship that will last forever. And that opportunity is there.

So, sometimes when one channel gets blocked, two channels get blocked, still the spiritual channel is always open for us. The last part is, E is expertise. So, how does this knowledge of destiny apply in our life? Expertise means we have to understand that there are certain things which we can change, certain things which we can't change in our life.

And life can be said to be like a tennis match. In a tennis match, sometimes the player is serving and sometimes the player is returning. When the player is serving, they have a lot of control.

They can decide whether to serve on the forehand, on the backhand, at what height, into the body, where. They can choose all that. When they are returning, at that time, they have very little choice.

A player may be very good on the forehand, but if the ball comes on the backhand, the player cannot say, I will play on the forehand. Wherever the ball has come, the player has to get the ball back into the play. So, similarly in our life, by destiny, sometimes we are serving, sometimes we are returning.

So, sometimes, we have much more control in our situations. We have initiative. It is for us to take initiative and move forward.

And sometimes, we are very constricted by our situations. We just have to keep moving, get the ball back into the play. Say for example, now, in this talk, while I am speaking, I am serving.

When I am answering questions, I will be returning. When I am answering questions, I don't know what question is going to come. So, whatever question comes, I will answer it the best way that I can.

A lot of problems come in our life when we don't understand whether we are serving or whether we are returning. We start expecting and demanding the flexibility of serving while we are returning. And we just get frustrated.

Sometimes, our situations do limit us. Sometimes, we might have a job where the boss is very disagreeable. Sometimes, we might be sick and just are very limited in our movements.

That is the time when we are returning. And I spoke this point in a class to an American audience in Chicago. That time, the U.S. Open was going on.

U.S. Open in tennis. So, one girl in the audience, she raised her hand and she said that she is a tennis fan. She said, when you told me this struck me that none of the top players in tennis have gone on top simply by their serving ability.

There are some servers who are big, big, just showering down aces. But if you look at the top three or top four players in tennis, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, none of them are just big, big servers. They have well-rounded game.

All of them are good returners also. So, sometimes we think that I need to have control over my situation. Then I can create a better future for myself.

But no, even when our situation is controlled, even when our situation is limited, still within that limited situation also, we can create a better future for ourselves. Most of us are expert at one thing. What is that? We are all expert at blaming our situations.

We are all expert at, oh, you know, this person is like this in my life. This thing is terrible in my life. If only I had this ability, I could have done so much more.

If only I could speak better. If only I could do this better. If only I could do that better.

If God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else. He has made you, you and he has made me, me. So, expertise means, yes, sometimes we may be returning.

Our situations may be limited. But we can return gracefully. We can return expertly.

And through that also, we can create a brighter future for ourselves. Next. Go ahead.

So, a couple of examples to conclude this point. That even within constricted situations, we can create a better future for ourselves. In the Bhagavatam, in the tenth canto, it is described how Kamsa, when he heard that Devaki's eighth son is going to kill him, immediately he caught the hair of Devaki and wanted to lop off her head.

At that time, Kamsa was a demon. It was Kamsa's territory. Vasudev is newly married.

Devaki was his wife. He had a duty to protect her. But he didn't have a big army with him.

It was Kamsa's territory. He could fight. Situation was limited.

And he uses various arguments to reason with Kamsa. Now one argument he uses is, Oh Kamsa, life and death are destined. What will you achieve by doing bad karma? That is, bad karma, he said that just attacking and killing a woman, that is bad karma.

For a Kshatriya, Kshatriya is meant to protect those who are defenceless. One of them is woman. To attack a woman is bad karma.

To attack a woman who is your own sister, that is bad karma square. To attack a woman who is your own sister, on the day of her wedding, that is bad karma cube. So he said, if it is destined, what are you going to achieve by trying to kill her? If you are going to die, you will die.

Now Vasudev could have turned this argument around and he could have said, if Devaki is destined to die, what am I doing trying to reason with Kamsa? She is going to die anyway. He didn't do like that. Why? Because for him, destiny was not important.

Duty was important. As a husband, it was his duty to protect his wife. And if despite his effort, nothing worked out, then that would be destiny.

But within his constricted situation, what did he do? He expertly reasoned with him and he bought time. Don't kill Devaki. When the sons are born, I will hand those sons over to you.

So he was returning. He didn't have much freedom over there, but he returned expertly in that situation. So just because as predestination is there, certain things are determined, that doesn't mean we have to become passive and give up everything.

So I have talked about this concept of destiny elaborately in my new book on the Ramayana, Wisdom from Ramayana. When Ram was exiled to the forest, at that time Lakshman was furious. And Lakshman said, Ram, you should rebel against the king.

He didn't even use the word Dasaratha. He said rebel against the king. And we will gain the kingdom.

He says, Dasaratha is our father. How can I rebel against him? He says, no. He has forgotten his duty as a king because of infatuation with his youngest queen.

He has done a great wrong to you. So Ram said that it is not infatuation, it is obligation. I was there with Dasaratha and I saw how much distress he was in when he told me that when this order, he didn't tell also, Dasaratha didn't tell, it was Kaikeyi only who told, you should go to the forest.

And then Lakshman's anger went to Kaikeyi. Now this dialogue between Lakshman and Ram could be like a dialogue between, Lakshman is like a karmawadi, he says, take things in your hands. At this time he says, there is Kaikeyi, she is so cruel.

How could she do something like this to you? Then Ram says, yes, oh Lakshman, don't you remember how Kaikeyi loved me as much as Kaushalya? Her love for me was as sweetly and strongly flowing as the river Ganga. Lakshman says, that's what I can't understand. How did the Ganga dry up in one night? Laughter Then Ram says, that's why, when I saw the change in her mood, I understood that this cannot happen ordinarily.

This must be the will of destiny. Lakshman is still angry and he says, only cowards accept injustice as destiny. Heroes fight against injustice and get their rights.

And Ram says, oh Lakshman, what is right for me here? He said, I was ready to ascend the throne as a duty to my father. And now, I am going to the forest as a duty to my father. So it is my duty that I am doing either way.

That is the right thing for me. And gradually Lakshman calmed down. So here, when Ram was being exiled, Ram accepted the exile as destiny.

But when Sita was abducted, Ram didn't think, oh, it is the will of destiny, she is abducted. At that time, they didn't have, they didn't have emails or Google or anything. They didn't even know where Sita was.

We had to go, gather an army, walk thousands of miles, fight against formidable opponents. And through it all, he got Sita back. Why? Because he was focused on his duty.

The duty is, as a king, I am meant to protect my queen. And he fought and got her back. So, broadly speaking, the purpose of understanding destiny is to focus on duty.

What is in my control? Let me do it the best that I can. So, we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. We know that Krishna is always in control.

And Krishna, whatever terrible things may happen in our life, no matter how cruel destiny may seem to be, we are working hard and nothing seems to be working out right. But, if we look, not at the situation, but we can look at the Lord. He has a plan.

And He will create a brighter future for ourselves, if we just stay devoted to Him. Can you go ahead? So, we can't be grateful for all situations, but we can be grateful in all situations. On 24th November, that was the Thanksgiving weekend when I was in America, so I gave a series of classes on Thanksgiving.

Even some companies, the Northern Bank, they also celebrated Thanksgiving, so I spoke to their employees also over there. So now, I spoke on this theme of Thanksgiving and gratitude. So, we can't be grateful.

There are bad things that happen, and it's very difficult to feel grateful for those bad things. But we can be grateful in all situations. How? By looking beyond the situation to the bigger picture.

I'll conclude with this point. Next slide. So, I talk about the theme of ACE.

So, expertise is in acing our life with gratitude. ACE is A-C-E. When something bad has happened, look for the good around the bad.

Look for the good, okay, I didn't clear this exam, I lost this job, this relationship didn't work out, this happened, that happened. Yes, but look for the good around the bad. There are some countries in Africa where the lifespan on average is 30-32 years.

Most of us may be older than that. So, we are alive. That itself is a blessing.

So, the very fact that we are alive means many things have gone right in our life. So, look for the good around the bad. Make a habit of counting our blessings.

We will see that destiny has worked favourably for us also in the past. Whenever we have attained some success in our life, it's not just our own effort. Yes, our effort is important, but there are many other factors which worked out right, that's how we got the result.

So, we can look at all the times when things have worked out right. Count our blessings. Then that will help us avoid the negativity.

Look for the good around the bad. Then look for the good that helps us to counter the bad. Counter the bad means, suppose we got a disease.

Then we can say, okay, got the disease, but overall my body's health is good. The disease is curable. I've got a good doctor.

I have a supportive family. I have a community that is willing to assist me. So, look at the good that can help us specifically to counter the bad.

The bad is there, but destiny has also created all these positive resources for us by which we can look and we can use these resources for countering the bad. And then lastly, look for the good that may emerge from the bad. Life is a multi-act play.

And sometimes by destiny, the present stage, the present act in the play might be very negative. But in the future, many positives may come about. So we need to just persevere.

Look for the good that may emerge from the bad. When first time I went to America in 2015, I went to university and I gave a talk on regulating our mental diet. I talked about how we need to be careful, what inputs we give to our mind.

So after that, when an American boy came and talked with me, and he said, just before this class, I was contemplating suicide. There had been a relationship with a girl and she had broken up and I was depressed. As I was walking along gloomily in the campus, that time suddenly I saw this poster of the programme.

And something within me said, just go for this programme. And when he came for the programme, he said, now I understand, it is not I who want to commit suicide. It is my mind which is prompting, commit suicide, commit suicide, commit suicide.

I told him, this is literally a life-saving insight for you. I encouraged him to read the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita as it is, Ishwara Prabhupada has given us.

I also write on the Bhagavad Gita every day at my website, www.gitadaily.com with nearly 300 word meditation. It is also available in audio video. I encouraged him to read that.

And every year, once or twice when I go to America, and I go to that university, I talk with him. So, recently when I had gone again to that uni, he met me. And he told me, again he had gone through the same situation.

He had been in a steady relationship, and suddenly that girl unilaterally broke up with him. She said, I don't want to be with you. I am blocking you.

Don't try to contact me. He was so shocked by that, he just went straight to his room. And he went straight to his room and he locked the door.

He pulled down the drapes in the windows, closed the windows, turned off the lights. And over these years, he had been practising Bhakti Yoga at the local Bhakti Yoga club. And he liked music.

He liked to play a violin and sing. He used to participate in local kirtans over there. So, as he closed everything, suddenly, something within him prompted him.

He just went nearby, picked up his violin and started singing Hare Krishna. He told me, I sang Hare Krishna for six hours continuously. All alone.

Pouring out my heart. And he said, at that time I felt as if I was bathed in some sublime light. I felt as if I was embraced by a very comforting presence.

I experienced God. What could have been a very depressing time in his life, became one of the most enriching experiences of his life. And that transformation happened because he turned towards Krishna.

Because he took shelter of Krishna. So, by destiny sometimes some relationships may not work out. Sometimes some bad things may happen.

But if we take shelter of Krishna, then he will guide us to a bright future. Even if the present is bad. Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through.

So, I'll quickly summarise and then you can have a couple of questions. I spoke on this theme of overcome. Does destiny make us or do we make destiny? I spoke on four main points.

F was facts. There are things beyond our control. Performance matters, but performance is not all that matters.

And accepting this is simply aligning ourselves with reality. A was analysis. So, karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala.

To think only karma determines the result is karmavata. To think only daiva determines the result is daivavata. Both are extremes.

Daivavata leads to passivity. Karmavata leads to depression. Because we beat ourselves up for things that are not in our control.

T was transcendence. This daiva, destiny can affect our body or our mind. But we are souls.

And by realising our spirituality, we can get strength even amidst difficult situations. And E was expertise. That means understand when we are serving or when we are returning.

Even if our situations limit us, we can expertly work within those limited situations. And if we lift our vision up to Krishna, then he holds the future. And he can help us to create a better future for ourselves.

When we feel destiny is unfair and bad things are happening in our life, we can ease our life with gratitude. We can't be grateful in all situations. We can't be grateful for all situations, but we can be grateful in all situations.

How? By looking for the good around the bad. Looking for the good that helps us to counter the bad. And looking for the good that may emerge from the bad.

And whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Thank you. Is there a question there? Yeah.

Yes, please. Hare Krishna Prabhuji. Thank you for the enlightening talk.

My question is related to one of the famous personalities from the world history. That is Sir Abraham Lincoln. His life, if you see, is born into poverty.

Lost his girlfriend at a very early age. Failed in his two businesses. Failed seven times in the US presidential election.

And then went on after his friends told him that you should quit on this venture and look into something else. But he still went on and became the US president in his eighth attempt. He never gave up.

So when destiny, does it see that if someone is so much determined, goal orientated, and sees one's resilience, even destiny, does she changes her plan? Okay, good question. So, if you consider the example of Abraham Lincoln, he had many many reversals, but he, you can sit. Thank you.

So, he had many many reversals till he persevered and eventually succeeded. So, does destiny change if we persevere? Yes and no. Because destiny is not necessary like a fixed entity.

As I said, our present actions and our past actions, our present karma and our past karma, both combine together to give us the result of Allah. So, sometimes the past karma is unfavourable. Then if we do a lot of positive present karma, then that present karma may overwhelm the past karma.

And then something good may emerge in that particular area. But, to understand that, these stories of human endurance and eventual success, they are very inspiring stories and they can also inspire us to persevere. At the same time, perseverance has to be complemented with intelligence.

That means that sometimes we may have some innate abilities, but situations may themselves not be favourable and that's why those abilities are not leading to a positive result for us. Then we may decide I can persevere in this field. But sometimes, some people may just not have certain abilities.

And, then at that time we have to accept reality. So, it requires intelligence to understand which battles to keep fighting and which battles to let go. For example, if we consider the greatest cricketer in Indian history or world history, Sachin Tendulkar.

At one time in his life, he actually wanted to become a fast bowler. Medium pacer. And, he was training that, or at least an all-rounder.

And, then during a bowling coaching session that he had, bowling camp he had, an Australian bowler told him, you concentrate on your batting. And, he accepted. And, he went on to become a legendary batsman.

So, he could have persevered. Now, I will bowl. Well, maybe he could have become a good bowler.

We don't know. But, his strength, his talent was in batting. So, we have to see when things are not working out, what is the reason for it.

Sometimes, we may just not have certain abilities. And, it is not wrong to admit that. So, somebody might just be, some people may just be tone deaf.

They just don't understand any music at all. And, if that person is tone deaf, thinks that I am going to become a professional musician. I am going to become the next Beethoven, or next Mozart, or whatever.

Well, that is an unrealistic expectation. So, we can look if we are very strongly driven, inspired to do something. And, we also have the ability to do that.

But, situations are not favourable. Then, we may decide to persevere. In principle, we never lose hope.

It is like the river always wants to go towards the ocean. But, whether the river should keep persevering in that particular path only, and erode or grind down the blockage, and then go through that path, or take some other path. That is something which has to be intelligently decided.

So, we should persevere. But, it is not necessary that we have to keep repeating the same thing again and again, hoping that that particular avenue may work out. Sometimes, one door in life may be closed, and we keep pushing, keep pushing, and that door opens eventually.

Sometimes, sometimes one door is unbreakably closed, and it is best that we look for some other door, and move on through that door. Okay? Thank you. Someone who has not asked till now? Yeah.

Yes, come to you. Thank you. Hare Krishna, Prabhuji.

First of all, I wish to express my gratitude for such an inspiring talk. Prabhuji, as you mentioned in your class that about karma, phala, and kala, and you also mentioned about our abilities to blame, you know, we are all good at blaming others. So, most of the time, when things don't work according to our plans, so we have this ability at those times of distancing ourselves from good things, and especially distancing, first of all, blaming God, and then distancing ourselves from, you know, godly people, or maybe having, not having a good association, and we are too vulnerable at that point of time for bad things.

So, if you could please put light on this point that at such times how we remain in good, you know, in touch with good people, or maybe we try to increase more faith in God, especially at that point of time. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

At that times, when bad things happen, we may lose our faith in God and try to stay away from, distance ourselves from God or good things. So, how can we maintain our faith in God? Yeah. We have to understand that God is never the cause of our suffering.

God is the cure for our suffering. When bad things happen, it is not, bad things don't happen because of God. Bad things happen in spite of God.

What do you mean in spite of God? It is not that God wants bad things to happen. It is either our own karma or some other people's bad karma which they are doing. So, it is not that when Sita was abducted, Ram wanted Sita to be abducted.

It is not when Draupadi was dishonoured, Krishna wanted Draupadi to be dishonoured. Bad things happen. And Krishna is the supreme controller but he is not the sole controller.

In this world, everybody has been given free will and sometimes some people may misuse their free will. So, when bad things happen to us, we have to see that why this particular thing has happened, it is difficult to know. If you can enquire and find out, good.

But if you can't find out, then just change the question from why to how. Why has this happened? That question can sometimes just be the express way to frustration. Change the question to how.

How can I move ahead in this situation? How can I gain strength to face this situation? Once we shift the question to how, we will find that Krishna is an enormously empowering resource. If you pray to Krishna, if you chant Krishna's names, if you devote ourselves to Krishna, we will get the strength to face the situation and through that, we will be able to move forward. So, when bad things happen, if we can associate with those who help us to see the hand of Krishna in that situation, then we can move forward in our life.

If instead, we see not the hand of Krishna, we keep seeing that why has this bad thing happened? About 7, 6, 7 years ago, one morning in Juhu temple, I was walking and I was doing japa, when somebody spilled water over there. I didn't notice it and I slipped and fell. Because I already had polio in my leg and I had osteoporosis.

So, at that time, I just fell badly and my femur, my thigh bone almost came out of the foot. It is a minor fall, but it is a major break. I was in great pain at that time.

So, I have a childhood friend who is an atheist. And I wrote an article about this afterwards. So, he afterwards, when I was in the hospital, he wrote to me and he said that, you were in a temple of God, chanting the names of God, and still God didn't protect you.

So, what is the use of worshipping such a God? So, I told him, I wrote the whole experience. I said that when I fell and I had that, I was in such great pain. And somehow, I feel a connection with the Bhagavad Gita.

So, I tried to recite the Bhagavad Gita's verses regularly. So, I just started reciting the Gita's verses at that time. And when I started reciting the Gita's verses, I actually felt as if I was rising above my body.

The pain just subsided. As soon as I stopped reciting the Gita's verses, the pain started coming. So, it took me 4-5 hours from there.

Initially, we thought it was a small fall. I just went to the room and stayed over there. But the pain didn't go.

Then we went and did an x-ray. And the x-ray did a shock. They said, you have to do an operation immediately.

Then we went to the hospital. It took 4-5 hours. At that time, I was constantly chanting the Gita's verses.

And I was not chanting out of devotion. I was chanting because of necessity. But, that time, I got this experience that although physically there was pain, I was lifted above that pain by absorption in Krishna.

So, why that happened, I don't know. But, Krishna is the cure for our suffering. I experienced that even in great bodily pain, I can absorb myself in Krishna.

I can rise above the situation. So, if instead of demanding the answer, why did this happen? If we just change the question from why to how, then we'll find that Krishna can be a very powerful resource for us to face the situation. And thus, our faith in Krishna can actually become stronger even through difficulties.

I write some poems sometimes. So, I wrote once a Hindi poem. आये संकत तो हुआ साक्षातकार आये संकत तो हुआ साक्षातकार Thank you.

Thank you, Krishna. Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Shishiragad Gopinath Bhagwan Ki Jai, Shila Prabhupada Ki Jai Shishiragad Gopinath Bhagwan Ki Jai Shishiragad Gopinath Bhagwan Ki Jai We can say, we have stories like, if a frog has fallen in a well, somebody just accepts it, or in a pot it has fallen, accepts it, somebody just keeps moving round and round, and that creates some pressure, some frost, and this frog is able to come out. So when do we persevere, and when do we accept? I think I answered the question earlier, but I'll talk two more points over here.

How do we decide, the first thing is, how strongly do we want it ourselves? We can say, our desires themselves, some desires are created within us by externals. That means, ok, our parents want it, our friends want it, this is a good thing to do, you do it. But we are not really very driven for it.

Some things, we ourselves are very strongly driven for it. We like it. But some things may be just the defining essence of who we are.

So, depending on how strongly we want something, and it's not just because others are telling us, how strongly do we want it ourselves, we may decide that I want to persevere in this particular course. And if we decide that, then gradually a path will emerge. So, are certain things, I talked about things which are in our control and things which are beyond our control, so now, there are certain things which are clearly in our control.

There are certain things which are clearly beyond our control. There will always be grey lines about whether this particular thing is in my control or this particular thing is not in my control. Say, in America, one of the most inspiring stories of Helen Keller, she was born severely handicapped, she couldn't see, she couldn't hear, so she had a lot of physical abilities, but within that she grew up to become a very illustrious person.

So now, she couldn't change that. Inabilities that she had, she couldn't change that. But within that, she created a better future for herself.

So, similarly for us, rather than obsessing over whether I should endeavour or not, we make the clear boundaries. Okay, this is definitely in my control. And this is not in my control.

Maybe in future it will come in my control. But we focus on that which is in our control and the grey areas, they will resolve themselves in their own way. So, two points, first is how strongly we desire and we focus on the areas where things are clear.

Not on the areas where things are grey. Okay, thank you. Yeah.

There is a question here, you can pass on the mic till then. Okay, yeah. Please.

Hello. Sir, I wanted to ask a question. From Gita Chapter 3, Shloka 36 to Shloka 42, God has said on the Indriyani, Indriyani means intellect, to Indriyani Paramiyao.

God has said on the mind, so what has he said? My second question is… Take question, take question. Okay. Okay.

So, let me take the second question first. So, when do we understand whether somebody who is advising us is like Krishna advising Arjuna, or they are like Shakuni advising Duryodhana? Well, first of all, what is in our control is whether we are Arjuna or whether we are Duryodhana. That basically means, what is our desire? Some people want a Guru to show the way.

And some people want a Guru to ratify their way. This is what I want to do, what you are doing is right. So, it is not that Shakuni made Duryodhana a bad person.

Even before Shakuni came in his life, Duryodhana had conspired to try to poison Bhima, giving him a poison cake and to drown and kill him. So, Shakuni only gave him more ways in which to act deviously. Arjuna was overall Dharmic.

But at that particular point in the Bhagavad Gita, he just got confused, what should I do right now? Which Dharma to follow? Kula Dharma or Kshatriya Dharma? So, first of all, if we try to keep our intention clear, that I want to do the best in this situation, not just best for me alone, but best for me as well as others. Then, if we try to cultivate that, I talk about these three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. Sattva means, let us all share equally.

Rajas means, let us all share, but I want the biggest share. Tamas means, I want everything. So, Duryodhana was like that.

He was not ready to give even… Krishna said, give five villages. And he said, I will not give even the tip of a… land enough to put a tip of a needle through. So then, we can first of all control our disposition.

Look, introspect to check our desires. So, if we try to bring ourselves to Sattva, then we will get inner clarity. And life does not come with a guarantee of right choices.

Sometimes, we make the right decisions. And sometimes, we make the decisions right. That means, okay, I realise, that was not the right decision.

Now, let me do course correction. When, if we take a plane, say, I am from New York to Mumbai over here. So then, 90% of the time of a flight, a plane is off course.

But what gets the plane to the destination is, the pilot keeps reorienting. Because of its momentum, because of the velocity, the plane goes off course, but then the momentum, but the reorienting gets it back on course. So, we don't have to consider that, we are stuck with somebody like Shakuni, or we are surely having somebody like Krishna with us.

What we focus on is, take life one step at a time. And if we see that a particular advice, counsel is helping us go towards the right direction, do something good in our life, then we move forwards. Broadly, the Mahabharata says, right and wrong decisions can be decided by three factors.

Intent, content and consequence. What is right, what is wrong? How do I decide that? It is not just categorical, it is also contextual. Category means, this is right, this is wrong.

That is true. But that is not the only criteria. Sometimes you have to look at the intent.

So, what is the advice somebody is giving, if somebody is telling me, go and rob a bank. Well, obviously that is wrong. So, we can look at the content.

Then we can look at the intent, that person's intent as much as we can understand, or at least our own intent. What am I seeking this person's advice for? And then we look at the consequence. And we can't know the consequence in advance, but once we learn, so, if we connect ourselves with Krishna internally, through the practise of bhakti, then Krishna is our inner guide.

And in the light of that inner guide, in the light that we get from Krishna, we will get the clarity to check who is guiding us and who is misguiding us. Okay? Thank you. Now, as far as the second question about the senses and the mind, Krishna basically says in the Bhagavad Gita that senses, mind and intelligence, all of them, are present over there.

But in the intelligence, we can also get spiritual knowledge. And then with the spiritual knowledge, we can counter the illusion using the intelligence from the mind and the senses. So, like if we consider the disputed territory like Kashmir.

In Kashmir, there are some parts of some people who want to be with India, some people who are against India. So, our intelligence is like the conflicted territory. Some part of the intelligence is an illusion and it is working against us.

So, our intelligence is with Krishna, is thinking of the right thing, is illuminated and is working towards the right thing. So, what does the Indian government have to do? It has to empower that part of Kashmir which is working with us. And it has to disempower that which is working against.

So, similarly, Krishna says that when we connect ourselves with scripture, we empower our higher intelligence. And then the influence of the mind and senses, we can overcome them. Thank you.

Can you speak? I will repeat. Yeah. So, is this the first question or the second question? This is the first question.

What is the second question? This is my first question. No matter how many questions people ask, no matter how they ask, they will ask on the basis of their intelligence. So, this is my first question.

There is God in the heart. So, why not? There should be such an answer that it should be for everyone, no matter how many questions there are. This is my prayer.

I also believe that I will get an answer from you. This is my first sentence. So, second you want to ask right now? Yes.

The second sentence is this. I think this is a lecture. You were giving a lecture.

I was giving a lecture. When I was giving a lecture, my uncle, he is my uncle, he said, it is happening in English. So, I said, I know 64 languages.

I said this to my uncle. Similarly, I said with emotion, as a comedy, that I know all the languages. I do not know 64 languages, but I said to him, I know Hindi very well.

But whether it is spoken in English, or whether it is spoken in Marathi, behind those words, there is such a thing, which is love. For love, no language is needed. What I mean to say is, is this right or wrong? I just need your answer on this.

So, is there any one question, one answer that can address all questions that may come up? Yes. Ultimately, all of us have Krishna as the guide within us. We all have Krishna as the guide in our hearts.

And if we connect with Krishna, then whatever questions to what extent we can get answers, understand, we will get that. So, Bhagavad Gita says, तेशाम् सतत्युक्तानां भजितां प्रीति पूर्वकम् ददामि बुद्धियोगम् तम् येनमामुपयां तिते So, if we connect with God with devotion, and then, with that devotion, we use our intellect, to what extent we can, then God will give us intellect. So, the answer to all questions is ultimately in God.

And if we connect with God's devotion, then God gives us answers. And as far as the second question is concerned, the language of love is the most important. And there are some people who have a heart-to-heart relationship, and some people have a heart-to-heart relationship only through intellect.

So, some people, if they don't understand at the intellectual level, they won't open their hearts. So, for each person, there is a different method. So, if we don't understand the language, if we have a devotion, then we can also purify it.

But if at the intellectual level, someone needs intellect a lot, then understanding the language is also good. Thank you, Krishna. Can we just come back to you one minute? Are there any other questions? Yes, please.

Hare Krishna. Prabhuji, you are a brahmachari, so I can dare to ask you this question. In the Chetan Charita Amrita, there is this incident of Lord Chaitanya rejecting Chhota Haridas.

Because Chhota Haridas glanced lustfully, or whatever, I don't know, I can't recall the exact thing, he looked at a woman and then Lord Chaitanya rejected him because in the renounced order of life, he looked at a woman lustfully or whatever. And later on, even devotees insisted Lord Chaitanya to please accept him. But Lord Chaitanya was adamant and he didn't accept him.

We know Lord Chaitanya is the most merciful incarnation and later on, Chhota Haridas went on to commit suicide. And after that, he went on to become a Gandharvai singing for Lord Chaitanya and the devotees. So, Prabhuji, somehow I am also faced with similar challenges in my life and I hope you understand what I am trying to communicate.

What to do if Krishna himself, I am looking again and again towards Krishna, praying, chanting, etc. But if that source itself is blocked, the supreme source, is it possible, like in the case of Chhota Haridas? I got the question. Lord Chaitanya was extremely stick with Chhota Haridas.

So, if we also succumb to some indiscretions because of our desires, what can we do? Whenever the scripture teaches, it often teaches through extremes. And the extremes are not meant to be the standard. The extremes are meant to illustrate the principle.

So, for example, we have the other extreme of, in the sixth canto, there is a story of Ajamil. Ajamil, because of getting infatuated with a society woman, he just did terrible things. And then at the end of his life, he just chanted Narayan once and he was saved.

So now, is it that that is the trajectory that everybody can do all kinds of wrong activities throughout their life and when they are about to die, they take a gun, put it on their head, Hare Krishna! And they will be delivered? No. Just as there, if you see the Shukadeva Goswami and Srila Prabhupada, both in the purport, what they say is that if even one chanting of the name of Narayan can deliver Ajamil, then if we chant lifelong, if we chant intentionally trying to address Krishna, surely we will be delivered. So there are extreme examples of the positive, mercy and there are extreme examples of the negative strictness.

But what is followed by most people is the standard. And what we should be inspired is to follow the standard. So, with respect to Haridas Thakur's Chota Haridas incident, there are three points to consider.

First is that Lord Chaitanya was acting to set an example at that particular time because Sahajiyism had become very common at that time. Now what is Sahajiyism? Sahajiyism is the idea that that God can be attained through through cheap emotion and sensuality. So there was this perverted idea that when people engage in sensual activities some people got this idea that if a man and woman are engaging in sensuality then Krishna will enter into the man, Radha will enter into the woman and it is Krishna and Radha who are enjoying through them.

But this had no scriptural basis. So there was already the indication that this kind of deviance would come in. So in that context Lord Chaitanya was super strict.

So you have to understand the historical context. Secondly, Lord Chaitanya's associates are also his pure devotees. It is not that they are acting against his will.

The same Lord who was strict personally, directly was concerned and compassionate through his associates. And thirdly, what happened to Shota Haridas was he became elevated. If Lord Chaitanya had rejected him, if he had ended his life in ordinary suicide, then that would have made him a ghostly being who would not be spiritually conscious.

But he became spiritually conscious. He was singing the holy names for Lord Chaitanya's pleasure. And Lord Chaitanya accepted that.

So that is an extreme example to illustrate the gravity of the offence. By the same time, there are contextual factors to be considered in broad historical context. The actions of Lord Chaitanya's associates and the eventual result of that action.

So for us, when we are practising bhakti, we have to understand that we all have desires. And we can't wish away the desires. I was speaking at a mental health care centre in America to mental health care providers because they also get depressed.

we were discussing when does a person need mental health care. All of us have lower desires. Say, everybody gets angry.

But when some people get angry, they might just grunt and just speak disagreeably. Speak in coherent grunts. Some people may just give the others silent treatment.

I won't speak to you at all. Like small children, if they quarrel, cut it. So like that, adult version might also be there.

Some people, they may just get angry and blast out verbal volleys after volleys. Some people may take things and start throwing at others. Some people may take a knife and try to attack others.

Some people may take a gun and shoot others. So all of this is an expression of anger. But, when the expression of anger starts hurting others directly, that is when that person is said to have anger issues.

And that person may need to be restricted, put in a mental health care centre. So similarly, when, with respect to lust or whatever else, when we all have desires, and when those desires start making us do adharmic activities that hurt others, that is when it is destructive. That is when it is extremely dangerous.

Within the limits of dharma, within the limits of decency, within the limits of where we are not hurting others, of course we could say any indulgence is hurting us, that is okay, but there are degrees. So then, if it's at a smaller degree, gradually, through the practise of bhakti, it will become purified. So we don't have to go into extremes, reactions, when the actions that we are being impaled to are not extreme or destructive to others.

And as far as purification is concerned, purification happens gradually. I talk about this in three terms, that if, say, the floor is inclined this way, as soon as water falls on it, water will flow in that direction. If I have some electronic equipment there, I don't want water to go over there, just willpower is not enough, oh, water, don't go there.

No, we have to do three things. Restriction, build some kind of partition, some wall, some band over there, by which the water doesn't go over there. Then there is redirection, push the water in the other direction.

Third is reconstruction, change the alignment of the floor so that the floor is inclined in this way, and the water will naturally flow in this direction. So, similarly, for us, based on our past conditionings, our consciousness has become inclined in a particular way. So, as soon as we see a sense object, our desires start flowing in a particular direction.

So, that's how we are right now. So, what do we do? Restriction. So, if you find out that there is a particular weakness that we have, then try to restrict access to that in some way.

I was speaking in Google just two and a half months ago. So, in Google, they had done an experiment where they were finding that a lot of people were becoming obese and that was affecting their performance also. So, they decided, based on the advice of psychologists, that all the desserts that were there, toffees, chocolates, everything else, was there.

They decided in their cafeteria to put it all in non-transparent containers. Keep it there in the shop, but none of it is visible. And just by that, almost 30% of the consumption of desserts decreased and people's health improved over there.

So, restriction, it's not the ultimate solution, but it's a beginning solution. Out of sight helps it to get out of the mind. And redirection means that we can't just push water with our hands.

If we have some pie, if we have some brush, if we have some device where you can push the water up, it helps. So, we have to find out something which we like to do and something which is higher and uplifting. So, when our desire starts going in an unwanted direction, we look in that direction.

So, if somebody likes music, then have some spiritual, some kirtan. Not just general practise of bhakti, something which we can easily do. So, if this is the circle of things which we like to do, this is the circle of uplifting activities of bhakti.

Find out the intersection of the two. And keep that readily accessible. Some of us may like philosophy.

So, then, just if you like to hear classes of a particular speaker, then keep those classes. If you have heard some striking points, keep those points accessibly available in your phone or something like that. If you like to have darshan of deities, keep your favourite darshan in the phone.

So, then, when we focus our attention on that, that becomes like the tool with which we can do redirection. The water of our consciousness moving in a particular direction, we push it in other direction. And lastly is reconstruction.

If we bring Krishna into our consciousness, Krishna will gradually purify us. When we have purified, purification means that our consciousness will naturally become inclined towards Krishna. In the first six chapters of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is talking about become detached.

But in 7.1 Krishna says become attached to me. So, when you become attached to Krishna, then naturally our consciousness flows towards him and we move forward positively. So, by restriction, redirection, reconstruction, we can overcome the conditioning that may be troubling us now.

So, thank you very much. So, let us express our heartfelt gratitude to His Grace Chaitanyacharan Prabhu for sharing his wonderful insights by loudly chanting, Hare Bahu. Prabhuji will be available downstairs if anyone has any more questions and all of you can now move forward.

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